MTI Demand

RobARich said:

Has anyone figured out how to tinker with the demand for MTIs?

Has anyone figured out the meaning of "port_in" and "port_out" values in the treadeareas.txt file?

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I think "port_in" and "port_out" give the demand for each item in the port specified. Moreover, the goods listed as export items have a higher "port_out" value than they do "port_in", whereas the import items have a much greater difference with the "port_in" value being quite a bit larger (in proportion to the export items) than the "port_out" value.

This is just my guess, though, and I haven't tested it out.

Wasn't it mentioned that there would be a modding guide at some point?

I think port_in and port_out determine price range not item amounts. So if you raise both values, you also raise price range in which the goods will be bought from you and get the same effect as if you raised demand (bigger demand -> higher price).

Why do I think that? When you go down the file you will see something like this:

// factors for baseprices
port_in = 0.9
port_out = 1.

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And also:

// lowest price ever
MTI_min_value = 22

// highest price ever
MTI_max_value = 4

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We need a dev to confirm.

Also, if what I say about port_in and port_out is true, we would have a nice platform to distinguish between factions. We would raise port_in and port_out for Tea in London for example or for Spices in the Netherlands so player can bring more of those to those ports. This would be a good start for a faction mod.

Hmmm... you could very well be right. I agree that we need a dev to confirm, though.

Also, yes, this may be an interesting way to distinguish between the various companies of the time.

Port in and port out are the percentage of that items value at that port.

In the tradeitems.txt file it lists the baseline price for all trade items. If the item is at a baseline range of 1000, then a port_out price of .8 will be 800, or port_in price of 1.5 (like the ALL home ports for ALL MTI's) will be 1500.

I've tinkered with this a lot and have even made ports have MTI's that didn't start out that way, and have made items such as Dyes as an MTI.

Careful with tinkering though with the port in and port out price, supply and demand (I haven't found the files for this yet) can fluctuate wildly. For instance, I made a non player city in northern africa have a 1.5 in value for all MTI's to make it a hot spot for a lot of battles. In some games at the start diamonds would sell for 1800, other games it would be such a high number that it would have a negative sign in front of it and would in fact put you into the negative if you sold even one. For example, -28549178 for just one kilo of diamonds.

other games it would be such a high number that it would have a negative sign in front of it and would in fact put you into the negative if you sold even one. For example, -28549178 for just one kilo of diamonds.

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2 billion is the limit this game can handle in positives, just one over 2 billion will instantly turn the same amount negative

Gosh!!!

This game is completely made to users to modify it as they wish!!!

Just a BIG THANK YOU for the Devs who have though about that!!!

Even a low level computer skilled player can do some tweak in this game!!!

Just wonderfull!!

I have already changed a lot of things there and there (principally battle gameplay, mission reward, boat repair and ammunition)

But i need a really important topic to be find!

Where's the rule of the supply and demand???

Cause i think that's clearly too heavily hit by massive buys and don't raise fast enough...

I'm playing a full campaign and i love this game!!! But i'm dominating quite easily and been chocked that 300t of tea kill the tea market in england

Apparently that could come from the rule of 1650's *5 modification of all amount especially those of MTI so i hope the market will behave a little better with this step passed!

But come one that's not reallistic to drop the price that low with so few tons of items.

That's my point and i hope you can understand (not english speaking guy) and will help me with this!

I don't think of a revolution as the market respond quite good even there's a cheat (that's better to sell 300 t in 1 shot than 100t 3 times with this game). But i think this pre 1650 period and post 1650 is a bad thing


Someone have an info?

Help!

Does anyone know how to modify the change of price from monthly to maybe quarterly or yearly!? The price change monthy is making me nuts, running my trade ships all over trying to get in the port before the month changes and the port offering the best price is on the other side of India!

I toyed around a lil bit with the values, Here are my findings:

Price of the Purchase Cost of an MTI can be found in Tradeareas.txt

Example : MTI = item_porcelain
MTI_min_value = 500
MTI_max_value = 575

Changing this value will change the import price of certain MTI.

Price of the Selling Cost of an MTI at homeport is rather tricky, im find that it is related to 2 values:

#1, in Tradeitems.txt u can Define a BASE PRICE on selling a certain item.

Example : item_spices
{
...
price = 1700
...
}

Changing this Value will immediately change the Starting price in ur home port. infact All Initial price in ur home port is about 1/3 higher than the base price listed in this file. so if u put gold @ 1000, then when u start a new game u will see it sells @ 1333 (can vary by few procent) @ ur home port.

#2, Port in and Port out value in Tradeareas.txt

All home town has port in and port out value on MTI, the default is set @ 1.5 and 0.8. i have "not" been able to figur out exactly what it does at this point. how ever im doing some more experiments on it right now.

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How ever, im able to find a cheap solution to "INCREASE DEMANDS" on MTI without doing too much work. this is merely a workaround and most likely the easier way is to increase the monthly price change procent if someone is able to find it.

This is based on a hunch i had, since the most profitable MTI is Spice and Tea, they also happen to be the most expensive MTI per ton. which led me to a hypothese that monthly change is likely to be % based. which means the more expensive an MTI is, the bigger the value change monthly, how ever in a player point of view, only the absolute difference matters and not the relative one. so in order to have bigger value change u just have to increase the base price on the MTI's. how ever do note if u dont change the production price on the mti u will trivialize the game by having a too big of a profit margin on certain mti's.

I tried the following scenario:

##, i made all MTI same with Spice, same production cost, rate, and base price. and now they are all profitable MTI's even without trading posts.

Hopefully this helps.

More pieces to the MTI pricing puzzle:
Homeport pays something between 1...1.5x of "price" @ tradeitems.txt when plr sells MTI. This factor changes at a rate that is hardcoded at the moment. At tradeareas.txt there are "MTI_min_value" and "MTI_max_value" and the price player pays for MTI at some port is something between those.

Changing the dpreciation rate for high trade MTI's

So if the rate at which (or the percentage) an items price changes due to high amounts of that item imported is hardcoded, then what is the possible workaround? I don't understand why having such a huge decrease in value for a few hundred tons is hardcoded, when it makes playing the game with a large fleet nearly impossible.
If there is no hope for change on this one, is there an acceptable workaround (short of the one already mentioned of making all MTI's the same price, which will eventually run into the same problem)?
The reality of this is a little iffy, I understand that is what the warehouses are for, but a nation with a surplus of goods would sell them off to their neighbours; however, these transactions do not necessarily involve the initial company. This situation is particularly applicable when a company has a monopoly on a resource. There is no way a resource should devalue as much as it does, at home market, in such a short period of time, when the true complexities of interacting sovereign capitalist economies are taken into account. Above and beyond the basic rules of supply and demand, the game neglects demand factors like growing demand based on supply, the company's ability to grow the countries economy as a whole and an international market beyond the diplomacy screen. At the very least, this value should be moddable. It's the real limiting value that prevents any extensive modding on the plr's part, because the game cannot take into account that the variables mentioned above.

Anyway, that is just my bit. I do enjoy the game, but the modding is limited primarily because of this value.
Cheers,