Business And Economy Archive

Everyone complains about the pricing in SWG. My thought on the matter is how can you expect it to be any other way. The economy is based on two things, the scarcity of resources and the time it takes to collect them.

First Resources

Each and every resource is unique, once it spawns it's gone. So we're not talking waiting a month before that resource spawns again, we're talking it's gone forever. So even with millions of units harvested, once that supply is gone, it's gone. Oil right now is our primary natural resource, now imagine if someone said to you oil will run out in a week. What would happen to the price of oil?

SWG resources are the same. So by the very nature of having resources only spawn once and the uncertainty of when/if another resource with the same or better qualities will spawn, the price on an individual resource will only appreciate. Would you pay 10 cpu for a resource if you knew that you only had to wait a month for it to respawn again? Probably not, or the quantity you would buy would be so small as to fill that one immediate need i.e. I need to finish this one RIS suit, so I'd rather pay the 10 cpu nowthan wait a month. The longer time between exceptional spawns of a given resource also effects the price of that resource. Example, high quality polysteel copper spawns on eclipse on average every 6 weeks, so the best of the best has still capped out at 12 cpu. Talusian Fiberplast has had poor spawns on average and one great spawn. That resource sells for 20, 30, 50, 100 cpu depending on who needs it at that moment.

Second Time

When you are buying resources you are buying an individuals time. I've had scouts say to me 'I won't hunt anything for less than 60 cpu, it's not worthmy time.' Not simply because they are money hungry, their chosen alternativemay be doing something making no money what so ever, but for them to chose the alternative you want them to chose, it requires credits. What you are asking is if I give you this many credits, will you stop what you're doing and do this for me. So if it's scouting, or surveying and managing harvesters, any way it goes that is what you're really purchasing.

What this means to the crafter

At a moments notice there may be a new resource to spawn. I am limited to one week to gather as much of this resource as I can, in order to do that, I must have millions of credits on hand in order to buy someone else's time to help me, right now because they are not going to wait until I sell my good for payment. The more competitive and demanding the business, the more crafters seeking to purchase time in the marketplace, the higher the price goes. You don't often hear of multimillion credit resource contracts for droid engineers. The business is not as competitive as armorsmith's and weaponsmith's. That keeps their resources low.

What this means to the buyer

The margin on goods is higher than the input costs. You're not only paying for the crafters time, you're paying for the surveyor's time and the scout's time as well. Why is it important to have the best resources, because the consumer has said they want the best. One percentage point of base with armor makes a difference to the buyer, so the seller responds by getting the best available resources to reach the next higher percentage. I sell two armors one is base 68 one is base 70. I've discounted the base 60 to 2/3 the cost of the base 70 and still can't sell it. The consumer has spoken, 2 points of base are worth more to me than the savings for buying the cheaper good.

What can be done to change this?

I'm not an advocate of the solution, but the nature of harvesting resources is Right Now is Too Late. Reduce the amount of urgency and you've reduced the cost. So if resources would respawn, then the crafter has the option of waiting until the next spawn. There will still be a sense of urgencybecause he will be limited to that week of gathering, but he knows the resources will respawn in 2 months, so the option of waiting until the next rotation is there. I personally like the urgency and I'm willing to trade higher prices if there is a mechanism in place for consumers to purchase goods.

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