Why do local prices vary so wildly?

[Traslo]

Trying to play the Ottomans, and half of my territories have huge issues with supplying goods I know I have access to for cheap. e.g. in Bulgarian areas I have paper mills which say the price is quite cheap for them on the Ottoman market as they're oversupplying, but then halfway into Turkey I've got administrations saying they're paying huge amounts for paper for some reason even though there's no wars and there's no reason they can't access the paper suppliers.

What the hell is going on with this?

[Ango1eiro]

Local prices seem to be unblanced at this moment. Depending on local consumption and production you can have 50% difference in price within two states next to each other. Together with job satisfaction mechanics it might break your economy. I had a lot of pain with it last playthrough, had to subsidise every mine and factory, that was part of a chain production. It is much more micromanagement than before even with small countries.

[Magma Dragoon]

MAPI, market access price impact. The price paid for a good is a weighted average between local and market wide price, and higher MAPI will shift it towards the market price. Generally avoid shipping finished goods between states whenever possible, except tools of you have to.

For your administrative offices the local component is +75% with 0 local paper supply, so even if paper is -5% globally on the Ottoman market, if you have 75% MAPI your paying 0.25*1.75+0.75*0.95 = 1.15 baseline for your paper. I think this is trying to simulate your internal market not being completely integrated.

You want to build government offices in a state with local paper, which ideally means local wood and sulfur, and local coal for atmospheric engine in the sulfur mines, and local iron for tools. And then you'll have a local steel supply for steel tools.

This confused the hell out of me too, I thought pushing down transportation costs would make it cheaper to move stuff around but it doesn't. It would be a lot more intuitive if they called this value "base market access" or something to make it clear from the name what the value does.

[Molybdane]

Originally posted by Magma Dragoon:

...

This confused the hell out of me too, I thought pushing down transportation costs would make it cheaper to move stuff around but it doesn't. It would be a lot more intuitive if they called this value "base market access" or something to make it clear from the name what the value does.

I might as well ask here then, what is the effect of lower transportation costs? And whom is the transportation cost paid to, in case there are no ports or railroads?

[Alex]

Originally posted by Molybdane:

I might as well ask here then, what is the effect of lower transportation costs?

All buildings which require transportation (rail transport option in mines, logging camps, farms) will produce cheaper. But if the buildings is set to "road carts", then transportation costs won't impact it at all.

Originally posted by Molybdane:

And whom is the transportation cost paid to, in case there are no ports or railroads?

In that case, urban centers may generate some. There are several options, but the best one is cars.

And yes, the whole "local price" mechanic is utterly stupid, I've thought that building railroad networks will help there, but nope. Instead, the zeppelin tech will help reduce the local price modifier. Can you imagine that? Gigantic zeppelins, as big as entire cities, haul steel, iron, coal and wood across the entire country. o.O

[teron]

Originally posted by Alex:

And yes, the whole "local price" mechanic is utterly stupid, I've thought that building railroad networks will help there, but nope. Instead, the zeppelin tech will help reduce the local price modifier. Can you imagine that? Gigantic zeppelins, as big as entire cities, haul steel, iron, coal and wood across the entire country. o.O

Yes zeppelins making MAPI better makes no sense. Something like better communication techs like telegraphs and telephones would make more sense. Or better technologies around loading and offloading trains/ships and their improved speed/reliability.

Or have a system where states have local economies with some sort of MAPI but then ports/railroads/rivers begin to tie them into their strategic region economy.
With later infrastructure investments allowing the merging of strategic region economic zones into a single block with neighboring regions.

Could also do something like have the ability to allocation some construction capacity towards expanding the rail/phone/power grid/telegraph services to maintain the connections.

[Alex]

Originally posted by teron:

Yes zeppelins making MAPI better makes no sense. Something like better communication techs like telegraphs and telephones would make more sense. Or better technologies around loading and offloading trains/ships and their improved speed/reliability.

Or have a system where states have local economies with some sort of MAPI but then ports/railroads/rivers begin to tie them into their strategic region economy.
With later infrastructure investments allowing the merging of strategic region economic zones into a single block with neighboring regions.

Could also do something like have the ability to allocation some construction capacity towards expanding the rail/phone/power grid/telegraph services to maintain the connections.

First, I've thought that excess infrastructure will help lower MAPI, just as a deficit will penalize the local prices. Unfortunately, building extra railroads was a waste. Well, not entirely a waste, since pops consume transportation, but that's not what I wanted.

Indeed, having better technology should provide some sort of bonus. Perhaps the railroad and port upgrades could offer a little? Maybe I should simply make a mod for that. Can't expect Paradox to fix their own mess. They should've either let the price mechanics be, or made a better, balanced version to be sold as a DLC. When can we expect the game to be actually finished?