Production discussion on current metrics

[Captain Jack]

Here are the crates sold in last 9 hours:

Code: Select all

Crates Traded in last 9 hours:
Wood:   632,861
Iron:   5,294,510
Tools:   5,400,776
Cotton:   434,880
Food:   300,930
Rum:   321,290
Tobacco:   321,070
Total:   12,706,328


Which means that crates traded is approximately 1.4 millions per hour or 34 millions per day.
I have some reservations on the numbers as we have not counted how much of these come out of warehouses. I will publish a more accurate report tomorrow.

The production is the number of hired crew + 30000 per port.
Currently there are 927,784 crew hired so production is 957,784 per port for a total 20 millions a day.

As we can see from the demographics, while the total production is lower than the total traded crates, the ports stock keep rising. This happens because the ports where the main resources are being traded are boosted periodically with Fertile lands. So the stocks rise.

Obviously, we need to change our production model or we will end up with fully stocked ports everywhere.
The question is how.

Free your mind from any mechanisms limit, like as if they do not exist (we will find the way) and give us your suggestion.

Here are some points to consider:
-Production should not be necessarily linked to consumption. Before Fertile Lands voodoo card was implemented, ports of Tortuga, Tzogos and Regis were constantly running out of stock. This is not something that has to be avoided but the players should have control over it of course (this is why we added Fertile Grounds after all).
-Someone mentioned the use of a voodoo card to affect ports stock. An addition of an uncommon card with half the power of Fertile lands (5%) could be a good idea.
-We also have natural disasters which have been announced (check changelog) but not activated yet.
-Port population has to be added into the equation at some point. Perhaps this is the time.
-Port improvements that affect production could be another idea. These port improvements could be nation specific or game wide specific. Probably nation specific sounds like a better idea if we are to proceed with this.

Finally, at some point, we want to allow players to create production. This will gradually replace production as we will create it artificially here. However, we are seemingly long ways off that model and we should only keep this in the corner of our mind for now.

[MAjesty]

a method a player once suggested to me long ago might work for this...

consumption.

im not sure if this would mess up the balance, but repairing ships could require access to wood etc.

i am however certain that adding consumption bonuses like fleet consumers 20 crates of rum, now they fight better. (but 60 makes them fight worse =p)

im cant layout a good scheme for this... but the general idea of consumption would decrease the excess supply over time for sure... it would also be more realistic.

[Xepshunall]

I like the idea of player-produced goods. I'm in favor of removing or drastically reducing the effectiveness of Fertile Lands to the point that a single card can't replace all that was sold in one day. Maybe it will just increase the percentage of good quality products being made in that port with no connection to a specific player.

I could see my Character building a factory in each port and producing items there for about 2/3 to 3/4 of the price that the product sells for to shippers depending on quality. If ever there were a place in this game for experience, that would be it. I agree with points made elsewhere that we don't need experience for shippers, but for production teams it would be necessary to ensure that the greater percentage of our products passes quality control and can be sold to the market.

There has to be expansion of factories. These would take time to finish and would not be allowed until the management staff has enough experience to warrant the improvements.
There have to be crew for each shift. They would require influence in order to be hired and the number allowed will depend on the size of the factory and experience of the Shift Leader.
There needs to be a Factory Manager for any factory that has expanded. He would gain experience which would affect percentage of product that is good enough to go to market and his salary would rise with new levels being reached. His experience will also decide how many Shift Leaders he can manage. Any Factory Manager after the first factory must be promoted from the Shift Leaders that you already have.
There would be up to 3 Shift Leaders per factory. They would be expensive to hire and gain experience and crew acceptance. Shift Leaders can be moved to another shift with a modest decrease in crew acceptance. Shift Leader experience would affect the total number crew that he could manage and the price that the good product would bring from the market. This could even affect the rises and falls in cost to the shippers.

The second Factory and any others may not be built until a Shift Leader has gained enough experience to be promoted to Factory Manager. No Shift leader can be promoted as long as there is a Shift Leader position that is currently empty. Shift leaders begin with 10% crew acceptance. No Shift leader can be hired unless there are enough crew in that factory to be transfered to make up the minimum allowed per Shift Leader.

The following is the allowed progression for factories

Level 1
1 Shift Leader
up to 100 crew

Level 2
1 Factory Manager
2 Shift Leaders
100 to 325 crew per Shift Leader

Level 3
1 Factory Manager
3 Shift Leaders
325 to 800 crew per Shift Leader

The following is the allowed progression for Shift Leaders:
Level 1 up to 50 crew
Level 2 up to 60 crew
Level 3 up to 75 crew
Level 4 up to 100 crew (can be promoted to Factory Manager)
Level 5 up to 150 crew
Level 6 up to 225 crew
Level 7 up to 325 crew
Level 8 up to 450 crew
Level 9 up to 600 crew
Level 10 up to 800 crew

[Captain Jack]

I like the structure for factories. Consider in your equation the possibility that players could work in these factories with RP characters expansion (on Pirates Glory Version 3 - we will start adding such elements once we complete version 2).

Factories can be included in the Hideouts. Generally, a lot of such mechanisms need to be implemented in order to slowly move the game to Version 2. (Version 1 will be achieved with the implementation of Treasure Hunt which will seal the initial planning we had for the game. For there after, Player Banks, Hideouts, Ship special Abilities, Pirate Code wars, Nation Control, etc will move the game to version 2.)

Beyond all, I really agreed with this one:

I'm in favor of removing or drastically reducing the effectiveness of Fertile Lands to the point that a single card can't replace all that was sold in one day

We could put a limit to Fertile lands, to be either in par to total sold the previous day or equal to the production.

repairing ships could require access to wood etc.

Excellent idea. I might add other ideas for resources utilization such as:
-Rum / Tobacco affecting crew morale/recruiting.
-Food affecting port population
All three heavily affecting land troops (in Version 2)

So features that utilize resources further should start getting implemented once we hit V1.

Since I spoke that much about versions, do note that they are not planned in a strict way, they just represent general schemes that help us in deciding priorities for the features we are working on.

[MAjesty]

hooray for approval!

[Xanadu]

Any idea when this will be put in to effect. Sorry for asking but: 1 it would be a better war to derive a ports production value, and 2 it will give people something else to talk about besides this Fox TMN grudge match!

[Captain Jack]

Just adding new metrics to the discussion:


Resources Traded
Wood: 886,540
Iron: 6,387,597
Tools: 7,207,022
Cotton: 1,776,027
Food: 967,800
Rum: 1,191,110
Tobacco: 549,630
Total: 18,965,737


This is in the last 8.5 hours.

A far more balanced picture now I believe (plus greater numbers by almost 100% - it can be explianed by the greater game population in comparison to one year ago).

Btw, on topic, we are heading towards:
-Player Production ONLY (with hideout)
-Natural Disasters will destroy the huge stocks now in ports.
-Fertile Lands will change to Player Target and will affect only one player's production (no limits for a starter).

The rest, resources utilized in other game aspects are maintained ofc. We will see when we will implement them. Definitely after player production.

[Captain Jack]

Since I am on a stat sharing spree, here are some more:


Resources in Warehouses
Wood: 8,040,214
Iron: 6,890,184
Tools: 9,480,223
Cotton: 4,348,380
Gold: 9 (Guess who has them )
Food: 5,026,653
Rum: 7,277,711
Tobacco: 7,625,324
Total: 48,688,698

[Navigator]

My favorite goverenment Jack. Disaster's a hoax. What a load of urine cup.

Navagator

[MAjesty]

My favorite goverenment Jack. Disaster's a hoax. What a load of urine cup.

Navagator

i was worried i wouldn't find anything interesting today.