COO always prefers to buy from factories.

[thiarcher]

I configured my COO to always prefer warehouses and not care about shipping costs, but it still prefers to buy products directly from factories instead of the warehouse.

Is this a bug or am I not understanding how this works?

[Stylesjl]

Not entirely sure how it works myself but can you take a look at the prices charged by the warehouse compared to the factory? From what I understand price is still a major factor in buying decisions even when the trade is internally within the same company (it shouldn't be but it often is). I suspect that your warehouse is making a 'Profit' and your COO is seeing that the factory is a 'Cheaper' alternative.

[David]

We will investigate the problem.

Could you please provide us with your save game file and let us know the following?
1) Which version of Capitalism Lab you are using. You can see the version number on the top-right of the main menu.
2) The exact steps for triggering the bug with the save game
3) If your savegame uses a MOD, please let us know the name of the MOD and the MOD's version number.

You can find save game files of Capitalism Lab from the C:\Users\<your user name>\Documents\My Games\Capitalism Lab\SAVE

You may provide us with your save game file by posting it here on the forum as a ZIP file attachment or emailing the save game file to us at info@enlight.com.

If your save game file is too large for attachment, you may check out this post about how to send us large files: https://www.enlight.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2473

[thiarcher]

We will investigate the problem.

Could you please provide us with your save game file and let us know the following?
1) Which version of Capitalism Lab you are using. You can see the version number on the top-right of the main menu.
2) The exact steps for triggering the bug with the save game
3) If your savegame uses a MOD, please let us know the name of the MOD and the MOD's version number.

You can find save game files of Capitalism Lab from the C:\Users\<your user name>\Documents\My Games\Capitalism Lab\SAVE

You may provide us with your save game file by posting it here on the forum as a ZIP file attachment or emailing the save game file to us at info@enlight.com.

If your save game file is too large for attachment, you may check out this post about how to send us large files: https://www.enlight.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2473

I am sending you the save game by email.

Version 10.0.42
No mods.

Please confirm that you received the email.

This issue completely frustrates the gameplay.

To reproduce the issue, simply go to a retailer and let the COO choose the source of the product, he will always choose the factory instead of the warehouse.

[David]

The COO prefers to buy from your warehouse if the overall ratings of the products are the similar. So if your factories offer better ratings, the COO will still buy from your factory.

I suggest that you do a test like this: try decreasing the prices at your warehouse substantially (like cutting it by half) and see if the COO will order from your warehouse.

[thiarcher]

The COO prefers to buy from your warehouse if the overall ratings of the products are the similar. So if your factories offer better ratings, the COO will still buy from your factory.

I suggest that you do a test like this: try decreasing the prices at your warehouse substantially (like cutting it by half) and see if the COO will order from your warehouse.

How did your test go? I lowered the warehouse prices by half, removed the suppliers, and even so the COO went back to buying from the factories.

I think this issue needs to be analyzed in the code, there is something wrong. We should have the option to force the COO to always buy from the warehouse regardless of price or quality. The volume output from the warehouse is much higher to serve large quantities of retail stores.

[David]

Which products did you refer to? I looked at the factories and warehouse producing computers and the factories all have enough capacity (its supply is larger than the demand).

Besides the overall rating, the AI also considers the product supply from factories/warehouse.

Did you see a situation where all the factories' capacities are full and the AI still bought from them, instead of the warehouse?

Since it is fairly complex and any changes to the AI without thoroughly analyzing the case will impact all other players who didn't find any problems with the AI, we need to be very careful on this and try to find out the real cause.

[David]

Which products did you refer to? I looked at the factories and warehouse producing computers and the factories all have enough capacity (its supply is larger than the demand).

Besides the overall rating, the AI also considers the product supply from factories/warehouse.

Did you see a situation where all the factories' capacities are full and the AI still bought from them, instead of the warehouse?

Since it is fairly complex and any changes to the AI without thoroughly analyzing the case will impact all other players who didn't find any problems with the AI, we need to be very careful on this and try to find out the real cause.

[thiarcher]

Which products did you refer to? I looked at the factories and warehouse producing computers and the factories all have enough capacity (its supply is larger than the demand).

Besides the overall rating, the AI also considers the product supply from factories/warehouse.

Did you see a situation where all the factories' capacities are full and the AI still bought from them, instead of the warehouse?

Since it is fairly complex and any changes to the AI without thoroughly analyzing the case will impact all other players who didn't find any problems with the AI, we need to be very careful on this and try to find out the real cause.

So, I simply removed the supplier and let the COO find a new one, he always went to the factory. The problem with this is that it really makes it difficult to manage supply and demand.

Since you mentioned it, I remembered this one too. I have also seen that the warehouse often has high demand and low supply, and there are factories with high supply and low demand that are configured to send products to the warehouse but do not send them.

Why is this? A bug?

[thiarcher]

I'm going to send you an email now with an example: the city of Colt, the notebook warehouse is experiencing high demand and a lack of supply. Factory 11 is in the same situation and one of its customers is a retail store.

Wouldn't it be ideal for the factory to send the product to the warehouse (which is also experiencing low supply) and then it would be sent to the retail stores?

That way, it would be much easier to manage supply and demand. Having to look at each factory is very micromanaging and discourages you from playing the game.