W3C - Product Pricing

Some products have moved trading to space stations and some will follow next week (see game news from last Tuesday).

Although the movement of products to the space market is close to end, there will be new products added to Simcountry that will trade in space.

The increased space trading can cause higher pricing as you can ask for a price in GCs that can be much higher than the price on the world markets.

This is easy to check.
All products show on the world markets, also ones that are not traded on the world market and there is always a market price.

Trading offers on the space market show a price for the product and will shortly show the average quality of the products.
Checking the world market price, and the quality combined with the exchange rate, give you an estimate of the price in gold coins.

example:

If the market price for a nuclear missile is 15 B
and the quality is 150, the price is in fact 22.5B.

if the exchange rate is 1 GC to 175 B
the price is 22.5/175 = 0.128 GC

This about 7 missiles for 1 GC including the cost of transport.

You can decide to pay any price but it is clear that if such missiles are selling at 0.5 to 1.0 GC, then there is a good business opportunity in producing them yourself and selling them on the market for a slightly lower price.

It makes sense to do the math from time to time and make sure you see the opportunities and do not pay too much.

Tom, that sounds great, if only the buyer didnt have to pay the additional costs of having a dock on several of the space stations to be able to buy the product in the first place.

As an alternative, I want to be able to offer a free shipping service to my customers, (all calculated in my GC price), but to be able to do this I either need to be able to land in their space centers, OR you allow direct trade contracts for products I land land in my own country where I get paid the agreed space price, even in GC would do. You need to think about this Tommi to live up to your statement that players dont HAVE TO play the space game if they dont want to. Lots of people cant lay out the fees for docks.

CC

Couldnt agree more with Crafty!

I want to buy, not trade, in space. I should need a space center and shuttles, but a dock shouldnt be necessary if the seller on the station has one. The seller is already storing the product. It should just be a simple move from sellers dock to customers shuttles. Please. Please. Pretty please.

I like this idea as well. Every player shouldn't need space docks. Those players who store products there should be able to take it to the world and sell it, for an increased cost, of course, since the space delivery is included.

You are right, there is additional cost.
this is why it is acceptable to ask for a higher price when trading in space.

we are not trying to set the pricing.
the ability to do your own calculation is however important because otherwise, you may end up paying 10 x the price and you have no clue.

to make transport easy for people who are not interested in cargo shuttles, we will add transport corporations that will take care of delivering the goods for you.

"transport corporations that will take care of delivering the goods for you."

Does this mean for a fee, the game will deliver for us?

Can players own these transport corporations? Or will it be strictly owned by simcountry?

"the ability to do your own calculation is however important because otherwise, you may end up paying 10 x the price and you have no clue."

I'd like to see prices listed in gamemoney. Make it real easy for the average player to understand.

If space trading is going to really take off the following needs to be done.

1) Automate space trading. Charge players a percentage fee for moving goods between worlds/space stations. Charge half price to move between worlds and space station.

2) List prices on a GC basis for all space trading. The average player doesn't want to sit and do the math. (Make it simple stupid and people will use it)

Do both and space trading will flourish.

I'd like to see the day they remove war levels and make war protection expensive enough to be used only as a temporary measure.

oops...should say SC in number 2

Hey tom how about making it so you don't have to buy/lease a dock to buy thing in Space that would encourage me(and I'm sure others) ro by more from space

Tom, that does sound like one solution, depending on cost of using these transport corporations of course.
I dont see the problem here as being one of owning and using space shuttles, they are great for inter-planetary logistics. The issue is more about the shuttles accessing products for sale on space stations, why not just have free parking for a sellers customers? Seems to me it would be far easier for you to implement. Thanks for listening,

Crafty

Transports will be taken care of by players.

Cool. Sounds like a moneymaking opportunity. That should make Maestro happy.

So transportation corporations will replace cargo shuttles. I think I like this.

1) My country pays a player owned transportation corporation a fee to move product to another country on another world. No shuttle is involved?
1a) Assumption here is both countries have a space center.
1b) The player owned transportation corporation could actually be owned my me.


Does this sound about right?

Nothing is going away.

People with shuttles could sign in for transports.
players could ask for a transport.
the player who has most available capacity will get the job and move the goods as defined in the request.

later, when the galaxy becomes much larger, distance between available shuttles and the place where the transport is needed will be taken into account.

But you mentioned transportation corporations.

Please explain.

reread the previous comment.
this is how it will work.

both presidents and CEOs will be able to have many cargo shuttles available for transporting any products for anyone who asks for.

"to make transport easy for people who are not interested in cargo shuttles, we will add transport corporations that will take care of delivering the goods for you."

Transport corporations is what I have read above.

I'd like to pay a transport corporation (owned by whoever) a fee for transporting my goods between worlds. Perhaps these transport corporations own cargo shuttles.

I think the space transport companies will have to have space shuttles.

reference: portal > Direct Trading > Trade Other Products (directly) buy or sell cargo shuttles > sell your Cargo Shuttles

<!-Quote-!>Quote:

Sell one or more Cargo Shuttles

You can sell Cargo Shuttles to other players.
They will pay for Cargo Shuttles in Gold Coins.

Market Price: 2.24 GC
Minimum price for Cargo Shuttles: 1.68 GC
Maximum price for Cargo Shuttles: 2.80 GC<!-/Quote-!>

I missed this thread before but I think prices of stuff in space should be in $ not GC. It makes a lot more sense that way :S