Contracts question. (Fearless Blue)

1. There is a "reserve part of your monthly production" link in every corporation page that says: "Keep Product:
If you want to offer trade contracts, you have to reserve part of your production for them. Use this page to set the amount of product to set apart for contract trading."

There is an "automatic" and "manual" button.

2. There is a "common market contracts for your corporation" link as well that allows you to: "By submitting this offer, I promise to produce the entered quantity." However, these produced quantities can only go to:
"Offer Contracts on Local- and Common Market
Offer Contracts on Local Market
Offer Contracts on Common Market"


3. I initially thought one of the above (1 or 2)would be enough. Primarily Step 1. If I automatically reserve a part of my procution for contracts, why would I need to bother with step 2? But step 2 seems to say that you will actually produce what you promised to "reserve" in step 1. (Well, why would I not want to produce that much?) However, I will offer all of the quantity I type in (produce) to either the local or common market, or both.

I'm new so I don't understand the point of all of this. Why isn't there a button that allows automatic trading of products in your country on the local market, or common market, or both (or you can turn it off)? Why do I have to spend 8 hours clicking through all my corporations when the same could (as far as I see it) be accomplished with one click of a button. "Just trade internally as much as you can."

Am I missing something or is there a reason to spend hours doing something which has become tedious and, frankly, boring? I understand the wording of, "I will produce this much," and "I will reserve this much," but it seems it could be made a heck of a lot simpler.

Any help or explanation would be appreciated. Thanks!

Also, my corporations that need Factory Maintenance Units (and I have set up monthly contracts with all of these) have more than just 1 month's worth of Factory Maintenance Units in supply. Why?

Why are they buying more from the market? I can supply them with all they need per month. So why are they buying from the Market, when I have all they need? And now I have a large surplus of Factory Maintenance Units when I should have only about 15 left. How does this game work, lol? There's nothing in the documentation about this.

you can turn off automatic buying of supplies for your corps, but beware, this is for all supplies, not just FMU.

settings > automation > automatic settings, (automation of state corporations, uncheck product purchasing for the appropriate corps)

You set up your contacts to your own corps and to the common market. Reserve the total amount of contracted product. The remainder will be sold on the world market, at the mark up you set over the market price, (hence making you more money).

Thank you CraftyCockney. I thought it was probably something like that but I did not know where to look. I actually was there a few times but obviously I did not look hard enough since I did not remember it.

I think I will have to leave automatic buying of supplies on because I am in no Federation yet. I will be able to join one when I have played a bit longer they say. I can understand this. They want serious players. So all I have is my own local market. It would drive me crazy to set up buying of all supplies with contracts, plus I always try to build corps fast.

But your advice is very good. I will no doubt be using it in the future and I thank you very much for taking the time to reply! You have a good day!

If you are new to the game buy everything on the open market. Set your country supplies to quality 100 and have all your corporations buy quality 190.

The local and common markets are a way to boost your country score. I don't think you will be top of the server if you are new to the game. Country score does nothing for you if you aren't trying to be at the top.

Thanks Ravenous Cannibal. I think your finger slipped and you typed 190 instead of 100, though

Since my corps produce quality 200+ products (I boosted them), I see there is no point in me using my local market. I can buy what supplies I need at quality 100, which will be cheaper overall, and sell my quality 200+ Factory Maintenance Units on the open market. Why should I buy them myself if they are more expensive? I should sell them and buy cheaper Factory Maintenance Units on the open market (overall they should be cheaper).

I think I got that part right. Gosh. I'm a genius. Thanks again to everyone. I will slowly learn

The hungry flesh-eating one did mean 190 quality products purchasing for your corporations SZ.

Though the optimal quality to purchase is a matter of debate presently (due to the maximum mark up the game will allow you to sell at - a side issue best not to worry about until you understand the process better), the higher quality product you produce the more you can sell it for. So if you tune your buying quality to have the corporation produce about Q270 then you can sell at a 30 mark up - Q300, which is roughly the maximum the game will let you get paid.

Of course there are many different philosophies/strategies on this and different products and market conditions all add variables to this basic explanation. This is the fun/challenge part of the economic game so enjoy working it out! Live long and prosper.

PS...you got the contract/local market bit right

CraftyCockney.

Yes, I figured out the contract/local market thing. As best I could anyway.

I did not realize about how to push quality to 270 by buying better quality supplies. Thanks to both of you for that one. I will have to "think on it" and probably play the game a while before I get a handle on what I consider best, I guess "best" for a given time as "things" change. Thanks again!

I was going to add that, personally, for a fully quality upgraded corporation I find buying quality of about 150 - 155 better than 190. 190 was always considered the optimum but things have changed.

Thanks for the update