Why does selling a thing give less money than buying a thing of the same value?

[CucumberedPickle]

Yes, I know that makes the game balanced. But WHY on EARTH will a trader just go, "Oh, this $20 shirt? That's $30 for some, err, buying tax. But if you give ME that $20 worth of wool, I'll pay, umm, $10. I payed $10 for food on the way, so why should you get the full 10 silver?" That's not how the economy works, unless there's some serious tariffs and taxes going on, but why? Isn't there another way to make trading balanced without having buying prices significantly over the market value and selling prices below?

[viperwasp]

Is that not how the economy works? You expect a trader to take risk and travel around... on a Rimworld none the less and make equal value trades? Are you saying the prices are to different or should not be different at all? Or am I missing what your saying?

If I walk into a pawn's mart.... With a $30 game you can bet I'm not getting more than $5-$10 for it. And if I want to buy something I'm generally paying much more than the price that the story acquired it for?

Even dispirit saying this I still think I understand what you mean? In Rimworld if your the one taking the risk and run a caravan over to another location. Than technically you should be allowed to price gauge someone! However I don't even play with caravans do I don't know if that is a part of the game or not.

[CucumberedPickle]

I mean, I sort of get the increased price. But why won't they pay full price for the items?

[BLACK_FR]

Traders want to eat bread with butter) Also balance-wise it's mechanic that can't be replaced.

[Canute]

Try to sell your PC to a vendor, and then buy it back ! :-)

[cultist]

I'm not sure if this is the answer you're looking for, but prices are determined by the pawn speaking to the trader. That pawn uses their social skill to haggle, and the price displayed is whatever agreement they reach (the AI crunches some numbers) about the value of things.

[5thHorseman]

If it's that caravans demand more money than settlements, why do your caravans not make more money from sales at settlements?

Disclaimer: I have no problem with this as a game mechanic.

[B@R5uk]

Pawn with social skill level 16 has 24% trade price improvement. Trade inspiration can add another 15%. Buying factor is 1.40 and selling is 0.60. After applying pawn's skill and inspiration they will become 1.40 * (1 - 0.24 - 0.15) = 0.854 and 0.60 * (1 + 0.24 + 0.15) = 0.834. At least you can buy items cheaper then their prime cost effectively increasing your colony wealth. And this is not the best case. There is 2% bonus when your caravans trade with other settlements. Unfortunately I don't know how much trade inprovement skill 20 pawns have, but I hope I will know soon as my fast learner great memory one-fire tradeswoman train.

[BLACK_FR]

If it's that caravans demand more money than settlements, why do your caravans not make more money from sales at settlements?

Disclaimer: I have no problem with this as a game mechanic.

Because in the universe of Rimworld you are surrounded by crazy people (by our standards). Trade is voluntary and you can't control what prices other people offer to you.

[Scavenger]

I think the simple answer here is "Economics".

[b0rsuk]

Most game designers (other than the maker of Dwarf Fortress) don't try to implement whole economic systems and civilizations. This way is just simpler to balance the game. If player was able to sell for as much as he buys for, he'd be swimming in money before the end of year 1.

Isn't there another way to make trading balanced without having buying prices significantly over the market value and selling prices below?

In a game? There are 2 common ways:
a) drastically reduced selling price,
b) monsters/enemies only have a small chance of dropping an item,

It's similar with "tainted apparel". It's not realistic that people are THAT fussy about buying used clothes. It's that by necessity every enemy humanoid will wear something, and no one really managed to produce a game AI that can challenge human player at a complex game without getting some sort of numerical advantage. In most game genres developers have given up trying to produce an opponent that can fight on equal terms.

[Jibbles]

This is why I farm a ton of drugs and call it a day.

[walleras]

This is like asking why it is cheaper to buy from the factory then Walmart. When you buy from Walmart you have to pay markup, wages, rent, and other expenses, besides the original factory cost. Similarly when you purchase from traders you also have to pay for the guards, the food, the animals, and the risk. Also the time to get the goods to market. While the economy in Rimworld has never been its strongest suite, this part is accurate.

Or as a person above me said your pawn has low charisma, but that's not as interesting an explanation.

[Jibbles]

It could go a bit deeper tho.  I mean you can boost relations, have most allies, be all powerful/advanced, be the one to take the risks and travel to their bases, yet in the end you're getting ripped off in trading regardless what the item is.  Of course you can do the whole charisma/social boost but I find it too much effort for the benefits. 

There could be cycles, where a settlement will pay higher/lower for particular items; essentially paying more cause that's what they need at that point in time.  Different settlements would cycle through different needs.  This could affect which settlement to travel to rather than defaulting to the nearest one all the time for the basics.  It would also change what you decide to manufacture, or how you plan to make money.  Not sure if something like this would gel well with current caravan mechanics tho, but I'd rather see something like this some day.

[zizard]

Trade system is very shallow. Relations system is still shallow. Clear mechanic: price improvement based on relation, is not implemented. Clear new event type: shortage/surplus of item X at settlement Y.

However we already lack late game silver sinks. More ways to get silver is pointless without that. Possibility is to request quests for silver / relation. Most prized things late game are legendary equipment and mech serums. Make a way to sink silver to obtain these, even if not directly (i.e. via quest request). Constant price fluctuation a bit more finicky and requires a way to get distant price information to give interesting choices to the player. Also suffers from root problem: we already have enough silver. In fact the top purpose of caravan is to dump useless items for at least some benefit. Otherwise would rocket them into the ocean.

Late game, when you really need more things to do, quests become noob bait. Defence / ambush scales with your colony but rewards barely at all. Meanwhile at home base, raid size grows quadratically, so you can spare even less percent of pawns to go to site.