Varying labour costs

[jamespetts]

One anomaly about the Simutrans economy is that the relative costs of various things do not change with time. I understand - and quite agree - that absolute inflation (the increase of the average prices of everything) is not desirable in Simtrans, since it introduces a whole range of purely financial management elements that have no real relevance to transportation at all, but that is not so for the relative inflation or deflation of one type of commodity over another.

The significance of that is this: even factoring in general inflation, a steam train was far more expensive to run in 1960 than in 1860 (at least, in developed countries). The reason for that is that steam trains have a far higher labour cost than their diesel counterparts, and that the cost of labour was far higher in the 1960s than the 1860s compared to, say, the cost of materials. Moreover, the cost of unskilled labour was substantially higher in comparison to the cost of skilled labour in 1960 than it was in 1860. Thus, it became far cheaper to have trains that took a lot of highly skilled people to design and build, and a lot of expensive materials to construct, but needed very little in the way of unskilled labour to maintain. The same did not hold true for less well-developed countries, some of which still use steam traction because they find it more economical to do so where the cost of labour is very low (it costs a lot less to buy a steam locomotive because they are far simpler to build). Steam traction is just one example: the principle applies in many other respects, too.

The consequence of not having a measure of this in Simutrans is that the relative costs of things are skewed, such that players are incentivised to do quite different things in the game than they would be in reality. That is potentially confusing for players, who will naturally in a simulation game tend to assume that what works in reality ought more or less work in Simutrans, and vice versa, and unsatisfying for players who realise the dissonance between the reality that Simutrans is purporting to simulate and the mechanics of the game that so purports.

It would, therefore, be advantageous to have some measure in the game of the varying relative costs of labour, materials, etc.. So, for each year, there could be an index representing the various relative costs of, for example, unskilled labour, skilled labour, materials and energy. If all the levels are set to 100, the costs actually stated in the relevant .dat file applies. At above or below 100, the actual price is multiplied by a 100th of that number (which, in effect, acts as a percentage), taking into account a proportion value, specified in the .dat file, of each of the indices. So, for example, an asset with a running cost of 10.00c/km and, say, a labour value of 70 and a materials value of 30 would cost 10.00c/km with labour and materials each set to 100, 13.33c with materials set to 200 and labour at 100, 17.77c/km with labour set to 200 and materials set to 100, and 20.00c/km with both set to 200. The system should be able to be disabled through a setting in simuconf.tab, where the default amounts would apply at all times. The relative labour, etc., costs over time would be set in a configuration file in the same format as speedbonus.tab.

The difficulty that would have to be overcome is that the paksets will not contain that information without being rewritten. The solution, as ever, is for the code to make intelligent guesses where the information from the paksets is missing. Each category of assets (roads, railways, steam rail vehicles, electric trams, etc.) could have a set of default values specified in simuconf.tab that apply whenever an asset of that type is missing data on the relative costs, which should be a good enough approximation for most purposes to work well.

That should avoid anomalies in the game, make it easier for pakset authors to balance their fleets for pricings over a period of time that can exceed two hundred years in some cases, in a manner that is both realistic and easy for players to understand. It should also introduce fresh challenges into the game for players, who would now need to keep an eye on the ever changing (but still deterministic) economic position to make intelligent decisions about the management of their fleet as time progresses, and, crucially, make different kinds of decision as time goes on.

As ever, I should be interested in any feedback, although, for those who prefer the game to be simple, please bear in mind that I am proposing a system designed for those who prefer a more in-depth, realistic and challenging game, that I appreciate that not everybody is interested in an in-depth, realistic and challenging game, and that the proposal specifically contains the ability for such a feature to be disabled by anybody who does not want to use it.

[AP]

Is there also a similar claim to be made about the cost of construction of track and earthworks? The C19th unskilled labourers (I presume) costing far less (even without inflation) that would today's workforce to excavate and build a similar length of railway.

[jamespetts]

Yes, indeed, the same principle can equally apply to all costs in the game.

[Fabio]

on the other hand, digging a tunnel now is relatively cheaper than digging one in 19th century, because of the improved technology... and so on...

[jamespetts]

on the other hand, digging a tunnel now is relatively cheaper than digging one in 19th century, because of the improved technology... and so on...

Absolutely - at least, digging a modern tunnel is. The interesting thing is that digging tunnels is less expensive in proportion to laying ordinary track than once it was.

[Fabio]

Absolutely - at least, digging a modern tunnel is. The interesting thing is that digging tunnels is less expensive in proportion to laying ordinary track than once it was.

Actually this is what i'm planning for the new pak128 tunnels:

track speed/intro year|	track cost|	bridge cost|	tunnel cost
50 / 1850	25	200
70 / 1908	50	350	925
120 / 1929	100	600	1250
160 / 1950	200	950	1675
240 / 1962	400	1550	2550
320 / 1978	800	2500	3000
400 / 2011	1600	4000	4000