Industry Tycoon (free browser based game)

[FrogMan]

http://en.industrie-tycoon.de/index.html

Anybody heard of this? Just signed up last night and been fooling around with it. Kinda cool, sorta real time, as in it updates on the hour, every hour, yet whatever your factories produces, it goes in the warehouse and you can move it whenever you log in.

They reset everything every three months and you can't really buy your way to victory...

From their features page:

Features


Industry Tycoon has a plenty of exciting features, as follows:

» Go directly to the login / registration page «

The World

• Every hour on the hour, one month of the game passes. At that point in time, all data is recalculated resp. it's time to produce and to sell.
• All companies whose owners didn't show up since 60 days will be deleted.
• All messages will be deleted after 7 days maximum.
• Every 3 months, a new round starts. All companies will be moved back to 0 (zero) and the game starts from the beginning. But all achieved product qualities will be taken over into the new round.

Production, Selling and Construction

• Construction of buildings takes place on a map generated by you.
• Construction limit of 100 buildings currently.
• 39 different buildings may be built and 170 products sold.
• All buildings may be administrated by own categories.
• The production-log shows details concerning production, consumption and overproduction.
• Production may be increased, decreased or put out of operation at any time.
• Sales prices in shops may be fixed unrestrained.
• Complex sowing/harvest-sytem of farms. Harvest once a year.

Supply and Demand

• The better the price/quality-ratio of your goods, the higher the market share and thus more sales than competitors.
• The "SUDE" (supply and demand) may be viewed at any time, moreover it shows your current market share.
• Demand for products changes quarterly. Winter clothes are best sold in winter. Garden furniture better in summer, of course.

Research

• 50 research levels for many exciting industry branches.
• Research concerning goods with 100 quality levels per product.

Upgrades

• Activities may be extended up to 10 times to increase production.
• Shops may be extended 10 times to achieve maximum sales.

Trade

• Goods may be sold at a public market. A direct trade with other companies is also possible.

Warehouse Administration

• Three different types of warehouses (raw materials, products and entrepot.)
• Goods may be moved between raw materials warehouse and products warehouse without restrictions.
• Warehouses may be extended to increase capacity.

Funds

• An overview on the latest 12 month gives insight into the financial situation.

Highscores

• Four different highscores in total.
• Including a perennial highscore of best companies (will be continued after a world reset).

Communication

• Private message system for fast communication.

Various

• Own profile, may be viewed by other players at your own request.
• A logo for your company may be uploaded, visible in the profile.
• Button for your own homepage showing the current rank in highscore.
• Graphic package downloadable for faster display of pages.
• Accounts may be deleted or reset at any time.

Just thought I'd share as it looked like something FOFCers might enjoy...

FM

[FrogMan]

weekday bump...

So has anyone jumped in?

I gotta say it's pretty frigging deep yet simple to understand. I was a bit overwhelmed at first but I'm getting the hang of it now.

They have a huge production tree in their downloads section that explains how the different product can be raw materials to more advanced ones and so on and what research level you need to achieve to be able to produce the different products. Their help section, done in a wiki way, is also pretty extensive...

FM

[Radii]

I'm planning on trying this out, probably later this evening when i'm vegging out catching up on the DVR on the face of it it seems like something that could take off a bit.

[BrianD]

I started yesterday. After a few quick tests I restarted and have been running recently well since. Money still isn't rolling in yet, but I seem to be doing alright. Decent game so far.

[st.cronin]

Is there a tutorial anywhere?

[Radii]

Originally Posted by BrianD

I started yesterday. After a few quick tests I restarted and have been running recently well since. Money still isn't rolling in yet, but I seem to be doing alright. Decent game so far.

Im' at the restart point now myself. Mind sharing what you're doing to make a little money early? It seemed very hard if not impossible to set up farms and grocery store to show a profit, I had mined some other resources(oil/copper) and sold them on the open market for a small profit but I assume trying to generate something other than raw materials to sell would be better even early.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by st.cronin

Is there a tutorial anywhere?

not officially but both of these threads on the english forums look helpful:

http://forum.industrie-tycoon.de/ind...&threadID=2498

http://forum.industrie-tycoon.de/ind...&threadID=2074

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by Radii

Im' at the restart point now myself. Mind sharing what you're doing to make a little money early? It seemed very hard if not impossible to set up farms and grocery store to show a profit, I had mined some other resources(oil/copper) and sold them on the open market for a small profit but I assume trying to generate something other than raw materials to sell would be better even early.

My initial plan was to find a short path from raw material to shops. A short path is Logging Camp (Logs), Sawmill (Lumber), Do-It-Yourself shop to sell Lumber. You can also add one more step Building Material Industry (Wooden Ladder) for sale at the Do-It-Yourself shop.

My other early routes were Surface Mining (Iron), Steel Mill (Steel), Toy Industry (Tricycles), Toy Shop.

The tricky part of the start of this game is not getting swamped with extra buildings and resources. There are only a few things you can sell at Research Level 0, so it is easy to waste money.

It seems like most raw materials sell well and quickly at the market, so that is another option, but the shop-route gives decent unattended income.

[FrogMan]

steel is a very good money making raw material fwiw...

FM

[BrianD]

One thing I would like to see in the game is the ability to prioritize resources. The shop can only sell 5 ladders at a time, and I am also producing wooden trains. 50% production of two log processing factories creates 5 ladders and 7 trains. I'd like my 10 logs to make 5 ladders and 5 trains, but however the game does precedence makes 7 trains and 3 ladders. The ladders bring in much more money, but I can't see a way to change this.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by BrianD

My initial plan was to find a short path from raw material to shops. A short path is Logging Camp (Logs), Sawmill (Lumber), Do-It-Yourself shop to sell Lumber. You can also add one more step Building Material Industry (Wooden Ladder) for sale at the Do-It-Yourself shop.

The shops seem kinda risky early on, my understanding is that your shop worth will go down if you aren't fully stocked, so if you can only make lumber in your do it yourself store, for example, your shop will be in trouble and will eventually(I don't know how quickly) be able to carry less supply.

It looks like this game has been around awhile, it definitely seems to have some potential. I'm messing around with trying to make money selling materials this time around, won't be suprised if it takes another reset to get off the ground though.

[BrianD]

I didn't have too much trouble with the shops. Selling just Tricycles in the toy shop my shop worth went down very slowly. The Do-It-Yourself shop was easier. I made the 5 ladders that would sell and manually moved the other 5 pieces of lumber to the shop to sell. The shop worth slowly went up with that plan. I now have 2 products being partially supplied to each shop and my worth is easily staying at 150 (max).

This may not be the fastest way to grow, but I am confident that I can be away from the game for pretty much any time and at least slowly gain in net worth.

[Alan T]

I signed up and have no idea what Im doing!

[Radii]

Originally Posted by BrianD

The shop worth slowly went up with that plan. I now have 2 products being partially supplied to each shop and my worth is easily staying at 150 (max).

That's good to know, some of the help files seem to imply that you'll run a shop into the ground if you have more than a couple unstocked items, at least the way I was reading them.

[Alan T]

After figuring out a few things, I managed to make about 120k overnight (6 hours) which is a good sign. Need to creep along at this pace for another 20 hours or so to be able to take it to the next step of the business plan!

I'm currently trying to alternate in 2 of 3 level 0 products to be sold in a toy store. It seems to be keeping the value of the store up by going between the products.. (I think at least, I don't notice the store crashing or anything so far)

[FrogMan]

LOL, got listed as one of the top companies on the overview page:

sweeet!

That was all thanks to a big selling of steel overnight btw...

FM

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by Radii

That's good to know, some of the help files seem to imply that you'll run a shop into the ground if you have more than a couple unstocked items, at least the way I was reading them.

Selling only one of the three items in a shop will lead to a very slow decline in value. I didn't even realize this was a risk when I started, but I managed to keep it from getting very low. The lowest I ever got was 80 when I upgraded a shop which made it sell nothing for 2 months.

[FrogMan]

my toy shop has dropped to 87 since I was only selling tricycles and made the mistake of setting a toy factory to make wooden locomotives but only had logs, not lumber to make them, doh! Should start selling wooden locomotives too at the next WU (world update) in a few minutes...

FM

[FrogMan]

yup, started selling wooden locomotives and the shop's selling value went up from 87 to 93.

FM

[Alan T]

Are you talking about the Shopping value in the toystore listing? If so from just selling two things since I started, mine is currently at 108. I assume that is ok?

[Radii]

Originally Posted by BrianD

Selling only one of the three items in a shop will lead to a very slow decline in value. I didn't even realize this was a risk when I started, but I managed to keep it from getting very low. The lowest I ever got was 80 when I upgraded a shop which made it sell nothing for 2 months.

Yeah, I made a do it yourself store and was selling lumber overnight. I sold my excess iron ore and some steel and am now making tools to sell as well. My SW is at 108 so I'm in good shape.

The reason I was so worried about the store worth is that I first tried out a grocery, which has a lot more product(I think right off the bat it has 6 or 7 products), so if you can only supply one item to the grocer at the start the penalty is a lot bigger. The stores that start off with less items to try to stock are much, much easier.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Alan T

Are you talking about the Shopping value in the toystore listing? If so from just selling two things since I started, mine is currently at 108. I assume that is ok?

yeah, the higher it is, the better the shop will sell from what I understand. Having more than two items out of stock will run that value to the ground and the shop will eventually be worthless. I think a shop's SV starts at 100, at least my toy shop's did, and it can go up to a max value of 150...

FM

[Alan T]

What do the numbers mean under S S A W between supply and selling price on the toystore page for each item?

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Alan T

Are you talking about the Shopping value in the toystore listing? If so from just selling two things since I started, mine is currently at 108. I assume that is ok?

yep, it starts at 100 and goes up/down from there, so over 100 means you're doing fine.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Radii

The reason I was so worried about the store worth is that I first tried out a grocery, which has a lot more product(I think right off the bat it has 6 or 7 products), so if you can only supply one item to the grocer at the start the penalty is a lot bigger. The stores that start off with less items to try to stock are much, much easier.

good point there

the toy shop are easy to set with the tricycles needing only steel (through iron ore mining and a steel mill) to be made and the wooden locomotive needing lumber (through logging camp then sawmill)...

Still the easier way to go at first is try to extract some raw material and sell them, then think about factories and then shops...

FM

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Alan T

What do the numbers mean under S S A W between supply and selling price on the toystore page for each item?

seasonal demand. Spring, Summer, Autum, Winter. Things like Christmas Trees only have demand during one season at all, and some vary(lots more lumber sells in the smmer than the winter it appears)

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Alan T

What do the numbers mean under S S A W between supply and selling price on the toystore page for each item?

took me a while to figure out, they're selling number per seasons:
Spring
Summer
Autumn
Winter

FM

[FrogMan]

ok, I'm done, Radii beats me everytime

FM

[Alan T]

Oh, that helps alot.. now I see why there is a ton more demand for my Tricycles right now than my marbles.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

Still the easier way to go at first is try to extract some raw material and sell them, then think about factories and then shops...

This is what I did. I mined all my iron ore, and made two steel mills, and just sold everything I produced on the market once I'd built up some volume. I had one turn where I made $900,000(my balance was sitting right around 0 at the time), and built the stuff necessary to sell lumber, then with another big sale when I woke up this morning, built the factory needed to make tools.


My next issue is that I didn't really do any planning based on my map. I only have two wood squares... compared to 9 quartz sand, 7 bauxite, and 7 oil and I don't really have a plan to use any of it yet I should start working on that next.

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by Radii

Yeah, I made a do it yourself store and was selling lumber overnight. I sold my excess iron ore and some steel and am now making tools to sell as well. My SW is at 108 so I'm in good shape.

The reason I was so worried about the store worth is that I first tried out a grocery, which has a lot more product(I think right off the bat it has 6 or 7 products), so if you can only supply one item to the grocer at the start the penalty is a lot bigger. The stores that start off with less items to try to stock are much, much easier.

I have been afraid to try anything food related to this point. Farms produce only once a year (for crops), and I didn't want to deal with that. I guess fear helped.

I do think working in just raw materials probably leads to faster profits, but they require manual effort and a risk of going bankrupt if you are stuck away from the computer for a long enough time.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by BrianD

I have been afraid to try anything food related to this point. Farms produce only once a year (for crops), and I didn't want to deal with that. I guess fear helped.

I do think working in just raw materials probably leads to faster profits, but they require manual effort and a risk of going bankrupt if you are stuck away from the computer for a long enough time.

THat has been my goal so far, try to get it set up to where it can kind of run itself for hours at a time without any loss of revenue.

[Alan T]

Ok, so it is 6/125 (Summer) right now. Does that mean things being sold this game turn count for turn 6/125 (summer) or 7/125 (Autumn)?

[FrogMan]

just upgraded to level 1 my whole supply chain to the toy store, from the mines to steel mill/sawmill, factories and the shop. Thought that if I was going to be not selling for two updates, I might as well not produce any raw material as well... Could afford it with 2.5M in the bank anyway...

FM

[FrogMan]

not sure everybody knows that but you can download a 36 page long manual of the game. Got some good info in it. Check in their downloads section...

FM

[Alan T]

The information about seasonal demand was a great hint, ever since you all explained that, I've pushed my toystore up to 113 shopping value, and in return that has increased the demand for how many tricycles a month it can sell.

My biggest problem right now is I need another 250k or so to be able to build another toy industry to meet all of the demand right now. I have a bottleneck there where I just can't make toys fast enough to meet my demand.

[FrogMan]

from the game manual, here's how the shopping value is figured out. For every product that is offered in one shop, the shopping value moves this way if:
Product was not offered at all : - 2 Points
Product covered less than 50% for the demand: - 1 Point
Product covered 50 75% of the demand +1
Point Product covered 75 90% of the demand +2 Points
Product covered more than 90% for the demand +5 Points

So, in a four products shop, if you don't want your shopping value to decrease over time, you need to cover at least 75% of the demand of two products if you leave the other two absolutely unavailable. Covering 90%+ of the demande of two products out of four will make your shopping value go way up...

FM

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

from the game manual, here's how the shopping value is figured out. For every product that is offered in one shop, the shopping value moves this way if:
Product was not offered at all : - 2 Points
Product covered less than 50% for the demand: - 1 Point
Product covered 50 75% of the demand +1
Point Product covered 75 90% of the demand +2 Points
Product covered more than 90% for the demand +5 Points

So, in a four products shop, if you don't want your shopping value to decrease over time, you need to cover at least 75% of the demand of two products if you leave the other two absolutely unavailable. Covering 90%+ of the demande of two products out of four will make your shopping value go way up...

FM

Do you know how that demand works? If the 4 products have demand of 3 5 7 9, does that mean we need to provide 12 items to cover 50% of the demand? Can we assume they mean total demand of all the products in the shop? Thus supplying all of the demand for the 3 and 5 products covers 50% of the items, but only 33% of the total demand?

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by Alan T

The information about seasonal demand was a great hint, ever since you all explained that, I've pushed my toystore up to 113 shopping value, and in return that has increased the demand for how many tricycles a month it can sell.

My biggest problem right now is I need another 250k or so to be able to build another toy industry to meet all of the demand right now. I have a bottleneck there where I just can't make toys fast enough to meet my demand.

Doing the math on all of this is interesting and might be worthy of a Trukz-style spreadsheet at some point. I've got the same issue where Tricycle demand averages 13 but I am only producing 10. Is it worthwhile to build another factory and run at 50%? Should I run it at 100% and try to sell the extra on the market? I am generally trying to keep from going over demand just so I don't have surplus to deal with. I also don't want to change my production levels multiple times a day, though there might be a benefit to that.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by BrianD

Do you know how that demand works? If the 4 products have demand of 3 5 7 9, does that mean we need to provide 12 items to cover 50% of the demand? Can we assume they mean total demand of all the products in the shop? Thus supplying all of the demand for the 3 and 5 products covers 50% of the items, but only 33% of the total demand?

I take it that it's on any given month and that those 3 5 7 9 are the monthly demands during the given seasons. Say the three Spring months each have a monthly demand of 3, following your example up there...

FM

[FrogMan]

dola, I'm basing this on seeing that my shopping value has increased in every month since I've been meeting the demand of two products...

FM

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

I take it that it's on any given month and that those 3 5 7 9 are the monthly demands during the given seasons. Say the three Spring months each have a monthly demand of 3, following your example up there...

FM

Sorry, I meant that as the monthly demand in a single month for the 4 different products. I've been covering 2 of 3 items in my stores and I think better than 50% of the total quantities demanded to make sure I am covered.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by BrianD

Sorry, I meant that as the monthly demand in a single month for the 4 different products. I've been covering 2 of 3 items in my stores and I think better than 50% of the total quantities demanded to make sure I am covered.

not too sure I follow and I don't think it deals with total quantities, simply on a product by product basis. Say you have 4 products available in the shop and you cover 3 for 50% each and don't offer one at all, the formula would be +1 +1 +1 -2 for +1 overall.

FM

[FrogMan]

dola, and if you only have 3 items and you cover 2 at 50%, you'd end up staying put, or +1 +1 -2...

FM

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

not too sure I follow and I don't think it deals with total quantities, simply on a product by product basis. Say you have 4 products available in the shop and you cover 3 for 50% each and don't offer one at all, the formula would be +1 +1 +1 -2 for +1 overall.

FM

I see. I hadn't even considered that way of calculating it. So, for example, a Toy Shop in Spring has demands of 13 Marbles, 6 Tricycles, and 5 Trains. In Winter it is 13 Marbles, 20 Tricycles, and 14 trains.

If I build a consistent 0 Marbles, 10 Tricycles and 5 Trains, I would be getting -2 +5 +5 or +8 in the Spring, but -2 +1 -1 or -2 in the Winter?

ETA: I'm not counting the surplus in the Spring that carries over to the Winter.

[FrogMan]

yeah, that's what would happen, but if you would stock some to sell in future months (the carry over units), you would not be penalized for not meeting the demand in those high demand months, giving you the full +8 every month.

I like how it's a gigantic sandbox where others can't really attack you. I mean, yeah, there's supply/demand stuff, but if you fail, it's mostly because you planned poorly...

FM

[BrianD]

Thanks FM, that makes a lot of sense. I've been trying to plan my production so that I am over-producing in the low-demand months and under-producing in the high-demand months to even things out. Pretty basic business logic. Nice to see that the shop worth was doing well with that logic.

[Alan T]

I'm fighting off the urge to do a restart because of one extra building that I wished I hadn't built and my lack of money from it! Ahh well, I'll just suffer through a day to save up that money and then should be ok

[BrianD]

Is that building at least producing some kind of raw material to sell? If not you can probably drop the production down to 0% and not lose too much from it.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by BrianD

Is that building at least producing some kind of raw material to sell? If not you can probably drop the production down to 0% and not lose too much from it.

Yeah I did that already, that wasn't my gripe. I wish I had the money I spent on that building to spend on a different building that would actually help me now