Chapter 86.2
Ample Time: "That’s pretty much what it means. For example, if I want to buy an exoframe now. Then the engine, steel, sensor components and other equipment of the exoframe will have corresponding demand. If Life Profession players want to make this money, I have to be able to afford the price first. But where does my money come from? Of course from the tasks. The same goes for most players!"
The simple truth was that if a game intended to put a piece of equipment on the store shelf, it would definitely make it affordable for some players.
Either use banknotes to buy some coupons, or take time to farm in game currency.
So on the whole, the total income of Combat Profession players will not be lower than that of Life Profession players, because the latter needs the businesses from the former.
Even if the value is inflated, the two will inflate together.
For example, when players’ genetic sequence level reaches LV10, and when an abandoned shelter dungeon is discovered, maybe the reward for clearing that abandoned shetler will be as high as 1,000 or even 10,000 silver coins?
This is not impossible!
Old White asked immediately. "So the first echelon is still Combat Profession players?"
He was a strength type player, and naturally this was what he cared most about.
Ample Time nodded. "It can be said that at least when the battle is still the main theme, the 'lucky guys' must be those who fight on the front line of the battlefield. The only difference is which genetic sequence will be the luckiest! Combat Profession players do quests to earn money from NPCs, while Life Profession players earn money from Combat Profession players. In this way, the economic chain in the game will form a closed loop, and the value will not easily inflate. There won’t be a situation where players would have a lot of money but cannot buy anything, or there are a lot of things that no one wants to buy."
Gale thought for a long time with the bowl and added. "It can only be said that the current economic model of the shelter is military-oriented. Perhaps when the external environment changes, such as the export system is added or we need to sell goods to other survivors' settlements, then this theory may not necessarily be true."
Ample Time said in a relaxed tone. "Yes, so the lucky guys I'm talking about are not absolute. As for the possibility you mentioned, I don't think it will be added to the game anytime soon. We have not even solved the Bloodhand Clan's threat, and the map of Boulder City hasn't been opened yet."
Gale: "Indeed."
Old White thought for a while, then suddenly spoke. "But based on what you said, doesn't it mean that someday in the future, Life Profession players will usher in a strong period?"
Ample Time said with a smile, "Buff and nerf rotation is the norm, isn't it normal in other games?"
Old White: "Should we also build a steel plant and reduce risks? If Combat Profession players are not popular one day, we can still make money from the steel industry."
Ample Time rolled his eyes at him. "...You know how to make steel?"
Old White said with a smile, "I don't know how to make steel, but I can make bricks and cement! Especially bricks. There are many brick factories in our hometown. They have a type of kiln called continuous kiln. All you need to do is to place bricks in the kiln cart and then push the cart along the track into the kiln. As soon as adobe bricks are sent in from the back, the burned bricks will come out from the front. They can be used immediately when they cool down. I heard that the big continuous kiln can even have a daily production capacity of millions of bricks!"
Night Ten: "...Holy shit, for real?!"
Gale: "The selling price of the red brick of the shelter warehouse is one silver coin per one hundred, and the purchase price is four copper coins. The theoretical income of one million bricks produced per day is four thousand to ten thousand silver coins? But I think with the conditions of the current outpost and the setting of Wasteland Online, it is not realistic that you want to build a brick factory covering a big area."
Old White: "I know! Besides, investing in such a brick factory needs at least twenty million Chinese yuan in real life, not to mention the equipment. How much steel do you think it will need?"
Ample Time: "In fact, we don’t need to produce one million a day. If we can produce ten thousand a day, we can still earn forty to one hundred silver coins a day. According to the daily salary of ten silver coins per brickworker, as long as the daily production capacity is more than a thousand bricks, we will be able to make money. If it’s less than one thousand, it’s better to go to the administrator to apply for a professional low-income subsistence allowance for brickworks."
Night Ten: "Question, what's the concept of ten thousand bricks?"
Old White: "Smaller than two cubic meters."
Night Ten: "Uh, is it hard to make?"
Old White: "If you use the most primitive mud kiln, and burn it for three days and three nights, you can produce four or five cubic meters of bricks, which is more than two thousand bricks. If we find a larger area and build a few kilns, the continuous one I mentioned.. Hmm, brothers, why don’t we build a brick factory? I think it is actually feasible!"
Ample Time: "Do you think the outpost has land for you?"
Old White chuckled and said, "There is no harm in trying, right? Anyway, winter is here, and there is not much prey to hunt. Why don't we start this brick factory first? By the time we need to build our guild, we also need bricks as well.”
Gale stroked his chin and nodded. "You are right... If everyone wants to build a house, the demand for bricks will probably be greater than for equipment."
At this time, Ample Time also recovered and realized that he had overlooked a very serious problem.
"Wait... How did I forget this? Wasteland Online is not a traditional MMORPG. Players need more than equipment. In that case, the demand for bricks may really be a lot!"
Old White: "A wall with a standard thickness requires 128 standard bricks per square meter. You can count it yourself."
Brother Mosquito and Brother Scrambled Egg fell into a moment of daze after hearing this.
"Holy shit, can I join in!"
"Huff! It's so tempting!"
Ample Time shook his head. "You both have lands already, so don’t take risks with us. Focus on your own industry is the right way. And you two don't just listen to Old White’s nonsense. By then, I am not even sure if we are able to reach the daily production capacity of two to three thousand bricks."
Seeing that Ample Time didn't believe him, Old White didn't worry and said with a hearty smile, "It will definitely be more than two or three thousand bricks! When I go back, I will ask my fellow villagers how to increase the output. Don't worry guys, when the guild system is added in the future, the income of the brick factory will be the funds of our guild! Although I can’t guarantee anything, we will not forget you guys!"
Ample Time put down the bowl and stood up directly. "Long delays cause complications.
We are definitely not the only players who can think of this. I propose that we should submit the application as soon as possible and get the approval before other people do. We may even be able to trigger hidden tasks if we submit the application early… Old White, how much space does it take to build a smaller brick factory?"
Old White touched his chin and said, "four hundred square meters should be enough, a kiln is about 5*5, almost two meters high… I guess."
Ample Time nodded. "Okay, then apply for four hundred square meters."
Night Ten: "Awesome!"
Gale: "Boss, let me join in as well!"
The four players didn't dare to delay. They hurried to the warehouse to buy paper and write an application without finishing their dinner.
The order in Shelter Warehouse No. 404 had clear requirements for brick materials and specifications, which were similar to standard bricks in reality, with a size of 240mm×115mm×53mm.
One cubic meter of bricks is about 685 bricks.
At present, the brick-burning process in the industrial zone has been improved from the original stacked firing to a sunken pit that was easier to control the size, higher internal temperature, and consumed less fuel.
However, although the temperature of this kind of pit kiln was higher than before, from "one production per three days" to "one production per day", the output still cannot be increased.
Even if the two pit kilns were used together, the daily output was between one thousand four hundred and one thousand five hundred bricks, which was almost two cubic meters together.
Chu Guang had calculated it before: the daily salary of a brickworker was ten silver coins, and if he needed the kilns to run twenty-four hours non-stop, the labor expenditure would be twenty silver coins.
According to the [purchase price] set by the shelter, every one hundred bricks was worth four copper coins. So the maximum daily output of a kiln was only worth six silver coins, which was one thousand five hundred bricks per day.
Even assuming that these bricks would be sold out as soon as they were produced, based on the [selling price] of one hundred bricks per one silver coin, the daily output value was only fifteen silver coins.
Obviously, regardless of whether it was six or fifteen, with the labor cost as high as twenty, it was a "huge loss"!
It was equivalent to the shelter paying these brick workers for doing something that was not profitable.
'Was this reasonable?'
From the perspective of a shelter administrator, this was obviously unreasonable.
If two workers were hired, and each with a salary of ten silver coins per day, the daily output value must be at least twenty silver coins for the shelter to be able to make any money.
Calculating based on the warehouse purchase price of four copper coins per one hundred bricks, twenty silver coins correspond to the output of five thousand bricks, which was two thousand five hundred per person.
Otherwise, if the shelter didn't want to lose money, the price of bricks must be increased or the income of the brick workers must be cut.
But if it was done this way, other problems would arise.
If the pricing was increased, too much increase would cause demand to slump. If everyone couldn't afford bricks and all chose wooden houses instead, the demand for cement would shrink, and the cycle would become unstable.
It was even more unrealistic to reduce the income of brick workers. Making bricks was not a great job. If players couldn’t make ten silver coins a day, no one would do it.
Even if the lumberjack profession was nerfed twice, a lumberjack could still earn ten silver coins a day after paying the renting fee for the ax!
Looking at the application form in his hand, Chu Guang just thought about it for less than half a minute, and made a decision without hesitation.
"Approved!"
The four players of Bull and Horse Squad showed joyful smiles on their faces.
They just wanted to give it a try, but they didn't expect it to be approved!
'This is awesome!'
Moreover, before they could celebrate, the Administrator's next sentence made them even more excited.
"Your application has triggered a hidden task. Do you want to receive it?"
"If you receive it, you will get a budget of five thousand silver coins. In exchange, the shelter will hold eighty percent of the shares in the brick factory."
Five thousand silver coins! ?
The four players were instantly blinded by the silver coins, and they shouted almost in unison.
"I'll take it!"
"Yes, yes, yes!"
Chu Guang nodded in satisfaction. "Very well, I will allocate land for you next."
After saying that, Chu Guang took out a map of the wetland park, stared at it, and thought about it for a long time.
Looking at the pensive administrator, Night Ten, who was waiting for a while, couldn't help whispering to Old White next to him. "I thought the land allocation announcement would be done together in the afternoon."
"Why do you care about these small details so much!" Old White glared at him, fearing that the administrator would change his mind, and said in a low voice, "Isn't it better to approve in advance?"
Ample Time: "Yes! You can shut up."
Seeing his teammates staring at him, Night Ten chuckled apologetically. "I didn't say it was bad, I was just a little curious... Besides, don’t people always say that when it is strange, something will definitely go wrong—"
Before this guy could jinx it, his mouth was covered together by several hands.
Although Chu Guang heard the whispered exchanges of the players, he did not pay attention to it.
Brick factories were different from steelmaking. The latter required a little bit of research and could be temporarily placed in the "urban area" before its production capacity inflates. The former did not require very high technical skills, or it was better to say, that it did not require advanced technology, but a large amount of fuel and soil.
Therefore, the map that Chu Guang was holding was not an outpost map at all, and he had no intention of arranging the brick factory in front of his home.
"The location of the brick factory is about one kilometer northwest of the base by the river. There are rich clay resources, and the surrounding trees can be used as fuel."
Pointing to a 100X100 grid on the map, Chu Guang looked at the four players, and then said,
"I thought about it. The four hundred-square-meter layout is still too small to be used. So I plan to grant you all of this ten thousand square meter of land."
"Please use it properly."
'Ten thousand? !'
The four players were instantly dumbfounded.
However……
This land was not in an industrial zone at all!