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[Dark.Revenant]

The SF Credit can't be directly compared to USD because the difference in economies of our country versus a downward-spiraling domain and post-apocalyptic society is enormous.  Food is probably very expensive in the Starfarer world compared to ours, at least in relation to military costs.  There is NO way a warship can be purchased for the same amount of money as a year's living costs of ~250 men, unless living costs are just that expensive in space.  It would be like buying a military destroyer for around 50 million dollars.  For comparison, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer costs 1.8 BILLION US dollars.

So by equating Starfarer costs to US naval costs, a Gerald R. Ford supercarrier (currently in construction) costs around 9 billion USD and the Starfarer equivalent is the Astral, which is something like 225,000? credits when fully outfitted.  This makes 1 Credit == 40,000 USD in military value.  Consider that 1 Credit == 500 USD in civilian value, the world of Starfarer is quite a frakked-up place.

The average civilian in Starfarer probably earns 75 Credits per year in wages.  Certainly not enough to buy military craft, but that means even small settlements of 100 people can pool up to buy a freighter.

Of course this is all just universe fluff-bending to fit the gameplay balance Alex came up with.  A mere mental exercise rather than anything grounded in fact.

[K-64]

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.

That's not all that unreasonable, when you take into consideration just how broad the "supplies" category is. Sure it can just be the basic food and sheet metal, but it can go into the realms of additional ammo (considering the calibres being used, that'll be rather expensive) and missiles, which are usually in the several hundred thousand dollar region each. Medical supplies are also another rather pricey thing, electrical parts, etc.

So yeah, taking just how broad the title "supplies" is, and that one unit of supplies may not necessarily be a single crate, it isn't unreasonable to say that 1 unit of supplies would cost $6-mill.

[StahnAileron]

You know, if an autofactory is good enough to run for decades (or centuries), I'm pretty sure it would've been set up to be able to maintain its own upkeep as well as crank out automated mining equipment to feed itself. Considering the tech level of the SF lore, I'm pretty sure the Auto-Facts can crank out MUCH better equipment than what we in reality have access to. When an ENTIRE production process is automated and the only real "cost" for it is time and physical materials (both for production and upkeep), really, pricing for the finished products is mostly arbitrary, if you think about it (supply and demand factor into the pricing much more than material and labor costs). There's the upfront cost of Auto-Facts, sure, but I think all of the people who have a vested interest in recouping their investments are long gone by now, according to in-game lore.

[PCCL]

another huge cost factor is the UAC.

If people got their hands on a rare UAC (like the hyperion) obviously they would cash in on it by making it very expensice

also power, I'm guessing it would take more power for an autofact to cut materials to the precise specs needed for an Aurora then it would to slap some metal slabs together to make a Dominator

[robokill]

more lore wise i think a credit is baically like a 300$ bill its perpose is to minimalize domain transactions from the zillions also there are probably much smaller curencies for things like a steak. or it could be like startrek with crazy tecj. or technology is so advanced that a hound is like a small car.

[DJ Die]

more lore wise i think a credit is baically like a 300$ bill its perpose is to minimalize domain transactions from the zillions also there are probably much smaller curencies for things like a steak. or it could be like startrek with crazy tecj. or technology is so advanced that a hound is like a small car.

well thats basically what it is anyway i consider it Technical (for some reason i cant figure out how to name link in this version of PHP http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_(vehicle)) of starfarer universe....
it depends whats used to power the autofactory....it could just gather something from the sun wind or run one something entirely different so power cost of manufacture may not be an issue

[sdmike1]

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

Who would you quote?

-snip-
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.
-snip-

Him lol

[heskey30]

Yes, we can do it, through this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photodisintegration

And fission of course, though that might not work for lead at all. I can't say, I don't know enough about it.

Anyway, it is very expensive for us right now... but possible. And with better technology it would become cheaper.

To make bigger atoms use fusion. You already know what that is I bet, if not google it. Again, takes a lot of energy, but it's possible. You can also shoot alpha particles at the atoms.

I did not say we did it industrially, but it has been done in a lab.

[Erick Doe]

It is all relative.

 

[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....

You're going to have to explain magnetic and/or gravitational lenses to me with regards to their applications in constructing a coherent laser, because I am not familiar with the process. In fact, I'm not familiar with the term "magnetic lens" at all, and the only sort of gravitational lensing I know of is the sort that was predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity, with which I can't think of any way to produce a coherent laser (then again, I'm also not an engineer, nor have I had training as such, so I'm inherently limited in perspective).

-- Griffinhart

[DJ Die]

You're going to have to explain magnetic and/or gravitational lenses to me with regards to their applications in constructing a coherent laser, because I am not familiar with the process. In fact, I'm not familiar with the term "magnetic lens" at all, and the only sort of gravitational lensing I know of is the sort that was predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity, with which I can't think of any way to produce a coherent laser (then again, I'm also not an engineer, nor have I had training as such, so I'm inherently limited in perspective).

basically this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_electron_laser

[Griffinhart]

Y'know, if you had said "free electron laser", then I would've known what you meant. A FEL has nothing to do with gravity.

-- Griffinhart

[DJ Die]

its still laser besides given its theoretical tune-ability it would be ideal as a mining laser anyway....
well in theory if you could create artificial gravity you could also use it to focus particle beams....as it is now we cannot do that but in world of Starfarer....why not?

[StahnAileron]

I just thought of something: does anyone know how much the food costs associated with the International Space Station? I just realized that food in space would probably have to made in particular ways. At the very least, the shelf-life would have to be fairly long and the quality reasonable (as in safety for consumption and lack of contaminates, not how good it tastes.) Also, assuming food is only produced on worlds (and not in space), there's the cost associated with getting the material out of a gravity well (though this may very well be negligible in SR lore.)

So I'm thinking the cost of 2 weeks of food for the ISS might be slightly better basis for the SFC to RL currency conversion, maybe...?

[DJ Die]

the problem is that our space going technology is very crude....chemical engines are highly inefficient because huge part of their power is wasted on carrying their own fuel....for example US Atlas V rockets payload is less than 4% of its total weight when you need to get it into the geosynchronous orbit.....

biggest problem of almost all current human technology is lack of proper power source that would be small enough and powerful enough to provide what we need....this could probably be solved once we master the fusion technology.....

both chemical and fission power sources are either too bulky or too inefficient(or worse too pollution especially in case of fission engines)

i dont think that would be a problem in starfarer universe so actually getting the food into the orbit shouldnt be such a problem

i do think food would be comparatively more expensive that it is today because of autofactories that can produce almost everything relatively cheaply while food still has to be grown and prepared by humans