First off, I wasn’t aware that Churchill's math was what the admins are using these days, but since Pip has said that's it, I‘ll go with that. Personally I think Churchill's calculations are far too simplistic and don’t accurately represents the actual trade environment, they give a very negative view of things. Moreover his calculations are based on profits made by a large and successful team ( which is obviously going to make them impressive ), where they should be confined to individual people and colonies.
It seems that the admins are worried about people grabbing a bunch of prom and adding it just before the colony ticks over, thus making a supposedly massive game breaking profit. Hence I’ve confined my calculations to this assumption, whether I disagree with it or not I might add. In my opinion the only way’s to have a quantities of promethium at hand is to:
A) Have a fully operational prom mine supplying so much prom that 2 hours of decay can still amount to having large amounts of prom available to sell to the colony and be capable of absorbing the costs of its production, as well as the general upkeep of the base itself. Some have already stated that they supply some 750 to 1,500 prom to one or more colonies, and I agree that's a reasonable amount for comparison. Now I can’t go ahead and do the math for this because of several reasons. The first is that I simply don’t know what formula the game uses to calculate prom decay, which I believe is the biggest cost to consider. I can make a simple sliding scale to approximate decay, but quite frankly this is highly inaccurate and I’m not going bother doing all that math for nothing.
B) The second way to have 1,000 plus promethium available is to buy it at the nearest AI base. In my opinion, this is the most likely way people get hold of bulk prom at short notice, for the purposes of selling to a colony. So the following calculations are based on this method.
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This is if you went to the nearest AI base, with available prom, at various prices with enough time to get back to your colony and place it on the base.
I’ve added in an extra 20% bought to account for decay. I think that's a reasonable enough amount considering it takes time to move prom, and it’s unlikely that you will arrive at the exact moment the colony is ticking over even with a timer. Even if you where to place it on a docked ship in order to freeze it, there would still be significant decay, not only in transportation but when you open the ship and transfer it to the base. Correct me if I’m wrong or you think this unreasonable.
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C = Credits, P = Promethium
These calculations at the top of each category represents Churchill's calculations. This assumes that you don’t pay for your prom, nor does it take into account any decay. Its simply a blanket calculation.
Prom Sold At Credits Equals per Tick Profit Multiplied by Daily Ticks giving Profit etc.
P 1,000 @ C 30,000 = C 30,000,000 * 12 ticks = C 360,000,000
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Buying.
1) P 1,200 @ C 7,500 = C 9,000,000
2) P 1,200 @ C 10,000 = C 12,000,000
3) P 1,200 @ C 15,000 = C 18,000,000
4) P 1,200 @ C 20,000 = C 24,000,000
Per tick profits:
Assuming you sell at C 30,000 per unit every tick, this is not always the case of course.
P 1,000 @ C 30,000 = C 30,000,000
Sale Price (minus) Cost Price (equals) Profit
1) C 30,000,000 - C 9,000,000 = C 21,000,000
2) C 30,000,000 - C 12,000,000 = C 18,000,000
3) C 30,000,000 - C 18,00,000 = C 12,000,000
4) C 30,000,000 - 24,00,000 = C 6,000,000
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Now daily profits:
This assumes you are at your computer 24 hours a day and are available for some 15 min’s every 2 hours to feed the colony. Personally I find this highly unlikely myself, even if you had a team-mate or two ( 8 hour shifts each ) help you out, the profits would likely be split between them.
P 1,000 @ C 30,000 = C 30,000,000 * 12 ticks = C 360,000,000
Profit (multiplied) by Tick (equals) Daily
1) C 21,000,000 * 12 = C 252,000,000
2) C 18,000,000 * 12 = C 216,000,000
3) C 12,000,000 * 12 = C 144,000,000
4) C 6,000,000 * 12 = C 72,000,000
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A hardcore gamer, 12 hours at the computer i.e. 6 ticks:
P 1,000 @ C 30,000 = C 30,000,000 * 6 ticks = C 180,000,000
Profit (multiplied) by Tick (equals) Daily
1) C 21,000,000 * 6 = C 126,000,000
2) C 18,000,000 * 6 = C 108,000,000
3) C 12,000,000 * 6 = C 72,000,000
4) C 6,000,000 * 6 = C 36,000,000
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A more average player, 6 hours i.e. 3 ticks:
P 1,000 @ C 30,000 = C 30,000,000 * 3 ticks = C 90,000,000
Profit (multiplied) by Tick (equals) Daily
1) C 21,000,000 * 3 = C 63,000,000
2) C 18,000,000 * 3 = C 54,000,000
3) C 12,000,000 * 3 = C 36,000,000
4) C 6,000,000 * 3 = C 18,000,000
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Now we move on to the monthly figures. We assume all the aforementioned is being done each and every day for 30 days. Quite a boring pursuit if you ask me, but meh.
Monthly ( 30 days ) @ 12 ticks per day, i.e. 24 hours
P 1,000 @ C 30,000 = C 30,000,000 * 12 ticks = C 360,000,000 * 30 = C 10,800,000,000
Daily (multiplied) by Days (equals) Monthly
1) C 252,000,000 * 30 = C 7,560,000,000
2) C 216,000,000 * 30 = C 6,480,000,000
3) C 144,000,000 * 30 = C 4,320,000,000
4) C 72,000,000 * 30 = C 2,160,000,000
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Monthly ( 30 days ) @ 6 ticks per day, i.e. 12 hours
P 1,000 @ C 30,000 = C 30,000,000 * 6 ticks = C 180,000,000 * 30 = C 5,400,000,000
Daily (multiplied) by Days (equals) Monthly
1) C 126,000,000 * 30 = C 3,780,000,000
2) C 108,000,000 * 30 = C 3,240,000,000
3) C 72,000,000 * 30 = C 2,160,000,000
4) C 36,000,000 * 30 = C 1,080,000,000
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Monthly ( 30 days ) @ 3 ticks per day, i.e. 6 hours
P 1,000 @ C 30,000 = C 30,000,000 * 3 ticks = C 90,000,000 * 30 = 2,700,000,000
Daily (multiplied) by Days (equals) Monthly
1) C 63,000,000 * 30 = C 1,890,000,000
2) C 54,000,000 * 30 = C 1,620,000,000
3) C 36,000,000 * 30 = C 1,080,000,000
4) C 18,000,000 * 30 = C 540,000,000
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Now we get to a full average universe. Defined as 3 months or 90 days. I’m going to consider the first 30 day’s a growing period, hence your colony hasn’t got to average maturity ( 6 - 7 billion population in my own estimation ). Since your population is low your colony won’t buy much, if you even bother try to sell anything but rations or peasants that is. I’ve decided to add in 20% of a month proper to represent this, I think that's reasonable enough. Now I realise this uni is peculiarly long but this is an average uni. Also we once again assume that all the aforementioned has been done, day in day out.
So this would be 30 Days Multiplied By 2.2, giving 66 Days for average universe profits.
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Universe ( 66 days ) @ 12 ticks per day, i.e. 24 hours
P 1,000 @ C 30,000 = C 30,000,000 * 12 ticks = C 360,000,000 * 30 = C 10,800,000,000 * 2.2 = C 23,760,000,000
Daily (multiplied) by Days (equals) Monthly (multiplied) by 2.2 (equals) Uni profit
1) C 252,000,000 * 30 = C 7,560,000,000 * 2.2 = C 16,632,000,000
2) C 216,000,000 * 30 = C 6,480,000,000 * 2.2 = C 14,256,000,000
3) C 144,000,000 * 30 = C 4,320,000,000 * 2.2 = C 9,504,000000
4) C 72,000,000 * 30 = C 2,160,000,000 * 2.2 = C 4,752,000,000
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Universe ( 66 days ) @ 6 ticks per day, i.e. 12 hours
Daily (multiplied) by Days (equals) Monthly (multiplied) by 2.2 (equals) Uni profit
P 1,000 @ C 30,000 = C 30,000,000 * 6 ticks = C 180,000,000 * 30 = C 5,400,000,000 * 2.2 = C 11,880,000,000
Daily (multiplied) by Days (equals) Monthly (multiplied) by 2.2 (equals) Uni profit
1) C 126,000,000 * 30 = C 3,780,000,000 * 2.2 = C 8,316,000,000
2) C 108,000,000 * 30 = C 3,240,000,000 * 2.2 = C 7,128,000,000
3) C 72,000,000 * 30 = C 2,160,000,000 * 2.2 = C 4,752,000,000
4) C 36,000,000 * 30 = C 1,080,000,000 * 2.2 = C 2,376,000,000
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Universe ( 66 days ) @ 3 ticks per day, i.e. 6 hours
P 1,000 @ C 30,000 = C 30,000,000 * 3 ticks = C 90,000,000 * 30 = 2,700,000,000 * 2.2 = C 5,940,000,000
Daily (multiplied) by Days (equals) Monthly
1) C 63,000,000 * 30 = C 1,890,000,000 * 2.2 = C 4,158,000,000
2) C 54,000,000 * 30 = C 1,620,000,000 * 2.2 = C 3,564,000,000
3) C 36,000,000 * 30 = C 1,080,000,000 * 2.2 = C 2,376,000,000
4) C 18,000,000 * 30 = C 540,000,000 * 2.2 = C 1,188,000,000
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As I think we can all see, the numbers don’t look so fierce when its broken down. The reality is that at the very best one could make up to 25 billion in 3 months. And that's with a hell of a lot of work as well as being awake and active 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for a full universe length and being alive at the end of it.
The truth is that the average player is not superman and won’t to be doing anything like that. In my experience most people have about 6 hours to play per day, more at weekends. There are many players who have far more time on their hands, this is true, but I’m doubtful that they’ll be spending all their time on Star Sonata.
Simply put, if I spent the same about of time DGing as I would have to on this, I could make a great deal more cash, even selling it to AI, than what I’ve put up here.
Look it over, think it over. I have no real problem with a sale cap, but I think it should be closer to 1,500 or even 2,000 per tick.
And just to add, the only thing a colony timer would add here is a little more precise timing. You would still have to do all the work yourself, that is unless we are proposing that the timer do all this for you
P.S. This is probably the biggest post I've ever written. One for my personal record books.
- DW