Operating Costs
All owned land, farms and machines contribute to company scale. New work pays a scale surcharge on direct costs once at start, rounded upward for each field. Idle, growing and paused fields have no recurring charge; resuming a paid harvest is free. Efficiency research reduces the surcharge for new work, approaching a retained minimum; direct costs remain. The efficiency rating is not the same as actual savings. Consult current surcharge and exact work review before spending.
Formula and rounding
Let H be owned hectares, F owned farms and M owned machines and B owned businesses. With the current experimental base configuration:
- Scale S = 0.1 × H + 5 × F + M + 5 × B.
- Scale factor C = 0.015 × max(S − 15, 0)^1.15.
- Retained fraction R = 0.20 + 0.80 / (1 + efficiency rating).
- For direct work cost D, the surcharge is ceil(D × C × R) cash, and total payment is D plus that surcharge.
The rating starts at zero. The first efficiency research rating is 0.05; later ranks multiply it by 1.05. Its effective savings are 1 − R, not the displayed rating itself. Land/machine purchase pricing is a separate formula.
Examples
A company with 50 ha, one farm, five machines and no businesses has S = 5 + 5 + 5 = 15: it pays no scale surcharge. At S = 16 with no efficiency research, C = 0.015 and R = 1. A field operation with direct cost 100 pays ceil(1.5) = 2 extra, for 102 cash total.
Each field rounds independently. Two fields each with direct cost 100 at that factor pay 102 + 102 = 204, not ceil(200 × 0.015) + 200 = 203. Existing paid work keeps its original terms; an already paid harvest resumes for zero. Base values may be retuned: use the versioned catalog and current authoritative review for an actual command.