Post by admiral on Feb 27, 2017 13:17:33 GMT -5
When I saw there was a merchant class for this game, I thought this was interesting considering that most video games have terrible economies that only make sense in the context of a non-trader playstyle (take any game where you can buy and sell things but is not explicitly about commerce, then try and play as a pure merchant; you'll never be able to make it work. More specifically, Sid Meier's Pirates had ports where you could buy or sell goods, but they were really only so you could sell what you've stolen and buy more food. True trade routes were hard to find and weren't very profitable. The game was advertised as you being able to do whatever you want ). Considering that I was drawn into the game with the idea of an economy to interact with (not to mention that game is called Star Traders), I chose it thinking I'd finally be able to play a true merchant lifestyle.
However, I've found the class impossible to play considering that I have a habit of trying to learn games on the hardest difficulty so that if I have to lower it I'm used to an even bigger challenge. Since difficulty has a huge impact on water-fuel consumption, and since water-fuel consumption is probably the biggest expense of merchants beyond buying commodities to sell later, it seems there is a point where the class becomes unworkable, at least from a purist (i.e. no missions, no piracy or exploration, etc.) perspective. Wherever that point is Impossible is certainly beyond it.
Specifically, Profit per trip=sale value of all goods-(buy value of all goods + waterfuel purchases and repairs) and water-fuel consumption gets crazy at higher difficulties. Using the online manual I've found that consumption in a green zone is about 5.97x that on Impossible compared to Easy. This means 5.97x as many water-fuel purchases, and considering it takes around 2-4 thousand to refill the starting ship depending on how much space you reserve for cargo, that translates to 10-20 thousand more money lost to overhead on impossible compared to easy for the time and distance it takes for an easy player has to refill.
In addition, I've had trouble making sense of the Negotiation stat. Apparently it's supposed to lower prices, but I don't know how or by how much. I'll go to the exchange, pour XP into my negotiation, then go back to the exchange and see nothing has changed. Even into the high teens it seems buy prices are generally higher than sell prices, even for non-restricted goods (on the flip side I can accept restricted goods are not profitable, since I believe the manual explains that mechanically speaking they are essentially a way to "buy" reputation by trading unprofitable goods)
Granted, I've found plenty of profit doing missions as well as endless rumor-hunting, but those are things that I do with all classes. I'm looking to be a full-time merchant who can make a profit outside of surplus and shortage situations. Does the high water-fuel consumption (hence higher overhead and less profits) on higher difficulties just make that impossible? If lower difficulties are the way to go, what would the breakpoint be where it becomes profitable?
However, I've found the class impossible to play considering that I have a habit of trying to learn games on the hardest difficulty so that if I have to lower it I'm used to an even bigger challenge. Since difficulty has a huge impact on water-fuel consumption, and since water-fuel consumption is probably the biggest expense of merchants beyond buying commodities to sell later, it seems there is a point where the class becomes unworkable, at least from a purist (i.e. no missions, no piracy or exploration, etc.) perspective. Wherever that point is Impossible is certainly beyond it.
Specifically, Profit per trip=sale value of all goods-(buy value of all goods + waterfuel purchases and repairs) and water-fuel consumption gets crazy at higher difficulties. Using the online manual I've found that consumption in a green zone is about 5.97x that on Impossible compared to Easy. This means 5.97x as many water-fuel purchases, and considering it takes around 2-4 thousand to refill the starting ship depending on how much space you reserve for cargo, that translates to 10-20 thousand more money lost to overhead on impossible compared to easy for the time and distance it takes for an easy player has to refill.
In addition, I've had trouble making sense of the Negotiation stat. Apparently it's supposed to lower prices, but I don't know how or by how much. I'll go to the exchange, pour XP into my negotiation, then go back to the exchange and see nothing has changed. Even into the high teens it seems buy prices are generally higher than sell prices, even for non-restricted goods (on the flip side I can accept restricted goods are not profitable, since I believe the manual explains that mechanically speaking they are essentially a way to "buy" reputation by trading unprofitable goods)
Granted, I've found plenty of profit doing missions as well as endless rumor-hunting, but those are things that I do with all classes. I'm looking to be a full-time merchant who can make a profit outside of surplus and shortage situations. Does the high water-fuel consumption (hence higher overhead and less profits) on higher difficulties just make that impossible? If lower difficulties are the way to go, what would the breakpoint be where it becomes profitable?
