# Any eRepublik players out there? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [March 24, 2009, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-erepublik-players-out-there/490545 "2009-03-24T02:32:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-erepublik-players-out-there/490545/121 "2009-04-02T21:42:07Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > How often do countries go to war with eachother? It depends on the country. In one week, neither France nor the USA has been involved in any war (until today for France) but Romania or Indonesia seem to be involved in some war or another every day. Plus, France sends the foreign legion to fight in various battles in support of allies or such things. I suppose that other countries do the same, hence that if you’re a good soldier in a not too small country, you might be fighting very often, even if your country isn’t actually at war. I suppose small countries don’t fight any war, generally, except when they’re conquered. But we haven’t been playing for long. There are also many countries that are technically at war with each other even though they don’t actually fight. They just never signed a peace treaty. The USA and France have been at war for months, for instance. > [@](#): > > Would it be possible to take some weak country and make them a world power? I assume it would be possible, if you manage to have its population grow (either by immigration or by conquest). Indonesia is a small country in real life, and she’s now holding a large chunk of Asia and IIRC most of south-Africa and Australia. So, they probably managed to do exactly that. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-erepublik-players-out-there/490545/122 "2009-04-02T22:25:56Z")
> [@Oredigger77](#): > > Even if we aren’t looking to live in the country our company is in we should look at how the wheat resource is. There look to be only a couple of areas that have high wheat production and high other production. The other production is limited to oil and wood. With good wheat production the food should be cheaper so we would be able to pay our employees less. I would guess that our best profit margin would end up in houses based on the article that **clairobscur** read. I’m not sure we should pay attention to the cost of grain/food. Salaries will be based on whatever other companies offer, probably, not on the price of food. It’s not like our employers, during the past week, made sure we had enough money to buy food, did they? And regarding houses, that’s the one product I’m opposed to. First, they are durable (contrarily to food, gifts, tickets…) and people upgrade. So many (or most?) are probably just exchanged rather than bought on the market, probably at a discount. Second, they’re long to make, and require a lot of wood. Which means we would have to buy a lot of raw material to begin operating, pay salaries… and wait until a house is completed and sold. Third, house companies have an optimal number of employees of 20, while most (all??) others have an optimal of only ten. Which means more employees to be equally productive (and more salaries, etc..). And when I looked into the market of Q2 houses the other day, the competitive companies all had their full complement of 20 workers. I suspect it’s probably the case also for competitive Q1 house companies. And I don’t think we’ll be able to pay 20 workers (I didn’t do the maths, just guessing…but also we would have to find those 20 workers). Again, since \*\*Raza \*\*will probably be the person putting the most money into this, I’d like him to weight in. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-erepublik-players-out-there/490545/123 "2009-04-02T23:00:51Z")
I did the maths (used the calculator, I mean). I assumed 12 workers, 2 skill 0, 2 skill 1, 2 skill 2, 2 skill 3, 2 skill 4. A Q1 house would take 6.3 days to complete with this staff, and if I’m not mistaken 200 units of wood. With 10 better workers, 2 skill 2, 2 skill 3, 2 skill 4, 2 skill 5 and 2 skill 6 it takes 6.8 days, so about the same time. I don’t think we’ll have enough money to pay all these workers and all this wood for almost a week (Again, I didn’t do an estimation of the cost), and even then, those houses won’t be competitive, because with 10/12 workers, the company is working at reduced productivity. Out of curiosity, I tried too with 20 cheap skill 1 workers : 5.12 days. This time I’m trying to do a guesstimate of the cost, because it’s easier : let’s say they’re paid 1.5 each (American salary picked form the job offers) and the wood is bought for 0.75 apiece (French cost I remember from the other day). That’s 150 for the wood and 150 for the salaries. 300 $ or about 5 gold to get a house. Not as costly as I thought, actually. In the USA, houses are sold between 267 and 350 (anecdotally, the costlier houses are made by “Joe the plumber’s housing”), by the way. Plus, I just thought it would probably be boring, even if it works : we’ll all be waiting for a week before having our _first_ product to sell. And then waiting for it to be sold while the second house is being made. And finally, thinking of it too : a mistake will be more costlier. If we mismanage a food company, well… we’ll try to do better the next day. If we still fail, we’ll try something else the third day. But if we mismanage the house company, we’ll have lost a lot of money, and won’t get a second chance until the following week. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-erepublik-players-out-there/490545/124 "2009-04-02T23:39:24Z")
A funnier thought : Could we decide about the theoretical ultimate goal of our future mega-multinational corporation (like controlling the the market, being the rescuers of small countries oppressed by big bullies, being the secret puppetmaster behind the scene, whatever) and then run a contest thread in this forum for dopers to come up with a good/smart/fun name for it? Or maybe someone already has an idea? 🙂 ETA : I didn’t get my tax refund in time from the government because my employer had forgotten to forward my name, and she gave me 10 FRF as compensation. Yeaah!! ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-erepublik-players-out-there/490545/125 "2009-04-03T03:58:07Z")
I was thinking we get into the weapons industry. Start with guns, get some shiny government contracts. Maybe dabble in hospitals and defenses. With all that setup, we’ll start manufacturing wars in various countries so there’s plenty of demand for our products. The plan is fail proof! ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-erepublik-players-out-there/490545/126 "2009-04-03T04:12:25Z")
> [@tr0psn4j](#): > > With all that setup, we’ll start manufacturing wars in various countries so there’s plenty of demand for our products. The plan is fail proof! You owe me a keyboard. ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-erepublik-players-out-there/490545/127 "2009-04-03T12:58:34Z")
Regarding houses, I had the exact same thought last night lying in bed: houses are durable goods; there just aren’t that many sold. Being a noobie, I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing gifts aren’t used all that much either (fighting in a war seems a much more efficient way to gain wellness). For manufacturing, that leaves weapons, food, and moving tickets. Assumedly food is the most-bought, but the market in many countries seems saturated. Weapons and moving tickets aren’t _required_ items, but I’m guessing they are used somewhat frequently (and potentially multiple times per day, unlike food). In the case of weapons, my WAG is that the higher-quality weapons are in more demand than Q1 items - but I have no data to support that. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-erepublik-players-out-there/490545/128 "2009-04-03T13:14:40Z")
I just read an article last night that said the only benifit of weapons over Q1 was they saved you time. Basically what it boiled down to was based on the damage differences (20% over base) and the cost difference you could do more damage for less money using Q1 weapons but you had to fight more times. If buying wellness packs was included Q1 weapons were still the best. Based on that if we go weapons I would suggest staying Q1. I haven’t looked into it but vertical integration might be the way to grow the company. ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-erepublik-players-out-there/490545/129 "2009-04-03T14:05:55Z")
> [@Oredigger77](#): > > I haven’t looked into it but vertical integration might be the way to grow the company. By which you mean starting both an iron company and an arms company in the same country? If so, I’m fine with that. I’m not sure we can afford to start both right away, but if we can, super. Assumedly we’d only need one organization to “own” both. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-erepublik-players-out-there/490545/130 "2009-04-03T14:11:47Z")
Ya an iron and weapon company in the same country. Instead of creating them at the same time I was thinking of creating the second one instead of upgrading the first so there won’t be an additional cost. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-erepublik-players-out-there/490545/131 "2009-04-03T14:19:30Z")
> [@Oredigger77](#): > > Based on that if we go weapons I would suggest staying Q1. Was going above Q1 even an option? Every time I read threads about starting companies, people advised to have 40 golds (20 gold to start the company, 20 gold of cash to pay for slaries, material, etc.. until the company is profitable). Plus an organization must be created (5 gold). That’s 45 gold. Raza said he was willing to put 10 gold in this. I don’t know about you, but basically, I’ve the 5 gold I just got from reaching level 6 and almost nothing more. There is less than a handful of us, so even pooling 45 gold is a stretch (except if someone is rolling in dough). Upgrading to Q2 would be 20 gold more, and I can’t see where we would find them. Except if it’s a long term project for when we’ll have, say, hard workers medals or somesuch. By the way, personally, I would need to know if it’s a long term or short term project. Because my employer handed me a house for cheap to be repaid when I’ll reach level 6. I could negotiate with her to keep my 5 gold against maybe a reduced salary, or I could give the house back, resign and find another job (because it’s a Q3 company, and I can’t afford to stay there without a house). If it’s a short term project, I’ll try that and keep my gold. If it’s a long term project, then, I’ll keep the house and wait until money comes my way later. So, we’re talking about creating a company when? I’ll have to decide about the house/gold/work thing in quick order. ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-erepublik-players-out-there/490545/132 "2009-04-03T15:16:44Z")
I was talking about not upgrading the weapons company in the long run. I don’t really have any other plans in the game so I think long term is the way to go. As far as timing I have no money right now and it’ll be about 3 days until I get my level 6 money. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-erepublik-players-out-there/490545/133 "2009-04-03T16:28:09Z")
> [@Raza](#): > > If so, I’m fine with that. I’m not sure we can afford to start both right away, but if we can, super. Assumedly we’d only need one organization to “own” both. A citizen can own one company of each kind (2 companies of wood aren’t allowed, but one company of wood, one of iron and one of tickets is) from what I read on wiki or somewhere. I had assumed it was the same for an organization, but we should double-check. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-erepublik-players-out-there/490545/134 "2009-04-03T16:31:52Z")
> [@Oredigger77](#): > > As far as timing I have no money right now and it’ll be about 3 days until I get my level 6 money. Anyway, we must be level 9 to buy/create a company. Only \*\* Chessic Sense \*\* has reached it, and he’s away for some time at the moment. \*\* Dosipede \*\* is the closest, but he’ll need some days more to level up. So, it won’t be possible before 5-6 days, anyway. But that’s what I was calling short term. Long term, in my mind would have been, say, 2-3 weeks. ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-erepublik-players-out-there/490545/135 "2009-04-03T16:35:26Z")
I’m at 7, having gained 2 levels in the last 24 hours. I think the 3 fights contributed largely to that. No current Indonesian battles, but if there are, I’ll participate. ---
**Author:** ![Raza](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raza/32/213_2.png) [@Raza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raza)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-erepublik-players-out-there/490545/136 "2009-04-03T17:18:30Z")
There’s an Indonesian grain company (Q1) in a High Wheat area for sale for 18g: [http://www.erepublik.com/en/company/generic-grain-183052](http://www.erepublik.com/en/company/generic-grain-183052) I didn’t see anything (yet) in the docs that says I can’t _buy_ a company at less than level 9, and the Buy button seems active… ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-erepublik-players-out-there/490545/137 "2009-04-03T18:05:31Z")
> [@Raza](#): > > There’s an Indonesian grain company (Q1) in a High Wheat area for sale for 18g: > [http://www.erepublik.com/en/company/generic-grain-183052](http://www.erepublik.com/en/company/generic-grain-183052) > > I didn’t see anything (yet) in the docs that says I can’t _buy_ a company at less than level 9, and the Buy button seems active… Here’s the “experience” page on the wiki : [Experience points - eRepublik Official Wiki](http://wiki.erepublik.com/index.php/Experience_points) . The table says that at level 9 you can create or buy a company. Now, it might be outdated or something, so you could ask someone more experienced than us, just in case. Regarding this company : yes the other day, I also saw an iron company in a high region sold for less than 20 gold. And given the very large number of companies on sale, there must be a number of such apparently good deals (some even seem to have some stock, and probably equally important, some workers) available. It sure would be better to spare 5 golds and have some workers from the get go on top of it. But since I was warned against Q1 raw material companies, I’m quite reluctant to invest in them (though I noticed some manufacturing companies on sale for cheap, though). Another idea I throw in : it occured to me yesterday, while I was visiting the forum of a small struggling country, that some such small countries might be willing to advise (maybe even financially help?) potential investors. But, well… they’re small. And something else : when a province is seized, the company can’t sell on the market of the new country unless it buys a license (30 gold, IIRC). I don’t even know if it still can sell on the market of its former country. So, I think we should make sure that the company is situated in a “safe” region, unlikely to change hands. ETA : and by the way…if you want to buy a company, you should make sure it does have a license to sell in the country it is situated. I don’t know where to look for that info, though. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-erepublik-players-out-there/490545/138 "2009-04-03T18:16:13Z")
And what about the name of our (future) Megacorp? 🙂 ETA : has your food be changed into “bithday cakes” or is it only me? (it’s not my birthday, so it probably isn’t some feature of the game, appearing on players’ birthday). ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-erepublik-players-out-there/490545/139 "2009-04-03T18:26:18Z")
An organization can indeed own several companies. Here’s an example : [Free Online Multiplayer Strategy Game | eRepublik](http://www.erepublik.com/en/organization/614552) And licenses seem to be indicated by the flags at the bottom of the company screen. here’s an example : [http://www.erepublik.com/en/company/guns-n-stuff-158](http://www.erepublik.com/en/company/guns-n-stuff-158) ---
**Author:** ![Dosipede](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dosipede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dosipede)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-erepublik-players-out-there/490545/140 "2009-04-03T18:45:53Z")
So from what I understand, the best way to go about this is create our organization, which acts as the company’s general manager, and the lot of us work in the company. I have 5 gold to pitch in, but I think ideally we shouldn’t start this until we can pool enough cash that this won’t cripple all of us if it fails. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-erepublik-players-out-there/490545.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-erepublik-players-out-there/490545.md?page=8)