Architect Archive

You are free to use whatever system you choose.

And so am I, The important thing to me is to make sure that all expenses both raw material extraction costs and overhead such as re-deeding, factory expenses and travel and other misc expenses are factored in before I calculate a profits on sales, and yes my profits are around 400%-500% including all overhead expenses and raw material costs.

They will likely get higher as I replace my harvesters with more efficient ones. That is in process now. Also if my competitors raise thier prices on high eficiency heavies my prioces will also rise as I base my prices on the going rate on my planet\server, I just make sure I stay 10% - 20% below the going rate.

If you choose a different way, that is totally up to you. No complaint from me.

I found that an invaluable pricing tool was to make myself a simple spreadsheet. The first column is the type of deed, the second is the total resource count (I don't include schematic costs, because I make everything in bulk now) and the remaining columns give the prices at 2.5cpu, 3cpu, 3.5cpu, 4cpu and 5cpu. Normally I use the 4cpu column, but for repeat customers or when i'm in the mood to barter I can at least check to see how low I go before losing money.

For my next version I plan to try to separate out the resource counts into groups. This is particularly important now, because while I buy bulk ore at 2.5cpu I am now buying higher quality steel for some things since it gets me better extraction rates and hopper sizes, and that steel costs me more so I'd like to account for that.

Now if I could just find all the resource counts in a handy downloadable database I wouldn't have to type all the data in myself.

I have a spreadsheet that does it the other way around, I have several columns that are the current price for things from several other Master Architects, then a column for my own price ( always 10%-20% less than the general going rate ) and then the rest of it calculates how many CPU I am charging, and finally the current overhead rate ( in sub categories ) to give me my profit margin.

I am not saying you are doing it wrong, not at all. It is good to know what CPU you are charging, I use that to calculate profits, but I set my prices by looking at my competition. I believe most people work it your way, that can work too, I used to do that.