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[Aratoop]

Ah, but everyone is forgetting how autofactories produce ships only with the need for blueprints- probably lowering the price of many ships.

[Griffinhart]

Starfarer Credits should be like EVE Online ISK - a whole new currency invented just to support the astronomical costs of spaceships.*

Then you can just retire to a luxurious vacation planet on a fistful of ISK Credits. :v

*: Though, that's just in the fluff. In practice, at least judging from DUST514, guns apparently costs several digits of ISK, which is hilariously expensive (again, fluff-wise). And a basic frigate is something like... 500k-ish? At least, judging from Rifter prices according to EVE-Central.

(Of course, IRL, the ISK-to-USD ratio is something like... 450m ISK to 15USD, or thereabouts.)

-- Griffinhart

[hadesian]

Ah, but everyone is forgetting how autofactories produce ships only with the need for blueprints- porbsably lowering the price of many ships.

Porsbably?

Probably, you mean.

I actually think not, because it's not like they can just make up the materials, can they?

[Griffinhart]

Ah, but everyone is forgetting how autofactories produce ships only with the need for blueprints- porbsably lowering the price of many ships.

Porsbably?

Probably, you mean.

I actually think not, because it's not like they can just make up the materials, can they?

It reduces costs and time by a lot if you can fully automate construction. No having to pay workers, no worrying about safety regulations, etc., etc.

-- Griffinhart

[Upgradecap]

But the materials? It's not like they're just gonna pop up in the factory whenever it needs some.

[hadesian]

But the materials? It's not like they're just gonna pop up in the factory whenever it needs some.

We could be talking seriously rare materials here, like Iridium, Platinum etc.

A star destroyer takes TEN YEARS worth of a major mining corporation's output. That said, with the number of planets available, it can't be that hard. Look what we've done now on Earth, now imagine that hundreds, thousands, maybe millions of times over.

[StahnAileron]

Depends on where the factories are located. If it's a mineral-rich world/moon/asteroid, in theory, you could automate the whole process using only local sources. You'd probably readily stripe mine an asteroid is a few years/decades, probably, but something like Mecury, the Moon, or Mars could probably last a while. It's not stated how long the Autofactories have been running in the lore (or has it yet?), so kinda hard to tell. Also, I don't think the infrastructure of civilizations has been fleshed out well enough lore-wise. So for all you know, each auto-factory has one or more "auto-mines" associated with it. (Or even be its own auto-mine.)

Still, not having human workers to tend to does cut down long-term cost significantly. (Though I imagine the initial short-term upfront investment cost would be astronomical.) Most of the cost even in modern society isn't in the materials; it's usually the labor. Of course, rarer, scarce, and/or high-demand materials can command prices measured in human lives sometimes in games.

There's still a maintenance cost in materials for the robots and facilities though.

[zakastra]

Its also worth considering that whilst an auto-factory may well survive a civilizations collapse and regression intact, even if the tech to make one has been lost The same level of mining technology would likely  rapidly be lost due to the fact that it would be primarily targeted at mineral rich-biosphere poor worlds where mass mining can be done cheaply without ethical consequence, and that these are both harsh environments, much much more demanding in maintenance (compare current day assembly line, to heavy bore industrial drills) and that the mining equipment would need to be moved from site to site repeatedly (given that the tech to create it will likely have been lost) which would also create a much higher accident/loss/damage risk (you don't need to take an auto factory apart each time you want to run it. but for heavy mining equipment this is often the case. The minerals go to the factory, the mining equipment has to go to the minerals.

Its not totally unfeasible to imagine a situation where four or five jealously guarded and incredibly fortified auto factories are pumping out all the new craft and replacement parts in the sector, with the raw materials being mined virtually by hand. the cost of which totally overshadow trivial manufacturing costs (Unless the security component of manufacturing is in itself huge as defending such an asset form hostile acquisition would be phenomenal)

[heskey30]

Automated mining equipment is much simpler than an autofactory - in fact, we probably would be able to make some ourselves if we wanted to. (I mean the human race, not me.) Also, they probably do not use parts that wear a lot - it is probably all done with mining blasters and lasers.

Yeah, it is not unfeasible to imagine mining things by hand, but it's unlikely. Also, autofactories can, I am sure, make at least an improvised mining machine.

And rare materials may fetch higher prices, but not astronomically higher - everything is just made of different amounts of protons and electrons, so an advanced civilization would probably not have a whole lot of trouble literally making gold (or something more useful) from lead. Heck, we already can do that (I think), it just takes a lot of energy.

But maybe there is a cost increase because of defense - and there is a war on so demand for ships would be higher... so it is probably just an accross the board price increase.

Unless the reduced wealth accross the sector caused by lack of trade causes defla-

You know what? I am done now before I write a novel.
 

[sdmike1]

I would quote you, but im on a phone... Getting to the point no we cant make stuff like that

[DJ Die]

youre forgetting that RnD and worker salaries are huge part of the cost of say fighter or even a carrier...
raw materials are actually small part of the final price....just at what happened to the unit cost of the new Zumwalt class DDGs US Navy is building after their government decreased planned class size from 32 down to 3....

also asteroid mining is extremely effective...if youd manage to tow a decent sized rock or two into Earths orbit we wouldnt have to worry about our metal needs for next few thousand years....

so if you dont need to research anything(and probably cant anyway), dont have to pay workers and support their needs and you have pretty much endless supply of cheap materials it makes sense ships would be quite inexpensive compared to modern ships....it also makes sense that weapons are comparatively expensive because they usually require more rarer materials than ships.....

[Upgradecap]

I would quote you, but im on a phone... Getting to the point no we cant make stuff like that

Who would you quote?

[Griffinhart]

Automated mining equipment is much simpler than an autofactory - in fact, we probably would be able to make some ourselves if we wanted to. (I mean the human race, not me.) Also, they probably do not use parts that wear a lot - it is probably all done with mining blasters and lasers.

Er. Realistically, lasers do induce wear and tear on the mechanics to produce said laser (current technology requires lenses and gases, since most of the "easy to produce" lasers are chemical in nature).

And rare materials may fetch higher prices, but not astronomically higher - everything is just made of different amounts of protons and electrons

Actually, just protons. A differing amount of neutrons creates different isotopes; a differing amount of electrons creates different anions (in the case of more electrons than protons, for a net negative charge) or cations (in the case of fewer electrons than protons, for a net positive charge).

so an advanced civilization would probably not have a whole lot of trouble literally making gold (or something more useful) from lead. Heck, we already can do that (I think), it just takes a lot of energy.

We can. We can turn something like, an ounce of lead to an ounce of gold, and it'll only cost you a couple million dollars to do.

-- Griffinhart

[DJ Die]

Er. Realistically, lasers do induce wear and tear on the mechanics to produce said laser (current technology requires lenses and gases, since most of the "easy to produce" lasers are chemical in nature).

We can. We can turn something like, an ounce of lead to an ounce of gold, and it'll only cost you a couple million dollars to do.

-- Griffinhart

yeah with current tech but its possible to use magnetic or even grav lenses in lasers which dont have these problems.....after all it should be future.....even then laser lenses are not that expensive if you dont have to pay for actually manufacturing process and just provide the raw materials....
chemical lasers are required because we dont have sufficiently small and powerful reactors that would be able to provide continuous power....dont know what ships in Starfarer use but its surely powerful enough to just feed the energy directly into the laser without need for chemical reaction....after all we have weapons that can send much more powerful bursts of energy than simple mining laser including directed tachyon beam....

[Reshy]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/25/us-planet-diamond-idUSTRE77O69A20110825


Speaking of valuables, this one is valuable enough to completely devalue it.




On a side note I'm guessing that each credit is a million dollars, that makes the hound probably about 4 billion.  However that means that a single crate of supplies is 6 million.  So the problem is making 6 'credits' seem reasonable while 4,000 us an ungodly price.