Most of the game is pretty well balanced atm as far as income is concerned, but there are a few places still missing out.
1. Piracy
Piracy still has very poor payouts, sadly. For example, a typical Private Courier Service might be carrying 25 tons of rare salvage goods, like AI Relics or Antiquities. These are worth around 150k each, and it takes around 15 minutes to find and pirate one of them. That translates to about 15m/hour; very poor for as challenging of gameplay as Piracy. I would like a roughly 8x increase in this profit, to bring it more in line with other activities.
This will result in Piracy profits of approximately 120m/hour, minus, of course, any bounties or rebuys you get along the way.
2. Rare Goods
The other part that needs tweaking are Rare goods. Unfortunately, while they were once profitable, they are no longer worth trading. Even at Rackham's Peak, where the value of Rare Alcohols is manually set to be much higher than average, they still aren't worth trading instead of Liquor.
Current profit off Rares is 17k/ton, at the maximum distance boost. This requires a sale distance of ~200ly. For comparison, right now you can trade Agronomic Treatment from stations less than 40ly apart, and make 29031Cr/ton. This allows a Cutter to earn about 140m/hour. Rares require long travel distances, small quantities, and pay out more poorly than many other options. On average, a player might sell 40 tons of Rares every 5 minutes, which at 17k/ton, means ~8m/hour. I don't think Rares should outright beat the best random trade rolls, but I do think they should be in the same ballpark.
Increase the purchase price of all Rares by 10x. This will make the most expensive Rare good, Duradrives, worth 250750 each(still quite reasonable, especially given the new Salvage prices). Increase the distance boost to 170,000. Duradrives could be purchased for 250750, and sold for 420,750. This would result in approximate trade profit of 80m/hour. This large base price increase would also help boost Piracy, since many NPCs carry rare goods, as well.
Conclusion
So, boost the prices of rare salvage goods by 8x. Boost the purchase price of Rare Goods by 10x. Boost the trade profit of Rare Goods by 10x.
Hopefully, these changes could be done quickly and easily, and would dramatically improve both Piracy and Rares Trading.
This would be a simple and easy way to make Patch 12 exciting without adding any new content. Just make the old content worth doing again!
1. Piracy
Piracy still has very poor payouts, sadly. For example, a typical Private Courier Service might be carrying 25 tons of rare salvage goods, like AI Relics or Antiquities. These are worth around 150k each, and it takes around 15 minutes to find and pirate one of them. That translates to about 15m/hour; very poor for as challenging of gameplay as Piracy. I would like a roughly 8x increase in this profit, to bring it more in line with other activities.
| High Value Salvage Tweaks | Current Price | Projected Price |
| AI Relics | 184,334 Cr | 1,474,672 Cr |
| Antique Jewelry | 143,778 Cr | 1,150,224 Cr |
| Antiquities | 132,338 Cr | 1,058,704 Cr |
| Prohibited Research Materials | 131,452 Cr | 1,051,616 Cr |
| Precious Gems | 123,656 Cr | 989,248 Cr |
| Antimatter Containment Unit | 72,694 Cr | 581,552 Cr |
| Military Intelligence | 64,318 Cr | 514,544 Cr |
| SAP 8 Core Container | 49,911 Cr | 399,288 Cr |
This will result in Piracy profits of approximately 120m/hour, minus, of course, any bounties or rebuys you get along the way.
2. Rare Goods
The other part that needs tweaking are Rare goods. Unfortunately, while they were once profitable, they are no longer worth trading. Even at Rackham's Peak, where the value of Rare Alcohols is manually set to be much higher than average, they still aren't worth trading instead of Liquor.
Current profit off Rares is 17k/ton, at the maximum distance boost. This requires a sale distance of ~200ly. For comparison, right now you can trade Agronomic Treatment from stations less than 40ly apart, and make 29031Cr/ton. This allows a Cutter to earn about 140m/hour. Rares require long travel distances, small quantities, and pay out more poorly than many other options. On average, a player might sell 40 tons of Rares every 5 minutes, which at 17k/ton, means ~8m/hour. I don't think Rares should outright beat the best random trade rolls, but I do think they should be in the same ballpark.
Increase the purchase price of all Rares by 10x. This will make the most expensive Rare good, Duradrives, worth 250750 each(still quite reasonable, especially given the new Salvage prices). Increase the distance boost to 170,000. Duradrives could be purchased for 250750, and sold for 420,750. This would result in approximate trade profit of 80m/hour. This large base price increase would also help boost Piracy, since many NPCs carry rare goods, as well.
Conclusion
So, boost the prices of rare salvage goods by 8x. Boost the purchase price of Rare Goods by 10x. Boost the trade profit of Rare Goods by 10x.
Hopefully, these changes could be done quickly and easily, and would dramatically improve both Piracy and Rares Trading.
This would be a simple and easy way to make Patch 12 exciting without adding any new content. Just make the old content worth doing again!
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