But a slightly different view this time.
So - currently Mahon sits at the #1 spot in the galactic rating, and with that comes a nice bonus for his pledges. Any pledges ranked 2 or higher now get a 20% trade voucher on all profits made in Mahon space. Sounds good, right? Well ... it sounds good, but it's not really that good.
Archon Delaine's passive bonus, which applies to all of his systems, increases prices in his black markets by 10%, and this vastly outperforms what Mahon gets. By a lot.
In order for Mahon's bonus (for being rank 1) to compete with Archon Delaine's passive bonus, goods have to sell at 100% profit or more. So - if you buy something for 1,000 credits, it has to sell for at least 2,000 on the regular market market in order for Mahon to compete. When's the last time you saw any product worth trading with a 100% mark-up?
It gets even more skewed than that. If Mahon is rank 2, the trade voucher value drops to 15%. Now that 1,000 credit item needs to sell at 3,000 credits for Mahon's bonus to compete.
Think that's bad? At rank 3, Mahon's trade vouchers are worth 10%. It is now impossible for Mahon to compete with Archon's passive bonus for the black market. No matter how high the profit margin is, Archon's bonus produces a higher profit (10% of the purchase price).
But wait - there's more! At ranks 4 through 10 Mahon's vouchers are worth 5%. As you may have guessed, this makes the situation even worse for Mahon, as his pledges can never get closer than 4.76% of Archon's profits.
And again - Mahon's bonus is supposed to be an incentive to be a Mahon pledge, whereas Archon's bonus applies to anyone who trades in his space.
Well, surely if you need that mark-up, rare goods are perfect for Mahon space? Well, sort of. If you travel far enough the profits on rare goods does increase to about 16,000 credits. So, that's 19,200 credits worth of profit per ton. Surely that can compete with Archon's profits. And it can in almost all circumstances, but rare goods aren't a viable trade for long for most people doing powerplay, and Mahon's bonus only works if you're actually doing powerplay.
But why is a passive bonus available to all players that much better than an active one that requires you to be pledged to a power? Imagine for a moment that Antal's rank 2 bonus gave his pledges a 3.5% discount on ships and equipment, and then 7/10.5/14% for galactic rank 3/2/1. You'd be shaking your heads at it, because Li Yong-Rui's passive bonus gives you 15%.
So - currently Mahon sits at the #1 spot in the galactic rating, and with that comes a nice bonus for his pledges. Any pledges ranked 2 or higher now get a 20% trade voucher on all profits made in Mahon space. Sounds good, right? Well ... it sounds good, but it's not really that good.
Archon Delaine's passive bonus, which applies to all of his systems, increases prices in his black markets by 10%, and this vastly outperforms what Mahon gets. By a lot.
In order for Mahon's bonus (for being rank 1) to compete with Archon Delaine's passive bonus, goods have to sell at 100% profit or more. So - if you buy something for 1,000 credits, it has to sell for at least 2,000 on the regular market market in order for Mahon to compete. When's the last time you saw any product worth trading with a 100% mark-up?
It gets even more skewed than that. If Mahon is rank 2, the trade voucher value drops to 15%. Now that 1,000 credit item needs to sell at 3,000 credits for Mahon's bonus to compete.
Think that's bad? At rank 3, Mahon's trade vouchers are worth 10%. It is now impossible for Mahon to compete with Archon's passive bonus for the black market. No matter how high the profit margin is, Archon's bonus produces a higher profit (10% of the purchase price).
But wait - there's more! At ranks 4 through 10 Mahon's vouchers are worth 5%. As you may have guessed, this makes the situation even worse for Mahon, as his pledges can never get closer than 4.76% of Archon's profits.
And again - Mahon's bonus is supposed to be an incentive to be a Mahon pledge, whereas Archon's bonus applies to anyone who trades in his space.
Well, surely if you need that mark-up, rare goods are perfect for Mahon space? Well, sort of. If you travel far enough the profits on rare goods does increase to about 16,000 credits. So, that's 19,200 credits worth of profit per ton. Surely that can compete with Archon's profits. And it can in almost all circumstances, but rare goods aren't a viable trade for long for most people doing powerplay, and Mahon's bonus only works if you're actually doing powerplay.
But why is a passive bonus available to all players that much better than an active one that requires you to be pledged to a power? Imagine for a moment that Antal's rank 2 bonus gave his pledges a 3.5% discount on ships and equipment, and then 7/10.5/14% for galactic rank 3/2/1. You'd be shaking your heads at it, because Li Yong-Rui's passive bonus gives you 15%.
