I have read the info given at Cabal's Hideaway but I'm still not sure of how to determine the MCIC. I suppose that the ports that have the most material have the highest MCIC and those with the least the least. But MCICs are all given in negative numbers and that is confusing.
Is there a quick way to determine which ports I'm going to get the most for the turn using the info from port lists?

Just use ck equip haggle tracker. There are other, more accurate methods,
but none that are public access. Turn it on when world trading, ptrading,
whatever. It'll go into a text file you can then look into.

Hit me up on ICQ, or email me: ElderProphet at comcast.net. I'm happy to make the beta of my haggle routine available for the asking. Obviously it haggles... then it saves the MCIC data in the TWX database, with options to write the data to a .csv file. The current build is set to expire in 2 more weeks, at which time I'll make another build available.

You can find more info at the URL in my signature below.

+EP+

quote:Originally posted by ElderProphet

Hit me up on ICQ,


For sure, I'll be knocking on your ICQ door soon, but I wanted to know if there was a way of determining the best ports without having to trade. Also I don't understand the MCIC number at all. For example, I did some trading on my test server last night and got this:

% Amount %ofTotalBought InitOffer FinalOffer
100 2950 5 692 638
95 2804 5 698 645
90 2656 5 710 655
85 2510 5.9 718 633
80 2361 6 731 674

%ofBestPrice MCIC
99.85 85
99.87 85
99.92 85
99.85 85
99.88 85

The maximum change in cost per unit nor per all products doesn't seem to be 85 credits. Where does that come from?

You cannot determine MCIC except by trading. There is no correlation between port quantities and MCIC.

+EP+

MCIC is a value TWGS uses to determine prices on a port. It isn't a straightforward correlation by any means.

Selling :
<<< ORGANICS MCIC = -52 >>>
and buying:
<<< EQUIPMENT MCIC = 48 >>>

At the other port in the pair I am selling:
<<< EQUIPMENT MCIC = -63 >>>
and buying:
<<< ORGANICS MCIC = 50 >>>
Is that good nor not? Doesn't seem to be to me. Seems like I am paying more than I am selling it for?
It seems that it means that at the first port I am selling the organics at 52 credits less than what I bought it and buying equipment 48 credits more than what I had prevously payed; and at the second port I am selling equipment for 63 credits less than what I payed and buying organics 50 credits higher than what I payed. Is that right or the opposite or should I read the difference in the sell prices and the difference in the buy prices to determine my gain from the trade or what?
In other words, how do I read MCICs to see if I'm getting jipped or am making a good deal? I need to learn MCICs since knowing what ports are good is so important when it comes to maga-robs.

As an afternote, that port pair mentioned in the previous post was especially rich. I netted 200k in just that pair alone even with the 97%-of-best-price ceiling configed so as to not gain experience. How I would I know that by reading the MCICs?

MCIC is not the actual price, it's a variable that helps to determine
how much the port will offer and haggle for. Also need to factor in
the buying/selling % and whether you're selling via ship or planet.

A 50 MCIC orgs is not a good port. A 48 eq is not a good port. I wouldn't
bother to upgrade that port, I'd wait for a -55 or better EQ buyer for
selling off merchandise. From what was said in another thread, if you
plan to mega (MBBS only, remember) you should go for worst-buy and look
for low-value selling ports, like in the 10 to 30 range, I guess (any
takers on that one?)

To get enough cash on the port to mega sellers should be around 51 credits or higher for first offer on one equip and at 51 credits you might still have to buy ore.

Buyers should be around 150 credits or higher for first offer on one equip. if I remember correctly its been a few weeks and I’m not in TW mode so don’t flam me if I got that wrong.

Akor,
As a general rule, the further away an MCIC number is from zero, the better price the port offers. So, A -65 port will offer more than a -20 port to buy product, and a 65 port will offer less than a 20 port to sell product.
When doing Megga Robs, you want to find XXS ports that have low EQ MCIC (20 to 40) to ensure that there will be enough creds on the port to do the MR after you do the worst price buydown. And you want -60 or less on the buy EQ ports (in an ideal world, of course. Honestly, anything lower than -50 is ok if the situation calls for it.)

Yup, what Traitor said... farther from zero is better pricing, closer to zero is worse pricing. For mega, you want worse. Singularity, Equipment MCIC bottoms at 20. This would be the ideal megarob port, as it could easily be loaded to 3.3M credits.

Akor, that Blue Haggle setting is actually targetting one credit below 98% of best price, and that port pair is a very good one. Knowing MCIC values and how many credits per turn you're making will help you determine when to bail from a PPT. At a pair like that, it makes sense to trade it to a lower percentage than you might otherwise. TPW and port density are the other determining factors. With a low port density, I'd trade a port pair like that down to the ground.

Speed, I think you'd find that using my haggle set to worst price, you could load most ports to megarob levels. I once took a terrible megarob port (61 EQ MCIC) and loaded it from Equipment and Fuel worst price buydowns. It did require a low EXP blue to do though.

Keep that in mind as well Akor, that as experience aproaches 1000, haggle profit increases. The ceiling is at 1k exp though. So ideally, if a blue is going to PPT regularly for cash, get your exp pretty high (~800) before turning on the Blue Haggle feature.

+EP+

Thanks EP. As usual you advice is gold (actually credits).
After much experimenting I got a handle on this MCIC thing. BOTH ports have to have a high MCIC rating for max cash. If one of the Org or Eq has a low MCIC, that effects the entire deal. I am trying to shoot for MCIC of 50 or better.

I do have another question--maybe my last---why is the buy a minus and sell a positive number? For example, I bought Organics from one port at -33 MCIC and sold it at the next port at 74 MCIC. What does the numbers mean other than I didn't get a good buy?

A positive or negative MCIC only determines if it's a selling or buying a particular product. Positive MCIC's are Sellers, and negative MCIC's are Buyers.

So, an SBB port will have MCIC's that are Positive on the fuel, and Negative on the Organics and Equipment.

EP, can your haggle be integrated into buydowns and planet nego routines? Like into, say, a bot? Have you ever thought about
that or anyone ever done any work like that with them?