Plug-In Design:How do I make an economy?

Ingredients:

- characteristics as described in the jünk or öops resources

Uses:

Aside from the usual commodity characteristics that can be set in the spöb resource, Escape Velocity allows you to create changes in the price of items that can help, or hurt, the economy of the universe.

The jünk resource allows you to create special commodities that are only available on certain planets. Usually one place has it available for a low price, and the other will buy it at a high price, and the player must discover where these places are to create a trade route.

The öops resource allows you to create events that can occur randomly in the universe. The events can be disasters that causes a planet to be in dire need of a commodity, or a bumper crop that may drive the price of an item down. This news can be linked to a planet or a mission. You will notice news of the event displayed in the commodity dialog box on the respective planet.

Construction:

Both of these resources are rather easy to create. Here are a couple of things to consider:

- jünk resources can be used to make very lucrative trading routes. However, if you are feeling devious, you can set the BoughtAt field to -1, making it impossible to sell the cargo anywhere.

- öops resources can be effective if used properly. There is a duration field where you can set the time the effects of the disaster last. Make sure you give the player enough time to make use of it.