(I don't disagree at all re NMS, I'm just rambling...)
Elitealikes are all a bit stuck, re the economy; at best (like the X games) they might have one that functions in the sense of goods being shipped for actual industry and supply and demand influencing prices, but there always has to be an enormous supply of easy money to be picked up, because the player doesn't want building themselves up from a handcart to Eddie Stobart to take a real lifetime and require a lot of luck. Hence (although NMS clearly gets it very wrong) it's never going to bear much thinking about.
EVE? EVE has the opposite problem; because the economy is genuinely functional, albeit with a peculiar money supply [1], it's pretty hard to find profitable trades at all (leaving aside the risk of being murdered en route), and if you try to manufacture stuff one of two things happens:
1) It's easy to make. You are now competing with useful idiots who think the minerals they mine are free. You cannot make a profit. [2] 2) It's hard to make. You are now competing with people whose skills and operations are perfectly optimised after a huge investment of time and capital. You cannot make a profit.
[1] and a real money supply mechanism could not possibly function in EVE. [2] Useful to people who buy the stuff, that is, not to you.
no subject
Elitealikes are all a bit stuck, re the economy; at best (like the X games) they might have one that functions in the sense of goods being shipped for actual industry and supply and demand influencing prices, but there always has to be an enormous supply of easy money to be picked up, because the player doesn't want building themselves up from a handcart to Eddie Stobart to take a real lifetime and require a lot of luck. Hence (although NMS clearly gets it very wrong) it's never going to bear much thinking about.
EVE? EVE has the opposite problem; because the economy is genuinely functional, albeit with a peculiar money supply [1], it's pretty hard to find profitable trades at all (leaving aside the risk of being murdered en route), and if you try to manufacture stuff one of two things happens:
1) It's easy to make. You are now competing with useful idiots who think the minerals they mine are free. You cannot make a profit. [2]
2) It's hard to make. You are now competing with people whose skills and operations are perfectly optimised after a huge investment of time and capital. You cannot make a profit.
[1] and a real money supply mechanism could not possibly function in EVE.
[2] Useful to people who buy the stuff, that is, not to you.