Let's Prepare for 3.8
Traders, I'm thinking that 3.8 is going to bring big waves to Commerce and Trading. I think we've got to step up our game to be the first to find the best routes in 3.8. With that, let's report any routes here that you think are the best, we'll verify each other's routes by running them and then calculate them based on profit per hour. That's the profit we can earn in an hour of game-play.
Up to this point we've proven that the best routes must have these factors:
1. Commodities with the highest profit per unit
2. High supply and demand (enough to fill the largest ships multiple times and repeat, evergreen commodities, or high refresh rates)
3. The shortest route time.
With the introduction of new orbital space stations around planets, Port Olisar could be replaced by runs that are just as quick but offer more profit. For example, we could buy diamond cheaper, while still selling it for the same price, and holding the same 10 minute run time. We could also switch to other commodities.
Profit per unit is simple to test for, simply buy one of each commodity and check the prices at each trading console. The challenge with this is that prices change daily. To aid our small group of traders, instead of focusing on all the commodities and all the routes, we'll focus on the best commodities with the highest profit per minute first and the best known routes to date.
Supply and demand is tested by running the routes over a period of time, in our case an hour and testing how supply and demand changes. Does the supply of a commodity run out? When you get to the sell console are you able to sell it all in one go, or do you need to wait several minutes?
Route time is calculated starting at the trade console and stopped after the commodities are sold at the same trade console. For example if my starting location is Port Olisar, my starting location would be the commodity trade console, then I'd run the route buy the commodities and return to the sell console. After the commodities are sold I record the time.
As of 3.7.2 let's look at the best routes in this patch. As of writing this I doubled checked our history and the current prices, the current prices have dropped drastically likely because the increase in trading after citizencon as players test their new ships and trade routes have become better known and used.
Up to this point we've proven that the best routes must have these factors:
1. Commodities with the highest profit per unit
2. High supply and demand (enough to fill the largest ships multiple times and repeat, evergreen commodities, or high refresh rates)
3. The shortest route time.
With the introduction of new orbital space stations around planets, Port Olisar could be replaced by runs that are just as quick but offer more profit. For example, we could buy diamond cheaper, while still selling it for the same price, and holding the same 10 minute run time. We could also switch to other commodities.
Profit per unit is simple to test for, simply buy one of each commodity and check the prices at each trading console. The challenge with this is that prices change daily. To aid our small group of traders, instead of focusing on all the commodities and all the routes, we'll focus on the best commodities with the highest profit per minute first and the best known routes to date.
Supply and demand is tested by running the routes over a period of time, in our case an hour and testing how supply and demand changes. Does the supply of a commodity run out? When you get to the sell console are you able to sell it all in one go, or do you need to wait several minutes?
Route time is calculated starting at the trade console and stopped after the commodities are sold at the same trade console. For example if my starting location is Port Olisar, my starting location would be the commodity trade console, then I'd run the route buy the commodities and return to the sell console. After the commodities are sold I record the time.
As of 3.7.2 let's look at the best routes in this patch. As of writing this I doubled checked our history and the current prices, the current prices have dropped drastically likely because the increase in trading after citizencon as players test their new ships and trade routes have become better known and used.
- Tram & Myers to Port Olisar, Diamond, Titanium, and Laranite, 40,000 to 80,000 in 8 to 10 minutes. 4,811 to 10,000 profit per minute.
- Bezdek and Lathan to Lorville, Laranite, Titanium. 60,000 to 300,000, in 35 to 45 minutes. 1,333 to 8,500 profit per minute. 79,980 to 510,000 profit per hour.
- ArcCorp Mining Area 157 to Deakin Research, Flourine, 33,960 per 5 minutes. 6792 profit per minute. 407,520 profit per hour.
Top Commodities, by Contribution Margin (cm),
- Agricium, 3.83
- Laranite, 3.49
- Medical Supplies, 2.32
- Titanium, 1.80
- Astatine, 1.61
- Diamond, 1.41
- Gold, 1.00
- Fluorine, 0.60
- Tungsten, 0.55
- Scrap, 0.50
But this isn't the full story yet, Medical supplies have a high profit per unit but demand is low for this commodity. Also, Agricium also has a high profit per unit but supply is low. This also doesn't seem to explain why diamond is so profitable in our experience. Perhaps we're missing part of the equation so let's add in supply and demand per minute and calculate the total market value based on our contribution margin.
The list shows a surprising result. Diamond, Fluorine and Titanium are the top three. This is because these three products have a high supply that also meets a high demand. In all three cases supply is less than demand. This list might be oversimplified as it doesn't list the detail of each commodity price at each different location, but it shows a common trend we're also seeing in practice with cargo hauling. Diamond, Fluorine and titanium tend to out due other popular commodities like Laranite, Medical Supplies and Agricium in the long run. Keep in mind the total market value is per minute in the entire Stanton system.
Those are the top ten commodities of 3.7 let's start with those in 3.8 and see what new trade routes are revealed.
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