right now the only investment we have is planets, which is a great investment, and its good for long term constant production with a minimal investment, but i propose we add ways for active players to gain resources so they dont have to rely on just one means of production in case that one means of production is removed.

I propose we add resource contracts that players can purchase, and recieve a return of production points. For example, say i need some extra mining, or artifact, or research. i would pay credits to contract out for a specific amount of time with a specific amount of credits. Say i need some mining cause im running low. i could contract say 500 million to the Mylarai for 15 minutes to go and mine. 15 minutes later i would get a percentage of what they mined. or say i need some artifact. i could contract the Taltherians to go on an excavation and recieve a share of the artifact points recovered. or if i need a research boost then i could contract the Vygoids by funding a research lab. There can be special payloads recieved by funding each race through a contract.

Contract times could be:
5 min
15 min
30 min
60 min
2.5 hours
6 hours
12 hours
24 hours

this would allow active players to do something while waiting for energy, and keep players entertained for longer periods of time. exact ratios for credit/time to production can be determined at a later time.

Update to original idea: Perhapse these credit contracts can award us with some new stuff. like a new type of special mineral material from mining, a new type of artifact from excavation, or new modules/buildings from research.

+1 I like this idear

It's an excellent idea to attract new players. Plus I would enjoy making some money on the side as a Vygoid.

+1 I like it too. Gives you something else to do besides just killing NPC's all the time. lol

im glad this was met with such good reception! however, i would also welcome some suggestions for improvement. i cant imagine i got it perfect on the first try. :P

+1
I would imagine it would have to be implement with the understanding that DAN would look at the results and modify it during the first week or so to get the right mix.

I like this but maybe not a fixed ratio some randomness to it would be great otherwise it would just be to easy to make money. After all not all business ventures make money

To make this a little more interesting, and to keep players from just clicking one and leaving thinking that it will be there when they get back, have so if they don't just get the items when its done but have a set amount of time for them to collect their reward once its done. Its not like the different races are going to sit around all day waiting for them to get there if you don't get there in the right amount of time then they just leave with everything. Just my thoughts on it right now.

lol i was thinking 4x the contracted time. i had to rewrite the post cause i left my computer for a few hours while i was writing it up and i guess i forgot to include that... that way a 5 minute contract would last for 20 minutes, whereas a 24 hour contract would last for 4 days. thatll keep players engaged, especially if theyre only casual players. theyll log on JUST to collect their resources, and in the process use energy and engage on a few more contracts.

also, so players dont initiate an unlimited amount of contracts, i was thinking 3 contract slots available from the start (level 1) and an extra contract slot available every 100 levels. so a 200 would get 5 contract slots, a 1000 would get 13. although this too has the potential to become an unlimited amount, it will take the players much longer to get there. or the limit can be capped at 10-15, depending on how dan feels.

K cool. lol

Also another thing with this that I think could happen is that Dan could make up some new missions for it as well. So that you can unlock different things to get or do with it. So the higher in rank you get the more chooses you have to pick from as you do more missions. Say do a mission that allow's you to build a space station where you can send out exploration teams from. Then once you get it built it lets you send out contract teams to unknown area's of space with a risk factor that they may find a great find and you could make a ton of resources back. Or it could be a really bad and they find nothing or they get caught in an accident and they all die or get lost in space. This could even be like an added on thing where you get a message saying that your team was spotted by pirates or an unknown race of ships and they need help giving you a set amount of time to respond and to get there to help. Which could either save your team or if you don't get there in time or fail to fight off the enemy, you could loose them. Just one of the mission ideas that there could be. Many more could be added as time goes on just putting the idea out there. lol

i really like this idea! it sounds pretty cool, like something from a scifi series or something. it would also prevent people from taking out more contracts than they can handle if they have reaction events to deal with. +1 to risk factor!

i also like your idea of unlockable contracts through missions so that really good contracts arnt unlocked right from the start. players would have to advance through the missions to actually benefit from it. right now the only benefit to missions is the artifact rewards, as the xp rewards are far less profitable than npc hunting or pvp on the majority of missions. perhapse they wouldnt unlock any drannik, taltherian, lazuli, zolazin, or genetaar missions until theyve 'signed a pact' with that race by completing the mission chain. +1 to to mission unlocked contracts aswell!

I like this idea.

Another thing to add for Dan. lol Since Dan is all ways looking for ways to make more money, and why wouldn't he the more he has the more we get. Why not have contracts for sell on the Artifact Market. Have them change with the seasons or even just for holadays. This could get more players to spend more money on GP's so they can have something else to do with new missions.

I like this idea as well. Came up with a few minor ideas. See what everyone thinks.

I think there should be different requirements for each type of contract. The low level ones could just cost credits to hire the person, wait the 5 minutes, and have a certain % chance that they succeed, awarding minor points based on what race you hired. More difficult ones should have longer timers and more challenging requirements - kill a certain type of NPC during the time, perform a certain number of hacks, do not get disabled. I think the requirements should be based on the race you hire, and the rewards for more difficult contracts should have the chance of awarding more than just 'points' towards minerals, artifacts, or research.
There should also be an additional badge designed for completing contracts. There could be 2 awards to be used for completing contracts, and maybe a building.
Each race would have say, 5 or something levels of difficulty. I'll use Konqul for my example. Most everything for them would be based around attack and fighting.
Level 1 - 100,000 credits / 5 minutes - 75% chance of success. 90% chance of success if you are also a Konqul. Awards: 50% chance for Crimson Foci, 35% chance for Crimson Obelisk, 10% chance for Crimson Amplifier, 5% chance for Crimson Shockwave (new artifact, name not important, +20% attack for 30 minutes). 1 black badge, if successful.
Level 2 - 1,000,000 credits / 1 hour / 5 Crimson Obelisks. 60% chance of success. 75% if you are a Konqul. Awards: 50% Crimson Phase Launcher, 40% for Crimson Amplifier, 5% for Crimson Shockwave, 5% for Konqul Boarding Party (new artifact - +25% for raiding for 8 hours or something). 1 black badge if successful.
Level 3 - 100,000,000 credits / 4 hour / 10 Crimson Obelisks. Must disable 5 specific NPC's in the given time. 50% chance of success. 65% if you are Konqul. +1% chance for each addition NPC killed. Awards: 50% Crimson Amplifier, 35% Crimson Cluster Missile, 5% chance to spawn a Crimson Base, 5% Crimson Shockwave, 5% Konqul Boarding Party. 1 black badge if successful.
Level 4 - 1,000,000,000 credits / 24 hours / Must not be disabled for this period. 40% chance of success. 50% if you are Konqul. +1% chance for each red and yellow badge earned during this period. Awards: 100% crimson Amplifier (always given), + 50% Crimson Cluster Missile, 25% Crimson Shockwave, 15% Konqul Boarding Party, 10% chance to spawn Crimson Base, 5% chance for Konqul Invasion Troops (new buff, +10% chance for planet invasions or something). 1 black badge if successful.
Level 5 - 10,000,000,000 credits / 10 Black Badges / 1 week / Must earn 10 Red Badges during this time / Must earn 10 yellow badges during this time / Must earn 1 Green badge during this time. 25% chance of success. 35% if you are Konqul. +1% chance for each extra red, yellow, or green badge you earn. -1% for each time you are disabled and raided. Awards: 100% crimson cluster missile, 100% crimson amplifier, + 25% chance for a new Weapon Module, 25% chance for Konqul Boarding Party, 25% chance for Konqul Invasion Troops, 25% chance to spawn Crimson Base.

You get the idea. The awards, chances of success, costs, etc, could be adjusted if people don't think they are fair.

The Vygoids could go something like this:
Level 1 - 100,000 credits / 5 minutes. 75% chance of success. 90% chance of success if you are also a Vygoid. Awards: 75% chance for 10 minutes of your personal research. 20% chance of 30 minutes. 5% chance of 1 hour. 1 black badge, if successful.
Level 2 - 1,000,000 credits / 1 hour / 1000 exotic matter. 60% chance of success. 75% if you are a Vygoid. Awards: 45% chance of receiving 1 hour of research. 45% chance of receiving 10000 exotic matter. 10% chance of receiving both. 1 black badge if successful.
Level 3 - 100,000,000 credits / 4 hour / 1 Alien Data Disk. 50% chance of success. 65% if you are Vygoid. Awards: 50% chance of receiving 1 hour of research. 25% chance of spawning a random Rogue Science League uncommon NPC. 25% chance of receiving an Exotic Lab. 1 black badge.


Etc. Etc. Etc.

Some ideas for the black badges could be:
Each level of contract would require X number of badges to unlock before they could be attempted. X = Contract Level for that Race.
3 Black Badges - Doubles chance of success on any contract used.
5 Black Badges - Awards double prize upon completion of contract (if successful).

I've gone on long enough. I hope this all isn't stupid.

i like your idea of having contracts of something other than just resource harvesting. the only thing is is that im not sure the success rate for missions should be so low. i would prefer 100% success rate IF you meet all the requirements. if you dont, then the success rate goes down, or you just fail altogether. i did really like your ideas for artifacts harvested from contracts tho, and how as they become more expensive they become longer and give better rewards. Im not too keen on the badges idea though, as the contracts arnt really a source of pvp.

i was also thinking there was the 'cheap' version of the contracts which would just give you the base resources, and then there would be higher levels of contracts that can give nice artifacts, or even rare buildings. sometimes you might be going on vacation. well, alot of resources are going to be wasted while your gone, so you could start 3 expensive contracts for say, a week. that way, when you get back, youre not short a week of materials, and wont struggle for upkeep.

for example, there could be a
*1000cr 5 minute (just resources)
*100,000cr 5 minute (resources, chance for common artifact)
*1,000,000cr 5 minute (resources, chance for common or uncommon artifact)
*100,000,000cr 5 minute (resources, chance for common, uncommon, or rare artifact)
*1,000,000,000cr 5 minute (resources, chance for uncommon, rare, or unique artifact)

and this would work for all the times. now, the chances for the rares and uniques would still be rather low, so as not to benefit players with excess resources. Also, building on paulfricks idea, each race would have their own 'requirements' to be done for each of the contracts. they could range from doing nothing (for the very lowest contract tier) to having to disable players, npcs, solve a puzzle, etc. for harder tiers. IF you can complete the requirements, then you recieve your reward. if you cant, then you get nothing, OR your chances of success are reduced.