Burianek's Econ Fix v0.25

[Burianek]

This mod has not been tested to be compatible with X2 version 1.4
You should download and install this instead.



This fix is an improvement over my previous version 0.2 fix.
It changes the most about the X2 economy as is possible without changing ware prices, and therefore requiring a workaround, as my version 3 fix does.

It was developed specifically for Aalaardb and Storm Front's mod, but is being released separately in case anyone wants to use it in absence of their changes.

If you ever wondered how I come up with version numbers for my fixes, I won't call something I consider an incomplete fix a number above 1. Hence this fix is only version 0.25, as I consider it incomplete. My version 3 fix I consider to satisfactorily fix all aspects of the economy. (If only the stupid workaround weren't required....)

Please also get information about my version 3 fix, which I consider my flagship product and complete fix.
It makes many more changes to the X2 economy but requires a small workaround on the part of the player for
it to run correctly. Get info here: http://www.egosoft.com/x2/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34244

Here's an excerpt from the readme:

X2 Economy Fix v. 0.25 by Burianek
Compatible with version 1.3 of X2
This mod adds as much variation and balance to the X2 economy as is possible without changing prices of individual wares.

*Changes since version 0.2*
I've included the racial factory price differences developed for my version 3 fix.
I've slightly tweaked the factory price rebalancing.
I've tightened up variation for high end goods a bit for balancing purposes.

The changes fall into three main categories which are discussed below.
Rebalancing factory prices to align them with performance.
Adding racial variation to factory price.
Widening price variation for high end goods.

Thanks to all of you who are sparked by this and get it in your heads to come up with your own solutions. Share! Contribute and together we can make this fantastic game better.
If you'd like to play with any of these variables yourself, feel free to download my X2 economy modeler (which was used to create this mod) from my web site.
user.mc.net/~burianek
It will be called X2EconModv?.xls
It comes with its own readme which explains how to use it.



Specific changes in this mod:


Rebalancing factory prices to align them with performance.
General reasoning: More expensive
factories should take longer to pay for themselves than cheap factories, but should make a higher rate of return
to compensate. Said another way: a factory that makes profits twice as fast as another should cost more than twice
as much. A higher investment yields better long term profits. Cheap stuff is easy and quick to set up, but long
term profits are limited. This methodology makes sense to me.

If you're curious, this represents a rule of diminishing returns between increased factory price and increased
profit per minute. This can be described by an exponential function with exponent set less than 1. (1 would yield
a straight line) The equation I like to set factory price is: (profit/min) = 1.3643 * (fact price) ^ (0.8035)
fact price expressed in thousands
That gives a rough value, and then I just vary prices a little at whim around the general result to mix it up a bit.

Using this general 'curve fit rule' and then throwing it a bit of common sense leads to the following changes.

Mines have been adjusted to roughly 250k. This is to reflect the fact that although an average mine makes money
about as fast as a basic food factory, a high yield mine can make money as fast as (or slightly faster than) an
advanced food factory.

Basic food factories (require energy only) - have been reduced to the 140 to 180k range. This should make them
more accessible in the early part of the game to beginner players, and more accurately represents their profit
potential. I traded for a long time in the game before I could afford to set up a few factories, I haven't heard
anyone say they think it should take longer. This should help.

Advanced food factories (require energy and basic food) - have been reduced to the 350 to 450k range. On average,
these factories are roughly twice as profitable to operate as basic food factories. The price is therefore slightly
more than double. These are also a reasonable alternative choice for a beginning player due to the reduced cost.
Space Fuel Refineries and Bliss Places fall in this category.

1300K is the starting price point for any factory that takes three inputs (energy, food, and silicon or ore).
These factories are all more than twice as profitable as adv food factories.
Since all three input factories in the game make the exact same amount of profits, I was faced with the decision
to make them all cost 1300k, or just leave them alone. Here's what I did:

Any three input factory which originally cost less than 1300k, I raised to fit the curve.
Example:
Warheads, Crystals, Q.Tubes, M.Chips, C.Comp - all factories that used to cost 650k have been raised to roughly
1300k. These factories, on average, make over twice as much as the adv food factories and are every bit as profitable
as any other factory out there (not including SPP). There's no reason, IMHO, why a crystal fab that earns around
two and a half times as much as a cahoona bakery should cost less in the original game layout.

Just so that every factory in the game doesn't cost exactly 1300k, I made minor adjustments to the factories that
originally cost 1300k.

Missile factories were also raised to roughly the 1300 mark, but have some variation modeled in according to missile
power.

Any three input factory which originally cost more than 1300k I chose to leave alone for varieties sake more
than anything else. I suppose there's a convenience factor to supplying your own ships, but I don't think it's
worth paying 8400k for the gamma ppc fact for the convenience. I did however, make a change to variation which
helps somewhat, (described later) but not nearly enough for my satisfaction. I did the best I could do guys
(and gals).

That nasty SPP - Since it's the most profitable factory in the game, I raised the price to 1750k credits. This
keeps it in reach of players that still want/need to build them, but sets it more in line with the others.
An interesting note is that under my pricing structure, a self supporting energy chain doesn't cost too much more
to set up than before, I've tried to maintain the game balance as much as possible. I've just adjusted the relative
costs of the factories involved, and priced the food factories commensurate with their contribution and so on.
I tried not to disadvantage the player who wants to chain factories, just make it more costly to set up only SPP's
all over the universe.

Example costs for factory chains under old and new pricing structure:
SPP-Cattle Ranch-Bakery-S. Mine-Crystal Fab chain: old prices total - about 2700k, new prices total - about 3700k
(sorry I couldn't get it closer)
However most players will use this to power a second chain with the leftover energy: (example w/chip plant)
Cattle Ranch-Bakery-S. Mine-Chip Plant: old prices total - 2450k, new prices total - 1980
so a comparison of set-up costs for full double chains: old prices - about 5200k, new prices - about 5700k
(much closer, and if your End Factory is one of the ones whose price didn't change, the total price under the new
structure will actually be cheaper)
Cattle Ranch-Bakery-O. Mine-Alpha IRE Forge: old prices - 3050k, new prices - 1950k
double chain(add single chain cost): old prices - 5750k, new prices - 5650k
(these numbers are rough, but you get the picture)

As mentioned above, all other factories I left alone, except for the mobile drilling sys fact, and mass driver ammo fact, which were lowered slightly.



Adding racial variation to factory price.
Certain races tend to specialize in producing certain goods.
For these reason they enjoy a lower price when setting up factories which produce these goods.
The original game had a few of these ideas, but I've made them a bit less dramatic and applied them to nearly all factories.
There is a chart in the readme which details changes.



Widening price variation for high end goods.
The next thing I did was widen out price variation for all high tech goods. There's no reason these should be so tight. (IMHO)
If you've played with one of my previous mods, I've tightened them a bit since version 0.2 though. It was a bit too easy in v 0.2 of my fix to make money trading weapons.
This also helps the early game, as weapons become a very viable option for early game trading. There aren't as many weapon factories scattered around the universe as SPPs, but running guns from factories to
equipment docks can get you on your feet a little more quickly.
This also opens up a great deal of later game trading opportunity. Once you get wealthy enough in the original game, you'd never consider manually trading anything like energy again.
This keeps it moderately profitable to trade high tech goods like adv weapons even into the later stages of the game.

You can see the specific price variations in the readme.

[Sandalpocalypse]

Great, only wish we had this details for the rest of the MWMod scripts.