Questions about the galactic economy and destroying competition

[hostergaard]

So, I have been thinking about building my first factory and have some question on how the economy works.

My first and most important question is; where do the end products go? The products that cannot be refined further, who are they sold too? What are the mechanics behind this?

My reason for this question is because I want to figure out how to maximize profits.

I was thinking that removing competition by, say, destroying the factories yourself or taking on protection missions and perform... poorly.

Like removing all solar AI solar power plants. Then I would have a monopoly on it.

Would this work?

But there is other possibilities too. Take on as many "build factories" missions as possible to either have an over-production of products you want or drive up demand on the resources you sell.

Or you could destroy all factories in the universe and supply everything in the world.

But it all depends on the mechanics of end products. If things like shields at a set rate there is no point making a large amounts of factories. Then its better to sell resources to AI stations and let them sell the stuff. But that depended how fast they sell end products.

So how does it all work? Should promote AI factories and make sure as many of them are build so I can sell more resources to them, leave them alone or make sure they are destroyed pave way for my monopoly?

Tried looking searching, wasn't much info.

[Libelnon]

In answer to your first comment, everything goes somewhere. Energy into food and minerals into crystal and weapons into equipment docks, etc. When they reach a dock, they slowly start to be consumed, ensuring there's an open market at all times.

Removing competition simply pisses off the natives most of the time, it's better to find a weakpoint in the economy and go from there. If you can't sell your own end products to NPC stations, you'll never earn any money, and therefore will never be able to buy ships, or jump drives, or anything of that sort.

Doing too many build missions can clutter up space, sometimes with crap that doesn't ever do anything. Such as when you get tasked to build a Paranid Hornet Missile Fab in the middle of Nathan's Voyage, where the nearest Soyery is about 10-12 jumps away. Yeah, this creates a gap in the market, but it also creates a small one - without any other stations about that need Soya Husk, you're unlikely to turn a decent profit.

The best way to do it is take things a step at a time. The X Mantra is Trade, Build, Fight, Think for a reason - apply the 4th and you won't go far wrong.

[perkint]

Where do things go? All docks (EQD, HQ & Trade Stations) consume goods, so they simply disappear over time. Other things (eg Space weed) get consumed somehow - not sure as anyone has ever worked out exactly where/how. To a certain extent, a fair chunk will be lost to police scans. Other will make it to pirate stations & simply get consumed. But I suspect there are other sink holes somewhere.

Can you get rid of the competition? Yep. If a factory is destroyed & God thinks it was still needed, he'll simply rebuild. But, if you flood an area so the NPC cannot sell anything, God will remove them.

Is it worth simply building everything, to increase demand of what you sell or supply of what you want? Well, so long as your PC can handle it and you are not overly cluttering a sector you want to work in, why not

Also, there are 2 other ways to shift huge volumes of stock:
1. EQDs will buy any amount of goods (shields, weapons & missiles) if it is of a type they do not normally stock.
2. Put them into ships & sell the ships! This way (I think) you get minimum market value, but you can sell anything this way in huge volumes.

Short answer is you can do pretty much anything you want to do

Tim

[hostergaard]

Alright, thanks for the answers guys, it was a lot of help. For now I went with setting up a 1MJ factory in argon prime (X3:AP).

So if I want a Galactic monopoly I will still need the local EQD, HQ & Trade Stations to ultimately sell the products. SO god will remove unprofitable stations? Ha! spares me the effort of removing them myself.

My computer do fine, mostly, tough it seems like certain sector will slow it to a grinding halt after playing a while (although, its only if I point my ship and look in a specific direction, I jump into sector and then have turn my ship to look away at a tedious one frame every other second).

I read around a bit and it seems that supporting AI economy will help make sectors more active. My goal is to make the world as active and dynamic as possible while being the richest and most powerful person.

It would be cool if things like credits, AI ships, stations wasn't spawned out of thin blue air but was limited had to produced and was affected by things like availability. Effectively making every ship unique. Then we would feel the importance of and effective production sector.

[Virtualaughing]

There is such randomness in the game that won't alow you to destroy it entirely. Thjere is some pierces of NPCs just popping in to existence that will buy your products. There is some who will occupy your patrols. But the galaxy won't be ever the same. More factories you have the less NPC factory will be build. For the most profitssss you must trade for every NPC factory in the game. Support them with everything. Buy then everything they made and sold them where it needed.
There is no other way. You won't be supernatural. Everything you will become is only a citizen of the commonwealth.