Thread:Rylyn70/@comment-774649-20120523164015/@comment-774649-20120523194843

I'm just another contributor, like you. However, that doesn't alter the point.

Each trade good has a base price at each port, which then fluctuates depending on amount bought/sold and some random code used by the game. The base price is represented by the "Rate" of 100%. Since 99% of the time, you are not going to see that 100%, but a variation, we're trying to get that base price on each trade good, so players know what ports have the best base price, and whether the current rate is high or low (players without the Accounts skill, ones with should already know this).

When you change one value without adjusting the other, it makes it look like the Base price is much different than it is. Here's an extreme example:

A trade good has a base price of 1000. However, we haven't seen this price so the entry on the page is blank.

Player A goes to the port and enters the prices he saw the good at: 780 with a rate of 78% (780|78)

Player B goes to the port much later sees the rice at a rate of 130%, but doesn't know that. He just enters the new price. The price now reads as 1,300 @ 78% (1,300|78)

Player C goes to the port, and checks the website. Like Player B, he can't see the rate. He sees the price has fallen slightly since Player B was there, say 1,250. He thinks "Boy, what a deal!" and buys the max amount he can. Unbeknownst to him, he's just bought that good at a rate of 125% over base. It's going to be hard to make a profit from that.

As you can see, both price AND rate are needed to know whether a trade good is going to be profitable or not. Without rate, the prices are pretty much like throwing darts at a board and hoping you get lucky. So we're trying to get prices and rates on the pages, hence why it's in the new template BioBrain designed. We need a starting point, first, before we can home in on that 100%.

That's why I asked not to change the prices without the rates. Prices without rates are free to be adjusted, since we have no clue what the base is, but once we got the rate, we're starting to home in on that 100% number, and changing without the other is only going to throw us off course.

Cheers.