Quote:
Originally Posted by hal
If one were to do a cost analysis for return on investment for staterooms, or retaining the space for cargo carrying capacity, largely depending on your route, the cargo space wins - and it also depends too upon which game system you're using as far as Traveller goes.
|
I dug out my Monte Carlo analysis of my 200 ton tramp freighter (80 dTon cargo, 10 high/middle berths + 16 low berths). 42 MCr (unarmed).
I used a simple two system closed loop trade run.
(USMABE and Maxieris systems (on this subsector
http://skarabrae.pandemonium.de/cgi-bin/svg-map.pl)
After 26 jumps back and forth I had made 15 MCr profit (after all expenses) of which 2.4 MCr were from passenger tickets. I was fortunate as 95% of the time all berths were filled both ways (making 94 KCr per trip) (or 1.9 KCr per dTon). This was helped with crews with decent Streetwise. Admin and Steward Skills.
Limiting myself to 80 tons of cargo (and bringing a decent Liaison skill along) means that I never had a problem filling the hold efficiently.
I had 3 crew with the essential skills distributed between them. To be fair, I paid them the full amount for each role they fulfilled so the Steward/Medic got full pay for Medic and Steward. This only added 18K per month and more than paid for itself.
The sale value (after deductions) of cargos varied between 3,500 and 22,000 per dTon. Sales in Maxieris averaged about 10 Kcr per dTon but sales in USMABE rarely exceeded 5 KCr and probably averaged about 4. Once the purchas eprices were taken into account (4200 per dTon in Maxieris vs 2500 per dTon in USMABE the sales in USMABE barely made any profit, but this was offset by the Maxieris sales (which were about 6 times more profitable).
Nevertheless it is clear that in this rather safe and cosy milk-run I would have paid off the full 42 MCr vessel in three years.
I didn't take account of potential mishaps but to be fair in safe space over such a short period I am happy that any mishaps would have been minor. After a few trips I could have upgraded with turrets and weapons (as the ship was fitted for but not with).