Regarding my Open Letter Post...

It might appear that I am advocating that MA make it easier for pirates to loot people by saying the exploit of risk free space travel needs to be fixed, which I am aware from the recent update notes is in the works or already has been fixed.

I am neither taking the side of the Pirate nor the Trader. The only way the markets can be the markets is if everyone has to play by the same rules: This is to say no special priviledges... i.e. you only are safe in space if you fly on a mothership and log off before you leave and back on when you get there.

RT, Ark, have came a long ways. Cyrene has issues but from what I understand they are due to MA holding them up on things like the Mechs, which is a pity, I know many people have quit because Mechs were not released yet on Cyrene. I know many who quit because they took too long rolling out Treasure Hunting on Ark... All in all, the planets are starting to mature nicely, except maybe for NI :P You know... I actually forgot about NI until now...

Based on what I see... I would have to rank the planets in the following order as to their economic strength and importance:

Calypso
Rocktropia
Arkadia
Cyrene
Next Island

So... Rocktropia is the natural starting point for me. It is maturing. There are starting to be uses for materials and things... But the bottom line is, virtually everything is bought up and loaded onto motherships by traders and taken to Calypso.

My uber crafter friend couldn't even do 1% of his normal size runs that he does on Caly if he were on Rock. 1% of his normal size run would dry up every available stone and ingot of resources available not just on the AH, but from traders too. As a result, he must stay on Calypso. RT, Ark, Cyrene, need players like this. But there is no point for them to try when everything is cheaper on Caly, and in such abundance. The only way to get uber players like this over there is to make sure the whole playing field is fair and balanced, and that will ensure a more proper availability of resources at more stable prices allowing domestic crafters to take root on their respective planets without having to move to Calypso.

Shutting down the exploit on space travel means that every planet's economy will normalize. Resources will still ship out, just in smaller quantities, under the more discerning care of it's traders. They will have to be careful, and perhaps invest in convoys to prevent being looted. Safety in numbers... Might even see the EU equivalent of the Merchant Marine spring up. This is healthy all the way around.

Traders will start sticking at one planet or another more, buying and selling local resources, and importing what they can... And certainly not over exporting to the point of crafters starving for lack of materials or excessive prices.

No one right now will move to their favorite planets because why should they if they can't get the materials they need to craft, or the weapons they like to use, or the tools and armor. Everyone gravitates towards Calypso. Sure, MA has a conflict of interest, because it still has a stake in Calypso. It really could care less what the other planets do because it knows it will assimilate all the players that move to Calypso.

The sooner the markets stabilize across the universe, the more likely those with big bankrolls and high roller status will move around, explore, and help establish these fledgling planets. Ideally, we will want to see a varied set of markups on all the planets. That is one mistake MA made I believe... They have not yet made the markup charts planetary based, they still are based on ALL planets which largely means Calypso since all the buying and selling of consequence goes on there. Not every planet should judge it's market values by the same ruler. What we hope to see is varied markups on all planets relative to the supply and demand on that planet for that item or resource. This helps traders spot opportunities to fill, and the markets will tend towards equilibrium via the process of trading.