Star Marine was held up not because it doesn't work but rather because they themselves found it boring after playing it endlessly for weeks. The logic behind it is that it wasn't any better than games like BF Hardline and CoD. The pace was a bit different but that's it. What they were missing is cool features that they planned to implement later. They had a big pow-wow with Chris and others before he went off to direct SQ42 and had to decide if they wanted a version of Star Marine out that was exactly like AC was when it first launched or make it more mature feeling and more in line with what AC is now. The decision was to push the release date and insert more features.
Note that those stores perpetuate the average margins, despite the fact that they no longer have inventories and much in the way of staff to pay.
I'm not sure how much you follow the game, so if this stuff is old news and you mean you just wanted more info, my apologies:I'll admit I would like to hear a bit more about resourceflows in the Universe. Supply and demand, auctionhouses, prices, market fluctuations, how distance comes into play for transports, piracy and such with some number-crunching examples.
Let us say the ultimate goal in this game is to make money. Money buys you ships, the more money, the cooler the ships. Maybe a lot of money will buy your company a Base somewhere so there's the group thing. Same thing, need money. And once people have money and assets, you can also have pirates and PvP. This seems to me the basic premisse of the game.
How does a Hauler make money? How does a miner make money? How does a Repairship or Fueler make money? A soldier/military company? A Trader? A Prospector or Scout? I know we have seen some examples but I think this is the big unknown still: how will they create this Economy especially with the whole instance thing? I am sure they have an Economist or something in their team, I would like to see an article by him.
Elite : D also does something like this, although players can't manufacture anything (so goods are just magically created at NPC stations). The trick with these kind of economic simulations where you have mixes of player and NPC traders and manufacturers is to make them dynamic enough to stay interesting, while not so dynamic that things get out of hand. If you make the NPCs too good at picking up any "economic" slack, then players get squeezed out. If you don't make the NPCs responsive enough then that can create play balance and even background simulation problems (what happens if not enough food / beer / ammo gets through?).
It's funny you mention that. That's exactly what happens. They are already experimenting internally with versions of the various textures/models based on the economy of a landing zone/planet. It will change quite drastically based on the economy. Lots of riffraff will appear in the open. People will try to shiv you for your trousers and boots.
