POs - how are you doing it?

[smitty]

well, here are the results from my hauling out experiment last night:
i hauled OUT 3 bays of my top 4 producers (spices, fruit, semis, cereals) and IN 3 bays of my biggest 4 defs (all biologicals) every 30 minutes or so. this was enough to re-fill my goods, and burn through the defs.

doing that for about 4 hours, i was able to make slightly more than 3 meg. but- only hauling IN my defs for the same period, i made a 2.5 meg average. so, hauling out helped a bit... but that was a LOT of work for 4 hours.

also, i am able to make 2 meg hauling in SOL for about a half hour (3 meg - tax). so in comparison, i'm a little disappointed in my planet's performance.

my markups were set at 40% for this experiment- to keep my personal balance from gaining much, and put the most into the planet as i could.

[zr]

All the planets will probably be different (like in classic if you played there)---you might want to try hauling in/out your highest (base) priced commods---that might work better, not sure not tried it myself, I usually do everything but leis---only do leis when have some xtra time

[smitty]

i did play in classic zr
i do realize that planets will be different- so i'm fine with that- all part of the game you know? but i'm just disappointed that mine is on the low end at the moment... who knows what the future will hold! i'm doing an agricollege build and another canal, so that'll help quite a bit
plus- it hasn't been determined what will happen to exchanges when promotion goes in (hopefully soon!) will they re-roll? only re-roll some commods? boost production in the next level of commods? who knows! i'm just working to get there at the moment

[Gwaptiva]

When hauling, I make about 50% of my money on my personal balance, and 50% on my planet's treasury... I don't care where it comes from to be fair.

Oh, and that 50/50 is AFTER tax

[zr]

they'll prob be re-rolled, and it'll only be resource (or whatever they call it) so none of the builds'll be expiring (at tech canals and the agri, possibly resource, college will expire---but they have trains and planes in the future build section so am sure it'll all work out---think how long it would take to get across merc if they didn't have the train )

[brookerf]

zr said:

I should add, you want to check your events each day and even throughout the day. there are some absolute "gold mine" events that might occur, I'm still working some of them out

I find this extremely interesting and I thought of this post yesterday when I had similar events majorly boost some deficit commods on my planet. I'll admit that I don't pay a lot of attention to the events, but I happened to notice that one of my deficits had an extremely high stockpile. It happened to be a commod that I have the max. set to 20000. I sold off all the excess and made a lot of money for the planet. I'll definitely be checking on the events much more regularly.

I'll look forward to the list you mentioned. I'm curious as to what are some ways to capitalize off of events that cause a major deficit in producers. Is it wise to haul in to fill that deficit?

Brooke

[smitty]

zr (and anyone else) - when you haul IN your defs, how many bays of a commodity do you bring in at a time?

[zr]

usually 4, sometimes 8, though I've heard if you're going to do more than 4 you should stop at 7 (Zand's comment, at any rate).

I don't usually have the def events---the one I had the other night hit firewalls (the example) so I brought a ton of firewalls in, but they still got gobbled up almost as fast as I brought them so not entirely sure made money or even broke even on them.

[smitty]

ok, at great expense (to my alt) i changed my entire factory strategy on numazu. here's how i did it:

i recalculated all my defs based on a 12 cycles per hour average. then i took the 12 cycles/hour and calcuated the number of bays per day my planet would eat of each def- (12 cycles * commod production * 24 hours per day / 75 tons)

when all was said and done, i came up with a list of factories that i produced the inputs for and had enough workthingies to support, and then i started at the bottom of the list, to get as close to the bays/day i needed, but not going over- so the exchange would eat everything produced by the factories- if i don't take my alt online a lot, a factory will produce 12 bays per day)

here's the table i came up with:
Commod.......bays/day....factories supported
Sims.............46..............3
Hypnos........38..............3
Sens............34..............2
Musiks.........26..............2
Nanfab........19..............1
Firewalls......15..............1
Weapons.....15..............1

with these factories, i'm making about 2 meg per day. now, starting at the bottom of the list (getting defs that don't eat too much) allows me to haul in whenever i want for defs that are bigger (like unis- eats over 100 bays/day). hauling in 6 bays of all my big defs twice per day (about 15 commods) i made over 5 meg on saturday!

pretty happy about that!

hope this sheds some light on why i love facs!
and hopefully it helps somebody else!

[cragon]

My congrats to Smitty and Zr for their excellent posts. Math is my biggest problem and the least interesting of Planet Management for me although I understand to be successful it is essential. Understanding how factories make a planet groats and to take advantage of them is good to know. Doubt if I ever will be any good in that area but for now my Arts and Unis facs serve me well. For those like me though who are weak in math all I can offer is haul...haul...and haul some more.

Cragon

[brookerf]

I'm not the best in this area, too, Cragon. I make up what I lack in planetary know-how with hard work hauling. I've been making enough by hauling to do a build every other day (thank you POs with low spread/high stockpiles). That's with losing 33% of my transferred wages. I'm going to print out Smitty's re-vamp to see if I can at least figure out the same thing for my planet. I know it cycles, but I can never catch it right when it happens.

Also wanted to add that your trading pages have really helped, Cragon. I've made my own buy-from--sell-to sheet and it makes easy work when hauling. Thanks!

Brooke

[smitty]

well, i know a lot of people aren't math stars- but i happen to be a spreadsheet junky, and that's how i did everything. I kinda see the "economic simulation" part of fed as the fun- it's like trading fantasy stocks or something (which i don't do though, go figure) it's not for some people- but it's what i like

so- hauling will definitely make you money, and you don't have to do ANY math to make big bucks, but i've found i can make the most if i haul juuuuuust the right amount. so, if anyone wants a math lesson, or a spreadsheet lesson, i can definitely help out, just let me know!

[zr]

well, so much for that---tried SOLEY hauling out last night, and made piddly squat, so hauling out seems to be more of a stop-gap to keep YOU afloat while you haul in (hauling in still seems to be the best way to make money, unless you have facs).

facs don't really need math, you just need to know that when a fac sells to the ex the entire 75t bay goes into the ex. if YOU or ANYONE ELSE sell to the ex, the ex gets 37.5t (don't know which way it rounds, but knowing ibgames, prob down), so that's where the true "benefit" lies.

~ ZR

[brookerf]

I used to be good at math, but I've been staying home with the kids for almost five years and literally have turned my brain to mush. Darn kids!

I printed out your roll and replicated your calculations. I came out with the exact same thing you did, except on a couple of commods...but I was only four or five points off. Not sure why. Then I printed out my roll and did the same calculations. I really think you and zr make a lot of sense when talking about addressing the deficits of the exchange, rather than the surplus. I came up with the following for my planet:

sims........100
cereals....92
meats......92
xmetals....77
livestock...73
studios......65
nanos.......65
weapons...61
holos........58
munitions..46
lubs..........35
semis.......31
firewalls....27
libs............8
games.......6
gaschips....5
lasers......4
nanfab.....4

So following your formula, I would have to discount anything less than twelve. I also didn't calculate biological, since I can't produce it. I removed any commod that couldn't be supported with inputs from my planet. That left SIMS, STUDIOS, WEAPONS, MUNITIONS, and SEMIS. I may or may not add others that need inputs hauled in. I don't mind hauling it in. Don't know if it is worth it to have a semis fac that supports the firewalls.

[smitty]

nice work brooke!
so now you know exactly how many bays you can haul in and what facs you should build! isn't math great

our calculations were probably off by a few because i have some rounding in there- no big deal.

i also just wanted to point out from zr's last post- it's true that your exchange will only get half of the commods you sell to it, but that's ONLY when your def is above 0! so, as long as your def is in the negative, your planet will get the whole bay!

that's why you should stop at hauling in 7 bays of a def at a time (maximum) - because 7*75 = 525. haul in an 8th bay, and your exchange will only get half of the commod.