104.1.25 (certain formulas may be out of date, notably relating to prices)
The widget manipulates static data related to JumpGate's economy. No real time pricing or stock level data is used. It is primarily designed to assist those engaged in production and supply, rather than simplistic 'best profit' or 'mission based' haulage. It will aid those trying to manipulate station inventories in order to control production. If you are still confused why you might want this information, I recommend you read this Trading 101. This FAQ assumes knowledge of the concepts contained in that document. The key tools in the widget are:
Both. Select your server from the Options screen. By default the current server is indicated on the toolbar.
The widget is currently HTML based. It should work in any browser that supports "getElementById" and "innerHTML", and has JavaScript enabled. It is known to work in Internet Explorer 5+, Mozilla, Netscape 6+, Firebird, and Opera 7+.
Although it may be used over the internet, it works perfectly well without icons from your hard drive.
Switching between screens does not destroy the results that were being displayed on the screen - it just hides them - except when changing Options, which will destroy all existing screens. Subsequent queries made on the same screen will destroy the results from the previous query, although some screens have quick links back. You cannot use your browser's back/forward buttons for this purpose.
The primary source of item/production information is JOSSH. In-game observations, data from new reports, and known bugs have been added.
The order stations are presented may seem odd to a new player. The order reflects the order in which stations have been added, and is similar to that used by other utilities.
Non-station buildings that produce things are included, with the following abbreviations:
The Shipper screen list items which are produced at the current station, and are demanded but not produced at the destination station.
Demand takes three forms: (1) commodities that are required to make at least one other item at the destination station, (2) commodities which are required to supply the destination station's resident population and visiting pilots (commodities shown in italics), and (3) equipment commonly used to equip spacecraft produced at the destination station.
Current market conditions are not considered: The fact that a station can produce something does not mean that it will always be in stock, particularly if the item has to first be produced. Although a destination station may eventually require an item, it may not require that item as much as another item. These are limitations imposed by the lack of real-time data. They can to some extent be overcome by using the widget alongside a source of real-time data.
Italicised (or "?") commodities are ignored by some pilots because the game's economy does not need them to be delivered - bizarrely nothing bad happens if essentials like food or ammunition are not available.
Equipment can be excluded by changing the Options.
The price ranges/profit margins shown are typical extreme values for the item. They are given as an indicator only. They are not necessarily the precise values associated with this trip at this time. More precise values may be seen by clicking the get JOSSH prices link, or using another inventory tracking tool. JOSSH prices can be displayed automatically by changing the Options. The underlying price model tends to price low at production points and high at demand-only points, but there are various oddities, bugs, and short-term variations. Note that profit margins are pre-tax: It may be possible to trade commodities with no tax. Equipment rarely falls below 9% taxation.
The mission column shows which of the three cargo mission categories (if any) the item will fall into. The algorithm used to generate cargo missions is almost identical to that used by the Shipper, but includes inventory checks (the current station must have the commodity in stock and the destination must not have more than 2000 units of the commodity in stock). It is sometimes possible to manipulate station stocks to encourage a specific mission to appear.
The reverse link swaps the current station and destination: Useful if shuttling back and forth on the same route.
The Item screen lists trading related information about any item. Item name links on other screens will show information for that item on this screen.
The JOSSH database entry for the item can be seen by clicking the JOSSH link.
The price ranges/profit margins shown are typical extreme values for the item, not current values. The price ranges are based on the formula used by the game to determine station prices - the lowest is the base price, the hihest is (Base Price*105%)+200 for equipment, (Base Price*107%)+500 for commodities. Exceptions are made for artifacts, where the price price is give as the lowest, but the upper price reflects the player-to-player transaction prices. Profit margins shown do not include taxation - remember that equipment is rarely taxed at less than 9%. Further profit calculations are shown within Lists.
Size is the number of units of space one unit of the item occupies, except for spacecraft, where it is the cargo capacity of the spacecraft.
The Pol value is the minimum political rating required to purchase the item. Commodities have no listed political rating, but in practical terms once you fall below 0 Pol you cannot purchase anything from stations where Pol applies.
For items except spacecraft, a list of the commodities required to make the item at a production location is shown, with the places those required commodities are made on the left. For spacecraft the list includes commonly equipped items, not items required for production (there are no production requirements for the spacecraft themselves). Stations that produce items as raw materials (spawned rather than manufactured) are indicated with an asterisk.
Depending on the item, links may be available to show full dependencies and items dependent on Item for production.
Where an item can (if such a building exists) be made in a Custom Producer or Science Factory, the net money transfer of using such a producer is shown. A negative values means the producer will take that sum of money from you per unit of equipment produced (in addition to the components).
The Usage screen shows uses of commodities in production or uses of equipment to equip spacecraft.
Queries can be set to show usage across all stations, or usage at a specific station. Usage can be shown for a specific item or an entire category. All stations/all category combinations should be avoided on slow machines, since this may cause the script to time-out. The Usage screen is useful when attempting to determine what production processes may start as a result of the delivery of certain commodities.
Note that only production related demands are shown for commodities. This differs from the Station: Import Demand list.
The Station screen shows imported items demanded by a specific station or items produced by a specific station. Items are listed by category group.
This screen is particularly useful for those engaged in things such as station 'adoption' and stocking.
The Translator screen translates commodity names between English and German and German and English. Select a name from one of the lists. Equipment is called the same in both languages.
The Cycle Timer indicates the time taken for stations to produce items - it times production cycles. Once you see a cycle start (additional items are placed on the public market by the station), click Start. Small adjustments may be made by using << (back 10 seconds), < (back 5 seconds), > (forward 5 seconds), >> (forward 10 seconds), and Stop/Start. Reset restarts the timer for an entirely new cycle. The timer assumes a cycle time of 6 minutes 5 seconds. The current time value is visible at the top of all screens.
The Production Usage Flowcharter screen shows all items that require a particular commodity, both directly and indirectly. If the commodity was to be completely removed, production of all the items shown would eventually cease. For example,
| Water | ¬ | |||
| + | Manufactured Foods | |||
| + | Medical Supplies | ¬ | ||
| | | + | Prosthetics | ||
| + | Octavia Light | |||
| + | Prosthetics | |||
| + | Quanus Ice | |||
| + | Solrain Stout | |||
| + | Alembic | |||
would mean Water is required directly for the production of Manufactured Foods, Medical Supplies, Prosthetics, beers and the Alembic. Medical Supplies are then required for the production of Prosthetics. In this case Water is required both directly and indirectly in the production of Prosthetics.
The Production Requirements Flowcharter screen shows the full production dependencies for any one item. It shows the commodities required to produce the item, any commodities required to produce those commodities, and so on. For example,
| Abattis | ¬ | |||
| + | Germanium | |||
| + | Gold | |||
| + | Magnetics | ¬ | ||
| + | Cobalt | |||
| + | Iron | |||
would show that an Abattis is produced from Germanium, Gold and Magnetics. Magnetics are first produced using Cobalt and Iron.
This game provides a 'lite' single player version of JumpGate's economy, set in the context of cargo missions. Cargo missions are only offered from stations that produce an item and have the item in stock, to stations that demand the item but don't produce it (the same used in the Shipper screen) and don't currently have the item available.
The economy is initially set so that only raw materials are present at their respective producing stations. Once a commodity has been transported to another station (in the form of a cargo mission), that commodity will be available at the second station for the remainder of the game. Once all the required commodities to make something are available at a producing station, other items will be made and placed on the market. Once an item has been made, it is available on that station for the rest of the game.
Gradually as you transport items around, you should start to notice stations producing things, which in turn will make new cargo missions available.
In the later stages of the game missions to transport useful items of equipment will appear.
Mining and Artefact Note
Currently there are no artefact hunting features. Artefacts are only used in a handful of rarely used items, so this should not cause a major problem. Mining of regular roids has now been implemented, albeit somewhat simplistically. Travel to a station and mine a specific roid type - the primary ore type from that roid type will be delivered to the station and processed into appropriate commodities. If you need a specific commodity for production, you must mine at each station you need that commodity for production: The product of mining cannot normally be transported elsewhere as a mission. This feature was added so that commodities that can only be mined could be produced somehow - it is not intended to be a perfect mining simulator.
Interface
How does the game end?
Eventually you may reach a point where everything that is needed at every station has been transported, and every production process has occurred. That will require about 2000-3000 launches. At that point there will not be any further cargo missions offered. It is not necessary to for fill every demand at every station.
After playing a while, missions aren't available. What's wrong?
You are not managing to produce many additional items. This is quite likely to happen if you are taking missions randomly and/or avoiding certain stations or unregulated space. Try to focus on production.
The re-roll link doesn't do anything. Why?
The same mission is being generated each time. This is likely to be the case if there is no more than one possible mission in each mission category.
I have an item at one station that I want to transport to another, but it never appears as a mission. How do I transport it?
If it isn't being offered as a mission either you are very unlucky (re-roll a few more times), or it is a commodity created via mining (in which case mine at the station you want the commodity), or you are trying to transport an item to a station where that item is also produced. For example, you may have Machined Parts at Octavius Core, but you want them at Solrain Core. Instead of transporting them from Octavius Core, you need to produce Machined Parts at Solrain Core. You might, however, find a mission from Octavius Core to Hyperial because Machined Parts are not made at Hyperial, but are required.
How do I save?
You can't save. The game will remain in the browser's memory while the widget window remains open. You can look at other widget screens without exiting the game.
Got any tips?
Initially, work towards the production of a few key commodities, such as Electronics, Fuel Cells, Fiber Optics, Magnetics and Synthetics. You will need to venture into unregulated space early on to fetch essential commodities such as Silicon. Focus production on one station per faction. Hire a wingman when you are transporting heavy cargoes through unregulated space.
How similar is this to the 'real' economy?
It is simplified by the lack of production indices and the assumption that a cargo mission worth of each required commodity will be enough to make infinite units of everything that commodity makes on that station. Equipment is not used, nor is there any real penalty for it not being available (it would make the game almost impossible). Only logical cargo movements may be made, but that is not a bad thing. All the production locations and requirements, and transport demands are accurate, so it does create a mirror of the important aspects of the economy.
This screen sorts different item statistics. It is primarily provided for reference:
Hide artifacts removes (or if unticked, adds) artifacts from the list. This is currently fudged - it actually excludes/incudes items which have no icon associated within them, almost all of which are artifacts. Click sort in the relevant column head to sort the list by that column. Note that "All" options are script-intensive, so may take a few seconds to display.
The Options screen is always accessible via "About", even if you opt not to display a direct link on the toolbar. You must press "Apply" to save options. Changing options will remove any previous data shown on other screens.
Language: English or German.
Server: EU (Mightygames) or US (Netdevil).
Allegiance: Changes text colour.
Text size: Changes text size between 60% of the browser default and 125%.
Include equipment on shipper screen: Opt not to include equipment on the shipper screen, restricting it to the traditional commodity flows.
Get jossh prices from shipper screen: Automatically launch two windows showing the inventory at the selected stations.
Automatically launch widget in future: A popup window containing the widget will automatically launch when you visit the launch page.
Display items: Opt to display the names of commodities, equipment and ships as graphic icons (as used by JOSSH), or as simple text, or both.
Display toolbar: Opt to display the toolbar using a mixture of icons and text.
Add to toolbar: Tick each of the screens you wish to have displayed on the toolbar. "Tools" and "About" cannot be removed from the toolbar.
Use these options on future visits: Save these options as a cookie on your machine. (Two cookies are saved - "jgs_options" contains everything except toolbar settings, and "jgs_toolbar" contains toolbar settings. Other "jgs..." cookies relate to older widget versions.)
Opera just stops working
Opera 7 is rather slow, and so it is easy to confuse it. For example, by pressing buttons it has visually created but has not cross-referenced yet. Although I have added checks for most such events, very rapid use of buttons or menus may occassionally trip Opera up. The situation can sometimes be recovered by changing Options (which forces screens to redraw), or alternatively reloading.
Options do not save
Ensure cookies can be written and read. In Opera, cookies cannot be accessed if the file is run from your hard drive.
Options button has disappeared and won't return
Select "About" and then "Options". If About has somehow disappeared too, delete the cookie "jgs_options" and restart the browser.
Firewall or virus checker thinks it is being attacked
Unfortunately the volume of code executed at startup is such that it can look like a malicious attack. It isn't. Even if it was it should be impossible for JavaScript to access anything critical on your machine. Possible solution: (1) Click the retry link that should appear if loading goes wrong. (2) Suspend that firewall/virus checker. (3) Save the HTML (or download the zipped version) and use the widget offline.
Toolbar exceeds screen width
Make the toolbar smaller (smaller text or icons only), or turn off some toolbar buttons under Options.