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[Erratum: I apologize for the error and the necessary editing of the article. I have mistakenly assumed resources of a given group (food/weapon) influence only the corresponding companies (e.g. deer -> hunting lodge), whereas each unique resource increases production for all raw materials and final products in the group. The corrections are inserted in italics.]

I wish to continue the analysis of developing a company base, moving on from the weapon companies described in the previous article. Although the situation is very clear in that case, not many people realize this, as can be seen by the market supply. I think it is worth reiterating that producing low level weapons is a loss of money and energy.

The basic alternatives are raw material (RM) companies and food. I will leave houses (and their RM) for another article, since they require hiring, which complicates things a bit. The simplest case is just producing RM and selling it right away, so let us look at it first.

One immediately notices the strange price pattern of the company types (this hold for all RM), when calculated in gold. Taking the reference exchange rate of 200cc = 1g, the daily production and prices of types 1 through 5 are

35 for 7.5g, 70 for 15g, 125 for 10g, 175 for 42.5g, 250 for 35g.

They give the production/price ratios of 4.67, 4.67, 12.5, 4.12 and 7.14, respectively. The companies sold for gold appear much better, but these ratios alone cannot be taken as the definite criterion. This stems from the fact that production happens daily, while the price is paid only once. The situation is simple with the first two types: buying 2 companies with 35 production costs the same as buying 1 company with 70 production; it also gives the same amount of RM daily. However, the former require 20 energy, while the latter only 10 energy per day. On average the ratio of productions is equal to the ratio of required energies.

Consequently, the 3rd company beats the first two, because it only requires 10 energy per 125 production for 10g, and to achieve the same production with the 2nd company one would need 10*(125/70) = 18 energy, and pay 15*(125/70) = 26.79g! The 4th company is slightly more energy efficient than the 3rd, as one would need 10*(175/125) = 14 energy to produce 175 RM with the smaller company, but the initial cost would only be 14g as opposed to 42.5g of the larger company - a considerable difference.

Obviously the last company is the most energy efficient, exactly twice as much as the 3rd. It is however more expensive to start: 35g as opposed to 20g for 2 companies of type 3 (for production of 250). At the same time it is much better than the 4th, being 250/175 = 1.43 times as energy efficient, and 1.73 times cheaper - the equivalent cost of the 4th type company would be 42.5*(250/175) = 60.71g.

How do regional bonuses influence the above? In the case of Japan right now, border stability is poor, so I would not recommend adjusting companies to regions. In the case of perfect stability, there should be bonuses for all materials, so there is no differentiation either. In any case, any food resource gives the same bonus to all type of companies, so no difference between them can arise.

To summarize the initial analysis, it is best to start with the third type of raw material companies, but in the long run it will be more energy efficient to switch to the fifth type. Eventually the companies will pay for themselves, but the energy cost will remain. So having 20 companies of type 3, will generate an upkeep cost of 200 energy per day, while the same amount of RM can be produced with 10 companies of type 5, with only 100 energy.

Turning to earnings now, the market price is usually between 0.02 and 0.03 for weapon RM and between 0.03 and 0.04 for food RM. So the profits can be expected to be

Weapon RM type 3 and 5 profit = 2.5 to 3.75cc and 5 to 7.5cc,
Food RM type 3 and 5 profit = 3.75 to 5cc and 7.5 to 10cc.

Keep in mind that these are per day and per 10 energy. Also the regional bonuses modify these by 10% or 20%, so the above are then multiplied by 1.1 or 1.2 respectively. This now allows for calculating capitalization rate (CR), or how fast the company is paying for itself. To do this, we divide the monthly income by the initial cost and get

CR = 3.75% and 2.14%, for type 3 and 5 weapon RM,
CR = 5.63% and 3.21%, for type 3 and 5 food RM,

where I used the lower RM prices, because they are more common. CR gives the part of the initial cost returned each month (so higher is better). How long is the payback period? Simply divide 100% by the above number to get the number of month after which the company will have paid for itself. The fastest one is the type 3 food company with 100/5.63 = 17.78 months.

Le us move to producing food now. As with weapons, analyzed previously, there are two options, buying or producing the required RM. A level 1 food factory will require 100 RM and 10 energy daily, and its initial cost is 10g. Buying RM for 0.03cc and selling Q1 food for 0.06cc gives

Q1 food factory profit = 100 * (0.06 - 0.03) = 3cc.
Q1 food factory CR = 4.5%.

Producing the RM, could be realized in many ways, but with changing bonuses there are usually leftover materials anyway, so as an example let us take a level 1 food factory and type 3 RM company (20g total initial cost). 100 food will be produced, and 25 RM left, selling all will give

Q1 food with type 3 RM profit = 100 * 0.06 + 25 * 0.03 = 6.75cc,
CR = 5.06%,

with the lowest prices again. Keep in mind this is per 20 energy as opposed to the above, but this is still better than two Q1 factories with external source of RM - in that case the profit is just 6cc per 20 energy.

The regional bonuses change things by increasing the RM consumed and the production of both RM and final products. Sticking to food, and the price of 0.03 for RM, the following combinations might be of interest with the 100% resource bonus:

Company Setup = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Food RM type 3 Q1 factory + buying RM Q1 factory + 1 Food RM type 3 2 Q1 factories + buying RM Food RM type 5 3 Q1 factories + buying RM

Cost = = = 10g 10g 20g 20g 35g 30g

Profit = = = = 7.5cc 6cc 13.5cc 12cc 15cc 18cc

CR = = = = = 11.25% 9% 10.13% 9% 6.43% 9%

Energy = = = = 10 10 20 20 10 30

Profits and energies are given per day, while CR is given monthly. There are other possibilities but obviously regions influence this aspect immensely. Type 3 RM companies still beat their competitors in CR, although not in profit; while type 5 RM companies retain better energy efficiency.

I do not want to go into too much politics here but the above dependence on regions is also one of the reasons why the so called "training wars" should not happen only on one country's ground all the time, if the parties involved are to be called equal allies. More than just taxes is forfeited in such a scenario.

In conclusion, the correct choice to make when starting new businesses is to go with the food companies first, RM companies of type 3 (10g) as the source of income/materials together with factories. As the RM requirements rise due to upgrades, and daily energy cost increases, type 5 RM companies should be favored over type 3. The regional bonuses can ultimately double production so all of them should be represented in regions .