Production and efficiency

Factories make goods out of production points: a building collects points every update, and at the top of each hour they become goods. Buildings and Goods list every building's figures; this page explains how they work.

Every update, once every 10 minutes, a working building adds up three parts. Its page shows them under its staff as Base + Staff + Bonus = Points.

• Base: the building's own points. It makes these even with nobody working there.
• Staff: each employee adds their production points if their profession matches the building, and only their attribute points if it doesn't (see Hiring staff).
• Bonus: 10% if the building is in your speciality branch, and 30% if any of its zones touches a road. Both are taken from base plus staff and rounded down.

Base and each employee's points are rolled every update, between a share of their maximum and the maximum itself. That share is the building's efficiency. Shops collect points the same way and use them to sell (see Shops).

Points pile up in the building, and at the top of each hour every 100 points make one unit of goods, and points short of a whole unit are kept for the next hour. Each unit made adds 1 to your company value and counts towards the building's upgrades (see Upgrading buildings).

A building's page shows its efficiency as Current and Base. It sets how low a roll can go: at 50% each part rolls between half its maximum and all of it, at 100% always the full amount. Higher efficiency means more points on average.

Base efficiency comes with the type of building. Only the Efficiency +20 upgrade raises it: it adds 20 points to both current and base efficiency, up to 100%.

Ageing

Every midnight a building loses a small share of its base efficiency, and that share grows with its age, counted in midnights since it was finished. So it ages slowly at first and faster later. Efficiency never falls below 1%.

The current figure shows green from 90% of the base up, orange below that, and red under 75%.

Raw-material factories, such as the Forest, need nothing but points. Every other factory turns an input into its product, using 2 units of input for each unit it makes. A Flourmill turns wheat into flour, and a Bakery turns flour into bread. Production chains shows them all.

Inputs come from your warehouse. Every update, goods move from the warehouse into each building that uses them, up to the amount set under Keep in stock on its page (0 to 100). Goods you have locked in the warehouse are left alone. The building shows Not enough materials while its own stock is below that amount, but it keeps working with what it has.

A factory with no input inside collects no points. At the top of the hour it makes only as many units as its input allows, and points it can't use are lost. Buy what you lack on The market: market-bought inputs your factories use also earn a purchase bonus (see Taxes and bonuses).

Finished goods go into your warehouse. Your own factories and shops that use them take them from there by themselves. The rest you sell on The market or to the bank (see Selling to the bank).

Watch the warehouse's capacity. When it is full, your factories stop. Every unit over capacity costs £1 an hour, and upsets your staff (see Staff costs and absences).