COMPLETED CG Colonia Bridge Project Phase Four - Alcor (Trade)

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I have just realised I have signed up for the CG, but haven't done anything, yet.

I'm debating whether I should get three Cutters worth of coffee, in the hope of getting those sweet 800,000Cr. :unsure:
 
am people carrier atm,

but there just no point to a cg if they don't have the stuff around. And your suggesting i grind in a space station for commodity's, hours on end? isn't there enough grind for this game (nearest i seen is 22,000lys away which is just stupidity)
Unless you brought a carrier full of commodities from the Bubble there isn't any other option at Colonia.
It's tough enough getting repair commodities to the Witch Head.
 
Mostly because it's Colonia.
The place has low population which translates to low production.
If you go onto the Colonia threads they'll tell you how to do the commodity collection, but be prepared to spend long periods sat on a pad waiting for restock.
Collecting restock is almost certainly not the most efficient approach this time round - after the last three, they've gone for some commodities where production is a bit faster this time.

but there just no point to a cg if they don't have the stuff around.
If you want a CG which is solely about unthinking A-B hauling the Alcor one is perfectly fine for that. Colonia trade CGs require a bit more thought but it's possible to get the cargo somehow.

For example:
  • There's still tens of thousands of tonnes of CG cargo at some of the outposts. Exodus Reach, at least, regenerates supply fast enough that it should always have a full load of Geological Equipment available each trip, no matter how many people are using it. (and is right next to Colonia too)
  • There's still thousands of tonnes of Coffee at surface Odyssey agriculturals without large pads
  • Quite a lot of the EDDB stock data is hours or even days old, so those might have regenerated
  • We haven't bothered this time (not needed to get Tier 2, after all), but for Phase 3 some people did preparatory work to optimise BGS states for maximum production
  • The various Colonia Bridge megaships sell Liquid Oxygen so try some of the nearer ones

Compared with Phase 3 - which was very much about optimising BGS states to ensure we always had one or two high-production stations - this one is pretty straightforward to just mostly haul through, if you pick the right stations.
 
Collecting restock is almost certainly not the most efficient approach this time round - after the last three, they've gone for some commodities where production is a bit faster this time.

On this note, I have not found any material that explains how stocks renew/regenerate/refresh at stations and outposts and stuff. When I was hauling TCUs in the most recent CG (Phase 3 Colonia), I would return to my source and see 118, then next time it was 213, then it was 87, then 150. Sometimes I would pull them all, sometimes I wouldn't. The restock levels didn't seem to make sense.

I assume there's some kind of calculation or timer, but other than that... 🤷‍♂️

Request if you can point me in the direction of anything useful and explanatory?
 
Request if you can point me in the direction of anything useful and explanatory?
Basically:
- markets have an equilibrium level for each commodity determined by the economy, the BGS states, the commodity, the station's economic power (usually but not always related to its population) and a station-specific factor to stop everywhere with the same economy being exact clones
- markets refresh every ten minutes
- if a market is below its equilibrium supply/demand it moves back towards the equilibrium level at a rate dependent on the commodity, the local equilibrium level and again another station-specific factor
This thread - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...ly-demand-and-relationship-to-the-bgs.441646/ - is old but covers that basic mechanism for cases where the number of people trading simultaneously is relatively low.


When the number of people trading gets higher, then it gets more complex - there are multiple market servers, you can be offered the market by any of them, make your trade on it, and then they all sync up over time to account for everyone's trades. Mostly that's not noticeable, but it causes odd effects when buying cargo if the supply hits zero, because it can't go negative even as a result of the sync.
This post - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...hase-colonia-trade.597034/page-2#post-9689108 - goes into a bit more detail of the consequences of that, but it may in part be causing the variation you saw.


If you let me know which station you were using and how often you were visiting it, I can possibly do more specific calculations on that.
 

Deleted member 182079

D
So... has Frontier ever responded to whether this was a troll CG or not?

I'm still looking at those "generous credit rewards" and can't wrap my head around them. It was obviously not a mistake because they've had plenty of time to fix it. And around 5% of the target achieved, with a surprisingly high number of CMDRs (~5.8k) participating.
 
well, I delivered some 11k Coffee, but mostly for the "lulz" and to support those poor office clerks who are going to get dumped on some random station thousands of lightyears away from the next coffee supply.

The "generous" Credit reward was a bit "funny". Granted, it paid "well" when considering the commidities alone, but the Tier 1 and 2 rewards were a bit...lacking. I think the real reward here was for the Top10 CMDRs who get their names "immortalized". That being said, I got a Stellar Screenshots Paintjob out of this CG, so I won't complain too loudly about this CG :LOL:
 
Yes and no.

Regardless though, I'm sure Frontier will have taken notes... Seems almost 6k players didn't mind the low rewards.
exactly, its a job well done as far as they are concerned
i waited until t1 was hit, chuckled and spent my time i would have used in the cg doing robigo runs, 500m+ for what amounted to less than 5 hours
will be interesting to see what phase 4 part 2 gives
 
So... has Frontier ever responded to whether this was a troll CG or not?

I'm still looking at those "generous credit rewards" and can't wrap my head around them. It was obviously not a mistake because they've had plenty of time to fix it. And around 5% of the target achieved, with a surprisingly high number of CMDRs (~5.8k) participating.
I assumed the "generous credit rewards" part was that selling paid off well, like, I was buying Liquid Oxygen at 1100 cr and sold it for more than 10 times more, easy 7.6 M cr each run with a Type-9 (less than 10 minutes).
 
I really liked the indifference to the CG. Was picking up 11 to 14 million credits on a return 5 ly run from Alcor. top 25% with 12000 tonnes. regained about 200 million credits.

Wondering if part 2 will only be open to those who did part 1... ;)o_O

type 9, 712 cargo
 
I really liked the indifference to the CG. Was picking up 11 to 14 million credits on a return 5 ly run from Alcor. top 25% with 12000 tonnes. regained about 200 million credits.

Wondering if part 2 will only be open to those who did part 1... ;)o_O

type 9, 712 cargo
We will see in about 2.5 hours.
T9 752T + FC at the ready - totally unnecessary in part 1 as loads of coffee within 1 jump
 
I really liked the indifference to the CG. Was picking up 11 to 14 million credits on a return 5 ly run from Alcor. top 25% with 12000 tonnes. regained about 200 million credits.

Wondering if part 2 will only be open to those who did part 1... ;)o_O

type 9, 712 cargo
Oh the wailing and winging (mine included!) will be spectacular if that's the case and there's some goodies involved.

Like ... oh..i dunno... say a class 2 double engineered FSD?
 

Deleted member 182079

D
I assumed the "generous credit rewards" part was that selling paid off well, like, I was buying Liquid Oxygen at 1100 cr and sold it for more than 10 times more, easy 7.6 M cr each run with a Type-9 (less than 10 minutes).
I've been able to make up to 30m+ per run A>B>A bulk hauling, so even the commodity profit figures weren't all that appealing to me.
 
Basically:
- markets have an equilibrium level for each commodity determined by the economy, the BGS states, the commodity, the station's economic power (usually but not always related to its population) and a station-specific factor to stop everywhere with the same economy being exact clones
- markets refresh every ten minutes
- if a market is below its equilibrium supply/demand it moves back towards the equilibrium level at a rate dependent on the commodity, the local equilibrium level and again another station-specific factor
This thread - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...ly-demand-and-relationship-to-the-bgs.441646/ - is old but covers that basic mechanism for cases where the number of people trading simultaneously is relatively low.


When the number of people trading gets higher, then it gets more complex - there are multiple market servers, you can be offered the market by any of them, make your trade on it, and then they all sync up over time to account for everyone's trades. Mostly that's not noticeable, but it causes odd effects when buying cargo if the supply hits zero, because it can't go negative even as a result of the sync.
This post - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...hase-colonia-trade.597034/page-2#post-9689108 - goes into a bit more detail of the consequences of that, but it may in part be causing the variation you saw.


If you let me know which station you were using and how often you were visiting it, I can possibly do more specific calculations on that.
CMDR Doncaster, this is great! I didn't expect this kind of detail and I thank you for taking the time to lay this out to me! The algorithm running in the background must be relatively complex, indeed. The whole station-specific factor to stop everywhere across the same kind of economy is really interesting. So, say, all high-tech stations will have commodity X stop at quantity Y? Good info to know so I don't go chasing larger values at another similar station in the future.

Your second portion does make sense WRT the rapidly fluctuating values I saw, especially since I was usually draining the station of its (I think) limited TCUs each time.

To address your final point, I believe it was Haignere Station in 78 Ursae Majoris and I believe it was TCUs. I don't remember what the other commodities were, so I may have grabbed them as well from Haignere.
 
So... has Frontier ever responded to whether this was a troll CG or not?

I'm still looking at those "generous credit rewards" and can't wrap my head around them. It was obviously not a mistake because they've had plenty of time to fix it. And around 5% of the target achieved, with a surprisingly high number of CMDRs (~5.8k) participating.
During this CG I was thinking the same things that you are.

Then I had a bit of a tinfoil hat moment. Here's my goofy train of thought that I actually had:
-This was the first week of a four week CG
-Rewards are clearly subpar
-Why?
-Is it more altruistic in nature? Like "Hey CMDRs, if you want nice starports on the way to Colonia, you'll do this." Maybe?
-Wait a minute, what if CMDR participation in the first week alters or affects your rewards or ability to execute in the later weeks?
-That would be devilishly interesting, like "Hey CMDRs, the first week was a test. Some of you failed and you shall be hamstrung for later weeks."
-Kind of like Jesus telling folks "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink,.....Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." Basically meaning that there were CMDRs who didn't do this CG explicitly because the rewards were subpar and I wonder if it will matter moving forward.
-Wait a minute, if that's the case and I only did top 75%, am I in trouble?
- :LOL:
-I should really get to bed.


Like I said, tinfoil-hatty, but it gave me a smirk.
 
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