TommyDaGreat
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- Dec 28, 2005
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- Sweden
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- Freelancer
- Avatar Name
- Poisonous TommyDaGreat Snake
Economy overview tutorial
So I have seen countless tutorials of hunting, mining, taming and so on but I haven't really found any good tutorials on how to keep track of your economy. So I thought it was time to create one of those because even if it doesn't make you any money, it sure as hell is a nice way to see how you are doing in the long run.
I am going to use hunting here as an example but the same idea should work with all professions.
First of all, what you will need is a laptop, a pocket computer or a simple piece of pen and paper. I use the latter even if it ends up with mountains of papers after a while. It is worth it.
Some simple startoff advice
What you then need to do to keep things as simple as possible is to choose a certain amount of items you use and stick to that. For example, when you hunt, you always go out with 400 ped ammo and when you mine you always go out with 400 bombs or 400 probes. It really helps to avoid confusion when calculating if you know how much you usually use.
Now, what you want to do is to have two pieces of paper (or document files) to keep notes on.
Note # 1
This is what I call the end result-note as well as individual activity-note.
On this note you should keep track of your total profit/loss, the TT value and decay of any (L)-items you use, their markup and also the decay on the hunting/mining/etc. round you just did.
Let us say that you start by setting your starting mark today. Then you write a 0 ped +/- in the upper left corner of the first paper. This is the overall balance and will continue to grow and shrink after each hunt.
When that is finished we pretend you buy a ful TT Breer P5a from the auction. You write down the TT value in the top middle of the paper (222.10 PED) and the Markup of the item next to that in %. 125% in this example. (Note that markup only matters on (L)-items.)
Do NOT add the market value to the left column with balance yet. Even though the end results will be the same, it will be harder to see how well you are doing every individual hunt if you do this way. You can if you want to, but I advice you not to.
Then, finally you keep the column in the upper right corner free to insert decay.
When I hunt, I normally have to repair once every ~170 ped ammo wasted. So when I go back and repair for say, 60 ped, I write that down here in the corner.
After 400 ped ammo, the hunt is over and this column should contain 3 different numbers.
At this point I add upp all the decay. Usually I end up with around 140 ped REPAIRABLE decay in total. What is important to not forget at this point is to also include the decay of the (L)-item. With markup. So if my Breer P5a has decayed 40 ped, I will have to make the calculation 40 ped (decay) X 1.25 (125%) to get 50 ped decay in total.
Add that to the 140 ped decay above and you will have a decay of 190 ped.
Good. So now that you have the decay, you put all things you looted in the TT. In this example I looted 600 peds of items. You take those 600 peds of items minus the decay and ammo (400 + 190 = 590 ped) and see that you made a 10 ped profit.
What you do now is that you add this +10 ped in the upper left corner below the former +/-0 and write a +10.
In the middle column you keep the markup of the (L)-item but you cross the TT value of it and write the new TT value here. Which should be 222.10 - 40 = 382.10 ped. This is to remember what TT you had at the start of the next round.
Finally you cross the decay here in he upper right corner and make room for the decay of the next round. These numbers are not important anymore and can be scrapped indefinitely.
Now you have a good view of how you managed to do in TT after decay (incl market value) and loots.
*Important note*Never include market values on this note other than the decay of the tool you use. There is one exception and that comes below when you are done with note #2.
Note # 2
Let us drop the first note for a while.
This is the second piece of paper. What I call my "auction"-note. Because this is what I use it for. Calculating market values.
Let us pretend that the hunt above was done on argonauts. And you looted a fair deal of iron. 100 ped TT. Yay!
Now you want to put that up on the auction. Hmmm... 115% sounds good. Okay, you go for that.
So you put it up on the auction.
Now, what you will want to do on this note is to write up this bunch of Iron's TT value on the right side along with the auction fee. Let us say that you want the same b/o as startup. Then the auction fee will become 2.30 ped. Then you write for example "Iron - 100 PED (2.30)".
Now let us put up all that wool you have. 103% markup? Poo. Ajja, here we go. 100 ped wools... 103 % market value. Auction fee of ~0.80 ped (example only) and the right column should look like this:
Iron - 100 PED (2.30)
Wool - 100 PED (0.80)
And you want to add a 50 PED TT Korss 400 you looted too. You set the buyout to 140% and decide to get a TT startup price at 100% to get more people interested.
That will only bring a fee of the default 0.50 ped to the auction. You should NOT add the additional auction fee (or B/o) here until AFTER the sale. Because you never know what it will sell for.
List should now look like this:
Iron - 100 PED (2.30)
Wool - 100 PED (0.70)
Korss400 - 50 PED (0.50)
And you log off for a day.
When you get back in-game your auctions' time limits are over.
The iron never sold, the wool sold at b/o and the Korss sold at 130%.
What you want to do on this note now is to write up the auction loss of the Iron as -2.30 in the upper left corner of this note.
Then the wool. 103% on 100 ped wool means 3 ped profit. Minus auction fee of 0.80 ped. Profit on this auction = 2.20 ped. Add this to the notes upper left corner.
The Korss on the other hand sold for more than you put it out for as start bid meaning an additional auction fee. We pretend it sold for 130%. The 50 ped TT value X 1.3 = 65 ped. A 15 ped profit.
The auction fee might be 2 ped because of the markup. Reduce this from the profit = 13 ped. Also reduce the initial .50 ped fee and the profit for this item will be 12.50 ped.
Cross the Korss from the list. Also the wool. The iron can remain if you want to try and sell it again. Which you will. Maybe with other markups though and then you will have to remake this one too and cross it.
On the top left corner of this note you should now have these numbers:
-2.30 (the iron)
+ 2.20 (the wool)
+ 12.50 (the korss)
As your storage continues growing and you sell more materials you will want to keep this column for a while.
When it starts becoming too cluttered you add up all these values and get:
(-2.30) + 2.20 + 12.50 = 12.40. You have made a 12.40 ped profit on all those auctions.
Now, what you want to do is go back to the first note.
Note 1 again
Remember that +10 in the upper left corner you have on this note?
Time to add those 12.40 peds here now. The overall profit should now be 10 + 12.40 = 22.40 ped.
Note 2 again
Then go back to this note and cross the values in the upper left corner. So you don't accidentally use them again.
Conclusion
Now you should have a good track of your economy and see how the trends fare you. Both after markup and before. I find this very useful because if somethings starts going downhill a lot, I can use this information to change hunting behaviour. Be it armor, weapons or mobs. As long as the trend is afloat or minor losses all should be fine though. Or profit
Keeping track of my economy like this is a good thing to do because it is great as an overview. You have no idea how often you can be too optimistic or pessimistic about your economy based on guesses.
Mistakes to avoid
* Never, EVER add market values for unsold goods to your calculations. The prices can go up and down in a few days or even hours. Just because something is worth 400 % when you loot it, it doesn't mean that it will be worth that when you sell it. It might have gone down to 200% when it happens and if you added those extra 200% to the calculations, you are way off the reality. This is also especially important in crafting which is totally based on markup values in products and materials.
* Be careful when TTing a broken (L)-item. A Breer P5a that is broken will have a TT value of 6.66 ped. Please note that you ALSO pay for the market value of this value even though you can't use it. So NEVER add back the market value on a broken item when you TT it. In my example I bought it for 125%. This means that the 6.66 X 1.25 = 8.33. So when you TT this item you will only get the 6.66 ped back. The other 1.67 PED are lost and should also be accounted for as lost money. Never forget this markup loss when TTing them.
*The reason why I keep the total loss/gain on the first note is because Note # 2 tends to get full much more often, meaning I have to throw it away every now and then. Note # 1 lasts longer, hence the main economy tracking is made there.
If you have any more hints on how to keep track of your economy, please add them to this thread. It took a lot of time to write this tutorial, but I hope it will help many people out there that find this economy thing a mess.
So I have seen countless tutorials of hunting, mining, taming and so on but I haven't really found any good tutorials on how to keep track of your economy. So I thought it was time to create one of those because even if it doesn't make you any money, it sure as hell is a nice way to see how you are doing in the long run.
I am going to use hunting here as an example but the same idea should work with all professions.
First of all, what you will need is a laptop, a pocket computer or a simple piece of pen and paper. I use the latter even if it ends up with mountains of papers after a while. It is worth it.
Some simple startoff advice
What you then need to do to keep things as simple as possible is to choose a certain amount of items you use and stick to that. For example, when you hunt, you always go out with 400 ped ammo and when you mine you always go out with 400 bombs or 400 probes. It really helps to avoid confusion when calculating if you know how much you usually use.
Now, what you want to do is to have two pieces of paper (or document files) to keep notes on.
Note # 1
This is what I call the end result-note as well as individual activity-note.
On this note you should keep track of your total profit/loss, the TT value and decay of any (L)-items you use, their markup and also the decay on the hunting/mining/etc. round you just did.
Let us say that you start by setting your starting mark today. Then you write a 0 ped +/- in the upper left corner of the first paper. This is the overall balance and will continue to grow and shrink after each hunt.
When that is finished we pretend you buy a ful TT Breer P5a from the auction. You write down the TT value in the top middle of the paper (222.10 PED) and the Markup of the item next to that in %. 125% in this example. (Note that markup only matters on (L)-items.)
Do NOT add the market value to the left column with balance yet. Even though the end results will be the same, it will be harder to see how well you are doing every individual hunt if you do this way. You can if you want to, but I advice you not to.
Then, finally you keep the column in the upper right corner free to insert decay.
When I hunt, I normally have to repair once every ~170 ped ammo wasted. So when I go back and repair for say, 60 ped, I write that down here in the corner.
After 400 ped ammo, the hunt is over and this column should contain 3 different numbers.
At this point I add upp all the decay. Usually I end up with around 140 ped REPAIRABLE decay in total. What is important to not forget at this point is to also include the decay of the (L)-item. With markup. So if my Breer P5a has decayed 40 ped, I will have to make the calculation 40 ped (decay) X 1.25 (125%) to get 50 ped decay in total.
Add that to the 140 ped decay above and you will have a decay of 190 ped.
Good. So now that you have the decay, you put all things you looted in the TT. In this example I looted 600 peds of items. You take those 600 peds of items minus the decay and ammo (400 + 190 = 590 ped) and see that you made a 10 ped profit.
What you do now is that you add this +10 ped in the upper left corner below the former +/-0 and write a +10.
In the middle column you keep the markup of the (L)-item but you cross the TT value of it and write the new TT value here. Which should be 222.10 - 40 = 382.10 ped. This is to remember what TT you had at the start of the next round.
Finally you cross the decay here in he upper right corner and make room for the decay of the next round. These numbers are not important anymore and can be scrapped indefinitely.
Now you have a good view of how you managed to do in TT after decay (incl market value) and loots.
*Important note*Never include market values on this note other than the decay of the tool you use. There is one exception and that comes below when you are done with note #2.
Note # 2
Let us drop the first note for a while.
This is the second piece of paper. What I call my "auction"-note. Because this is what I use it for. Calculating market values.
Let us pretend that the hunt above was done on argonauts. And you looted a fair deal of iron. 100 ped TT. Yay!
Now you want to put that up on the auction. Hmmm... 115% sounds good. Okay, you go for that.
So you put it up on the auction.
Now, what you will want to do on this note is to write up this bunch of Iron's TT value on the right side along with the auction fee. Let us say that you want the same b/o as startup. Then the auction fee will become 2.30 ped. Then you write for example "Iron - 100 PED (2.30)".
Now let us put up all that wool you have. 103% markup? Poo. Ajja, here we go. 100 ped wools... 103 % market value. Auction fee of ~0.80 ped (example only) and the right column should look like this:
Iron - 100 PED (2.30)
Wool - 100 PED (0.80)
And you want to add a 50 PED TT Korss 400 you looted too. You set the buyout to 140% and decide to get a TT startup price at 100% to get more people interested.
That will only bring a fee of the default 0.50 ped to the auction. You should NOT add the additional auction fee (or B/o) here until AFTER the sale. Because you never know what it will sell for.
List should now look like this:
Iron - 100 PED (2.30)
Wool - 100 PED (0.70)
Korss400 - 50 PED (0.50)
And you log off for a day.
When you get back in-game your auctions' time limits are over.
The iron never sold, the wool sold at b/o and the Korss sold at 130%.
What you want to do on this note now is to write up the auction loss of the Iron as -2.30 in the upper left corner of this note.
Then the wool. 103% on 100 ped wool means 3 ped profit. Minus auction fee of 0.80 ped. Profit on this auction = 2.20 ped. Add this to the notes upper left corner.
The Korss on the other hand sold for more than you put it out for as start bid meaning an additional auction fee. We pretend it sold for 130%. The 50 ped TT value X 1.3 = 65 ped. A 15 ped profit.
The auction fee might be 2 ped because of the markup. Reduce this from the profit = 13 ped. Also reduce the initial .50 ped fee and the profit for this item will be 12.50 ped.
Cross the Korss from the list. Also the wool. The iron can remain if you want to try and sell it again. Which you will. Maybe with other markups though and then you will have to remake this one too and cross it.
On the top left corner of this note you should now have these numbers:
-2.30 (the iron)
+ 2.20 (the wool)
+ 12.50 (the korss)
As your storage continues growing and you sell more materials you will want to keep this column for a while.
When it starts becoming too cluttered you add up all these values and get:
(-2.30) + 2.20 + 12.50 = 12.40. You have made a 12.40 ped profit on all those auctions.
Now, what you want to do is go back to the first note.
Note 1 again
Remember that +10 in the upper left corner you have on this note?
Time to add those 12.40 peds here now. The overall profit should now be 10 + 12.40 = 22.40 ped.
Note 2 again
Then go back to this note and cross the values in the upper left corner. So you don't accidentally use them again.
Conclusion
Now you should have a good track of your economy and see how the trends fare you. Both after markup and before. I find this very useful because if somethings starts going downhill a lot, I can use this information to change hunting behaviour. Be it armor, weapons or mobs. As long as the trend is afloat or minor losses all should be fine though. Or profit
Keeping track of my economy like this is a good thing to do because it is great as an overview. You have no idea how often you can be too optimistic or pessimistic about your economy based on guesses.
Mistakes to avoid
* Never, EVER add market values for unsold goods to your calculations. The prices can go up and down in a few days or even hours. Just because something is worth 400 % when you loot it, it doesn't mean that it will be worth that when you sell it. It might have gone down to 200% when it happens and if you added those extra 200% to the calculations, you are way off the reality. This is also especially important in crafting which is totally based on markup values in products and materials.
* Be careful when TTing a broken (L)-item. A Breer P5a that is broken will have a TT value of 6.66 ped. Please note that you ALSO pay for the market value of this value even though you can't use it. So NEVER add back the market value on a broken item when you TT it. In my example I bought it for 125%. This means that the 6.66 X 1.25 = 8.33. So when you TT this item you will only get the 6.66 ped back. The other 1.67 PED are lost and should also be accounted for as lost money. Never forget this markup loss when TTing them.
*The reason why I keep the total loss/gain on the first note is because Note # 2 tends to get full much more often, meaning I have to throw it away every now and then. Note # 1 lasts longer, hence the main economy tracking is made there.
If you have any more hints on how to keep track of your economy, please add them to this thread. It took a lot of time to write this tutorial, but I hope it will help many people out there that find this economy thing a mess.
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