FACTORY BUYING FOR BEGINNERS
or New Industrialists, The Other White Meat.
by Jezz
So here you are, the newest, most enthusiastic Industrialist in the galaxy. You have your shiny new company and the Financiers have flocked to buy your shares, which makes you feel wanted because you haven't worked out how evil they are yet. You're over the agony of futures trading. Now all you need is a factory and you'll be on your way to making mega-groats! You send out that plaintive cry over the space-waves "Any POs got room for some factories?" and you dash off to the first person to reply, with your treasury groats gripped tightly in your sweaty palm.
Ok just stop right there for a moment and let's talk about some things you need to know before you lay even one foundation stone.
- Read the Fedding Manual. If you haven't read the Fedding Manual section on factories you really need to Fedding read it. Bookmark the Table of Inputs so you can see what is required to make your prospective factory run and the prices of the goods.
- All factories are NOT created equal. Some are profitable under almost any conditions and others are extremely hard to make a profit with. Arts, Nanfab, Firewalls, Tquarks, Unis are hard to mess up, but don't think that you're automatically going to get offered those commodities. And there are plenty of others that will work well under the right conditions.
- I hope you've managed to make friends with some of some of the POs before you get to Industrialist because you need them to be friendly now. You need advice as well as factories. And a friendly PO might jiggle his exchange a little so you can make more.
- If the PO is busy don't bug him or he'll probably sell you a meat factory. And... don't build without permission. A smoldering pile of rubble is one of the harder factories to make profitable.
Now you've arrived at the destination planet and the PO offers you that meat factory. You suddenly realize that you're going to have to haul in at least one commodity. You guessed it.. You'll need to haul meats in because for some reason you need meat to make meat. (Apparently the Universe is no fun if you don't encourage mad cow disease). Then you notice that the stockpiles on the other inputs are set at 700 tons. That means you'll be paying more for those inputs than you would on a planet that has 19,900 tons sitting around doing nothing.
Then there's that other thing that affects how much your inputs will cost and how much you will sell your end product for to the exchange. It's that mysterious thing called a Spread. You can't see what it is set at. The PO might offer to set it to your advantage but he is under no obligation to do so. It's up to you to work out whether this factory can make you money or not. You can't see the spread but you can price check how much the exchange is offering for your product. If the exchange is offering well over base price for the product and selling inputs for well under base you'll make more groats, obviously. Alas, the cost of inputs for this meat factory is pretty close to base and so is the price offered for meats.
You start to get that queasy feeling in your stomach that is more than the thought of all that livestock being churned into hamburger. If you don't have red flags going up all over this deal there's a nice clean empty cell on Sanitaria with your name on the door. So... how are you going to turn down this factory without upsetting the PO? Zardoz was kind enough to point out that spitting on the planet or the PO is generally not considered polite.. A simple "no thanks but I appreciate the offer" will probably suffice. You never know if perhaps the PO will offer something better.
Remember, if you don't do your homework on factories it's not the PO's fault if they don't work out for you. He is simply telling you what he needs, but that might not be the best thing for you to build. Don't turn your nose up if you have to haul in one relatively inexpensive input for a good factory but keep in mind that you will have to make sure you've got that commodity in your depot for as long as you own the factory or it won't run. Be polite. Most POs don't really make much from having your factories on their planet.
You might still be hunting for that all-important first factory but at least you won't be flushing your groats down the abattoir drain. Keep looking until you find something that will make groats for you and don't be afraid to ask for advice.
Next time I'll talk about WHY that number 1 factory is the all important one and what you should be looking at after your first week of factory ownership. Oh, and remember... if you do buy a meat factory where all the inputs need to be hauled and the exchange buys your steak at hamburger prices... I can get you some really cheap office space on Titan.
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