Would like a Factory business Update for Outposts.
To me, it never made sense why we could not setup a business supply chain using our Outposts.
Yes there are Mission board missions that allow this temporarily, but you would think that some resources would be highly sought after for long term to permanent use.
So I would like to see an Update for Outposts that allows the player to setup a GalBank business account and be able to sign contracts with Faction Governments, Colonies and even individual people and secretive groups that will allow the player to sell goods from an Outpost and the Credits deposit into the GalBank account once a month.
New Outpost structures could be created to expand on the Factory life, for example;
- Large Import/Export Warehouse: A massive building that holds resources and manufactured items, a Cargo link landing pad connected to it, can hold a ton of items, but player can only select 3 for export but can take in all for import (1 Gas, 1 Solid, 1 Liquid), this can allow the player to change what is sent out for an easier transition if doing Mission board missions.
Reason for the Warehouse and Cargo link landing pad to be connected is so the warehouse is only connected to the Cargo linked freighter for export, while you can link outpost storage to the warehouse to place items into the warehouse, the warehouse cannot export it to other storage automatically, only through the cargo link freighter.
It would need a Helium 3 supply as well, even if local due to possible change to out of system missions.
Any items the player wants to move out of the warehouse would need to be done manually or cargo linked to another cargo linked landing pad.
(Need some limitations on it to keep other storage usable, thus why only limited exporting to the 3 choices as well imports need to be sorted manually to other exterior storage instead of a export link unless they are one of the 3 chosen items)
R&D Habs: Habitat structures, each variant supports a different crew station work area for manufacture/created items for your business, examples; Pharmaceutical Hab would have up to 4 assignable stations to create players choice of chemicals/drugs/meds, a Food Processing Hab would have up to 4 assignable stations to create players choice of food items, Same for Weapons, Gear and so on, all would have 4 stations and the player can choose what the crew builds, and as long as there is a storage supply for the crew to use as well as the habs being linked to a Warehouse for export, then should be good to go.
Faction/Business partner habs: Habitat structures, each variant would be like an office for a Faction or group for the most dedicated partner, an example would be if player partners with the UC, Freestar or even Ryujin for X-Tech supply, player can build this hab for a representative office, this would allow a slight increase in profit by adding in ability to export other items with direct communication (mission board deliveries) but also bring in that Factions Mission board to the Outpost (UC would give Vanguard and if sided with Sysdef, the SysDef mission board would appear as well in the office), Business partner hab would be a rep from Neon to ship out Aurora or some other group, for Crimson Fleet a Dedicated Hab and a Business partner hab would be available, the Dedicated would be fully showing the Crimson fleet colors, the Business partner hab would be more discrete like a place for shady deals out of site.
Other structures could be created as well.
as for the resources themselves, I would say it would depend on Supply and demand, for example;
X-Tech would be exclusively for the Faction Governments.
Water would very based on whether it naturally forms on the Planet or Moon or even space station in question, if a planet already has water then you selling to them would not make a profit, but a planet without water on it would pay a premium, same for Oxygen.
Helium 3 is a main fuel source so this would be a premium resource regardless, with just a slight decrease from areas that also have it available for extraction.
More common resources would be low cost while rare resources give better payouts.
Manufacture/Created items would also very, Aurora would be limited and also a chance your supply is confiscated or destroyed or lost due to it being illegal to ship outside of Neon, but Medical supplies and food could be sold a decent prices.
The Greenhouse and Husbandry structures could be used for this as well as suppliers of some resources needed for creating/manufacturing.
Your income would be lower than if you sold them yourself in person, remember it is always cheaper to go bulk, that same reasoning would apply here, you would sell it at a lower bulk cost compared to you selling it in person yourself, but the key difference is that even though the supplies you sell are at a lower cost, you can set up and forget it and the Credits accumulate in GalBank, while you would need to take a lot of time to run around to sell the items yourself.
Also your shipments would have a chance to become lost in some way, that is also were the Faction/business partner habs come in, if you place in a habitat, your cargo will have an armed escort, increasing chance for successful delivery, with the exception to the Shady side of the law, if you place one of these down, your cargo ships get Shielded cargo holds, still increasing their chance for a safe delivery, but a different means in explanation terms anyway.
TLDR;
Want Outposts to expand with a business update to allow players to create permanent supply sales that bring in steady credit income for outpost items (like the Mission Board Delivery missions, just permanent).