Starting Strategies

[daxl1010]

Hi All,

First off, very glad to see work on Capitalism continuing. The new Lab expansion has created a very challenging game (for me at least) which has led to this post. I'm looking for some starting strategies so I'm not bankrupt after a year. In Capitalism II I used to be able to purchase all the chemical minerals and enjoy a pharmaceutical monopoly which funded all my other projects. While I'm glad that exploits been patched, I'm having trouble gaining any traction in any sector. I am playing Capitalism II Lab Beta 2.1.02 currently. I've taken a couple of different approaches and just want to get some other peoples opinions.

Background on my game settings: 4 cities, 26 competitors, 1 each of industrial & commercial seaports with low and inconsistent supplies, high capital for me, low for the competitors, many store types and all other market related items enabled (inflation, stock market, etc.)

1.) I've setup a retail in each city and stocked them with seaport products to build up cash flow. This works well, but I'm not great at figuring out the pricing part. My major is in economics, so I have a strong grasp of how supply and demand works and can read the products supply and demand bar perfectly, but should I price the product to have the best Product Rating or should I price the product really high and have a negative rating if the demand is a lot higher than supply?

2.) Usually once I start making money I try to get into a profitable sector manufacturing (automobile, pharmacy, etc). Where I get lost here is that I never seem to be able to keep pace with demand anymore like in the old game. Should I be okay leaving demand sky high and not try and expand too aggressively to meet demand? I've been expanding my manufacturing to try and keep pace and I think it is what might be bankrupting me.

3.) Where should I try and pull the most profits from in a product if I own the complete chain? Take pharmaceuticals, I own a chemical mineral mine, a factory to make headache pills, a warehouse and a pharmacy. Should I be trying to make a profit the whole way down the chain or should I make it at the factory and allow the retail store to run in the red?

4.) Outsourcing: Fastest question yet, should you make products in low wage city and import them into retail stores in a high wage city or do the freight charges negate any gains?

I think that's it but by all means if you have some starting strategies you can pass along, I would certainly be appreciative.

[WilliamMGary]

http://www.capitalismlab.com/product-cl ... rtise.html

^ I would start with this. Whatever your product class expertise is that's the product I will try and retail. (I normally play with the highest number of sea ports w/ constant supply.). I would invest in R&D and once I have a decent quality product stock my stores with my own supply.

Should I be okay leaving demand sky high and not try and expand too aggressively to meet demand?

My main concern is always PROFIT over anything else and to have a buffer in case of a downturn. So I would definitely try and meet demand as long as it's profitable because I don't to loose out on many sales but at the same time I don't necessary try and meet all the demand as this allows me to set higher prices and increase my profit margin.

If you already have a strong retail footprint that makes it easier to turn a profit in manufacturing. One thing I recently did was switch from a unique brand to a Corporate brand (which in the long term saves a ton of money) and use the Mega Product Class to determine my business expansion. I took what my Product Class Expertise and matched it with the Mega Product Class.

[Mega Product Class: http://www.capitalismlab.com/mega-product-class.html]

I would highly recommend issuing new shares instead of taking loans and investing in the stock of a "Real Estate Focused Company".

Also of note I try to make every part of my business turn a profit (pay for itself). So If I manufacture a product I treat my manufacturing side of the house like it's own business and make it charge "reasonable" prices to my "retail" stores and that's how I tend to generate a consistent cash flow.

Capitalism Lab is much more challenging which increases the game play.

Hope this helps!

[daxl1010]

Thanks WilliamMGary!

That's the direction I was looking for. I wasn't gravitating too far from my strategy even though it wasn't working.

So I've been building factories to increase supply when I should really be more focused on raising prices to better balance demand? That would seem to be a more logical approach, especially if you are the sole provider in the city. Should you still try and maintain a positive product rating within the store or is that not important when you have a monopoly or the product is still in high demand?

Thanks for everything so far!

[WilliamMGary]

I tend to try to keep an overall rating of 30 because it helps with brand loyalty, but if in my current industry I have some products where I'm the sole provider and demand is very high so I'm playing with setting it at an overall rating of 20. I would never price where it's negative because of risk to brand loyalty and additional lost of sales.....but it would definitely reduce demand. I just try and buy time for my supply chain.

[WilliamMGary]

Also cjeck out: http://www.capitalismlab.com/forum/view ... f=11&t=475

[daxl1010]

Thanks again for all the info! I'm already starting to see profits roll in. I had read mwyeoh tips in the other post which are really valuable, but they didn't help me in price setting, which I'm finally getting a handle on.