Questions on Strategy

It is necessary to have a respectable position in the Best Vendor and the Best Manufacturer Score to get a good highscore rating.

To be among the first 100 people in each of those categories is better than to be the first in one of them and the last in the other.

Simply said you get manufacturer points if you produce things and sell them on the market. It looks as if you get manufacturer points if you sell your own products in your own shops, too, but not so many. You get vendor points if you buy things from the market and sell them in your shops.

Hey! You didn't praise me for having the second largest company! *pout*

Market leader is the sum of the percentages of market share on a product. If you sell the products that no one sell (may not profitable?) you could get high market leader. Having and selling advance rl goods also have similar results. However, it is not counted in the overall highscore. It is only for information.

Zitat

Originally posted by John Smythe
So I'd guess...are you DDD in chat, then?

Yep... the one and only
Btw, you should probably add your company to your sig so people could figure out who you are. (Kahla too )

We all start with our own raw material. Waiting for a day or two is not really an option for us. First, it would be boring. Second, our competition would have been a mile away from us already. Third, we would have withdrawal syptoms (like easily annoyed, pacing around feeling something is missed, depressed, distressed, feelings of heart-aches... etc.) .

Generally, after a day or 2, we would stop building our raw materials and buy them from market (just in time to save you guys from bankrupcy (... well... or maybe not...). And frankly, "don't start with raw materials" is implied in the faq but we (or at least I) would never say that to a newbie in the main chat. We like to see some guys going bankrupt and lose all the ql researched (if any) by selling iron ore / steel the round before *twisted evil grin*. To some of us, those ql are free rides and we don't like them . (now this is being said... we need to invent someway to make this post disappear )

I'm only beginning to look at those high scores this round myself out of curiosity. So it surprised the heck out of me when I saw that I was high in overall and marketleader. I noticed that Dktc is already high in a few categories - and that did NOT surprise me. lol

In a matter of hours, I dropped from 8 overall to 299. At that time, I shifted production a bit - instead of buying steel, I'm now buying ore and manufacturing that into steel. My Vendor score lowered quite a bit, which was a factor. But since those scores are a measure of comparison against other players, we might see ours drop at times without having made any changes. Some of the other player scores will simply be climbing faster than ours.

As for Marketleader, I had a look at the SuDe and found that I'm producing 100% of one product, so I imagine that's the explanation. I don't expect that to last long - I have my binoculars at hand so I can spot Dktc as he zooms past me on that one. lol

Zitat

Thanks, both. I must digest that and read the manual very carefully again. It's well written in some ways but has this knack for causing me confusion.

I second both of those thoughts!

Zitat

In fact, you barely need raw material processing either right now. Just factories and shops.

That's exactly right. The bulk of my buildings are factories to utilize materials purchased from the market. The only resource I'm actually producing is milk. Keep in mind, though, that the market can change very quickly. This morning, I was buying steel at much lower a price than I can now, which is why I switched over to buying ore, since that's still an excellent buy. It's much easier to do well in purchasing materials on the market if we can be here periodically throughout the day. We can watch for the best buys and switch production more quickly as the market evolves. And then, being able to buy in smaller chunks means lower storage costs as well.

Zitat

Btw, you should probably add your company to your sig so people could figure out who you are. (Kahla too )

Ah, I'm notorious for never bothering with sigs or avatars. I'll fix that here.

Oh, and John... since you're second-guessing your starting setup, I'll share this with you. Before the new round started, I began setting things up. Due to some distractions, I built something I hadn't intended to. Rather than destroy it and cost myself even more cash, I reset, thinking it wouldn't hurt a thing. Guess what. I lost -all- the QL I'd researched last round. Every bit of it. Dktc pointed out that's mentioned in the FAQ - I must not have absorbed that little tidbit the last time I read it. So don't feel too badly if you think you could have done better - at least you didn't shoot yourself in the foot the way I did! lol

Now that John's opened the topic of strategy, I'm wondering how soon people start to upgrade their buildings. Last round, I started doing that in my second week, but then I never intended to bother going past RL 6, so that freed my cash for other purposes. Since there are advantages to both, I imagine it differs from one person to another. Perhaps I'm a bit anal about such things, but I'm already itching to start making those production line numbers add up neatly. Of course I'll still hold off for awhile - my money is better spent elsewhere for now.

Zitat

Originally posted by Kahla
I noticed that Dktc is already high in a few categories - and that did NOT surprise me. lol

You should be surprised. I am myself . I am not one of the status quo (yet ) and I am bad with highscores .

Zitat

Originally posted by Kahla
I have my binoculars at hand so I can spot Dktc as he zooms past me on that one. lol

No, I won't zoom past you. I am getting into products that a lot of people would sell (profitable). But maybe you will zoom under me though

Zitat

Originally posted by Kahla
Now that John's opened the topic of strategy, I'm wondering how soon people start to upgrade their buildings.

It depends on the buildings they have. If they have farms/vineyards, they typically upgrade them earlier. It is because those two take up so many building spaces. Other wise, players don't upgrade until they see the need of it. I can't pin point a time frame because my timeline would not apply to you (I am getting unrealistic like some of the big guys and gals out there ).

As for being anal, don't worry about it. I build glassworks two wu before they are needed in speed just so I could upgrade them to lvl 1 and use all the quartsand a lvl 0 qsand mine produce.

That all makes sense. When those numbers don't line up, there's generally money being wasted somewhere; even when it's an insignificant difference at a glance, that waste adds up. Right now, my budget is very strict; there's little leeway for varying from the basic plan. But then plot space isn't an issue at this point anyway, so it isn't as though I can't wait for a bit.

Speaking of farms, there is NO milk on the market at all at the moment, darn it. There was tons all of yesterday. If it doesn't change in the next WU, I'll have to start building more cattle farms. Too many of my products rely on it. There are a lot of players on at this time of day, though, so we might see more of it once they begin to trickle out. Some of them may be bulking up on it to last them through the school or work day. It certainly pays to have a flexible plan so we can maneuver as the situation demands.

I have milk... but it would cost you... big time

Gee thanks, but... I think I'll pass.

Here's a question for you - what happens if we have more than the limit of a product in the warehouse? Last round, I was consistently logging on in the morning to see over 512 wheat in my warehouse due to overnight harvesting. I would have thought the excess would be lost in such a case, but it wasn't.

Now, the game doesn't tally up what should have happened since the last WU until we log in. And we know that the game will allow us to buy far over the warehouse limit and then shift some to a different one. So I'm guessing that if I hadn't moved my overflow before the next update hit, I'd have lost it. Is that true?

Zitat

Originally posted by Kahla
Here's a question for you - what happens if we have more than the limit of a product in the warehouse?

This is in the manual. Normally, your storage costs are 2%, 4%, and 1% of the production costs of the goods in your raw goods, products, and exports warehouses respectively. When you exceed their limit, a penatly of 25% of the production costs would be charged on those addtion goods.

Zitat

Originally posted by Kahla
So I'm guessing that if I hadn't moved my overflow before the next update hit, I'd have lost it. Is that true?

No, you would just be penalized monetarily. So technically, you could just let it exceed your limit. It could even be more cost efficient than renting a warehouse in some cases.

Btw, you are right... I zoomed past you on market-leader. I am surprised myself... but apparently, you are not .

Firma0816 and Himmelreich are a couple of the top companies. D.D&D is not

I am leaving your questions to Morgie or other players, because I am not comfortable in explaining (as shown by my negative score )

That's something we could use here - a sticky explaining how the individual scores are figured, a more detailed version than is currently in the manual.

I think Morgenstern has explained quite clearly... but due to no respond from other... I would just answer this.

The top companies have negative vendor score because we don't buy enough end-products from the market. We have over-productions and sell them in market, which the others buy from us. Only things that can be sold in shop counts.

As for you not having high manufacturer score last round, it is because when compared to others, you did not produce much. Judging by you post, I don't think you sold much on market either. Players who produce cars get a lot of manufacturer scores. (Where as we really have to make an effort to buy end goods from market...)

The problem with high scores is that they are not perfectly clear. There are serveral prospective on it (including one about the manual being incorrect).

Hello, I am Morgie. =)

Sorry, you write such a complicated English that I have to read your postings several times. I need a pupil style.

Well, it is said that everything is written in the manual but people understand it in different ways. In my case it is so that most of the times I think I have understood it at last and try something according to what I have understood it goes the wrong way.

I think one gets vendor points only for finished products he has bought on the market and sold in his shops. Those things cause the positive points. The negative points are caused by things one has produced himself and sold in his shop.

Consequently - should I have understood the manual right - one should be a good vendor and a good manufacturer if he produces things in a branch without an own shop only for the market. And then building a shop (or several shops) in branchs where he produces nothing at all.

But I know an player who says that he is reading out of the manual that one has to do a little bit for his own shop himself because he thinks the fact that the own production is subtracted from the things bought on the market implicates that there have to be own products to be subtracted and let the formula work.

I understand further that the formula is working for every good separatedly. So that the tools you are making for your diys (?) shop are not subtracted from the ladders you buy, for example.

I am on the place 765 but at the moment firma0816 is not much better.

Zitat

Originally posted by Amanda Grayson
Consequently - should I have understood the manual right - one should be a good vendor and a good manufacturer if he produces things in a branch without an own shop only for the market. And then building a shop (or several shops) in branchs where he produces nothing at all.

I am on the place 765 but at the moment firma0816 is not much better.

That is what I thought 8)... and also consider dumb :P... so still haven't tried it out.

lol... everyone is targeting firma0816

Yes... maybe the reason is that it was not necessary to target firma last round.

I also considered it as not very sensible but find a "milder" version rather helpful: to choose one branch and make some products myself and buy others. You stay flexible and are able to change the production of your fabrics according to which product you can buy at the moment and which not.

This is rather easy with diy, very easy with furniture or bookstore and relatively difficult with toys because you need many different kinds of raw material for them. It is not so simple to change to wooden trains when you have been making marbles and see 1.000 marbles on the market.