[Req] How do I reduce spawn rate of crystals?

[Max Bain]

Can someone guide me how I can reduce the spawn rate of crystals in belts? I and a friend would be very thankful

[enenra]

I'm not sure about how to reduce the spawn rate but if your goal is to reduce the profit gained from the crystals, consider reducing how many are dropped per spawned crystal and the individual worth of the crystals.

For those you'd be looking at \libraries\drops.xml and \libraries\wares.xml respectively.

[respaekt]

Its a singleplayer, why not just not collect them? Or only a few?

[Max Bain]

Its a singleplayer, why not just not collect them? Or only a few?

Its simple. If I play a game with an economy I want it to be balanced inside the universe it is placed. But I dont want to limit myself by telling me "oh its too good to farm crystals longer than 30 mins, so I should stop now". Its the same other way round. If I think something that is hard to achieve but brings no or just a little profit, I would try to make it more profitable instead of saying "Oh its not worth it so I just dont need to use it".
For me a game needs to have a proper balance like each other game should have one, even if it is single player.

[respaekt]

I dont think its that simple.
A economy is never balanced, that dont exist in that context, it supply and demand (at least in capitalism). And if crystals are on high demand and valuable than the price is justified. Also you only can farm them manual what makes that hard and repetetive labour. Also the workplace in an astoirdfield is quite dangerous.

And if youre 20 or more hours into the game, your 100+ ships make the work really not that profatible anymore.
But of course your decision and if you want a harder aprove, you can have it.

[Max Bain]

I dont think its that simple.
A economy is never balanced, that dont exist in that context, it supply and demand (at least in capitalism). And if crystals are on high demand and valuable than the price is justified. Also you only can farm them manual what makes that hard and repetetive labour. Also the workplace in an astoirdfield is quite dangerous.

And if youre 20 or more hours into the game, your 100+ ships make the work really not that profatible anymore.
But of course your decision and if you want a harder aprove, you can have it.

I would agree with you IF:

- crystal prices would drop drastically when you sell a lot of them
- crystals would not repsawn (like in real world) or just very slowly
- asteroid belts would be dangerous at all (but they are completely harmless... you can not even get any damage by flying against them, nor are any pirates in the belts)
- if you could not carry unlimited amounts of crystals in your little fighter

[respaekt]

I would agree with you IF:

- crystal prices would drop drastically when you sell a lot of them
- crystals would not repsawn (like in real world) or just very slowly
- asteroid belts would be dangerous at all (but they are completely harmless... you can not even get any damage by flying against them, nor are any pirates in the belts)
- if you could not carry unlimited amounts of crystals in your little fighter

- Crystals should be a trade market item, not an inventory one, yeah definetly right! (goes with the space you need to carry them inline)
- Also your miner could pick them up with very low percentage, that only would be consistent. Like in Litcubes mod for X3 (i guess thats where the idea is from...)

- And the respawn is the: how do you want your gamestart to be. There is no reason after the first/second ingame day to mine them anymore. Managing, missions and fighting is what you will do then and your autotraders and miners will do your earning.

[Max Bain]

Ok I tested it and it seems to work with the exception of bandannite crystals. I dont know where the problem is but bandannite still drops in big numbers even when I reduced it. Maybe an expert can give me a hint here?
Here is my xml:

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<diff>
<replace sel="/droplists/droplist[@id='drops_crystal_s_01']/drop[@macro='collectable_crystal_s_01_macro']/@min">1</replace>
<replace sel="/droplists/droplist[@id='drops_crystal_s_01']/drop[@macro='collectable_crystal_s_01_macro']/@max">1</replace>

<replace sel="/droplists/droplist[@id='drops_crystal_s_02']/drop[@macro='collectable_crystal_s_02_macro']/@min">1</replace>
<replace sel="/droplists/droplist[@id='drops_crystal_s_02']/drop[@macro='collectable_crystal_s_02_macro']/@max">1</replace>

<replace sel="/droplists/droplist[@id='drops_crystal_s_03']/drop[@macro='collectable_crystal_s_03_macro']/@min">1</replace>
<replace sel="/droplists/droplist[@id='drops_crystal_s_03']/drop[@macro='collectable_crystal_s_03_macro']/@max">1</replace>

<replace sel="/droplists/droplist[@id='drops_crystal_s_04']/drop[@macro='collectable_crystal_s_04_macro']/@min">1</replace>
<replace sel="/droplists/droplist[@id='drops_crystal_s_04']/drop[@macro='collectable_crystal_s_04_macro']/@max">1</replace>

<replace sel="/droplists/droplist[@id='drops_crystal_s_05']/drop[@macro='collectable_crystal_s_05_macro']/@min">1</replace>
<replace sel="/droplists/droplist[@id='drops_crystal_s_05']/drop[@macro='collectable_crystal_s_05_macro']/@max">1</replace>

<replace sel="/droplists/droplist[@id='drops_crystal_m_01']/drop[@macro='collectable_crystal_s_01_macro']/@min">1</replace>
<replace sel="/droplists/droplist[@id='drops_crystal_m_01']/drop[@macro='collectable_crystal_s_01_macro']/@max">1</replace>

<replace sel="/droplists/droplist[@id='drops_crystal_m_02']/drop[@macro='collectable_crystal_s_02_macro']/@min">1</replace>
<replace sel="/droplists/droplist[@id='drops_crystal_m_02']/drop[@macro='collectable_crystal_s_02_macro']/@max">1</replace>

<replace sel="/droplists/droplist[@id='drops_crystal_m_03']/drop[@macro='collectable_crystal_s_03_macro']/@min">1</replace>
<replace sel="/droplists/droplist[@id='drops_crystal_m_03']/drop[@macro='collectable_crystal_s_03_macro']/@max">1</replace>

<replace sel="/droplists/droplist[@id='drops_crystal_m_04']/drop[@macro='collectable_crystal_s_04_macro']/@min">1</replace>
<replace sel="/droplists/droplist[@id='drops_crystal_m_04']/drop[@macro='collectable_crystal_s_04_macro']/@max">1</replace>

<replace sel="/droplists/droplist[@id='drops_crystal_m_05']/drop[@macro='collectable_crystal_s_05_macro']/@min">1</replace>
<replace sel="/droplists/droplist[@id='drops_crystal_m_05']/drop[@macro='collectable_crystal_s_05_macro']/@max">1</replace>
</diff>

[aerojet029]

I think from a more game design perspective that these are just to make it interesting for human players to take part in mining. The AI has no logic to get these and it can only go into the player's inventory.

The crystals are outside of the economy to give a player to coast astroid fields and look for sparkle while admiring the serene enviornment.

My opinoin though