Static pricing, and thank god for that! Dynamic pricing would only make sense if you simulated the whole she-bang... and that would require a heavy investment in time and money, and then I would sya: go play Railroad Tycoon or similar.

Then you could "cheat" and let the prices fluctate randomly, but hat would just make people either camp outside a station or launch/land/launch/land until the prices where at the best... not much fun there...

So you can find a traderoute, and you can be sure it stays nice!

Best Regards
Christian "Bargib" Koerner
Editor in Chief, The Lancers Reactor

Static market idea has always seemed a bit absurd to me.
You come to a huge planet, metropolis, capital of the sector, with a shipload of iron... and voila- prices of iron drop conciderably.

I wouldn't mind a small fluctuation of prices- not due to your actions, but due to general market change, but the static system describes the situation better... unless you can hire a huge fleet or cargo ships.

Static Economy is one of freelancers MAJOR downlfalls... its been done in other speace sims (XBF / BC3000AD) 3 + years ago how come freelancer after 5 years in development cant have implemented it?

It simply sux. No other way around it too, there wont be patches. Oh and If there was every advertising for a dynamic economy, shame on Avail and MS.....

Yapa

Im sure they could patch it to add a dynamic economy if they got their heads around it. I hope they visit fan site forums and get the idea how to patch the game to make it better.

I don't think it's possible to create a patch for such a thing and personally I like the static economy feature

The problem with a Dynamic economy is that unless its done right you end up simply transporting goods from one station to another then when your done you transport the goods back or you leave the station alone after the price drops too much. This ends up making a server pretty dead for trading.
The way to code around this is for the station to "USE" the supplies over time allowing the price to once again rise. Similarly a station also "MAKES" goods and if no one comes to pick up these goods the price would drop due to overstock.
As you can see a few minor changes in how the stations behave can really add alot of milege to this game.
Of course if you want a really complex economy allow the NPCs to acctually affect station prices as they transport goods. Their arrival, or lack of, would change the prices.
I wouldnt let the price change too dramatically per shipment, only about +/- 300 to 500 depending on the commodity.

Okay, heres my slant on the dynamic trading issue.

Firstly even with dynamic trading there is no way your single ships cargo should be able to influence prices. Your ship is just one of many bringing cargo in and out. It's safe to assume most are going to buy what the station/planet has in excess and so is cheap, and sell what the planet/station needs so is expensive.

The needs of a place aren't that likely to change considerably... people don't suddenly stop using their lungs (well not usually). Perhaps significant events (like a plague or something) could increase demand... but they didn't put those in (perhaps the only part of dynamic trading I agree with).

Essentially the economy will be in a state of balance... and whether you chose to bring stuff in or not doesn't matter. You're just a small cog in one much bigger wheel.

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It simply sux. No other way around it too, there wont be patches. Oh and If there was every advertising for a dynamic economy, shame on Avail and MS.....

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That's Digital Anvil not Avail.

There is a reason for not having a dynamic economy, as once you have visited a base it's commodity prices are uploaded into your ships neural net. So when you are buying commoditites you can quickly refer to whether your buying at a good or bad price and where you can sell it for a good profit. If the economy was constantly fluctuating this option would be unavailable and you would have to have a bloody good memory to remember every price. Just to clarify my point further, in elite 2 I used to keep a notepad by my side and jot down commodity prices. That is hardly an ideal solution and quite honestly I prefer it exactly the way it is in Freelancer.




Ah, she's built like a steak house but she handles like a bistro. - Zapp Brannigan

Small question, why should be this option not avaible if the prices are flucuating?

Supporter and Founder of the :p for smilies Campange

We want :p

franchly, it disturb me very much to not have at least the good old "elite" system... it was so well designated that it's a real shame that new game don't benefit from this wonderful concept that elite was... don't tell me that is very complicated to implement such a sytem, original elite is less than 500k ! (and there are so much original things that dynamic trading is just a little part of these 500k)

Certain people refers to the color based trading (good/idle/not good pric)... but this is really done for LAZY gamers and is so easy to do that it just decrease a lot the pleasure to trade, where is the fun in static prices, where is the fun to find at times, good occasion to make a big interest without to spoil the whole thing (excuse me but static price is really not entertaining and risky business, it's just BORING, PERIOD... ... i think it couldn't be that difficult to change it for good whitout to be painful as a "tycoon" game at least as an option : trade for good old time "elite" member...

let me remember you the good old elite way of trading :
- every planet with a dynamic stock exchange board for about 20 different items - more you bring specific stuff, more the value decrease and the contrary
- dynamic events such as for exemple a planet catastrophy event which need supply of medecine product..
- every type of governement or planet have specific needs and product specific goods(anarchy/democracypleasure/mining outpost/Pirate outpost...)
- and yes, it was fun to make some notes with a real pencil to notice the difference... (old elite gamers will understand me on this)

this was a VERY GOOD, ENTERTAINING, RISKY AND SIMPLE way to enjoy the trading part of Elite... which become boring very quickly with FL demo....

Why to not have implemented it as a base in Freelancer... just a shame IMHO.... it miss so much to an old space trader like me...



Edited by - Spacepilot Borodine on 26-02-2003 14:50:33

Well said Space Pilot Borodine.

You will find such things as you mention in other space sims, but I will not mention them here because a few people are already on my back. Just have a look around.....

Yapa

Teabold I hope with all the answers here you got your question answered?
Allmost anything in the game can be changed with a patch or expansion pack.
If enough of the Freelancer fans complain to DA about it...I am sure they will address the problem. I do not plan on being a merchant all the way thru the game...so the static prices are not a issue with me. But Freelancer is suppose to be about having the freedom to be what you want to be...and if dynamic pricing can help a player who wants to be just a merchant enjoy the game more....than it can be added in. And for those who like the system the way it is...they could also keep a lot of the prices static for them. If the game sells real well...this all will be addressed.

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Small question, why should be this option not avaible if the prices are flucuating?

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Well I guess it could, but it would be chewing up extra CPU cycles to be constantly updating all commodity prices for 150 odd places. I suppose it really depends on how dynamic you want it to get. Elite's dynamic prices were based on how much they had in stock, not on which trader was comming to sell which commodity which was how freelancer was going to do it.

Look you can piss around with this all you want, but the simple fact is that it isn't in the game and it's not going to be in the game.

how about lets all just be gald it wasnt delayed for a nother 3 years?

-I trade for a living, rouges piss me off, come get me, catch me if you can, i will leave you in the dust, or you'll die trying, take your pick.-

@Heretic Inc. We trade because we own.@