Alpha 47 Just a friendly discussion about Trade Values

Discussion in 'Clockwork Empires General' started by Alephred, Jan 20, 2016.

  1. Alephred

    Alephred Royal Archivist for Queen And Empire

    Just a place to talk about the trade values of goods. I understand values are pretty arbitrary at the moment, and subject to change. Here's a random selection of trade values, in order of descending value (I could probably dig up the values for everything by poking around in the files, but for the purposes of discussion, that's not necessary):

    Gold Ingots: 620
    Copper Plates: 360
    Iron Pipes: 360
    Boxed Ceramics Workbench: 230
    Native Gold: 150
    Hematite: 100
    Planks: 80

    I feel that certain factors should increase a good's trade value, namely: rarity, labour, and risk. Iron and Copper components are quite valuable because they must be mined, smelted, and crafted, which represents quite a lot of labour. Planks, on the other hand, are easy to obtain and require minimal labour. The Ceramics Workbench, then, is valued a little too highly, since it's constructed out of two planks and with minimal labour. I would expect items like Pistols, Tinned Beef, and Fungus Preserves to be very valuable indeed, because they use resources and components that need to be processed multiple times. Also, a minor point of contention - assuming you have a Metalworks with a smelter, the real difficulty in producing Gold Ingots is locating Native Gold, not the actual smelting. I feel the difference in value between ingots and ore should be smaller, with Native Gold being valued higher, or Ingots valued lower. Just food for thought, I'm sure the Devs are weighing Trade Values as we speak.
     
  2. Mikel

    Mikel Waiting On Paperwork From The Ministry. Forever.

    Based on the history of the game, by the end of summer the trade system will look nothing like it does now, with several layers of added depth... As such, I am not so worried about the relative valuation of goods just yet. I do want to be able to sell off my spare pistols.... Right now it is an occasionally interesting 'mini-game' that also provides the local fishpersons with a steady supply of food.
     
  3. MOOMANiBE

    MOOMANiBE Ah, those were the days. Staff Member

    I was very confused by this, as my notes said it was 3 planks, not 2. It was neither! It is 3 logs. I'll be fixing this to 3 planks for the next build.
     
  4. Alavaria

    Alavaria Member

    Better yet, some traders came with 10 units of Native gold for 150 each. And then after smelting sold it to the next group at 620 each... that's hilarious.

    Trade though, it's more about what you can spam since you probably don't (and shouldn't) be relying long-term on it for things. So uh... using iron plates/pipes works nicely since I use a lot of those, but also things like glass panes...
     
    Last edited: Jan 24, 2016