Capitalism 2 and Capitalism Lab Forum

Hallo,

... the business language usage nor some daily practices in business is not known to everyone and for a better overview, i have extended all examples.

i take the whole approach as Feature request - some parts could also be seen as partial bug fixing


it would be nice to have an option to

- sale just "excess goods" to external firms
--> ex: my factory is producing 10 apples, my own (player corp + Sub's) stores/factories are ordering 8 apples to fulfil their demand
= just 2 apples will be sold to external clients (of course without further micromanagement - the program itself must recalculate the gap)
- it would be nice to see an notification after the external sales is finished

excess goods = just excess amount from actual production (factories) or actual input (warehouses)
- you can now hold back the storage for your own


effect: my business is running smoothly and i get rid of surplus production + if there is no more surplus, the competitor has just my finger
- with notification - it's possible to react instantly without the need to recheck 1000 firms for my own


- cut of existing external sales when you activate internal sales
--> ex: product was sold external, now i switch to internal sales because i need the capacity for my own corp
= external corps can't purchase my products any longer

effect: i become back my own production-capacity without the need to destroy my sales unit or build a new factory


- different prices for internal and external sales (with existing, limited and somehow unrealistic game mechanics)
--> ex: internal sales set to 100,--, external sale to 200,--
= more money for me and the competitor will not make such a high profit



or bring it a real step forward: - Sales restrictions with Branch office's (extended, much more realistic game mechanics) - maybe just integrated in Sub DLC (at least not in a new DLC!)
--> ex: allow to set an "recommended retail price (RRP)" for product X in the city with an Branch office and give an discount on that = Wholesale price in City X (external sale price including "freight cost" for orders from this city) that we can make such Sales restrictions in the city, we need an local "Branch office"

Branch office is a little local HQ - just copy the existing HQ building and make it smaller.. 3x3
here are sitting all my lawyers and wholesale experts to make the contracts and monitoring the competitors (are the brave and hold the "price agreement"?)
here are also my people who can make the advertising for all my products

limit the possible units in it to a) "Sales agreement" b) public relations c) advertising

a) (if present) we can make all Sales restrictions for this City like
- select Standard Supplier
- "product X" is "available to": All blocked (Standard), Group + COO, Group, Internal + COO, internal
- set the recommended retail price (RRP) = will set a new RRP in ALL sales unit's ("own", Sub, Competitor) at once
- set an additional "promotion time"
- let us make an "super sale" where we can also select the next product which should be linked ("me" + COO or me + COO & Sub), after the existing is sold out
- "automatic maintaining" of the RRP
= if not, all works like in the existing game mechanics or existing will have some limits without

b) (if present) the public relations budget for this city will be set according
= if not, the setting from the HQ will be used in this city or maybe none is possible

c) (if present) we can link up to 3 media firms and independently select the budget and product
= the existing possibility to advertise products will be untouched - but is now much more flexible and centralized
(just an new UI will be needed to accomplish this or can be integrated in the existing)

& Integrate the "Branch office" in the existing HQ (of course also only with effect on the current city)
& let the AI work without Branch offices (so maybe just a little adoption to the code is need)


further explanation's:
Sales agreement = name of the new unit... we will find a better one
- should cost upkeep
- upkeep will scale with revenue / active links / ...?

Standard Supplier = select product X from factory/warehouse X in City X
- it's also the default source for the automatic link in factory X in the same City
- it could be also used for an own pre-selection in the select supplier list from retail-stores

own = player corp

me = firm from player corp or Sub where I'm the manger!

Sub = Subsidiary corp
- there should be an direct relationship between subs... in reality they are like brothers and sisters and act as family
ex: have a look to http://about.nike.com/pages/eu-invoicing and go down a little to "Invoicing to Nike" and click on "Please select one".
these are all Sub's of Nike Inc
(picking this example was coincidence)
- or should we really use them just for R&D to take there product expertise?

product X should be:
- product A from supplier A (own, Sub) with quality Y = product AAY
- product A from supplier A with quality Z = product AAZ
- product A from supplier B with quality Z = product ABZ

available to:
- All blocked (Standard) = AI, Sub AND COO is NOT allowed to sell/buy product X in City X
- Group + COO = Sub and own COO IS allowed to sell/buy product X in City X
- Group = Sub IS allowed to sell/buy product X in City X
- Internal + COO = own COO IS allowed to sell/buy product X in City X
- internal = Just me is allowed to setup links
- All = All
- External = just Competitors can sell/buy product X in City X

price agreement's = just possible with an Branch office

promotion time = 1,2,3,4,... month additional discount for product X to the RRP
- get rid of some stock
- promote your new product and gain some initial market share
- kick your brand up

super sale its now possible to get rid of old stuff in an much more comfortable style

automatic maintaining: setting like "hold rating +2 against local" or "allways +4 above cheapest"

calculation of freight cost's: Let's see the existing Incoterms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incoterms and take ... DDP – Delivered Duty Paid (named place of destination)
named place of destination could be = seaport (think, it's easier to implement with the existing game mechanics) or the retail-store

recommended retail price (RRP)
you know many corporations (definitely all brands) which are enforcing an RRP - even if they do not sell directly to end users (your computer where you read this lines is just 1 example and the chewing gum is another)
- some give you the opportunity to go down (but limited because of a small retail profit margin) or above the RRP
- some will give you the exact RRP which you must promote and display in store & website
- some dictate to you every final sale (begin - end) with exact prices
- some will even dictate, where you have to place the product in the store
- some will forbid you to sell products from an competitor
- and much more
- price agreements will take place also in SCM
more info to RRP under https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_price


effect:
even with 10 or more cities / even with 3 or more Sub's / even with 20 or more shops / even with 50 or more products ...
with
- Sales restrictions with Branch office's
- cut of existing external sales
- sale just "excess goods" to external firms
it's possible to establish something near an distribution channel's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distribution_(business) and SCM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_chain_management without an overkill in micromanagement


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now included above:

Arcnor wrote:For the retail side, it would be nice to also have a "SALE" for products. For instances set a one month period where the price is cut by 10% etc.
This would be useful if you want to get rid of obsolete inventory quickly as a higher quality version comes out.

thanks for your contribution! forgotten, that this is needed

WilliamMGary wrote:I think it's time that for the player managed company to have a place to go set the parameters so that prices are adjusted automatically. That way the players can spend more time with the other mechanics of the game.

When I play I always do my prices based on overall ratings, so if I could go to my management settings and say automatically adjust 'Shampoo" prices so that it maintains an overall rating of 50 in every city [maybe a specific city]. This would give me time to focus on actually building the business and not adjusting prices. Then separately, I could check out Shampoo in every city and see if I need to adjust my settings based on my competition.

thanks for your contribution!

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the extensions above "support" also called features/advanced gameplay in the Sub DLC and will bring also significant possibilities to Educational Users

support = no comment



thanks
greetz



[EDIT: expanded with a non-merchant-port description]

+1

For the retail side, it would be nice to also have a "SALE" for products. For instances set a one month period where the price is cut by 10% etc.

This would be useful if you want to get rid of obsolete inventory quickly as a higher quality version comes out.

- sale just excess goods to external firms
- and to cut of existing when you activate internal sales

I don't think I fully understood what you wrote above. Could you elaborate?

it depends on how you define excess. For example if I'm building up "excess" for expansion to a new market do I want to sell that "excess" inventory probably not.

I think a feature that allows you to set a maximum order quantity would be a start. It is indeed very disappointing that third parties can ruin your business by "overbuying" your products thus causing shortfalls in your own factories, without you having a way currently to "cut them off". The only current remedy is micro managing the hell out of warehouses and/or switching to internal only. Limiting buyers to say 1,000 pcs maximum each per month might go a long way towards giving us flexibility in stopping them doing this without requiring a fix.
Maybe another solution would be to allow the human user to specify exactly how many of a good he buys, then we could probably manage this problem ourselves by setting up separate warehouses to sell to the AI.

Either way, I think the OP mixed fix and feature into the same post, which is why it might have been confusing.

David wrote:

- sale just excess goods to external firms
- and to cut of existing when you activate internal sales

I don't think I fully understood what you wrote above. Could you elaborate?

done above

updated with idea from WilliamMGary