Star Traders RPG Economy Types

[Cory Trese]

The upcoming release of Star Traders RPG includes a new display of the effective economy type for the Urban Zone.

This is added just above the star ratings display. I am planning on adding a section to the help file that lists the differences generated by the different types, but I wanted to post a list in case anyone had better ideas for the names or other suggestions.

Thanks!

"Hive World"
"Mining World"
"Farm World"
"Trade World"
"Military World"
"Artifact World"
"Research World"

[starfixer]

Interesting addition. I like it

[Cory Trese]

This has always been the primary system that drives the game's economic simulation, but I think making that information available to the player will help with people who want to play Merchants and Traders.

[ncaoa]

Very cool.

[xdesperado]

Having the world type descriptors is a nice touch. My issue with the economy in the game is that the various world types don't seem to strongly influence the price/availability of goods. While you can do very good playing surplus and shortage trading its much more difficult to have luck with straight trading.
If on the other hand you could depend on say a mining world to generally have crystal and metal at a lower price for sale/purchase while paying better for items like luxury food and clothes and a Hive type to be the opposite then playing the trading game would become more realistic especially early in the game when your liable to spend as much on water-fuel as you might make on straight trading.
I dare say the large incidence of pirates in the quadrant is because survival as a legitimate trader is extremely difficult and in large part the success of it based on purely random surpluses and shortages.
Also would be nice to see more fluctuation of prices based on the amount and types of transactions made. I have had better success trading between a faction world and a nearby independent when I reach around 20th level and have raised both my faction rank and negotiate

[xdesperado]

Sorry phone acting up

As I was saying at mid to high levels I've been able to buy nearly limitless quantities of spice, crystal and metal from a friendly faction world for extremely cheap prices and sell the same at independent worlds only a couple AU away for near the same price as when starting the game. You would think by the second or third time I showed up on a planet with 100+ of an item the market prices would start to be depressed. Similarly if the local prince saw me pull into port looking to buy yet another 100 tons of spice the price would have seen a spike regardless of how much they had in storage during a non surplus period.

[Cory Trese]

Sept 25, 2012 22:52:52 GMT -5 xdesperado said:

Having the world type descriptors is a nice touch. My issue with the economy in the game is that the various world types don't seem to strongly influence the price/availability of goods. While you can do very good playing surplus and shortage trading its much more difficult to have luck with straight trading.
If on the other hand you could depend on say a mining world to generally have crystal and metal at a lower price for sale/purchase while paying better for items like luxury food and clothes and a Hive type to be the opposite then playing the trading game would become more realistic especially early in the game when your liable to spend as much on water-fuel as you might make on straight trading.
I dare say the large incidence of pirates in the quadrant is because survival as a legitimate trader is extremely difficult and in large part the success of it based on purely random surpluses and shortages.
Also would be nice to see more fluctuation of prices based on the amount and types of transactions made. I have had better success trading between a faction world and a nearby independent when I reach around 20th level and have raised both my faction rank and negotiate

The different economy types generate stock and price variation between 10% and 340% of the base price. The pricing is influenced by the Security, Exchange (and for some resources, the Hall) Ratings on the planet.

The core worlds (free map) have the slimmest profit margins but as the Captain moves to the frontier profitable trading (and much larger quantities) become the norm.

For example, Mining Worlds always have Crystal, Metal and Spice in larger quantities. Hive Worlds pay more for Spice and Clothing, and Military Outposts usually stock Luxury Rations at a discount.

I'll be adding more of this to the help file in an upcoming release.

Thanks!

[jadraki]

@cory: Is that %10-%340 including shortages and surpluses?

Personally, I'd like to see a lot more variation in the %10-%20 range, i.e. a lot of price variation (not large movements in price, but frequent small-but-not-trivial sized movements).

This would give the slim-margin merchants some more action and make following non-rumor price changes a more relevant skill/activity for all PCs.

[filthyluca]

Sept 23, 2012 0:24:08 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

The upcoming release of Star Traders RPG includes a new display of the effective economy type for the Urban Zone.

This is added just above the star ratings display. I am planning on adding a section to the help file that lists the differences generated by the different types, but I wanted to post a list in case anyone had better ideas for the names or other suggestions.

Thanks!

"Hive World"
"Mining World"
"Farm World"
"Trade World"
"Military World"
"Artifact World"
"Research World"

I know this is an old thread but do you know where I can find the info you mentioned about differences between economy types? Trying to up my understanding of the trade routes

[poryg]

Nice one!