A note on "outrageous" ship prices

[TyroneSlothrop]

The other night in nation chat there was quite the debate about ship prices, especially those for lowbies. It went something like this:
Lowbie: "I'm looking for a stralMC"
Vet1: "There is one on the AH for 160k"
Vet2: "160k! That's outrageous! It only costs 40k to build one of those!"

It continued on for at least 30 minutes after that, not sure if the lowbie ended up with the ship or not.

One argument for the elevated price was "The correct price is whatever the market will bear."
but I'd like to present another case:

Hauling takes time and should be factored into the price.
Let's say it takes an hour of hauling mats to make one StralMC.
I could either spend that hour hauling, or I could fleet SC and make 100k in that hour.
Cost (40K) + My personal labor (100k/hour) = 140k. 160k is then a 14% mark-up, which is very reasonable.
If I sell that ship for less than cost+time I'm taking a loss on my game time (I have a job and a wife, so I can't waste 50 hours a week on POTBS).

I'd love for lowbies to have easy access to cheap ships, but damn, it takes 20 minutes round trip just to sail the deeds from St.J's to Bartica to sell them! I want to have fun playing the game, not grind out a small amount of wealth hauling goods around for charity; I'm not a truck-driver, I'm a Pirate of the Burning Sea!

[play to win]

they could just put the civi boats back in

[LawStanz]

It's hard for lowbies to make their way in an established game when most everyone else is max level. As a new player I was having a very difficult time finding and affording ships. My solution was to join a society, and the one I joined had the benefit of a shipwright that sells at cost +10%. Things are so much easier now.

Now if I could just find other players my level and maybe even some RP, things would be great.

[harry clarkson]

Originally Posted by LawStanz It's hard for lowbies to make their way in an established game when most everyone else is max level. As a new player I was having a very difficult time finding and affording ships. My solution was to join a society, and the one I joined had the benefit of a shipwright that sells at cost +10%. Things are so much easier now. Now if I could just find other players my level and maybe even some RP, things would be great.

they like making profit more then 14%

[krig]

price work with offer and demand, if there is a high demand for ship and low offer price will by higher, the problem is very few shipbuilder left now but those are getting more rich then ever :P

[Hawke47]

I have noticed that low level ships are increasingly hard to find. Some people are building captured deeds in cat which is helping some.

However I will say this in defense of the high prices. Fleeting is becoming a plague for new players, it's all they do and they think it's all that the game offers. So as Tyrone pointed out a new player (that is fleeting incessantly) will make several hundred thousand doubloons in a few hours. So it all, sort of evens outs.

[CYCROFT]

Nonsense, you evil rich shipbuilding 1%'ers are not doing your fair share. You OWE us low priced ships or even free ships on demand! You can't keep a low-level player down like this, it's not fair...

[inkjet]

Well, 4x the build cost is quite a markup, obviously these ships are being designed by Sachs Fifth Avenue, and contain Gucci designer components.

Seriously, though, the build cost for a ship will vary based on raw materials cost and availablity, as well as nation. A nation with fewer shipbuilders will have a higher cost for lower level ships, as those shipbuilders are also trying to supply deeds for ships that are used, and abused, in port battles. A nation with fewer shipbuilders only has so much building structure time.

Just as an example, right now Antigua French have a lack of brass ingots available on the market. This drives the price up, with available brass ingots going to materials for rated lineships to replace losses. So, less lower level mastercraft ships will be made, driving up the mastercraft price.

Similiarly, the Brits suffer from higher prices on wine, which effects ships provisions, which are needed more now for ship production.

The other effect is that, as ship prices increase, non-ship builders increase their raw material prices so they can make more money to afford the higher cost ships. It creates an inflation cycle, with finished goods price increases being responded to by suppliers with higher materials prices in order to afford the higher ship prices.

An example of that is the oak raw material. Previously selling for 10 dblns per oak log, the price on the AH is generally now around 15 dblns, a 50% markup. Since the shipbuilder is paying more for oak, he raises his prices.

Now is really not a good time to be buying smaller ships, too many players have been sitting on the fence awaiting the transition to Portalus. Maybe after the transition things will loosen up as more econ players return.

As an aside, Portalus DOES expect people to buy stuff from the cash shop, and the basic ships needed for leveling ARE available at a nominal cost. I doubt Portalus will undercut their need for funding by bringing back the "civilian" versions of ships obtainable in game at nominal cost.

[Storm Hunter]

this slowly kills the game... ehh..hopefully this will be fixed by Portalus

[Daisy Duck]

Portalus, really needs to increase the deed output per build for low lvl ships, (say up to lvl 30 or so) this would bring the price back down.

Making it harder! for new players starting the game is not going to retain them to even get lvl50, let alone retain them after lvl50, they will soon say: "stuff this! why bother if I can not afford/find a ship".

Why, would a new player even consider buying a ship deed of TA when there only starting out?, they want to test the waters first before investing real $$.

Why, would a new player even consider buying CC or ship dock slots if he can not get ships?

Hell, that's if he can even find a ship on the A/H let alone afford to pay ingame $ for it.

Remember what it's like lvling? you need ships in various ports for mission, to port over, or else you bloody sailing 3/4 of your game time back & forth.

Not so fun eh?

Ducky