I’ve been playing an amusing game with some friends called “Schedule 1” which is a simulator of what it’s like to be a drug dealer. Not something I’d ever engage in for real, it is an interesting look at the work that goes into production and sales of an illegal substance where you build an empire!
One of the interesting aspects of this game is monitoring how “addictive” your products are. If they get the users too addicted, they will hunt you down in the street. This can get you in big trouble with the police, who will search your inventory and send you to jail. This is usually a cutscene that leads back to your “home” and results in you losing cash on hand and any product you had in your inventory.
The main challenge in this game is mixing things with your product to produce traits that are what the customers want. Each triait has a multiplier that impacts the price of the product. For instance, a product that contains the trait “schizophrenia” will have a modifier of 0 added on, so the price of the product doesn’t go up. However, more appealing traits like refreshing, calming, etc. have bonuses that stack together. The math for this is BaseCost (1 + trait bonuses). This means if you have 4 traits that give bonuses (e.g. 0.45, 0.12, 0.56) you will end up with a modifier of 1.13. Base Cost ( 1 + 1.13) = BaseCost (2.13). For the lowest base price of 35, that would make the product worth 74.55.
So, you have to take into consideration the cost of production, mixers, and (if you’re using a dealer) the profit loss from them taking a cut of the sales.
I haven’t added in the cut from dealers yet, and I don’t include the overhead for buying the one-time purchases needed to grow/cook the products. This is a simple little program to calculate what mixers to use to gain the best results for financial gain and leveling up in the game.
