New Players experience with price bands / high rollers in markets

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Hi everyone, as the title says i just started the game and i want to rant about and maybe also discuss the concept of price bands, stopping me from increasing my price over a certain value. In general, i get it, people with to much money suddenly saying Oxygen costs 50k now (compared to the 90.9 at my local CX) or making a usually valuable item crash by flooding the market with sell orders at 0.01 a peace is obviously bad, i get that. But here is, in my opinion, where the new player problem sneaks back in:

The basic situation is simple: I want to build my colonies first building after using up the gifted materials. Sounds easy right? just go to the market and buy them. My problem is the following:

When i go to the market for almost all resources i would need as a new player (basic consumables, building materials, first products like basic metals and carbon, etc.) have some mega corp with 1000+ days since founding flooding the market with at least 30k units strong buy orders at maximal price and a similar amount of sell orders at minimum price. This way, whenever i want to buy or sell something i have to do it with them at a price that inflates my costs and also make me earn significantly less even when selling basic resources (the best deal i can make rn has like 40 AIC profit before shipping)

In the end the price bands cause me to not get any decent deals on something basic like 5 overalls for my workers because there is a 24739 units strong buy order at the maximum bid without a way to get around it without paying artificially high prices in order to just barely scrape by on a loosing businesses from week to week while slowly loosing my starting capital.

In the end i don’t think that there should be no guard rails against the things i said at the beginning but i just hope that, in the future, there will be something that ensures new players, where their money matters way more as they don’t tend to have such a stable income yet, have a chance to get the things they need to build a basic, profitable production line and keep it running no matter where they start without needing to fear mega corpos stonewalling the markets.

FYI the games im thinking back to in regards to this are sandbox MMOs like Eve Online, Elite Dangerous and Albion. And yes, those have a plethora of flaws as well, i am very aware of that, and there is a reason why i’m not just playing those if i want to do economy stuff, but at least all of them (yes even eve as a f2p user) allow new players to “make a living”, even if just small, through economic means from the get go.

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Right now, that would cost them 60 millions just to buy the current sell orders in Antares, and then they would lose tens of millions every day as other players would sell them overpriced oxygen. Even a rich player would run out of money quickly doing this, so in practice in doesn’t happen on materials as common as the ones new players depend on.

In the end the price bands cause me to not get any decent deals on something basic like 5 overalls for my workers because there is a 24739 units strong buy order

Price bands are meant to prevent people from making typos when typing the price of an order, and are dynamically adjusted based on recent transactions. I’ve never seen a case of a buy order being right up to the limit of a price band, especially not fo materials used by new players

have some mega corp with 1000+ days since founding flooding the market with at least 30k units strong buy orders at maximal price and a similar amount of sell orders at minimum price.

The maximum of a price band is higher than its minimum. If there is a buy order at the maximum price and a sell order at the minimum price, it means that someone is willing to sell at a (significantly!) lower price than what someone is willing to buy for, so the two orders would fill each other automatically, and you would never see them on the market.

something that ensures new players, where their money matters way more as they don’t tend to have such a stable income yet, have a chance to get the things they need to build a basic, profitable production line and keep it running no matter where they start without needing to fear mega corpos stonewalling the markets.

There is. When a rich player tries to artificially increase the price of something, other players will sell to them at the increased price, and the rich player loses money. This means the issue corrects itself, and the rich player becomes less rich, reducing their ability to do it again.

also make me earn significantly less even when selling basic resources (the best deal i can make rn has like 40 AIC profit before shipping)

I see you are based on Deimos. Right now, you could be making 150k AIC per day with a single base, by filling your base with SME (smelter) and HB1 and smelting copper (SIO + CUO + O → CU) or 140k/day by smelting silicon or gold.

And that’s just from buying from existing sellers and selling to existing buyers.

Also note that other players can offer loans (usually up to 1M) so you can build your first base quickly. Get in touch with them by asking on in-game chats or on Discord.

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I think you may be confusing two different game concepts. Price bands are a range limit that the game puts in place which prevents buy/sell orders outside of that range (players with a pro license are allowed to go beyond that limit however).

What you seem to be describing though is the price spread. That is the difference between the highest bid and the lowest ask. A small spread is usually a good thing as it indicates that buyers and sellers are pretty close to agreement on a fair price.

I think your concern though is that large buy orders at a high price make it impossible for your lower bid to get filled (and conversely, large sell orders at a low price make it impossible for your higher ask to get filled). This can seem like a problem especially when it comes to basic materials that are essential to new players but it is not a flaw in the game. It is possible for you to buy what you need to buy and sell the stuff you have to sell and still make a profit. In fact, as long as a player doesn’t make too many mistakes it is actually pretty difficult to lose money.

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This is not the fault of the price bands. Look at the price charts for each of the items you’re trading. The market simply does not go to those values because nobody wants to pay\sell at those prices. You can offer materials at favorable to you prices, but such is the nature of a free market. You need another player willing to trade with you.

In the end i don’t think that there should be no guard rails against the things i said at the beginning but i just hope that, in the future, there will be something that ensures new players, where their money matters way more as they don’t tend to have such a stable income yet, have a chance to get the things they need to build a basic, profitable production line and keep it running no matter where they start without needing to fear mega corpos stonewalling the markets.

Higher input prices for you means higher output prices for someone else. Prices reach equilibriums and profitability stabilizes across all industries. Large bids also mean a very large buyer for you to sell your outputs to at these “high prices”.

I would re-examine your calculations as there shouldn’t be any starting professions that have negative ROI. The only exception to this is if you’re extracting resources locally on the planet with very poor deposits.

have a chance to get the things they need to build a basic, profitable production line and keep it running

That is how things exist now :slight_smile:

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Please talk to someone in-game or on the discord and ask for advice. There are many ways to go bankrupt in this game (just like in real life) - and that is what makes succeeding in this game so much fun. You can’t just make anything and turn a profit - each planet has specializations (COGC) and different areas have different materials they specialize in. Talk to other players and they will be more than willing to help.

But understand that the market works this way for a reason - learn to work with it instead of trying to change it. New players who focus too much on perceived unfairness (trust me, enough time in game and you will love lowstrife’s orders when all the buyers evaporate and you are stuck with goods you can’t sell - except to them) normally burn out of the game because they refuse to change to match the game.

If you dig enough into the game, you will realize that the game is actually designed to have a spot for new players to profit - because each additional base costs more and more - experienced players are forced up the product chain - always leaving basic goods available - so making things like metal (as someone else noted) or basic consumables can almost always be done profitably if they are setup properly. So ask around and you will find your niche to start in.

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