Shipyard Component Costs

[galahir950]

In Legacy, is there any reference or way to see the cost of components and frames in the shipyard?

[Bodega]

Maybe you should start a nice spreadsheet

[Marvin]

Good question. While helping another player get started today, I couldn't find a price listing for each frame ... which is different from the price differential when replacing your current ship with a different frame. It might be nice to have each ship's basic price listed either in the lower-right window or the specs window when you click on their icons.

[DaveK]

The cost for the ship you have is given at the left hand side at the top of the screen and the new frame is given at the right hand side top of the screen.

Would 'basic price' be the frame plus the minimum spec for everything else? There seem to be so many options and variations for the extra kit that it would be almost impossible to give a non misleading price for a 'basic' setup.

I suppose you could start with a fully stripped down Talon and see how much it's worth and then add things and see what difference that made to the cost. Your could then create a fully stripped down version of each frame and see how much that would cost.

For example changing the plating type or number of resistor packs or module type doesn't alter the price; changing the engine class or wing system does - going from a C1 to a C2 engine in a Talon costs an extra 4335 creds

We'd also need to check if the shipyard frame/equipment costs vary from system to system like the hardpoint equipment does

Big question is would the outcome be worth the effort and time input? What do we think?

[Marvin]

When you're short on credits, it would be nice to be able to look at the basic price of each frame so you could determine how much more, in the way of credits, you need to acquire.

[Flashman014]

I agree completely. We now have this great way to check the prices of commodities between systems before traveling there. It would be nice if we could do the same for ship parts and the like. I mean, it's the digital age, right? The internet can tell us a lot about prices of things in different areas. Doesn't it stand to reason that it would work the same way in an interplanetary system?At the very least, listing a direct price of a frame would be very nice. When you buy a new car, isn't the price right there on the sticker on the window?

[DaveK]

I'll have a go and see how easy it is to compile a table. To save a bit of time, does anyone know if frame/shipyard equipment prices are constant throughout the Evoverse or can you get bargains by shopping around. The former case makes it feasible to compile a table, the latter would require in-game stats and so would have to offered on the 'What I'd like to see ...' thread

[DreadMetis]

Despite my playing of EM hundreds of hours, I still have a hard time fiddling with the Shipyard in EL, and as I introduce the game to new players, they all find it counter-intuitive in the way things are displayed... I still can find my way around and explain it to others, but about the prices, I still would prefer a "price listing" as the actual model (it has its advantages, but is not very readable at a glance, or for a newbie apparently). I will search some ideas in othe games to have some suggestions.

[matchbox2022]

Second that. Very vague as to if colour coding means expensive/little of this here or cheap/tons of this here.

[DaveK]

OK - I've had a play and the calculations seem to be very easy to do on the fly:

Take the Talon frame with Engine=1, Wings=1 as the baseline; @ $512 176 and just change the frame

Osprey is x2
Saber is x3
Falcon is x4
Raptor is x5 etc

Each engine class is $4760 more than the previous
Each wing class is $ 2380 more than the previous (ie engine classes increase cost is 2x wing class increase cost and seem to be the same regardless of the frame)

Changing CM's, resistors, plating, modules, hull armour, energy cores and fuel tanks has no cost attached to it

I've tested all the wing and engine classes on a basic Talon and some engine classes on and Osprey and the first five frame costs. If I get time tomorrow I'll check a few others at random and check if Mil frames follow the same rules, but it looks like you can easily prepare a spreadsheet to give you costs for all the frame/equipment combinations

I hope this helps, DeadMetis

[Geek]

You forget one important thing : shipyard prices (both frames ad equipment) are affected by economy level.

Making a price chart seems difficult because of this.

[RobotB9]

After some years, i am trying playing evochron again(Of course legacy now) and i´m surprised that after this entire time, the shipyard interface is still the same. I think that will be good if we could have some improvement in it, specially showing in a direct way the price of your current component and the price for a new other, in a more simple and efficient way. I think the shipyard interface right now is so confused, at last for me that not have a english like a native language

[Marvin]

Basic prices for ship frames are now displayed. Which is a big help when determining how many credits you need before you can afford an upgrade.

[DaveK]

You forget one important thing : shipyard prices (both frames ad equipment) are affected by economy level.

Making a price chart seems difficult because of this.

Can you give some examples of the same frame/setup in different systems? - it might be possible to calculate the difference based on system technology/economy level

[RobotB9]

Basic prices for ship frames are now displayed. Which is a big help when determining how many credits you need before you can afford an upgrade.

is it possible to see for any component of the ship(engine, shield) separately? Or just like a entire frame of the ship?

[Edited on 2-2-2016 by RobotB9]

[Marvin]

Most components are a drop in the bucket when it comes to cost. The frame is the high-ticket item. It's also the most important when it comes to upgrades.

[DaveK]

Basic prices for ship frames are now displayed. Which is a big help when determining how many credits you need before you can afford an upgrade.

is it possible to see for any component of the ship(engine, shield) separately? Or just like a entire frame of the ship?

[Edited on 2-2-2016 by RobotB9]

I just changed one item at a time and found the difference between the two frames

[DaveK]

I've just done a loop around the SE quadrant and checked the cost of the basic default Talon and the cost of a single engine class change

The following data is arranged as: system name - tech level - rounded ship cost - engine cost per class increase - engine cost as a % of frame price - frame cost/(tech level x 1000)
(sorry the forum won't allow tabbing and tables!

Sapphire - 64 - 648K - 5355 - 8.3% - 10
Thuban - 10 - 710K - 5865 - 8.3% - 71
Pices - 75 - 751K - 6205 - 8.3% - 10
Pearl - 26 - 525K - 4335 - 8.3% - 20
Rucker - 6 - 525K - 4335 - 8.3% - 11
Virgo - 60 - 648K - 5355 - 8.3% - 66

From previous tests it appears that the cost of each level of frame is a constant amount

Tentative Conclusions:
frame cost varies (cheapest @ 70% of most expensive)
engine costs vary but as a % of frame cost is a standard 8%
from the previous data reported above the wing and engine costs for each change in class is constant and the wing cost is half the engine cost
there is no simple relationship between frame cost and tech level

More work will be needed to monitor frame costs in a system to see if it varies over time. There is also the task of analysing frame cost variations between systems to see if they vary according to other criteria - for example distance from Sapphire or number of gates in the system etc

So the big question is: Is it worth persisting with the idea of trying to create a database of 'standard' ship frame costs

My 2c worth; the patterns above show that you should shop around but when you've found your preferred point of purchase it's fairly easy to work out the relative costs of frame vs engines vs wings ... or you could just play around in the shipyard until you're happy with what you can create within your budget! :P

[Marvin]

So the big question is: Is it worth persisting with the idea of trying to create a database of 'standard' ship frame costs

And, in the back of your mind, you gotta be thinking, "There's an algorithm for this ... known only to Vice."

[DaveK]

So the big question is: Is it worth persisting with the idea of trying to create a database of 'standard' ship frame costs

And, in the back of your mind, you gotta be thinking, "There's an algorithm for this ... known only to Vice."

I am - and knowing how complex the game is I suspect that it isn't a simple one (or even a 'not very very hard one)

I also suspect that just as commodity prices change with in-system economic activity so will shipyard costs