First off, very glad to see work on Capitalism continuing. The new Lab expansion has created a very challenging game (for me at least) which has led to this post. I'm looking for some starting strategies so I'm not bankrupt after a year. In Capitalism II I used to be able to purchase all the chemical minerals and enjoy a pharmaceutical monopoly which funded all my other projects. While I'm glad that exploits been patched, I'm having trouble gaining any traction in any sector. I am playing Capitalism II Lab Beta 2.1.02 currently. I've taken a couple of different approaches and just want to get some other peoples opinions.
Background on my game settings: 4 cities, 26 competitors, 1 each of industrial & commercial seaports with low and inconsistent supplies, high capital for me, low for the competitors, many store types and all other market related items enabled (inflation, stock market, etc.)
1.) I've setup a retail in each city and stocked them with seaport products to build up cash flow. This works well, but I'm not great at figuring out the pricing part. My major is in economics, so I have a strong grasp of how supply and demand works and can read the products supply and demand bar perfectly, but should I price the product to have the best Product Rating or should I price the product really high and have a negative rating if the demand is a lot higher than supply?
2.) Usually once I start making money I try to get into a profitable sector manufacturing (automobile, pharmacy, etc). Where I get lost here is that I never seem to be able to keep pace with demand anymore like in the old game. Should I be okay leaving demand sky high and not try and expand too aggressively to meet demand? I've been expanding my manufacturing to try and keep pace and I think it is what might be bankrupting me.
3.) Where should I try and pull the most profits from in a product if I own the complete chain? Take pharmaceuticals, I own a chemical mineral mine, a factory to make headache pills, a warehouse and a pharmacy. Should I be trying to make a profit the whole way down the chain or should I make it at the factory and allow the retail store to run in the red?
4.) Outsourcing: Fastest question yet, should you make products in low wage city and import them into retail stores in a high wage city or do the freight charges negate any gains?
I think that's it
![Confused :?](./images/smilies/icon_e_confused.gif)