Is the economy only ever going to be Buy low and sell high?

[RAPUNZEL]

I played Jumpgate off and on for many years, and the only reason i found Jumpgate was by searching for Elite and hoping for a remake. I fully expect to be playing Elite for just as long, but although this game is far superior in many ways to Jumpgate the economy to me seems so far behind a game that came out around 15 years ago. In Jumpgate you didn't just buy low and sell high, you took certain comods to certain stations and then they produced either other comods or weapons and ship upgrades.The players really had control over what was made and how much, not just how the price of something will change over supply and demand. Are there plans for this or is it already happening and I'm just not seeing it. If it is feel free to flame me but if it isn't I feel trading will just become (and is already for me) incredibly boring.

 

[shrinkshooter]

If it is feel free to flame me

Well, okay...

In any case, yes, you're right, it's only buy low sell high, and I haven't heard of any changes to trading in the works. Yes, it is pretty boring, too, but it's a relatively necessary evil if you want any ship more expensive than the Asp.

 

[ollobrains]

Run missions, trade affects politics at least according to devs.

 

[RegisterMe]

I don't think there is an economy to speak of. There's a facsimile of one, but that's it.

 

[Lugard]

I don't entirely agree with it just being buy low and sell high,

There seem to be a lot of underlying factors that can effect a system, most of them become visible while you do trading missions, or rather when you review the rewards for them afterwards.
For example a system has multiple sub factions that not only effect the main faction they associate with but also what resources are prohibited in the system, one sub faction might approve of slavery while another is strictly against it. So trade enough with a specific faction and eventually they might become the owners of the system.

Additionally the game tracks values like 'Famine / Hunger', 'Economic Boom or bust' which effect supply and demand and the types of missions that you can receive. For example if the famine value grows too large then they might offer missions such as please bring us X Animal Meat, normally a pretty poor resource to trade but the missions give a decent payout for a low risk freight. I really like that because it gives you a reason to search and trade for resources that you would normally avoid.

So yeah, I think that your action or inaction does effect the economy.

 

[RAPUNZEL]

I guess I meant more on the lines of the market and outfitting, for instance, if I take gold to a station that has a demand for it will it then turn it into Superconductors or Computer Components or if I remove a certain comod will the station then have a shortage of something else due to the removed comod not being available? Could we stop the production of ship upgrades due to comods not being available? Or are we just spoon fed everything without having to think about it, just turn up at the station and hey presto an unlimited supply of ship upgrades.

 

[Buji]

I can attest to finding a pair of systems which had mutually beneficial exporting / importing commodities (Coffee / Land Processors or something) and after making about 70k in quick runs back and forth, the demand dried up on both sides. Funny thing was, it was all of a sudden, and not very gradual. This was near the Cosi system, but I can't remember exactly where. I should add in here that I stripped my sidey down to a flying shipping container and made about 8 runs before I was able to buy an adder, and then shortly after that it didn't take long to saturate the market 16 tons (tonnes?) at a time.

 

[Lugard]

I see you point when it comes to outfitting and the shipyard, It would be nice if you could buy these things in the regular market, but it would also require us to get an inventory / storage at stations (which I would like to see)

But generally on the market, there might already be an underlying system to effect the export products of a station (just guessing though), an agriculture economy won't suddenly produce semi conductors, but they do require things like bio waste (poop / fertilizer) to produce vegetables. Having a high demand of bio waste might reduce the supply of vegetables. I think I'd like to experiment a bit with that.

 

[Lobstris]

They seem to have really nerfed the AI trading hard. Prices seem very static now, out in the backwaters of the Empire. Profit margins on runs seem to average at least double what they were before the tweak 23rd. For example, pretty much every refinery churns out loads of gold at 9260cr, while every industrial system seems to buy at 10,200cr, irrespective of population size or demand? :/