Post by winwin on Jan 8, 2024 21:25:46 GMT
GOAL:
To make a unique retail model for Gas stations (like how SO and restaurants are unique). In my opinion , restaurants were the best addition to the game as it brought new mechanics that are interesting and challenging. I wish Sim companies would have a unique retail model for each industry one day.
IMPACT:
This could either be a late game industry that can compete well with SO/restaurants or it could be a little less profitable than them .. This will replace the Gas station with the new mechanic so it affects the fuel sector obviously.
And since diesel is impacted , transport costs will also be impacted.
MECHANIC:
Gist:
The new gas station runs on 24 hour cycles. Every gas station starts and stops at a fixed time daily for everybody. You can only make adjustments for the next day (including stopping it) similar to restaurants.
A unique feature of gas stations will be storage costs . Every day , you have to stock up each gas station with any amount of petrol / diesel (hereafter mentioned as ‘goods’) and also set a price for them (like menu price but for each good and each Q). You also have to pay an amount of storage cost depending on how much you stock. For example, let the storage cost be $0.1 per unit per hour. If you had stocked 1k petrol and it was unsold for the whole day , you will be paying $2.4k storage costs for that day. But it won't be unsold for the whole day in theory.
Here is how the retail works : Every hour , Simeons buy petrol/diesel (mentioned hereafter as an ‘order’). They have certain quality preferences and a quantity need. They prefer the gas stations that are a good offer for their needs. Thus every gas station in the game is in direct competition with one another. You will automatically be filling an order every hour for every level gas station. How many units sold on that order will be depending on your price (because of the competition).
The idea is , cheaper goods sell first. So the storage costs will be lesser. While you could price it higher and when other people’s cheaper stocks run out , simeons would come for your high priced stuff. The risk being your entire stock could be unsold at the end of the day but you paid wages and storage costs. Or you sold some stock but not enough compensation for the storage costs and wages.
Details:
(Note: all numbers are just examples. Devs have to determine the actual values based on game balance)
How to stock up ?
Every day , you fix a certain amount of goods to be stocked for the next day. For example Petrol 50k Q0 , 10k Q1 , 25k Q2 etc.. Same for diesel. You can stock up both. At the end of the day , unsold stock will return to the warehouse.
Ideally , this works like restaurants where the stock you fixed will automatically stock up daily unless you change it. But it can also be manual if needed
How does the pricing of goods work?
You can set prices for each quality of petrol and diesel. For example , I can stock up for tomorrow: Petrol 50k Q0 @$50 , 10k Q1 @$50.5 , 25k Q2 @$55 etc .. Same for diesel. These prices can be changed for the next day (like menu price)
How storage costs work?
Let's say the storage cost is $0.1 per hour and I stocked up 50k goods .. And I sold in the following manner:
1st hour - 5k
2nd hour - 5k
3rd hour - 25k
4th hour -10k
Unsold - 5k
The storage costs will be $0.1 × [ (1*5k) + (2*5k) + (3*25k) + (4*10k) + (24*5k) ] = $25k .
(Hope I didn't mess up math)
Do we stock up and price it randomly ?
No. Ideally , I want players to get 2 types of information daily.
Some kind of an indication of what Q of petrol and diesel Simeons are going to prefer for the next day. I think maybe 2 pie charts (one for petrol and diesel each) indicating what % of simeons are interested in each Q ( or simply high, mid and low Q) will be cool.
2 average values for each Q of petrol and diesel
Average listed price: The average price of the entire stock of previous day across all gas stations in game (including unsold)
Average retail price: The average price of entire stock sold the previous day
Based on these info and the performance of your previous day, you should fix the stock and its price.
How complicated is this model for a player?
The factors you have to consider are
What prices are others selling at?
What will be the next day’s demand?
How fast did I sell yesterday ? At what price?
Do I make more profit If I sell at a low price with low storage costs or at a higher price with more storage costs?
How much should I stock ?
A lot of these factors are dynamic like restaurants. So it needs a lot of trial and error .. but the worst case scenario, you loose just wages and storage costs .. not the actual products. So I would say this is more complicated than SO but less risky than restaurant.
Another interesting aspect will be , you can't have people sending you a definite amount of contracts daily because sometimes you end up with unsold stock .. So it will be a bit like AS where you have to buy on demand.
How does the hourly order work?
Every hour , each level x gas station fills x orders. A lvl 1 gas station fills one order every hour. You fix the price the previous day so the order just informs you how many units you sold in that hour (which could be anywhere from 0 to an upper limit potentially?). Ideally at a given time, you would see all your 24 orders yesterday and whatever orders that are filled today. This would help in setting price and stock for the next day.
How Simeon’s preference works?
This is the most complicated part of designing this model .. So I give this part to you devs XD . You did restaurants , so you got this!
If I had to design it , I would do something like: (I might not make sense here so feel free to ignore this lol)
Every order has a quality and respective price preference . If the order finds a cheaper than their prefered price , they would buy more than they needed and vice versa for higher price . Also they might just go for a different Q if that price offer is better. Something like that.
It would also be interesting if it depends on economic cycle like - At boom , simeons have more cash .. so they will go for their prefered Q over their prefered price .. and in recession , the give more importance to their prefered price over prefered Q.
How economy changes might affect ?
Obviously the wages differ. The rest are just suggestions . The storage costs might be varied. The quality preference of simeons might be varied.
BONUS IDEA:
You could swap it to premium gas station mode (like professional staff in restaurant) where the simeons are ready to pay a bit higher for
25% more wages (maybe)
And you have to stock some groceries as well at a fixed price (Inspired by real life gas stations lol)
Suggestion by skippy : There can also be premium gas station that also acts as recharge station for electric cars i.e. retailing power
Link to original Google doc : docs.google.com/document/d/11nIVCsps7mxe-Q9NNDk7_MJ2hQVl3xCEgKX32mZT68g/edit?usp=drivesdk
To make a unique retail model for Gas stations (like how SO and restaurants are unique). In my opinion , restaurants were the best addition to the game as it brought new mechanics that are interesting and challenging. I wish Sim companies would have a unique retail model for each industry one day.
IMPACT:
This could either be a late game industry that can compete well with SO/restaurants or it could be a little less profitable than them .. This will replace the Gas station with the new mechanic so it affects the fuel sector obviously.
And since diesel is impacted , transport costs will also be impacted.
MECHANIC:
Gist:
The new gas station runs on 24 hour cycles. Every gas station starts and stops at a fixed time daily for everybody. You can only make adjustments for the next day (including stopping it) similar to restaurants.
A unique feature of gas stations will be storage costs . Every day , you have to stock up each gas station with any amount of petrol / diesel (hereafter mentioned as ‘goods’) and also set a price for them (like menu price but for each good and each Q). You also have to pay an amount of storage cost depending on how much you stock. For example, let the storage cost be $0.1 per unit per hour. If you had stocked 1k petrol and it was unsold for the whole day , you will be paying $2.4k storage costs for that day. But it won't be unsold for the whole day in theory.
Here is how the retail works : Every hour , Simeons buy petrol/diesel (mentioned hereafter as an ‘order’). They have certain quality preferences and a quantity need. They prefer the gas stations that are a good offer for their needs. Thus every gas station in the game is in direct competition with one another. You will automatically be filling an order every hour for every level gas station. How many units sold on that order will be depending on your price (because of the competition).
The idea is , cheaper goods sell first. So the storage costs will be lesser. While you could price it higher and when other people’s cheaper stocks run out , simeons would come for your high priced stuff. The risk being your entire stock could be unsold at the end of the day but you paid wages and storage costs. Or you sold some stock but not enough compensation for the storage costs and wages.
Details:
(Note: all numbers are just examples. Devs have to determine the actual values based on game balance)
How to stock up ?
Every day , you fix a certain amount of goods to be stocked for the next day. For example Petrol 50k Q0 , 10k Q1 , 25k Q2 etc.. Same for diesel. You can stock up both. At the end of the day , unsold stock will return to the warehouse.
Ideally , this works like restaurants where the stock you fixed will automatically stock up daily unless you change it. But it can also be manual if needed
How does the pricing of goods work?
You can set prices for each quality of petrol and diesel. For example , I can stock up for tomorrow: Petrol 50k Q0 @$50 , 10k Q1 @$50.5 , 25k Q2 @$55 etc .. Same for diesel. These prices can be changed for the next day (like menu price)
How storage costs work?
Let's say the storage cost is $0.1 per hour and I stocked up 50k goods .. And I sold in the following manner:
1st hour - 5k
2nd hour - 5k
3rd hour - 25k
4th hour -10k
Unsold - 5k
The storage costs will be $0.1 × [ (1*5k) + (2*5k) + (3*25k) + (4*10k) + (24*5k) ] = $25k .
(Hope I didn't mess up math)
Do we stock up and price it randomly ?
No. Ideally , I want players to get 2 types of information daily.
Some kind of an indication of what Q of petrol and diesel Simeons are going to prefer for the next day. I think maybe 2 pie charts (one for petrol and diesel each) indicating what % of simeons are interested in each Q ( or simply high, mid and low Q) will be cool.
2 average values for each Q of petrol and diesel
Average listed price: The average price of the entire stock of previous day across all gas stations in game (including unsold)
Average retail price: The average price of entire stock sold the previous day
Based on these info and the performance of your previous day, you should fix the stock and its price.
How complicated is this model for a player?
The factors you have to consider are
What prices are others selling at?
What will be the next day’s demand?
How fast did I sell yesterday ? At what price?
Do I make more profit If I sell at a low price with low storage costs or at a higher price with more storage costs?
How much should I stock ?
A lot of these factors are dynamic like restaurants. So it needs a lot of trial and error .. but the worst case scenario, you loose just wages and storage costs .. not the actual products. So I would say this is more complicated than SO but less risky than restaurant.
Another interesting aspect will be , you can't have people sending you a definite amount of contracts daily because sometimes you end up with unsold stock .. So it will be a bit like AS where you have to buy on demand.
How does the hourly order work?
Every hour , each level x gas station fills x orders. A lvl 1 gas station fills one order every hour. You fix the price the previous day so the order just informs you how many units you sold in that hour (which could be anywhere from 0 to an upper limit potentially?). Ideally at a given time, you would see all your 24 orders yesterday and whatever orders that are filled today. This would help in setting price and stock for the next day.
How Simeon’s preference works?
This is the most complicated part of designing this model .. So I give this part to you devs XD . You did restaurants , so you got this!
If I had to design it , I would do something like: (I might not make sense here so feel free to ignore this lol)
Every order has a quality and respective price preference . If the order finds a cheaper than their prefered price , they would buy more than they needed and vice versa for higher price . Also they might just go for a different Q if that price offer is better. Something like that.
It would also be interesting if it depends on economic cycle like - At boom , simeons have more cash .. so they will go for their prefered Q over their prefered price .. and in recession , the give more importance to their prefered price over prefered Q.
How economy changes might affect ?
Obviously the wages differ. The rest are just suggestions . The storage costs might be varied. The quality preference of simeons might be varied.
BONUS IDEA:
You could swap it to premium gas station mode (like professional staff in restaurant) where the simeons are ready to pay a bit higher for
25% more wages (maybe)
And you have to stock some groceries as well at a fixed price (Inspired by real life gas stations lol)
Suggestion by skippy : There can also be premium gas station that also acts as recharge station for electric cars i.e. retailing power
Link to original Google doc : docs.google.com/document/d/11nIVCsps7mxe-Q9NNDk7_MJ2hQVl3xCEgKX32mZT68g/edit?usp=drivesdk