[FIXED]Viewing Factories, Cost vs revenue, etc

[geozero]

I added this to suggestions as I did not see this in game, so the "question" becomes a suggestion.

Where do I view a list of ALL my factories without going to the map and hunting them down. As I expand my company and build factories it is hard to remember where I built them or what they are building. A way to find a total Factory list, then click that city name and see every car being built there would be great.

Secondly it would be nice to see data on each "branch" to determine if the cars are profitable in that branch or region. I expanded my empire on my game and saw that India was selling like 2 cars per month. I could not remember the cost to build and maintain that branch but I figured that several branches were draining my income revenue as they were not selling enough units to justify being open. Shame I wanted a world empire.

So it would be great to see Buenos Aires selling 10 cars, which models, and what the profit margin or loss for that branch is. Then after a couple of months you can easily decide to eliminate or close down the branches.

I figured that branches not selling 100+ cars each month by after 1910 were not worth keeping So basically it's New York, London, Chicago, and 2-3 other cities. That's it. Everything else is a cash drain. I understand the algorithms are based on historical world data but it doesn't seem right not to have a profitable branch in say Syndey, Australia when there are NO other competitors there. Some branches were not selling ANY cars at all for months, yet the branch employed 100+ people. Granted I should have invested marketing dollars as well, but they were just losing money.

The point of the thread is I would like to see this data quickly. Where are my factories, what are they building, where are the branches and not so much how many cars they sell but HOW PROFITABLE are they? The margin of profitability is more important than the unit count. I could sell less cars for more money and have a larger margin and reduced costs I would take that any day.

[Arakash]

I added this to suggestions as I did not see this in game, so the "question" becomes a suggestion.

Where do I view a list of ALL my factories without going to the map and hunting them down. As I expand my company and build factories it is hard to remember where I built them or what they are building. A way to find a total Factory list, then click that city name and see every car being built there would be great.

Secondly it would be nice to see data on each "branch" to determine if the cars are profitable in that branch or region. I expanded my empire on my game and saw that India was selling like 2 cars per month. I could not remember the cost to build and maintain that branch but I figured that several branches were draining my income revenue as they were not selling enough units to justify being open. Shame I wanted a world empire.

So it would be great to see Buenos Aires selling 10 cars, which models, and what the profit margin or loss for that branch is. Then after a couple of months you can easily decide to eliminate or close down the branches.

I figured that branches not selling 100+ cars each month by after 1910 were not worth keeping So basically it's New York, London, Chicago, and 2-3 other cities. That's it. Everything else is a cash drain. I understand the algorithms are based on historical world data but it doesn't seem right not to have a profitable branch in say Syndey, Australia when there are NO other competitors there. Some branches were not selling ANY cars at all for months, yet the branch employed 100+ people. Granted I should have invested marketing dollars as well, but they were just losing money.

The point of the thread is I would like to see this data quickly. Where are my factories, what are they building, where are the branches and not so much how many cars they sell but HOW PROFITABLE are they? The margin of profitability is more important than the unit count. I could sell less cars for more money and have a larger margin and reduced costs I would take that any day.

Currently there is a bunch of useful screens under expenses, which define per vehicle sold how much you are spending in various areas per city.
Adding these together usually gives me a rough idea of what your looking for.
Ive also used some generated reports which give you the overall revenue of a vehicle compared to its overall cost.

What i would like to see is an "Overall Expenses on Delivery per Model per city"
This would do what ive been doing manually and add all the expenses up per model and tell me exactly how much it is costing me to get certain vehicles to the customer.
This then forms the basis of my sales price.

Also useful would be a "Profits per Model per City"
This would again save you maths by comparing your sales price and overall expenses to give you overall profits per vehicle model in each city.
This report especially would be extremely useful in everyday gameplay.

[Eric.B]

I added this to suggestions as I did not see this in game, so the "question" becomes a suggestion.

Where do I view a list of ALL my factories without going to the map and hunting them down. As I expand my company and build factories it is hard to remember where I built them or what they are building. A way to find a total Factory list, then click that city name and see every car being built there would be great.

There are a few ways to get this information but none which breaks it down the way you're looking for. To find the Info check the various combo boxes in the sales book.

I plan on adding a color option to the world map that will allow you to see where branches and factories are. Just like when you look at AI companies.

Also will be adding a factories only checkbox to the MegaMenu.

Secondly it would be nice to see data on each "branch" to determine if the cars are profitable in that branch or region. I expanded my empire on my game and saw that India was selling like 2 cars per month. I could not remember the cost to build and maintain that branch but I figured that several branches were draining my income revenue as they were not selling enough units to justify being open. Shame I wanted a world empire.

See my reply to Arakash below.

I figured that branches not selling 100+ cars each month by after 1910 were not worth keeping So basically it's New York, London, Chicago, and 2-3 other cities. That's it. Everything else is a cash drain. I understand the algorithms are based on historical world data but it doesn't seem right not to have a profitable branch in say Syndey, Australia when there are NO other competitors there. Some branches were not selling ANY cars at all for months, yet the branch employed 100+ people. Granted I should have invested marketing dollars as well, but they were just losing money.

I am able to run a profitable company in Australia. Shipping to Australia on the other hand may not be profitable. Transport cost will get you, check the expense logs under transport in the combo box.

What i would like to see is an "Overall Expenses on Delivery per Model per city"
This would do what ive been doing manually and add all the expenses up per model and tell me exactly how much it is costing me to get certain vehicles to the customer.
This then forms the basis of my sales price.

Also useful would be a "Profits per Model per City"
This would again save you maths by comparing your sales price and overall expenses to give you overall profits per vehicle model in each city.
This report especially would be extremely useful in everyday gameplay.

Would either of these options in the sales book/reports help you out geozero?


Perhaps I could throw in another report that has all the factories, the models in each factory, lines used,total model costs, breakdown of costs?

[geozero]

An automatic monthly report that has some way of being customized in a user preference area, even turn off, is what I suggest. While most of this data is available somewhere, it requires 50 clicks to get to it. It is harder to visualize the data in one place in order to make a better business decision for the next turn(s).

Also, in the responses it was said/suggested that the "delivery" costs of the vehicle may be an issue. That's great that it is modeled but where do I see the breakdown costs? In the R&D vehicle view I can see the cost of vehicle. I am assuming that is the cost to build and not included the branch distribution costs or the final costs to the consumer. But I don't know.

I had thought (and would make sense) that the final delivery costs would be different based on where the vehicle was built. For example:

1) I have a factory in Buenos Aires and decide to sell in New York to max sales. There has got to be an inherently higher cost. I need to know what that is in order to properly set my sales price in that city or region.

2) Moving forward on #1, my sales take off in New York as they should, and I am making a profit, but I decide to build a factory in Boston. The delivery costs have got to be less. How much less?

And now for the real question... New York is selling 1000 units per month. Buenos Aires builds only 200, the rest of the cars are made in Boston. Where can I see a breakdown of the total costs and margins for each of these factories with respect to the sales in New York? I would think that the cars made in Boston made more profit, but what I want to know is IF the cars in Buenos Aires are losing money. IF they are I would shut that operation (factory) down in a heart beat.

It would also then make sense to build/sell only to local markets. When I have factories in 5 continents, HOW do I prevent Asia from fulfilling any additional demand in America? IF this is done automatically and at a great loss, then it doesn't make sense. I would want to restrict where the built cars could be distributed. Is there a way to do this?

IF not, then the gameplay is somewhat limited to building cars and selling only in New York and London.

There has to be some control (perhaps I am not sure yet where it is) of the entire cycle: factory > branch > consumer

[Eric.B]

I can't pull up the game right now because I'm doing clean recompiles of it. Takes like an hour on my computer.

You should be able to see transport cost one of two ways. The sure way is in the sales book, click expenses, then change the combo to transport cost. The other way Is in the world map, click the branch then click view details (I believe)

1) I"m beginning to think a feasibility study system needs to be implemented. As of now, there is no way to predetermine the cost. Maybe I should make a way to do it in the sales book for a cost. It'll probably include some sort of shipping cost calculator, Expected unit sales, etc. I'll look into it.

2) Branches will always pull from the closest factory. So in your situation, New York would pull from Boston then Buenos Aires. In early 1900 it's not supposed to be feasible to do this kind of shipping. Exportation of vehicles overseas didn't become popular until after World War II. In most cases, prewar manufacturing would take place semi locally. This is why for example Ford built plants in Europe in 1911 rather than ship them. The other common option was to license out models to other manufacturers overseas to build.

Check out this thread for more ideas: http://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread...ight=limit

[geozero]

If you need shipping costs data let me know. One of my buddies is in the shipping business and can get real world data for you. Of course modern costs... you can then extrapolate or back into earlier costs.

So in #2 above, the game really should not let me sell in New York if I am in Buenos Aires, but it does. I just don't know (will check out your suggestions) the costs.

Also, I am sure limited shipping was available before WW2 from non-local plants to some extent. You could "ship" via rail to South American from North America and back and forth. Same from Europe - Asia - Africa. There was some limited overseas shipping... my family had cars made in USA but shipped where they lived overseas.

Also, taking the idea further. Buenos Aires builds 100 cars, but sells 20. New York sells out at 1000 units and my Boston factory cannot keep up. I understand that it will "pull" the excess 80 from Buenos Aires, even at a loss to meet demand. BUT what if New York was making a bigger profit? Can the demand/profit actually tell the AI, screw the locals, send everything to New York?

[Arakash]

From your first post

"I could not remember the cost to build and maintain that branch but I figured that several branches were draining my income revenue as they were not selling enough units to justify being open."

From your more recent post

"Also, in the responses it was said/suggested that the "delivery" costs of the vehicle may be an issue. That's great that it is modeled but where do I see the breakdown costs?"

I thought after your first post that you might not be aware of the breakdown of costs in the expenses tab of the white book that reports are in(whatever it is called)
So in my first response to you i made sure to mention it.

In that area, you can break down costs per unit sold per city by marketing, transportation, branch as well as Factory.
Afaik, the only things you cant do:
Break it down by specific models
(My suggestion) have it show overall cost of delivery(basically all your expenses added together) in every city for each model.

I started a new thread about that suggestion, as its basically off-topic for this thread.

On your latest thread:

So in #2 above, the game really should not let me sell in New York if I am in Buenos Aires, but it does. I just don't know (will check out your suggestions) the costs.

I dont think he said that at all:

2) Branches will always pull from the closest factory.

The game is more than happy to ship your vehicles half way across the world and bankrupt you. From what Eric has said it simply prefers to ship them from the closest factory.

[geozero]

(My suggestion) have it show overall cost of delivery(basically all your expenses added together) in every city for each model.

Yes, this would be a welcome report. Again, my concern is not knowing what the costs are and therefore not being able to make a proper business decision on where to sell, how many to build, and what prices to charge.

Maybe I am a control freak but I want to know that I am in control of the business decisions and not let the game sell cars across the globe at a loss and bankrupt me. There should be some amount of control as to how/where you can sell your models from a given factory. If I could limit my London factory to only sell in England or Europe that would be great. I don't want any cars from my London factory to sell in Africa or South America, especially it I lose money. Control is key.

[Eric.B]

I believe I covered most of the issues in this thread. Factories now glow in the world map. Multiple reports covering what geozero requested have been made. And shipping distance has a user defined limit. I may have missed something. If so shoot me! Long threads covering multiple topics are hard to follow/keep track of.


Anyhoo marking as fixed.