NPC Factions Trade @25-32% Loss

[MacThule]

Someone just pointed out to me that NPC factions generally buy raw ores (and shards) at 109-114 per unit, then sell mesh at 4 per unit and capsules at 9 per unit.

1 ore yields 5 capsules and 10 mesh 5x9+10x4=85 credits. So for the privilege of refining your ores for you, they pay you a minimum of 24 credits per ore.

Also, if paying ~115c per ore, the direct cost of materials (without labor) for a cannon barrel should be like 1250, but both the stick shops and NPC factions charge around 1000 - a 25% loss

Is this the way this is intended to work?

Because it looks like an invitation to exploit for free resources to me... especially when the NPC facs stock massive amounts of resources for sale. Basically a free multiplier to your mining. Sell ore to the NPCs and buy the caps/mesh back from them for an easy x0.32 modifier to mining productivity.

 

[MacThule]

Also... player-owned-shops cannot possibly hope to compete against an inhuman, swarm of computers willing to constantly sell vast amounts at massive loss. Which is fine, but kind of a bummer for would-be merchants and sort of "yet another potential layer of competition removed from the game" (ie HBs are invulnerable, so military competition is moot, x12 mining bonus is massive, so mining competition is moot, also NPCs can eternally sell at massive loss, so market competition is moot... only available arena for players to compete is in design style, something so utterly subjective that success can never be achieved).

 

[Treefolk]

The economy in this game is not functional anyways. It takes a few minutes (15 or so) to make enough credits to buy out most shops.

It boils down to time spent per resource generated. Due to mining bonuses, the lack of any sort of supply/demand correlation (plus the fact that NPCs don't seem to move goods around) and the commonality of all resources (blocks, ores, etc), a meaningful economy can't exist.

However, since the game is in alpha this isn't a bad thing (you want players able to stress the system and break it on a fairly regular basis, players that are choked for resources can't do that effectively).