I think I might have a simple solution for NPC hauling

I think Fox' idea is probably relatively simple to implement and would be very useful. Nice one.

One thing I would like to see is the ability of NPC haulers to sell stuff at the local markets on core worlds. I have a colony on Carbonite which I created to earn cash. Because I was a relatively new player I got a late start on this world, and by the time I had a decent colony going the carbon market tanked and carbon was selling for next to nothing. So the only way to make money was to take my carbon and sell it myself. Which I did. A lot. Because this was my only source of income and I wasn't producing millions of carbon per day, I couldn't afford to sell it at 1 credit/per ton. So I literally spent tens if not hundreds of hours just jumping to Carbonite, e-jumping to Ceres, selling the carbon, then jumping back. It got boring quickly, especially with the load time each time you jumped. But I also didn't have another source of income except doing the exact same thing for another player's colony. Eventually I spent several hours a day jumping to sell 49,500 tons of carbon per jump just to keep up with my production. If I missed a day, everything got full and I had worker riots and other issues. I thought that having NPCs haul from my colony to my space station would make things go faster. It helped a little, but not as much as I had hoped because the biggest amount of time was spent waiting for the systems to load each jump.

I understand the idea of having new players hauling to make money, and this is a great idea in theory. In practice there just aren't enough new players out there looking to do so, or at least there weren't when I was playing. Especially now that the price for carbon and titanium has been considerably reduced. Even now, months later, the you can look on the market and see tens of millions of tons of carbon for sale at 1 credit per ton.

So my suggestion is that you be able to set the NPC trade routes to include selling at one of the core worlds, but the space station keeps a large portion of the sale price as a tax or some other mechanism to drastically reduce the amount of income received. Such that you can receive more if another player buys the resource than if the NPC does. This means that you can get rid of excess resources and still make some money, but it's still better all around if another player does the hauling for you than if you have an NPC do it. As it is, it's no longer fun to play. Which is a shame because I really enjoyed building that colony and also exploring worlds to find an ideal spot for a second colony.

So my suggestion is that you be able to set the NPC trade routes to include selling at one of the core worlds, but the space station keeps a large portion of the sale price as a tax or some other mechanism to drastically reduce the amount of income received.

That would be nice indeed. I do think that Jam intended for NPC to not trade with the inner stations, but he could change his mind.

As a short term solution to your carbon issues, you may want to turn the excess into grapheme at the linked OSB or your Apollo ISB. Each dome needs 5k of it to build, so graphene will sell well as long as people build domes.

Reviewing this sequence of thread posts generated as many new questions about the game as the game questions that I was seeking to answer.

Re: Multiple colony management reference - wouldn't something like the Steam group chat (rather than pm or in-game chat) exchange be the way to handle that issue? I'm surprised that gate building is not handled that way rather than relying on global chat.

After all, colonists get paid already through the colony's minimum wage/tertiary wage settings.

And that's after you already payed them to even come work for you when you first brought them there...

And that's after you already payed them to even come work for you when you first brought them there...

Well, in all fairness, AFAWK the UNCA takes all of the money and gives the colonists nothing.

And that's after you already payed them to even come work for you when you first brought them there...

Well, in all fairness, AFAWK the UNCA takes all of the money and gives the colonists nothing.

I think you are correct Worm. The sum initially paid for colonists is a Recruitment Fee paid to the UNCA for organising the recruitment of colonists and their transfer to the pick up point. It is my belief that any surplus funds are used to pay for the running costs of the various Refugee Camps in the Inner Systems. The colonists do not get any of this money, but are eager to exchange life in a Refugee Camp for life in a colony; where they at least have a job to do and are provided with a higher standard of living than in the Camps.

We need to be aware that now certain "luxuries" are becoming available and our colonists are getting used to their new lifestyle, they may start to demand better pay and, possibly, holidays.

And that's after you already payed them to even come work for you when you first brought them there...

We need to be aware that now certain "luxuries" are becoming available and our colonists are getting used to their new lifestyle, they may start to demand better pay and, possibly, holidays.

Holidays?!?!?! I keep a small transport on every colony with a sign up sheet for a return trip back to the holiday destination of their choice: Camps Archimedes, Plato, Elysium, etc.

Camps... They are not refugee camps, They are breeding pools. Forced slavery to produce cheap labour for the Galactic tyrants that run colonies and demand more refugee's by the day.