Making rare goods relevant again

[Muetdhiver]

I recently coached a new player in the game, and we did a lot of "starter" activities together.

I was quite shocked on how bad rare goods trade runs compare to other activities. At launch it was a staple for small/medium traders,
with profits in the 2M/h (yeah, I know it sounds small, but it was the best paying trade activity in an ASP or T6... and combat was really
paying dirt, with bounties like 10K credits).

Rare goods could really use some love at the moment. Here are a few ideas I could come up with :

1. Boom state already increase supply. Investment should increase it even more.
2. Sell price with distance should cap higher, with a doubling of profit margins.
3. Systems in boom state or investment should increase the sale price (+50% and +100%). As should selling in station with the tourism economy type (additional +50%).
4. There should be race against the clock rare good delivery missions where the payout is increased/decreased w.r.t to a timer to complete it. These missions could be between well known legs of the rare routes and the timer could be set to the average time used by the players.
5. There should be juicy rare traders NPC's for pirate to enjoy.
6. Rare medicine goods should sell for +100% in system with outbreaks.

In terms of internal game logic, Ngadandri Fire Opals should have value akin to Void Opals. Just sayin.

Do you think rare goods are in a good place or that they need some love ? If so, what ?

 

[CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost]

…
Do you think rare goods are in a good place or that they need some love ? If so, what ?

I'm undecided if rare goods are a good idea at all. They are a limited resource from a specific place, as a result they train new players that they have to go to certain places to make money.
This makes them "blind" to other profitable trading opportunities. Famine and outbreak systems offer really good profits for trading, some other commodities offer alway very high profits.

Instead of training new players to look for good opportunities rare goods train players to search for "The place to make money".

If anything I would prefer normal trade having a much higher profit range depending on system, faction state and other aspects. Things the player can learn, search for and then use that knowledge.

That said, rare commodities could indeed get some buff in one or an other way to make them interesting again.

 

[B1rdy]

Do you think rare goods are in a good place or that they need some love ? If so, what ?

There should be activities balanced for starters. With passenger missions (and also core mining?) being completely out of whack, every other activity doesn't seems worthwhile reward wise, even for starters.

 

[Muetdhiver]

There should be activities balanced for starters. With passenger missions (and also core mining?) being completely out of whack, every other activity doesn't seems worthwhile reward wise, even for starters.

Yes and no. As a matter of fact I did not go into passenger missions given how stupid the payouts are.

However :

1. Allied trading missions pay better.
2. BH pays better.
3. Mining pays better.
4. Exploration pays way better. (Fun fact : for the first rare loop, we did the whole scanning planet thing... the payout was four time higher than the rare loop profit. [noob])

All that stuff is at beginner level with eagle/cobra.

 

[B1rdy]

So, what do you suggest? Buff rare goods above FSS payouts?

 

[Muetdhiver]

So, what do you suggest? Buff rare goods above FSS payouts?

No.

What I suggest is buff the raw margin by 2. AKA push it to the 4M/h territory (assuming ASP + well known route, something a noob doesn't have).
Then add in missions and systems states such that for a well versed player with a dedicated ship, the payouts get to 10M/h.

10M/h is far from crazy. Laser mining is above that. Road to riches is quite above that. Deliveries and smuggling is way north. Passengers... best not to speak about it.

What I'm saying is that the only activities that pays worse than rare trading are : sub-surface mining and courrier missions*.

*Those pay in reputation and influence and are actually quite fair.

 

[SlickPBW]

All that glitters is not gold.

 

[Dagwit]

When I started playing the game, the Rares trade was the beginner's meta. You'd download a London Underground map of the trade routes and it would take you to every kind of station and outpost all over the Bubble. When I eventually graduated to loop trading in a T7, that was more profitable but infinitely less fun.

How about this for a solution? Increase the pay rate to be competitive with Road to Riches, but introduce a whole bunch of new stations that can only be docked at by Small ships, and move the Rares trade to them.

Edit: I should have added, more fun for beginners than honk, scoop and scan; and something that players further into the game would be happy to revisit.

 

[Kaocraft]

The entire commodity/market/boom/bust/supply/demand system could use a rebalance. There's not enough volatility and there's basically no possible way to make a trade profit which exceeds what you'd get doing hauling missions.

 

[Burke]

The entire commodity/market/boom/bust/supply/demand system could use a rebalance. There's not enough volatility and there's basically no possible way to make a trade profit which exceeds what you'd get doing hauling missions.

You beat me to it. The market has no life. Making credits in this comes down to some silly exploitative nonsense.

 

[Kaocraft]

When I started playing the game, the Rares trade was the beginner's meta. You'd download a London Underground map of the trade routes and it would take you to every kind of station and outpost all over the Bubble. When I eventually graduated to loop trading in a T7, that was more profitable but infinitely less fun.

How about this for a solution? Increase the pay rate to be competitive with Road to Riches, but introduce a whole bunch of new stations that can only be docked at by Small ships, and move the Rares trade to them.

Edit: I should have added, more fun for beginners than honk, scoop and scan; and something that players further into the game would be happy to revisit.

Rare trades between tiny outposts with only small pads is a stroke of genius.

 

[Ouberos]

There is much which could be done to Rare goods to make them worth more in game.

Personally I think their worth shouldn't just be tied to their value.

Each Rare has a little bit of Lore attached to it and it would be great if that meant it had some use in game or at least some use in the BGS game. Perhaps if trading them counted more than regular goods.

Some of the Rare goods would make great Frontier Store items too. Biomorphic Pets for instance.

Rare goods missions would also be a great way to increase their functionality and use in the BGS.

Currently they are really just a curiosity and placeholder.

 

[Burke]

I dont mean to wonder too far OT but there was a quote from the holdstock book about bladderash that might become worthless after you jumped. Because we are simiulating time dialation when moving about in this game there is alot of scope for price fluctuations.