Alpha 15 Economics Study

[brcruchairman]

[EDIT 2016-11-18: The first of the studies is complete! It can be found in this thread here. More data is always needed though! Thanks to the dynamic nature of the spreadsheet, it'll be automatically incorporated into all future studies. Thank you so much for the help everyone!][EDIT 2016-11-23: Fixed broken link.]

Howdy, y'all!

Tl;dr: I'm doing more research on profitable goods, and I'd appreciate help.

Long version:

So, now that Alpha 15 is out I'm going to invest some time and energy into gathering lots of economic data because I'm a nerd like that. Now, with the exception of one dedicated forumite, it seems that nobody used the forms I'd made to help me with that, which is understandable because they were clunky as hell. So I've spent a few hours researching and honing my Google Sheets skills and managed to make a spreadsheet which seems much cleaner to use, particularly when making multiple entries.

My statement of purpose is thus: In order to better inform players of which goods are the most lucrative, and to better enhance players' abilities in their chosen styles, it is my intent to compile a broad range of economic data, independent of the raws, including item, material and quality if applicable, type of trading partner, and the social skill of the trader. This data will be analyzed with respect to material, item quality, cost of materials, and final item value. All data in totality, analysis, and conclusions will be posted here.

Assistance in populating the raw data sheet is appreciated. To contribute, simply go to the sheet linked below, and add as much data as you like. It should be fairly straightforward, and the drop-down menus will hopefully make things easier.

The sheet can be found here I'd request that nobody vandalize it, though I rather doubt anyone who's read this far would care enough to do so. :p

Things like trader type, social skill of the pawn dealing with the traders (labeled "PoC Social" for "Point of Contact's Social Skill") are of least importance. Of highest importance, for the purpose of this study, is the revenue gained from selling an item (for finished goods), cost of item (for commodities), and item material and quality if applicable.

I hope that this project interests other forumites, and thank you all for your assistance should you give it, and your attention thus far if you do not.

Sincerely,
--Andrew Whitaker

[MikeLemmer]

Don't be surprised if Tynan cribs off this somehow; he specifically stated in his patch notes he was looking for a way to calculate an item's raw value.

[brcruchairman]

Hell, I'd take that as an honor! The current ability to call traders is something I think I'd suggested, though odds are good ten other people had the same idea first and he got it from one of them. :p If my nerdiness helps develop the game, that'd just be awesome. If not, at least it can help inform the player base.

[giannikampa]

I just noticed that Quality is missing the "Legendary" value.

[Tynan]

The trader types are mixing things up. There a 3 bulk goods traders, for example. Tribal bulk trader, outlander bulk trader, and orbital bulk trader. The others have variants like that too. It's easy to see in the def data.

Nice project idea though!

[Bobylein]

I like the idea of your project but wouldn't it be easier to use the raw data from the defs and finding out how much the prices vary by traders in general?

[zandadoum]

I get rich just by selling crappy weapons from dead raiders or AI cores and thrumbo horns...

[brcruchairman]

I just noticed that Quality is missing the "Legendary" value.

Whoops! That's because I forgot to add it. >.> Thanks for the catch. If there are any other errors, please let me know.

The trader types are mixing things up. There a 3 bulk goods traders, for example. Tribal bulk trader, outlander bulk trader, and orbital bulk trader. The others have variants like that too. It's easy to see in the def data.

Nice project idea though!

Like this one! Good point. That's what I get for operating off of A13 information. :p I've changed it a bit, at least until I see the traders and can verify what exists and what doesn't. Or until someone else tells me what the comprehensive list is.

I like the idea of your project but wouldn't it be easier to use the raw data from the defs and finding out how much the prices vary by traders in general?

I could do that, but clearly I'm not. This is for two reasons: Firstly, although I hadn't gathered data from the defs directly, what an item's value listed in-game is doesn't give people a good idea of what it actually sells for or costs to buy. This may have changed since Alpha 13, in which case I'll feel foolish. If that's the case, I hope people would tell me! ^ ^ There's also the notion that there may be hidden variables or interactions which alter or obfuscate the defs' values in a full game environment.

The second reason is this: practice. There exist things which don't have a convenient lookup, and this project is half for me to sharpen my skills. The other half is to provide more information for players, of course, but my choice of methodology is for more personal reasons.

I get rich just by selling crappy weapons from dead raiders or AI cores and thrumbo horns...

This is definitely one way to get money. I know that, personally, my colonists have a lot of downtime between raids. I'd like to spend that downtime generating more profit and getting ready to make a base of solid gold. Because greed.

[wildemberg pt-br]

Sculpture is a great way to get silver.

[brcruchairman]

It's A way to get silver. But what materials? My previous study found compelling evidence that any small ingredients are a very poor way to make silver; in fact, they tend to LOSE money on sculptures. For what's left, which is best? Steel, stone, wood, or plasteel? Stone is worth a lot, but it takes significant time investment. Could numerous wood sculptures make more money than one stone sculpture? I don't know. That's why I'm trying to gather data.

It's worth noting that the purpose of this thread is NOT to figure out how to make silver. There are many ways to do that. The purpose of this thread is to find out how MUCH money can be made, quantitatively. The numbers are important because only then can we normalize profit for things like land use, labor, and time.

This is because, as you pointed out, sculptures are a good way to make large quantities of money on a single good. I've also had reports of people making a great amount of money on animal husbandry. Making melee weapons also seems possible. Growing and harvesting corn or cloth also seems to be good. So which do we chose? For some, it's a matter of play style, but for others they're seeking a highly efficient option. Once we have approximate prices, we can normalize for labor, land and time, and only THEN can we compare the profitability of, say, raising chickens to making sculptures. Without exact values, all we can say is, "Well, chickens use more land but sculptures take more time. Meh."

So, in short, you're right, Wildemberg and Zandadoum. Those are good ways to get silver. But this thread and study are less interested in ways to make money, and more interested in how much things cost and sell for.

[Aatxe360]

So will time spent or opportunity be factors in the cost?  There are hard and soft costs for everything.  EVERYTHING.

[Bobylein]

So will time spent or opportunity be factors in the cost?  There are hard and soft costs for everything.  EVERYTHING.

Soft cost in Rimworld are what? The food, defense, recreation facilities or am I understanding that soft/hard cost stuff wrong?


@brcruchairman
As far as I understand it the market price shown ingame -50% (as per trade value mod) +- some percent depending on trader type and a little random? modificator, what would be really interesting is how big the range of the random mod and the trader type mod is.

We can even find out if a trader is supposed to offer an item cheap or not, it's in the defs too.


But I see your point taking this as an exercise, just keep that points in mind when you try to find out what modifiers are at work.

[SpaceDorf]

To contribute one just has to write the transactions down in your online document ?

[Mossy piglet]

I read through the,"steel burns" topic, (and posted) so I know we can trust the honorable brcruchairman

Looking forward to this! I hope nonmonumentusbrain joins the fun!:-)

[ReZpawner]

As I have said before in other threads, dusters are the way to go. They have by far the highest material-to-silver output.