I actually thought I could simply wait out the AI, but they are satisfied with minor losses or breaking even. I unfortunately can't stand low profits so I think using your value pricing method works. Even though you can't maintain market share you still maintain profitability. The problem is that I usually build large factories preparing for demand but if I decide to keep prices steady and hope for the smaller market shares to profit, my factory becomes severely underutilized.WilliamMGary wrote: I think the AI identifies where you're making money and then enters it. Never try to compete with them on price. I always just set an overall value I'm willing to accept and if I only take 25% of the market as long as its profitable I just move to another market that they're not in. Eventually they do exit the business especially there's strong recession. If the market can support it open up more retail outlets, sometimes there's unmet demand that they're taking advantage of with cut throat pricing.
I've started to become more flexible. If I find factory overproducing I try to switch production to a second product so that the space can be used more efficiently. I've also cut down on training. I'm with you, I prefer to maintain a high level of utilization and just lose potential sales. You protect yourself from recessions and leaves a buffer for entering competitors. The cost that would have gone into training or a larger factory could be placed into new product research or producing a second or third product. If a competitor enters the market you have profit from a more diverse portfolio of products and you have that buffer of revenue you were never engaged in attaining that the new competitor can grab before they take market share away from you. The new competitor may take some share away from you but it would be a smaller drop than if you had 90 or 100% of the market covered.