Sorry to rant (it's a constructive rant - honestly), but the 1000% upper limit on Fleet Carrier commodity pricing is now becoming very frustrating indeed.
<Rant>
I've just spent ages laying the ground work a liquor run to Rackham's Peak, which would have given lots of Cmdrs, including myself, an opportunity to undertake a genuinely interesting journey as part of a profitable trade loop with reasonable returns for all at every stage.
Unfortunately, owing to the 1000% limit on commodity pricing, it's only possible to buy or sell liquor for up to 7,940 Cr, which makes the whole proposition unviable as an open, collaborative venture.
As a 'buy' price alone, 8,000 Cr is already a little too low to coax people into doing the loading (as 10,000 Cr/ton profit is customarily the minimum that's offered). But the real kicker is the fact that the FC owner can't then add any markup on the sale price to make money at the destination (which is buying at 51,375 Cr), so it just doesn't work as a Cmdr-assisted trade loop at all. Even if the FC owner manages to get the stuff loaded, the only way they can make money at Rackham's Peak is by locking all the passengers out of the carrier while they unload at least some of it themselves! (I hasten to add that I wouldn't do that!). Plus, as a FC owner, why would I even want to unload 15,000t of cargo in a medium ship myself? It completely defeats the object of the exercise!
The same issue applies to Bauxite, which I discovered last night, before I ended up just giving away about 10,000t of it at around 35,000 Cr/ton profit! It was a fun learning experience, and I did manage to make a few MCr out of it with my twin T9s, but that's not the point, and I also won't be bothering to do it again.
Surely this is not how FC trade is intended to work? The Rackham's Peak booze trading 'easter egg' is a particularly good example, because it's pretty obvious that its whole purpose was to encourage exactly the sort of Fleet Carrier-based, player-led collaboration that people like me have been trying to facilitate (after all, you can't even get there without a FC!). Yet the mechanics of it don't work, because the game doesn't allow us to offer sensible, balanced incentives to encourage the player co-operation that's needed to make it work.
I get that you it's probably not wise to just let people charge whatever they want for commodities, for a number of reasons. I'm just saying the current system is genuinely broken, and I propose a number of possible simple fixes / alternatives:
If it does get fixed fairly soon, then maybe the Rackham's Peak trade loop will actually achieve what the devs obviously intended it to in the first place!
MAKE THE BOOZE CRUISE VIABLE!
</Rant>
Fly safe! o7
Cmdr Pielander
Owner - Fleet Carrier FREE HUGS
<Rant>
I've just spent ages laying the ground work a liquor run to Rackham's Peak, which would have given lots of Cmdrs, including myself, an opportunity to undertake a genuinely interesting journey as part of a profitable trade loop with reasonable returns for all at every stage.
Unfortunately, owing to the 1000% limit on commodity pricing, it's only possible to buy or sell liquor for up to 7,940 Cr, which makes the whole proposition unviable as an open, collaborative venture.
As a 'buy' price alone, 8,000 Cr is already a little too low to coax people into doing the loading (as 10,000 Cr/ton profit is customarily the minimum that's offered). But the real kicker is the fact that the FC owner can't then add any markup on the sale price to make money at the destination (which is buying at 51,375 Cr), so it just doesn't work as a Cmdr-assisted trade loop at all. Even if the FC owner manages to get the stuff loaded, the only way they can make money at Rackham's Peak is by locking all the passengers out of the carrier while they unload at least some of it themselves! (I hasten to add that I wouldn't do that!). Plus, as a FC owner, why would I even want to unload 15,000t of cargo in a medium ship myself? It completely defeats the object of the exercise!
The same issue applies to Bauxite, which I discovered last night, before I ended up just giving away about 10,000t of it at around 35,000 Cr/ton profit! It was a fun learning experience, and I did manage to make a few MCr out of it with my twin T9s, but that's not the point, and I also won't be bothering to do it again.
Surely this is not how FC trade is intended to work? The Rackham's Peak booze trading 'easter egg' is a particularly good example, because it's pretty obvious that its whole purpose was to encourage exactly the sort of Fleet Carrier-based, player-led collaboration that people like me have been trying to facilitate (after all, you can't even get there without a FC!). Yet the mechanics of it don't work, because the game doesn't allow us to offer sensible, balanced incentives to encourage the player co-operation that's needed to make it work.
I get that you it's probably not wise to just let people charge whatever they want for commodities, for a number of reasons. I'm just saying the current system is genuinely broken, and I propose a number of possible simple fixes / alternatives:
- Instead of limiting Fleet Carriers' trading prices to a multiple of the galactic average, make the upper price limit a percentage above the galactic maximum (e.g. 100%) and the minimum price a percentage below the galactic minimum.
- Limit the span of upper to lower prices in the rest of the game, so that the max buy price doesn't exceed 1000% of the galactic average
- Change the limit to say 5000%
If it does get fixed fairly soon, then maybe the Rackham's Peak trade loop will actually achieve what the devs obviously intended it to in the first place!
MAKE THE BOOZE CRUISE VIABLE!
</Rant>
Fly safe! o7
Cmdr Pielander
Owner - Fleet Carrier FREE HUGS
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