Proposal Discussion Economics

[Alacrity]

Hi,

1st Post - Great to be here!

There was a thread made earlier on this week about the value of goods/commodities - and now I cannot find it!

What has been agreed upon for the cost of goods that will be traded? Will there be a system of what infulences there are on commodities due to political and economic changes. It is too simple to follow the basic rules of economics with too much Supply causing the price to drop v's too much Demand causing the price increase.

For those commodities that are 'undesirable', have tariffs and duties ever been considered?

Is there a system for the market to fluctuate. I had Elite on the Apple //e when it was released. Although it was fantastic, it would be great to know the details (if there are any) of what would cause prices to change. Would it be tied to a Political system, (like it was in the older versions). I assume that it would be. I am just interested to know how 'deep' it is and what mechanisms are being considered to address the above.

Alacrity

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Frontier haven't said a lot about the trading model yet. What they have said is that:
- it will be more detailed than the previous games
- demand/supply/prices will be able to vary in response to events (e.g. famine, blockades, war, new station construction) and perhaps some player actions (it might likely be more player actions in aggregate rather than anything an individual or small group of players does, though)
- there will be sub-categorising of goods (e.g. Liquor/Wines -> Brandy -> Lavian Brandy) with some much longer viable trade routes than there were in the earlier games: there's a reason to transport goods 100LY rather than 10LY.
- some of the stuff coming out of the DDF mentions "stolen goods", so some system of ownership, fences, and other dodgy deals that weren't part of the earlier games seems likely

Pretty much everything else is just speculation at this stage, but there's a lot of scope for speculation based on what they've said so far

 

[Out2lunch]

Yes they have in one of the design videos. You will be able to corner threw market, flood it, exploit it etc.

There will be wars happening where food will be scarce, thus an opportunist could make many credits running the blockades etc.

Where space stations are being built they will need all sorts of cargos from metals competes etc. Once built there will be contracts to fly VIPs to the opening of the station etc.

 

[G_nome camp__]

I like the idea of fluid economics. The other Elites where too easy to trade as there was almost zero chance of making a loss unless you guessed or did it deliberately! There where some routes that where a gold-rush (which helped if you didn't want to do trading for long).

With more dynamic economies there would be a risk of having the wrong cargo at the end of the trip, this would add a real sense of trading. Also if you find a profitable trading route you can exploit it until others find it and it dries up or even pirates get wind and start loitering along the route...