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Author Topic: Manufacturing Profitability of Mundane Items  (Read 1627 times)

Offline Mycenius

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Manufacturing Profitability of Mundane Items
« on: July 02, 2024, 02:15:33 am »
Hi - another quick question - regarding Manufacturing Profitability of ordinary (non-Alien Tech) items. I know OXC & OXCE display the profitability in the manufacturing screen; and there is the original Manufacturing Profitability tables for the vanilla gear on UFOpaedia that was done by MikeTheRed for the developed (i.e. Alien Based) tech. But just curious if anyone ever did similar table for the mundane items, the stuff you can manufacture very early in the game or from the initial research not reliant on Alien Tech or Lasers or similar? I.e. are their things to manufacture for sale that are worth the effort to generate a useful income stream early on with only limited numbers of engineers before your research starts getting up to the higher value stuff like lasers, etc? Would be interesting to see such a comparison (for OXC or Vanilla)?

Offline psavola

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Re: Manufacturing Profitability of Mundane Items
« Reply #1 on: July 02, 2024, 07:56:14 am »
Hi - another quick question - regarding Manufacturing Profitability of ordinary (non-Alien Tech) items. I know OXC & OXCE display the profitability in the manufacturing screen; and there is the original Manufacturing Profitability tables for the vanilla gear on UFOpaedia that was done by MikeTheRed for the developed (i.e. Alien Based) tech. But just curious if anyone ever did similar table for the mundane items, the stuff you can manufacture very early in the game or from the initial research not reliant on Alien Tech or Lasers or similar? I.e. are their things to manufacture for sale that are worth the effort to generate a useful income stream early on with only limited numbers of engineers before your research starts getting up to the higher value stuff like lasers, etc? Would be interesting to see such a comparison (for OXC or Vanilla)?

If you look at the table you possibly refer to (https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Manufacturing_Profitability#Profit_tables) closely, there are two entries which require minimal research (and not alien tech): medikit and motion scanner. Both provide positive money stream with minimal research, with the motion scanner being better. I've probably seen a table where this has been calculated for all the items, but what's the point - it is well known that in UFO these are the lowest hanging fruit for making money with manufacturing.

Offline Juku121

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Re: Manufacturing Profitability of Mundane Items
« Reply #2 on: July 02, 2024, 10:44:33 am »
There's also the profitability table in section 5.4 of the old Unofficial Strategy Guide and FAQ.

Offline Mycenius

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Re: Manufacturing Profitability of Mundane Items
« Reply #3 on: July 02, 2024, 12:13:57 pm »
If you look at the table you possibly refer to (https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Manufacturing_Profitability#Profit_tables) closely, there are two entries which require minimal research (and not alien tech): medikit and motion scanner. Both provide positive money stream with minimal research, with the motion scanner being better. I've probably seen a table where this has been calculated for all the items, but what's the point - it is well known that in UFO these are the lowest hanging fruit for making money with manufacturing.

Thanks psavola - yes I had seen those so was just curious if there was anything else that you can do virtually from the start that made any sense - in vanilla X-Com isn't the Medi-kit present from the start, so you wouldn't manufacture it anyway (but would the motion scanner)? And obviously I realise its different in OXC / OXCE especially with things like FMP or similar with expanded tech tree and research so takes slightly longer (but not much) to get to motion scanner, for example?

There's also the profitability table in section 5.4 of the old Unofficial Strategy Guide and FAQ.

Thanks Juku121, yeah I found Kasey's SG & FAQ a few days ago and have read a bit of it but hadn't come across that section as yet... I will have a look at it tonight!

Offline psavola

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Re: Manufacturing Profitability of Mundane Items
« Reply #4 on: July 02, 2024, 07:50:15 pm »
And obviously I realise its different in OXC / OXCE especially with things like FMP or similar with expanded tech tree and research so takes slightly longer (but not much) to get to motion scanner, for example?

Mods very often change the various costs of items that were present in vanilla, engineer expenses, etc., so none of this information can be used with mods.

Offline Mycenius

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Re: Manufacturing Profitability of Mundane Items
« Reply #5 on: July 03, 2024, 01:18:17 am »
Mods very often change the various costs of items that were present in vanilla, engineer expenses, etc., so none of this information can be used with mods.


Hi psavola, yes all good thanks, do understand that - was just looking at it from vanilla perspective; and to identify what items to look at first when using mods to see if they still make 'similar' economic sense...
 :)