vanBuskirk
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Posted - 2005.09.30 08:49:00 -
[1]
 Originally by: Matthew
Example of skill: Figuring out what a competitive ME level is.
Low level of skill: just reseaching every BP to the level X recommended in some forum post.
High level of skill: Doing a calculation using lab rental, marginal saving per ME level, ME research time, estimated volume and price of sales and desired payback time, to work out the most desirable ME level based on your business model.
Or a producer doing stock management:
Low skill: Build more when the sell order is emptied and just build an arbitrary round number every time.
High-skill: monitoring sales rates and having restock trigger points so you have the next batch out just as the previous one sells out. Adjusting batch sizes and trigger points based on varying demand.
The skills used are just less obvious, because it's harder for a 3rd party to see the difference between a skillful and unskillful player. In combat, it's obvious - one player's ship is still there, the other's isn't. In industry, one player's wallet is healther than the other.
I sort of agree with you, but with some reservations:
Lab research: yes, of course you don't want to research to wastefully high ME levels. But unless you have quite a few BPs to research, there is a floor to the cost - the cost of one lab rental period. Recently, I had a BP to research (I think it was assault launcher 1) and tailored the ME and PE research time to use the lab slot to the full.
Production control; several points.
Demand is highly variable and sporadic for some items. As an example, I recently had 10 1400mm howies for sale that had been on the market 2 weeks - and then someone suddenly bought 8 of them, thus making me short of stock. This sort of market behaviour makes planning a little difficult. Of course, low-ticket items that sell in large numbers can be treated the way you suggest - but the profit on them is low anyway!
I don't use heavy-duty mathematics and spreadsheets to work out batch sizes and restock levels, but I do vary it according to the item, mostly by feel. 50k rounds of M ammo is reasonable; for Bestowers, 10 might be reasonable. One ought to remember here that this is a game, not a RL job, and most people don't enjoy fiddling with spreadsheets and job-control software that much - even if you have the relevant RL skills to do it!
You missed the point about working out which of your BPs it's worth using at all. Personally, I have given up on antimatter ammo; the returns are negligible to negative. It's still worth having the BP for your own use perhaps, and I bought them when a profit could be made on them. Maybe again sometime.
And one last point; in the time you spend fiddling with production control spreadsheets (to say nothing of creating them in the first place!) you could have been out earning isk, by any means you see fit. Mining to feed your own ever-hungry factories perhaps?
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"Violence is the last resort of the incompetent".
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