An easy fix to the freight charge problem

[Webby64286]

I finally figured out why freight charges are so bad in Capitalism II and how you (Enlight) can fix it. I actually think it is a simple mistake that somehow got overlooked. When you ship 1 end product from your factory in one city to a store in another city (or even within the same city) the freight charge gets added on to the end price of the UNIT. I think what you probably meant to do, and this is much more realistic, is to use your current freight charges and apply them to one CARGO unit. So if I make a product in 1 city and send it to another and there are 100 units in 1 cargo unit and the current freight charge is 100 dollars (I'm thinking about beds and I know these aren't the exact numbers but I'm trying to keep the math easy) then 1 dollar gets added on to the end price of the unit at the store. With all the other incredibly difficult (and often useless, but that's for my next post) math that the game already calculates this should not be that difficult

[HansOlav]

I think the freight charges must be calculated by weight and not by value of the goods like it is in real life.

[David]

Capitalism 2 already calculates the freight charges in a way similar to what you describe.

I guess the issue may be with freight charges of shipping products overseas.

Does anybody think that the freight charges of shipping products from one city to another city too high? We may adjust it in the new version.

You may post screenshots of your game example, showing why you think the freight is too high, to help us analyze the case.

[HansOlav]

Here is an example. My factory is in Chicago and the shop is in Lisboa. The cost of the bed is $229 + freight $180. Localy the bed is priced to $262 so It's not possible to make a profit.

[HansOlav]

Here from a store in Cleveland (very close to Chicago where the factory is). Bed cost is $229 + freight $127. Locally the bed price is $266. Maybe freight charges are to high on end products?

[Inarius]

Something to know (from real life).

Freight costs are not high when you use a boat. 500km of truck cost more than 5000Km of boat.
That's why it is so easy to open a new plant in China today !

I don't know if it's possible, but perhaps you should increase the cost from the port to the plant (truck) and reduce the cost from one city to another.
This would force the player to build plants around the port...like IRL

[David]

Good suggestion!


We have changed the calculation of freight costs to the following:

The freight costs for buying products from another city is now calculated based on:
1) freight costs between the supplier firm and the nearest seaport
2) freight costs for shipping products between two cities.
3) freight costs between the buyer firm and the nearest seaport

[HansOlav]

That looks better

[Vampire]

Wow. Very good suggestion indeed.

[mwyeoh]

Awesome, Ive always thought that something was wrong with the calculatino for this.

Question: Is it only distance to seaports? Or also to airports too?

Ive also always wondered what other purposes the airport serves