Products
Product Overview
- The primary way to earn money (βucks) in Simunomics is to buy, sell, and create products. At present there are over 100 products available to choose from in the game.
- A product chain starts with Raw Materials, like wood, water, or oil. They come from a Raw Materials Site using extraction tools, cash, and nothing else. However these are Industrial products and are not desired by the general public.
- A Farm or Factory then takes raw materials in different combinations, called recipes, and produces a different product. Some of these may also be Industrial and thus not suitable for the public, but others will be finished products that can be sold in stores.
- Retail stores take finished products and set rules for the sale, then collect money over time as shoppers visit and make purchases.
Example: Suppose you wanted to make Tires, part of the Automotive category. If you look up the recipe, you will see this information:
| Cost to produce: β75.00 |
| Inputs: |
| 1.00 Steel (20% of Quality Appeal) |
| 5.00 Rubber (50% of Quality Appeal) |
So your Tire factory would need 1 unit of Steel, 5 units of Rubber, and β75.00 for each tire that you want to make. You could make those inputs yourself at a Steel factory and a Rubber Farm. But we strongly advise that you not try to make everything yourself, at least not at first. That's what the market and other players are for.
When production is finished you can use your tire to build a car or motorcycle. Or you can sell it on the market to other players. Or you can sell it in any Retail Store that covers the Automotive category. (e.g. Auto Dealer or a Megastore.)
Quality Appeal
- There are two things that can make your products more appealing to buyers. The first is Quality Appeal.
- The Quality Appeal of a product is a number indicating how much more desirable it is than a baseline version. (Which would have Quality Appeal of 0.)
- Products with a higher quality appeal are created by using superior ingredients, upgrading your farm or factory, or making use of research.
- As time moves on and society advances, items lose their appeal. (Technology becomes commonplace and loses value.) So try not to hold on to items too long or you'll find their quality appeal has gone down. Quality Appeal "decays" at a rate of 1 per week, to a minimum of 0.
- To see how Quality Appeal is valued by customers, visit the Retail section.
- Research is the main way to improve the quality appeal of your products. You gain research levels by purchasing an R&D Center and spending time researching a patent line. That patent is then published and applied to production buildings.
- For more details visit the visit the visit the Research or R&D sections.
Checking the Tire recipe above, we see that Steel is 20% of Quality and Rubber is 50% of quality. That means the extra 30% must come from Research. So suppose we have 5 levels of research use Quality Appeal 3 Steel (qa3 for short) and qa10 Rubber:
| Research | 30% * Level 5.0 | = 1.5 |
| Steel | 20% * qa3.0 | = 0.6 |
| Rubber | 50% * qa10.0 | = 5.0 |
| Total | 7.1 |
This production therefore results in Tires of Quality Appeal 7.1 (qa7.1). Don't worry, once you build a Tire Factory the recipe is always displayed inside, along with your Steel and Rubber supplies. And the quality appeal is calculated for you automatically.
Research
Brand
- Aside from Quality Appeal, the other factor that makes your products more appealing is Brand. Please consult the Brand section for more information on that. (Brand features are not available until Level 2.)
Recipes and Information
- Understanding the products is so important that they have their own Help tool, called PHIL.
- The Product Help and Information Lookup tool gives full recipes, uses, production rates, and recommended prices.
- PHIL also gives an estimated "Competitiveness Ranking" based on current market factors. This is only an estimate but can be worth consulting when starting a new product line.
