Markets and Economies in Solar Echoes (part 1)

I still remember playing old PC games about space exploration where earning money was best accomplished through trade between planets. It was fun buying an item cheap on one world and then selling it for a high price on another because of the demand for that item. For instance, while a rocky, mining world might have tons of iron ore available, consider the need for raw materials on another world such as a gas giant, with the population residing in orbiting space stations. They'd pay high prices for the iron ore, and it would be easy to sell it there for huge profits. Of course, when I played these games I had to be careful, because if I saturated the market with a surplus of iron ore, the price the people paid for it would drop due to low demand. We have a similar system in Solar Echoes, and have detailed a number of planets in the Mission Controller's Guide with information about how certain commodities will be received depending on the planet. Here is an example from an icy Archaeloid planet called “Keban Shuul,” where its moon is heavily mined and the planet's surface is primarily water: Contraband (-15%), Food (0%), Lifeforms (-10%), Luxury Items (-10%), Medicine (+10%), Precious Metals/Gems (0%), Radioactive Materials (+10%), Raw Ore (-20%), Refined Ore and Alloys (-10%), Synthetic Materials (-20%), Technology (+20%)