Join the new world

Well did everyone enjoy the fight for the Azores? For most of us that will have been our first experience with the new military module and for many of us who own arms businesses it was a booming good time. In fact the only people who made out better than the various weapons industries are the food producers. With this in mind I believe that the net effect of this module change will be inflationary.

My sense is that the inflationary pressure will occur over two stages. The immediate problem will be in food prices. The one way for people to improve their health that doesn't involve spending Gold is through food purchases and for the most part that will be through the purchase of "high protein" (high wellness) foods. Over a sustained period of combat this will likely put strain on existing producers, at least until the elimination of "Happiness" (something I'm not entirely "happy" about; I think it's something they could work on, but I'm likely in the minority) which may in turn lead to higher prices until production can be boosted. Boosting production will in turn lead to higher wages as manufacturers vie for workers.

A second concern is Weapons supplies and the resumption of production in companies. Figures are difficult to interpret given the way that the transition was undertaken, but the weapons supply in most areas is down significantly from before the transition which took all companies off the market. Currently there are 13 artillery companies on the market as opposed to 21 before the transition. Total inventory on offer has dropped by 324 units following the introduction of the new module, and that figure is deceptive as companies have moved moved inventory from storage onto the market. This "back inventory" is not currently being replaced. Similar drawdowns are being seen to a greater or lesser extent in Tank and Air Units. At the same time not all of the companies are hiring new employees as yet. My own company Bren Guns is looking at liquidating our inventory before hiring new employees (to supplement my current three zombies) in order to make some customization modifications. As a result there is likely to be a problem with sustaining usage intense military operations until existing inventory is used up. Once that occurs we are also likely to see an inflationary jump as these companies enter the job market forcing wages up. At the same time weapons prices are likely to fluctuate as business owners discover true costs of production.

One are where I'm almost certain that we face problems is in Q5 Tanks. The government decided on a policy of low import taxes for Tanks on the grounds that we don't have a domestic Iron industry and that others could produce tanks cheaper than we could. That was fine so long as you could fight for days with a single Tank thanks to the durability factor. With the changes in durability however combat is going to use far more weapons than under the previous system. This in turn means more tanks are going to be needed worldwide. And since most companies that export don't merely have licenses for their home market and Canada but for a number of countries, I am concerned that companies are going to shift inventory to those markets where they can sell the most units at any given time.

At present my major concerns are as follows. We are going to see short term inflation with wages and food prices likely to increase. I think that we are going to see significant short term fluctuation in weapons prices as manufacturers try to discover an accurate "cost of production" under the new employee formulas, and what they can charge that will allow them to make a usable profit. Things are going to start getting interesting real soon.