Money from the NPC: Setting the right retail price.

[Guest]

As a small add-on to the otherwise excellent post:


1) In most cases (I assume you are not an addicted maniac that sits all the day at the computer) you have to fit your selling scheme to your log in/checking times. Using the method described by Knolls you can estimate how much REAL LIFE costs you in terms of lost in-game margins. Given the relatively flat profit curve shown in the example - it turns not so very expensive Unfortunatelly in the case of lot of other products is is not the case, but I strongly suggest sticking to selling times of 24h - micromanagement of the game can ruin your real life.

2) If you are a self-producer you have to optimize your profit of your production-selling combo. Your calcultation will be more complex and your optimal price will be significantly higher than in case of pure retail business. But in this case the abovementioned RL constraint also applies.

Just my few cents.

[Guest]

Could it be possible to derive a general curve in function of supply & demand and average quality? If we could figure out how that generates (I assume it are the only variables besides the chosen product) the curve we could easyly just bring those data in a general formula and calculate the marginal profit. I suppose deriving the formulas (if they are not too complicated or radomized) from the system could be possible with some sort of statistical regressions (will try to look for them some day when I have a lot of spare time ).

[Guest]

I was wondering about one thing. If everyone would raise prices of a single product in their shops by 50% the average price would also go up by 50% which would make it sell in the same time giving shop owners 50% more money.

I'm not sure if that's correct because I don't exactly know how is the selling time calculated.

[Guest]

I was wondering about one thing. If everyone would raise prices of a single product in their shops by 50% the average price would also go up by 50% which would make it sell in the same time giving shop owners 50% more money.

I'm not sure if that's correct because I don't exactly know how is the selling time calculated.

i think that the time is also calculated by some default price modifier, because there are products that almost noone sells and you still can't charge any price

[Guest]

I had some country selection questions I was hoping Knolls or Capitalis might be able to do a post on. I have noticed that a few specific products have a very large difference in selling time based on location alone.

Maybe you could explain the differences in the 5+ country stats? So far I have been looking at Amount, Price, Quality, Supply and Demand.

I'm not sure which would be more or less useful to consider. What process do you guys use when selecting a country to sell a particular good in?

[Guest]

Demand is based on the population of an area. Each area has a base amount which is effected by the number of jobs. Jobs come from buildings. This means that Germany has the most, because most players seem to build buildings there. Supply is really the same as Amount.

Amount, average Quality, and average Price are all averages based on the goods placed on the market by players over a certain period of time. The formula at work is pretty complicated - I am sure I do not understand it that well.

The average price in a region is effected by the retail style of the players who sell there. Some people sell goods faster for less money, and some sell fewer for more. In the end, fast is good in the short run, but drives down prices. Slow is good in the longrun and raises prices, but requires patience and some understanding of how things work.

Some research can help, as the policies of the larger players in a region can give you some idea of what to expect, but honestly most players deal with this by building some retail in all three red regions, and shifting product around based on todays prices.

I hope this helps some.

[Guest]

honestly most players deal with this by building some retail in all three red regions, and shifting product around based on todays prices.

It helps a lot, thanks. I was going to try this approach, but it is far less flexible that I would like after you consider expansions and advertisements.

I guess there is no magic formula though, so I'll have to just do some tests, pick a country and hope everyone stays put.

[Guest]

What process do you guys use when selecting a country to sell a particular good in?

Step 1: Look for a country named Germany ...

OK actually that's a good question. This is going to be more on the general side than the mathematically precise, but hopefully it helps.

Major factors in NPC sales (time)

• The "base" value - This is completely unknown to us players, but is deeply imbedded in the system. It's why you can sell a car for 100,000 but not an apple. This is why some products are just better than others.
• Wages - 3000 in red, 1800 in yellow, 900 in green
• Sales Price - If you want to sell faster, lower your price.
• Your quality - If you want to sell faster, get higher quality.

Minor factors in NPC sales (time)

• Demand. Demand comes from popuation, which comes from jobs, which come from buildings. (Which come from player expansion.) So don't worry about those stats, just the final one.
• Average Price. All other things being equal, a higher average means you can charge more too
• Average Quality. All other things being equal, a lower average means you can charge more for yours.
• Supply (Amount). Until you get around the point where Supply = Demand, it's not a big deal. After that point however, sales slow dramatically and this is a huge factor.

So having broken it up into two lists, don't put a minor factor over a major one. Mistakes:

• Picking Candy over Gas because the Average quality is lower. Sure, the average Q is lower, but it's just not as good a product and the base value will get you.
• Selling in Mauritania instead of Germany because the demand is better. The wages will kill you.
• Pushing your prices way up to "raise the average" and make more. You just won't shift the market that far.

Now eventually there may be cases where enough minor statistics add up to overwhelm a major one. For example, if Saudi Arabian quality is like 12 lower than German quality, and the supply is near zero, yet the demand is nearly as high, then together all those things might overwhelm the wages to be worthwhile. This is a risky judgement call that may pay off if you know what you're doing.

Therefore what I tend to do is decide on red, and for my first building pick which of the 3 has the lowest average quality. But my 2nd and 3rd buildings will probably be in the other countries. That way I can get first-hand information every day about which is best, and use that knowledge to figure out which way to expand.

[Guest]

Step 1: Look for a country named Germany ...

I bilt my first shops in France, then I realised that germany is much better (higher avg. price, lower avg. quality), even Turkey was better than France, but now tha average quality in France has dropped significantly, so you can never say which will be better in long term therefore it's better not to concentrate on one country, but diverse your sales

[Guest]

Ain't that the truth. And we had a discussion in another thread somewhere that even with all regional stats the same, it may be that one region is better when your quality is below average, and then another one becomes better when your Q exceeds the average.

[Guest]

Knolls ... i think you do an excellent job, but please let them ckeck a little bide ^^

They have a brain, let them use it! Next step, I guess you help them to determine their own production price ...

We are in business (virtual one) but IRL nobody will be able to support them in their own entreprise.

**************************************

One more thing, the demand moves everyday. Which mean that everyday at the same price, your demand evoluted and your customers are less or more sentitive to the price and your quality.

Be careful.

[Guest]

Ok, another question. Is there any reason to have more than 2 retail stores?

Since they expand linearly, I don't see any advantage to having 10 100m2 Gas stations rather than 5 200m2 Gas stations.

I hear once you get very large, you expand every day. So 2 would be nice to alternate with. On that note, I guess you would have a slight advantage as a single expansion holds up the whole store, so a group of smaller stores will sell more during expansions.

But then you have advertising too! Although that is a one time fee.


So how many stores do the big guys have?

[Tycoon]

If you are growing and become a real "big" company, the costs for the ads are nothing compared to the profit.

As far as I know, users who do not specialize on only one branch, have aprox 4-5 shops of one kind. That makes it possible, as you already mentioned, to expand but sell at the same time....

I think it depends on how many branches you have. If you have e.g. 3 branches, you should have more shops, so that you can make enough profit; otherwise your warehouse will be filled in the course of time...

[Guest]

Since they expand linearly, I don't see any advantage to having 10 100m2 Gas stations rather than 5 200m2 Gas stations.

It's a very good question and I have wondered this myself quite a bit. Tycoon makes a good point I hadn't even considered, that after a certain size the ads become a non-issue.

Here are the benefits of each approach as I see it:

Lots of small buildings
More efficient when small. (Not an issue once medium-sized).
Ability to expand without stopping income.
Abiliity to vary products / qualities.

Few large buildings
Save on ads (minor issue once large).
More slots for production buildings.
Less management.

With that in mind, you still get preferences all over the map. I know some people have more than 50% selling buildings. I can also see the appeal of just having 2-3. Personally, for one product line I have 10 selling buildings, in the ratio of how I prefer the zones. (5 in Germany, 2 in Turkey, 3 in France). But I often wonder if that's correct. And at the time when you're buying ads, an extra 1.7 million per store is not insignificant.

[Guest]

I personally have 3 stores, one in German, France, and Turkey since the beginning of game. Selling Gas, so my observation only holds true for this.

Like Capitalis had mentioned before, the demand is based on the population on that particular place, so building it on one location isn't going to do it, as over time I am sure that particular country population will grow. My thinking was why not just built it at that 3 red area so that it will eventually average out the price so I don't get left out if one country is more profitable then another.

And so far, i have seen price i.e. Germany was the highest selling price, to now the lowest, and other countries as well, and some price are so much in different, >10% from one red country to another.

Of coz now its a matter of your choice, would you want to sell in that store or not in the first place? or have higher quality (if you have different quality, you can always split them up) and place them in respective store (this would not work long run) or any other call you might want to make i.e. expand, sell, trade?

So probably i would stick to one in each country just to average it out. Works better in long term.