9

Anyone have done some analysis on what yield the most amount of credit given a long period of time?

Assumptions:

  1. I am constantly babysitting the game.
  2. Max level bitizens on their dream jobs (all 3 of them).
  3. Floor start with no orders, so need time for ordering.

It is most profitable to order for 3 stars first, but it takes more time to order, and there is no productivity when ordering. On the other hand, ordering 1 star job means less profit.

1
  • 5
    for some games, like this one, the only winning move is not to play
    – l I
    Nov 23, 2013 at 3:38

6 Answers 6

4

I did some quick calculations with the levels that had nothing in stock in my tower. I've provided the upgrade level as well as the total skills of the workers, and these all have three dream jobbers, but theoretically none of that should matter if we're only comparing relative values. This may not be perfectly accurate, as the "time" given to us might include rounding that isn't shown, but the general conclusions should be clear nonetheless:

Level       Upgrade Skill   Time Value  Value per Minute
Mos Espa    4       26      22   2340   106.4
                            7    520    74.3
                            1    26     26
Ithorian    5       27      25   2520   100.8
                            18   1200   66.7
                            7    240    34.3
Ewok Sweets 6       27      29   3600   124.1
                            18   1500   83.3
                            3    150    50
Toydarian   3       24      22   2160   98.2
                            11   720    65.5
                            4    144    36
Pet Emp.    2       22      46   3960   86.1
                            23   1320   57.4
                            15   440    29.3

As you can see, the high-value item in each store generates credits more than twice as quickly as the low-value item, and often more than three times. This means that even if you spent all your time instantly restocking the low value item for as long as it would take to stock the high value one, you wouldn't make anywhere near as many credits. This holds true even if you have a dream jobber in the low-value but not in the high-value item. For that reason, it's usually a good rule to stock the highest-value thing first. However, note that if you have only two dream-jobbers, the mid-level item will likely be the most profitable (basically, just cut the high-level value per minute in half in the table above).

Occasionally it may make sense to optimize differently based on your knowledge of when you'll be playing. For example, if the Pet Emporium isn't stocked at all, and you're going to bed in 15 minutes, then stock the low-value one first, and get the high-value one stocking just as you're going to sleep. But that should be the exception and not the rule.

1
  • 1
    Also, as Wobin alluded to, having a fully-stocked item that took three hours to stock when the Big Spender comes around can be a great windfall; I just made over 15k a minute ago taking a Big Spender to the Trash Compactor. The chance that they'll randomly choose to buy out the expensive item is highest if you prioritize stocking that item over the others.
    – Alex
    Nov 25, 2013 at 22:25
3

Generally I would say if you're giving it constant attention, always order the next smallest timespan order, on whichever level is available. The sooner you have products available, the more money you'll have.

The long term orders have endurance over profitability, with many units of stock available, and is useful if they're the only one available on a shop, and you have a Big Spender. However, as soon as you order the 1hr+ ones, you're locked out of that shop for that period, and if the other items go out of stock, you have a downtime.

Perhaps it's best to maintain uptime on the short period orders, and only pull the long period ones when you're going to bed or somesuch. You miss out on the 'Flurrys' by not having all items stocked, or the full benefits of Celebrities, but the cashflow might be smoother.

2

I'd just add one more strategy; big spender management. Figure out which floor or two floors have the most inventory, and use your upgraders there. Ideally, you want to send your big spenders to those levels when they are empty of level 1 and 2 items, and have a lot of level 3 stock, so plan accordingly. Just finished ordering level 3 stock? Avoid ordering level 2 for a while. Level 1 is okay, because when the big spender turns up, you can either wait out the end of the level 1 stock, without wasting too much time, or draining the level 3 stock too much, or pay just a couple of bux to empty it early. Paying 2 buxs to make, say, 60K money is a worthwhile tradeoff.

2

My $0.02 - If you are babysitting constantly, then it makes sense to stock the short time items, and when they are done, then stock a long item. This makes certain that you always have SOMETHING to sell.

This is especially true of something like Rebo's Karaoke: The 1 credit item takes about 10 min to stock, but the 3 credit item takes over 2 hours. 10 minutes generates a few extra credits to sell during the long stock time.

2

Its all about rhythm - matching the rhythm of the game to the rhythm of your time to play. Alex has a lot of data to show that the most expensive items are where the money is, but nevertheless I find that that stocking those first just doesn't work out for my rhythm.

When you start by stocking the low end items, you can check on the game at exponentially greater intervals. You will get many items stocked in just a few minutes, then 10 or 15 minutes later get more, then check in 30 minutes for more, then an hour for more.

This rhythm just works better for me, because I usually think about the game for a short time and as the day goes on forget about it. Yet by the time I begin to forget about it, I'm well stocked on low and middle items and am replenishing my high end items. Timing is everything! Later on in the day when I remember to come back, I'm often pretty well stocked and just maintain the low level stuff.

2

My 2c on this one.

I decided to compare a hour of trading when a store had plenty of all three items in stock compared to an hour of the same store when it only had level three items in stock. In each case I didn't go out of stock.

I found that the number of items sold remained reasonably consistent, but in the case of having all three stock items in place some items were sold at a lower value.

Test 1) Only item #3 - sold 583 in 1 hour = 583*3 = 1749 credits
Test 2) Only item #1 & #3 - sold 598 in 1 hour = 307*1 + 291*3 = 1180 credits
Test 3) All items in stock - sold 589 in 1 hour = 72*1 + 202*2 + 315*3 = 1421 credits

My conclusion is that where possible you should aim to sell only item#3 except for during restocking. So currently I aim to have each store selling item#3 only and whilst that is happening I restock item#2, when item#3 runs out I hit the stock button to start selling item#2 and then restock item#3, as soon as item#3 is ready I hit the stock button.

Clearly as has been mentioned before rhythm is critical and a sense of when you are next going to perform stock up keep. In my case before I go to sleep I let the store sell both item#2 and item#3 in stores where I think item#3 will run out overnight. It's a balance. For high quantity stores like Imperial Court I'm not stocking item#2 until item#3 is low. This is to let me view the stock levels, as a problem with my strategy is that stock levels can't be viewed without accepting a 'stock' item.

At my stage in the game, which is 29 stores, I am seeing passive store stock be consumed at about 600 items per hour with a level 3 (14PPM) elevator. I'm hoping that'll increase to about 860 with the 20 PPM elevator.

5
  • Thanks for the additional answer to this question. It's good to see a newcomer post a well thought out, reasoned answer to a question. +1, and keep the good ones coming.
    – David M
    Dec 31, 2013 at 15:31
  • Thank you David. I have an additional observation to offer. I compared 30 minutes of passive selling with the game actively running (screen on) but no interaction with it to 30 minutes of selling with the game shutdown/frozen. CONCLUSION: The stores sold TWICE as much when the game was shutdown/frozen. NOTE: If you are actively playing the game and delivering bitizens to levels and getting credits for that then you could well balance this out. In my case in 30 minutes I would need to deliver the equivalent of six ? bitizens to level 50 to make up for the slower selling rate.
    – Mark
    Jan 3, 2014 at 11:36
  • I ran out of time to to edit my comment, but I think I did the maths wrong for how much work would be required to make up for the slower selling rate. I have 29 stores that sell product at ~600/hr, not all have enough level 3 stock to last, but on average I'm guessing perhaps 29 stores x 225 items in 30 minutes x 3 credits/item = 19575 credits, half of that is ~9800 credits, so I'd need to deliver twenty four ? bitizens to level 50 earning 400 credits each time to make up for the shortfall. Big Spenders and earning Bux still require active play of course as does bitizen management.
    – Mark
    Jan 3, 2014 at 11:51
  • I upgraded my elevator to the 20PPM one. It moves faster and gives 5x which is all nice, but the reason I bought it was in the hopes that it would increase passive selling. It doesn't. :( My stores still sell @ ~590/hr whatever stock they have.
    – Mark
    Jan 6, 2014 at 9:18
  • This is the same conclusion I came to, but you've gone a bit further, "I aim to have each store selling item#3 only and whilst that is happening I restock item#2, when item#3 runs out I hit the stock button to start selling item#2 and then restock item#3, as soon as item#3 is ready I hit the stock button." What a great optimization!
    – Adam Davis
    Feb 25, 2014 at 20:36

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .