Due to the economy, private mines are now commonplace. This should not be balanced around permanently as an inevitable wipe will reset this assuming that the then-economy would be stable. If we account for this, however, it's evident that without reducing the frequency of HQ ore as it is now, even further reduced sale prices will not balance the mass sale of Good Metal Parts as even a stack of 500 is trivial to the massive amounts that private mines provide. Furthermore, the current use of private mines is to supply an entire faction with resources adequate to equip all of its members. For this, it makes little sense that only a single player has access to this mine, and hugely encourages the use of slaves in these private mines such that one player is in control of an enormous amount of worth for an entire faction. Of course, the actual investment of 70k for a private mine is currently trivial, which creates a self-sustaining cash flow of Private Mine -> HQ ore -> Good Metal Parts -> Extended Cap. Battery -> Caps -> Private Mine, which results in a massive surplus of caps and resources. This process should be inhibited to improve the economy, the changes of which should eventually be reverted after the ideal economy is achieved or a wipe is enacted. Players who have exploited the unbalanced areas of the game will be at an enormous advantage during this time but this will not be an issue as these are otherwise inept players.
I recommend: Treat private mines as an additional faction base, requiring a faction for their creation, and adding a faction terminal to the private mine. With this, you can increase the cost of private mines without discouraging their use. After easier changes, this should be a priority, as it's an enormous contributor to the current state of the economy. Reducing the length of private mines to 1 week from 2 temporarily should also help to sort this economic issue out, requiring the mines to be purchased more frequently as an entire faction endeavor, making the cost more reasonable. Current private player-owned mines should remain unchanged until depleted.
Topic: Advice for improving the economy (Read 928 times)