This is a small question that's been bugging me. Gold sells for a maximum of $2862. Gold ore sells for a maximum of $10199.
The other metals/ores have similar price comparisons.
"Ore" is, by definition, a mixture of minerals of which only part of it is valuable. So why does the unrefined ore that still has pieces of asteroid in it fetch a much higher price than the normal metal of the same type on a per-cargo-unit basis?
How do you all role-play this paradox? Do you consider each cargo unit of the ores to be significantly larger than that of the normal metals? Does ore have some special qualities that the normal versions don't have? Any other ideas? I can't see a logical reason why a mining ship would sit in a vulnerable asteroid field for 30 minutes shooting rocks looking for dirty ores when the purified bits are sold just a few clicks away. So I'm looking for help with the RP.
Perhaps raw ore yields more than one unit of gold?
' Wrote:An easy fix, simply boost the gold sell/buy prices by 500%.
Oh wait...if you need to buy a full hold for 70 mil to loose it on the next lane to a pirate or a passive aggressive planet....
Actually not a bad idea. Makes it worthwhile to transport that in smaller transports, like the... *gasp* Armored transport! And it also makes cargo piracy worthwhile, since pirates could sell the cargo... unlike the ore which only has one or a few sellpoints, all of which are lawful bases.
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I have often asked myself why ore sell prices are higher than the actual substance in its smelted form is worth.
I've seen a few comments here. So heres my thoughts.
If it was to be true that it took 6 units of ore to make the actual substance, the price of that metal would be close to the price of 6 pieces of the ore, not 80% less which is about the average from unit to unit of metal.
The other thing that bug's me is Gold. There is no such thing in reality as gold ore. Yes you can mine it smelt it. but if you mined 10 grams of gold ore from anywhere, smelt it you end up with 10 grams of gold in the shape you wanted. Gold cannot react with anything so Officially there is no such thing as gold ore, so why is it the, it's just gold. Can say the same thing about Silver, though it can be found in an ore state, but under extreme conditions rarely ever seen.
Also how in rp does the refineries make a profit with the prices? They cannot, as the current price of the refined good is much lower than the ore, of which you need more than one unit to make one unit of the refined metal. Which makes the refined good even more worthless.
There is very little in the way of economic's at play in game at the moment at all. I have seen a fair few strange and odd routes that make no sense in roleplay. If things was to be made to be more based on economics these odditities will not appear. But I warn you, if it was to be made to reflect true economic's it will take a long time to work out. And may lower profits per hour on the whole.
Thats my thought's (been trying to make a economic model for Discovery myself. Not very far in to it though)
In Disco there's an unlimited amount of <gold/silver/niobium/etc> to buy, but in a real economy there is a set amount, everyone knows there is only so much available.
So refined ore is limited, it's just being traded as around, but trading it doesn't create more of it.
ORE, on the other hand is adding to the quantity of existing refined ores, it is sought after, therefore it's worth more.
Just my 2 cents...
EDIT: Oh, and ore doesn't mean alloy... Ore means it's impure, mixed with other materials... Even gold comes this way, they use cyanide to separate gold from impurities in the real world refining process.
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Assuming that units of gold ore is equal to units of gold is merely an assumption; an assumption you can just as easily treat as its inverse: units of gold ore do not equal units of gold.
Failing that, figure that miners & pilots are paid according to the amount of their time invested in transport, which is obviously much greater for a miner delivering one load of ore (due to time spent mining) than a transport pilot who simply flies product from A to B.
A corollary to this line of thought is that pilots may not necessarily purchase products themselves, but merely transport products purchased by their customers. Pilots would, however, be required to purchase loss & liability insurance when picking up product for transport. This also explains why liner operators have to "purchase" people in order to transport them. Insurance is the upfront cost (could also be treated as local taxes or docking fees) and fares are paid by travelers upon safe completion of their journey.
In short, there are multiple interpretations available for the string of numbers associated with loading and unloading cargo holds. None of them are universally applicable, nor universally true in an economic sense. Numbers are just numbers. What they mean is up to your interpretation of their relationship to your role.
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Quote:Assuming that units of gold ore is equal to units of gold is merely an assumption; an assumption you can just as easily treat as its inverse: units of gold ore do not equal units of gold.
Failing that, figure that miners & pilots are paid according to the amount of their time invested in transport, which is obviously much greater for a miner delivering one load of ore (due to time spent mining) than a transport pilot who simply flies product from A to B.
A corollary to this line of thought is that pilots may not necessarily purchase products themselves, but merely transport products purchased by their customers. Pilots would, however, be required to purchase loss & liability insurance when picking up product for transport. This also explains why liner operators have to "purchase" people in order to transport them. Insurance is the upfront cost (could also be treated as local taxes or docking fees) and fares are paid by travelers upon safe completion of their journey.
In short, there are multiple interpretations available for the string of numbers associated with loading and unloading cargo holds. None of them are universally applicable, nor universally true in an economic sense. Numbers are just numbers. What they mean is up to your interpretation of their relationship to your role.
But I'll put it honest: It's a name attached to an IDS number which allows you to identify an in game object which you can sell somewhere for a profit deemed relative to the energy invested to trade it.
It's not a logical name. But it does distinguish the two commodities apart. So it does its job. Which works for me.