| Tom Fitzpatrick (Little Upsilon) | Monday, October 10, 2011 - 11:37 am 
I'm going to explain why the gamemaster has to regulate prices and on occasion provide products in the short term when there are extreme shortages.
Many people ask why SimCountry has these regulations and the real world does not but the real world functions without them so surely it would be more realistic to get rid of them, here is why...
The reason is the Players, think about how the real economy works and how the SimCountry economy works. Companies in the real world are very responsive to market forces, if there is an oversupply of what they produce and its not profitable at that time they will lower production till the oversupply has been used up. Also if the price of an input good involved goes higher they don't just wear the cost, they put up prices, if they can't sell for the higher price they reduce production they don't just operate at a loss. This reduction in production then relieves the upward pressure on the price of the input goods and the market stabilizes.
Also in the real world if companies are profitable and need to raise production they raise wages and hire more people, if they make a loss they lower wages and fire people. This helps stabilize the markets. However in SimCountry people usually set their wages at a set amount (often 200-300) and lock their production at 100%, totally ignoring the markets at the time. This prevents the economy from adapting to market forces.
So because the players aren't paying enough attention to the markets the economy doesn't naturally correct. So the gamemaster has to step in to alleviate severe shortages or price spikes/crashs.
If the players don't want the gamemaster to regulate the system and fix these problems for us we have to do it ourselves, that means lowering production if there is too much supply, raising/lowering salaries to match profits to raise and lower productivity in line with the markets need, properly responding to a price increase or decrease with an adjustment in how much of something we use. In short if we adjust production, salaries, whether or not we upgrade our corps, and sales strategies in line with the markets needs the gamemaster won't have to interfere.
Stop just setting everything at one level and then leaving it alone, you have to change your strategy with the changes in the markets. This doesn't have to involve tones of micro managing there are automation systems for production, hiring, and salaries that will do most of that for you.
The players are the reason for the regulation. |
| Jojo T. Hun (Fearless Blue) | Tuesday, October 11, 2011 - 04:59 am
I don't think so.
The game provides a nice lesson in the downside of price regulation, if you are willing to accept it. |
| ZentrinoRisen (Little Upsilon) | Tuesday, October 11, 2011 - 05:23 am
This could all be true until the GM manipulates products into such surplus that corps go bankrupt....like what recently happened with medical materials and supplies. |
| Matt Patton (Golden Rainbow) | Tuesday, October 11, 2011 - 05:29 pm
the system does counter oversupply
during surplus companies will close and in shortage companies will be produced
we much rather have a c3 close than ours |
| Kitsuné (Kebir Blue) | Wednesday, October 12, 2011 - 12:25 am
I'm not going to start micromanaging my corporations until they give me better controls.
Earlier I decided to reduce hiring and production in Water Maintenance corporations on LU since the market is at rock bottom. It involved me copying and pasting "10" into 100 different boxes.
That's not something I want to do very often (or ever again).
There are of course automated controls but they usually do strange things. |
