SWG: NPC City Resource/Crafting Specializations

I've been focused on getting cargo routes between planets in JtL, but there's no reason why it wouldn't be even more useful to think about this in terms of inter-city cargo routes.

The concept is basically the same -- to let different areas specialize in different things, so as to create local markets where some items are relatively inexpensive and other items are relatively pricey. And the result of this would be to promote more active trading of goods between cities (instead of everyone clustering in Theed and Coronet starports).

So in addition to intercity trade routes (and kudos again for a clever idea), I'd like to suggest the following change: Give bonuses to crafting and selling certain kinds of items in specific NPC cities.

CRAFTING/SALES BONUSES IN NPC CITIES

We know that players will try to maximize advantages, so giving NPC cities bonuses to crafting and selling certain kinds of items will encourage players to craft and sell items in those cities.

That's a plus in a couple of ways: first, it moves some players from Theed and Coronet, which would both make NPC cities fun again and cut down on lag in Theed and Coronet. Second, it would improve the "feel" of the game to know that if you want a great pistol (for example), then the best ones are made and sold in Moenia; if you want foods that offer the most useful stat increases, they're made and sold in Mos Espa; and so on. Players would travel from place to place (and across the planets, which would also help sell units of JtL) to buy the best items.

This would be a useful change by itself... but where it really gets interesting is when it's combined with the idea of intercity cargo routes.

NON-LOCAL RESOURCES

Suppose the resource generator were tweaked so that the best resources to make various items were never found near NPC cities that want those resources for crafting. In other words, what if the best resources and the best cities for using those resources were always in different places?

I think this change would strongly promote the use of planetary trade routes. If (for example) Kor Vella crafters can make and sell the best composite armor, but the Intrusive Ore that spawns near Kor Vella tends to be lousy for making armor, then you'd see those cities (NPC or PC) near the best Intrusive Ore locations using the planetary trade routes to ship the good stuff to Kor Vella.