Check the review again after the New Year, and it should be done by then.
Sincerely,
Lt. Sano
- Note from the writer
- Who is this guide intended for? and why is this topic important?
- Definitions & examples
- How labour works
- Division of Labour
- Labourer education & training
- Production opportunity cost
First of all, this guide will explain concepts that you may already be familiar with. These concepts might seem like ‘common knowledge’ – however, I will be providing easy tools for you to use, in order to use these concepts, and apply them in game. Even if you never use these concepts in-game, at least you would have learned some microeconomic theory.
Resource gathering in rust, and production of materials is paramount to any successful Rust group. The ability to gather resources depends on many factors: Individual’s personal efficiency, resource choice, resource organization (sorting loot chests), numbers (although we’ll discuss why this isn’t always a good thing), and consumption of resources.
Because it is important to spend the least amount of time gathering resources – doing it well, is very important, so you get more bang for your buck, and maximize production.
Example:
- Product The output, or finished resource that is produced. – for example, if you’re cutting down a tree, your output is wood.
- Materials are the resources required to make your tools (Stone/Wood/Metal/fuel etc, )
- Labour The person who creates an output (Metal frags,guns, etc -)
- Capital The tools needed to create an output (Gathering tool/ Furnace / fireplace / research table, etc)
[2]Labour is the aggregate (total) of all human physical and mental effort used in creation of goods and services (a service here can be anything that doesn’t produce a ‘physical’ output. Like shooting people). Labor is a primary factor of production. The size of a clan’s labour force is determined by the size of the total population, and the extent to which they’re willing to work. For example, if you have a leach, that just shows up, and does not contribute a good or service – he is not considered to be a labourer. (Business Dictionary, 2017)
[3] Marginal Returns:
The economic theory, supported by empirical evidence, that as the amount of any one input is increased, holding all other inputs constant, the amount that output increases for each additional unit of the expanding input will generally decrease. (Investorwords, 2017)[4] Average Product: is the total product divided by the amount of labour. ie; how much product is producer per labourer, or average. It’s mathematically denoted as TP/L
Suppose that your group is on a mission to gather wood. For the purposes of this example, the tool of choice never changes:
Yields per hour
Observe, the table above, and notice that the more labourers you have, the more overall product you end up having, of that one given resource. However, the marginal returns – which is the change in how much more you gain, is decreasing. After we went from 1 worker to 2, we ended up having an increase of 200 extra units of output, then it starts decreasing to 180, and then 90.
There are many reasons as to why this happens -, it could be because of individual laziness, scarcity of resources, time spent traveling, depends on whatever situation you’re in. However The number one reason is because each labourer consumes resources. In the real world, each labourer consumes a wage ($10 an hour, for example) – but in rust, labourers generally consume whatever they can access. They will consume weapons, armor, food, water, and other resources that end up going to them alone, rather than the pool. This is especially problematic when they produce something that nobody else wants.
The reason marginal returns is a problem, is because at some point, the returns will reach 0, and then become negative, meaning that you will start to have less stuff, if you bring in more people. This can be illustrated in this link here; where TP = Total product, AP = Average product, and MP = Marginal product. (If you are confused by the definitions, please see the definitions section)
According to this graph, the best possible option is where MP and AP intersect, since that’s the point where you produce most, with the maximum possible amount of workers. After that point, you will start to become inefficient, and incur losses. Keep in mind, this is true for production of a single output.
When measuring how many resources you’re getting – always measure it in regards to time/rates.
Example:
You send your friends (total of 5) decide to go and gather a total of 5000 wood and stone to build your base, and will not return to your campsite until all the resources are collected. – Your logic is that you are getting the resources as fast as possible, when in reality, you are not measuring for time.
If you divided your group into 3 and 2, and had 3 gather stone, and 2 gather wood, you might end up with 6000wood/hour and 3000stone/hour, at a stable rate, you can change the number of people collecting a certain resource in order to figure out what the most efficient combination is.
More people collecting a limited resource might actually result in the resource being depleted, and longer to respawn – forcing you to go father distances away, which will reduce your resource gathering rate. That’s why collecting less resources at once, might mean that in the long run, you’ll end up with more.