Trimaran 说:
uhtred that is a wonderful post, you are right in your points... My question is: lets say you have ironworls and need to supply the raw material, iron..so you go to curaw buy it all (maybe 9 bars of it) and pkace in ur ironworks inventory. What if they need more than u can get? How much do they use each week of the raw material?(how many bars or units?)
Filou got to it before I could. But ironworks requires 2 iron per week. So you need to show up once a week to deliver at least 2 iron. You can deliver it anytime that week in order to make the profit from it. (from my experience)
However, I've been playing this some more and while my statements on profit are still valid I've discovered some hidden costs.
For instance, the tendency is to fill the inventories up with cheap iron so you can spend more time trading and killing stuff. This represents an "opportunity cost" because the money you've spent on Iron could have been used to make immediate profits on trade goods (including Iron) as well as invest in other businesses. Before I realized it I had filled my inventories with iron and it would be months before I realized a profit from all that iron. This is bad and what I was hoping to avoid by choosing an Ironworks over a Dyeworks. Remember the Dyeworks costs 10k and the Ironworks only 3500. But when I add in an inventory full of iron (42) at a average cost of about 150 denars, the total cost for the Ironworks goes up to 9800 denars. Of course you don't have to fill the inventory if you can make it back within a week but you will find yourself tied to the business and therefore you will lose some freedom in the game.
However, I still think the Ironworks is the best business for early in the game when you have a small band of soldiers (mounted?) and can move quickly and freely around the map. Keep your inventories low and replenish regularly.
Also there is another drawback. If you make the bigger investment in the Dyeworks you will be making about 600 denars a week pretty regularly. I've noticed that some of my businesses are selling Tools for less than the original estimate. I'm still making more than the Dyeworks but there is another opportunity cost here. I could have a Dyeworks and make 600 a week plus I could be selling two bars of Iron for 300 each and making another 300. This of course would require the much larger 10k investment for the Dyeworks.
Still though, for the early game Ironworks is the best. Later on I may change my orders and tell my smith to keep tools in inventory if I can see a place to sell it for more. Although what I will more likely do is to sell my ironworks and convert to Dyeworks so I can focus on building a Kingdom.
Edit: Something I haven't worked out yet is whether dumping Tools and Iron on the market in a town (when prices are high) will change market prices and drive them down. For instance, if Tools are selling high in Khudan and I bring 20 Tools from Curaw that were selling for 350 each and sell them will this drive down prices in Khudan? It does at least temporarily but will it be long enough so that when my Ironworks sells it's Tools it makes less money for them? This is the law of supply and demand but in my experience supply and demand doesn't last very long (usually a day for prices to reset). In fact, supply and demand never really create the extremes one would expect. I've noticed when a city is under siege the prices go up but not always to an extreme level. You can't always make a profit selling or buying things. For instance Curaw is under siege in my game right now and the price of Iron is 250 denars. Not bad but not great either. A siege should result in profiteering and inflation do to the fact that farmers can sell stuff in the city which means the city has a limited supply of goods. Also, the villages should have their prices drop dramatically because they can't sell stuff. I have yet to see this in response to a siege. However, it may be the sieges don't last long enough. This needs more study.
Another thing that leads me to believe that supply and demand aren't permanent is when I buy all the Iron in a town in the early morning and at Noon when the prices and stocks change the price of iron sometimes goes way down. This is contrary to the law of supply and demand.
One thing I also forgot to mention above is that by stockpiling Iron in your Ironworks you can keep it there until prices in town for Iron go way up and then sell it. I also think you can store other things in your Ironworks inventory. For instance if your personal inventory is full but you can to buy all that super cheap Salt you can buy it and store it in your Ironworks.
Edit: I just realized there is a lot of speculation in this post which may be more appropriate on a thread that isn't supposed to be an Online manual. If that bothers anyone I apologize and if I want to ruminate on this subject more I will make a new thread.
I can't help it, I really am enjoying myself.
