Analysis of current gold chain economics:

[Draconus2004]

A series of updates have killed the sale of gold parrots. gold ore and gold deposits have risen to a level that eats away most profit when running gold chains.

If you buy gold ore: 500 gold deposit -> 1k ore -> 1k bars ->500gc
Gold deposits are roughly 250gc right now, but highly variable:

With lvl 2 gold chains and an average of 40s walk time: 52.77 hours to process the ore
Given baskets cost 6gc and last for 9 hours - and you are buffing both a coinage and a gold smelter: ~70gc in buff cost

4k coal to process that at 5gc a stack:
50gc

250gc(gold ore)+50gc(coal)+(70gc buff) = 370gc cost, leaving 130gc profit

Thus the point that gold chains go negative profit for buying ore is:
380gc / 1k ore - lvl 2 gold smelter and coinage
397gc /1k ore - lvl 3 gold smelter and coinage
415gc/ 1k ore - lvl 4 gold smelter and coinage

For deposits (assuming a lvl 5 mine) - assume 13.8gcadditionally in buffs to extract 500 ore

This has perturbed me a good bit given the amount I have invested in gold chains makes it hard to switch production (a pittance compared to some 50s, i know).
74,100 gc Invested in my gold chains

An interesting note is gold ore costs about 100gc/stack to produce if you use level 2 mines and let them run out, then refind the deposit. This could soon become the cheapest way to obtain ore.

Cost of letting lvl 2 mines run dry for 300 ore (600 buffed) - 1400 hardwood planks (35gc) +1500 marble (45gc) + 2000 tools (60gc) + buffs for 30 hours to extract ore (20gc). Given most new players are now heading to ares, I am confident the price of hardwood, marble, and tools will all continue to fall while the price of gold ore will continue to rise with the disappearance of most gold parrot sellers and dupes. Once your mines go dry, i advise players to begin using disposable level 2 mines rather then idling mines (if u can find deposits at 250 per, buy them) this will sustain 16 levels of gold production - so 4 lvl 4 chains).

Another side note is any player that has maxed all buildings at 3 or above - using up tools, marble, and hardwood on mines will save a ton of time trying to sell those resources.

if things here are muddled or unclear, let me know and i will try to edit this post.

[Anax_Basileus]

well one thing you could do (which I have been doing since the new trade system) is buying only gold ore deposits and nothing else related to it.

I make my own baskets and have a high enough coal production that I don't have to buy any coal either.

This makes it worth while doing.


Some might say, "well you could just sell the baskets and coal for coins so that's money out the window."

True, however, I have a level 5 gold mine and don't have to rebuild it and refind the deposit anymore, so that saves both time and resources. Rebuilding gold mines is such a pain in the neck.

All in all I think buying gold deposits is well worth it.

[Draconus2004]

The problem is finding the 240 gold deposits a month to run 8 lvl 5 mines

[Hertzgog]

Darconus2004, This is exactly what I was going to do. I was only going to leave one level 5 mine, to drop random depos on it, and the rest become disposable level 2 mines.

[Lamosos]

The gold ore and gold depo prices should drop eventually, once most players overcome the mental barrier of holding on to their disabled gold chains and start investing into different types of production, while the market gets overflown with gold depos that no one needs any more.
Exactly when it starts to happen and where the prices will end up is anyone's guess.
As it's been pointed out, there's still a plenty of room for the gold ore to grow before it stabilizes.

[YeOldeMan]

*shrug, i dont see gold as a goal of this game, what good gold is to you in battle, but i kinda see this as military campain, better than just pretending to be spanish in south amerika who thot gold brick is the most beautiful thing or pirate who goes robing victor and tells children that victor was vicios

You're overlooking the value of gold as a ubiquitous trade-able commodity to use in the acquisition of bread to replace the settlers lost in the military campaign.

[soggyshorts]

Gold depo prices have gotten quite out of hand. I also run 8x5 mines.

Another way to look at depo prices is this
Gold ore 100/400, or 250 per 1000
That means buying depos for 250 is dumb once you factor in basket cost. you might as well just buy the ore.

The price of GEMS is imo based on 2 things,
1. parrots. this is easy to calculate as it is directly related to coins.
2. gifted BKs. this has 2 factors, the market cost in coins of a BK, and the market cost of map frags which also buys BKs.
since BKs cost 300 frags or 500 gems, gems --should-- be 0.6xmap frag cost. max.

Side note: on test server longer adventure searches give more than 3 frags.
most people do medium searches (i think) because of level requirement for long search, and chance at nords for medium.
This could, in theory DOUBLE the supply of frags in the game and once frag price drops, gems drop.

[Draconus2004]

As players rise in level, things like not spending 3 hours to replant fields becomes more important, and gems are needed for both nobles and silos. I do not think it is likely many gems will get used for parrots ever again with noble prices creeping up to 400 or so.

[Ornias]

As players rise in level, things like not spending 3 hours to replant fields becomes more important, and gems are needed for both nobles and silos. I do not think it is likely many gems will get used for parrots ever again with noble prices creeping up to 400 or so.

I completely agree with this. At this point, lvl 49, I have a mature island and care more about silo's and watermills than parrots. I will either buy the ore directly or just tear down the gold chain. I know they will not make gold depo's easier to get as that will hurt their gem sales, but there needs to be more available in adventures.

[ZBest]

An interesting note is gold ore costs about 100gc/stack to produce if you use level 2 mines and let them run out, then refind the deposit. This could soon become the cheapest way to obtain ore.

Cost of letting lvl 2 mines run dry for 300 ore (600 buffed) - 1400 hardwood planks (35gc) +1500 marble (45gc) + 2000 tools (60gc) + buffs for 30 hours to extract ore (20gc). Given most new players are now heading to ares, I am confident the price of hardwood, marble, and tools will all continue to fall while the price of gold ore will continue to rise with the disappearance of most gold parrot sellers and dupes. Once your mines go dry, i advise players to begin using disposable level 2 mines rather then idling mines (if u can find deposits at 250 per, buy them) this will sustain 16 levels of gold production - so 4 lvl 4 chains).

Another side note is any player that has maxed all buildings at 3 or above - using up tools, marble, and hardwood on mines will save a ton of time trying to sell those resources.

You've priced out letting the lv2s run dry. If you get them with 2 ore left, you get the 350 hardwood, 350 marble, 375 tools refund. Reducing your costs by about 30gc.

I've been doing the lv2s for a long time with a single lv5 for refilling -- the problem is finding enough tools because they take the bronze away from your recruit production. I've found that I needed to upgrade a lot of stone and pinewood mills to provision tools to become self-sufficient.