Post by MostWanted on May 2, 2017 15:42:20 GMT
Hello and welcome to the second part of my economics tutorials. In this one we will learn about the PPC curve and how to use it to make best use of our scarce resources. Scarce resources are any resources we have in game that are not infinite. Example: grass, stone, iron, wood etc. To achieve the best and efficient economy, we need to make the best use of our scarce resources. Production possbility curve you can see above shows all possible combinations of using grass. Only thing you need to remember is that milk=apples, so we have bread and apples, not bread and milk.
As you can see, we can be at the top point, for example producing only bread. We can be somewhere in the middle, producing some bread and some apples, and last, we can be on the bottom of the curve and produce only apples. It's our choice where on the PPC curve we want to build up our economy.
This PPC curve is also a GRASS PPC curve, because it tells us how to use our very first and basic resource (grass).
Options for using grass:
- Ale farms (for beer) - Not recommended. Go back to the first tutorial and you will see that one of the determinants of equilibrium is demand. The Demand for beer in the market is small, which you can see on example of inns. They need 1 ale farm to support 300pop (8 inns). Making 10+ farms... Obviously inefficient. The demand for the ale (beer) is very small, therefore you, as a firm, do not want to make a lot. Usually 1 ale farm is enough. If your pop will be under 100, then I recommend 0 ale farms because demand is incredibly slow (3 inns are enough).
- Cheese farms - Cheese farms take medium space and they are only good if you can use maximum out of them. Remember, efficient economy = maximum use of your resources. Since in noffs/nof you rarely make x-bows and maces, basically because x-bows are gay, you don't want to make cheese. Another reason for not making cheese will be listed later in PPC curve for workshops after I finish with farms.
- Bread farms/apple farms - Now, we need to remember that once again, to make best economy possible, we need to be 100% efficient and make best use of resource. Bread only depends on map. If a map has divided farms (like aw-lub), you can make same number of apple farms as bread farms (12-12). If a map has free grass without separators (like 1st test or 1v1 honor or basic shc maps), you can make more bread farms than apple farms because they are smaller. (16-17/12). Now this is using full power of bread. In a map where you have grass separated and you can only make bread farms as much as apple farms, I recommend apples.
In a map that like 1st test, I recommend bread or at least bread/apples combination. Apples are simply good because they can start your economy fast and when you get bread later, you win the game.
Now, let's move to the 2nd scarce resource we have : the wood. Especially in the beginning, you dont have a lot of wood, and you need to use it the best and most efficient way possible. Now look at the PPC curve above (the big diagram). On that diagram we have to decide how to spend our wood. We can use it on bread, or on apples. It is important to remember that if we make full bread economy, we will not have enough pop and space to make worhsops as well, so again, PPC curve appears and we have to make a choice. Apples + Workshops for best use of wood, or just bread. Of course, all of these remember on map + rules, and it's up to you, but as I said, I recommend apples on maps like aw-lub and bread on maps without helpers to make farms... Also, it really depends on how much wood there is on the map. If there is wood like on 1st test, then you really want to make some use out of it, and making workshops in that case is better than bread because with bread you will have 1000+ wood left. Again, it's your choice, it doesn't really matter here.
Now let's make more choices. PPC curve again, should we produce x-bows, or pikes, swords, maces, armour?
X-bows : In nowadays SHC, x-bows are very popular because all "expert" maps have tons of wood, and x-bows simply cost most of wood, and they make best use out of it. (they take a lot of wood to produce + they cost 20 wood). If maps weren't all with tons of wood, this economy would be less popular.
Pikes: Very good choice because one of the strongest units in the game is pikeman. Not having to buy weapons is really cool and this eco also makes very good use of wood. If you plan to make pikeman, make this economy. If anyone is telling you that x-bows are better always, even if you want pikeman, he is wrong.
Maces: Very expensive, and you usually don't want to make maces. Doesn't make any use of wood.
Leather armour: Doesn't make any use of wood, asks you to forget about apple/bread, I don't recommend it. It is good in games with x-bowmans, but we never play those games so this eco never reached its full potential.
Swords: Very good option WHEN YOU DONT HAVE WOOD. If you are playing a map that doesnt have wood, so you dont have to think about best way possible to use wood (x-bows), and you want to play knights, this is the best choice. Buying 5 swords costs 295 gold, buying 5 iron costs 220. On 40 knights, you will save
3000 gold if you simply buy iron for your sword workers. Ofc, you will have to pay 4x200gold for 4 workshops, but thats still 2200gold in +, therefore swords workhsops for knights ARE VERY GOOD on maps without wood.
Armour: Can be used for multiple good units (pikes and knights), easy to set up, makes use of iron, fast, it is simply good.
And thats it for the PPC and economies, conclusions:
- Nowadays, sword workshops are not popular and x-bows are popular because maps have too much wood. Let's start playing maps with less wood.
- Bread is good on maps with free farms.
- Leather and cheese are not good because crossbowman are gay.
- Buying iron for sword workshops on maps without wood is extremely good.
