I want to know what the most efficient way of making money (silver) is, on a sustainable basis. This means no mining all the ores on the map and selling it, it needs to be a method of making money that can be continuously reproduced (until everyone in the colony dies). There are two factors that I believe need to be taken into account when creating the most efficient method:
- How often the goods can be sold (if that's the method) e.g. not all traders want a super sniper rifle but most want potatoes.
- Variation in quality means different items with varying quality will be worth more, I've seen variations in price of crops (not completely sure why)
EDIT:
In the comment below they ask about finite resources. Because they can be traded by AI somewhat means they are infinite in doses. But that doesn't mean you can mine up the entire planet, sell the resources and then buy them. It needs to be a method where you can outright sell or buy and then sell back. This doesn't mean I'm blocking the use of ground resources, it just needs to be sustainable in the long run.
Best Answer
You should sell meals instead of raw food (it adds huge value to it). It is actually possible to sell meals to the traders or visitors from other factions who won't buy sculptures but give fair price for all kind of meals.( and frequency of space traders is reduced highly).
Just keep a high level all-time cook and make him/her cook all the time (keep a forever fine meals job if possible: market value is 25 space bucks). If you don't have a skilled cook who can cook all the time, use someone else to make nutrient paste meals, which also sells for higher value than simple meals and doesn't need high skill level.
As far as quality is concerned the meals sell at same price if not at very low hit points.
This is a screenshot of my colony with all year around growth, Look at the quantity and the wealth of fridge !