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[EWarren]

I just started the game and having lots of fun doing trading with my little fleet (6x Hermes, low logistic cost, fast, but burns so much fuel...)

I understand that overselling into a food shortage carries risk of market manipulation, but is it market manipulation to buy out all the food from a market? 

For example, I often buy out food supply from Jangala (Hegemony core planet) without being accused of manipulation, but then I bought out all the food from Sindria (saw them being offered at 32C, then immediately bought storage and bought out all 2300 units on the market), which then caused a food shortage, and I was accused of manipulation (which was later cleared, but it was scary)

Should I never buyout all the goods on the market?  What is the threshold before I am flagged for manipulation?  50%?

Thanks!

[TheHengeProphet]

To my knowledge, it doesn't matter if you actually manipulate the market into collapse, so long as you don't sell double or more of the needed supplies required to end the shortage.  To avoid being accused of market manipulation, I try not to go over 150% the requested value.

[EWarren]

Thanks!  That clears it up

[Megas]

I do not know how, but it is possible to cause a food shortage by buying all food from an open market, at least at Jangala.  After food shortage ends, regardless how it ends or what you do with the food, an investigation can occur and the player found guilty.  This has happened to me at least twice, and I think one or two others posted similar experience.

[Taizo Puckett]

is it market manipulation to buy out all the food from a market?

Is it manipulation IRL? Of course, it is! So is in the game.

What is the threshold before I am flagged for manipulation?  50%?

I don't think it's expressed in percentage of available supply. Rather is depends (or should depend) on market's demand.

[TheHengeProphet]

I do not know how, but it is possible to cause a food shortage by buying all food from an open market, at least at Jangala.  After food shortage ends, regardless how it ends or what you do with the food, an investigation can occur and the player found guilty.  This has happened to me at least twice, and I think one or two others posted similar experience.

I haven't had this happen; however, I only really buy massive amounts of food from the Eos system.  I might try this just to see if I can trigger it.  I'm rather curious what the threshold is for buying out food to cause a shortage.

[Megas]

I sometimes buy out all food from Jangala if Asharu or Tibicena gets a shortage and I am in Corvus.  After I do this, Jangala often gets a shortage soon after.

However, I have not caused a shortage at Tartessus (food planet in Eos) by buying all of their food (numerous times).

[SatchelCharge]

I've definitely had that happen at Jangala too

[TheHengeProphet]

This is probably because Tartessus actually produces the food, whereas none of the other planets (if they produce it at all) produce food at a rate that can recover from an induced shortage.

[SafariJohn]

Tartessus: a sparsely populated planet of homesteads and insular townships that is able to produce more food than all the others currently in the game combined. The Cottage Industry market condition implies that they aren't exactly using the most advanced methods, either; heck, they might not even use tractors!

I've suggested it before, and I still stand by it: the Rural Polity should reduce demand for food instead of increasing production.


Funny thing I've seen: the Hegemony sent out a message denying the existence of a food shortage on one of their planets right after I recieved the normal food shortage report.

Edit: cleaned up the last sentence.

[Clockwork Owl]

Maybe the church actually hold divine power to some extent that they are able to bless the crops? :trollface:
Surely they won't use tractors.

Usual Hegemony media control, I'd say.

[Thaago]

Tartessus might just be the best world for growing crops on - and they have a very large population too. It seems that the jungle of Jangala is so aggressive that they need to use SpaceLasers to drive it back enough for farming.

[Clockwork Owl]

Yeah might be possible. It is also mentioned that the atmosphere of Jangala is poisonous to human, I believe. C Maaaaybe crops die out more than they would in the Old Earth, yield less than usual, or heavily genetic engineered which usually means expensive seeds.

[SafariJohn]

I guess when I read "sparsely populated polity of homesteads and insular townships" m first impression is subsistence farmers. Maybe it's actually refering to an American West type scenario, albeit a lot more peaceful.

Hmm, with shuttles instead of trains, transporting food from many scattered farms to processing plants and spaceports may be practical. However, the world is described as dry and flat, AKA a desert, and a global desert means global sandstorms. If you know a bit about the Dustbowl or live near an area that gets sandstorms you can see how that would be bad for agriculture. Now I've given myself another reason to think Tartessus shouldn't be producing loads of food.

If my post seems disjointed, it's because I'm on my phone and keep getting distracted.

Oh look, the description when you hover over the planet explicitly states most of the population is subsistence farmers. Way to render my long rationalizing moot, Starsector.

[Gothars]

Maybe growing crops in the Sector is actually much more difficult than we imagine. Remember, the terraforming of many planets was not finished (or even begun) when the gates broke down, it might be very hard to grow any food at all on them. Tartessus might be so successful because they found a reliable method in an unreliable Sector, even if it isn't all that efficient by earth standards. The good atmospheric protection from stellar radiation is also mentioned, which might be another big problem for many potential agricultural worlds.

It seems to me that they are utilizing a great number of relatively small, labor intense greenhouses. (One is depicted in the Rural Polity icon, and the desert environment would make it sensible.) Which probably only works because they have virtually no other industry and the whole population consist oft farmers. That's something that would be hard to replicate for any other faction, with their populations and economies being oriented toward an (post-)industrial age lifestyle.