Proposal Discussion Scaling sales and purchases

laz001

L
From reading the forums - it seems that some people are able to earn vast amounts of money very quickly with the bigger ships (beta is out for just a few days, and there are people with tricked out Anacondas already.

When watching he videos, it's seems fairly easy to buy on bulk, sell on bulk, and make exponential amounts of money as your ships gets bigger - it's all too easy?

However - maybe there should be a sliding scale of profit when you buy/sell materials? The more you sell, the better stocked the station becomes, the less they offer you per unit?

E.g.

I go to a station that buys platinum. Currently, the station has 0 units - but has a customer demand of 30 units per day.

If I sell 10 units of platimum - they are desperate to buy, then they would offer me 100 credits per unit.

So when I sell my next 10 units, of Pt, they are a bit less desperate, and will only offer me 60 credits per unit.

The final 10 units is only offered at 30c per unit, as they are now well stocked. And when the station has all 30 units of platinum - there is no demand to buy any more, so they would offer you 10 credits per unit.

And this would happen on bulk sales or one unit at a time - the station would offer you a sliding scale, the more you sell, the less demand a station has, the less you get for huge transactions.

The opposite happens when you purchase - as you purchase material, it gets more expensive, because you are de-stocking the station.

Obviously, some materials (hydrogen) have such huge stocks, the price hardly moves when you purchase - but then the profit margins are tiny.

So, maybe this will help prevent players getting exponentially richer as they get bigger ships.
 

hypergreatthing

H
laz001 said:
From reading the forums - it seems that some people are able to earn vast amounts of money very quickly with the bigger ships (beta is out for just a few days, and there are people with tricked out Anacondas already.

When watching he videos, it's seems fairly easy to buy on bulk, sell on bulk, and make exponential amounts of money as your ships gets bigger - it's all too easy?

However - maybe there should be a sliding scale of profit when you buy/sell materials? The more you sell, the better stocked the station becomes, the less they offer you per unit?

E.g.

I go to a station that buys platinum. Currently, the station has 0 units - but has a customer demand of 30 units per day.

If I sell 10 units of platimum - they are desperate to buy, then they would offer me 100 credits per unit.

So when I sell my next 10 units, of Pt, they are a bit less desperate, and will only offer me 60 credits per unit.

The final 10 units is only offered at 30c per unit, as they are now well stocked. And when the station has all 30 units of platinum - there is no demand to buy any more, so they would offer you 10 credits per unit.

And this would happen on bulk sales or one unit at a time - the station would offer you a sliding scale, the more you sell, the less demand a station has, the less you get for huge transactions.

The opposite happens when you purchase - as you purchase material, it gets more expensive, because you are de-stocking the station.

Obviously, some materials (hydrogen) have such huge stocks, the price hardly moves when you purchase - but then the profit margins are tiny.

So, maybe this will help prevent players getting exponentially richer as they get bigger ships.
Click to expand...
Personally i think it's a bad idea.
Unless your goal in this game is to just rake in millions in virtual currency, trading to make money is a side job to get better ships,weapons,bases,etc and actually have fun in the game.
Trading as a lot of risk (hopefully) when this game is released. A big bloated cargo hauler is a prime target for pirates, whether player or npc.
Once players can set up their own interdiction zones and disable hyperdrives, it will become a lot more interesting.
Right now if players can make billions, who cares. It's beta, it's going to be wiped.
 

Special_Circumstances

Special_Circumstances
Maybe that's what Frontier are telling us. It isn't about the ship, they've made it easy to get whatever you want.

It's about going out into space and exploring. Obviously we are in a penned in 50 stars right now, but soon we'll have a great many more to explore and plunder.
 

zynaps

Z
The old games weren't any different and some players are just better than others in the art of making money. You can't get away from it unless you add a character progression system that limits which ships you can own based on time progressed...
 

KING5TON

KING5TON
IMO increased money sinks on the large ships may help.
E.g. if they use fuel faster due to larger engines and the affect of lugging cargo reduces fuel faster still and that you need space diesel rather than unleaded like the smaller ships use and space diesel is 10 times more expensive than unleaded then it could reduce the astronomical returns you get once you get a lakon 6 and above.

Making pirate/indictions harder so that you need to pay an escort would also work.

Boosting credit returns on combat related activities may also help.

DB did say that he wanted no one profession to be the one that everyone does as it's the most profitable one. In the SB at the minute trading is by far the best way to make money, it is beta though so maybe they are testing it and will see how it's working and balance things out.
 

Toramo

T
Well, I agree but...

The biggest problem in my opinion is the balance between Fight And/or trade.
I think you cannot solve the trade problem without thinking to the fight side.



Actually :

Trade : Easy, Safe, Quick. For example, you can make 2.5KCr benefit easily with a sidewinder... And you only need 2 jumps & no refuel. Do it 10 times (approximately 1Hour) and you are done to buy an Hauler & start to gain more $$$ ....


Fight : Well first (note that I didn't explored this way too much), you have two choice .
-Take a mission & go for it. Usually the one where you can earn 6KCr are impossible, "find toto and kill him", I would say ok sure but where is he ?
-Roam all around the system & stop for all unknown signal. Hope to find a wanted dude kill him & grab your 150 to 300Cr.
On each case the time needed is amazing comparing to your gain.
Also you must repair if you've been shot...

So, maybe I'm wrong and i missed something about the fight part, but actually I don't want to fight... I don't earn enough money and prime from mission are incredibly small...


In my opinion, Trading is working fine but :
- jumps needed to make big profits must be augmented.
- The more you carry big Items (like gold for example), the more you must encounter pirate.

The more benefit you are supposed to earn, the more dangerous the road you take must be. This can improve multiplayer or coop plays, or even solo.
You must need to recruit an escort etc...

Actually trading is completely safe so ... Like in star wars it is the obscur side of the force, more easy, more faster.

Otherwise I agree with the scaling on item price. By this way trader must modify their trade route and stop spamming the same one H24 ...

Fly dangerous. ++
 
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Toscaner

T
Toramo said:
Well, I agree but...

In my opinion, Trading is working fine but :
- jumps needed to make big profits must be augmented.
- The more you carry big Items (like gold for example), the more you must encounter pirate.

The more benefit you are supposed to earn, the more dangerous the road you take must be. This can improve multiplayer or coop plays, or even solo.
You must need to recruit an escort etc...

Actually trading is completely safe so ... Like in star wars it is the obscur side of the force, more easy, more faster.

Otherwise I agree with the scaling on item price. By this way trader must modify their trade route and stop spamming the same one H24 ...

Fly dangerous. ++
Click to expand...

i think most of that is already in game, and just tones down for testing other mechanics

- number of jumps should correlate to profit, yes - it isn't like that atm, but i can't imagine they just overlooked this
- more expensive cargo > more better pirates - i've encountered several NPC (no police) which interdict me and scan me and then fly away because i have no cargo, i guess if i had exepensive cargo they would act different (in the release version at least)
- scaling sales/purchases: the stations already have demand/supply mechanics, it's just in such high orders it nearly never changes - change a few numbers and i think it will work to counter oversaturating trade routes
 
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