I was exploring some of the new features in the latest version of Mars Simulation Project, and one of them caught my eye as something that would make traveling through space and trading with space stations, ala LJR's Star Traders, considerably more interesting.

If you download the Mars Sim Project, you'll see in the 'conf' folder a file called parts.xml. That folder contains a huge array of parts, and areas where they may be needed as well as the probability of that part being needed in the repairs. Looking over that, I was thinking, why not add an element like this to a game like Star Traders?

So there you are, flying through space in your old reliable star cruiser. You're headed for planet Xq-99 and while en route your crew is doing routine maintenance. But what's this? Crewman Zed says that he can't fix the power generator without some electrical wire and a power cord. That's bad, because if your power generator can't generate power, then many of your vital ship systems are left to run on whatever power is in the battery. Thus begins your self-imposed mission of "Find electrical wire and power cord".



Now, those two items are fairly common, so since Xq-99 has a fairly developed colony, you're able to purchase the needed parts fairly easily, as well as making some profit through your normal trade deals. However, a few trips later Crewman Zed informs you that, not only does your left thruster require a new timing belt to fix, but your primary life support system is leaking air and he'll require some new plastic tubing and a new LSS circuit board to fix it. That's really bad, because you never want to be in space with only the reserve life support system functioning properly. But where do you find an LSS circuit board? Those are fairly uncommon, so you'll have to do some extra searching in order to find one - plus they're expensive.

If you've ever played Star Traders, you'll remember that the typical gaming experience consisted of grinding from one trade route to another, back and forth until you've made some decent money and you can go and buy some upgrades and take on a more profitable trade route. Those trade routes, of course, go bad periodically so you have to search around for another one. There were a few more aspects to the game than that, like colonizing planets and protecting them from other players, but the majority of the game was grinding trade routes.

Throwing in some routine maintenance on ship systems and occasional required parts to repair them would keep the players on their toes just trying to keep their ship running so they can survive. Sure, you may have an awesome trade route lined up, but if the places on that route don't have the parts you need, then you'll have to make a choice: do I stay and reap the benefits of this profitable trade route or head off to fix my ship before it becomes too late.



Of course, a few other changes are needed as well. Trade routes should be limited by available supplies, so when supplies are sold out, the trade route ends unless someone else is resupplying the goods. Colonies with abundant parts shouldn't offer as much of a profit for goods as the more needy colonies, if for no other reason just to make sure that the players don't find spots to hang out that have everything they need. When colonies run out of certain trade goods and parts, they'll want to replace these with something else automatically, to keep things flowing in the game world.

This whole concept of needing parts should be fairly easily to implement as well. All you need to do is make sure that each ship is made up of some vital systems, which must be working in order for the ship to use that function.

Each system could have a pre-specified list of possible parts that could be needed for maintenance and how likely it is that those parts will be needed. Once maintenance on a system decides that parts are needed, then that system can no longer be maintained until that part is available in the ship's cargo to fix it with.

Each system could have "hit points" that gradually drop until they reach zero, at which point the system ceases to function. Maintenance would restore the system's hit points, so to speak, keeping everything working right. If you wanted system to gradually break down regardless of anything, then you could gradually drop the maximum hit points (at a slower rate) as well.

You could also add some hired crew to help maintain your ship for you. You could have crew loyalty and morale factors which are adjustable depending on how well your ship supports the number of crew members you have, and how much you're willing to pay them. Unhappy crew might leave randomly when you visit a colony, leaving you in the lurch if you don't hire additional crew.

This, combined with some of the ideas in the Jump Nodes concept, should help to make for an interesting game world.