Simcountry is a multiplayer Internet game in which you are the president, commander in chief, and industrial leader. You have to make the tough decisions about cutting or raising taxes, how to allocate the federal budget, what kind of infrastructure you want, etc..
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The Math of Simcountry

Topics: General: The Math of Simcountry

Jabberwock j

Thursday, May 17, 2012 - 02:49 pm Click here to edit this post
I'm new and wondering if anyone has a link or reference to at least some of the formulas used for the calculations in Simcountry?

Specifically I'm looking for material on the micro of corporations. (Any others would be good too) For example how is net income calculated here?

Is the actual monthly revenue "Products Sold last month"? Also what goes into expense? When I take what I assume is revenue and subtract tax, etc. i'm not getting the net income reported.

As another example, I'm looking for the actual tax rate of the citizens? It looks like 24 - 25%, but it would be nice to see documentation on it.

The game looks like an awesome economics game.

Thanks to any for the help.

Scarlet

Thursday, May 17, 2012 - 08:57 pm Click here to edit this post
They don't document the formulas for most things, not to mention that many things fall victim to "banana smoothing" to make it easier for the children to play. Anyway, in short:

Products sold last month is revenue.
Tax is based on profit.

Income Cost
Products Sold 4,465.57M SC$Turnover last month
Salaries Paid 718.09M SC$Salary Cost
Raw Materials Used 1,582.33M SC$Cost of Material used
Fixed Property Cost 236.19M SC$Fixed Cost
Maintenance Products Used 327.82M SC$Maintenance Cost
Interest on Loans 0.00M SC$Interst paid
Country Resources Used 980.74M SC$
Total: 4,465.57M SC$ 3,845.18M SC$

This is what is used to determine profit ONLY FOR THE PURPOSE OF TAXES.
Salaries Paid
Raw Materials Used should be the "Last Price Paid" for each product actually used in production (except factory maintenance) multiplied by utilization and base amount used per month. This is a different kind of smoothing that breaks down the large materials orders to an accurate reflection of profit. This has been known to be erroneous in some cases.
Fixed property cost is loosely correlated to the Q & E upgrades a corporation has (more upgrades means higher cost). It will also be significantly higher for state than private corps.
Maintenance Cost is exactly like Raw Materials Used except the facility uses the reported number of FMU no matter what the utilization is. This number increases with Q upgrades.
Country Resources Used should be directly proportional to products sold and only this. Previously heard reports of smoothing, but too busy to investigate.

THESE NUMBERS ARE USED TO DETERMINE TAX.

Now, don't get that mixed up with this:
Cash at start of previous month 79,012.80M SC$
Salaries Paid -718.09M SC$Salaries paid last month
Interest Paid 0.00M SC$
Country Resources Used -980.74M SC$
Fixed Property Cost -236.19M SC$Fixed Cost
Maintenance Products Bought 0.00M SC$
Raw Materials Bought -1,742.61M SC$
Raw Materials Sold 0.00M SC$Materials Sold Last Month
New Loans Taken 0.00M SC$
Loans Paid Back 0.00M SC$
Tax Paid -40.10M SC$Tax payments
Profit Payment Paid 0.00M SC$Profit transfer payments
Upgrades Bought 0.00M SC$
Damage Repair Paid 0.00M SC$
Products Sold 4,264.11M SC$Turnover last month
Manual Cash Transfers 0.00M SC$
Automatic Cash Transfers 0.00M SC$
Income New/Cost of Retracting Shares 0.00M SC$
Cash beginning of this month 79,559.17M SC$


These are the numbers that matter.

Another thing to especially note is that Last Price Paid for products and Products Sold Last Month are the only accurate ways of determining how much your products sold or were bought for. Last price Paid is theoretically open to errors, but I'm more referencing the fact that (Q * Market Price * Amount Sold/Used [which can be estimated by amount at 100% * utilization]) doesn't equal either of these numbers and in the case of Products Sold way overestimates expected revenue by up to 10% in some cases. (irrespective of Trade Strategies). If you contract goods or direct sale them, they will sell for market price.

Please note: it is entirely possible for the corporation to be reporting losses on the first sheet I mentioned and cash to be increasing on the second and vice versa. Also, if you own an enterprise, I recommend completely ignoring that garbage Finance Sheet.

Not sure how the tax rate of citizens is determined. For sure, the tax rate seems to be higher in some cases and lower in other (checked two countries getting 19% and 28% [tax income / total income of all workers]). Someone theorized that Tax Rate is related to average income by some formula involving LN(X) because well, that's the most obvious way to do it (which SC doesn't exactly have the best track record of following that kind of mindset), but we never got around to testing and I'm too busy to bother checking myself.

CrazyEye

Thursday, May 17, 2012 - 10:09 pm Click here to edit this post
Jabber I know you dont I. You used to be a member of 3m about 2 years ago

Jabberwock j

Thursday, May 17, 2012 - 11:18 pm Click here to edit this post
Thanks for the info Scarlet. From what you said I gather a lot of trial and error is involved. I never thought to see if e was involved in growth, though that does make sense.

I did play the war game pretty heavy two years ago (hi crazy) and generally just let CEOs into the country for profit. The game looks to have changed a lot, and I'm curious of the mechanics now.

I appreciate the the response!

xiong

Sunday, June 17, 2012 - 01:30 am Click here to edit this post
i'm interested in real time cashflow, if i sold or bought something, i wish it would automatic add or subtract from my financial statements. at the moment, i don't think they do so i never know what money i have, until i log in the next time then i'm either positive or negative on cashflow.

i wish there are formulas what products affect another products.


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