Greetings pilots,

This will be kept brief in the interest of getting right to the good stuff.

Hermann Peterscheck Netdevils Producer for Jumpgate Evolution was kind enough to take some time out of his crazy work load adding polishing touches to the game and agreed to answer some questions regarding the economy systems that are currently planned to be included in the game come launch.

JGERadio would like to thank Hermann Peterscheck and the rest of the Netdevil team for taking the time out to answer these questions for the community, but also big thanks go to Callum 'Liquilla' Rowley who set up the Q&A for us and remained on top of the situation to get answers back to us quickly.

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Official JGE EU discussion thread here.

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Hermann: Well, it’s really not very different than how economies work in real life. The whole concept of modern economics is based on people getting the next better thing, even if they don’t actually need it. So it’s really just latching on to that human tendency. It actually works to enhance most other game systems. In MMOs you kind of need to feel that your time investment is going to be rewarded with the next “big thing” which could be defeating an enemy, seeing a new area of space or fighting against other people. But you really want to do these things in new ships with new equipment to keep the experience fresh.

JGER: An important part of any substantial MMO player based economy, is that demand for both manufacturing goods as well as the finished items to be in steady demand throughout the day, to ensure that established player have an incentive to get involved whilst making the market accessible to new budding producers/manufacturers to still make a living. Where do you personally see this demand coming from when a proportion of the new consumers joining the universe, will themselves become producers/manufacturers and resource harvesters flooding the market even more?

Hermann: A good way to solve the above problem is to make sure that the simple-to-get commodities (or ore) are required for higher level crafting items. To deal with the flood of raw materials, you have to make sure the higher level items require significantly more raw materials than low level items. In the end it’s all about balance. You want to make sure that low level players can contribute to the economy, but that high level players have something to achieve.

JGER: With this in mind, the production system apparently works on the principle of “produce to advance”; it will likely be a matter of days if not hours (if the game is a huge hit on day one) after launch that the market will be absolutely flooded with 100+ copies of every item as some players attempt to quickly rush to the end of the production trees. Do you have any concerns about the economy system regarding flooding of the market with by-products of producers efforts to advance quickly removing any room for newer pilots to get involved before the games even got started?  And if so, how do you expect to get past this problem?

JGER: Moving away from the production demand concept, what role do you consider miners will play within the new economy concept? Originally in 2008, miners were put forward as the very glue that holds the universe together and allow manufacturers to make the useful higher tier equipment and ships that can only be obtained through production, making a real impact on the universe itself. This has obviously changed a bit since then, so to what extent has the role of miner been changed, and what exactly caused these changes?

JGER: Will ‘miner’ still be a full-time profession with long term incentive to focus on as it was originally presented, or is it now more of side path to follow in between breaks in combat? If they are still a viable long term profession to follow exclusively, then what sort of impact will they have on the game universe through their actions, and what incentives are you considering on introducing to keep these players interested?

Hermann: Absolutely. There are people who love harvesting and gathering resources and we are constantly looking for ways to reward that kind of game play. For example, in addition to selling raw materials to other players or manufacturing items, we plan on making a station demand for ore (kind of long term faction missions), requiring ore for maintaining battlestations and other things as well. We want to make sure that gathering raw materials is an integral part of the game.

JGER: With the economy sounding less ‘alive’, and more stagnant from initial information on what has changed recently, there has been a rising concern regarding the role ‘truckers’ will play within the economy system. How do ‘truckers’ currently stand within the current concept being considered, and what sort of impact may they have on the universe itself through their actions?

Hermann: Well, I actually think the changes make the economy more alive. What we have done is moved away from an AI-based economy to a player-driven economy. Unlike most MMOs, items in Jumpgate Evolution have positional value. If an item is put on the auction house in Solrain core, then when it is bought, you have to go pick it up there. Also, items are built at fixed locations in space. This means that we can create scenarios where to build a valuable engine might require a lot of raw materials which must be harvested from a long distance away and then transported to the station where the manufacturing facility is. The larger cargo vessels will be able to move much greater quantities much faster and in so doing be able to profit from this. We can also make station demand such that it’s worthwhile for players to move things around.

JGER: One of the obvious requirements for a economy system that is kept going by players constant desire or enforced need to get the next ‘better’ item, is that new items are regularly introduced into the game at a pace players dictate themselves through their ability to grind. Now this is clearly a problem factor for you and your team, as we all know typically players will exhaust content quicker then developers can add it.  So what steps are you currently considering to be able to introduce new equipment to the game at a pace quick enough in order to keep manufacturers interested and playing the game beyond their first 30 days on signup? (Also, how will you address shards where manufacturers are scarcer or advancing slower then other shards, where the introduction of newer better equipment would destabilise the balance in place on that server?)

Hermann: This is a constant problem for MMOs, however they do tend to normalize themselves. People are pretty smart at identifying market opportunities. I can tell you that if there is high demand for a raw material or a rare item, there will be people who will exploit that for short term profit. Developers will never be able to add content faster than the best players can consume it. This is why I think you have to have repeatable mechanics that are fun – for example high end PvP and PvE. As a developer you have to make sure you have systems which can be played for many hours without causing boredom among the more hard core players. Things like new ships and items are pretty easy to add. New areas take more time and massive new features take much more time. I think as long as you keep adding interesting new content, players will wait some amount of time for it, or at least return once it’s there.

JGER: Lastly on the economy, will there be any form of NPC markets integrated into the stations themselves, which will bypass the entire player economy aspect by allowing players to buy adequate equipment directly on their doorstep for cheap prices? It was mentioned in 2008 that such mechanics had been firmly removed from the game in order to focus on the player element solely, but if it may be reintroduced what steps are being taken to ensure that the NPC market stocks do not completely destabilise any incentive to get involved in the player economy, if the player market is already over flooded with stock due to lack of consistent demand?

Hermann: The stations do sell basic equipment which is level appropriate, but the best stuff will come from exploring, fighting and manufacturing.  Those are really the behaviours we want to reward since they are more fun than just sitting around a station. Most MMOs have solved this problem to one degree or another. You can always buy basic stuff from NPC vendors, but it’s usually not as good as other stuff. You can also always sell to NPCs but usually at a cost far below the value to another player. As you say, we want to encourage people to trade with other people, but we certainly don’t block on it.

JGER: How modular is the game to change in regards to the economy system, if testing reveals that the initial concept we’re shown when beta starts does not appeal to hardly anyone compared to the initial concept proposed?

Hermann: We are very strong believers in testing and reacting. I can tell you that many features in the game have been radically changed because of testing results and the economy is no exception. There is no point in keeping a feature or method of implementation if no one likes it. We are not married to our ideas. When testing shows that an idea is not good it will get changed and tested until it makes the game fun.

JGER: And how long will feedback be gathered once beta starts, before any firm decision is made regarding what does and doesn’t appeal? (if it is considered at all)