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[Taricus]

Actually that's just what the nations pay or the take-home profit from those sales after expenses.

[Khamsin]

Okay, there's a lot to take in here and I'm a little bit boozed up, so forgive me if I'm not clear. I'm thankful for all the questions you guys, it's really helping me deal with developing the ruleset, especially the obvious crap I've missed.

Anyways.

The first thing is a fundamental question of the game. Alliance can be very helpful, rigging it in favour of your companies. However, it's not in the way you're currently thinking. Making one side win will be... difficult, and not exactly your aim. NATO and the USSR are not in the business of letting these countries fall, and it's possible they'll get major support from these sides. So what an actual alliance would look like is this: one company sells something to one side, the other to another, and they each have forewarning so on the following turns they can develop countermeasures for each ofher's products in a cartel fashion. The problem is that there's only one winner to this game.

Anyways, yeah, I should have made it clearer to you that you could only do it if you choose beforehand.

The prices are the prices for you to produce that much. You can mark up as much as you'd like. 50%, 75% and below are generally safe, but higher and you may suffer reduced demand, whereas selling them for less may give you increased demand. Point is: sell it for what it's worth.

Also you can only do a number of revisions equal to your labs, same rules as designing.

Spoiler: Wow, that is some bad luck. (click to show/hide)

Well, there's nothing for it. The Nereid is going to have to be redesigned from the ground up. Only Success. Comms are a necessity for basing subs, but we'll have to be less ambitious with the recon systems; it'll have to largely rely on the Pontics themselves as its Lovecraftian swarm of creepy floating eyes. We're also including a redesigned electromagnetic mounting bracket that will hopefully leave less room for operator error. An improved design will be produced as quickly as possible.
The Pontic-1 is less overwhelmingly unsuccessful; some paring-down of the feature creep should bring it to acceptability. Scrap the torpedoes. Vessel-to-vessel was never the Pontic's purpose, and that space can be used for supplies instead. We'll attempt to improve the stealth capability even more to make up for this, but also, divers with limpet mines are a pretty effective way to take out ships, so it's not a huge loss. Scale back the design to suit the core purpose of amphibious assault.

Is this acceptable?

Also, it seems like alliance is an inevitable possibility in any multiplayer game - we could just discuss our plans separately and work to make complementary designs, after all.

Yep, that seems pretty acceptable to me.

[Tiruin]

Anyways, yeah, I should have made it clearer to you that you could only do it if you choose beforehand.

The prices are the prices for you to produce that much. You can mark up as much as you'd like. 50%, 75% and below are generally safe, but higher and you may suffer reduced demand, whereas selling them for less may give you increased demand. Point is: sell it for what it's worth.

Also you can only do a number of revisions equal to your labs, same rules as designing.

Can you edit the clearer-beforehand to apply to the whole phase then? Thanks ahead!
Honestly it just makes it all easier--CEO bonus happening passively instead of 'GAMBLE ON THIS ONE!'

Also what prices? o_O I thought that's the income (plus silent expenditure amount).
Actually I've no idea what they still mean without a demonstrative example >.>
Because I spent 70M designing those things   Also what is a mark up (I'm more forgetful what and how they mean/work .-.
And my # of labs do not mean they're restricted to one type--I can revision both or neither or only one. But yeah, just side commenting on this last line. Everything above is a query for when you're better feeling.

Spoiler: Arbores Technologies; Turn 1, Revision Phase (click to show/hide)

Revision #1
> Arbores Technologies decides to aid its advances by spending that 20M on making the armor easier to mass produce (lessening costs on their side)
Arblar was quite a new name, and coincidentally had a similarity to the name the researcher and her team who had discovered the components for making it had--and as it was synthesized, it was the researcher's wish to put all profits to the company, given how she saw the extent of the company's products being humanitarian in nature. It was dedicated in her honor for devising its construction, and its work made into what the company hoped to be a record in the history books.
All that was needed now, as there were plans for its future usage based on predictive analysis in future revision stages, was to try and make production easier to produce.

Revision #2
"Err, twenty million...is twenty million." One financial manager was overheard saying, what with clear cut budgets and a complete lack of corruption present.
> Revision that Medical multikit! (Focus: Durability/better quality/distribution, and in other words diversify it from being just a set/series of kits)
Analysts noticed how jargon and a lack of academic standards were present in the first rulebook--it lacked typographical errors, and its translations were in the least 'understandable', but in translation there was the problem of an equality of 'language'.

- Instructive writing based on academic findings; writing needs to be more straight-forward and requires use of words or expressions that are scholarly yet reader friendly.
- As much as possible, use simple sentences (rather than compound or complex ones) and use vocabulary words that are scientific yet not very technical.
- Use contextual terms as to how the mother tongue uses them in context; additional lingual consultancy via journals or scientific studies is advised.

Other than the numerous linguists provided for in outreach with all the money being spent, marked survivalists were also asked on numerous methods on how they would perform with what unfamiliar materials were present and instructions given versus the same materials but with a lack of instructions in a situation. Controlled studies were performed, alongside consultancy with battlefield surgeons and other medicare professionals even from WWI. Analysis of terrain and weather also brought insights into possible vectors of diseases that would cover the young soldiery, from marshlands, swamps, and the heat and climate, which brought on assumptions that tactical harnesses and other locomotive vests would be a variable for adequate medicare, alongside supplementation of contextual work. There was enough budget to even consider additional diversification other than the above diversification, including deployment of kits within marine/air vessels and land vehicles in their own rights, and this was added to complete the budget after miscellaneous budgeting was considered. Precision tools to be produced en masse, including the machinery utilized for such (and perhaps, even later models or similar products) were to be installed in the company too--inclusive with employee pay and rigorous attention to possible details for the money spent on revisions. The CEO refused any additional profits and even pushed her own aside in favor of these products being planned for--noting that marketing would pay for itself, as well as future action using these products as baseline.

[Maximum Spin]

The price per unit is separate from the price to design a thing. You pay your design workers to design something, but then you also have to pay for the actual materials and labour to build them. So, eg, if the price per unit is $1 and you have $5, you can only make five units, and you'll want to sell them for more than $1 each if you want to, you know, profit.

[Shadowclaw777]

Spoiler: And that's the way luck goes... (click to show/hide)

Efficaco industries have made some interesting developments, and while some even with technological supervision from Mark himself, has one of the designs to be... underperforming, it will still through some revisions become a welcome-addition to naval fleets. And the other design, has also made interesting advancements.

Revision 1: Bloodletter-Destroyer: Rotational Air-Cooled Cannons; The current cannons employed with thick metal husks of 12.7mm autocannons have a tendency to jam and overheat and with limited turning speed. These new cannon have air-cooling holes in each of the barrels which will result in the cannons having a significantly decreased chance of overheating or jamming under continuous fire, and with sleeker cannons will result with the bullets having less friction which will mean less kinetic energy hitting the barrel, which results in overheating being less likely. Also to help with the rotational and  mount degrees an autocannon can use, gyroscopes and rotational gears will be applied to the auto-cannons giving them the ability to hit those pesky aircraft.
Revision Goals:
-Advancements towards sleeker auto-cannon's barrels with air-cooling holes, will result in the bullets having less friction when there coming out, which results in less jamming and overheating (less kinetic energy touching the cannon)
-Utilize a method of gyroscope and rotational gears on the auto-cannons, to give them the rotational and angle of fire needed to potentially fire on aircraft

Revision 2: Metal-Variant BFBAR: In a goal to make this weapon the mass-produced infantry service rifle of the war, polymer just meant that it could only be used by officers and specialists. For it to actually act as a service-rifle, costs of this rifle has to go down, which means one of its central components have to be altered, the part of it being fully made out of polymer. Instead switching it to a nearly-metal variant of this bullpup rifle, it will be much cheaper to mass-produce and be put on the front-lines
Revision Goal:
-Create a variant of the BFBAR out of metal, so that's it cheaper to mass-produce, and can be used as a service rifle for the average infantryman.

@Khamsin, one of the designs states that it can use technology from another company, can my company go and buy that technology, or would it require a revision so that I can have that technology on my design?

[Khamsin]

@Shadowclaw, the way that works is that the mentioned device is actually from the USSR. It's unlikely that they will sell to you. But it allows your buyers to still have the capability without having to use an option from you.

[Madman198237]

PTW.

This looks like a very fun but dangerously documentation/bookkeeping-heavy game.

I kinda want to just start posting vague advice for fun and profit. Anyways, this should get very, VERY interesting.

[Khamsin]

It is now the Marketing phase. Choose which products you'll be marketing to which countries. Apply your bonuses, set your prices. In addition, I will be introducing STOCKPILING. You can produce units without a buyer to stockpile them. I may be introducing manufacturing limits, making what you sell more strategic. For now, though, it won't be very useful. Also, please start adding your company sheets to your turns.

Spoiler: Oxalis (click to show/hide)

Nereid Mod 1 Roll: 7 Price Reduction: -$3 Million
The Nereid has had a severely reduced ambition, but the renewed focus has brought some very good points into the design. For one, two mini subs will now fit, attached to the boat, and a newly designed magnetic clamp means that they're a lot more stable in transit. Cutting down Comms equipment has helped, reducing things to decent ranges but upping the reliability heavily. The issue to remain mostly untouched is cost: primarily, the expensive materials and such have been cut down a small amount, but only shaving off a portion of the Nereid's hefty cost.
Pontic Mod 1 Roll: 7 Price Reduction: None
The Pontic has also seen the advantages that a second wind has brought the company. The removal of torpedoes and a slight increase in size has increased operational capcities for cargo. Limpet mines and a seven-day trip for a five man team is now possible. Stealth capabilities have also been increased with a new bubble-reducing engine modification. The Pontic is now a fine, if expensive, mini-submarine.

Spoiler: Arbores (click to show/hide)

Arblar Armour Roll: 10 (Holy... Somebody is looking out for this goddamn body armour.) Cost Reduction: Special
Arblar Armour has some problems: cost and time to produce, with cost being a factor of the second. Expensive chemical synthesis remains the only method of creating Arblar. The solutions, therefore, are twofold. One is finding more effecient ways to produce the chemical, and one is finding more effecient usages of the material. Both avenues succeeded very highly in this endeavour.
The first avenue was increasing production, and it succeeded more or less. The actual reagents for producing the Arblar are not going to get any cheaper. However, by simple economies of scale, larger vats, bigger production lines give a discount when buying in bulk. (ARBLAR IN BULK: Gain a -20% discount on orders larger than 3 Battalions worth of Arblar. )
The other line of reasoning has developed a different usage of the Arblar. More effecient usage of a smaller amount of plates creates a light vest suitable for main-line usage. However, it suffers some drawbacks compared to regular armour. Pistol ammunition still has difficulties penetrating the armour, but rifle rounds will only be slowed down. However, they are good against fragmentation.
New Product: Light-Duty Vest Cost: $5 Million
Multipurpose Medkits Roll:1 (This is insanity. Get some normal rolls please.) Cost Reduction: None
The Medkit revision for 1960, however, only produced an extra $10 million loss for the company as a batch of prototype Medkits is lost in a warehouse fire. No progress is made due to the loss of the prototypes, and there is nothing but wasted time.

Spoiler: Efficaco (click to show/hide)

Bloodletter: Rotational Air-Cooled Cannons Roll:5 Cost Increased: $1 Million
The Bloodletter's new cannons have had some new benefits, primarily the ability to fire at slow-moving aircraft and helicopters. It's definitely an increase in effectiveness, but the cost of cooling only increasing a slight amount. Barrel changing is frequent to deal with the cooling issues of those guns. The Bloodletter has seen a number of improvements and is more on the way to becoming a powerful destroyer, but it'll take more time.
Metal-Variant BFBAR Roll:6 Cost Decreased: Special
The BFBAR has also seen incremental improvement in replacing a lot of the furniture with heavier steel. This has seen a heavier rifle with some reliability issues in the changeover, but one that is very suitable for mainline usage. The new rifle is heavy, and the metal construction gives some issues with reliability. Jams happen infrequently, but enough to linger in the back of a trooper's mind. It doesn't take the edge away from this new revolution in small arms.
New Product: Metal BFBAR Cost: $3 Million per Battalion

[Tiruin]

. . .Ya know, I'm kinda wishing that this wasn't just a mechanics based test game, but I have these good times stored in memory anyways. Why don't I ever get as good things when I'm in games?! This never really happens to me!

Also shakes fist at warehouse fires. That was a ONE!

Cost Reduction: Special

I don't know how to work with this.

Also have you given thought to re-mod'ing the CEO bonus to 'least rolled roll' instead of 'pick and gamble'? :3
You can restructure it when you do run a game if you believe it may be too OP! But we'll never know unless we push this way.

Also², how do we do marketing? Just mention what we sell? I've no idea what PRICE to put if I should put any... >.>
Let's see. 70M for design. 40M for renovation. Now I have THREE things to sell! :I Hum!

Spoiler: Arbores Technologies; Turn 1, Marketing! (click to show/hide)

COMPANY SHEET
Name: Arbores Technologies
CEO Name: Alisa Talasse
Background: Engineer-led
CEO Type: Business-savvy
Current Money: 390 Million
Labs: 2
Motto: Quality is service.
Bio: Arbores Technologies is a dedicated company towards production of utilitarian products, focusing on quality rather than quantity of produce, durability over superficial desirability, and progress over short-term needs. It is a relatively new company, however its capital being invested into its workforce and quality analysis departments, and company goals being towards innovation and meeting the needs of mankind, makes it heavily reliant on the changing world around it--as its profit margins have been adjusted to invest back into improvements and quality of life for both its employees and focus on quality. For its workers, generous benefits packages and quotas are expected, and company training includes mental health care alongside an internal culture of egalitarian principles, following the core value of human dignity over all.

Looking over the results of weeks of revisions and work, the latest accident hit Arbores Technologies hard. While they had kept archival backups, it was the applied sciences that were lost--whole configurations and proof-of-concept products. Nobody had been killed, and the oversight was thoroughly investigated to a lead cause of external error (of whom it may seem, would be deduced to human interference?), but the time was on for marketing! And sadly, given the lack of what would have occurred--things did not look hopeful.

Spoiler: Draft (click to show/hide)

> Market out Personnel Armor, and Light Duty Vests
- If I have to pick, add my CEO +1 to Armor sales. If there's no '+1 to least rolled thing', do it for Personnel Armor :v

> add things here to say
wait an extra 10M loss means I lost 30M on that revision because of the 1?

[Shadowclaw777]

Spoiler: Company Finances T1 for the Efficaco Industries (click to show/hide)

COMPANY SHEET
Name: Efficaco Industries (EI)
CEO Name: Mark Chander
Background: Engineer-Led
CEO Type: Tech Wizard
Money: 500 Million-110million (1 complex design, 1 moderate design, and 2 revisions)= 390 Million
Labs: 2
Motto: The Future Shall Come
Bio: After WW2 and the events following it, their was a new revolution in the way of modern thinking about technological use and its own growth had been questioned. The company is a subsidized private company located in the UK, that as of all the allies, have taken their own share of the German scientists. This company is to help make Britain into diverge into advance technological innovations and developments that would further the cause of the waning British empire. Mark Chander, a fellow lead researcher for the British during the world wars, has always had a fascination for Latin and which he names his company over. Given assignment from the government for such a important task, Mark has desire to support his own patriotism but also remain a private company. 

Spoiler: secretive marketing, yes-yes, very deceptive... (click to show/hide)

Three Items to sell here the Polymer BFBAR, Metal BFBAR, and the Bloodletter-Destroyer
Hmmmm let's sell everything at base-price and than add +1 million so that their is a net-profit. Actually that's a pretty bad idea, 50% increase in costing should be much more fair
Sale Pricing:
Bloodletter Class Destroyer: 45 Million per ship
Polymer BFBAR: 8 million per battalion
Metal BFBAR: 5 million per battalion

Market the Polymer BFBAR, Metal BFBAR, and the Bloodletter Destroyer to both Ivy Communist State and Jinda Keys. Get those tasty contracts...

When communicating trade deals to the state financial communist buyers in Ivy, tell them that as a British Colonial supporters, claim that as an Arms Company that they really hate the Jinda Keys for defeating their British overlords, they need to be exterminated for their betrayal of the Crown.

When communicating trade deal to the private financial capitalist companies in Jinda Keys, tell them as a fellow British company that supports the UN, tell them of your innate hatred as an Arms Company against communism, and that removing communism is the reason this arms company was created by the Allies.

@Khamsin, because I made one of the designs have two products version of themselves, I can attempt to market them both, correct?

[Maximum Spin]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

startup OXALIS Manufacturing Corp
business-savvy CEO Erik Maeda
$550M$480M in capital holdings
2 labs
Only Success

Spoiler: Marketing (click to show/hide)

I'm applying my marketing +1 to the Pontic, since the Nereid serves as support for it.
A fully kitted-out Nereid + 2 Pontic costs $45M to build; I'll sell that for $70M. But that's a bulk deal on the Pontics - the Pontic-1 will cost $26M individually. The Nereid, individually, costs $22M. I'll market predominantly to Jinda, but I won't turn down orders from Ivy. Oh, and, if I can't manufacture these on demand and have to specify how many to make, I'm looking to sell at least 4 full kits. But if they'll take more of them I'm happy to oblige as far as possible.

[Tiruin]

I can't make a post unless the mechanics are fleshed out x.x
Wasn't it abstracted in the past so people don't have to deal with quantity of any single product and more just that there is the design?
Or on "markup" for that matter ._.

[Madman198237]

Tir, I do believe you choose how many battalions' worth of the stuff you're going to produce and try to sell.
I think.

Spoiler: Also Tiruin. Keep your eyes out, competition! (click to show/hide)

Your "Special" cost reduction means you get discounts on producing more than 3 Battalions' worth of the things, if I'm reading it right.

Markup is "How much are you selling for, compared to how much it costs you to make."

So, if you have something that costs 100 million, and you sell it for 120 million, that's 20% markup (And is INSANELY low for the weapons industry. 50% markup is FAR more common, if not much, much higher)

[Tiruin]

Let's get a post in then, at the best point of my guess-ature

It is now the Marketing phase. Choose which products you'll be marketing to which countries. Apply your bonuses, set your prices. In addition, I will be introducing STOCKPILING. You can produce units without a buyer to stockpile them. I may be introducing manufacturing limits, making what you sell more strategic. For now, though, it won't be very useful. Also, please start adding your company sheets to your turns.

I hope I am not too lost since the two other folks did their thing!

[In which things are now FIXED in this post, but not edited into the prior one!]
Let's see. 70M for design. 40M for renovation. Now I have THREE things to sell! :I Hum!

Spoiler: Arbores Technologies; Turn 1, Marketing! (click to show/hide)

COMPANY SHEET
Name: Arbores Technologies
CEO Name: Alisa Talasse
Background: Engineer-led
CEO Type: Business-savvy
Current Money: 390 Million (380M if I misunderstood that 'additional 10M')
Labs: 2
Motto: Quality is service.
Bio: Arbores Technologies is a dedicated company towards production of utilitarian products, focusing on quality rather than quantity of produce, durability over superficial desirability, and progress over short-term needs. It is a relatively new company, however its capital being invested into its workforce and quality analysis departments, and company goals being towards innovation and meeting the needs of mankind, makes it heavily reliant on the changing world around it--as its profit margins have been adjusted to invest back into improvements and quality of life for both its employees and focus on quality. For its workers, generous benefits packages and quotas are expected, and company training includes mental health care alongside an internal culture of egalitarian principles, following the core value of human dignity over all.

Looking over the results of weeks of revisions and work, the latest accident hit Arbores Technologies hard. While they had kept archival backups, it was the applied sciences that were lost--whole configurations and proof-of-concept products. Nobody had been killed, and the oversight was thoroughly investigated to a lead cause of external error (of whom it may seem, would be deduced to human interference?), but the time was on for marketing! And sadly, given the lack of what would have occurred--things did not look hopeful.

Spoiler: Draft (click to show/hide)

> Market out Personnel Armor, and Light Duty Vests
- If I have to pick, add my CEO +1 to Armor sales. If there's no '+1 to least rolled thing', do it for Personnel Armor :v
++ Do that +1 to Personnel Armor
Personnel Armor; Production Cost: 12M, 20% discount if made in batches of 4 or more
Light Duty Vests; Production Cost: 5M.
Both per battallion. And that's 300-800 soldiers per wikipedia :V

Medikits: Nope. Just the designs. 3M per Battalion.

> CEO Bonus applies to Personnel Armor, getting a +1 to Marketing Roll.
Markup for all is set to a flat... 25%. Meaning profits set for 3M for Personnel Armor, and 2.5M for Light Duty Vests.
> 10 orders of Personnel Armor are to be done. 120M, 20% discounted; setting at a final price of production of 96M.
> 10 orders of Light Duty Vests are to be done, too. 50M (Flat?! Or the 20%? If that applies; 40M).
> 5 orders of Medikits are made, totaling 15M.

Final moneys for me is 380 - (96+40 = 136) or (120+50 = 170) = EITHER 244 or 210M; and then a finalized 229M or 195M plus medikits.

Arbores Technologies was always public in its products, and the blow to the medikits and equipment was a media run that took up much of the CEO's time--it was however handled well, and was slated to turn into future focus on safety efforts and protocols, with the lamplight turned to the unveiling of Arblar Armor, for all personnel in need, from war reporters to personalized combat medic designs (because the Geneva Conventions still exists), with scheduled testing to be done as this proof of concept became more widely known along the military circles and the Caribbean, where Arbores Technologies was in close proximity of. . .

[Khamsin]

Okay, so, I've been busy for the last day or two so I haven't had proper oppourtunity to return and give the turn. So here I am!

Basically, all you have to do with marketing is to
a. Choose who you're marketing the goods to, and what goods you're marketing.
b. Set the price you'll be selling them for.

Nothing more is done beyond those two steps- the country will buy the amount they want from you. That's how it's gonna work for now. Adjust your turns as necessary, and then I'll get the turn rolling.