Player bases are money blackholes, can´t make profit

[Lumik]

Player bases seem awesome but I don´t understand one thing. Maybe I overlooked something but I understood that buying price of commodities is same as selling and they can´t be set differently. I don´t understand that because due to this, player stations are just nice money blackholes.

Let´s do some math. Only for basic maintenmance of base and hold shield turned on, one shield generator module consumpt 4 H-Fuel or 2 MOX or 2 Promethene every 10 seconds. This mean 1 440 H-Fuel or 720 MOX or 720 Promethene per hour, and 34 560 H-Fuel or 43 200 MOX or 43 200 Promethene per day.

If we will run on H-fuel which is the cheapiest and buy him for nearly lowest price, basic running costs of base are still around 160 000 credits per hour, 3,8 million credits per day, 26,6 million credits per week and 114 million credits per month. And if you will be forced to run base on MOX for some reason, running costs are much higher (9,5 million/day, 66,4 million/week, 284,6 million/month). And this still not include food, oxygen and water which crew need (but their price is mininal), and also materials for repairs (which can be expensive in higher ammounts).

Yes we can say it´s not much for a whole faction with enough members. But don´t forget that when youre supplying your base, you are trading with double loss - it takes time and it takes money, because base will just consumpt this cargo. And somebody (the faction) has to pay it.

I like the idea of base for mining factions, would be nice in Omega-7 or Taus mining sites. It solve problem with contacts between miners and haulers. And would be great step towards real economy. In this economy, the owner will set up buying price for miners, and selling price for haulers differently, to make some profit which at least pay the running costs, or maybe bring him some profit. And everybody can be happy.

But he can´t do that now. He is now forced to subsidize his base. How long would people want do that? Of course, player bases still can make that special modules staff and can be used by faction members for storage...but why the prices can´t be set up differently? I just see wasting great opportunity here :-/

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