What's the best way to improve industry profitability?

[Mr. Monday]

So in my current city I have all four Industry DLC areas going, in addition to the four specialized areas, plus the fishing industry. Only the oil industry seems to always be making money whenever I look at it. Forestry, fishing, and mining tend to bounce back & forth between profit and loss. My farming industry though seems to lose money most of the time.

All four InDLC areas have access to transport, with farming be the closest and mining the farthest. Traffic flow tends to be in the mid to upper 70s. All four have at least two of their largest raw storage buildings that each have most of their trucks available. They do import a bit, but for the most part everything gets extracted locally.

All four also have many warehouses for processed goods. The ones built in the industrial zones are set to empty. Oil and ore both have at least one building of each type always full, whereas farming and forestry have at least one building with some processed goods of each type in them, but they're not full. There's also a warehouse for each processed goods near my unique factories which I have set for balanced so the UFs have gods available when they need them. My warehouses for my fishing industry are set for balanced so the factories will always have fish available.

The warehouses for the vanilla specialized industry areas are another matter. Each zone has numerous warehouses (in the teens for each) that are all set to empty. All the warehouses are always full, except for the five farming ones which are always empty. I'm not sure why that is.

I am not using any sort of district or services manager, as the last time I tried it seemed to cause way more headaches than it fixed.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2830668016

[MaxFX]

Do you have warehouses for the unique factory products (i.e. the goods produced by your UF's)?

If not, then check the availlability of trucks from the UF's. If they're all in use, then I suggest you build some warehouses for these unique factory products and have them set to empty.

In short: Make sure the unique factory products get sold asap.

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Oh, and if you want to improve the transfer of goods within your city without micromanaging everything, then I highly recommend the following mod: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1680840913&searchtext=more+effective

[dan0812]

Fish is not a thing for warehouses - once fish is caught it just becomes generic commercial goods.

You need to get the balance in industries right otherwise all your trucks will go off exporting low value raw goods whilst your processors which make the money can't get deliveries and start importing.

You should build 2 raw materials buildings, 3 processors and one storage building at each star level. I tend to set the storage to fill to avoid exporting raw materials.

Warehouses I tend to leave on balanced then monitor.

[Mr. Monday]

Originally posted by MaxFX:

Do you have warehouses for the unique factory products (i.e. the goods produced by your UF's)?

I do have several for them and the ones that have UFPs in them aren't over half full, so I'm under the opinion that they're getting their goods out alright. I also have an area of warehouses for commercial goods made by the generic industries which are set to empty (so they avoid importing). The last time I checked they were working alright (I'd have to look at them next time I play to see how they currently are).

Originally posted by dan0812:

Fish is not a thing for warehouses - once fish is caught it just becomes generic commercial goods.

It is if you have the mod for it.

Originally posted by dan0812:

Warehouses I tend to leave on balanced then monitor.

I normally do that as well, but this time I've been trying to see if having the processed goods shipped out right away would improve profit. It sort of looks like it did, but not as much as I'd like.

Originally posted by dan0812:

You need to get the balance in industries right otherwise all your trucks will go off exporting low value raw goods whilst your processors which make the money can't get deliveries and start importing.

You should build 2 raw materials buildings, 3 processors and one storage building at each star level. I tend to set the storage to fill to avoid exporting raw materials.

That's the thing though. From what I've read in the past we should have at least one storage building with most of its trucks available for deliveries. I certainly have that in all four InDLC zones. My mine looks to be the biggest importer, but it's still less than half of its needs.

[Mr. Monday]

Save file for those who want to take a look.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2858306415

[WhiteKnight77]

I have found that to get the most revenue, one needs to have more storage per extractor than one would think. For each level 1 extractor, you need at least 2 raw resource storage, if not more. One way to look at it is a level 1 large ore mine produces 11,200 units of ore per week. Once you build 20 workers barracks, and get a 200% boost to efficiency, that large level 5 ore mine produces 25,984 units of ore per week. That means you need at least 4, if not more, of the large raw ore storage (the one that looks like a woman's breast) to handle all that ore, especially if you did not reduce the number of smaller extractors you had.

This lets you export as well as keep your processors and factories supplied with materials. Still, there will be ups and downs as far as profits go. If you plan on exporting, make sure that you place a cargo terminal close to your industries so they do not have to travel off the map, let the train do it.

[MaxFX]

Loaded your save. I've noticed that you've got 20 'Maintenance buildings' as well as 20 'Worker Barracks' for each resource type.

As these increase the storage capacity of your DLC industry buildings, and increase the effectiveness of the workers, they also cost a lot of upkeep.

You're spending the following per industry area on these specific buildings:
- Farming: 7.200,-
- Forestry: 7.200,-
- Ore: 8.960,-
- Oil: 10.240,-

For a total of: 33.600,- per week.

I've never seen the value of these buildings considering how many of them you must build. I only build a couple of them for aesthetics, not for the bonusses they provide. Having 20 barracks, and maintenance buildings per category also takes up a lot of valuable real estate.

I think this is where you could improve the most when profits are concerned. I mean, having an efficient workforce is very nice, but at what cost??

I've disabled these buildings (turned them off), and immediatly see a significant increase in profits (about 33.600 per week...who would've guessed?!). It might take a bit of time to see the final result, but If your supply chain shows bottlenecks somewhere, I think it's easier and more lucrative to remove some of these buildings and have more extractor and processor buildings instead!

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The biggest bonus you could experience from these buildings is the reduction of traffic. As your buildings storage gets increased and the production gets increased by a more effective workforce, less buildings are needed and therefor less traffic per industry area to produce the same amount of goods. But this only applies after a certain amount of buildings are used.

Simple example:
You've got an ore industry area with 1 'Small Ore Mine'. This mine costs ₡16,- per week and it takes up 56 blocks of land (6x9).

If you want to double the production, you can simply build another small ore mine, costing you an additional ₡16,- in weekly costs, and another 56 blocks in landuse.

Or you can build 20 Worker Barracks. Each costs ₡192,- per week and take up 7x6=42 blocks of land each. Meaning to double the production you need to have 20 of them, making the total landuse: 840 blocks and the upkeep ₡3.840,-

So only when you've got an enormous industry area, and you want to double production without adding double the trucks are these Worker Barracks usefull. A sort of 'Break Even Point' if you will.

[luther84695]

Once you build just one unique factory, you have no trouble making money. Industry DLC is not balanced. You will be making money out of your wazzu. If you have too much money, that's another problem. The negative adjustment will kick in and you will be having negative income. In this game, money should not be an issue, and traffic is a bigger problem.

[luther84695]

Originally posted by sueQ:

Originally posted by luther84695:

Once you build just one unique factory, you have no trouble making money. Industry DLC is not balanced. You will be making money out of your wazzu. If you have too much money, that's another problem. The negative adjustment will kick in and you will be having negative income. In this game, money should not be an issue, and traffic is a bigger problem.

+ $$ "money out of your wazzu." with DLC

Once the in game 16k Vehicles Active limit kicks in the larger the city grows the more dispersed the vehicles become. That and a well designed metro should prevent any major traffic issues.

The best way to prevent traffic issue is to minimize industry traffic and minimize tourism. Minimize industry traffic means to reduce import / export as much as possible. You can import nothing and have very minimal export. The best to do that is to have just enough generic industry to support commerce, and enough specialized industry to support generic industry. Industry DLC is not needed. All industry and commerce should be close to each other. Tourism is not needed since you make enough money. You want to avoid building stuff that attract tourists such as parks, tourist specialization, etc.

[Liralen]

Originally posted by sueQ:

Originally posted by luther84695:

The best way to prevent traffic issue is to minimize industry traffic and minimize tourism. Minimize industry traffic means to reduce import / export as much as possible. You can import nothing and have very minimal export. The best to do that is to have just enough generic industry to support commerce, and enough specialized industry to support generic industry. Industry DLC is not needed. All industry and commerce should be close to each other. Tourism is not needed since you make enough money. You want to avoid building stuff that attract tourists such as parks, tourist specialization, etc.

If you believe that you haven't managed to master mass transit and or rail opportunities yet. Besides that if you keep industry separated from the rest of the build it has no effect on traffic in the city.

I believe the same as luther84695. Especially with respect to tourism - it just isn't cost effective in terms of both real estate space and cost to make. The revenues just aren't worth it. However, I use a few components from the Parks DLC, like walking paths.

Of course, mass transit and rail are useful. However, that has nothing to do with what luther said.

[Liralen]

And to be specific, specialized industry isn't worth the real estate cost. Traffic is best managed by other means, and high density buildings provide more than enough revenue, with well-educated citizens and otherwise adequately provided for.

[Liralen]

Originally posted by sueQ:

Liralen

I think it's great that you and "luther84695" believe the same thing. Always a good thing if you can find someone who you can agree with. By all means, ALLWAYS play it your way.

Absolutely, especially since the game is so easily modded.

[Liralen]

I didn't use any mods to reach my conclusions.

[Liralen]

Originally posted by sueQ:

OK ?

Not really. I really wish someone could at least give me rational reasons to use the Industry DLC, since I bought it.

I can manage traffic just fine without it. And revenues are never an issue, if your city's basic design is correct.

[Liralen]

Originally posted by sueQ:

If you didn't have any reason to buy it why did you?

It was on sale for a trivial price, and at that time I was a new player who didn't have a clue.

[MaxFX]

@sueQ & @Liralen: Can you send each other a friend request and have your "conversation" in private instead of necroing this thread?