Though I am shying away from open market orders, I'm embracing with both arms open wide fitted ship contracts. With our ambitious goal of taking and keeping Heydieles for the Gallente, this seemed like a great opportunity to use my industrial skills as a big force multiplier.
After tinkering with a sheet from another corp member, Vic Vorlon, I was able to really enable the work on the scales I'm used to. Thanks to the members filling out a table of fits, I am able to task out a JF load with extreme efficiency. In the last week, I've pushed over 3B in fittings to Heydieles... to say nothing of the shipments for the POS project along with that.
Experimenting with published sheet data.
Challenges
But, I'm running into some issues in providing these contracts. Chief among them is "20% markup?! You're crazy! #goonfucking". To which my chief response is "Push Button, Receive Bacon" comes at a cost. If I can't get paid for the time required at rates I think are appropriate, then I will simply stop the practice. Flying in fleets is way more fun than the JF dance.
Yes, my rate is high. But I would counter that "emergencies are expensive". If you're stocked ahead of time, and put your efforts into being prepared, you don't have to pay my margin. If you're lazy, or too busy focusing on the major corporation goal to stabilize Heydieles, then the mark up should be gladly paid. Someone else spent the time for you! I know for a fact that these contracts have enabled local FC's to reship the fleet quickly and flip fights that would have otherwise been lost. That edge has a cost.
I by no means hold a monopoly, and I am doing my best to tune prices effectively. The margins on frigates are wider since they are our primary tool, but narrower on the cruisers to prevent price being a reason to avoid an escalation opportunity. There are at least two or three other guys who can help shoulder the burden, but haven't been able to meet the immediate demand. If we can get more effective coverage, I am more than happy to bow out to others. I'd even prefer to not be in the business... it's a lot of cash to leverage, and the payout time is slow.
I hope to have a more complete report of the effort once Heydielese is properly secured. The hope is that I can ween down stocks after this weekend or next weekend. But until then: For the Federation!!!
2 comments:
Lots of players have very unrealistic expectations when it comes to this stuff, usually because they can't wrap their heads around the idea that it takes a lot of time to repeatedly fit that many ships and set up contracts one by one. You should log your hours on a typical run and see if your critics would be willing to take on some of the responsibility for free.
I've found that PVP vs Industry arguments are almost like Hatfields vs McCoys. Instead I'm just trying to provide a reasonable ceiling for the effort. If others see it as lucrative to cut me out of the business, then so be it. In the interim, I am happy to shoulder the initial burst and be the hero with the Anshar.
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