Unbalanced Market Prices

Hi to all,

before getting to the main point, I need to congratulate to Settlers team about Trading System idea... It's very easy and clearly to trade!

However as the title says there are some issues about prices... By my oppinion the root of unbalanced prices are not only the uninformed or scrooge type players, then in how expensive buildings upgrade is or how much raw materials for production is needed...

Let see example:

Fir wood cutter is Basic building, but for upgrading to level 2 you need Hardwood Planks and 100 Marble... as we go further into the market, we will notice how common resource Pine Wood is priceless... This is just because you need Level 3 (Advanced) materials to upgrade instead Level 2 (Intermediate) like Copper Mines do... Tools! So, we have Pine Wood shortage...

Let's have in mind how Pine Wood is fundamental for many Intermediate Production Buildings, what leads automatically to higher prices of many more advanced semi and final products.

Example:
Pine Wood is ultimatelly high in comparison with level 2 Water... ratio is about 100 Pine Wood for even 300 Water... or 100 Pine Wood for 50 - 100 Marble (regular price if we calculate time production should be 500 Pine Wood = 100 Marble)

Also we have another type of non-proportion where for 1 Iron you need to invest 4 Iron Ore and 6 Coal -> (this is also produced from overpriced Pine Wood)... so when you compare 1 Bronze sword and 1 Iron Sword about same shape and size, Iron Sword price is rocket high, nobody wants to buy it... only solution you need to wait your own production...

The trade tab is player driven. So the prices there are what people are willing to pay for it (otherwise they would go down). If you think it's too high, you can make an lower offer in the hopes that someone accepts it. But if they don't, then your idea of a fair price does not seem to be the same for other's (-: Just because the prices is high does not mean no one wants to buy it.

To take your example of the swords, a bronze sword only needs 1 copper ore and 3 coal. A iron sword needs 6 iron ore and 18 coal. So even if you ignore the fact that copper ore is cheaper to get than iron ore, you still need 6 times as much resources to make it. Wich means the prices should be at least 6 times as high.

It's all about supply and demand. Depends on various things, like time of day ie. No. of players online, current quests etc. I often put the same trades up are are sometime inundated with offers and other times not a single offer even if I drastically reduce the price.
I t also depends how desperate you are for the item, if you need it in a hurry you may be willing to pay more for it.
If you don't think the trade is worth it, simply don't do the trade and put your own trade up at what you think is a reasonable price.

This is not a bug therefor not suppose to be in bug section.

Moved it to general discussion.

Energyman hits again :D. Maybe you should make a ton of pine wood and trade for it on the market ;)

Yes,you hit a high note in what is known as players not knowing economy that well,or hoping that one could get 400 gold coins for 1 fish.
Relating to your "we need pine wood issue", high level players use coal mines and the newly implemented Recycling Factory. It will take some time until people realize that pinewood is not that needed.
Bare in mind that there are players ranging from 10 to 50 or so years old, so not everyone will handle economy well :)

I enjoyed reading your post, it was very thorough. :)

This tread should give us some lead to help stabilize the market... This way its perfect for me because I know what pairs of material are wanted so its no problem to earn on a price difference. But it is still unfair to non-economist players, so they should at least get chance for a fair trading and of course save them from ridiculous offers they making... so here is the proposition:

By the time GM should implement average price index (API) just next to material before you make trade, so the players knows global market stand.

API should be based on next parameters:

Time of production (expressed in production seconds also PrS)
Cost of the material building (if we are talking about mines)
Demand of the players (how many units of materials was send in the past 24 hours)

Example for Copper Ore and Water pair:

Copper Ore needs:

Time of production = 224 PrS

Building mine
30 pine wood planks = 30 * (244 PrS + pine wood 126 PrS) = (30 * 370 PrS) = 11100 PrS
45 stones = (45 * 336 PrS) = 15120 PrS
Total for Building = 26220 PrS / 710 ore in the mine vein = 37 PrS per 1 ore

Total for Copper Ore = 224 PrS (production) + 37 PrS (building) = 261 PrS per Copper Ore unit


Water needs:

Time of production = 200 PrS

Building Water Well:
30 pine wood planks = 10 * (244 PrS + pine wood 126 PrS) = (10 * 370 PrS) = 3700 PrS
45 stones = (15 * 336 PrS) = 5040 PrS
Total for Building = 8740 PrS / 1000 water unit in the well deep = 9 PrS per 1 water bucket

Total for Water Bucket = 200 PrS (production) + 9 PrS (building) = 209 PrS per Water Bucket

Now we have pair: Copper 261 / Water 209 = Time Price Index (TPI): 1,2488


And lets assume Copper Ore demand in the last 24 hours 390.000 units and Water 130.500 units... or Demand Price Index (DPI)...

So formula is 390.000 / 130.500 = 2,9885


And final formula for API is:

API = (TPI + DPI) / 2 = 4,237 / 2 = 2,118

Since API = 2,118 conclusion is how fair price for Cooper Ore 2,118 Buckets of Water!

Now everybody have clear perspective what to produce, trade and use...

some nice math there, but i guess there is some problems.. you say 1 cooper ore = 2118 buckets of water ? if so, i cna offer you 1000 cooper ore for 10k water...

API = 2 Buckets of Water POINT 118... My mistake instead of dot I have used comma...

API = 2.118

my head hurts..... but after taking ages trying to figure out what you said i agree with you... but there are problems with it