Cost/Unit: What Is Included?

Cauldyth · Post by **Cauldyth** » May 30 2005

I'm still trying to get a handle on the economic system, so my apologies if this is a stupid question. However, I'm curious what expenses are factored into the quoted Cost/Unit value listed for a given commodity.

For example, here's some info for Military Goods from my current game:

- I'm producing 1690 units, with a quoted cost of $35,097/unit, for a total production cost of ~$59M.

- I'm sellling them on the WM at a price of $40,194, for a total price of ~$68M. That looks like a nice profit of $9M.

- However, as everyone knows, production of Military Goods consumes things as well. In my case, it's consuming ~$23M worth of goods at my own production costs, or ~$30M at WM prices. Additionally, there is a $1.42M maintenance fee on the facility itself.

So my question is, are those additional maintenance and "ingredient" costs factored into the listed cost/unit for my Military Goods? If so, is the cost based on my own production costs for the ingredients, on the WM price, or on a combination of the two based on wherever they actually came from that day? If they aren't factored in, then I'm not really turning a profit, and I should stop production of them immediately.

-Cauldyth

Gotthard · Post by **Gotthard** » May 31 2005

They are NOT included in the cost, according to all my tests.

I.e. check uranium as colorado. Costs 18 to make, plus like 2-3 per efficiency. Like 20-21. If you add maintainence, it jumps to ~250 or so.

DEFINATELY check it, and do the math yourself... which is horrifically time consuming. But the only way to see if you are making a profit.

Cauldyth · Post by **Cauldyth** » May 31 2005

Yeow, that certainly adds a lot of work if that's the case. Any chance we can get this changed in Update #3? Sounds like that panel is fooling me into manufacturing things that are just costing me money in the end.

-Cauldyth

tkobo · Post by **tkobo** » May 31 2005

Something to keep in mind, that production means jobs and income for your population.

Which can translate into tax income and happiness for your region.

So even if you lose some total cash when the sale takes place,you are also gaining other benefits including cash imcome not shown by the purchase price.

Kriegsspieler · Post by **Kriegsspieler** » Jun 02 2005

Gotthard wrote:They are NOT included in the cost, according to all my tests.

I.e. check uranium as colorado. Costs 18 to make, plus like 2-3 per efficiency. Like 20-21. If you add maintainence, it jumps to ~250 or so.

DEFINATELY check it, and do the math yourself... which is horrifically time consuming. But the only way to see if you are making a profit.

Gotthard, where are you coming up with these "efficiency costs"? I don't see how you obtain them. You can't simply divide the efficiency percentage by the cost represented on the slider, because even at zero investment you would still have SOME efficiency in the industry.

Mark me confused . . .

Cauldyth · Post by **Cauldyth** » Jun 02 2005

I assume he's dividing how much is being invested in efficiency by the number of units being produced.

-Cauldyth

Gotthard · Post by **Gotthard** » Jun 02 2005

That's correct. Divide efficiency cost by number of units.

For the record, after furthor testing, I *think* that oil, metal, ect. ARE included in the costs. After replacing all oil electrical plants with uranium and hydro, I experianced a 20 dollar fall in the cost of electricity. I'll have to test more to make sure though.

To sum up...

cost/unit=(unit cost)+(efficiency cost)+(Maintainence costs), where

unit cost=that number you see in the info panel

efficiency cost=the total efficiency cost divided by the number of units

maintainence costs=total maintainence costs in the land info panel, divided by 365 for per day, and then divided by number of units made/day

These are ALSO modified by GDP/c, as well as unemplyment and inflation.

I suspect GDP/c is impacted by unemployment, so it is more indirect, but the effect is the same. That's all I can think of...

Decimatus · Post by **Decimatus** » Jun 02 2005

May have to factor in salaries in the same manner as the maintenence cost.

Gotthard · Post by **Gotthard** » Jun 02 2005

The salaries ARE included in the cost/unit listed in the panel.

Watch it skyrocket as your people get over 40k GDP/c. How MUCH it goes up is up for grabs... do you have any clues to that? It's damn near impossible to test because I have little/no control over the GDP/c from what I can tell...

100.2% tax, AND all necessarly goods they buy at just below "this is too much" and they STILL keep going up like mad. I think to actually make it go down you either have to cut some social service (like education) or go over the email limit...

lordrune · Post by **lordrune** » Jun 11 2005

When you're in the realms of 40K GDP/c though, you're in Battlegoat's realm of economic fantasy where you're able to keep your people exuberantly happy and your government in strong surplus, because your trade partners haven't worked out that dollars from your country might as well be Argentinian pesos.
In reality, when unemployment gets low pushing inflation higher (which is a correlation I can understand), your currency should suffer as a result - causing the cost of your imports and the profits from your exports to decrease. Therefore, if you continued to keep nominal prices low on a product you were importing, you could potentially see the development of a trade deficit, because the price you would have to pay would increase. Or something like that.