Question about export goods

[Zexy_Observer]

So I've made it to modern times, and I'm looking at the export prices for goods.
What I'm seeing is that boats are still the most valuable export by far above goods that I would imagine to be worth more money.

Am I missing something about these other goods that makes them less valuable? Do the factories produce faster and so I make more money off the later era goods by volume? Do later era goods have some purpose that balances thier low price? Why would I bother with the other exports when I can just spam shipyards?

[Maehlice]

Boats are broken AF.

There is no balance.

[Kunovega]

Rum with a dunder still is better, several other industry match or beat boats like cigars.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1720095953

Boats are only a fraction better than planks alone with the only advantage being the boatyard can eventually use steel and aluminum, not just wood. Then again aluminum alone exports at about the same income per day as an aluminum boat.

What is stupid however is how most the tier 2 industry are not as good as cigar, rum and boats, other than pharmaceutical

[Maehlice]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

Rum with a dunder still is better, several other industry match or beat boats like cigars.

Nope.

Each line of the graph subtracts from its profit any raw goods used for its production, so while a Shipyard may list daily profit of $15.75, the total profit from it and the locally-sourced Logs & Planks used for its production need to be summed:

Planks are $15. So the total daily profit for a Shipyard is at least $30.75. (Logs aren't listed, but I think they're about $3.)

Sugar ($3.75) + Rum ($19.45) = $23.2 ... $7.55 less than the Shipyard.

Keep also in mind that a Shipyard has a 25% larger workforce than a Distillery, so in practice, the Shipyard sees more workdays.

Furthermore, each workday, a Lumber Mill produces 10 of the 7.75 Planks necessary to support a Shipyard's workday.

Whereas, even a Hydroponic Sugar Plantation only produces 3.4 of the necessary 5.1 Sugar to support a Rum Distillery's workday.

(Rum Distilleries and their supporting buildings have a significantly larger footprint.)

Shipyards are built on beaches and so utilize very little valuable land. Logging Camps can be supported by a forested area roughly the same size as itself.

However, a standard Sugar Plantation is huge and seldom produces at 100% (at least not sustainably).


On paper, Boats are already more profitable than Rum (by $7.55 as math'd out above). In practice, the Boats industry is way more profitable per utilized tile.


EDIT: The leg up I have to give to Rum is that it's available during the Colonial Era. Planks are extremely difficult to set up without a strong backing of Rum. So, without Rum, there are no Boats.

Boats are only a fraction better than planks alone ...

Planks alone are worth $15. Boats are an additional $15.75 on top of that. Planks are seldom offered export contracts; Boat contracts are easy to maintain. So, Boats are actually worth a total of $36.90 -- 234% more than Planks.

[Kunovega]

That is not how it works.

You need to read the industry buildings more closely. Profits listed are not cumulative. Industry buildings list potential profit, if the goods are used for another building it's not being exported and there isn't a profit generated

Only the final industry that does the exports makes profit

[Maehlice]

EDIT: Wall of text inc.

Originally posted by Kunovega:

That is not how it works.

You need to read the industry buildings more closely. Profits listed are not cumulative. Industry buildings list potential profit, if the goods are used for another building it's not being exported and there isn't a profit generated

Only the final industry that does the exports makes profit

You're wrong when you say "there isn't a profit being generated."

Profit is definitely still being generated by the upstream suppliers, because every good produced locally is an expense your treasury doesn't have to bear.

By that logic, it sounds like you're saying a Boat generates the same profit whether the Planks used in its production are imported or locally-sourced.

EDIT: We might actually be saying the same thing here. I agree that a raw good in and of itself doesn't generate profit if it's further manufactured versus being exported. However, the guide is subtracting that cost as if it is being imported/exported. We need to factor out that subtraction, and that's what I was getting at -- albeit incorrectly (more on that a few paragraphs down).

Quoted from the guide:

Profits are calculated by: [Production of good X] * [Tradeprice of good X] - [Consumption of good Y] * [Tradeprice of good Y]

An example:

A Shipyard makes 1 Boat per workday. 1 / 1000 * 32000 = $32 per workday

If I had to import those Planks, then my treasury would have directly spent $16.275 to produce that Boat. Net profit in that case is $32 - 16.275 = $15.725

However, if I locally source my Logs and Planks up to that point, my treasury bore no expense directly (it cost my island only time). Therefore, the profit is $32 per workday.

--------

This is where you're right, though: The profits aren't directly cumulative, because one Lumber Mill doesn't exactly support one Shipyard. And, one Sugar Plantation doesn't exactly support one Rum Distillery.

So, let's ignore all raw materials used and look directly at the final export:

A Shipyard generates 1 Boat per workday. 1 / 1000 * 32000 = $32 per workday.

A Rum Distillery generates 3.5 Rum per workday. 3.5 / 1000 * 9200 = $32.2 per workday.

However, a Shipyard has 25% more employees, so it will see (on average), that much more production.

Factoring in the extra 25% workdays and "normalizing" that for 4 employees, that brings a Shipyard to $32 * 1.25 = $40 per "normalized" workday -- still $7.80 greater than a Rum Distillery!

---- Lots of math starts here ----

But it doesn't stop there. These industries as a whole consume time and space, so we should calculate overhead and the footprint.


A Sugar Plantation on Medium Budget has overhead of $4.07 per day ($66 Budget + $7 Wages * 8 employees = $122 per month).

A Rum Distillery on Medium Budget has overhead of $4.93 per day ($80 Budget + $17 Wages * 4 employees = $148 per month).

A Sugar Plantation generates 1.5 Sugar per workday. Since it has twice the employees as a Rum Distillery, you can normalize that to 3.0 Sugar.

A Rum Distillery uses 5.1 Sugar per workday, so 1.7 Sugar Plantations are needed per Rum Distillery.

$4.07 * 1.7 + $4.93 = $11.849 overhead per day.

If we assume an average of one "normalized" worker is always present in each building, our actual net profit becomes $32.2 - 11.849 = $20.351 per day.


As a final step, calculate profit per land tile used:

A full-sized Sugar Plantation uses 53 tiles. A Rum Distillery needs 8. 53 * 1.7 + 8 = 98.1 tiles occupied.

• This brings per tile profit of the Rum Industry to $20.351 / 98.1 = $0.207 per tile.

--------

And now for the Boats Industry overhead and footprint:

A Logging Camp on Medium Budget has overhead of $3 per day ($62 Budget + $7 Wages * 6 employees = $90 per month).

A Lumber Mill on Medium Budget has overhead of $3.4 per day ($54 Budget + $12 Wages * 4 employees = $102 per month).

A Shipyard on Medium Budget has overhead of $6.17 per day ($100 Budget + $17 Wages * 5 employees = $185 per month).

A Logging Camp generates 2.2 Logs per workday. Normalized for 4 employees, that's 3.3 per workday.

A Shipyard generates 1 Boat per workday. Normalized for 4 employees, that's 1.2 per workday.

A Shipyard consumes 9.3 Planks per "normalized" workday. Since a Lumber Mill generates 10 Planks per day, 0.93 Lumber Mills support one Shipyard.

0.93 Lumber Mills consume 3.72 Logs per workday. Since a Logging Camp generates 3.3 Logs per "normalized" workday, 1.13 Logging Camps support 0.93 Lumber Mills.

1.13 * $3 + 0.93 * $.3.4 + 1 * $6.17 = $12.72 overhead per day.

If we assume an average of one "normalized" worker is always present in each building, our actual net profit becomes $30 - 12.72 = $17.28 per day.


As before, the final step calculates profit per land tile used:

A Logging Camp plus its forest consumes roughly 10 tiles. A Lumber Mill needs 12. A Shipyard uses zero land tiles and 9 beach/water tiles. 1.13 * 10 + 0.93 * 12 + 0 = 22.46 land tiles occupied.

• This brings per land tile profit to $17.28 / 22.46 = $0.769 per tile.
  
• (Considering total tiles used drops that to $0.549.)

That's between 265% - 371% more profitable per tile versus the Rum Industry.

---- Math ends here ----

Also of note:

• The majority of the Rum industry's workers will be poor (maxing out at just $10 per workday on max budget in the Sugar Plantation). On the other hand, most of the Boat industry's workers will be Well-Off and Rich even on a Medium budget. That equates to more revenue from rent and entertainment.
  
  
• A Sugar Plantation can't be dropped down just anywhere. Granted, Logging Camps can't either, but forestry is far more abundant than fertile land.
  
  
• Logging Camps preserve forestry, which preserves beauty. Planned well, beauty-based entertainment buildings can be placed in and near those forests for a huge boost (looking at you, Tavern).
  
  
• The Boats Industry generates about twice as many goods for transport as the Rum Industry, so more Teamsters are needed.
  
  
• The Boats industry as a whole is more compact, and its goods naturally migrate towards the coast (read: Dock), so Teamsters spend less time in transit.

When you dig deep into all the factors, Boats are insanely more profitable than Rum.

I did all this math in the middle of the night, so hopefully it's accurate. I can tell you from first-hand experience, all of my Tropicos based on Boats have always been way more profitable than those based on Rum.