Astro Galaxy - a realistic space exploration game

We at PT are making a large effort towards trade stations and peaceful commerce and co-existence with all corporations. We have decided to create this alliance of sorts between corporations. We will help regulate inter-corporation commerce, as well as provide deals between members. Any corporation is allowed to join, but at the moment, PT is alone. Who is to say we can't have a player economy without Sir Emi the Deserter. Please help!
GCA Agenda: Give deals on trades to member corps.
                    Make laws and restrictions involving price rates, tariffs, tax rates, embargoes, loans, and debts.
                    Encourage game updates.

The more members we have, the more power we get. Please join!
 :hi: :welcome: :hi:

Yay

Would be nice to bring life to AG.

Keep us updated on how you plan to do this.

I'm willing to contribute funds/modules so you guys can lay out the infrastructure to help everyone, especially newbies.

Note that transparency is key.

Good luck.  :)

CAP will join

Biggest issue I see, is how to pay for things without the ability to transfer equipment and materials on shared Corp ships.  Ambassadors (people who temporarily change corporations) are great for major balance of payments or equipment exchanges between corps, but don't help those Sol players who want to retain their independence :-)

Only mechanism I can think of, is setting up temporary, undefended stations at a place and time shared by PM between the parties, and agreeing on a unit of currency that survives a looting attack (only available means of exchange other than QPs).  That means it has to be modules, since a mod in storage survives looting, while some materials are always lost during looting.

How does an currency based on CAB-M's sound?  Rationale:  everyone needs storage, storage can't be used aggressively, and at $1,264,000 a piece, a CAB-M isn't out of reach of most independents?

Thoughts?

That sounds about right

Thanks. I was thinking that corporations that join will get a vote for each member, and will vote on laws to make sure that any player trade is fair, and that pirates are not traded to. Anyone who joins spends less on certain trades and we could arbitrate territorial claims. Hopefully it will work and we can create an new era of peace and trade between all. If we get enough people, and Sir Emi still occasionally checks up on the game, maybe we can pressure him into updating. Of course, just because you aren't in the GCA doesn't mean that you can't have territorial claims or trades, it would just exclude you from sales on trades and representation on the GCA Council.

CAP may join as they wish.

As for currency and transfer of it, I figured we would just do QP or Diamonds on unprotected stations at undisclosed locations. The idea of CAB-Ms as a currency is new to me, because I didn't think of using modules, but it could work.

Also, when you say CAB-M, I assume you are referring to the advanced module, not the normal?

suggested regular CAB instead of "advanced" ACB, because want currency to circulate.

Powerful players have little temptation to hold onto their CAB-M's when they can easily blow past that capacity with ACB's.
However, at the -M size, at least CAB wouldn't just be taking up storage space.  Any big station depot could use them when they're not being traded.

Going the other way, if we made ACB-D the currency, there'd be a lot of temptation to use them as "seed" for larger mods, and the currency might crash?

re. some other possibilities mentioned:
QP transfer now requires a onetime US$5 donation for the memberID.  Fine for committed players, but no good for others.
Diamonds suffer loss during looting, that mods in storage don't.  That's quite a "tax" to pay per transaction!

That said, better some agreeable currency than no currency :-)
(as long as I don't find myself staring down the barrel of a payment I made, so no military mods ;-)

Sounds good. Small problem of the fact that, I, for example, don't think I have CAB-M, because I went straight to ACBs, and I'm fairly sure I'm not the only one.
Very reasonable, and that would probably be one of the first trade laws that we passed, along with no trading to well known pirates, if we can ever get this thing off the ground.

such as federation

Don't have to make currency mods - you can trade for them with someone who can :-)
If you don't like the terms of the trade, someone else will probably offer better ;-)

__
Here's two alternative notions that makes full use of the Corporate system, but would require some Sponsors to set up and operate..

Notion 1:  Imagine a corporation where all membership is temporary, other than the Sponsors'.  Call it "Trade Corp":  

Your join request contains the time and quantity of materials you want to trade, along with the name of your trade partner.  When the Sponsors have matching join requests, they accept you both to the corp and assign a ship to the first trade party.  When the ship is loaded, they assign to the second, and if necessary then return to the first.  When the trade is over, you quit.  When your time is up, you're booted.  The ships stay at Earth, and non-Sponsors have only cargo privileges.  So no worries about hijacking or mods theft.  The ship's cargo log is available to resolve disputes.  Corp members would have to ask their corps to rejoin (and be reassigned or reclaim  their corp ships).  Sol players would be momentarily corpless, but can auto-rejoin Sol just by applying.

Notion 2:  Similar to 1, but many-to-many, instead of 1:1.  Call it "Market Day Corp":
on a specified day, anyone who wants to Join is allowed in.  Trades are requested and proposed in Corp Chat.  When there's a buyer and seller, a ship is shuffled between.  Members who are done wiith their shopping quit the corp as above.  When a Market Day is over, everyone remaining is booted, other than Sponsors.

Advantages of these 2-notions vs a mods based currency - with corp ships you can transfer materials (eg. pay in diamonds or whatever), and everything is done with the security and convenience of Earth.  Disadvantages:  asks a lot of the Sponsors, and would require them to maintain alt-IDs that do more than Sol Chat.  Sir Emi probably would OK alt-IDs that enhance the game for everyone, but we'd need to ask (multiple IDs other than a 2nd for SOL chat violates TOS).  Alternatively, some major Independents could become Sponsors for the temporary corps, using their primary IDs - any volunteers ?-)

I like it

in PM, Nojehu (SEC's Leader) suggests SLB as a better currency - it's something everyone researches, everyone needs, and can't be used offensively.

I agree :-)

Thanks Nojehu!
Publius

Small problem with corps for trade, although the idea sounds pretty good, is that a leader could want to trade, but if they left their corp, it would be disbanded. Personally, option 1 sounds better because of possible time zone difficulties with option 2, as well as the fact that 2 would only be for a single day. But if 1 was made, we should at least have a chat on the forums for it to make it more public, like the corp. chat advantage of option 2. Also, I agree that science labs would make a great currency.

Also, unrelated, but, does anyone know how the reputation thing on here works?

So, current GCA status:
SLB Mk.? = Currency, Shouldn't do a specified Mk, because M might be out of reach to newer players, while L would be far to low for older ones. Maybe more of a system like L = $1, and M = $100, and such.
Members: PT, CAP
Currency Tranfer Possibilities: Sponsored Trade Corporation
                                           Undisclosed Cargo Station

I could set up an undisclosed cargo station that moves

I agree with using SLB’s as currency.

By undisclosed cargo station, I mean a small low level station with a cargo bay on it storing the currency or traded item that is set up by the sides of the trade, so that one side can raid it and take the cargo. It would be in a secret location decided upon by both sides, and would be picked up after the trade.
I think that a corporation would work well, as long as leaders have members who can take over temporarily and are trusted to return the rank when the leader returns. Both ways would require a good amount of trust, because a station owner and a member with a corp. ship could just raid the other station or take the items and not put their own down to trade their side of the bargain, so there would have to be some sort of military to protect this.

Doesn't need its own military.  Treaty with at least 1 major Corp or a few big Independents would do.

We should find a way to make it worthwhile for the corp leader to maintain the trade corp.

Perhaps a monthly salary in QPs that sponsors agree upon?

How big would a salary have to be, and who would supply it? Only a single sponsor could supply a salary in QP, unless they all shared a small amount.

The station I have a cargo bay I can install as long as I don’t lose it to an attack

Suggest 5% fee on mods, 3% on materials?  Charged to the seller by the transfer agent.  Reason it has to be seller, is that's the only party before the transfer agent.

Still won't make up for Sponsors' time vs their other activities, but won't choke weaker players, allows Sponsors a token of appreciation, and undersells Earth's fee :-)

Seems Reasonable... :21:

Now we just need a leader, and none of the high-ranking officials of PT are willing. Haven't consulted lower rank officials, but I doubt they would too, and the leader should have more power than any of our members anyway, we aren't the strongest...

I could help, but would need a clear ruling from Sir Emi on using an alt for this.  Surrendering my SPQNR equipment for even a short period would cost much more than the traffic likely to flow through the corp..
(Suspect the same for Raphael, but even more so ?-)

I agree with you, Publius. I will not jeopardize the Empire for something as chancy as this...

Sir Emi will never come. He has abandoned AG. If this cannot start until Sir Emi approves, it will never start.

He's around.  Recovered 2-server errors this year, and SPQNR's seen his "Avatar" ship out and about.
That said, AG certainly isn't first and foremost on his mind :-)

If we set up something like this, we'll just set up an SPQNR trading account player and share the username and login with our member base. Yes, it will be an "alt account", but will serve no other purpose and stay Solbound. Can't imagine Sir Emi having a problem with that. We'd be fixing one of the development problems the (otherwise still interesting, or I wouldn't be here after 4 years) game.

Problem solved for Corporate players (including likely sponsors)  :clapping:

Now the trade-corp needs some: sponsors, simple bylaws, and a rate structure.

Part of me wants to say that PT should be in charge of this because we came up with it, but the other part of me doesn't completely understand where the GCA has gone, so I will allow it to carry on its own path. :confused:

I will sponsor.

As to who will be the manager of the trading corp, I don't care who it is as long as he/she gets the job done.  :)

Who's willing to create the bylaws? I will donate 100 QPs (equivalent to 100 million solars) for the draft. The draft should try to cover everything. The AG community will then modify the draft based on consensus.

Personal opinion: there should be no fees for trading to maximize attractiveness - anyone can trade for free. The sponsors will pay the manager for the day-to-day operations. As the trading volume increases, the salary will also increase (that needs to be specified in the bylaws).

What happened is you "crowdsourced" an interesting question, around a common need, in an open forum  :punk:
You want control, "sell" a solution  :19:

imho, you did the right thing - crowdsourced results are unpredictable, but (absent a genius) typically better than anything one individual would have conceived.

cf https://www.whitesourcesoftware.com/whitesource-blog/crowdsourcing-open-source/
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds

'nuff theory - back to the Game!

__
I will Sponsor with the first corporate ship license, an unoptimized Titan, and 100@ACB-100 = 772,500m3 storage (someone else can contribute a Freighter-X Optimization :-)
(all 100-slots go to storage - this is strictly a transfer vessel, chained to Earth)

Will start the ACB's as slots open up this week, and they will be reserved, but they will only be released once all Sponsors agree that Trade Corp is otherwise ready to serve the public good.

I will sponsor and I will be willing to manage the corp

CliffClavin - to sponsor, in the normal sense of the term - you need to put up something of value.  Raphael led with $100m, I followed with around $90m.
You're staking..  (maybe $26m for Freighter-X Optimization on the first transfer ship ?-)

Iow.. we're endowing a Not-for-Profit NGO  :cheers:
 
fwiw, I'd been thinking more of a B-Corp, to be handed over to mid level players who'd benefit the most from taking it big in an ethical manner.  However, am just as happy this way :-)

Update:  100@ACB-C (mk-100's) started.  ETA March 29th.  

Will we have bylaws, a funding structure, and management by then ?-)  
If so, we'll have a transfer vessel :-)

Isn't 100 QP equal to 5 million solars, not 100 million.

Also, I can't sponsor, because all of my money goes to PT Protector project. However, I will try to work on bylaws and hope to have a draft done by the 25th.

That'd be AP where 100 = $5m.  
1AP = $50k, 20AP = 1QP, so 1QP = $1m  L:)

If you look at adv CAB and CAB time to build and cost, a CAB cost half the price but take twice longer to build. Are you patient or not. From my experience, if you want to be among the top in the game, you need to spend not a solar more than absolutely needed.

Hello Matamaure001
But patient is not on the broad,when playing on-line games .We need it yeasterday,or the day before,but ACB is the way to go if you could wait or be patients enough for them ,and it would be worth it... 

ACB to "strike while the iron's hot" (ie. before forum attention moves on). 
Yes it's twice as expensive, but the absolute outlay at this level is still small.

The choice is yours, I said what I said to make you think. This is also true for shields....

Personally. I have chosen the opposite route and look where I am. (by the way, it is Raplael that make me discover this. Competition is beneficial lol)

The only important thing is to have fun with this game and it is my wish for all of you. :)

Where do you turn 1 AP into 50K solars? I've always turned 20 AP to 1 QP and then turned that to 50K solars. If you can turn 1 AP into 50K solars, it would explain why my game progress seems to be so slow... :yawn:

BTW Working on writing some bylaws but I doubt I will think of everything. I probably won't have enough there to actually build this thing on.

Can turn:
$50k -> 1AP
20AP -> 1QP
 1QP -> $50k (OUCH!)
 1QP ->   1AP (OUCH!)
 1QP -> 25k-RP (OUCH!)

Can't turn 1AP -> $50k

__
Get enough down on the Bylaws for others to react to?  Might not win the 100QP, but "the ball" will keep "moving forward" ?-)

So, for the bylaws, what we basically need is a restriction on what an agreeable currency is, how long someone can be in the corp., how long someone can have a ship, penalties for trading with pirates, and penalties for breaking laws, not staying in the corp. for the full amount of time, or not fully following a trade agreement. Anyway, here is what I have :sweat:

All trade must be made in either CABs, ACBs, or SLBs of an agreeable level to both parties, and must be sent into the public corp. chat so that there are witnesses to the trade agreement. A trade may not be made in any form of a weapon. Once someone joins the corp., They may stay for 120 hours. No one may leave the corp., as if they leave before their time is up it shows they may not be following the trade agreement. The leader must kick people when their time is up. This is a minor offense and will only receive a warning, unless there is proof of only following the trade agreement halfway, which is cause for placement on the GCA KoS list. At any time during their stay, they may ask the leader for permission to use the GCA Transfer Ship, and, assuming it is not already taken, may keep it for 24 hours. If the ship is returned out of earth orbit or module(s) are damaged or stolen in any way, you will be put on the GCA KoS list, which will transfer over to all member corps. KoS lists. All people on the GCA KoS list are officially embargoed by the GCA and may not be allowed to join the corp. to trade for any reason, unless they are pardoned. The GCA KoS list is enforced by member corps., while the GCA gains funds from sponsors, and in this way, the GCA gains its power from its members.

Bit of a different vision there!  :21:

was thinking more of very temporary membership by the transacting parties - just long enough to get the transaction done,
and payment in whatever's agreeable among the parties at the time of the transaction - probably diamonds, SLB, or ACB.

The cargo log of the transfer ship keeps a record of who added and removed what.  Since the AG server automatically provides proof, no extra mechanism is needed.
Likewise, no concern about transacting parties damaging or moving the ship, since the ship has no drives, remains at Earth (where it's safe), and transacting parties are only granted cargo rights (another AG server function).

Here is new proposal then:

All trade must be made in either diamonds, CABs, ACBs, or SLBs of an agreeable level to both parties, and must be sent into the public corp. chat so that there are witnesses to the trade agreement. A trade may not be made in any form of a weapon. Once someone joins the corp., They may stay for 48 hours. No one may leave the corp., as if they leave before their time is up it shows they may not be following the trade agreement. The leader must kick people when their time is up. This is a minor offense and will only receive a warning, unless there is proof of only following the trade agreement halfway, which is cause for placement on the GCA KoS list. At any time during their stay, they may ask the leader for permission to use the GCA Transfer Ship, and, assuming it is not already taken, may keep it for 24 hours. All people on the GCA KoS list are officially embargoed by the GCA and may not be allowed to join the corp. to trade for any reason, unless they are pardoned. The GCA KoS list is enforced by member corps., while the GCA gains funds from sponsors, and in this way, the GCA gains its power from its members.

Time limits on stay and leave are necessary to make sure no one is ripped off or that the member isn't hiding from another non-GCA member corp. Other than that, I did miss a few things on my original proposal which I believe I have mostly patched up with this one. I was kind of in a rush because I had said I would have it done by yesterday.

Please consider removing the retention requirement for non-Sponsors?
Don't think it will play well with either Independents or corporates who aren't using an Alt.

Non-sponsor memberships shouldn't have to be longer than it takes to make a transaction, unless someone is a manufacturer hanging around until all inventory is sold.

Do need sanctions against a buyer who fails to pay or who shorts the payment.  Transfer Ship's log will show the "mistake", but escalating sanctions at different tiers of value and periods of delinquency (there will be actual mistakes) will be necessary to inspire confidence.

Yeah, we can keep the bylaws simple for now.

We don't want to put too much effort on it, only to be ignored by players/newbies later on. Our time would've been wasted. lol

We can modify/updated them as the trading volume increases.

My only comment is that corp chat gets deleted after 2 weeks. Might be better to have a dedicated trading thread here in the forum instead. :)

I lowered it to 48 hours because of this, but I think it needs to be in the corporation because we can't have people in the corporation too long(except sponsors), but some players who are weaker and/or fresh from the academy don't get on every day(I would know this because of my corporation).

As for corp. chat vs. forum chat, I agree we should use a thread on the forum, because originally, that thread was going to be this, but now I suppose we should make a new one.

Also, raphael is right, we can always modify the bylaws if something doesn't work correctly.

Why have any minimum on membership time for non-sponsors?  Come in, make your trade, leave, or join and stay until your declared business (eg. selling these 16-WHG-L's at 10% markup) is done?  We need some rules for booting people if the number of folks lingering makes new member licenses expensive.  However, I'm not getting why people *have* to stay longer than they may want to?

I don't need to remove it, this is a draft or a discussion, if you will. Nothing is final, and I'm not in charge of this anymore, I'm just running it by you guys.

Maybe you are right. Maybe they don't have to stay, but they should at least not be allowed to leave until both sides of the trade agree that they have gotten what they wanted. Also, wouldn't making it a powerful corporation make more new players see it when they look on the top corps. page, encouraging more trade, sponsorship, and growth? I think that a minimum on membership would help with that, or at least making the transfer ship have some high level MAUs and SHGs on it. :gunsmilie:

One thing we don't need to worry about - currency. 

SPQNR has 2 Stations at Earth's Moon buying and selling Diamonds at cost to the public.  As long as that continues, anyone who wants to buy something can go to the Moon and buy some diamonds, then go back to Earth and make their transaction.  The seller likewise goes to the Moon to sell diamonds and get $s. 

Only cost for using diamonds as currency is the small amount of fuel needed to get to the Moon and back  :)

Is the trade of Armor, Shields, and WHDs illegal because they count as 'weaponry', or is it legal since they can't be used to attack anyone? What about 'illegal' modules like the CREM or the EMJO?

What if only certain people had the right to sell a type of module? I was thinking about a promotional for joining in the next month where all corporations who joined in the next month could sell WHDs for 'pirate-hunting season'. How does that sound? I want to make sure it is fair to all, but I don't want it to be tiny either, and a promotional campaign selling exclusive rights to the sale of a module would probably help this grow alot.

Let it be known that if I do participate in this venture, I will sell what I can.
It's all about profit.
If that means weaponry, so be it.

This is why we don't want weapons being sold by GCA-member corporations. No reason to provoke war, it does that well enough by itself. I still agree with this, but, as I said with the exclusive rights of selling things, could always sell weaponry as an exclusive access if we must. it would also be frustrating if someone who was higher leveled than me, but still a GCA-member corporation, and therefore allied, say you, sargas, sold a Mk.MMM Death ray to someone, and then that independant became a pirate and attacked all GCA-member corporations, including me, even though I had nothing to do with it. I wouldn't be happy with that, and I doubt you would either. Of course, this is all a hypothetical scenario, but you get my point, right?

I know a weapon of that high caliber could do some serious damage to some of us low level people, and I would rather not see that scenario happen IRL. :banned:

P.S. I have been looking for an excuse to use that emoji for a while.

If EOS wants to sell weaponry, think we'd be better having them in and selling, than out B-)
This thing is still evolving..

__
100-ACB (advanced) are completed and reserved for the transfer ship.  I'm keeping the two Factory ships that built them idle for now, while we see if there's interest in low-level mods.  However, so far the response is underwhelming  :21:
cf. http://forum.astro-galaxy.com/index.php/topic,9938

I just don't want my commerce to be regulated to the point where I can't sell this or I cannot buy that.

Any module that I can build is a commodity, and is subject to sale.
Any module built by anyone is a commodity, and is subject to purchase.

I will not sell any exotics (they belong to the Empire).

I will only sell weaponry that corresponds to a client's power level.

for example:
power level 250000 - 1000000 /  up to MKV
pl 1000001 - 5000000 / up to MKX
etc. etc. etc.

other (non-weaponry) modules will be available at the established GCA pricing.

...

And remember that the only Enemy of the Empire (as of now) is Sol Commodity Exchange Stations. Because of their price caps on everything, they themselves can under cut your prices.

...
'tis a monopoly that I do not agree with...

Well that is good to know. As long as you do that, I don't see any increased pirate threats, although, I'm level 1000000, and I certainly don't have modules anywhere near that caliber. My highest level modules is Mk.CLVI, I believe... :wow:
Good to see we are making good progress on that, at least.

Ok, I think I figured out how the whole funding system will work.

1) Sponsors donate funds to start up the corporation/complete projects.

2) GCA has taxes on trades and interest on loans form a new idea, GCA bank.

3) Profits from these are sent to leader/sponsors as salaries, so that, eventually, all the sponsor donations are paid back and then some.

Taxes are not necessary if we can avoid them. GCA bank is basically a stockpile of diamonds. Loans in diamond are given to be returned with a certain amount of interest such as 10%. In this way, GCA gains money to pay salaries and fund projects. I think this is pretty stable, what do you think?

Sorry, I've been busy.. Busy with other games. lol

Anyway, is there a final draft for the bylaws? I will send the 100 QPs once it's final.

I will donate another 100 million solars to start the trade corp (in diamonds).

As I mentioned before, I prefer no taxes whatsoever. Do we have a volunteer as to who will manage the trade corp? What do you guys think would be a fair compensation for the manager?

GCA Bank is a nice idea, but too many variables to consider. Might be better to perfect the trade corp first before we branch out.  :)

Well, I don’t really know how to write bylaws, so hopefully someone else can do it.

 As for a leader, I would, but I think PT would fall apart without me, being the strongest member and founder.

I will support Corp by providing a space station

Sorry, been busy IRL..

I'm thinking a thing of convenience with no growing value, just pass thru's.  If we need some power to rank high enough for people to find and join, I'll contribute some mid-level nukes.  At worse, if stolen they could only be used once ;-)

Value shouldn't be retained - so no temptation.  We have 3 ships, all Earth bound - no drives.
"Counter" is all the regular members see. They put stuff on, they get stuff off.
"Register" has fees, payments, and collateral on it, preferably in diamonds.  Like any good cash register, it gets emptied frequently.
"Shelf" holds stuff for when the other party isn't in the same time zone, and the transaction has to be spread over a day.
(maybe Register and Shelf can be same ship in actuality - conceptually they're different)

Customers can only interact with cargo on their assigned ship (will always be Counter).
(ed. 04/11) Merchants are longtime Customers who pay for their own Member license and are never kicked (except for months inactive, or dishonest or illegal dealings).  Merchants can "rent" a corp ship for Storage if they pay for the Ship license and the ship.
(ed. 04/11) Managers can assign ships and accept members, but can't change mods or kick members.  (keeps the ships Earth Bound, and prevents a rogue Manager from kicking everyone until becoming Leader ;-)
(ed. 04/11) Sponsors can change mods and kick members.  Customers should voluntarily leave Trade Corp after their transaction is done, so Trade Corp doesn't have to buy lots of member licenses.  So getting kicked by a Sponsor should have a small penalty next time the kickee wants to join.
(ed. 04/11) Leader (AG designation) should be the alt of a Sponsor with very long and respected AG credentials, including top 20 (preferably top 10) pow Rank.  So has better things to do than cash out this convenient little public utility, and brings the heft of their reputation and corp to promote "good behavior".

Open issues:  Fee structure, manager wages, hours of operation, how long we're willing to pend a transaction, what to do with unclaimed merchandise, dispute resolution, penalties, treaties (eg. can someone on a KOS list trade?  if not, whose KOS list(s)?)

Commerce is not just trade but social relations, so this corporation will regulate trade and will act as an alliance between GCA member corporations. This means the KoS list comes from all KoS lists of all GCA member corporations.

In my opinion, a transaction should be pending for a maximum of 48 hours, and any unclaimed merchandise should be auctioned offon the GCA Market forum thread which will be created if it has not already.

Like both :-)  Money raised from the auction, minus a fee, will be saved for the original owner unless they're declared Inactive from AG after some very long period (maybe 3-months?), in which case the money goes to their corp at the time of the auction, or to Trade Corp's sponsors and managers by some formula TBD.

Sounds good. It might be difficult to save auction money for original owner, so if we want to save anything for the original owner, which may be advisable, we should just keep the modules. After a certain time if they have not claimed their merchandise we can keep it or auction it at GCA preference.

I will try to throw together another set of updated ‘bylaws’, but I can’t promise it will be very good. I really hope we can get this started soon. Cpt. Dante Locke just passed a PT bank law and a PT commerce law based on this thread, so even if we never even start this thing, at least something has come of it.

Not hard at all to save the money - let a Sponsor do it.  Unless it's a massive trade between corps, any amount likely to be owed can come out of a Sponsor's petty cash the day it's required.  (Like the real world, AG has billionaires.)  Essentially, Trade Corp gives the Sponsor the money, in return for a public IOU.  

What compels the Sponsor to honor the IOU?  Nothing but their ethics and their rep with other players, especially other Sponsors..  For really complete coverage, ideally the Corp of a Sponsor will agree to cover any public debts should the Sponsor become inactive.  What happens if a major Corp goes inactive?..  Let's worry about that later ;-)

Don't think one's needed?  Reason to keep Trade Corp, Earth bound, is can't attack Earth based assets due to AG's programming.  So no defense costs!  Since Stations can't orbit Earth, Trade Corp won't use Stations.

Yeah, I guess we won't need stations for now.

Pokeboy, the bylaws will be a work in progress anyway, so just cover as much as you can, then publish it. I will send the QPs afterwards. I suggest you create a separate thread for it where we can comment on it, then you will just modify your first post based on agreed changes (your first post will be the bylaws).

Another thing, who will have the authority to change the bylaws? Maybe we can agree that those who wants to have a voice will pay a one-time payment?

I prefer no trading tax, and if the manager's salary is reasonable enough, I can pay for it myself. We just need to look for a willing and reliable captain to manage the trade corp.

 

I will work to gain some money

Or you could Manage the operation and make some money :-)

I have completed my rough draft and am open to comments. :21:

I know I am definitely missing some things, and, on top of that, I put in certain laws that were discussed in here but not decided on, such as whether or not weapons would be allowed.

Here are some of the more controversial laws I added:
- A GCA member corp. must be peaceful.
- A GCA member corp. must be on the first page (in the top 20).
- GCA will grant loans in diamonds at an interest rate of 15% per month.
- If GCA is not paid back within 6 months, you will be placed on the KoS list.
- GCA bank can also store other things of value for a fee.
- Rights to the GCA idea, along with a veto are given to the original members, Publius, Raphael, CliffClavin, and     
   Pokéboy. If someone else wants to claim that They are a founder or wants to not be a founder, then they may   
   present their case and we will change the bylaws as such.
- If these rights are violated or the corp. is copied, the criminal will be put on the KoS list and any claims by   
   them will be treated as invalid.
- No modules capable of attack upon an enemy should be traded of a Mk. higher than C.
- Sale of illegal modules will be punished with a warning unless it is a second offense. If this is a second
  offense, you will be placed on the KoS list.

Sounds good to me



By the way Federation is back on our Kos list

That was fast. I had no idea you were online.

I was I was typing it when you posted

By the way I would be willing to volunteer for the manager for the corp