Wed Feb 26, 2003 7:46 pm
Site feature request: FL Trade routes
I don't know about the rest of you, but I have been paging through the Spoilers forum lately, looking for good trade routes. If you have been doing this too, you'll realize that it's mass chaos in there! People either don't mention specifically which places to go (ie: Take arms from Texas to FP4 for a $200/unit profit!), or give information that really isn't useful (ie: You can get a $200K profit shipping diamonds from PlanetX to Tokyo....failing to mention how many tons you have to carry to do so).
Anyway, what I suggest is a little database-driven trade route submission page(s). You could make a form listing source and destination systems and planets, the cargo type, the source and destination cost, and the number of jumps or some indication of length (time?). Maybe some notes, and the submitter, too. Then have a page with a sortable table of all the data. Sorting should be sufficient unless there ends up being TONS of data... no pun intended.
To prevent bogus submissions, you could allow access only to forum members. The TLR registration is so simple that might not be 100% effective, but if all records also say who created them, a simple delete query with the offending **** could solve that. You could also put a limit on the prices, so people can't make outrageous numbers up (ie: buy oxygen for 999999999 at Fort Bush!).
What do you think, Bargib? It's some work to be sure, and I'd be happy to help, although I don't have a good development environment at home to do ASP development.
By the way, I'm sure you hear it all the time, but I love TLR! It's the only site I check for FL info. Your news is always up-to-the-second, your ship and game info is the best I have found, and your forums are awesome! (And easy to register for! ) Thanks for all your hard work making TLR the best place on the Internet for FL info!
Anyway, what I suggest is a little database-driven trade route submission page(s). You could make a form listing source and destination systems and planets, the cargo type, the source and destination cost, and the number of jumps or some indication of length (time?). Maybe some notes, and the submitter, too. Then have a page with a sortable table of all the data. Sorting should be sufficient unless there ends up being TONS of data... no pun intended.
To prevent bogus submissions, you could allow access only to forum members. The TLR registration is so simple that might not be 100% effective, but if all records also say who created them, a simple delete query with the offending **** could solve that. You could also put a limit on the prices, so people can't make outrageous numbers up (ie: buy oxygen for 999999999 at Fort Bush!).
What do you think, Bargib? It's some work to be sure, and I'd be happy to help, although I don't have a good development environment at home to do ASP development.
By the way, I'm sure you hear it all the time, but I love TLR! It's the only site I check for FL info. Your news is always up-to-the-second, your ship and game info is the best I have found, and your forums are awesome! (And easy to register for!
) Thanks for all your hard work making TLR the best place on the Internet for FL info!