a few questions

[Steel]

Hello everyone! I am new on these forums but I have to say I really like the community here and I found the threads here very helpful. I bought Caplab yesterday but I played Capitalism 2 for countless hours in my early teens which was more than a decade ago. Now I try to play this game again but this time with a more "scientific" approach. There are areas of the game that I haven't figured out yet how to play optimally, so I would appreciate any help.

Before I enlist my questions I'd like to note one more thing: my general playstyle is to aim for a long game where I have a monopoly over everything or at least as many products as possible via tech lead and advertising. I don't like selling livestock or products from the port, I like to set up my own factories immediately. Here are my questions:

1., When I start producing a product in a big city I usually start with large factories immediately because I expect a big demand (or I will generate demand via ads and research). Is it a mistake to always make large factories?

2., Is there an optimal number for number of retail stores/factory? Do I need more factories if the demand is too high, or is it better to not invest more and instead focus on other products? Is it a good strategy to spam shops after I open a new factory (if I can expect a reasonably good demand in early game)? How many shops do you prefer to open after you release a completely new product? Is there an optimal number of shops/city/1 product (consider that in my shops I like selling 4 types of items)?

3., Training. I only use training in factories, farms and mines/logging camps. Should I also train in other places like shops, maybe warehouses? Later in the game you have the option to use your HQ to make mass trainings in the whole organisation.

4., Brand strategies. I read a little about it, but I still don't understand if there is clearly a better strategy than others. I like using range brands, but can unique brands be better in some cases, like if you own a media firm? Does it depend in the number of cities for example?

Thanks in advance!

[WilliamMGary]

Hello everyone! I am new on these forums but I have to say I really like the community here and I found the threads here very helpful. I bought Caplab yesterday but I played Capitalism 2 for countless hours in my early teens which was more than a decade ago. Now I try to play this game again but this time with a more "scientific" approach. There are areas of the game that I haven't figured out yet how to play optimally, so I would appreciate any help.

Before I enlist my questions I'd like to note one more thing: my general playstyle is to aim for a long game where I have a monopoly over everything or at least as many products as possible via tech lead and advertising. I don't like selling livestock or products from the port, I like to set up my own factories immediately. Here are my questions:

1., When I start producing a product in a big city I usually start with large factories immediately because I expect a big demand (or I will generate demand via ads and research). Is it a mistake to always make large factories?

It takes a little while before demand build up, I would go with a medium factory and use training to increase MFG capacity as needed if your company is just starting out. unless you plan on plowing millions into a new product line with advertising and store openings and/or know there's a demand for your products wholesale.

2., Is there an optimal number for number of retail stores/factory? Do I need more factories if the demand is too high, or is it better to not invest more and instead focus on other products? Is it a good strategy to spam shops after I open a new factory (if I can expect a reasonably good demand in early game)? How many shops do you prefer to open after you release a completely new product? Is there an optimal number of shops/city/1 product (consider that in my shops I like selling 4 types of items)?

I don't know of an optimal number it seems to be all based on volume and production capacity (factory layout). If you're operating in large markets which has proven to have enough demand to support the opening of a second factory to serve them I don't see a downside to having more than one factory if demand requires it. If you know the products are going to be profitable and have good demand there's nothing wrong with spamming a city with shops. When I enter a new product line I like to start with a max of 4 stores per city, preferably in high traffic areas and as sales starts picking up began to open additional stores once the products/product line proves its sustainability. I also thing of this like a soft roll-out, as if I'm running out of resources, or I can't price in retain as competitive as I need to in order to be profitable this gives me time to make adjustments before I do a major roll-out. If 4 stores have to loose $20 on each product sold is a lot easier to take a hit on then 30 stores taking that same hit.

3., Training. I only use training in factories, farms and mines/logging camps. Should I also train in other places like shops, maybe warehouses? Later in the game you have the option to use your HQ to make mass trainings in the whole organisation.

I don't think massive training makes sense. I only train when I have 100% utilization in units, however, theory vary on training. Some players like to max their store training with no regards for utilization....even the AI does this

4., Brand strategies. I read a little about it, but I still don't understand if there is clearly a better strategy than others. I like using range brands, but can unique brands be better in some cases, like if you own a media firm? Does it depend in the number of cities for example?

In Capitalism Lab I've only used Range and Corporate. I strayed away from unique because the capital required to pull it off, but once your company is large it might be a good idea to switch over to unique branding I just think its too capital intensive at the start of a game.

Thanks in advance!

[counting]

Hello everyone! I am new on these forums but I have to say I really like the community here and I found the threads here very helpful. I bought Caplab yesterday but I played Capitalism 2 for countless hours in my early teens which was more than a decade ago. Now I try to play this game again but this time with a more "scientific" approach. There are areas of the game that I haven't figured out yet how to play optimally, so I would appreciate any help.

Before I enlist my questions I'd like to note one more thing: my general playstyle is to aim for a long game where I have a monopoly over everything or at least as many products as possible via tech lead and advertising. I don't like selling livestock or products from the port, I like to set up my own factories immediately. Here are my questions:

1., When I start producing a product in a big city I usually start with large factories immediately because I expect a big demand (or I will generate demand via ads and research). Is it a mistake to always make large factories?

2., Is there an optimal number for number of retail stores/factory? Do I need more factories if the demand is too high, or is it better to not invest more and instead focus on other products? Is it a good strategy to spam shops after I open a new factory (if I can expect a reasonably good demand in early game)? How many shops do you prefer to open after you release a completely new product? Is there an optimal number of shops/city/1 product (consider that in my shops I like selling 4 types of items)?

3., Training. I only use training in factories, farms and mines/logging camps. Should I also train in other places like shops, maybe warehouses? Later in the game you have the option to use your HQ to make mass trainings in the whole organisation.

4., Brand strategies. I read a little about it, but I still don't understand if there is clearly a better strategy than others. I like using range brands, but can unique brands be better in some cases, like if you own a media firm? Does it depend in the number of cities for example?

Thanks in advance!

Although there is a lot of information on the forum, but many aspects of the game mechanics are still unknown, and require more players to share their experience with all of us. And my answers may not be entirely correct or just simply incomplete, so everyone feels free to share their opinions on these subjects.

My answer to the first question I would say mostly true, but not always. Large factory not only provides enough supply, but also has lower overhead ratio (about 90% I think). However some products has a very low base revenue market size, hence they can be fulfill with medium factories, or less, (most noticeable examples are jewelry, tobacco products, etc). Also this has something to do with whether there are competitors, or if you are looking for diversity product range and spread the risk or specialized factories (sometime you don't know when other AIs will join the competition, or when seaports suddenly provide them for sale)

The second one's question is probably No. There's no optimize number of retail stores. It changes depend on products, city average rating, product quality, concerns, etc. Usually you just dynamically add new retail store when current demand bar is higher than supply (provided that you can make sure the supply is always plentiful). If you don't have enough capital, it's usually best to rise the price all the way up, until the supply bar is about equal or a bit higher, and start to make higher profit for opening new factories, and when it's over supply, you know it's time to stop the expansion, until competitors show up.

Third, I don't think training mine/well/logging camps are useful. Normally you get a much higher lifetime profit ratio if you don't train them. Retail stores are probably the most important and increase you retail efficiency by a lot. Although it's not wise to set them at full from the very beginning. Better start when the demand bar start to rival the supply bar, and you can train the units with much higher efficiency. This is also true to factories and others, if their utilization rate stays high, you train them, if mostly idle, it's no point wasting money on them. The HQ training is very situational, sometimes you need to use it for farms, to start with higher rating farm products. But since it's efficiency is just 30% of the normal training, in most cases, on average you lose more than what you gain.

Media strategies all have good and bad, unique brand cost the most, but they separate brand hence less likely to trigger lower brand loyalty, and you can have very pricey and low rating goods along side with low price, high rating product. Unique brand can also be inherent under certain condition, so it's useful for merger. It's flexibility is why it's the default strategy. And design team put a lot effort to make it right. With brand and corporate brand, range brand is less flexible, and can't be inherent, however make marketing much cost effective, if you always sell full range products within the same class and mega-class. The corporate brand has the highest cost effectiveness, but it will suffer heavily when you accidentally fall behind tech, and impossible to have very low rating high profit setting that normal monopoly enjoy, every product has to be at least have certain rating and certain quality, otherwise your awareness will stuck. Media firm in general is the ultimate solution, no matter which brand strategy.

[Steel]

Thank you both for your kind answer!