Goonhub
09-13-2019, 10:58 AM
The unpredictable RNG random event nature of merchant shuttles makes it very likely for them to appear in a situation where you don't have any money to spend, meanwhile also being very likely to not appear at all when you're actively looking for them. Add in the fact that their stock is sometimes very specialized(for example selling only synth-o-matic modules) and you end up in a situation where the vast majority of the time merchant shuttles arrive on the station and then awkwardly leave some time later with no one even having bothered to go inside.
Letting cargo summon merchant shuttles to the station in a controlled manner would allow the crew to prepare for their arrival and minimize the amount of situations where one doesn't arrive at all or the only one within the round that does sells completely different goods than what you're looking for.
This could be for instance cooldown based or cost some of the shipping budget to do, or a possible hybrid of both(the more frequently you call them, the higher the cost would get and is lowered the longer time you wait since the last hail).
Some of the merchants sell cool stuff and having them appear more regularly would not only allow for that stuff to come into play more often but also possibly bring more interest in expanding traders' stocks to make them even more enticing down the road.
Letting cargo summon merchant shuttles to the station in a controlled manner would allow the crew to prepare for their arrival and minimize the amount of situations where one doesn't arrive at all or the only one within the round that does sells completely different goods than what you're looking for.
This could be for instance cooldown based or cost some of the shipping budget to do, or a possible hybrid of both(the more frequently you call them, the higher the cost would get and is lowered the longer time you wait since the last hail).
Some of the merchants sell cool stuff and having them appear more regularly would not only allow for that stuff to come into play more often but also possibly bring more interest in expanding traders' stocks to make them even more enticing down the road.