Building up stockpiles

[brookerf]

No, no offense here...but I do enjoy this type of discussion... I have a lot to learn.

I played Fed when it was on AOL and ran my bill up to $200 one month...just married and no teaching job at the time...not pretty. I think it made sense to do things as quickly as possible. I remember having *something* back then that I called a macro, but it was part of my word processing program???

Anyways, enjoyed reading about your experience with the different front ends. I've heard about zMUD, but wasn't sure how it worked with Fed. Perhaps with my withdrawal going full tilt with the current shutdown, I'll look into that some more. May even mess with the F-keys...I had entertained using my Word program to do just what you mentioned (still to fill defs...too stubborn to sell that way). With three planets, I have A LOT of deficit commods. When I get my builds completed, I'd like to work on some sort of way to build up my stockpiles and leave them that way on a regular basis. One complaint I've seen in my exchange that bothers me is that I don't sell anything and I think that could be a legitimate gripe.

[oddball]

Is it that you prefer filling defs? Reason I ask is I can show pretty conclusively you make a ton more selling surpluses off. I think I mentioned I do both, but with time constraints I have now, if I needed the cash for builds, I'd opt for surplus hauling.

Of course there is a neat little trick there that can be exploited. Don't use it myself because I consider it a bug.

Odd

[oddball]

When we were on GEnie at $6/hr non-prime, $18/prime, I think there were a few folks who ran bills up past a grand.

[smitty]

hey guys - just wanted to add a bit from my personal experience:

1- i've noticed that (if you have your defs set to 200 max) there is NO reason to EVER close your link. it's simply not possible to lose money if people trade normally (or even "dump" a little)

in order to "cost" the planet money, a truly malicious player would have to work *extremely* hard, and would definitely lose more than the planet did in the process... it's just not possible to bomb someone's exchange like in previous fed versions- at least not without going broke in the process

2- as for macros... i don't ever use "actual" macros- but i can't say i really have anything against them - EXCEPT, and this is a big one- when people blindly use macros to play without knowing how they work. i am absolutely against macroing through the lower ranks! however, if you're going to actually learn enough about the inner workings of your exchange/etc to know ENOUGH to write a macro, i think you've probably earned the right to...

as for my philosophy: i have my exchange "walk up" steps abbreviated- so i can type like "s1" to "SET step 1" for my planet, which changes 10 or 12 commod max values, and i only walk 5 "steps" at a time so i guess i COULD set all of them to fkeys (for both planets) and still have 2 keys to spare... so i think i'm cool on that front (since there was no fedterm for mac when i started, i'm kinda attached to my frontend now- and i wouldn't switch)

3- as for the exile idea- i like it... but i don't think it's really necessary- i mean, if they won't let you trade on their planet, they're costing themselves a ton of money anyway- that seems like punishment enough

[brookerf]

1. Yes, I prefer to fill defs. Since I'm sort of picky about how and where I sell my surplus, it takes me MUCH longer to do it. I do agree that much more money can be made hauling out, but for me, it just takes a lot of time. With kids going off to school, I have a little more time to try that out on some days. Truth be told, though, once I do my builds I'm not all too concerned with making any more money than I need to until a promotion is on the horizon (that's when I experiment with spreads and such).

2. $1,000 for a monthly bill? WHOA!

3. Smitty, I did lose money in my exchange. Like I said in a previous post, the planet I closed (which by the way wasn't a constant thing...it was a couple of times, despite how I'm explaining it) had big deficits and I had several factories to fill each one, so those defs were set to 800. One of the nice things about having manu. alts! It was also my disaster planet where I had just let the whole thing go south with huge stockpiles and 6% spread. I didn't intend to wreck it...it just happened out of curiousity and ignorance! lol Even after I sold off all the stockpiles (which took two weeks so I didn't dump on anyone), I was 40 megs in the hole. Took FOREVER to get back in the black!

By the way, I wondered about something with one of my manu. alts. As I logged on, someone was selling off shares and then bought them back very quickly. Checked my disaffection and it was 55%. Ignored it and suffered a shareholder's rebellion the next day. I had that alt for 80 cycles and never experienced that kind of disaffection before. I wouldn't have thought a thing about it if I hadn't logged in and caught the buying and selling of shares. Have had to issue several huge divvies since then (and I've never been stingy with them, anyways), although I don't suspect foul play all the other times because I didn't 'see' anything! ::shrug::

[oddball]

I am aware of three instances of that happening. Two were Ariadne trying to cause shareholder rebellions (and thus large divvies) and the other was some folks attempting payback on her (failed tho).

Odd

[brookerf]

I am aware of three instances of that happening. Two were Ariadne trying to cause shareholder rebellions (and thus large divvies) and the other was some folks attempting payback on her (failed tho).>>>>

Yep, that's who it was with me, too. Had no clue it happened to others. I never said anything on the comms, but I did tb that person just to let them know I thought that was a mean way to play the game. Pretty big deal for me to speak up, as I like to keep to myself and don't like confrontation. After 80 cycles and faithful issues of divvies, I was pretty ticked!

It would be neat to give companies the power to kick off shareholders, but I am sure there are many things I'm not thinking of that would make that a bad idea. Plus, I'd be too chicken to do it anyways.

[oddball]

Can't say I am surprised. Always amazes me when people feel they have to get ahead by hurting someone else. This particular game isn't set up that way on purpose. But there will always be those who "feel the need". I be hardpressed to be convinced this isn't an alt for another fin tho. Too much similiarity in almost everything that's done.

Personnally, I always attempt to do as little disruption to other player's exchanges as possible. Always sell no more than 6 bays, look for factories, do my buying on player planets. I do not say the same for sol planets...lol. First off there are very few factories left there. Second off, if I can still make a profit by dumping 12 bays there, I will do so. No player's treasury is being affected.

There have been a couple of instances where players have asked me to refrain from trading their planets while they make adjustments, do experiments, etc. Happy to oblige them. There has been 1 other, who instead of asking, just exiled. Pain in the ass as you don't know until you run into a blocked link (if you don't see the notice). I just consider this bad manners and then laugh to myself, as it affects them more than me... With 147 active exchanges, I can always sell off my goods.

I can only think of 1 person I exiled. It was for selling off their factories without giving me any kind of heads up. I revoked the exile after 60 days.

Odd

[oddball]

I'd be interested (although I think I already may know). Haven't the time to haul like I used to.

[smitty]

boone: some people have been calling that method the "exchange trick" or something similar- i think there is a fairly even split (among people who know how to use this method) on whether it should be allowed or not. some people consider it a bug, and think exploiting it is unfair- some people don't. i know it has been reported as a bug on several occasions- but since alan has not made a code fix to prevent it, that seems like at least he is willing to look the other way.
as for my personal feelings... i'm undecided. i don't mind people using this method- but i'm not sure if i like the idea of it posted up here for anyone to see... i think, if you're willing to discover it on your own, you might use it if you see fit-

but my number one feeling is that you should really learn how your planet works before blindly following anyone's advice (including, and especially, mine) i made it through many ranks in "old fed" just by blindly following advice of more senior players, and looking back that really was my loss. this time around, i've gone through every experiment i could think of to see how to make (and lose!) money, and i feel like that's really the way to go. if i can ever think of anything ELSE to do, well i won't hesitate to experiment!

just my 2 cents. if you read carefully, it actually says you should disregard my advice anyway!

[brookerf]

boone: some people have been calling that method the "exchange trick" or something similar- i think there is a fairly even split (among people who know how to use this method) on whether it should be allowed or not.
as for my personal feelings... i'm undecided. i don't mind people using this method- but i'm not sure if i like the idea of it posted up here for anyone to see... i think, if you're willing to discover it on your own, you might use it if you see fit- >>>>

Did I miss Boone's post on this? I know we've talked about the 'exchange trick' here before. Seems to defeat the purpose of the game in a way...but on the other hand, I can see a decent point being made that if it is a tool at your disposal, why not use it? I use "tool" only in the sense that it has been reported, but not corrected/changed...

As far as taking advice, maybe my being anti-social makes me unaware of those blindly taking advice, but I *personally* feel that if someone takes advice from this board, they can see from posting history and reputations within the game that they are hearing it from experienced and trustworthy people. It is up to the player to take that advice to help them learn or understand their exchanges better. Otherwise, I suspect future ranks might be very difficult for them.

I've definitely benefited from things I've read on this board, but I've also experimented on my own planet. Unfortunately, NONE of my lovely experiments developed into anything that wasn't already obvious (and usually resulted in financial ruin ) I'm not a mathematician, so I have always just used common sense with things. Learning the math formulas to calculate how many factories to put on my planets was priceless to me.

[oddball]

boone: some people have been calling that method the "exchange trick" or something similar- i think there is a fairly even split (among people who know how to use this method) on whether it should be allowed or not. some people consider it a bug, and think exploiting it is unfair

I am in the camp that considers it a bug. Mostly because it makes absolutely no sense and defeats the purpose of exchanges/trading. Does your trashman pay you to pick up your trash?... That said, others are most free to work it as the authors of the game have been notified and decided not to fix this bug. Oh wait, I was corrected by a staff member....it is not a bug. I shall call it a logic loophole then....

Just kidding,

Odd

[boone]

I fel , even though Im using the mexchange trick, that I am making a contribution to all who trade. I keep my def stocks at 800 tons, and all spreads are at 6%, It engourages others to trade their surplus if that is the way they want to go. By keeping def stocks at 800, I can take 1600 tons aof any commod Boondock uses(also Carson) thereby allowing merchants/po's/fo's who need to, a place to pick up cheap items, and unload items at a decent profit. I do not worry about losing groats this way, as the other method keeps me in the black.

[smitty]

Sorry brooke, i didn't mean ignore ALL advice ALL the time! of course getting tips from the board is ok, that's what it's here for all i was really trying to say is, put in the time to learn what you can- be that from experiments or advice or the manuals (yes there really is good info in them

my main point is just this: *it is my opinion* that playing "just to get to the top" without taking time to learn and have fun will ruin the game for you... there is no winner in fed, and being the "first" to do something isn't really that important anyway

so all my posts can just be broken down into this: have more fun dangit!

oh, and i think boone probably deleted his post about "the trick"- because it detailed exactly how to do it.

[oddball]

Well I have been enjoying the time off. I think I will be restoring my characters and then continuing my hiatus. Found something else to capture my interests for a bit. Feel sorry for ibgames as it's a pain in the butt I am sure.