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Post by Officer Genious on Jan 25, 2016 13:27:32 GMT -5
So there's a boatload of information out there about all kinds of stuff, but relatively little for traders. I aim to fix that, with a bit of help from everybody. Being something of a smuggling chief, I've been trading in ST Elite far more than fighting, and I have a few ideas about how the economy works, but little actual facts. So I started to take notes from as many of my smugglers as possible-- and the occasional MO to simply give me a baseline to work from. I have plenty of notes, but right now I just have lists and lists full of prices, and with the rather limited lifespan each captain has I'm simply rerolling and SLOWLY getting some theories together. What I'd like for any readers out there to do is come on in and discuss some things they may have noticed-- what exactly does each trade economy type MEAN in terms of prices? Is there a fundamental difference in how a Syndicate-focused smuggler trades in Water Fuel compared to a Clan-focused one? How do rumors seem to affect a system's economy (in terms of buy/sell prices)? Any trends? Would anyone be interested in discussing ST trade on its nerdiest levels with me?  |
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Post by resistor on Jan 25, 2016 13:46:41 GMT -5
I play a merchant often, but I can't think of any uncommonly known economy details at the moment.
Well I think one time when I had twenty-something negotiation and there was a surplus of artifacts on this one world, they could be bought for 14$ and sold for 17$. There were only like 3 or 4 artifacts though...
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Post by Cory Trese on Jan 25, 2016 14:07:03 GMT -5
I play a merchant often, but I can't think of any uncommonly known economy details at the moment. Well I think one time when I had twenty-something negotiation and there was a surplus of artifacts on this one world, they could be bought for 14$ and sold for 17$. There were only like 3 or 4 artifacts though... Yeah, that is an unfortunate bug. It's actually an issue in the core math library that's package with Android -- I'm just happy I am not responsible for any scientific or banking applications that run on Android -- that OS is barely capable of providing the features needed for a trading game much less math where the results are life or death! |
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Post by Officer Genious on Jan 25, 2016 15:09:26 GMT -5
Hey Cory Trese, I have a theory I'd like to run past you-- in that one update where the stars and ratings were added and explained as "types" (as in "Mining" or "Trading" economy), did the trade system become something similiar to Age of Pirates? I want to know if the goods I should be selling/buying ought to be based on the economy type or the economy rating (suspect its the type that determines what goods will sell better with the economy rating exaggerating the differences). Lemme know if I didn't make sense there, I'm half-blind from rereading all my index cards of system notes.  |
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Post by johndramey on Jan 25, 2016 23:32:57 GMT -5
I was playing around with a merchant a while back, and easily got it to a point where I could make decent triangle runs routinely. I'll see if I can't dig up some of my numbers, as they were working out quite well for me.
I was making a whole big long chart of what was good to buy where, sort of like what I did with AoP, but I decided against it because ST2 is (hopefully) coming out soon. When ST2 hits, I plan on dedicating my life to building the best damned trading database in the quadrant.
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Post by Cory Trese on Jan 25, 2016 23:47:19 GMT -5
Hey Cory Trese, I have a theory I'd like to run past you-- in that one update where the stars and ratings were added and explained as "types" (as in "Mining" or "Trading" economy), did the trade system become something similiar to Age of Pirates? I want to know if the goods I should be selling/buying ought to be based on the economy type or the economy rating (suspect its the type that determines what goods will sell better with the economy rating exaggerating the differences). Lemme know if I didn't make sense there, I'm half-blind from rereading all my index cards of system notes. In that update all we did was expand the DISPLAY. No new rules have been added to the economic system since I designed it in 2010. Age of Pirates uses a SIMPLIFIED version of the Star Traders economic system. The type that determines what goods will sell better with the economy rating exaggerating the differences. Again, that update that added some stars as graphics did absolutely nothing to the rules whatsoever. Purely cosmetic at the request of players via e-mail. |
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Post by Officer Genious on Jan 26, 2016 0:50:58 GMT -5
Hey Cory Trese, I have a theory I'd like to run past you-- in that one update where the stars and ratings were added and explained as "types" (as in "Mining" or "Trading" economy), did the trade system become something similiar to Age of Pirates? I want to know if the goods I should be selling/buying ought to be based on the economy type or the economy rating (suspect its the type that determines what goods will sell better with the economy rating exaggerating the differences). Lemme know if I didn't make sense there, I'm half-blind from rereading all my index cards of system notes. In that update all we did was expand the DISPLAY. No new rules have been added to the economic system since I designed it in 2010. Age of Pirates uses a SIMPLIFIED version of the Star Traders economic system. The type that determines what goods will sell better with the economy rating exaggerating the differences. Again, that update that added some stars as graphics did absolutely nothing to the rules whatsoever. Purely cosmetic at the request of players via e-mail. Huzzah! Theory confirmed!! Now I know what to focus on while making my trade guide. Thanks for the help Cory!! |
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Post by Cory Trese on Jan 26, 2016 1:26:37 GMT -5
It isn't as simplistic as Age of Pirates, however -- there are a lot more factors at play in Star Traders RPG.
We tried to make something simpler and more visually appealing and you can see where that got us with sales!
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Post by Officer Genious on Jan 26, 2016 9:43:31 GMT -5
It isn't as simplistic as Age of Pirates, however -- there are a lot more factors at play in Star Traders RPG. We tried to make something simpler and more visually appealing and you can see where that got us with sales! You mean with the inclusion of ranks? I believe that also affects prices, correct? I've been studying independent systems to get around that. |
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Post by Cory Trese on Jan 28, 2016 18:03:37 GMT -5
How's the research going? Any more questions?
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Post by Officer Genious on Jan 28, 2016 22:07:00 GMT -5
How's the research going? Any more questions? still working on it. I'm trying to look at Independent planets so it won't skew my numbers too much, but I think I'm on to something! |
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Post by johndramey on Jan 28, 2016 23:06:47 GMT -5
I got a quick question.
In the help file, you say that having more negotiation than the prince leads to a faster exchange rate. How do we know the negotiation of the prince?
Also, the Economy rating of a planet reflects its ability to produce trade goods and materials, so would that necessarily mean better prices?
I know that ST trade is way more complex than AoP trade, and that's one of the reasons its always been hard for me to get a read on it.
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Post by Officer Genious on Jan 29, 2016 0:11:12 GMT -5
I got a quick question. In the help file, you say that having more negotiation than the prince leads to a faster exchange rate. How do we know the negotiation of the prince? Also, the Economy rating of a planet reflects its ability to produce trade goods and materials, so would that necessarily mean better prices? I know that ST trade is way more complex than AoP trade, and that's one of the reasons its always been hard for me to get a read on it. I dunno the first, but for the second I suspect it does. Military economies, for example, don't buy many weapons or sell them the cheapest (farmers do, I think). Militaries will buy electronics at a dear price though! |
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Post by Cory Trese on Jan 31, 2016 12:56:59 GMT -5
I got a quick question. In the help file, you say that having more negotiation than the prince leads to a faster exchange rate. How do we know the negotiation of the prince? Also, the Economy rating of a planet reflects its ability to produce trade goods and materials, so would that necessarily mean better prices? I know that ST trade is way more complex than AoP trade, and that's one of the reasons its always been hard for me to get a read on it. Negotiation of the Price is determined by the Palace Rating. High rating Palaces have stricter controls, more employees and extra paperwork. It slowly scales up with Game Difficulty as well, because as time passes new rules and regulations are passed making trade harder and harder. The Economy rating of a planet will drive larger quantities of available trade goods and prices that are more divergent from the Quadrant average (base price.) Goods sold will generally be cheaper, and goods purchased generally for a higher price. |
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Post by johndramey on Feb 1, 2016 3:38:07 GMT -5
Awesome, boss, thanks for enlightening me!
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