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v1.02, 1 October 2003

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\ | / Trading Guide
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Contents
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1. Introduction
2. Credits and Legal
3. Markets and Stations
4. Rank, Political Rating and Taxation
5. Price Basics
6. Cargo Missions
7. Demand and Supply
8. Production
9. Advanced Production
10. Transport and Meeting Demand
11. Self Training
12. What Now?
A1. Appendix: Newbie Tips
A2. Appendix: Further Reading
A3. Appendix: Trading Tools


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1. Introduction
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This document is intended to give a basic introduction to trading and the
economy in JumpGate.

It aims to introduce newer pilots to the most basic concepts, and encourages
more experienced pilots to think beyond the obvious trading features in the
game. This guide does not cover more advanced strategies, piloting or ship
equipment, nor provide a robust mathematical analysis of 'the economy'. It
does not explicitly tell you 'how to do it', although it does include some
examples.

It starts by examining price/profit based trading and cargo missions, then
looks further at demand, supply and production based trading. Boxed text
indicates an example or more detailed explanation of a concept. Like many
aspects of the game, trading and the economy are complex: far more complex
than it may at first seem. Consequently, nobody has a perfect understanding of
the subject - including the author.

Version 1.02, 1 October 2003. Updated information on Custom Producers and
pricing.


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2. Credits and Legal
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This guide was written by Tim (timski) Howgego, copyright 2002-2003. Errors
and suggestions should be reported to tim (at) capsu (dot) org . Please put
"Jumpgate" somewhere in the email subject field. Contributors are noted with
the relevant text. Special thanks to baadf00d and Xindaan. This document is in
the public domain: You may copy and repost this guide, but the content of the
document, including the credits, must remain unchanged. Jumpgate copyright (c)
1999-2003 NetDevil Ltd. Other trademarks and copyright are owned by their
respective trademark and copyright holders.


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3. Markets and Stations
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Every station has a public market screen. This screen lists items in the
station's public inventory, with quantities and prices. These items are
available for purchase by any pilot with the required rank, political rating
and cash.

Items are divided into categories - the important split is between commodities
and ship equipment. Commodities are materials produced by stations which
cannot be equipped to ships.

Different stations have different volumes of different items available. Prices
vary between certain stations. Stations will always buy an item, but not
always at a profit.

That is the basis of a simple trading system: Pilots purchase an item at one
station, transport it to another station where they expect the price is
higher, and hopefully sell for a profit. Such a concept should be familiar to
anyone with previous experience of 'Elite style' space simulation games.

.----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| |
| Simple Trading Example |
| |
| A relatively new Solrain Premia pilot has 7,000 credits available, and |
| four cargo spaces. They buy four units of Water from the Wake station |
| market for about 1,550 credits each. They launch and fly to Outpost |
| station. On docking they sell the four units of Water to the station |
| market for about 2,100 credits each. They have made a total profit of |
| 2,200 credits. |
| |
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

Most stations have two other markets: (1) A private hidden inventory, used by
the station to store certain commodities. (2) Inventory held by other pilots
that are docked - in their ships, on the station floor, or (in the case of
storage depots) in store. The private hidden inventory cannot be seen, nor can
items be purchased from it. Inventory held by other pilots cannot be seen, but
can normally be traded between consenting pilots.


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4. Rank, Political Rating and Taxation
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Every item has a minimum rank and political rating that must be met in order
for the item to be purchased by a pilot.

Rank is constant through the galaxy. Rank is gained by gaining experience.
Experience is gained by completing missions, killing conflux, collecting
medals, holding beacons, retrieving artifacts, and a few other things.

Political rating varies by faction. The rating used is that for the faction
owning the station where you are purchasing items. Political rating is not
relevant at neutral (unregulated) stations. Political rating is gained by
completing missions for a faction. Each successful mission adds 3 political
rating for that faction, regardless of the type or difficulty of the mission.
Political rating over 100 decays by about one point per hour online. Unlawful
hostile acts reduce political rating dramatically, potentially to -100.

All commodities have a minimum of rank 0 and political rating 0. All new
pilots may purchase any commodity if they have the cash to do so. Equipment
varies greatly. Only half of all equipment can be purchased at 0 rank and
political rating, and that's mostly the worst stuff.

Items can always be sold, regardless of rank and political rating.

.----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| |
| Know Your Political Rating and Tax Rate |
| |
| Political rating can be seen on your JOSSH profile. In game, it can be |
| seen whilst docked at a station: Click the slider bar at the bottom of |
| the screen. |
| |
| Tax rate can be calculated in-game by comparing the price displayed |
| below an item on the main market screen, with the price shown when you |
| click on the item prior to purchasing it. The difference is the tax |
| paid, from which you can calculate the tax rate. |
| |
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

Political rating is important initially because it is the main factor
affecting taxation.

All purchases from station markets are taxed. Sales are not taxed. Commodities
have a base tax rate of 1%. Equipment has a base tax rate of 10%.

At 0 political rating, the base rate is modified by +2%: Pilots with 0
political rating pay 3% tax of commodities and 12% on equipment. At political
rating 125 (the highest), the base rate is modified by -0.5%: Pilots with 125
political rating pay just 0.5% on commodities.

Tax rate is modified by other factors, not all of which are fully understood.
The most obvious other factor is the number of beacons held by your faction.
Each beacon counts for a 0.01% reduction in the tax paid. So, a pilot with
political rating 125, whose faction holds 50 beacons typically pays no tax on
commodities. It is not (currently) possible to have a negative tax rate.

.----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| |
| Dangers of Trading at High Tax Rates |
| |
| Our Solrain Premia pilot has received a donation of 400,000 credits |
| from a passing veteran. They decide to buy four units of Radium at |
| Outpost and transport them to Hyperial. The market price to Outpost is |
| 81,300 credits a unit, and Hyperial pays 84,000 credits. Great - a |
| profit of 2,700 each. However, our new trader has a 0 political rating |
| with Octavius. This means they are paying about 3% taxation on the |
| purchase of Radium at Outpost. So, the actual price they pay is around |
| 83,700 credits a unit, which gives less profit overall than the Water |
| they shipped in earlier, but for a lot more effort. |
| |
| Rule of thumb: Generally, the cheaper the commodity, the greater the |
| profit margin, the safer it is to trade with low political rating. |
| |
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

Equipment is rarely profitable when sold via station markets. In addition,
equipment is not insured whilst being transported as cargo, so deaths are very
expensive. Inexperienced pilots should avoid the transport of equipment.

Rank is primarily relevant to commodity traders because it restricts the
availability of ships, and to a lesser extent, equipment. Lower ranking pilots
can only access shuttles, which have small cargo capacities, as well as other
disadvantages such as slow speed and poor defences. This varies slightly by
faction, but generally: A level 21 pilot can potentially purchase a ship with
ten times the capacity of the best ship available to pilots below level 10.
Level 26 pilots can purchase a ship with ten times the capacity of the level
21 ship.

.----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
| |
| Largest Available Cargo Ships by Rank |
| |
| Rank Class Solrain Quantar Octavius |
| Ship Capacity Ship Capacity Ship Capacity |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 0 Shuttle Premia 4 Storm 2 Apteryx 1 |
| 3 Shuttle - - - - Albatross 3 |
| 6 Large Shuttle Premia SC 6 Breeze 7 Buzzard 8 |
| 9 Light Fighter Interceptor 6 - - - - |
| 12 Fast Transport Vedetta 15 Whirlwind 14 Hawk 12 |
| 21 Transport Traveler 60 Hurricane 52 Wyvern 48 |
| 21 Light Miner Quarrier 62 Harmattan 65 Simurgh 60 |
| 26 Tow Pioneer 500 Thunder 500 Condor 500 |
| 38 Freighter Viceroy 750 Chinook 735 Roc 740 |
| |
| Light Miners are primarily mining ships. While having larger cargo |
| capacities than Transports, their lack of speed and poor handling tend |
| to make them inferior craft for trading. |
| |
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------'

Trading in shuttles tends to be relatively inefficient. If done carefully,
shuttle pilots can make modest profits trading, but they cannot expect to
compete with whose able to fly larger vessels, with more cash and higher
political ratings.


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5. Price Basics
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