An Idea I had involving the Traders

[CaptainTaz]

So while I've been excitedly waiting for AIW 2 I've been playing classic again for the first time in like, 4 maybe 5 years.

While playing classic I realized that while I was working on my usual bottlenecks, I found myself needing to wait a really long time for the traders to stop by in order to obtain a black hole machine to solidify the defense point (for which, in the meantime, I'd position a good chunk of my fleet at so no ships could sneak through). I also noticed that the traders would never visit my nomad planets either, where a black hole machine could be decisive in stopping a bridge to the home world from becoming my doom since it's impossible to accurately place the command station and defenses to guard every spot the wormholes appear on a nomad.

And then I thought, what if there was a way to call the traders to a specific planet? For instance, a structure (maybe unlocked with knowledge) which creates a beacon requesting the traders at that planet. Maybe it could even have a sizeable metal cost to sweeten the deal for them. The AI could respond to it, or maybe even use beacons of their own (which could be detectable) to alert players to planets the AI wishes to place trader devices on. (which could also be an idea, maybe capture or hack the planet while the beacon is active to obtain the blueprint and call the traders yourself.

Just an idea that's been floating in my noggin for a while now. I'd love to see what you all have to say about it, seeing as I'm in no way great when it comes to the balance of things.


(Also please tell me if I placed this thread in the wrong section. I didn't really see a suggestions area so I kinda just plopped it here)

[x4000]

Good to hear from you!  And yeah, I think that's a great idea.

Two thoughts occur to me:

1. That we could hack the trader to send it to your home planet.  But that's somewhat limited in use.

2. That there would be a specific mercenary faction who you can hire on a given planet, and they call the trader and then depart once the trader arrives.  I bet this would be much easier, and would be a cool faction for sure.  Badger, do you think this is one you could do at some point...?

[CaptainTaz]

I'm not too sold on the hacking one, as it'd be a bit difficult if the trader is far into the AI's territory (unless you mean hack the planet you want them on, which would be interesting though it wouldn't make too much sense xD)

I like the mercenary faction one though. Maybe the more you hire them, the more they charge you for their services too, that way it's not too easy or cheap to just spam.

[BadgerBadger]

I'm more tempted by the thought that summoning the Zenith Trader might also summon an Exogalactic Strikeforce myself....

[x4000]

I like the idea of there being a "dug too greedily and too deep" effect on that, too...