Crafting Values

There are various approaches to calculate the values of resources used in crafting items in PT.  There are no rules to dictate the values of ores or resources, so I can only offer my thinking when I attempt to determine a fair value.

Raw Ores

It takes 2 fuel to mine ore from an asteroid.  How much ore you get will depend on the mining laser that you have installed.   Each higher level of ore requires new levels of mining skills.  Each higher level of ore also requires that you mine in a lower law level, and therefore take a higher risk of being attacked by pirates.  You will need progressively better shields and armor to protect yourself.   When you progress to mining Ice, at level 6 ores, you will need new special mining lasers and also new skills as well.

So how do you put a value to any of that?

My approach has always been to never include the expenses that I incur from buying mining lasers, or shields, or better ships.   These are simply the costs of doing business.   A mechanic doesn’t charge you for the tools he needs to fix your car.  I also don’t count the value of skills that I need to buy as an expense.  Again, you don’t reimburse your doctor for his medical degree.  As for the cost of the fuel that is consumed, my thinking is that fuel is given to us, and therefore is free.

So that leaves nothing, no expenses.  Ores are mined for free.  The value of ore then is based on what the market will offer you for it.  As of this writing, raw ores seem to have a rough value of about 3.5 credits per level, and 5 credits per level for Ice.  Sometimes you can get more, but I put my value at the lower end of the scale.

Refined Ore

A refined ore requires that you first start with a raw ore, and you will need between 300 and 550 raw ore for this.  There is also a fee of 1000 credits per level of ore to refine a batch.

Your yield depends a great deal on the level of skill you have invested into refining that ore.  I suggest that you get at least level 3 before refining anything.  I have focused my refining skills on only one ore in each group, and then have tried to maximize my skills.

I have calculate the values of each ore I can refine by adding 1000 credits per level plus the value of the ore used, and dividing that cost total by the yield.   As an example, Hikarite is a level 1 ore, so it costs 1000 credits to refine, and it uses 550 Hikarite.  With a skill level of 8 it yields 135 Pryavlon & 360 Rawk.

((1000*1) + (550 * 3.5)) / (135 +360)  = 5.91

It gets more complicated when you consider that I also get Pryavlon or Rawk from refining other ores, including level 2 or 3 ores.  Those costs result in a higher value, which can increase my average cost.  After graphing out my average costs for refining each ore, I have developed an easy formula of 10 credits per level, which make a fairly good best fit line through the data.  The table below shows the results.  I have grouped the refined ore into levels, which fit the calculated values fairly closely.

Harvested Resources

Harvested resources are pretty straight forward.  It costs 180 level 1 ores to get 120 Harvested resources.  I use 4 credits for the level 1 ore here, just to keep from having to deal with fractions.  I don’t add anything for the cost of my Harvesters, and you can earn several Personal Harvesters for free from various Missions anyhow.  The value becomes 6 credits per unit of Harvested Resource.

(180 x 4) / 120 = 6

Commodity Items

These are items available at a Commodity Trade Office.  There’s no need for much discussion here, I use the price that I can buy it for.  Construction Goods for example can be bought for between 65 and 82 credits.  I’m not looking for a profit, or some wage for my effort of flying across the galaxy, I’m only after my actual costs.

Salvaged Items

This is a tough one.  Salvaged Items are gained from destroying enemy ships, and using a Salvage Laser to clean up the debris.  There are various levels of Salvaged Items, that requires killing enemies in lower Law Level systems.  The top level items can be extremely difficult to obtain, even for veteran players, and often require teams of several players to kill the enemies.

I don’t want to spoil the fun the discovering new items, so I won’t publish my list of which items are available in which Law Level systems.   You will have to discover those on your own.

What you’re willing to pay may be very much higher than the values I propose, since nobody seems willing to sell their Salvaged materials.  I think the progression has to be an exponential curve to reflect the difficulty and risk of getting these items, so I will throw out this out as a proposal for values:

(13 – Law Level) ^2 * 50

Basic items available in Law Level 12, such as Air Regulators, Data Display Units, and even Plasma Channel Sections, are worth 50 credits.  Due to the current demand of Plasma Channel Sections for crafting, Plasma Channel Sections are in extreme demand.  Items available only in Law Level 4, such as Plasma Containment, are worth about 4050 credits each.

Crafting Values

Ok, it’s time to wrap it all up.  Most crafting projects will require some items out of several categories; some raw ore, some refine ores, a harvester resources, a commodity item and potentially a salvage item.  Each crafted item will also require that you purchase a schematic, which is typically usable to craft 4 or 5 copies of the item before it expires.

Let’s use a Foreen ARC Laser C3 as an example.

• Kelsalt is a level 1 ore, so my value is 3.5 credits per unit. Feltonite is a level 2 ore, and is worth 7 credits.
• Rawk & Pryavlon are both level 1 refined ores, so I’ll use my 10 credits per units value on both.
• The three Salvaged Items are all available in Law Level 12, so they are worth 50 credits each.
• The schematic cost is 75,000 credits and it allows you to build 5 copies.

Out total costs add up to 130,905 credits.  So now it’s time to think like a businessman.   It took a lot of effort to collect ore, refine them, harvest resources, find and collect the commodity items, kill enemies and salvage their ships.   But what is that worth?

This clearly depends on you, and the percentage increase may be on a sliding scale based on the overall price.  A ship that costs me 4,000,000 credits to craft may have a lower markup percentage then an item that costs me 100,000 credits to build.   I like to start at about a 50% markup, keeping in mind that I need to pay a 10% tax when I sell it.  My lower limit is realistically closer to a 20% markup, due to the tax cost.

In this example, I would set the selling price of the Foreen ARC Laser C3 at 200,000 credits, and could potentially negotiate down to 150,000 credits if I felt truly charitable.

130,905 * 1.5 = 196,357

130,905 * 1.2 = 157,086