The middleman report - a semi-product business case

[counting]

Going OK so far. It's difficult avoiding the temptation to put a mine down to get better quality resources

Ironically since the demand quantity for semi-product raw materials is usually too small, it's not even worth to open a mine yourself and pay huge overhead (if you don't plan to sell raw materials to other AIs). It's more profitable buying from AI sources. And most semi-product has low portion of quality depended on raw materials (besides steel). The extreme case is like CPU/CCD, almost all tech quality.

[jondonnis]

Bill Gates, expert product class, Snacks

[counting]

If you are going for semi-products, expert product class doesn't matter anyway

But that's an interesting roll of product class, and you choose an IBM logo? This parallel universe is serious wrong

[jondonnis]

Yep ibm as Billy boy Gates is doing your semi products idea. Just thought the random expert product class he was given was funny.

[counting]

Yep ibm as Billy boy Gates is doing your semi products idea. Just thought the random expert product class he was given was funny.

Maybe he does has a secret passion for snacks
http://seattle.cbslocal.com/2014/06/16/ ... an-trials/

[jondonnis]

Nice

Back to my save. Become a lot more difficult because a lot of people are using the one chemical resource available and the one oil line available. All because everyone is too tight to mine themselves, giving us all access

So I'm testing having just two mines as well. One on the oil and one on the chemical resource. Both now being hammered by the AI because it wants it all, but won't mine itself. So you end up in the same situation, production slows because the 2 only available chemical and oil owned by the docks is being hammered by everyone. You then open one each yourself and unless you set to internal sale, they get hammered. But if you put as internal sale your mines aren't profitable enough.

[counting]

Nice

Back to my save. Become a lot more difficult because a lot of people are using the one chemical resource available and the one oil line available. All because everyone is too tight to mine themselves, giving us all access

So I'm testing having just two mines as well. One on the oil and one on the chemical resource. Both now being hammered by the AI because it wants it all, but won't mine itself. So you end up in the same situation, production slows because the 2 only available chemical and oil owned by the docks is being hammered by everyone. You then open one each yourself and unless you set to internal sale, they get hammered. But if you put as internal sale your mines aren't profitable enough.

How many AIs and how many cities are there in your save? And what's their starting capital and aggressiveness? Usually when there are enough AIs (and most of them have cash), high demand and free non-premium mining spot left, then sooner or later some AIs will start new mines again. That's what input storage warehouses are for, with lots of input units to grab as much source as you can, and to use it as emergency stockpile during the shortage and re-balancing period (which might last several months)

[jondonnis]

I set the AI same as yours. When I get home I'll upload the save before I built the mine. I had started to test building same setup in another city. All ok but the lack of oil and chem is slowing everything down.

[counting]

A lot of time, you need to consider AI source like extant seaport resources. They take times to build up (like 5 years to a decade), and you need to find the right moment to cut in before other AIs also use same set of resources. Timing is very crucial. If you find there's lack of upstream resource, usually means it's too soon, or already too late. This is something that's hard to predict and relied heavily on instinct. (And don't expect AI to scale up as quickly as human players, you have to treat your business like an AI would, slow and steady)

And despite electronic component's common usage and large demand, it is also harder to produce and easily contested. It's high demand means you have to cut in right before most AI's switch from mainly doing retail business to manufacturing business. Survey downstream industries "atmosphere", and see if other resources are also available for them (like aluminum, glass, steel, plastic, etc), and just lack electronic components in the same city for AI to manufacture customer products. It's kinda like playing a time-sensitive puzzle game, you need to feel the right moment then put your piece in.

Steel and plastic are two of the common semi-products that can be crucial to start with. CPU/CCD would have to wait for downstream new invention to have a bigger market. Glass is heavily depend on local producers due to their high freight cost. On the other side of the scale, farm-related semi-products are harder to cut in, since most farming corporations produce related semi-products themselves. Unless with huge tech advantage, it's very difficult to compete (lots of them have high freight cost too). The outliers in semi-products are automobile semi-products. I find them sometimes profitable when there are more than 3 auto-manufacturers compete on the market, and able to become the sole upstream of the larger market share auto-supplier. Dye-stuff, Polyester, are not feasible in most cases since source price is usually very high, and one large factory can normally supply 7 cities' demand.

[counting]

I set the AI same as yours. When I get home I'll upload the save before I built the mine. I had started to test building same setup in another city. All ok but the lack of oil and chem is slowing everything down.

How's the challenge going? Any updates (or troubles)?