In Broadside the trader will have plenty of opportunities to succeed. There will be hundreds of ports across the globe to visit. Every port will have its own market, where any item in the game can potentially be bought or sold.
Items in the game generally fall along two categories, items that can be used directly by players (ships, cannons, ammunition, equipment, etc), and what can be referred to as "trade goods" which are generally purchased by NPC's in the ports themselves (jewelry, fine china, spices, tobacco, etc).
Player Base Items
Demand for player items is largely driven by the player base itself. These items can be found in item drops, Treasure Chests, or manufactured by the players, and can be bought and sold on the market in the port cities.
At the game's launch many player base items will be seeded by NPC sales in the markets until player manufacturing can take over the demand. Profitability of these items will depend largely on what is in demand by the players.
Trade Goods
The trade goods can be bought and sold between players, but their primary purpose is to be sold to the population of one of the ports through the market.
Every port will have at least one item that it produces in mass quantity, and every port that doesn't produce that item will have some level of demand for it.
Supply and Demand
The price of trade goods bought and sold to NPCs in the port city markets will be driven by a suppply and demand system. All items will have a "base price", which is the lowest price NPC's will buy or sell it for. The maximum price will be a multiple of that base price, which will be determined through game balancing, but the current multiple being tested is 20x the base price.
So the ultimate goal with trading in the trade goods is to find a port that produces that trade good with high supply, which will drive the price down to or near its base price, and to then transport that trade good to a city with high demand for it, which then will buy that item at a high multiple of the base price.
The supply/demand of a trade good item is recalculated after every purchase or sale in that port that involves an NPC buy/sell order. How much it is affected depends on the size of the order and the size of the market itself. Supply/demand for a trade good will slowly recover the longer the port goes without purchases of the item. How long this will take will depend on game balancing, but currently going from exhaustion for full supply/demand for an item is being tested as taking a 48 hour period without activity as an example.
Market Size
Every port has a "Market Size" value that represents the population that the market services. This not only includes the port itself, but the entire surrounding area (what we would call today the suburbs and surrounding rural area). The larger the Market Size, the higher quantity of items produced in that city, and the higher number of items in demand. That means that the supply or demand of items is less affected by individual purchases in a high Market Size port in comparison to a low Market Size port.
Every port has its Market Size value, which generally goes alone with the 3 types of ports you will find. City, Town, and Settlement. Cities have the largest Market Size, while Settlements have the smallest.
Market Profile
In addition to the Market Size, the supply and demand of items by the local population will be greatly affected by its Market Profile. This generally refers to the economics of the port. Each port will be assigned one of the following Market Profiles.
- Metropolitan
- A city with a high number of wealthy people and industry. Wealthy trade goods will be in high demand for its Market Size, as well as goods needed for manufacturing, while goods needed for things like farming will be in low demand for its size. Trade goods produced here will generally be manufactured and be indicative of the local area.
- Cosmopolitan
- A busy trade port with traders from many far away lands. Demand for most any trade good will be high for its Market Size. Trade goods produced by the city may be unexpected for the city's location, as they are generally found in more distant lands.
- Mixed
- A general mix of wealth and industry with a surrounding agrarian base. Demand for most trade goods will be moderate. Trade goods produced by the port can be manufactured or farm related, but will be indicative of the local area.
- Agrarian
- A primarily rural farming community. Demand for most items of wealth will be low for its Market Size, while demand for goods relating to farming or harvesting local resources will be high for its size. Trade goods produced by the port will generally be raw materials or a farmed product, and will be indicative of the local area.
- Impoverished
- This is a desperately poor community with the majority of the population living hand to mouth on a daily basis, and largely lacking the skills needed to build up much of a local industry. Demand for most items will be very low for its Market Size. Demand for food and water will be exceptionally high for its size. Trade goods produced here will either be raw materials or speak to the desperateness of the local people, and will be indicative of the local area. Raw materials produced here though can still be of considerable value, even if the majority of the population is not reaping the benefits of their sale.
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