Product supply/demand bar graphs on global levels

[Balthagor]

From another thread

The product bars in the diplomatic trade window is great feature. May-be it is also a good idea to use this system in a game window showing the production-demand information for the whole world. This will inform the gamer about the global production versus demand situation for each particle product-resource. It help out to decide which (long term) investments are usefull to serve the world economy.

Greetings, Emeg.

I've moved this to its own thread. It is an interesting idea and would require a fair amount of work both in the engine and in locating it in the GUI, but I have made note of it for future consideration.

[tkobo]

Sounds like a good idea to me.

[Dom]

Why not? It helps.

[GIJoe597]

I am not so certain it will tell us anything about long term investments. The market fluctuates so much, whats good today may not be good tomorrow.

To give an example I go through everytime I play a game as the U.S.A. At the start the price of oil is very high. Many countries including the U.S.A. need to import vast quantitites of it. One of the first things I do in game is make myself self sufficent and then become the #1 producer of oil. I use it for bribes and treates and supporting allies. Since so much oil is being passed around the demand drops drastically. If I was relying on it for isk, I would be broke eventually.


I would much rather see a number readout of how short the prospective trade partner is of each item. I like to set 30 day contracts to help allies with needed resources. Currently it is rather cumbersome.
1. Open a trade window.
2. View list items to find which ones they are short of.
3. Once you have the commodity, close trade window.
4. Open Prouction Screen, click on commodity in question.
5. Open World Trade window
6. Scroll down till you find the propective trade partner
7. Make a note of the quantity they are importing daily.
8. Close World Trade window..
9. Open Trade window again.
10. Create a contract for the amount for x30 days.

If that info was listed in the Diplomatic Exchange window it would be much more useful to game play in my opinion.
Example:
Petroleum: 1,500,000/1,000,000 Read as Required/Onhand. You can easily see they need 500,000 bbls.

That is just to illustrate what I mean, the method could be as simple as a Red number to indicate, short that amount.

[Ruges]

I would much rather see a number readout of how short the prospective trade partner is of each item.

you already get this. That is what this post is about http://www.bgforums.com/forums/viewtopi ... 55&t=11350

On the right side of the picture there is an orange circle. The Left bar (light blue and dark blue) show what it is capable of producing and what it is producing. If the bar is full blue that means they are producing the maximum they can produce, if there is any light blue, then it means they are able to meet demand so they save money and are not overproducing for export. The center bar is shows if they are meeting the demand for said resource. Dark red (as shown) means they are meeting demand for that resource. with a light red shows they are not meeting demand. (in a game you have been playing for a bit just search around for a country that is short on resources, open trade and look at that bar for that resource you can clearly tell the difference in colors). The far right bar shows what they have in reserve. It is a green bar. The AI usualy does not like to hold onto allot of reserves so this bar is usualy empty.

Now the above info in its self will not be able to tell you if a country is starting to become short on a resource or not. However that info applied to your growing knowledge of the game Along with what they have in thier stocks (The avialible number to the right of the orange circle) will give you an educated guess on where they stand on resources.

Basicaly as you play the game you will be able to tell how much the country would need in thier stocks to continue based on its size. If if the number is low, and the production is maxed and there is no green reserve chances are they are in need of the resource. However if the production is partialy blue, chances are they are not in need of the resources.

There are some exceptions to this rule thow. If they are low on cash, the production might be in the blue becouse they cannot afford to have max production. or if they are short on the resource that is required to make the new resource then it might be in blue becouse they dont have the components.

So all the info is there in that one screen. Granted going to the export screen to see if they are exporting or importing will give you an even more info to make your desision on what they are needing.

The easiest way I could see them adding in ways to make it easier to decide how to handle such trades would be to make it so that window does not close out when you look down at the world trade section.

***EDIT***
Also wanted to point out that when you give a country resources, If they are not using them thier reserves will start to go into the green. If the reserves are in the green they dont really need more. For instance in my current AAR, I am financing Isreal on most resources. I too do trades over 30-200 days or 52 weeks. Basicaly what I look at is the blue bar. If there is any light blue in it I will not give them any resources. If it is all dark blue then I will look to see if there is any green. If there is no or low green I will look at the stocks they have, if the number seems low I will offer a trade. If it is somthing they are usualy in need of I will give them around the equivilant of what they have in stocks per day. THen in 30 days I will see what they have in the green. If it is allot of green then I know that figure was too high. If it is not in the green then I will offer more per day (or week, month...) One thing that is also important when doing trades like this with the AI, If you over give them they will sell the stuff on the market. So if you plan on financing them it is always best to give it over a period of time instead of all at once.

For instance if you give a country a single shipment of oil that should last them 90 days. They will inturn start selling that resource off on the market. And in some cases they will even sell it at below market price.

[GIJoe597]

Ruges - I am familiar with what you typed. A am typing about something entirely different. An actual number readout not a graph. If you follow the procedures I outlined you can get a better idea of why I would like it.

Items 1 and 2 are the part you are typing about. I am typing about beyond that. I will set 30 day contracts of a particular number, not a 100% arbitrary one. Yes, we can see a country is short oil, and I could just give them 2 million bbls and be done with it. But, thats boring. I prefer to send them the quantity they need on a daily bases.

There are several reasons the current way I handle this as well as the way you describe could be better. War, capturing new lands. The size of a country will change if it is capturing land, etc.

At any rate, I was posting a thought about the original idea, what would be better in my opinion. If I am the only one that would like this done, then of course BG will not implement it.

I play this game everyday for approx 10 hours a day and a million ideas/thoughts on improvement flash through my head, but of course they tend to be from the position of, whats better for me.

[opformaster]

I think it would be a handy feature. Now when you say Product supply you do mean the actual daily production and not the potential production capacity, right? Cause I think that if you were to add daily world Product supply/demand charts of some sort than you should maybe include the daily world potential production capacity as well. This could help you decide if its really necessary to build up your domestic capacity for a certain commodity or whether it might be cheaper to trade for it in the long run because there is an excess capacity on the WM.

[Emeg]

I think it would be a handy feature. Now when you say Product supply you do mean the actual daily production and not the potential production capacity, right? Cause I think that if you were to add daily world Product supply/demand charts of some sort than you should maybe include the daily world potential production capacity as well.

The well known little blue, red, green graphical bars behind the commodities can do the job. The dark-blue vs. light-blue bar shows production used versus available potential production worldwide. The dark-red vs. light-red bar shows demand versus unmet-demand worldwide. And the eventual green bar shows the stockpiled commodity worldwide.

Exact numbers are i.m.o. not nessesary, my idea was to show in a glance this global supply-demand information. Also new menu charts are not needed i.m.o. The graphical bars can be integrated in already existing menu charts. Very handily is the implantation in the Production > Worldtrade chart and the Production > World Leaders chart. In the Production > Worldtrade chart between the sections Top Importers-Top Exporters and between the sections Production-Consumption in the Production > World Leaders chart, just below the already existing commodity symbool.


It would be i.m.o. the perfect spot for this new information feature.

Greetings, Emeg

[Eskodas]

i would like to see world consumption as well.

[ollobrains]

i approve of this undertaking

[PanzerHue]

sounds like a great idea.