An Alternate Take On Fabrication Rules

[Terry Mixon]

An approach I would take, if I was writing 'Manufacturing Plant' rules is that each manufacturing plant takes in 'production stock materials' and out puts 'product' of its' own TL. I would make manufacturing a multi-step process:
1} Extraction (produces ore)
2} Smelting/refining (produces material)
3} Making production stock (produces components)
4} Producing product (produces finished goods)

The basic assumption is X Cr of input = >X Cr of output; but this improves as TL rises. At TL 1 1000 Cr in might equal 1001 Cr out, and half of the material is 'waste'; but TL 2 would produce both more value & less waste, etc. If you want to model more valuable output, feed in more input -- but the higher Cr output means more waste.

This is for Manufacturing Plants; Fabricators would produce more waste for a given (lower TL than the fabricator) item from a (TL appropriate to the item) Manufacturing Plant.

Lay out the 'productivity' and 'waste' curves so as not to cross the 100% mark before 'maximum TL' unless you are prepared to explain it. The 'waste' might just be useful for making bricks, or some fraction of it might have enough value to go back into the 'Extraction' end of production.

Bleah. I am just roughing this; I haven't really thought it through. I will probably build a spreadsheet at some point. Sorry for being a bit incoherent.

No worries. I’m incoherent all the time.

 

[rinku]

I'd leave credit values out of it almost totally. Just "X amount of input, X/n amount of output" for each stage. If you're on-selling at any point in process it's a matter for market negotiation. If you're keeping it all within the one production line, the nominal sale price of a material is moot; as an old Chemistry teacher of mine used to say, it's just buckets of hydrogen and buckets of oxygen, really.

 

[Terry Mixon]

I'd leave credit values out of it almost totally. Just "X amount of input, X/n amount of output" for each stage. If you're on-selling at any point in process it's a matter for market negotiation. If you're keeping it all within the one production line, the nominal sale price of a material is moot; as an old Chemistry teacher of mine used to say, it's just buckets of hydrogen and buckets of oxygen, really.

Well, the rules are the ones that brought the value of the raw materials into it. I was just trying to find a way to quantify that.

 

[rinku]

Fair enough, but the mass of the stuff and what it actually costs you to get that is what you need.

Although in many cases a default market value is needed I guess, if you're purchasing at that stage.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Fair enough, but the mass of the stuff and what it actually costs you to get that is what you need.

Although in many cases a default market value is needed I guess, if you're purchasing at that stage.

And that's the issue I was running into.

 

[rinku]

Redefine the Credit as pegged to the work-hour.

Or, to keep things SI, pegged to Joules.

 

[Condottiere]

If energy is basically free.

Inflation.

 

[Sigtrygg]

One of the things the Imperial economy does well is restrict inflation, this is mentioned in canon a few times IIRC, I will look it up.

 

[Condottiere]

We could ration electricity.

And make it illegal to have solar cells.

 

[Sigtrygg]

They used their monopoly on fusion+ technology as a lever of power...

 

[swordtart]

One of the things the Imperial economy does well is restrict inflation, this is mentioned in canon a few times IIRC, I will look it up.

Probably explains why the investment return on a ship share is so poor
MCr1 gets you KCr1 per annum - 0.1% APR

 

[Condottiere]

Could be more, that it gets you a seat onboard.

 

[Fluffy Bunny Feet]

Probably explains why the investment return on a ship share is so poor
MCr1 gets you KCr1 per annum - 0.1% APR

Also doesn't line up with getting 25 KCr/year for a 25% ownership on a trading vessel (Free/Far) as that would indicate (if paid at the same rate as the ship share) that it was a 100 MCr ship. Myself I'm counting it as 10MCr paid on a ship not 25%. With a new Free Trader being about 45 MCr it is a little less than 25% but if the ship is not brand new its depreciated value could be about that. Make ship shares pay 2.5 KCr/year and they line up. My TL 9 variant of the Free Trader is about 40.5 MCr so 25% ownership=10 MCr is a close alignment.

I would allow characters with more (or less) to buy alternate (acceptable to me) ships either smaller or larger old or new just as long as they had at least 25% down payment. So with 2x25% you could have a 25% down payment on an 80MCr 400 ton (new) subsidized merchant.

 

[Condottiere]

Vertical integration.

It's riskier, but you ship stuff you manufacture, to retailing outlets you control.