Author: riser
If you read my last article you already know what this one is about:
How to keep the trade alive for the whole trading period.
To do that, we need a market for products.
I have tons of ideas to keep the trade alive until the end and thus more fun. I will present here only those that I think will matter most while also being the easiest for Wouter and the Feds to implement.
The first thing to understand is that every high level product are made of so many lower level ones that when we consume high level products almost everyone benefits from some of the profits:
Those who profit from the sale of a computer are those that makes:
– computer (itself)
– machines (for chips, computer, plastic)
– glass (for computer)
– pumps (for machine)
– engines (for machine and pumps)
– screwdrivers (for machine, pumps, engines, chips)
– plastic (for chips, the computer, screwdrivers, pumps)
– etc.
In fact, every single product is more or less involved in the making of a computer except for crime and diamond related item. So every time a computer is made, everyone benefits.
This is why computer exims are such a brilliant idea. It might still need some adjustments but in a masterful stroke, everyone can
benefit every time a mayor does VAT restitution even if it isn’t your mayor that does the VAT restitution.
Auctions are another brilliant idea that lets people sell more high level items and keep trade alive.
So, a very simple way to keep the trade alive is to make the high level items a consumable item that people will want to use or buy.
The solution I see is:
– we need more crimes
– we need useful marketing
– we need a higher net worth value for products
We need more crimes
As much as I don’t like being the victim of crimes, I realize they are important for the Federation.
Those percentages in fines should be banned and we want those sniper rifles, shotguns, bombs strong enough to destroy buildings and all those goodies that Digitalians are always asking for. And we need some way to protect ourselves from them.
We want the owner of that 120 squst shop to be afraid a competitor will hire an arsonist to blow it up during the night and thus will spend a fortune in electronic surveillance equipment and reinforced steel walls to protect his investment. With things like that, the more successful the trader, the more he will invest to protect himself and those things he owns. I want to wet myself every time I see Chiara Alvarez walking in the street with a shotgun in each hand looking for trouble just for the fun of it. I’d wear 2 bulletproof vests at all times and keep a few dozen more in my warehouse just in case the vest maker was sold out when I needed them.
Until recently, almost every shop in Virtua didn’t have cameras or alarms because they didn’t need it. It was unlikely that the owner would lose as much as the cost to buy those items. It changed mostly when a few Virtuan citizens decided to teach others a lesson. Make the alarms and cameras a bit cheaper but make it so that people need to buy one for every 10 squst of shop size. Suddenly, the cameras and alarm business will be thriving.
Find a shop in Digitalie that doesn’t have an alarm. Now find one in Virtua that has one except for the alarm shop (even this one might not have one…)
First, cancel any percentages in fines starting on trading period 84 (giving people time to update the law books first).
Later, increase the number of protective device needed by shops.
When there is time, add those massive destruction tools that criminals want or make guns more damaging. Either way, we need to be truly afraid!
Useful marketing
Marketing is currently completely useless. There are simply not enough shops on a street to justify the cost. I know pretty much what products everyone makes and how much they cost in my city. I also know that for most of the country. Scanning Main Street for the new prices is a 4 second business. It matters a lot less if your shop is the first on the street than if people can find it quickly when scanning the street by being visible. And when there are 20 shops or so on a street the difference between level 1 and level 10 marketing is usually a 3-4 shops position, not enough to truly matter.
Nowadays, the true marketing is done on a street view. You are worthy of selling your products if you have a shop on main street or maybe on the second street. You are doomed to failure if you are stuck on third or *gasp* fourth street.
Merge the streets in a single street (like they were a long time ago I heard). When you have 60 shops to look at, finding the right shop is much harder. Marketing will then matter again. And remove any maximum marketing level. If we want level 35 marketing and are willing to pay for it, allow us to do it.
Higher net worth value
Give a fixed price for products at the end of the trading period. 80% of the price of any city is ridiculous. That means people will try not to have any inventory left and in doing so will drop their price which contributes to making those product even more worthless. So people try to clear their inventory many days before the end. I’ve seen one do it 7 days before the end. He just wasted a third of the trading period so he didn’t get stuck with products worth less than what they cost to make. I understand why but that still makes the third week boring.
Do the opposite. Give the products a very high value but only if they are in a shop (where they can be stolen), for example computers could be worth 1000 ish. Increasing shop size would no longer be an expense that you must minimize, it’s a long term investment. Suddenly, it is worthwhile to upgrade your shop as much as possible and put as many products in it as possible. To do all this, you’ll need to buy products from other people. This gives an incentive for players to come back as often as possible. You would suddenly see people trading as much as they can, spending everything they have and making other people richer. With the current amount of resources per lot, we’d run out of resources before the first week was over. Even that might be fun, fighting for the weaker resource lots…
Success would now be the ability to spend your money faster than your competitor. That means coming here very often.
Result of those changes
What would happen if all three are put together?
People would buy as many shops as possible and make them as big as possible. Every single road lot would have a shop on it and mayors would have trouble keeping up with demand for road lots. Empty lots would be sold for a premium price. There would be a huge demand for diamonds and diamond drills because there would not be enough place to put parks near the shops. Massive orders would become commonplace. You’d see 200-300 shops per city, all on the same street view. You wouldn’t be able to find your favorite shops without help. People would use marketing, colors and banners so their customers would be able to find them. The computer producer would fight the plastic maker and the alarm maker for the first place. And, beware of the idiot who has 120 computers in his shop without putting the 12 alarms required because criminals would get his goods, all of them.
Life would be good and trade would be even more fun and active.
It would at the very least be more active during the whole period. Some people would like it, some wouldn’t. But trading would never have been this intense in the Federations.
See you next trading period.