Starbase Stage 3 Part 2

OK, so a few days ago I posted that SB’s could now add their own Promenade contracts and services. This they have taken to with abandon, some interesting choices As they level up their choices will expand, but a few have already figured out they can have any service on offer without any ‘locks’ or ‘rules’. So we now see Ashar and Wesbec on a few of them, for instance.

But this post is not about that. Since then, I have been ‘soft testing’ the billing and income processes on starbases. These systems have to be balanced so that Starbases don’t REMAIN a massive black hole for players and guilds alike, and that they CAN in theory eventually turn a profit.

To this end, I have been fiddling ‘Passively’ with the billing system for the last few days. Last night was the first time the Starbase Contracts will have begun to Tick down in days till renewal is offers or removal actions take place (Same as with Settlements). Also, last night was the first time a ‘Soft Test’ of the billing structure was run.

Starbase owners may have spotted that they have a new section in their Logs now for billing. This will display four new entries covering the status of the last 24-hour period and a profit or loss statement.

I’m now satisfied that this is working, and tonight Starbases will face their first live billing session. Your Starbase will gain income currently through docking traffic and also promenade services. You will see that your promenade stores are showing a Total income on since I activated your ability to deploy stores and offices. To see the ‘Actual current daily income’ review your Starbase Operations Page.

From there you can see the income for that period, current billing period. You will also note that deployment of offices and services on your promenade has affected your Quality of Life and Trade Efficiency percentages. These will go up and down in line with starbase operations, deploying and removing services being one of those things.

This last update to Starbases means I can NOW begin the real ‘fun stuff’… Thank you for your patience.

Final note to NON Starbase owners….

Just because you don’t own or can’t take part in Starbases does not mean that they won’t impact YOUR short / long term game play. Starbases will play a major part (along with Genesis Deployments) in opening up the Nebula Jump gates and allowing us (read YOU) to travel ‘back’ to the Core. What you find there and what you DO back there will be up to you. But it’s important to note that without Starbases gearing up their industry and research to get you there, it won’t happen.

There are going to be some MASSIVE builds taking place once I release the next wave of buildings, so expect some humongous GBM orders and prices to take a leap off a cliff into the unknown. This will go on for a while, and also you’re going to start to find ‘new’ elements being needed at all levels of the player spectrum. Some for the new players who will find themselves being courted by the senior rich for their new elements, and some for the seasoned Settlement and Genesis owners.

Have fun I know I will

Coops