Frieght charges IMTU
- Thread starter Proneutron
- Start date
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
Ignore the mortgage.
Calculate the costs involved for fuel, life support, annual maintenance payments, crew salaries.
Now how big is your cargo hold? You set the price to pay to ship freight from your per jump costs. Your competitors will have to match this. If you want to drive out your competition you can subsidise your freight costs from the profits made by selling the goods,
That is what it costs to transport goods for the megacorporations or a government - the megacorp will pay for ship construction from profits, while a government can use general taxation. They make profits from the goods they transport, not the freight, so if you want to compete in the freight haulage business you have had it if you have a mortgage to pay as well.
Solutions:
steal your ship - you are now a wanted fugitive from the authorities, adventure awaits
skip on mortgage payments - you are now being hunted by bounty hunters, adventure awaits
take a ship from someone 'legally' - I killed the pirates I get to keep their ship, let's do it again
scavenge a ship from an old battle and fix her up, may need a bit of insystem shenanigans to get the cash for repairs
be incredibly wealthy and just buy a few ships from your cash reserves, you could gift or loan them to ethically challenges rapscallions to go on adventures to annoy your competitors
take out a mortgage to buy a free trader with access to a cluster of worlds with favourable trade codes, hire a crew you can trust and do what ever it takes to keep flying (better yet hire a crew who have a lot of mustering out cash they are willing to invest in your first few speculative trade attempts)
Calculate the costs involved for fuel, life support, annual maintenance payments, crew salaries.
Now how big is your cargo hold? You set the price to pay to ship freight from your per jump costs. Your competitors will have to match this. If you want to drive out your competition you can subsidise your freight costs from the profits made by selling the goods,
That is what it costs to transport goods for the megacorporations or a government - the megacorp will pay for ship construction from profits, while a government can use general taxation. They make profits from the goods they transport, not the freight, so if you want to compete in the freight haulage business you have had it if you have a mortgage to pay as well.
Solutions:
steal your ship - you are now a wanted fugitive from the authorities, adventure awaits
skip on mortgage payments - you are now being hunted by bounty hunters, adventure awaits
take a ship from someone 'legally' - I killed the pirates I get to keep their ship, let's do it again
scavenge a ship from an old battle and fix her up, may need a bit of insystem shenanigans to get the cash for repairs
be incredibly wealthy and just buy a few ships from your cash reserves, you could gift or loan them to ethically challenges rapscallions to go on adventures to annoy your competitors
take out a mortgage to buy a free trader with access to a cluster of worlds with favourable trade codes, hire a crew you can trust and do what ever it takes to keep flying (better yet hire a crew who have a lot of mustering out cash they are willing to invest in your first few speculative trade attempts)
That's most of it.
As I observed above, the capital and operating costs of the most efficient available ship will set the floor for shipping costs. However, this is the floor, not the ceiling.
A given world might not generate enough cargo to fill the most efficient available ship on a weekly basis. So it won't visit that often, and you might find someone willing to pay more to ship now than wait for the next big freighter to come through.
There might be pirates, or a war, or political issues (or, heck, Negative Space Wedgies) that make interstellar commerce less than perfectly safe in the area. Megacorps' insurers might balk, but a daring PC crew might be willing to take their chances and harvest the risk premium themselves.
There might be a high-Jn milk run that the local tech can't build a ship for -- at least not profitably. Come in from a couple of dozen parsecs away with your TL-14 or -15 wondership and you can clean up until someone else notices.
And coming at it from the other side, there's the question of how profitable the cargo can be. At some point, the costs of shipping will exceed the potential profit from selling it, at which point there won't be any demand for shipping (on that route).
That said, in general the higher-Jn ships will most likely be built for, and stay on, routes that use their range to its maximum capability. For game purposes, they'd be settings rather than PC-owned ships since they won't be wandering willy-nilly across the sector; instead, they'd just go back and forth.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
Don't forget the original trade lane restrictions.
Bulk freighters and NPC ships ply the trade lanes, to go off a trade lane you need a jump cassette for the destination world or the generate program.
In normal circumstances a jump cassettes can only be purchased for worlds on trade lanes, a jump cassette for a world off the trade lanes could be provided by a patron, bought from a shady dealer or anything in-between - all adventure opportunities.
The generate program is expensive but well worth it in the long run... makes for a good patron reward or something to acquire from a defeated pirate ship.
Bulk freighters and NPC ships ply the trade lanes, to go off a trade lane you need a jump cassette for the destination world or the generate program.
In normal circumstances a jump cassettes can only be purchased for worlds on trade lanes, a jump cassette for a world off the trade lanes could be provided by a patron, bought from a shady dealer or anything in-between - all adventure opportunities.
The generate program is expensive but well worth it in the long run... makes for a good patron reward or something to acquire from a defeated pirate ship.
Proneutron
SOC-13
This is something purchased when the ship is ordered so the cost isn't really an issue. Cr10k per Jn per J-route tape isn't something to be tolerated. So that Mcr .8 cost rolled into the mortgage would be the norm in commercial or private ships.
AnotherDilbert
SOC-14 1K
The ship still has to be payed somehow.
With current rules financing the ship is much better for megacorps, since it's opex, not capex.
Shareholders like to see returns for used capital, much more than the risk-free bank interest. Tying up capital in ships is waste...
A self-financed ship would have higher capital costs than a financed ship.
The mortgage represent the capital cost that always have to payed somehow.
If nothing else the ship has to be replaced regularly, you have to include the replacement cost in the freight. Which is just another way of calculating the capital cost. TINSTAAFL.
Proneutron
SOC-13
Excellent financial points. Similarly I will not self finance a new car when I can get good loan deal. Don't want to tie up capital I can use to MAKE money.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
1. In theory, issuing jump tapes that are cheaper than keeping a dedicated astrogator onboard would likely tend to route trade in desired channels.
2. Biggest ticket items for commercial shipping tends to be engineering, specifically the jump drive.
3. Figure out your business plan, then reverse engineer it.
2. Biggest ticket items for commercial shipping tends to be engineering, specifically the jump drive.
3. Figure out your business plan, then reverse engineer it.
Proneutron
SOC-13
In reality using the Generate program (no astrogator needed) just 80 times pays for the cost of the program.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Until it gets a kill code and a pop up notice of a mandatory upgrade.
Proneutron
SOC-13
:xh:
so modern built-in obsolescence exists in the far future too? See - Marc's idea that we're still the same even 5000 years in the future still holds true!
Maybe you only "subscribe" to the generate program... *sigh*
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
You could wipe the computer and reinstall the trial version.
Yup.
Honestly the whole "there is a Highly Organized Imperium which sets standard rates for passage and freight" is a retcon. The rules have arbitrary rates to keep things simple.
Yeah, I do that, too.
wish we could add thumbs up / smileys to posts!
(don't know how many times I've done similar tricks, even resetting the computer date, to further the free trials...however, I think the software people have gotten smarter about that sort of thing)
Proneutron
SOC-13
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
I kinda doubt the honour system is a viable business model for Five Kay software developers.
JumpRAR it is.
JumpRAR it is.
Straybow
SOC-14 1K
A character with good computer skills should be able to easily reverse-engineer the generate algorithms and write new interface code. This would probably violate various copyright or patent standards. A programmer could use the reverse engineered code as a test engine to certify the output of new code. While this could be legally dicey it wouldn't be easy to prove once the testing is complete and the questionable code is disposed.
A group of characters with high computer skills, PhDs in astrogation, and related fields should be able to make an open source generate pgm. A group of independent starship owners could form a risk retention group and certify the open source version after suitable testing. Membership in the risk group for a tenth the cost of Generate would gain access to the code.
A group of characters with high computer skills, PhDs in astrogation, and related fields should be able to make an open source generate pgm. A group of independent starship owners could form a risk retention group and certify the open source version after suitable testing. Membership in the risk group for a tenth the cost of Generate would gain access to the code.
Straybow
SOC-14 1K
Back to the OP, it can be simpler. Price per parsec, with a reduction for each additional week of transit. Note that the first jump is only one week, but each successive jump is two weeks.
E.g., base 1600/pc, -100/pc each week after the first; 1000/pc minimum
A ship could make a quick turnaround refuel and jump, especially if the market for fuel tenders positioned around the 100D limit made them generally available. That would make a 2 jump delivery 1500 instead of 1400. I don't think maintenance standards would allow doing that 3 jumps in a row.
E.g., base 1600/pc, -100/pc each week after the first; 1000/pc minimum
Code:
1 pc 2 pc 3 pc 4 pc 5 pc 6 pc
J1 1600 1400 1200 1000 1000 1000
J2 1600 1600 1400 1400 1200 1200
J3 1600 1600 1600 1400 1400 1400
J4 1600 1600 1600 1600 1400 1400
J5 1600 1600 1600 1600 1600 1400
J6 1600 1600 1600 1600 1600 1600Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Maintenance costs are hard coded to an annual period.
If you don't strain the machinery, they'll work as designed.
If you don't strain the machinery, they'll work as designed.
