Talk:Manufacturing Profitability - Revision history

Renegrade: /* Salary / Hourly */

2010-08-16T11:52:26Z

Salary / Hourly

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	:We have to use the resources of earth as wisely as possible if we are to live through this threat to our existence.		:We have to use the resources of earth as wisely as possible if we are to live through this threat to our existence.
	:: -[[User:MikeTheRed\|MikeTheRed]] 23:21, 7 August 2010 (EDT)		:: -[[User:MikeTheRed\|MikeTheRed]] 23:21, 7 August 2010 (EDT)

			::: No problemo! BTW, Saving the Earth is rather expensive, and the governments are being kinda cheap! Also, these Engineers are making 300K/year...where can I sign up? ~ [[User:Renegrade\|Renegrade]] 07:52, 16 August 2010 (EDT)

MikeTheRed: /* Salary / Hourly */

2010-08-08T03:21:13Z

Salary / Hourly

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	[[User:Renegrade\|Renegrade]] 18:23, 7 August 2010 (EDT)		[[User:Renegrade\|Renegrade]] 18:23, 7 August 2010 (EDT)

			:Yeah you're right bro. As you see in the spreadsheet I made, I just used 30.5 days per month. I didn't look closer at exactly what the game is doing. Good catch! And great to hear from you.
			:We have to use the resources of earth as wisely as possible if we are to live through this threat to our existence.
			:: -[[User:MikeTheRed\|MikeTheRed]] 23:21, 7 August 2010 (EDT)

Renegrade: New section: Salary / Hourly

2010-08-07T22:23:50Z

New section: Salary / Hourly

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:23, 7 August 2010
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	:Hire them on the 2nd or 3rd last day of the month. It takes 72 hours for personnel, (whether soldier, engineer, or scientist) to arrive at a base. (They're probably doing a background check.) Salaried staff in transit when the month changes [[ExploitsA#Free_Wages\|don't get paid]]. Assuming your month has 30 days, if you hire them at 01:00 on the 28th, the 29th and 30th will tick by, and they'll arrive at 01:00 on the 1st of the next month, meaning you can put them right to work! (While this 'feature' is listed on exploits and I consider it to be such if you're needlessly shuffling personnel around just before the end of the month, I consider it fair game if you hire them right at the end of the month.) [[User:Arrow Quivershaft\|Arrow Quivershaft]] 22:55, 26 January 2009 (CST)		:Hire them on the 2nd or 3rd last day of the month. It takes 72 hours for personnel, (whether soldier, engineer, or scientist) to arrive at a base. (They're probably doing a background check.) Salaried staff in transit when the month changes [[ExploitsA#Free_Wages\|don't get paid]]. Assuming your month has 30 days, if you hire them at 01:00 on the 28th, the 29th and 30th will tick by, and they'll arrive at 01:00 on the 1st of the next month, meaning you can put them right to work! (While this 'feature' is listed on exploits and I consider it to be such if you're needlessly shuffling personnel around just before the end of the month, I consider it fair game if you hire them right at the end of the month.) [[User:Arrow Quivershaft\|Arrow Quivershaft]] 22:55, 26 January 2009 (CST)

			== Salary / Hourly ==

			Just a quick note here-

			The figure given for a salary is $35/hour.

			Doesn't that depend more on the month in question?

			Enemy Unknown treats 1999 as a standard, non-leap year, so the hourly wage of an engineer should be:

			<PRE>
			(month - hourly wage)
			1 - 33.602/hour (744 hours)
			2 - 37.202/hour (672 hours)
			3 - 33.602/hour (744 hours)
			4 - 34.722/hour (720 hours)
			5 - 33.602/hour (744 hours)
			6 - 34.722/hour (720 hours)
			7 - 33.602/hour (744 hours)
			8 - 33.602/hour (744 hours)
			9 - 34.722/hour (720 hours)
			10 - 33.602/hour (744 hours)
			11 - 34.722/hour (720 hours)
			12 - 33.602/hour (744 hours)
			</PRE>

			The average salary over the year breaks down to $34.247/hour but will vary considerably in any given month.

			Manufacturers-for-profit will have to watch out for February especially.

			[[User:Renegrade\|Renegrade]] 18:23, 7 August 2010 (EDT)

Arrow Quivershaft: Clarification of my definition of Exploit vs. Intended Feature.

2009-01-27T05:00:28Z

Clarification of my definition of Exploit vs. Intended Feature.

← Older revision		Revision as of 05:00, 27 January 2009
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	I just feel like expressing the usefulness of this article. I'm currently constructing a new Workshop (on top of a couple others); I have more than enough Living Quarters to support the 50 Engineers I plan on getting. But the Workshop is scheduled to be completed about 10 days before the month's end. With some quick calculations I found that 50 Engineers working for 10 days on Laser Cannons wouldn't produce as much profit as their net salaries! So those guys will just have to wait an extra 11 or so days to get jobs, hurting the global economy (tear). [[User:NightChime\|NightChime]] 21:01, 26 January 2009 (CST)		I just feel like expressing the usefulness of this article. I'm currently constructing a new Workshop (on top of a couple others); I have more than enough Living Quarters to support the 50 Engineers I plan on getting. But the Workshop is scheduled to be completed about 10 days before the month's end. With some quick calculations I found that 50 Engineers working for 10 days on Laser Cannons wouldn't produce as much profit as their net salaries! So those guys will just have to wait an extra 11 or so days to get jobs, hurting the global economy (tear). [[User:NightChime\|NightChime]] 21:01, 26 January 2009 (CST)

	:Hire them on the 2nd or 3rd last day of the month. It takes 72 hours for personnel, whether soldier, engineer, or scientist to arrive at a base~~, and salaried~~ staff in transit when the month changes [[ExploitsA#Free_Wages\|don't ~~draw a salary~~]]. Assuming your month has 30 days, if you hire them at 01:00 on the 28th, the 29th and 30th will tick by, and they'll arrive at 01:00 on the 1st of the next month, meaning you can put them right to work! [[User:Arrow Quivershaft\|Arrow Quivershaft]] 22:55, 26 January 2009 (CST)		:Hire them on the 2nd or 3rd last day of the month. It takes 72 hours for personnel, (whether soldier, engineer, or scientist) to arrive at a base. (They're probably doing a background check.) Salaried staff in transit when the month changes [[ExploitsA#Free_Wages\|don't get paid]]. Assuming your month has 30 days, if you hire them at 01:00 on the 28th, the 29th and 30th will tick by, and they'll arrive at 01:00 on the 1st of the next month, meaning you can put them right to work! (While this 'feature' is listed on exploits and I consider it to be such if you're needlessly shuffling personnel around just before the end of the month, I consider it fair game if you hire them right at the end of the month.) [[User:Arrow Quivershaft\|Arrow Quivershaft]] 22:55, 26 January 2009 (CST)

Arrow Quivershaft: Hire them with less than 3 days left in the month for maximum efficiency.

2009-01-27T04:55:41Z

Hire them with less than 3 days left in the month for maximum efficiency.

← Older revision		Revision as of 04:55, 27 January 2009
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	I just feel like expressing the usefulness of this article. I'm currently constructing a new Workshop (on top of a couple others); I have more than enough Living Quarters to support the 50 Engineers I plan on getting. But the Workshop is scheduled to be completed about 10 days before the month's end. With some quick calculations I found that 50 Engineers working for 10 days on Laser Cannons wouldn't produce as much profit as their net salaries! So those guys will just have to wait an extra 11 or so days to get jobs, hurting the global economy (tear). [[User:NightChime\|NightChime]] 21:01, 26 January 2009 (CST)		I just feel like expressing the usefulness of this article. I'm currently constructing a new Workshop (on top of a couple others); I have more than enough Living Quarters to support the 50 Engineers I plan on getting. But the Workshop is scheduled to be completed about 10 days before the month's end. With some quick calculations I found that 50 Engineers working for 10 days on Laser Cannons wouldn't produce as much profit as their net salaries! So those guys will just have to wait an extra 11 or so days to get jobs, hurting the global economy (tear). [[User:NightChime\|NightChime]] 21:01, 26 January 2009 (CST)

			:Hire them on the 2nd or 3rd last day of the month. It takes 72 hours for personnel, whether soldier, engineer, or scientist to arrive at a base, and salaried staff in transit when the month changes [[ExploitsA#Free_Wages\|don't draw a salary]]. Assuming your month has 30 days, if you hire them at 01:00 on the 28th, the 29th and 30th will tick by, and they'll arrive at 01:00 on the 1st of the next month, meaning you can put them right to work! [[User:Arrow Quivershaft\|Arrow Quivershaft]] 22:55, 26 January 2009 (CST)

NightChime: New section: Thanks, Article

2009-01-27T03:01:02Z

New section: Thanks, Article

← Older revision		Revision as of 03:01, 27 January 2009
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	:Generally, base-building missions consist of 2 Battleships and a Supply Ship or two, and maybe a few others. They'll all show up at about the same time in the same area(of course, if you're using Radar, you may not detect them all...if you're using a Hyper Wave Decoder, you should already know its a base mission.) Once the base is built, Supply Ships will be dispatched randomly to service it(Supply Ships on Supply missions are always launched at 00:30.) Make sure the base is in Africa or Western Asia so you get to raid the aliens during the day.! [[User:Arrow Quivershaft\|Arrow Quivershaft]] 14:13, 26 February 2008 (PST)		:Generally, base-building missions consist of 2 Battleships and a Supply Ship or two, and maybe a few others. They'll all show up at about the same time in the same area(of course, if you're using Radar, you may not detect them all...if you're using a Hyper Wave Decoder, you should already know its a base mission.) Once the base is built, Supply Ships will be dispatched randomly to service it(Supply Ships on Supply missions are always launched at 00:30.) Make sure the base is in Africa or Western Asia so you get to raid the aliens during the day.! [[User:Arrow Quivershaft\|Arrow Quivershaft]] 14:13, 26 February 2008 (PST)

			== Thanks, Article ==

			I just feel like expressing the usefulness of this article. I'm currently constructing a new Workshop (on top of a couple others); I have more than enough Living Quarters to support the 50 Engineers I plan on getting. But the Workshop is scheduled to be completed about 10 days before the month's end. With some quick calculations I found that 50 Engineers working for 10 days on Laser Cannons wouldn't produce as much profit as their net salaries! So those guys will just have to wait an extra 11 or so days to get jobs, hurting the global economy (tear). [[User:NightChime\|NightChime]] 21:01, 26 January 2009 (CST)

Spike: moved to main page

2008-03-15T09:08:07Z

moved to main page

← Older revision		Revision as of 09:08, 15 March 2008
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	:Interesting idea. But in all honesty, it's not like money is particularly hard to come by if you're doing halfway decently. By about June, almost every alien you wax is worth 142 grand, minimum; 20K for the corpse and a 122K for the extra Heavy Plasma, when you're already drowning in them. Then you've got spare clips, alien alloys, UFO Power Sources, UFO Navigations, grenades...even Elerium. I can, in a regular game, easily build a fleet of 30 avengers without breaking the bank so long as I have a halfway decent Laser Cannon operation going on somewhere and enough recovery missions to bring in raw materials. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft\|Arrow Quivershaft]] 17:28, 24 February 2008 (PST)		:Interesting idea. But in all honesty, it's not like money is particularly hard to come by if you're doing halfway decently. By about June, almost every alien you wax is worth 142 grand, minimum; 20K for the corpse and a 122K for the extra Heavy Plasma, when you're already drowning in them. Then you've got spare clips, alien alloys, UFO Power Sources, UFO Navigations, grenades...even Elerium. I can, in a regular game, easily build a fleet of 30 avengers without breaking the bank so long as I have a halfway decent Laser Cannon operation going on somewhere and enough recovery missions to bring in raw materials. [[User:Arrow Quivershaft\|Arrow Quivershaft]] 17:28, 24 February 2008 (PST)

	== XComUtil ~~manufacturing profitability~~ ==		==XComUtil Manufacturing Profitability Discussion==

			For some reason the [[XcomUtil]] "new laser weapons" manufacturing option only affects beam weapons. It does not make the manufacture of Fusion explosives and projectiles any harder, so the FBL economics are unaffected. Hovertank/Launchers, Blaster Bombs & Launchers, and Alien Grenades are also unaffected (but were never very profitable). The Hovertank/Plasma is redesignated (in name at least) a Hovertank/LaserCannon, in effect saying that the only Plasma weapon that can be produced is the craft Plasma Beam, and that with great difficulty.
	~~Under~~ XcomUtil ~~there is an option called (slightly misleadingly)~~ "new laser weapons" that requires the use of extra alien materials in order to manufacture almost all energy beam weapons. It also makes the human manufacture of the alien plasma beam small arms impossible (research success merely allows XCOM to <u>use</u> captured weapons. The manufacture of craft Plasma Beams is still possible, but is made significantly more difficult (ten times the labour and workspace requirement as well as additional materials). This, as Scott Jones says, "seriously changes the economics of the game", as well as the balance of firepower in the air and (to a lesser extent) on the ground.

	~~When this XComUtil option is active there are only 7 profitable items to manufacture instead of 14.~~

	~~In order of decreasing profitability per month (indexed to 100) these are:~~

	~~:Fusion Ball Launcher (100), Psi Amp (53), Motion Scanner(38); Medkit(19); Laser Pistol(10); Blaster Launcher(9), Small Launcher(9).~~

	~~In fact the profitability of all these items is unchanged from the standard game. What changes is that 7 items, notably the Laser Cannon, disappear from the profitable list.~~

	~~A spreadsheet containing the analysis is here: [[Media:XCOMUtil_Profits.xls\|XComUtil Profits]].~~

	~~===Discussion===~~

	~~For some reason this XComUtil~~ option only affects beam weapons. It does not make the manufacture of Fusion explosives and projectiles any harder, so the FBL economics are unaffected. Hovertank/Launchers, Blaster Bombs & Launchers, and Alien Grenades are also unaffected (but were never very profitable). The Hovertank/Plasma is redesignated (in name at least) a Hovertank/LaserCannon, in effect saying that the only Plasma weapon that can be produced is the craft Plasma Beam, and that with great difficulty.

	Arguably to handicap the plasma weapons so much, but not to in any way handicap the alien launched / explosive / fusion weapons, seems to create an anomaly in the progression of X-COM firepower, rather than the presumed intent of making the game harder overall. Instead the midphase of the game is harder but the endphase is pretty much the same.		Arguably to handicap the plasma weapons so much, but not to in any way handicap the alien launched / explosive / fusion weapons, seems to create an anomaly in the progression of X-COM firepower, rather than the presumed intent of making the game harder overall. Instead the midphase of the game is harder but the endphase is pretty much the same.

Spike: Revisions, and more on XCU "new laser weapons" differences on economics and game balance

2008-03-13T22:15:37Z

Revisions, and more on XCU "new laser weapons" differences on economics and game balance

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:15, 13 March 2008
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	Under XcomUtil there is an option to ~~change~~ almost all energy weapons ~~to need~~ alien ~~materials~~ to manufacture. This, as Scott Jones says, "seriously changes the economics of the game".		Under XcomUtil there is an option called (slightly misleadingly) "new laser weapons" that requires the use of extra alien materials in order to manufacture almost all energy beam weapons. It also makes the human manufacture of the alien plasma beam small arms impossible (research success merely allows XCOM to <u>use</u> captured weapons. The manufacture of craft Plasma Beams is still possible, but is made significantly more difficult (ten times the labour and workspace requirement as well as additional materials). This, as Scott Jones says, "seriously changes the economics of the game", as well as the balance of firepower in the air and (to a lesser extent) on the ground.

	~~In fact with~~ this XComUtil option active ~~(I like it active)~~ there are only 4 profitable items to manufacture instead of 14.		When this XComUtil option is active there are only 7 profitable items to manufacture instead of 14.

	In order of decreasing profitability these are: ~~FBL, Motion Scanner; Medkit; Laser Pistol.~~		In order of decreasing profitability per month (indexed to 100) these are:

	~~for~~ some reason XComUtil does not make Fusion ~~production~~ any harder so the FBL economics are unaffected.		:Fusion Ball Launcher (100), Psi Amp (53), Motion Scanner(38); Medkit(19); Laser Pistol(10); Blaster Launcher(9), Small Launcher(9).

			In fact the profitability of all these items is unchanged from the standard game. What changes is that 7 items, notably the Laser Cannon, disappear from the profitable list.

			A spreadsheet containing the analysis is here: [[Media:XCOMUtil_Profits.xls\|XComUtil Profits]].

			===Discussion===

			For some reason this XComUtil option only affects beam weapons. It does not make the manufacture of Fusion explosives and projectiles any harder, so the FBL economics are unaffected. Hovertank/Launchers, Blaster Bombs & Launchers, and Alien Grenades are also unaffected (but were never very profitable). The Hovertank/Plasma is redesignated (in name at least) a Hovertank/LaserCannon, in effect saying that the only Plasma weapon that can be produced is the craft Plasma Beam, and that with great difficulty.

			Arguably to handicap the plasma weapons so much, but not to in any way handicap the alien launched / explosive / fusion weapons, seems to create an anomaly in the progression of X-COM firepower, rather than the presumed intent of making the game harder overall. Instead the midphase of the game is harder but the endphase is pretty much the same.

			It appears that XComUtil prohibits the production of alien plasma small arms in a rather clumsy way, by increasing the workshop requirements to an extreme level in [[PRODUCT.DAT]]. We now know the location of the flag set to indicate if an item is manufacturable, so that could be used instead by a (hypothetical) update to XComUtil.

			[[User:Spike\|Spike]] 15:15, 13 March 2008 (PDT)

	== Bored Industrialist ==		== Bored Industrialist ==

Arrow Quivershaft: /* Bored Industrialist */ Supply ships!

2008-02-26T22:13:43Z

Bored Industrialist: Supply ships!

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:13, 26 February 2008
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	I guess for me the real solution is how to increase my number of recovery missions since I prefer that part of the gameplay.		I guess for me the real solution is how to increase my number of recovery missions since I prefer that part of the gameplay.

	30 Avengers though by June? That is impressive. On Superhuman? Apart from money time and parts to build them I wonder where you get the Elirium to keep them all flying.		30 Avengers though by June? That is impressive. On Superhuman? Apart from money time and parts to build them I wonder where you get the Elirium to keep them all flying. [[User:Spike\|Spike]]

	:I didn't catch that you had used the modified laser weapons; my bad. I said nothing about the rate at which I could put 30 Avengers together. Usually it takes me about a year of game time to get the fleet well underway(I could launch Cydonia at any time, but where's the fun in THAT?! ;) ) Also, since I've only been playing for a bit over a year myself, I don't play on Superhuman often. The aliens still have this nasty tendency to kick me around like a soccer ball if I do. :( [[User:Arrow Quivershaft\|Arrow Quivershaft]] 05:21, 25 February 2008 (PST)		:I didn't catch that you had used the modified laser weapons; my bad. I said nothing about the rate at which I could put 30 Avengers together. Usually it takes me about a year of game time to get the fleet well underway(I could launch Cydonia at any time, but where's the fun in THAT?! ;) ) Also, since I've only been playing for a bit over a year myself, I don't play on Superhuman often. The aliens still have this nasty tendency to kick me around like a soccer ball if I do. :( [[User:Arrow Quivershaft\|Arrow Quivershaft]] 05:21, 25 February 2008 (PST)
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	(By the way sorry that I keep adding sections. The edit window in the mobile phone browser I am using isn't big enough to safely edit the whole page. Don't want to mess the page up!)		(By the way sorry that I keep adding sections. The edit window in the mobile phone browser I am using isn't big enough to safely edit the whole page. Don't want to mess the page up!) [[User:Spike\|Spike]]

			:Generally, base-building missions consist of 2 Battleships and a Supply Ship or two, and maybe a few others. They'll all show up at about the same time in the same area(of course, if you're using Radar, you may not detect them all...if you're using a Hyper Wave Decoder, you should already know its a base mission.) Once the base is built, Supply Ships will be dispatched randomly to service it(Supply Ships on Supply missions are always launched at 00:30.) Make sure the base is in Africa or Western Asia so you get to raid the aliens during the day.! [[User:Arrow Quivershaft\|Arrow Quivershaft]] 14:13, 26 February 2008 (PST)

Spike at 18:40, 26 February 2008

2008-02-26T18:40:44Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:40, 26 February 2008
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	Also, Superhuman actually nets you more profit from loot sales. There'll be many more aliens in a battle, and the UFO activity tends to be a bit more aggressive. That's where the higher difficulty pays off - pun and all. - [[User:NKF\|NKF]] 20:50, 25 February 2008 (PST)		Also, Superhuman actually nets you more profit from loot sales. There'll be many more aliens in a battle, and the UFO activity tends to be a bit more aggressive. That's where the higher difficulty pays off - pun and all. - [[User:NKF\|NKF]] 20:50, 25 February 2008 (PST)

			Yes good point about Superhuman - higher risk brings higher reward which is a good thing.

			I do need to figure out how to milk supply ships, or some other method to boost my plunder rate. I guess I need to stop indiscriminately crashing all the UFOs - learn to recognise the base-building missions and let the aliens get on with it?



			(By the way sorry that I keep adding sections. The edit window in the mobile phone browser I am using isn't big enough to safely edit the whole page. Don't want to mess the page up!)