Merchant prince and freight prices

[barnest2]

Flicking through merchant prince again.
The freight prices have changed to 500 per ton +20% per extra parsec.
Doesn't this make... well, almost every starship that isn't funded by a military or psuedo-military group unable to make a profit?

 

[mattman]

I saw it as a nerf to make it so that it's not so easy to make money on freight. This is good and it keeps the players hunting for the necessary side work as a hook.

Also there are rules immediately following that allow roleplay to command a higher price for freight delivery.

 

[atpollard]

Flicking through merchant prince again.
The freight prices have changed to 500 per ton +20% per extra parsec.
Doesn't this make... well, almost every starship that isn't funded by a military or psuedo-military group unable to make a profit?

That must be wholesale, not retail.

 

[barnest2]

I saw it as a nerf to make it so that it's not so easy to make money on freight. This is good and it keeps the players hunting for the necessary side work as a hook.

Also there are rules immediately following that allow roleplay to command a higher price for freight delivery.

Except you can still only barely make mortgage payments shipping freight. And then only if you get full loads. So speculative trading is a must anyway.
That and the higher price only goes up too the original price as well...

 

[zero]

The thing with speculative trade is you need the credits to buy it in the first place, so unless you have a high enough amount of creds on-hand, you'll need to freight-run or do something with a Patron to have the cash to invest in it, then theres a valid point of probably making a loss at some point or not being able to sell all your stuff at a good price before the mortgage payment is due.

 

[barnest2]

Exactly... I think I would use the original prices. The new ones are far too low to be viable.

 

[far-trader]

I suspect it is meant to be paired with HG where you can build a basic Free-Trader at 30% less (if you believe you can get a TL15 shipyard to build you a TL9 ship*) and then take 10% off that for a standard design discount (if you believe the two should apply in concert*). So your mortgage will be substantially lower, meaning you won't need to charge as much to make the payments, or cover the maintenance.

* I don't, in either case In the first your TL15 shipyards are going to be too busy building stuff that actually requires TL15, they'll tell you to go have your Free-Trader built at some backwater TL9 shipyard like everyone else, and they'll laugh at the suggestion you are actually expecting it to be cheaper at the TL15 shipyard, imtu. In the second, imo, once you start involving manufacture at above the baseline TL for the express purpose of doing it better you're no longer building a standard design.

 

[Captain Jonah]

Also remember that if you are getting murdered with Cr500 per ton you can broker it up though you need a good broker to make it worth while.

Still for those of you with a broker 4 and Soc +2 its fairly easy to get Cr1000 per ton for spending money till you can start raking in the credits buying and selling.

Remember you make more money on low berths than anything else at jump one, if cargo isn't working stack up a few more low berths

 

[DFW]

I saw it as a nerf to make it so that it's not so easy to make money on freight.

Yes, after studying it, this is the only reason for the prices. It is fairly nonsensical otherwise.

 

[zero]

I wont be following that in my Trav games, its a struggle to make a profitable ship that is usable without this.

 

[barnest2]

Exactly. I'm hoping my new GM decides not too use this...