New player, new questions!Just the basics!

[Guest]

Hello! I am a new player on KapiLands.Great game so far.But I am a newbie in such many ways so pls try to be patient with me , and bear the

[Guest]

Hello! I am a new player on KapiLands.Great game so far.But I am a newbie in such many ways so pls try to be patient with me , and bear the “stupid” questions:....

welcome. we all was beginners at the start

1.I started as someone mentioned on this forum, and tried to sell GAS and Oil.So far it works.But the money are coming incredibly slow.Probabily I should be waiting more and more, so I could see the results later in game.Any sugestions in how to improve the q on oil and gas faster?Or this is how u all do it!I am mentioning that I had Mine & Well RC S:2 20 m

[Guest]

sorry but i havnt the patience to read your post

When posting it is better to write in paragrpahs and leave a line spacing, this makes it alot easier to read! And since alot of us read alot, it makes a big difference!

What i would say is read through the forum here, there are many heklp topics and im sure alot if not all of your questions are answered

Anotherr good idea is to join an trade organistaion as they will too give you help. If you look at the Trade Institutions and Syndicates forum there are many advertised.

Of course i ahev to say im from Kapi-Mafia but there are other good ones out there too

[Guest]

i never though all-mighty syndicate would look for unworthy low-payed upstarter like us.

to think and to know are different domain, indeed.

[Guest]

i never though all-mighty syndicate would look for unworthy low-payed upstarter like us.

to think and to know are different domain, indeed.

We open our doors to anyone

We like to help others, to bring you up in power with the best strategies. Having new inexperinced memebrs is all part of the fun, moreover it adds to the community

You too yourself can join today, all you have to do is fill out the application form

[Guest]

If you are profit-oriented and you want to take advice from the player with a mere one-month experience:

a) as a beginner you make the most money if you produce contest products, at least if it is a simple raw material like in the last 3 contests. Wait till Sunday read what will be the hot stuff for the next 2 weeks and focus on it. The payback period on cotton plantations was only 36h in the peak of cotton craze last weekend, some 48h-84h in the other days. So basicaly the simple buildings multiply faster than rabbits

b) Under the current market conditions as a non contest ware I suggest mine/factory complex producing q0 steel. Mine in yellow and factory in green (lower capex, lower steel production costs). At the beginning it requires lot of micromanagement (switching mine between coal, iron and minerals; switching factory between steel and chemicals), but the end result is some 15 days payback (which is really good) if you sell at 128c to large offtakers. And the best thing you don't need any research. You have not to struggle against Q30 of Jonny in the oil business.

[Guest]

I wrote u a PM in game messages.Pls respond if u can.Later.And 10x all for your advices!I'll come back with more questions..of course

[Guest]

At the moment, I'd say it isn't worth going into cars at all: you'd make much more money just selling the steel.

[Guest]

Hey I like that you broke your thoughts up into numbered points, but you gotta use paragraphs man! That huge text block is just hard to read.

Ok firstly, I'm all about using higher costs in your sales calculations. But did you say 17.50 for q1? That shouldn't cost more than around 12.50. Right now I see someone offering q3 at 15. If you treat the gas cost that high you're going to have trouble making profit. The people making big money in gas are selling out their racks in 12 hours. So figure out what price will do that and then decide if it's profitable to buy what at what price.

Secondly, when entering an established market you want to watch out for two things: 1) Supply/demand, and 2) Average Q. Now the supply is below half the demand in gas, which is high compared to some industries but still not worrisome. So that isn't the problem. But the average quality is over 5. That's going to make entering the market a little scarier. Not that you can't do it, but you just won't be making the profit that other people are.

Thirdly, figure out if you're playing in the right part. You can make oil and sell even q0 for 20+. Is that profitable? You can buy oil and make gas, then sell even q0 gas at 10+. Is that profitable? You don't have to do the whole chain. Or, you don't have to do the whole chain in even parts - you could make a lot of gas, use some yourself and sell the rest on market. That would let you get into the industry, generate cash, and improve your quality without requiring you to do the whole supply chain.

Fourth, consider other industries. Whether you restart or not (restarts are overrated) there are other things you can do. Just with the well and power plant you have right now you could become a water & power supplier. That's not a bad business. (Especially power right now.)

However, I'd be very wary about cars. Here are some reasons why:

a) Long production line:
Cars require (at the end or somewhere along the line): power, water, coal, iron ore, minerals, chemicals, steel, quartz, glass, silicon, e-components, oil, plastic, rubber, tires, car bodies, engines, and finally cars themselves. Damn. You'd have to make all that yourself or pay someone else to make it. That makes cars a very tough industry to get into.

b) Really expensive inputs:
I look at that list above and Steel jumps right out at me. It's very very expensive so anything made using it has to consider that. If you buy it, you've spent so much the profit disappears. If you make it, why didn't you just sell it?

c) Demand. In France, it's 601. Cars may have a high selling price, but after setting up a production line for all those products how many can you really make before the market says "no"?

So here are some questions to ask yourself:

1) What products don't require high quality?
Power, Water, and stones are always at q0, and players always need them. Also, Steel and Wood are used in buildings, and builders don't need higher quality, so those are also ok at q0. That's from selling to players.

Selling to customers, I look at the stats screen and see plenty of products with lower average quality. Now not all of these are profitable for other reasons, but there are a lot of non-competitive products to try.

2) What products don't require a long supply line?
Again, raw materials sold on the market are pretty simple. Look up what a mine or plantation can do, then check those prices on the market and see what looks appealing. (BTW, for a good source of information about production stats you should be using http://www.kapitools.de).

Also, the simple setup of grocery + fruit is not a terrible business because it's such a short supply line. You're not going to make killer money on it up front, but the fruit plantations are so much cheaper to build you can also make a lot pretty quickly. And right now average quality isn't that high for any of them.

3) Can I provide to other players?
As some mentioned, the contest products are a good way for beginners to do that. But it changes every two weeks, and there are about 2 days of no contest at all, so be wary. There are other things to sell though. Just a quick look at the faxes page shows me people want:
Steel, wood, stone, power, water, chem, coal, iron, minerals, oil, gas, leather, textiles, wardrobes, tv, cars, and more. And if you check the buying forum you can find more. Not all of these are great but pick one, look at what you'd have to do to make it, and you know you'll find customers.

And I'll end with two things. One, don't dump all your cash into RC too early but when you pick a product you want to have that building then gradually expand it after the first few levels. After all, two buildings can't both researching the same product. (Then you can worry about input RCs.) And Two, if you have this expectation that you can have huge money immediately, and triple your net worth every 3 days or something, you're going to be disappointed. You start small, and so do your profits. I say if you can double your fixed assets every 2-3 weeks you're doing great.

[Guest]

About what Knolls said:

-well man, like u said, car bussiness is pretty hard.So i think I'll come back for it later in game, if I can



-the original bussiness that I started , meaning OIL/GAS selling strikes a great profit.Not so much like selling 1 car or 1 engine, but I sell at least.My question would be :should I start reasearching for Gas if I already have researched Oil q5, or should I expand? Or maybe I should buy another Selling Building or a RC for Gas, considering that I only have Rc for Oil.U said expand after a few researches and seems a good moment now.




-u had some comments on raw materials with low q.True , but how can I start producing Steel (wich is great if u can sell it to other players, but NOT on the market), or maybe stone or wood if I already started on GAS/OIL.Or u mean I should expand later in the buildings that require those raw materials?



-about the contest.Seems obvious that it is a very good bussiness if I can participate and I can try to make the best out of it , but regretable I remain a newbie (hopefully not for long).So indications would be in order for someone to give me.If I have to join a certain team of players who can raise a new player , I'll do that.I just hope (again) that doesn't make me a bad player.If players like knolls or elder or phoenix oil think they can help without me standing in their own evolution, then I will gladly take their time.


Later....

[Guest]

-the original bussiness that I started , meaning OIL/GAS selling strikes a great profit.Not so much like selling 1 car or 1 engine, but I sell at least.My question would be :should I start reasearching for Gas if I already have researched Oil q5, or should I expand? Or maybe I should buy another Selling Building or a RC for Gas, considering that I only have Rc for Oil.U said expand after a few researches and seems a good moment now.

You should get a Chemical RC for Gas. Maybe not immediately, but soon. Just raising the quality of oil will hold you back.

For each quality in Oil research you get half that quality in oil after production. Then for each quality in oil you get 1/3 that quality in gas after production. So if you get your oil research up to 6, then make q3 oil, then you can make q1 gas. It will be very hard to catch up to q5 that way.

On the other hand, in the time it takes to get Oil to 6 you can easily build a Chemical RC and get gas research up to 3. Then your gas quality will be (oil 3 + research 3) / 3 inputs or q2 gas. A much faster improvement. So again, you do need a Chemical RC. I'd say it's a higher priority than your Well RC. But not immediate. More on that in a moment.

If you have 1 well, 1 factory, and 1 Gas Station, you have your chain set up. By my calculations you should have enough gas coming through to keep your station busy with 1000 every 12 hours, with enough gas and oil left over to sell on the market.

If I were you, my next purchase would be a Power Plant. In Green, it will cost you 142,000. That will make enough to supply all your needs, and you'll have enough left over to make about 14,000 a day selling power on the market. That's a very good return and you don't have to buy power for your oil & gas anymore.

Then after that, buy Chemical RC and start pushing up Gas. In most businesses I'd say to expand a little more first, but you need to catch up so get that gas research going. Your third buy will be another store, but before you build that you want to save up a little extra gas in the warehouse to keep that store busy. (Since two stores are faster than your well/factory.)

Depending on how much cash you have right now, it can easily take over a week to get some of those buildings up. But with a little patience, you're on a pretty good path.

-u had some comments on raw materials with low q.True , but how can I start producing Steel (wich is great if u can sell it to other players, but NOT on the market), or maybe stone or wood if I already started on GAS/OIL.Or u mean I should expand later in the buildings that require those raw materials?

Well you don't have a plantation, and it doesn't really fit in with your other buildings, so let's set wood to the side right now and talk about Stones and Steel.

Steel is profitable whether you sell it to another player (around 128) or on the market (around 134 - 10%). But the real money is in the mining, because coal and iron ore sell pretty decently on the market (and steel takes a lot). Also steel takes a lot of factory time.

Speaking of steel though, do you still have all that starting steel in your warehouse? If so, save maybe 1000-1500 for future buildings, and sell the rest. You can really use the cash right now, and won't need the steel until much later in life.

So if you want to enter a second business, build a mine. I would still do the power plant and the chemical RC first, then it's a decision between another Gas Station or a Mine. What's good about making both gas and steel, is that both use the same factories. So you can have the mine busy, selling what it makes while the factory makes gas. Then when you have extra gas for a bit, you switch the factory over to make steel. This will be even easier when you have multiples of everything.

But again, don't worry about it just yet. It's my personal position that you should take one final product and dedicate your research there. In your case, gas. Then become flexible on other products that don't need research, like stones and steel. That way in case things ever go really bad for one business, or a great opportunity comes up in mines, you can take advantage.

-about the contest.Seems obvious that it is a very good bussiness if I can participate and I can try to make the best out of it , but regretable I remain a newbie (hopefully not for long).So indications would be in order for someone to give me.If I have to join a certain team of players who can raise a new player , I'll do that.I just hope (again) that doesn't make me a bad player.If players like knolls or elder or phoenix oil think they can help without me standing in their own evolution, then I will gladly take their time.

Someone may have a different opinion on this, but I think the only real benefit of a "trade group" is that it helps you find people to do business with so you can trade contracts instead of on the market. I don't have one, but I do keep track of my contacts and send a lot of IGMs to establish relationships. For what it's worth today I think makes 1 month for me in the game, and I floundered a bit at first as I was learning and exploring. But now I bring in enough to make a new building or expansion every day.

For the contest tip, just watch the newspaper this Sunday to see what the new product is. (I have guesses but I won't say.) If you have a little cash ready to go immediately when they announce it, you might want to build whatever produce that product. Using cotton as an example, here's what you could have done last contest:

Cotton is announced:

• Build a plantation (75,000)
• Makes seeds at the plantation
• Make cotton at the plantation (lets say 600 per day, which is a low for a Merchant but we'll be conservative)
• Sell that cotton for anywhere from 25-70 depending on day and time. Lets say 30.
• You make 18,000 per day.
• In 4 days you made back the price of the plantation. Now you can build another.
• Spend a week on two plantations, making 7 * 2 * 18,000 = 250,000