RAISE FOOD PRICE CEILING

[ltbeeb]

what about if we raised the high for food price, for example i had 3 river plots and there was a shortage of food.  it went to about 128 and then the next round it went to like 80 even though there was still a shortage and i sold one for like 200.   i asked one of the players if that was normal in the original game and they said yes. he said it always would go down after it went to the highest of 128. woulndt it be fair to let food rise to 250?  it even spoils and is harder to make a great profit on!

is 128 the highest food will go?

[Big Head Zach]

Food can go up to $260 just like any other good.

In the game where the price went from 128 back to 80...what round was this in, and how much Food was produced?

[mikman]

I have never seen smithore or crystite go to 260.  far as I know smithore's ceiling is 230 and crystite's is 148.  food and energy very well could be 260, I think the highest I have seen either is about 215 tho...

[Intergalactic Mole]

AFAIK there is no maximum price limit specified on food, energy or smithore in the original source code.  Of course, the prices can only go as high as the joystick will let you bring them, or with regard to the store, whatever the price would be of the commodity if demand was at 100% for the whole game (unlikely).  I suppose someone could create some kind of formula to figure out the exact number, but I don't see the point.  If the correct algorithm and speeds are used, then it should be true to the original game.  Crystite has a cap of 149 (50+99) according to Kroah's reverse engineering document. 

[Big Head Zach]

I have never seen smithore or crystite go to 260.  far as I know smithore's ceiling is 230 and crystite's is 148.  food and energy very well could be 260, I think the highest I have seen either is about 215 tho...

By $260, I mean the price that the Store will sell that good for, which is $35 above current price.

[mikman]

lol and of course I was referring to the max price the store will pay for goods. 

[maskdbandt]

i think food "should" go up to 260 max for price store will pay but does it?  i think 215 is the max unless you have to really do something special to get it above that to the supposed max of 260... i think it'd be nice to see the store price maxes be consistent among the non-crystite

[Big Head Zach]

At the beginning of the game, the price of Food is $30 (and so the Store buys at $15 and sells at $65).

Let's work out the formula, knowing the max price is $225 (giving a Store sell price of $260):

225 = 30 (.25 + .75(D/S))

7.5 = .25 + .75(D/S)

9.66 = D/S

Consider that the demand of food on any given turn is either 12 (rounds 1-4), 16 (rounds 5-8), or 20 (rounds 9-12).

If there are no food plots, and no food was produced/held over, the colony dies early!

However, that ratio of 9.66 is easily reached if only one unit of food exists in the colony. In that situation, the price would max out easily. It could also be reached if there was at least one food plot, but no units exist (they went unpowered, pests attacked, etc.)

It's just real uncommon to see that much of a famine in one turn. Usually, the ratio during a shortage is around 4-5, in which case it would take two turns of shortage to reach the maximum of $260. However, people usually sense a price increase coming (or the shortage was accidental) so the next turn there's close to enough (or more than).

But here's the thing - if the ratio is close to 1:1 (if there's exactly 12,16 or 20 units produced), the price doesn't change. Therefore, it's possible to engineer a shortage so the price goes up, and then produce just enough to meet demand and keep the price high! (There's also that, and just demanding a higher price when the Store is out and you have a personal surplus...once you've artificially increased the price, producing enough to meet demand will keep the price elevated.)