Weird trade culture question about hashish

[ephemeraltoast]

"Tech Hunters are tied to Empire Lawless Trade Culture but Empire Southwest Trade Culture is applied locally. That's why Tech Hunters buy Hemp and Hashish at better prices at Flats Lagoon than Black Scratch despite the fact those two cities are ruled by the same faction." (from the wiki)

It's well-known that Flats Lagoon will pay a hefty premium for hash even though it's not illegal there, and apparently this is why. So... would this be considered a bug or intentional? Did someone just accidentally apply two trade cultures to the town, or is there meant to be some lore reason why Flats Lagoon pays top dollar for the sticky icky while the tech hunters much further away in World's End or Black Scratch are not willing to pay someone more than market rate to schlep it all the way there from the swamps? The lore around hashish is not well developed in-game so I'm unclear on this.

[Triple G]

It´s probably intentional. Like Mourn uses the same prices than Flats Lagoon, and if they bug out, all bug out. And Mourn is in the same area than Catun, which also has the southwest trade culture.

But else flats lagoon feels like a built in exploit - even more so, when there´s a drug farm basically next to it, and the way from shark to there isn´t really super long either.

Also:
"The purpose of this trade culture is only modifying the current value of Hemp and Hashish locally. That means it could be still illegal to sell it depending of the faction who controlled the location."

Like it reduces the hashish price from 1200% (empire trade culture) to 500% (Empire Southwest Trade Culture) while the lawless culture makes any goods legal, which also means 0% price change.

But then again: Money isn´t very useful in the game, and You get more money basically no matter what You do - while there are only few opportunities to really spend it in a useful way. Like certain masterwork prosthetics can be worth it - or masterwork crossbows - and that´s about it. You can buy edge weapons, but there´s no need to do so. Like the rest of the stuff is only useful to buy if You don´t have a base, which can produce everything for free, as this also feels like a cheat - even more so when You craft 30k value shirts, while no shop has enough money to buy it, so You put it into the item furnace, as money has no use in the game - except You roleplay as a small team without base, to buy food and all Your equipment - while then there´s little use to explore to get the AI cores for research. That economic part isn´t really thought through imho...

[ephemeraltoast]

Originally posted by Triple G:

But else flats lagoon feels like a built in exploit - even more so, when there´s a drug farm basically next to it, and the way from shark to there isn´t really super long either.

Yeah, that's why I'm asking, because it has always seemed weird to me that the best way to make money from an illegal drug is taking it a much shorter distance to a place where it is legal. That is all kinds of bizarre, and there's no attempt to justify it in-game. Like ok, maybe Tech Hunters just really love hashish. Fine, but then why do they only pay the big buxx for it in this one place and not their other towns? It does kind of feel like an exploit, but as it's extraordinarily well-known and was never "fixed," it seems like it was either intentional or the devs didn't think it was worth addressing.

[Alt]

Never liked this. Thats why i also mod this out of the game. A lot of staff in Kenshi's economy doesnt make sense. But selling Hash at 500%+ mark up to the faction that lives in relatively close proximity to swamps and even legalized it... Doesnt make sense. If anything Hash should be dirt cheap there, and be most expensive in the Desert.

One of the main reasons why i like UWE is because its economy make more sense somewhat. Weapons are dirt cheap, only high end one sells somewhat. Makes sense in a world like Kenshi. Weapons are everywhere, but good food is hard to come by. Only swamp people and Okranites have it good. Well, swamp have to constantly suffer from blood spiders, so that is a bit questionable. Everyone else live in a places where growing any food is hard. So because of that food production is a great way to make money in UWE. And considering best locations for growing a lot of food is also almost always very dangerous adds to that realism.

[Shidan]

Yeah, I'm fully convinced the hash prices in Flats Lagoon and Mourn were oversights.

The trade culture giving it the price was explicitly designed so that its price would be reduced and not profitable to sell near the Swamp. When hash was first added it was full price in the nearby regions, and that was explicitly changed because of that.

The SW imperial culture has a reduced price, but it was intended to be combined with the -50% from the Shinobi Thieves, which would have made it hardly profitable. Take it to Clownsteady and you'll see for yourself.

The problem arises from the fact that Tech Hunters don't see has as illegal. So their shops are using the full price from the SW imperial culture of the town, but the legality from the Lawless culture of their faction. Logically they were probably intended to only use one of the cultures for both. Either using the SW imperial for the boosted price, but making hash illegal. Or using the Lawless one, where hash is legal but has no price modifier.

The only reason this was likely not fixed is that it was only widely discovered after the 1.0 release, which is when the devs did their few weeks of dedicated bug bashing. Which isn't too surprising, Flats Lagoon and Mourn only existed for a short while before 1.0 release, they were part of the last major region to be released. After 1.0 the game went mostly on life support, and over time only more serious bugs were given attention. So even though it's now widely known, they simply are not going to take the time to fix a non-critical bug like that.

[ephemeraltoast]

Originally posted by Shidan:

Flats Lagoon and Mourn only existed for a short while before 1.0 release, they were part of the last major region to be released.

This... actually fully explains it, IMO. lol

Originally posted by Alt:

But selling Hash at 500%+ mark up to the faction that lives in relatively close proximity to swamps and even legalized it... Doesnt make sense. If anything Hash should be dirt cheap there, and be most expensive in the Desert.

I agree, and have already made it a "house rule" that I won't be doing any more Flats Lagoon drug runs because it feels so easy cheesy. Will be providing nothing but good, healthy products for the people of Flats Lagoon from now on, like murder weapons and "rum that makes you go blind."