Clothing economy is still broken

[Shurp]

I was hoping I wasn't going to have to relearn modding for b19, but the clothing penalty is back.  30% sale penalty for manufactured clothes, which means that as usual, it is more profitable to grow cotton and sell it *raw* than make stuff with it.  This is just Not Fun.

So before I go through the hassle of modding my game to fix this, can anyone tell me if (a) a b19 mod already exists for this or (b) will my old b18 mod work without changes?

(Note that I'm posting this in General instead in Mods because I'm trying to direct attention at the penalty itself in the hopes that it gets removed in the future.  There's no sense to having raw materials worth more than finished goods unless you really are trying to penalize people for manufacturing things?  If the problem is that Legendary items become worth too much without it, the solution is to reduce their bonus, not penalize everything!)

[Shurp]

OK, so my b18 mod works fine on b19, just thought everyone would like to know that modding hasn't changed much.  Which they probably already knew   So the problem is solved for me; hopefully it will be solved for everyone else too at some point.

[giltirn]

Wow, really? My entire economy is based around clothing manufacture from hunted leathers, but you're telling me I should just be selling the materials? That kinda sucks.

[vzoxz0]

This is probably a backlash from the old "Bowler Hat" economy that existed in a16. You'd just make bowler hats from everything, especially human skin, and end up with a bundle in profit and easily transportable goods.

[5thHorseman]

This is probably a backlash from the old "Bowler Hat" economy that existed in a16. You'd just make bowler hats from everything, especially human skin, and end up with a bundle in profit and easily transportable goods.

What? Producing trade goods out of raw materials with electricity and skilled labor earns money!? WE MUST STOP THIS EXPLOIT ON ALL COUNTS.

[fritzgryphon]

There will always be one ultimate trade good as long as supply is not counted in price.

You'd think the market for human leather bowlers would be pretty small, yet here we are.

[zizard]

Only one of many rewards for unintuitive play.

[Thirteen Fish]

which means that as usual, it is more profitable to grow cotton and sell it *raw* than make stuff with it.

While this is true for normal quality apparel, for good quality everything but the shirts, tribalwear, and tuque start to add value. A higher level crafter producing apparel averaging closer to excellent quality can consistently add ~25% in value to the raw materials even accounting for the trade penalty.

[vzoxz0]

It should probably get a nudge so "average" is still profitable.

[sadpickle]

Eh, if you can afford the time to crank out clothes purely for sale it's not like wealth is a problem. I set outfits to minimum 60% damage, make new outfits regularly to train crafting and sell the excess/damaged stuff, pulls in plenty of cash.

The way I see it, the main benefit of stacks of leather (cotton is for carpets) is that it trains the all-important crafting skill. This makes it easier to reliably craft valuable armor and weapons and put devilstrand to good use. With the volume of meat I need to provide fine meals to 12 colonists, I have well over 1k leather at any time, sometimes several thousands.

[Shurp]

Yes, that's why I like to keep my tailors busy making parkas.  I get money for it *and* increase their skill so when it comes time to manufacture assault rifles and body armor they can do a good job of it. And its a nice role-play mechanic.  My little colony is providing parkas to all those poor tribals on this Rimworld who can't make parkas themselves.

I'm just infuriated that I should be financially penalized for doing so.  Maybe raw materials should have a 80% sale penalty applied to them so it's at least *more* unprofitable to sell unmanufactured leathers. :-P 

[Wanderer_joins]

It makes some sense actually. Tribespeople and outlanders have their own crafters, there is no reason they would value normal quality apparels they could easily make of low hp textiles too.
And as said, a good crafter will make more valuable apparels which will be profitable on average.

You can breakdown the average profit per apparel per crafting level compared to raw material at 100hp (worst case scenario). Cloth and devilstrand are often deteriorated by the time they've been hauled in a closed storage room.

[Shurp]

My boreal farm greenhouses are indoors.  I don't have any deterioration issues.

And an excellent parka shouldn't be marginally profitable over a stack of cloth.  It should be stupendously profitable.

(BTW, I'm pretty sure the reason this penalty was introduced originally was to reduce the value of loot dropped by raiders when they die.  But the "D" tag has taken over this job, and the clothing penalty is no longer needed).

[bbqftw]

Work amounts for b19 clothing were reduced relative to b18 levels

[Shurp]

Yes, I noticed that, and I'm disappointed... I'm burning through my stock of cotton much quicker than I used to.  I need more cotton farms to keep my tailors busy with.  But maybe that's a good thing.