World Strategy for the Revival of Little Upsilon (Little Upsilon)

Okay, so I'm no King Hezekiah, but I have a plan for the whole of LU. We're all experiencing shortages, we all know that shortages kill profits, it's a bitch. So let's do something about it! Let's make a decision to fix the problem. What *is* the problem? The problem is, simply, that there isn't enough supply, which means that there aren't enough corporations providing certain goods. If you look at the product stats, you'll find that some goods have really plunged in supply recently - like FMUs.

So what's the solution? Build, build, build! Build corps in product areas with low supply, especially areas like Factory Maintenance Units. Did you know that we would need an extra 1,000 FMU corps to have even supply/demand for FMU? There's definitely plenty of room for more FMU corps :P

So, do your bit by spamming the build button in your CEO or country. If you've got a CEO, get the build more corporations booster and build like there's no tomorrow. Use your spare cash to ride out the debt that you accrue from building so many corps and slowly but surely, you will see prices come back down to normal levels again; you'll see supply level out a bit more.

And, since every plan has enemies, what is the enemy of this plan? Those blasted bids! While we're all riding this out, don't bid on corporations! All you're doing is changing the profit from me to you - you're not actually helping to lower prices on LU. So, if you want to see supply return to normal on LU - say it with me - build!

Bravo. But I'd point out that it would be more beneficial to focus on actual essential corporations, rather than the one where if you run out of product the amount in stock goes negative and the operating costs begin to slowly rise (though that takes a bit), otherwise it has no impact on production.

Why is this happening now? And not before....what happened

To force us into the Selenium market.

Did my share (what I could). Not level 5 yet so can't build any FMUs. My CEO could, but I'm still under the 42 day restriction so I can't build in a country with a President, and I'm sorry, but even for the good of LU I will NOT build an FMU in a free country! I'd have to kick salary to 600 to get the workers.

But looking at the factory utilization chart, there was a pile of building this past month, capacity is filling the gaps nicely. Of course it will take a while for the new capacity to catch up to the backlogs.

@KQ,
From reading other threads, the GM cut back on their "magic supply dust" in just about everything (except FMU and I think electricity).
So what we're seeing is the reality of the LU economy. So Accordian This has the right idea. More production. Except cocoa ;).

I built ten today, I'll build 10 tomorrow. Rep - you could move the corps after the 42 days if you like.

So is this shortage problem here to stay? I dont wanna spend hours getting my common market organized then the gamemaster interfere finally and all my work go to nothing....cus i'll cancel contracts in order to get more profit....it looks like everything is getting harder to get..even glass. This is a problem

Accordian,

You're right of course. But that's still 40 game years away, and you can lose a LOT of money in that time :D.

KQ,

No, it's not here to stay. It's just a matter of getting the right number of corps up and running to take care of things. And that could take a while because some of the products are billions short, and even new corps will take time to erase the shortage. Example: Product A is short 100 on the market. The monthly demand is 30. A corp making product A produces 50 per month. 50-30=+20 per month against the 100 shortfall, which means it would take 5 months to erase the backlog, assuming no new demand comes in.

So building new corps is the answer, but keep this in mind: every new corp put out there is going to increase demand for the products it needs, so look carefully before you build. Best case scenario is if you can build a corp that uses supplies in the green, but produces products in the red. Good luck with that!

Interesting times.

GM did the right thing trying to make world-market supply it self. However pulling the plug on our GM addicted economy are still giving us serious withdrawals symptoms (massive shortages on working worlds as LU, massive imbalances both-ways on FB).

Interesting times indeed.

That solution is spot on. It's excellant. One more enemy though, closing corps, to build. Don't do that. That would only send the problem chasing its tail.

I have another solution. Lets completely abandon the world market, and have as many people as possible join a single common market that will act as the market. That way, everybody gets what they need and there is no more frustration over rising prices. I volunteer to start this common market. If you are in on my plan, join "LU International" common market!

Vlad: I think a single common market can only have 25 members.

Thats stupid.

Then we can create a series of autonomous common markets.

Guys, my idea is simple. We start a series of common markets (LU International 1, LU International 2, etc...) and when the prices get bad in one CM, you can just join another CM in the series and get what you need. Just like you, I am completely fed up and I've had it with the world market. Those prices are through the roof! I have a solution, we just need people in on it.

Remember that if you have corps producing these high priced items you're happy about the situation. Especially if you had the foresight and ability to build up a decent strategic reserve.

This is where warfreak's theory,diversification comes in handy.

And the "mostly FMU, electric, and oil" players such as Accordion are making enough profit through the big three they can afford the outrageous prices.

But neither of those theories are any good if supply doesn't meet demand. A CM wouldn't help there either. You have to have the product out there to be able to buy it.

And there's one more thing to consider: CM cannot set their own pricing. Contracts are sold at the market price. Which is determined in part by supply/demand and part by the GM throwing darts at a board.

CM could theoretically sell to members manually, giving them the ability to price from 67% of market to +100%, but who has the time to go corp by corp, product by product, first typing the request, then sending it, then the other guy accepting it, every time supplies are needed?

Easier just to build as many of the right corps as possible and take it from there.

rep: Allowing CMs to set below market prices would be sooooo nice. Subsidies exist in RL after all.

So you like my idea then, Goth?

Well, I like the idea of CMs being allowed to set below market prices. It would create RL incentives to create and join them. And with proper management could actually benefit members beyond just a score.

But I've had two experiences with CMs:
1- Created one only open to my main country and my satellites. It worked well enough to secure some vital supplies.
2- Joined one with a bunch of other players. It's chaos!

Well, a series of common markets with everyone cooperating would be different, because it would be more organized. We would never have to worry about not getting supplies because everyone supplies everyone.

Gothamloki: You are right, subsidies do exist in RL.

You can set below market pricing in the game, but only if you use manual sales, and it has to be corp to corp. Country and enterprises can only sell at market. Corps can go down to 67% of market.

So you could theoretically have the CM approach work as Vlad. Lenin is proposing, but it would be a major time drain doing those product sales manually. And since the selling corp will be losing a bundle at 67% of market, you couldn't do it every month with the same corp or they'd bankrupt. Plus the fact that it wouldn't count as a CM for score purposes because it's not contracted.

A possible alternative would be to get a group together and agree to sell their product at that reduced price say, once every 6 months or a year. Or sell at 80% once every three months. You get the general idea. This would a sort of "unofficial" CM.

If you seriously wanted to lower your corp's cost points it is one way of doing it.

Seemed like the best spot to stick this.

A hint for those who have public corps who are close to the "magic" number 200B in cash.

For those who don't know, if a public corp reaches 200B in cash reserve it siphons it off until it gets below 200B.

The suggestion is, rather than seeing that hard earned money disappear into never-never land, use some to buy supplies.

Granted, you receive a % of the extra money it disburses, but if you own 25% of the corp you are losing 75% of the excess.

It's better to manually order supplies with the cash. Your corp can carry 60 months worth of supplies. If there is a product the corp uses that is deep green, stock up!

If there isn't anything cheap available, bump up on a little of everything. If it's deep red don't go overboard, nothing sucks more than putting 60 months supply in the locker only to find two months later that it's selling for half price what you paid! And the game determines your "raw materials used" cost by multiplying the amount of each supply used by the "last price paid", times the quality of the supply.

Caveat: Always use fixed price, for some reason "best price" orders are not filled very well. Before I learned my lesson on that I'd have an order sit unfilled for 4 months sometimes, even with a surplus on the market.

Secondly, always enter the supply quality you want, or you will likely end up with 300Q, and your cost basis will skyrocket.

Keep your cash in the family, and get a backup of those vital supplies instead of paying a bunch of strangers to go have a beer on your dime.

Hah, even better, have different entities of your own and your IFs divide up shares so they all get a slice of the pie!

But yeah, I like the sound of the supply thing to some extent, a lot of work to keep on top of though.

One of the reasons I'm treading water here on LU. My style of play requires deep involvement in every aspect, and I just can't get it done in 6 month RL days. A huge reason my CEO only has 41 corps right now. With that, and the 30 in my main, plus selling on world trade to keep cash inflow, it's a question of "what do I HAVE to do this month, and what can I catch up with next month?"

Extremely challenging!