I asked myself: how do I set a price, other people asked: “Is this a good price?”.
DISCLAIMER: This is only but my personal model, there is no such thing as fixed prices in Project Terran. Any player is free to set their own prices. Prices may vary depending on supply and demand.
My method builds on profit at each stage, some for the miner, some for the harvester, some for the refiner, … and at the end some for the crafter. Other players may apply other models.
Bottom line…. there’s no right way!
Version 1: Q1/2017
When trying to calculate the price of a crafted item, I started from the simple model.
Price =((Schematic Price / Number of Craft Runs) + Σ(Resource Price * Number of Resources) ) * “profit” Factor
The “profit factor” which I use is typically between 30 and 40% and should cover the Emporium Sales Tax (10%), compensation for the effort (15%), the risk of having schematics with uncrafted runs (15%).
The Schematic Price and Number of Craft Runs can be found in the schematics store.
The number of required resources becomes visible after buying the schematic in the schematic store.
And then the hard part begins, what is a fair price for every single resource that would suit the different professions (miner/refiner/harvester/salvager)
Mined Resources
Class 1-5: A simple rule for the classic mining 3-4 cpu per class.
Class 6-10: A new base price of 25 cpu for the class 6 ice mining and 5 cpu per additional class.
+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | 15 | 25 | 30 | 35 | 40 | 45 | +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
Harvested Resources
A simple rule of thumb: the price of class 1 ores times 1,5 (harvesting efficiency) plus a fixed extra 3 cpu to cover the cost of harvesters and the effort spent on collecting them.
Rounded, this adds up to a value of 9 cpu.
+---------+ | Harvest | +---------+ | 8 | +---------+
Refined Resources
The cost calculation for refined resources is a bit more complicated. The factors that play a role are refining cost (1000 credits per class per batch), the batch size, the refining skill level. To make it even more complicated a certain refined resource can be obtained from several raw ores at different prices, which makes an exact calculation quasi impossible
The following table is based on a fair price estimate, and is consistent with prices found in the player owned emporium at the time that I made the table.
There are in total 19 different refined resources, in the below table 1 stands for Rawk, 2 for Pryavlon, 3 for Abaron and so on…
+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ | 15 | 22 | 26 | 31 | 35 | 40 | 45 | 50 | 55 | 60 | 65 | 70 | 75 | 80 | 85 | 90 | 95 |100 |105 | +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
Salvage Resources
Currently available salvage lasers aren’t very productive and thus salvaging is fairly time consuming and it involves both fighter and salvage toons. Difficult to say what is a good price for a salvage resource. As there doesn’t seem to be a big market for these resources there doesn’t seem to be a fair price determination between supply and demand either.
First I started with a flat price of 50cpu. But then it turned out that I needed many of the same salvage, while others were piling up in my Galactic Storage Facility. So I raised the cost of some to 100 cpu and for the ‘Plasma Channel Sections’, I even use to rate at 500 cpu. These seem to be needed in high amounts for both weapons and high level mining scanners and thus a higher value seems justified for now.
NOTE: recently a lot more different salvage resources where introduced. It was already hard to set a fair price on the original 12 salvage resources. I have absolutely no clue on the others.
Trade Commodities
The price for the trade commodities can be found at the commodity vendor where they can be bought.
Version 2: Q4/2017
Mined Resources
While version 1 was fairly linear, with a small jump at class 6 for the ice mining, I’ve been using a less linear model recently that takes into account the high demand for class 1 ores and also compensates better the costs/risks for high level mining.
+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ | 6 | 7 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 25 | 30 | 39 | 50 | 63 | +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
Refined Resources
The cost calculation for refined resources still is a bit more complicated.
There are in total 19 different refined resources, in the below table 1 stands for Rawk, 2 for Pryavlon, 3 for Abaron and so on…
+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ | 16 | 22 | 26 | 31 | 35 | 40 | 45 | 50 | 55 | 60 | 65 | 70 | 75 | 80 | 85 | 90 | 95 |100 |105 | +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
Harvested Resources
This version takes into account the lower efficiency of higher level harvesters and the higher price for class 1 ores.
A simple rule of thumb: the price of class 1 ores times 1,7 (harvesting efficiency) plus a fixed extra 3 cpu to cover the cost of harvesters and the effort spent on collecting them.
Rounded, this adds up to a value of 15 cpu.
+---------+ | Harvest | +---------+ | 14 | +---------+