Estimated Ship Prices in UEC (based on RSI estimates Nov 2016)

Floating Cloud

Space Marshal
Apr 8, 2016
565
1,720
2,510
RSI Handle
Floating_Cloud
Hi folks,

I've just been watching this week's Wednesday Bensday, where Nikki DÁngelo has been performing her weekly interview with Ben Lesnick. One of the questions that arose this week was regarding the ability to purchase ships in-game with UEC. The response was that we'll be seeing this in the not too distant future, but perhaps the most interesting point was the figures that Ben disclosed on the current estimated $ to UEC ratio for ships, which gives us at least a vague idea of how much we will be paying with in-game credits.

Ok, a couple of disclaimers. Firstly the conversion formula is very broad, so these figures should be taken as just a general indication. Secondly (and more importantly) this is just for general amusement at present. There is a whole team looking at the in-game economy, and anything that is being discussed now can (and almost certainly will) change dramatically within a short period of time.

Having said that, here are some rough estimates for a few ships.

Formula:
$1 = 1000 UEC (current price on the RSI web site)
$ to UEC ship price will range between 4 to 10 times the current ratio, with the cheapest ships at the 4 end and the most expensive at the 10. That means that we can have a reasonably accurate idea of their price thoughts at these extreme ends, with some (much) wooliness for ships falling between the two ranges.

So, using these two known facts and my finger in the wind estimate of how the multiplier scale changes per $ level:
  • Base Aurora ES: $20, UEC 80,000 (multiplier used = 4)
  • Cutlass Black: $100, UEC 500,000 (multiplier used = 5)
  • Caterpiller: $295, UEC 2,000,000 (multiplier used = 7)
  • Polaris: $750, UEC 6,750,000 (multiplier used = 9)
  • Javelin: $2,500, UEC 25,000,000 (multiplier used = 10).

So a Javelin costing 300 times the price of the lowest cost ship, and that low cost ship probably just taking two or three days grinding to afford.

Now once again I reiterate, this is just something of interest. These figures do give an idea of RSI's thinking on ship prices, but only in the 'throwing a dart over your shoulder and managing to hit the barn' type way.

Source material: Nikki's video - bookmarked at the point that the question is asked:

 
Last edited:

Floating Cloud

Space Marshal
Apr 8, 2016
565
1,720
2,510
RSI Handle
Floating_Cloud
Thinking on, I
So in theory, if you want a lot of starting money, just buy a high priced ship and wait until launch to sell it for in game cash. Or even better, buy a ship where the expected value is going to go up, such as the BMM.
Yes, I was thinking much the same. I strongly suspect that we'll see a lot of real-world profit being made by people who have stockpiled a few ships. of course they are gambling that the game will launch and be a success, so it's not a risk free proposition.
 

Black Sunder

Rock Raiders
Officer
Jun 19, 2014
8,270
26,831
3,045
RSI Handle
Black_Sunder
So in theory, if you want a lot of starting money, just buy a high priced ship and wait until launch to sell it for in game cash. Or even better, buy a ship where the expected value is going to go up, such as the BMM.
Not exactly a bad idea overall but it has a severe flaw. Day 1 no one will have much cash. They cap the UEC you can have now at 150K so no one can start the game a millionaire or more. Selling to NPCs may or may not be possible for something like an Idris. How many NPCs could buy such a thing and where are they?
 

Printimus

Space Marshal
Officer
Donor
Dec 22, 2015
10,674
39,039
3,160
RSI Handle
Printimus
Not exactly a bad idea overall but it has a severe flaw. Day 1 no one will have much cash. They cap the UEC you can have now at 150K so no one can start the game a millionaire or more. Selling to NPCs may or may not be possible for something like an Idris. How many NPCs could buy such a thing and where are they?
uhh a ship dealership....duh.
 

NaffNaffBobFace

Space Marshal
Donor
Jan 5, 2016
11,755
43,213
3,150
RSI Handle
NaffNaffBobFace
uhh a ship dealership....duh.
Turn up at a high-street car dealership with an Armoured Personnel Carrier or Tank and they would probably only offer you scrap value for it.

Its one thing being able to buy in a huge second hand battleship, its another having a customer to buy one off you.
 

Printimus

Space Marshal
Officer
Donor
Dec 22, 2015
10,674
39,039
3,160
RSI Handle
Printimus
Turn up at a high-street car dealership with an Armoured Personnel Carrier or Tank and they would probably only offer you scrap value for it.

Its one thing being able to buy in a huge second hand battleship, its another having a customer to buy one off you.
This is the future, theres gonna be more than just street car dealers....
 

DrunkenTeddy

Order of 10 High Priest
Donor
Apr 28, 2016
384
1,229
350
RSI Handle
DrunkenTeddy
Turn up at a high-street car dealership with an Armoured Personnel Carrier or Tank and they would probably only offer you scrap value for it.

Its one thing being able to buy in a huge second hand battleship, its another having a customer to buy one off you.
How much would the Vanduul pay for an Idris or Javelin? ;)
 

NaffNaffBobFace

Space Marshal
Donor
Jan 5, 2016
11,755
43,213
3,150
RSI Handle
NaffNaffBobFace

NaffNaffBobFace

Space Marshal
Donor
Jan 5, 2016
11,755
43,213
3,150
RSI Handle
NaffNaffBobFace
76yweeee326y77777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777

EDIT - The cat just came and sat on the keyboard, sorry.
 

Xist

Moderator
Staff member
Officer
Donor
Jan 16, 2016
903
2,654
1,650
RSI Handle
Xist
How much would the Vanduul pay for an Idris or Javelin? ;)
You can't trade with Vanduul.

They will kill you on sight. It is not possible to raise your rep with them to trade. They only want to kill you.

Also, CIG has started repeatedly that players will only be able to sell ships for a small fraction of the actual value early in the game. NPCs won't offer you good prices, and no player or org will have enough resources to buy expensive ships for a while.

If an org does pool resources, they'll only be able to buy a very small number of expensive ships, which means supply will far outmatch demand, and prices will be very low.

TL;DR nobody can expect to sell ships early on unless you give them away at insanely cheap prices.
 

Black Sunder

Rock Raiders
Officer
Jun 19, 2014
8,270
26,831
3,045
RSI Handle
Black_Sunder
You can't trade with Vanduul.

They will kill you on sight. It is not possible to raise your rep with them to trade. They only want to kill you.
I don't believe you. I'm willing to bet that a few more people and I can trade our ammunition and EMP weapons for some Vanduul ships. They are just far more unwilling than us to complete the transaction which makes it all the sweeter as we close the deal.
 

Xist

Moderator
Staff member
Officer
Donor
Jan 16, 2016
903
2,654
1,650
RSI Handle
Xist
I don't believe you. I'm willing to bet that a few more people and I can trade our ammunition and EMP weapons for some Vanduul ships. They are just far more unwilling than us to complete the transaction which makes it all the sweeter as we close the deal.
With a loose definition of "trade" involving 100% of vanduul being deceased after the transaction, I can see your point. :)
 

Bruttle

Space Marshal
Donor
Aug 20, 2016
655
2,498
2,600
RSI Handle
Bruttle
Honestly, I would imagine that either UEC will be more difficult to obtain than it is right now, or those prices will be far higher. Allow me to trade napkin math with you...

1 hour of solo haphazard missions right now = ~ 20,000 aUEC
1 hour of solo "farming" missions for optimization = ~ 30,000 aUEC
Typical MMO solo quest income vs solo optimal farm income = ~ 1/2 ratio
Typical MMO solo farm vs group farm income = ~ 1/4 ratio
1 hour of group hard farm on final release = ~ 240,000+ UEC

So this is based on my personal experiences with farming money on quite a few MMOs. Farming money with quests is not the fastest way. You can easily earn twice as much money/hour if you use your head a bit. If you are grouped up on top of that, you can easily increase that amount exponentially.

So roughly (and I really do mean roughly) estimating UEC income based on what I can do now as a solo player, I would estimate that a small group of people could earn 25 million inside two weeks. So I would imagine that things will get tuned up a bit along the way. The aUEC that we see now won't be anything like the UEC that we will see later. At the very least, it will be much, much more difficult to get in-game.
 

Floating Cloud

Space Marshal
Apr 8, 2016
565
1,720
2,510
RSI Handle
Floating_Cloud
Honestly, I would imagine that either UEC will be more difficult to obtain ...
...So roughly (and I really do mean roughly) estimating UEC income based on what I can do now as a solo player, I would estimate that a small group of people could earn 25 million inside two weeks. So I would imagine that things will get tuned up a bit along the way. The aUEC that we see now won't be anything like the UEC that we will see later. At the very least, it will be much, much more difficult to get in-game.
Yes I gave that some thought, but came to the same decision that any mission rewards now will have little bearing on what we see in the game post-economy tweaks. Also the 'level 1'earnings for a new player will be insignificant compared to six month veteran with a fleet of trading ships, so guesstimating the time to earn enough to buy a super-carrier is just not feasible. I also strongly suspect that RSI's 4x to 10x multiplier for $ to UEC ship prices when the game goes live are wildly off. They will want to starter ships to be affordable, so the 4x end sounds fine, but to avoid established players being able to buy a Javelin every month we may well see the multiplier scale slide up to 100x or more.

Fun to mull these things over :)
 

supitza

Vault Dweller
Aug 5, 2015
2,000
8,576
3,010
RSI Handle
AstroSupitza
I also strongly suspect that RSI's 4x to 10x multiplier for $ to UEC ship prices when the game goes live are wildly off. They will want to starter ships to be affordable, so the 4x end sounds fine, but to avoid established players being able to buy a Javelin every month we may well see the multiplier scale slide up to 100x or more.
True. I suspect they'll either give you a starter ship to begin with or credits to buy one. Otherwise, if they make a new player (who hasn't bought any ships during development) slave around for weeks before being able to afford even the most basic of ships, that would suck harder than this:
 
Forgot your password?