Global Commodity Market Prices

[delicate hinge]

Remembered posting this reply; #1175733738357919744 message, decided to give it a new thread.
Tying into another suggestion I made: #1171851859196125194 message

As the title says; **a global commodities market that provides modifiers to the prices of goods in your city. **

Under the hood; essentially a simple table with a decimal number for each good that is pulled from when calculating the cost of that good. Every day (½ day?) that table gets updated with a random tick up/down within a certain limit (standard deviation?), whether it's negative or positive somewhat weighted on whether the previous change was positive or negative, mimicking trends.

You'd be able to look at these global commodity prices [GCP] in an economy window tab that would probably be laid out similarly to the production tab, but with graphs instead of production chain diagrams on the right.

On top of the regular, steady trends up or down, there would also be 'Global event modifiers' that effect one or more GCP beyond those usual limits. Presented to the player as news items with a short blurb of flavour text, a link to them popping-up in chirper
from a news org's chirper account, they would be split into two categories: 'Spikes' and 'long term trends'

• Spikes: A sudden, steep spike up or down in the GCP of certain goods caused by things like:

• Collapse in demand (e.g. due to an import ban)

• A supply shortage caused by disasters, embargoes/blockades, etc.

• Long Term Trends: A guarantee on the [larger] size-range of the scheduled updates of certain good's GCP and/or whether they will be negative or positive for a set period of time. Be it a few days['months'] or a few yrs. Caused by things like:

• A growing new/old industry requiring a certain resource

• A rapidly developing economy importing lots of goods & materials to meet it's burgeoning demands.

I think it would be neat too if the central bank could be given an extra function by providing 'market forecasts' that give you forewarning of some of the 'global event modifiers' (some of them having a delay after RNG selects them) so you could prepare your city's economy.

Overall, the purpose of this feature being to have a dynamic and changing, but also steady and long term, economic 'game environment' that can make the pros & cons of importing & exporting significantly different in different cities/play-throughs, but also changing as time goes on.

Making things like hyper-specialization both viable and even have the potential to provide big rewards, but also big risks. Boom and bust economies.

(Side note: I think this, and that 'persistent outside connections cities' feature I linked second from the top, would fit nicely in a 'Global/International Cities' DLC. Which is why I used that tag. Don't have solid ideas for what else might go into such a DLC but the framework is definitely there. Anyone have any of their own ideas that would gel with that?)

[winter fox]

Very few products irl have such continuous auction markets
Most products are priced almost blindly, or produced or priced on request

[winter fox]

RL Hyper specialisation requires 2M+ actors minimum, which we don't have in C:S2

[jolly wing]

I think they should just port the system from Victoria 3 where surplus and deficit affect prices (somewhat) realistically.

[tired marten]

Meh, it is similar concept to, financial dlc in CS1..
Don't worry there def going to expension dlc on all features.. Industrial, Green eco friendfky...lol

[delicate hinge]

I'm assuming you mean actors simulated/rendered within the city? Or maybe to some degree; actors virtually simulated for the simulation of a global market? I'm curious to hear more about what you mean. Although that said, everything in C:SL2 is an approximation by the nature of it. 'Hyper-specialization,' as I was using it, was very much me communicating a general concept of a city more heavily dependent on one industry than is currently incentivised within C:SL2's simulation.

[delicate hinge]

For instance, time in C:SL2 is one of the best examples of approximation within the game.
When I said;

"Every day (½ day?)–"
In the games terms I was actually saying; 'every month (½ month?)'

[delicate hinge]

They could do that. I think this is sort of simulated by the fact if you have a deficit your companies have to import goods from the edge of the map, incurring a transport cost, although a surplus doesn't lower the price beyond that.
The main reason I picked this separate global price system for the suggestion is this sense through the game-play that you're interacting with a wider world and that your city is part of a larger economic landscape. Making this aspect of the simulation that's static and unchanging the opposite of that. An analogy being being a ship's captain steering a ship across a shifting and changing ocean. As a player, you have a large amount of control over surpluses and deficits, once you're on top of them they're going to stay pretty steady.

[delicate hinge]

In theme, I guess. Although this would more directly affect the core simulation rather than act as a mostly separate mini-game type of extension.

[jolly wing]

I remember testing a city with deficits all over the place and it didn't seem to make much of a difference. Companies were still profitable and everyone was wealthy. It just doesn't feel like anything you do has much consequence. When it comes to trading, if each of the outside connections has their own Vic 3 style fluctuating prices, it could render certain production chains and trade routes unproductive forcing you to adapt dynamically

[delicate hinge]

I like this concept, it's sort of what I had in mind when I made this suggestion; #1171851859196125194 message
having these visible/unique outside city profiles **but **also having them fluctuate based on your interactions with them would be neat.

When I was writing the OP above, I was figuring that these outside cities are the regional market, with the global market overlaid on top. This modifying factor that's truly out of your control. Now I've got the thought of the global market affecting outside cities in the same way your city's trade with them would.

[jolly wing]

Yeah it's a good idea. Another actor could be the government, considering we are playing as a city and not a country. Maybe asking to meet certain import/export quotas or enforcing different minimum wages, tax rates etc. I'm sure they will add something like this in the future probably as dlc🤑

[delicate hinge]

Oh yeah! Reminding me of this post I left under the first Economy 2.0 Dev diary about the idea of government grants replacing government subsidies. This concept of a mini-mission type gameplay feature.

I imagined most of these grants would be for basic service improvements, but I could also imagine, later in the game, government grants offered in response to 'Global event modifiers' (OR if you have built the central bank; 'market forecasts'). Something like:

'Expand your metal ore mining industry to create a surplus of [x] in one year' OR 'Expand your steel production industry to create a surplus of [x] in one year'

in response to;

"Construction boom sends global demand for steel skyrocketing. Prices expected to grow continuously for [x] months/years"

Perhaps the reward for this being a reduced tax on steel/metal ore?

[jolly wing]

I'm working on a suggestion of my own regarding the function of the central bank which I'll probably post after I get a feel for Economy 2.0. But yeah they should add more of the political and economic stuff that make Vic 3 so great. It could start with most of it being imposed like you propose, and in the late game maybe after unlocking the CB and some other government buildings, like a ministry or a parliament, your city becomes capital. After that you have full control of policy and can set your own goals.

[delicate hinge]

Oh! Got the ~narrated Transport Fever 2 historical campaign modes~ on the brain after watching City Planner Plays play one, but I'm imagining one of these mini-missions popping up at some point that would be;

The government is looking to shift to a new capital do x, y, & z to meet the requirements they're looking for.

It could be the end goal of some sort of 'Campus-DLC' style government district DLC that you begin with a grant-task you can accept like;

The government is seeking to expand the civil service in your city's region, construct a bureaucracy/ministry office