Ragnarok
2007-05-28 |  | opportunity cost 4 collectives |  |
definition of opportunity costs:
opportunity cost, or economic cost, is the cost of something in terms of an opportunity forgone (and the benefits which could be received from that opportunity), or the most valuable forgone alternative (or highest-valued option forgone), i.e. the second best alternative.
Now my question is this: What is the opportunity cost for agriculture collectives who decide to increase the population to increase the plunder? Would it be worth it, or are the costs of plundering a planet actually not worth it?
Here are some things to consider:
It costs credits to buy the ore to build housing
It costs food to sustain the population long enough to be able to finally plunder
You generate a LITTLE revenue from tax from population
Population, I found, increases at a rate of 2% for assimilated c1. At this rate, it can take up to 600 turns or more if you get the really big land clusters.
Assuming that food price is 10, and ore price is 5000, would it actually be worth it for an agriculture collective to say, increase the population of an assimilated c2 or c1 long enough to plunder it? If so, what would be the...."economic profit" you would gain by plundering the planet at the increased population vs plundering the planet right away and selling the food you would have otherwise used to sustain that monster population. Assume housing is 20. |
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Ragnarok
99+ day(s) ago | in case you get c2s or c1s with lots of land.
and i didn`t know that population growth was affected by loyalty O.o |
Archaeoptyrex
99+ day(s) ago | therefore, with housing at 20, it`s probably worth it to pop up (you`re getting 3x the pop)
but why would anyone research 2 types :S |
Archaeoptyrex
99+ day(s) ago | With zero housing.
If you capture a cluster that already has full infrastructure, you`re better off just waiting for it to pop to its current max.
Ore at 10k a pop on rt (or even 15!) is too much to make it worth it.
I tested it out (I won a c2, assimilated it, used some turns to max its current pop, dropped 999 non-housing infra, bought 999 ore, built 999 housing, used turns again -- the increased plunder income was about the same as ore at 10k, but rt being rt, I had to purchase at black martket 15k. I ended up losing money I think) |
qwerty360
99+ day(s) ago | this is almost impossible to calculate
another factor is the loyalty, as if loyalty is low (under 50 iirc) pop growth is reduced
if pop growth is lower the food cost is dramatically higher... |
Slavyzz
99+ day(s) ago | but plndering happens instantly, the food market could be going up and down, ur sold food pushed back by cheaper ones and forgotten so you have to wait to repost then BAM your bankrupt. LOL |
ThePakistaniEmpire
99+ day(s) ago | not exactly lets see if i am making 200million from 180 pop let see that i snacth this colony from a gaurd or tax miner i will plunder it right there and now so i dont waste anything if we make a giant let see 500k food at 3 million when i was tax dude it cost about 200k a turn u qill have to buy million food and the ore comes from rocky planets and food that was used would only result to about 700k 300k is still left |
StrikeFreedom
99+ day(s) ago | this is becoming like a math exercise.. lol.. |
Ragnarok
99+ day(s) ago | you could put the question another way: At what food price would it be more worth it to be an agriculture collective vs a plunder collective? |
Ragnarok
99+ day(s) ago | I mean lets say, hypothetically speaking, that it costs 10,000,000 food to raise a population to 184,140. This is from an actual plunder i made.
Colony Name C1.7592
Planets 5
Land 3,069
Infrastructure 3,069
Population 184,140
Performing this action will grant you:-
Credits 95,645,900
Now, if food price was at 10, I could have forgone the plunder and sold that food for 100 million. But if I plundered, I would have missed out on 4.4 million in credits. If the food was 20, I would have missed out on 104.4 million credits. Get what I am saying? |
Ragnarok
99+ day(s) ago | but how much food would you give up in the process? that`s my question. I mean obviously if the price of food was 1, then it would be worth it, but if the price of food was 100000 per unit then it wouldn`t. Note that I exaggerate the number to make my point. |
UberPansy
99+ day(s) ago | *given |
UberPansy
99+ day(s) ago | Questions like these always eat away at me... heh... it would be nice to know through pure mathematics the best route to take in a give situation - especially in a game situation like this.
Random comment I know but there it is. |
thisismine
99+ day(s) ago | whoops forgot about collective double pop =S
without growing pop : 185,005
with growing pop : 147,966,336 |
thisismine
99+ day(s) ago | well based on my calculations increasing the population would be worth it
taking the example of a 1k land assimilated c1, and assuming it has 10 pop when you capture it :
without growing pop : 110,005
with growing pop : 73,864,860
or somewhere around that, my calculations aren`t too accurate =P |
Ragnarok
99+ day(s) ago | But you still have the food the population uses up too. If the total food used up is like 10 million, and price of food is 10, you just gave up 100 million in potential credits from the food you could have sold. If you combine that with the cost of ore that you could have sold, well, you get the idea. You could plunder for 200 million, but the opportunity costs are 250 million. You can imagine that this wouldn`t make much economic sense. |
ThePakistaniEmpire
99+ day(s) ago | or u can assilimate rocky planets and take that ore exept for buying ore and then u will make a pure profit from plunder and plunder is 200% thats high agriculture i see has a sustained income and plunder u need the planets without plantes u die and from planets u live and destroy more planets |
ThePakistaniEmpire
99+ day(s) ago | well usually ore is on the c1 or c2 the ones i make have ore in them to sustain the pop so no cost at all |
