Not making a profit after trying everything... what am i doing wrong

[jd_maverick]

I tried everything, from a city with just power through coal and exporting 100% of that power to just clothing in a city, importing fabrics and exporting the cloths. Somehow I just keep losing money. I cannot figure out for the life of me how to even make a small profit. I play on easy and still nothing... Creating most of the products like clothing take ages, so exporting them might at best break even. I am doing something wrong but I cannot figure out what. Can you guys help me?

[Anlauf]

Make a oil industry.
There's a good spot, close to Cayzina.
Exporting oil via trucks initially is good option as oil well don't require people.

Build a power plant and a small village to sustain it constantly with workers.
Have the minimum needs and a university (as you going to need people with superior education for medics later).
Import as least as you can (food, clothes, eletronics and alcohol).

For construction materials, have a place close to borders for imports as delivery costs are added to the final price.

Wood and Planks is another industry with low requirements and can add a bit more profit.

Make plans for each are you going to develop. I make 5 year plans for mine.
E.g.: I want to be exporting fuel by 1975. Then I start to work towards that, adding layers upon layers.

Hope it helps.

[Akira43]

There is a possibility that you are not taking into account the shipping cost of products that you are importing. The further away you are from the border the higher the shipping fees.

This applies to everything you import from the products that you are auto purchasing in your factories to the building materials.

Those fess can become EXTREME if you are lets say in the middle of the map where the shipping fees of importing cheap products like gravel or even grain are higher than the value of the products themselves.

I have started a game more or less like you did, started a coal production + power plant and immediately started exporting 100% of the power. (I didn't want to go the Oil/Distillery route since I tried that before and it was in many ways too easy!)

That kept me afloat to be able to build most of the accessible construction product factories and expanded the city using my own construction depots, built another power plant and kept going from there... Grain, food, alcohol, fabric, clothing....

Keep in mind that I started the game with 3M Rubles + 1M USD and did not import labor since I was on a populated map. Labor can be a budget killer too if playing on an empty map.

[BabaRoga]

Originally posted by jd_maverick:

I tried everything, from a city with just power through coal and exporting 100% of that power to just clothing in a city, importing fabrics and exporting the cloths. Somehow I just keep losing money. I cannot figure out for the life of me how to even make a small profit. I play on easy and still nothing... Creating most of the products like clothing take ages, so exporting them might at best break even. I am doing something wrong but I cannot figure out what. Can you guys help me?

1. If you are importing materials for factories: you have to be very close to the border. Closer you are cheaper the imported resources

2. If your population is too large: they will consume more food, clothing, etc than you can make by exporting (check that you don't have too many unemployed people)

3. When you build housing, it comes with people. They are foreign workers and you have to pay 'import duty on them. After first few buildings, you really have to start using the people that are born in your nation and not keep buying buildings with people.
(When you open population statistic you will see: people over 21. When you have some of those: build a house but uncheck 'automatically get people'. They will move into empty building if walking distance or you can move them yourself if not walking distance.
This was the biggest money drain I had when starting + I build Radio station and university shortly after starting and always went bankrupt.

4. You really have to start looking at producing your own resources (as much as you can).

5. Hospitals, universities, schools, TV stations etc. have cost to maintain. So be careful that you don't make to many. They have a lot of workers that consume a lot of goods but you don't get any profit from them.

So don't build TV station, radio station at the begging, you don't need it unless you playing on hard settings.

Hope that helps

[Erazor]

Playing on chernarus map on hard difficulty (1 million rubles, 200k USD i think it was). Was my first real game, and i decided to start a village on the west border (soviet border) away from all oil, coal. When i realized that, i kept going for the challenge and made a agriculture based start. I'm having loads of fun and turning a profit.

I started relatively close to the border (town is about 3k away, industry center about 1.5k). Built up town and one farm are relatively fast and my industry was initially 1 woodcutter /boards (worthless to export - dont do it), and a food factory, of which i exported 99% of the food. I was fruggel in all i did, even use manual construction (saves a bit), After i invested the entire 1 million in that, i basically barely scraped by making tiny profits. The farm wasn't enough to sustain the food factory but i supplemented the rest with auto-buy. I slowly grew and about 1000 pop i finally got a university built which really was a big money saver because i didn't have to buy professors anymore. I slowly grew and expanded a second distant farm and have around 2.4k people 5 years into the game. I now make around 50k rubbles a month and can grow at a faster rate. (I did add a alcohol factory which is more profitable, and i got the bio-fuel workshop item, which is also nice). Maybe not the 'best' start, but i'm new, and i'm having loads of fun. All i'm saying is you can make money and grow without those other industries mentioned by simply going with farming. You just have to be smart about how you do it.

My biggest mistake and money pit was buying a train too early. That really slowed me down, because most of the time the train was sitting around anyway - i think i sunk 250k into that while early on 2-3 trucks for 10k could of done the job. Even now with 2 farms, the train isn't utilized 100%.

Another way to maximize your workers into a productive industry, is to make sure you limit workspaces at other places like hospital, firestation, shopping mall etc... to whats actually necessary. You dont want people working there doing nothing if they could be producing sellable goods. That includes, in my case, limiting the workspaces in the food factory so more go work at the alcohol factory. Also try to optimize your route-structure to make sure you get the most workers where they really need to go. Limit unnecessary vehicles and inefficient driving - fuel is expensive.

Slowly build up industries that replace what your citizens consume so you dont have to import. Even if its just half of what is needed in a production chain. Like gravel - you need that everywhere .. but when making concrete, supply your own gravel, import the cement. Huge money savings.

[Railsplitter]

As someone said, getting labor is easier if you start on a populated map. Build bus stations and use public transportation to keep your workplaces staffed. Don't worry too much about keeping everybody fed unless their happiness level begins to drop. Just because they have no place to buy food doesn't mean they're starving (populated map, not sure about the empty one). Same with booze and sports and stuff. Populated maps have churches, so religion shouldn't be an issue.

As for auto-importing materials, it isn't just your factories that automatically import goods at high cost, it's also your pubs, stores, markets, and gas stations (and maybe other stuff as well). If you can build a warehouse near the border and stock it, you can use trucks to move the stuff where you want it. Much cheaper, but don't let the trucks run empty because they burn fuel, and when they refill, you are paying for it. Same with trains. Do as much of the work yourself as you can and it will save you money (though maybe not aggravation).

I'm only a week into this game and still having headaches, but it gradually gets easier. Steep learning curve.

[sergetechone]

I did a play with $500 K + R1 M. I only last 3 year. ... I was trying to get only the "bear bone" start. A CO, Warehouses ( all the construction materials ) so close the the border, build a concrete and alphalt in the nearest town, a bus stop. That it. The rest, just build up the building and roads. I did start to export oil to the border. earn a little $10 k /month same in R10K /month at the order border. It kind of work.... except, vehicles and the Steel is the killer here. the steel was $500 /ton ... So even I did start to make the gravel, planks, woods, prefabs, cement... the conveyers ( make of steels ) was very steel intensive ... lots of steels was needed, and did not make a profit, even the constructions was slow.... even my play ... electricity and fuel was OFF...
So setup a steel making plant ASAP, import just the ores ( coal + iron ) might work out, maybe made a car plant, make your own trucks and buses might help out too.

I was just trying to do a minimum start here with a CO and constructions materials available. Just the bear minimum.

[Erazor]

I disagree with serge - I love doing hard starts with minimal resources and high difficulty (fuel and powermanagement on etc..). If you are cash strapped and you throw a lot of money on big inudstries first, you will bleed out before you make it. You have to bootstrap on cheap industries first that rely little on workers .. like agriculture -> livestock/bread/alcohol export. Build a population base, get university (one of the bigger milestones), and then expand into the more expensive industries as the YEARS go on... but without a healthy export industry that you can set up cheaply, you ain't going nowhere if you start on R1 Million.

[archiver213]

but not everyone always use hard start, and it seems that most of people posting stuff always disagree with basic information provided, always saying i use hard start..... some people just want to play with being able to auto build rather then self build everything & the people trying to help arent specific to answer with hard start..

[Railsplitter]

Originally posted by archiver213:

but not everyone always use hard start, and it seems that most of people posting stuff always disagree with basic information provided, always saying i use hard start..... some people just want to play with being able to auto build rather then self build everything & the people trying to help arent specific to answer with hard start..

EXCELLENT point.

[Pdguru]

I'm glad to have chosen the easy start (high money) because per the OP, even building right against the border, with 2 farms and miles of fields, cattle, meat , gravel , and alcohol production and exporting it out the ying-yang until the road to customs is a traffic jam, I am in a constant and steady bleed to bankruptcy. Seems to me the export prices are too low and/or unloading exports is too slow. But having fun all the same.

[Erazor]

Your doing somethign wrong then. I got 2 farms, a city of 2k (was already profitable at 800), a food and alcohol industry, about 1.5km from border, and i export constantly with ONLY 4 trucks carrying 12t... More are not needed to be fully utilized. No traffic jam, and constant stream of income.

You may have a citizen utilization problem .. i'm at 97% efficiency giving me all the production. Also, with 2 farms you wont be able to produce enough to keep your factories running, so if they are idle, auto-purchase corn so they produce at least a little income.

Also make sure you are supplying your citizens with what you produce before exporting. I think 100 citizens eat 1 food. Dont export if you are filling needs with auto-purchase. Thats expensive

[sergetechone]

A few strategy to import goods is to build just next door to a border to cut the transportation cost.
Here I install most of the construction materials. The concrete and alphaft plant are in a town
near by. Also a bus station. I was trying a basic setup / start up. Construct the rest ... yourself ... slow... with a few trucks exporting oil to cover some the expenses. It is the steel is the most expensive construction material and vehicles purchases that will drain your money.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1889676613

I agree with foods and booze. I should made a farm or two ( no peoples need to operated a farm ) , with 12 medium field per tractor. or with 48 medium field per farm. ( field are free with free dirt road ) . One tractor can sow 12 medium field in 3 months. After the first field is harvest, the tractor will sow the first field a second time and the cycle repeat. Farm use little power and need a fuel station close by the farm. If a food or booze factory get their own crops, yeah .... lots of profits.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1864294766

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1864295321

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1864295653

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1864294363

As you can see, if you produce your own crops and can transport to the factory yourself, yeah .... a good profit can be made.

Now, the fuel and bitumen... well profit ... IF you provide your own oil and transport the oil yourself.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1865321234

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1865321096

[Pdguru]

Ah - "12 medium field per tractor. or with 48 medium field per farm" I thought I had a lot of farming - clearly not lol.

[Erazor]

lol i'd love to see a screenshot of that farm setup ... I got one farm pushing 25 medium and 2-3 of them wont ever get harvested (maybe more). I use 3-5-4 (sow, harvest, truck) setup. I saw someone online (Reddit maybe) post he can yield 200 crops / month from a single farm, and i'm struggling to push 80/month (according to ingame ledger). So ya, i would love to see that optimized by studying your setup

[sergetechone]

Hum .... It was just an idea base on how much time a tractor sow a medium field. And simply add a field until the end of growing of the first field, so the tractor can repeat it cycle.

I guess I have to do the setup ( for real ) of the farm to see if my theory is correct.