Special Report: Weapons Market Data
![Canada](http://www.erepublik.net/images/flags_png/S/Canada.png)
Azzeriath
I had originally planned this article as a patriot puff-piece condemning war profiteers, but in all honest the market's the market, shit happens and I was just angry I couldn't afford to fight more...
So here's the new, revised article framed as a market report. Specifically, I will examine the effect of the Battle of Pays-de-la-Loire. So where's all this data come from? I've been collecting market data over the last week on a daily basis, and today I had the oportunity to monitor much more closely--basically hourly.
The image below shows the data I collecte😛
The verticle axis is the lowest available cost of a Q1 weapon in CAD
The horizontal axis is time, in minutes since the battle started (plus or minus 15 minutes). The last eight hours of the battle are minutes 960 through 1440.
In blue we see the lowest available weapon price.
In red we see the lowest Q1 weapon prices available averaged over 4 days before the Pays Battle.
The green line indicates the end of the battle.
The four days before this conflict were by no means a time of low weapon consumption--the CAF was actively deployed in Romania--and over that time period the average was 10.27 CAD. In the last 8 hours of the Pays battle the time averaged Q1 weapon cost was 20.08 CAD* -- ALMOST TWICE AS MUCH!
Price spikes like this are not conducive to effective combat. If weapons had been cheaper I would have fought more, and I suspect that many of you would too. I understand that prices will rise during times of high demand, but prices at 195% are just ridiculous.
So what do we do about it? I don't know, Im just a scientist; I gave you your graph now leave me alone! But seriously... I believe that this problem can never be solved--high demand leads to high cost--but I believe that we ought to minimize the problem as best we can. Part of the solution maye lie here.
Lt. Duncan has outlined an effective method for the government to provide a moderating influence on the weapons market in times of crisis without overly meddling in our market. Don't just take my word for it--Minister Rearden posted a supportive comment too!
I won't pretend to have the answers, but I hope I've provided evidence that will encourage a discussion on the issue. I encourage you all to read Duncan's proposal and participate in the discussion on his article or on the forums. (See the CAF section)
Let's have more affordable weapons in our times of need
Let's have a more effective fighting force
Let's have a stronger Canada
I encourage you all to vote and more importantly, to contribute ideas that will move the country forward!
Long Live the Mighty North!
-Azzeriath
*This value was found using numeric integration (midpoint rule) on the time period of minutes 960 to 1440. 10 Data points were used. The last data point (at 1440) is not a real data point, but was found by linear interpolation between the 1357 point and 1498 point. If you'd like to take a closer look at the data, PM me your e-mail address and I'll get an excel file to you.
Also, keep your eyes open for more market data to be released in the near future.
Comments
numeric integration (midpoint rule), linear interpolation... AHHH!! To much mathematical mumbo jumbo 🙂
Seriously though, not bad research. I agree about the price spikes, although what made me mad was there were Q5 weapons on the market for the longest time, and then when I needed one they were all gone!!!
Haha, thanks.
Sorry about the image quality, this is the best I could get 🙁
Yeah, I was looking to fight more, but I just couldn't at those prices!
Very, very well put together Azz. Only thing I could say is have the image link to itself. (try [img]imagelocation.com[/img]
That should work I think
Thanks, Dade. Good call, I'll include it directly in the article next time, but for now here's a higher quality version:
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/4440/paysdata4.jpg
It might be time to consider some large scale state owned weapons production if we're going to be fighting more.
Note that RCH Weapons, a Weapons Company owned by The 10th RCH Platoon, continually tried to reduce market prices throughout the day. The low-end Weapons in 16-ish Price range -seen in the graph above- was in fact thanks to The 10th's RCH Weapons Co., which inspired The Duncan Reforms.
Voted & Sub'd.
I can confirm that. I actually recorded complete Q1 data: who was selling, how many weapons, and for how much. The drops recorded were due to the companies
RCH Weapons (16.53)
Casus Belli (15.75)
Weapons of Wonders (16.27)
As a Q2 weapons producer I have my theories for why the price is hugely affected even though the CAF was deployed pre war.
The average CAF soldier doesnt buy Canadian weapons they either dont buy any or end up buying in places like Romania or the USA since their prices are almost always lower then the lowest Canadian price. I believe their were several factors in the price spike.
1. the new supply change in the CAF, people wanted to up a rank so that next time they could fight more (ie. be supplied more weapons)
2. Our Weapons manufacturing core is VERY small we only have 2 Q2 producers (active) and 1 Q3 (semi-active), Domestic suppliers I mean.
3. Weapons world wide price has doubled in the last week and so many people were not exporting to Canada, due to the Taxes associated, specially since they could sell in there home countries.
4. Stockpiles in Canadian Companies were very small if non existant.
Solution? We need to encourage more Weapons manufactures. How would this be done? Simple, Fight more domestic Wars. That or have the CAF buy massive amounts of Weapons off the market at an agreed price (of all Qualities) so to increase competition and eventually demand would be there, once we compete with world prices, because WE CAN compete with world gun prices. Although it does require importing Iron with an Organization due to Quebec being unable to support our fledgling Weapons sector, along that point the government is lowering Iron Import taxes so more companies may begin suppling Canada.