Ummm, where'd my trillion dollars go?

So, I think it was yesterday I exchanged my remaining 20 or so GCs for over a trillion SC$, which I then transfered to my enterprise - "The Company."

So imagine my discontent when I return today and find that my enterprise has about 100 billion SC$. I took a look at the chart that shows this figure for past months, and see there was one month when the money was actually there, and the next month over a trillion dollars was gone. I know for sure I didn't have my enterprise purchase a trillion dollars worth of anything. Where did this money go?

Regardless of where it went, I want it back. This HAS to be a glitch in the system or something. There is nothing my enterprise could have done to lose so much money so fast if it tried. Can the gamemaster or someone PLEASE look into this?

This enterprise had a debt of 1940 B
The debt now is 720B

1220B were paid back. This is where the money is.
what is exactly the problem?

Your enterprise is losing money.
you can fix it quickly if you improve the corporations:

1. set the quality of raw materials your corporations are purchasing to 150-170. Now it is ANY and you are paying too much.

2. Reduce the asking price for your products to 10 points under the quality. Then they will sell all their products. Now many of them do not sell and you never get more than your quality anyway.

3. If you do not really need the weapon industry, close these corporations and build profitable ones. there are many products in short supply.

Thanks a bunch for the quick reply, Andy.

I hadn't realized the possibility that the money was used to automatically pay back loans that were given to the enterprise. I thought that was something I had to do manually. I feel stupid now. :P

And thanks a bunch for the tips. I didn't realize I was paying too much for products by setting the quality to 'any.'

I have one question regarding the second tip you left. So if my corporation makes a product at 200 quality, and I set the trade strategies to sell 20 points over the quality, they'll still only be sold at 200 instead of 220?

Thanks again Andy.

Nobody wants to pay 220 for products of Q200.
the result is that they are not sold, or sold later for less.

set the trade strategy at Q - 10.
this will pay slightly less but it will sell steady, each month and stability will create more profitability and values will increase too.

Nobody wants to pay 220 for products of Q200.

Indeed, but if that's all there is and you need the product then you should pay for it. If you ran out of water in the desert would you refuse to pay $10 for a $2 bottle of water? (assuming you cant shoot the bedouin mercenary b*stard).

Andy, the way Crafty laid it out above is how I thought it worked.

I made it a point to only build corporations whose products have a very large negative surplus. Shouldn't that mean that if I am selling a 200Q product, that I could sell them for much more than that? Especially considering I'm sure there's a large number of corporations in the world who choose "best price" as their buy strategy. If this is the case, and the product I'm selling has a large negative surplus, eventually all other corporations that make the same product will sell out, and my corporation will be selling at 'best price' (albeit, at that point, the 'only price').

I understand if a product has a surplus that no one would want to pay 220 for a Q200 product, but if the product has a negative surplus, they don't really have a choice. They either must pay 220 for Q200 or have a corporation that can't produce anything. Or at least that's how I thought it worked.

Thanks again for the advice, sorry for all the questions but I'm just trying to get a feel for how the game's mechanics function.

That always used to be the way it worked Chunny, but now not so. Why supply and demand rules of a market were removed I have no idea.

I use a steady +195Q and everything always sells, not for that price but it sells. So what is the problem of having things set to sell for huge amounts, when they sell anyways for whatever the GM decides?

If we were all smart, we would max out our Q upgrades to 150-170, save the extra money needed to upgrade to maximum efficiency, and still make the same amount of money.

And the salary bill would be less Keto.

Trouble is, in state corps this means less corps per million peeps, ok for private corps but I have seen a couple of CEOs doing this in my countries and it's not welcome, swallowing up loads of my worker classes.

Its probably a great idea for corps in C3s and could help with 100% employment I guess as the C3 would need to supply less HT people which is often the problem. Maybe the lower wage bill would give you leeway to increase salaries a bit too and this would help offset the poor welfare in C3s.

So in other words this game isn't really a simulation. I mean, that's the conclusion I would draw about a game where everything from GC/SC exchange to supply and demand to how and where countries may buy and sell products (namely Precision Bombers) is artificially regulated by the gamemaster. These aren't 'virtual countries' if they're all subject to a common higher power. It's more like the entire planet is one country by the name of, "Despotic Empire of Gamemaster."

Why am I playing this? It seems every day I find out about some new aspect of the game that's been ruined by the gamemaster. It's a shame being able to see how much fun Simcountry could be if only the creators weren't willing to sacrifice its integrity for a little extra profit.

I fail to see any reasoning in this, I don't like the inability to set your own price, but other than that the things they say are true. With a few issues you can find in the forums. But S&D does exist they are just not supply driven (would be great in real life), You do not need GC, GC's are for paying players to enhance their experience. SC allows you to buy them with Game Money and rewards them to you for accomplishing goals. If GC didn't exist then would anyone really elect a president running an enterprise when they are capable of recieving ALL compensation from their profits, unlike the untouchable profits from a president. Can you say corruption, not to mention 2 currencies would also work better in the real world. No Nukes or Bombers boo who, if you want em move to FB. Its set like this to make it easier for non-war players on non-war worlds. The game is great, it has issues but most of it comes from lack of manpower I'd suspect. They offer players the ability to play for free, and not sell the game off with advertisements maybe if they did it would be better, but even if it was would you find other things to complain about?

I'm also sad that we have this little control over selling prices.

But apart from that, it's not true that the market for prices doesn't work. Prices are influenced by the supply/demand situation (there's an existing thread on this, or read my blog).

So while this info on the selling price really is discouraging, let's not overdo it. The game isn't a "despotic empire of gamemstaers".

There is an element of forced control in the market place SB. True, price goes up and down with supply and demand. BUT, there are enforced ceilings, thats not realistic.

Additionally, a player can't get over the odds for his/her product, no matter how much demand there is for that product. If you went to the market and two butchers were selling sausages, one at $1 a pound and the other at $2 a pound, then obviously you would buy the $1 ones. But that means the cheaper butcher runs out of sausages quicker. So the only sausages available are the $2 ones. If you really must have sausages then you will pay the $2 a pound, right? So why cant I ask $2 for my sausages? If I'm being too greedy then I go home that day having not sold any sausages, if there were no other sausages around then I have made a killing. MY CHOICE!

I still to this day don't understand why this free market approach was ditched. I know that because this is a game then occasionally the GM had to interfere in the market to avoid complete collapses, but there were/would be so many more strategies and options open to players to try, making for an interesting game. Now we know we just have to sell everything at 10 below or so and buy at 170 or so. Great!

But, as we have been told by Andy, the game restructuring is an ongoing thing and we should have patience, as eventually all will work out. Roll on that day!

How come this thread keeps getting moved to the top?

Not a clue!

Bump

Hehe, something about this thread...

damn, cant this thread rest? dont want you sausage for 2$ crafty ;P

They've gone up to $3 now Queen. Guaranteed horse DNA free.

damn...horse is so tasty

And so are you Queen Borg, but I wouldn't want you made into sausages.