Is Trading That Broken in this Game Or?

[LionsRoar]

Is Trading That Broken in this Game Or

am I doing it wrong?

I have been playing Naval Action about 10 days now. Everyday or so I have been learning diffrent aspects of the game. So far, I'm amazed of the quality of the game! Well, until last night. I tried trading.

I took a haul of Oak from a port that produces and sailed 40 mins to a port that consumes oak, and lost money! I either seriously misunderstand trading in this game or the system is broken.

Any insight into the subject would be apreiated...

[Tennessee88]

I believe the trading system is in need of fine tuning although I am by far less qualified than others to speak to specifics. Prices for resources used in the construction of ships seem to wildly fluctuate in Capitals and other hubs. As traders will focus their efforts on bringing good to those markets. Looking forward to someone who can break it down. 

[Reyvar]

Never under any circumstances hit the "sell" button. That is selling to an NPC for squat. Use a sell contract to undercut the current buy price by 1. That way you sell your stuff to other players (and maybe NPC?).

[weissenwulf]

Trading is very basic at the moment. I hope that place more emphasis on it at some point. Credit where credit is due, though, while the systems are very basic an unexciting, they seem to be -- generally -- glitch/bug free for the most part. All the bones are there, they just need to create risk/reward scenarios to encourage trading.

[The MetaBaron]

You are not taking all the factors into consideration. A port is not the only thing that consumes Oak. Its also needed for boat building. There is a player driven side to pricing and the economy you have to take into consideration.

[RURickJames]

Agree with Baron, I have to presume you aren't taking into consideration all the variables

- Port Consumption rate (effects the next item)

- Current Port on-hand quantities 

- Is it a resource that is used in large volume for crafting (likely to effect the next item)

- Is the port heavily used by crafters making ships (effects the next item)

- Number of buy contracts (that you cannot see) for that resource

 

Now, I do believe there is a glitch (?) in the Shop.  I always see resource sell options in ports (you know, the ones with a blank in the buy block) with ridiculously juicy prices, but every time I try to sell to that choice get some stupidly low price.  I fell victim to that a couple times before I started selling to only to options that display both a buy & sell prices.  This may be what happened to you Lion.

 

@ Reyvar, since we are limited to only 5 simultaneous contracts, I only use those for locations where I dump a large quantity and drive away (just let it sit there and get nibbled away) to return & claim at a later date.  95% of the time I sell directly to the shop sell offer price.  If you tie yourself to only using contracts, your trading will....go....very....slowly

[wtfcyno]

Oak is needed in building every ship. So most of the NPC supply is almost immediately bought up by players when they spawn. You probably bought it off another player that marked up the price.

[Prater]

As post #3 said, sell to players, not npcs.  If you sell to npcs, you will lose money.

[kumisz]

The fact that the port consumes a certain material, doesn't mean it will give a good price for it. For example, there is a port that consumes iron ore (buys it for 211 max), and there is another port that produces iron ore (sells 78 min). If you take that route, you will make huge profit.

 

But, if the consuming port already has, say, 2000 iron ore, it won't be paying 211 for it, only, say, 140. Same with the producing port, if the stock is all bought up, it will maybe only sell iron for 160. Then it is not worth it, and you will lose money, regardless of the fact that you bring a port materials it consumes.

 

Look around first, check the prices, and adapt to the situation. If you bought something, don't sell it if you dont make profit off of it. Log off on the consuming port, check in about 1-2 hours, there may be a desire for your goods then.

[McFatts]

I'm still trying to figure this out as well.  A last known price on the map screen would be nice.

[Admiral 8Q]

It's not broken. It takes figuring out where to buy and sell goods.