Notice Notice regarding supply and demand of high-end minerals

Stephen Benedetti

Community Manager
Greeting Commanders,


Since the launch of the January Update, we've received a lot of feedback about the changes made to the supply and demand volumes of specific high-end minerals. Today, we wanted to give you an update on some of the feedback you've been sharing with us.

Summary of the change:
In the January Update, we have rebalanced the mining of certain high-end commodities. to better represent a realistic supply and demand process based on the system's economy. This means that a station's purchasing price for minerals will reduce as the demand is met. With this change, we've also adjusted the supply and demand levels of different economies. For example, there will be a lower demand in Colony economies for high-end minerals, as those economies do not require as much, but in a Refinery economies, they will have a high demand for high-end minerals, as those economies require more. By implementing these changes we wanted to generate "gold-rush" opportunities, that dynamically respond to player interaction, increasing the viability of smaller mining vessels, and rewarding early participants who sell their minerals in high demand locations first.

Thanks to reports from the community, we've identified a number of issues in regards to mining and the supply and demand of minerals. The team are going to be investigating these issues, but please keep those reports coming in through the Issue Tracker.
  • The demand for Low Temperature Diamondshas remained high, , which is not in keepingwith the other high-end minerals.
    • From tomorrow, we will be aiming to correct this. Low Temperature Diamonds will now also be affected by the changes to supply and demand - as originally stated in the Patch Notes.
  • When identifying stations with supply and demand for high-end minerals such as Void Opals, Painite, and Low Temperature Diamonds, commanders need to have the specific mineral in their Cargo Hold in order to search for them on the Galaxy Map.
    • From tomorrow, commanders will be able to toggle these minerals in the Galaxy Map, without needing to have the commodities in their Cargo Hold.
  • When selling minerals at a station, the price that is offered is based on the amount currently in your Cargo Hold..
    • While this has always been the case, we've passed the feedback on to the team for consideration for a future improvement of the feature.
We believe that this change will allow for a much more realistic and dynamic system, where the economy responds to player input and provides a much more meaningful affect on galaxy. As always, we will continue to monitor your feedback and work together to develop our ever expanding galaxy.

UPDATE:
We're rolling out a fix for an issue where the incorrect economy types had a demand for Low Temperature Diamonds. This correction should be live by the end of the day.
As stated in-game, Low Temperature Diamonds are consumed by the following economies: Tourism, High Tech, Industrial and Refinery.

o7
 
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Greeting Commanders,


Since the launch of the January Update, we've received a lot of feedback about the changes made to the supply and demand volumes of specific high-end minerals. Today, we wanted to give you an update on some of the feedback you've been sharing with us.

Summary of the change:
In the January Update, we have rebalanced the mining of certain high-end commodities. to better represent a realistic supply and demand process based on the system's economy. This means that a station's purchasing price for minerals will reduce as the demand is met. With this change, we've also adjusted the supply and demand levels of different economies. For example, there will be a lower demand in Colony economies for high-end minerals, as those economies do not require as much, but in a Refinery economies, they will have a high demand for high-end minerals, as those economies require more. By implementing these changes we wanted to generate "gold-rush" opportunities, that dynamically respond to player interaction, increasing the viability of smaller mining vessels, and rewarding early participants who sell their minerals in high demand locations first.

Thanks to reports from the community, we've identified a number of issues in regards to mining and the supply and demand of minerals. The team are going to be investigating these issues, but please keep those reports coming in through the Issue Tracker.
  • The demand for Low Temperature Diamondshas remained high, , which is not in keepingwith the other high-end minerals.
    • From tomorrow, we will be aiming to correct this. Low Temperature Diamonds will now also be affected by the changes to supply and demand - as originally stated in the Patch Notes.
  • When identifying stations with supply and demand for high-end minerals such as Void Opals, Painite, and Low Temperature Diamonds, commanders need to have the specific mineral in their Cargo Hold in order to search for them on the Galaxy Map.
    • From tomorrow, commanders will be able to toggle these minerals in the Galaxy Map, without needing to have the commodities in their Cargo Hold.
  • When selling minerals at a station, the price that is offered is based on the amount currently in your Cargo Hold..
    • While this has always been the case, we've passed the feedback on to the team for consideration for a future improvement of the feature.
We believe that this change will allow for a much more realistic and dynamic system, where the economy responds to player input and provides a much more meaningful affect on galaxy. As always, we will continue to monitor your feedback and work together to develop our ever expanding galaxy.


o7

Hi Stephen, thanks for the feedback.

Regarding supply and demand volumes - we're there changes made to non-mining commodities? And was this intentional? I and other people have noticed that the selling price for commodities at remote markets (using the in-game trading tools) are incorrect at the selling station, a few minutes later - not just for mining materials but for other commodities such as Battle Weapons.

If this is intentional, can the in-game tools update the selling prices for commodities more often?
 
Prices for any commodity should depend only on supply and demand.

That said, supply and demand themselves should be allowed to fluctuate with system population, station economy and government types, and of course local states, as well as anything else that typically affects the BGS.

The consequence of this change is that player actions have a meaningful impact on prices in small economies, simply by buying and selling meaningful fractions of their supply and demand. On the other hand, markets in large economies will be more stable, making them more reliable for traders. Which makes sense. High population systems should be any trader’s reliable markets, but sharp traders should be able to drive small economies into favorable prices, then cash in quick.
 

Deleted member 38366

D
I'd say it's a good opportunity to get rid of the V1.x era Bulk Trade Tax entirely, since it hasn't fulfilled any purpose since a very long time now anymore.
  • causes irrational price distortions that really hurt profits from high-end Mining in large Ships (= essentially punishes large Mining Vessels)
  • affects even Station Repairs, where already low to very poor profits for select Commodities in huge Demand can even turn negative, which doesn't make any sense
Demand should matter, since it makes sense.
Cargo size though? Shouldn't affect - let alone reduce - price paid at all.
After all, why would a Damaged Station pay even less for a Commodity in huge Demand with 6-digit numbers required actually punish CMDRs delivering 500t, 600t or even 700t batches - which is exactly what the Damaged Station needs the most?
And where is any harm done if a Station has demand for 10.500t of i.e. Low Temperature Diamonds or Painite and a CMDR docks with 450t in the Cargo hold?

Yep, IMHO the bulk trade tax should be removed entirely.
 
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When selling minerals at a station, the price that is offered is based on the amount currently in your Cargo Hold..

This sounds really bad. Even if this was always the case, it's impact is major in conjunction with the rest of the changes.

How about improving the utility of ingame galmap/market tools?
As in multiple filtering options, market data for all systems within a certain radius (having to visit a station to get market data sounds so 16th century, not 34th)
 
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