Well, true, that's a whole other problem. Presumably the empire which makes the story has to fork out for the reward. It will put the rewards in a pot, and when you accept the quest the rewards are "held" for you for a limited period. If you don't complete it in time, they're returned to the pot. If there isn't enough in the pot when you start, the story board will inform you before you take the quest.
That would seem a sensible system, but only as regards quest rewards, not quest "props". How you stop the quest from spawning a Q255 "enemy" with no crew, which you can then capture and walk away with, we can talk about later. It's possible that developed empires like Weltreich, RDSG, French etc. could afford to sponsor quests, so that any ships/items used in them would actually be deducted from their stored materials, in the same way that I suggest for rewards. Quest "props" could vanish afterwards and return their materials to whomever they came from. You would be able to specify the maximum you're willing to put up for sponsorship; if ten people are playing that story already and there isn't enough left, the quest can't start. Just one idea.
But in this instance, rewards for warp patents etc. could be "official" quests made by you or reviewed by you in collaboration with others.
That would seem a sensible system, but only as regards quest rewards, not quest "props". How you stop the quest from spawning a Q255 "enemy" with no crew, which you can then capture and walk away with, we can talk about later. It's possible that developed empires like Weltreich, RDSG, French etc. could afford to sponsor quests, so that any ships/items used in them would actually be deducted from their stored materials, in the same way that I suggest for rewards. Quest "props" could vanish afterwards and return their materials to whomever they came from. You would be able to specify the maximum you're willing to put up for sponsorship; if ten people are playing that story already and there isn't enough left, the quest can't start. Just one idea.
But in this instance, rewards for warp patents etc. could be "official" quests made by you or reviewed by you in collaboration with others.