Production Chains

Core Business uses a tiered production chain where raw materials flow through refineries, manufacturers, and eventually reach retail — just like a real economy. Businesses depend on each other: a food plant can't produce without grain from a farm and plastic from a refinery.

The Supply Chain

How Businesses Depend on Each Other

No single business can run the entire chain alone (unless they own properties at every tier). This forces economic interaction:

1. Mining companies extract raw iron, aluminum, copper, and chemicals — they sell to refineries
2. Oil rigs pump crude oil — they sell to refineries
3. Farms grow grain, produce, and grapes — they sell to food/beverage manufacturers
4. Smelters buy iron and aluminum, produce steel and aluminum powder — they sell to workshops and arms manufacturers
5. Oil refineries buy crude oil, produce plastic and fuel — plastic goes to nearly every Tier 3 manufacturer, fuel goes to gas stations
6. Manufacturers buy refined materials, produce finished goods — they sell to retail stores and directly to players
7. Retail properties are the final stop — they sell finished goods to casual players who just want to buy a sandwich or some ammo

The End Product

The entire supply chain exists to put items in the hands of regular players. A player walks into a 24/7 store and buys a sandwich — that sandwich was produced at a food plant from grain grown at a farm and plastic refined from crude oil. Every step was a business transaction between player-owned companies.

Property Types Reference

Tier 1 — Raw Resource Generators

No inputs required. These properties generate materials from nothing.

Property	Outputs	Cycle	Maintenance	Max Staff
Mining & Extraction	Iron ×15, Aluminum ×10, Copper ×10, Chemicals ×5	20 min	$1,000/hr	8
Oil Derrick	Crude Oil ×25	10 min	$2,000/hr	6
Commercial Farm	Grain ×15, Produce ×15, Grape ×10	20 min	$800/hr	8

Tier 2 — Refining

Convert raw materials into intermediate goods.

Property	Inputs	Outputs	Cycle	Maintenance	Max Staff
Heavy Smeltery	Iron ×10, Aluminum ×5	Steel ×8, Al. Powder ×4	10 min	$1,500/hr	6
Oil Refinery	Crude Oil ×10	Plastic ×10, Fuel ×10	10 min	$1,800/hr	6
Huge Oil Refinery	Crude Oil ×50	Plastic ×90, Fuel ×70	30 min	$5,000/hr	12

Tier 3 — Manufacturing

Turn refined materials into finished consumer and military goods.

Food & Beverage

Property	Inputs	Outputs	Cycle	Maintenance	Max Staff
Food Processing Plant	Grain ×5, Produce ×5, Plastic ×1	Sandwich ×10, Grilled Cheese ×8, Twerks ×5, Snikkel ×5	20 min	$1,200/hr	6
Beverage Bottling Plant	Produce ×5, Plastic ×2	Water ×10, Kola ×10, Coffee ×5, Juice ×5	20 min	$1,200/hr	6
Brewery & Distillery	Grain ×8, Grape ×8, Plastic ×2	Beer ×15, Wine ×10, Whiskey ×5, Vodka ×5	20 min	$2,000/hr	5

Medical & Utility

Property	Inputs	Outputs	Cycle	Maintenance	Max Staff
Pharmaceutical Labs	Chemicals ×5, Plastic ×2	Bandage ×10, First Aid ×5, IFAK ×3, Painkillers ×8	15 min	$2,500/hr	6
Industrial Workshop	Steel ×8, Plastic ×5	Repair Kit ×5, Lockpick ×10, Nitrous ×2, Wrench ×2	30 min	$2,000/hr	6

Weapons & Ammunition

Property	Inputs	Outputs	Cycle	Maintenance	Max Staff
Light Arms	Steel ×5, Plastic ×2	Pistol ×3, SNS Pistol ×2, Tec-9 ×1	30 min	$4,000/hr	6
Advanced Arms	Steel ×10, Aluminum ×8, Plastic ×5	Assault Rifle ×1, SMG ×2, Pump Shotgun ×1, Carbine ×1	40 min	$8,000/hr	10
Military Arms	Steel ×15, Aluminum ×15, Plastic ×10, E-Kit ×2	Sniper ×1, Combat MG ×1, Military Rifle ×1	60 min	$15,000/hr	12
Ammunition Factory	Copper ×8, Chemicals ×5	Pistol Ammo ×15, SMG ×10, Rifle ×8, Shotgun ×10	30 min	$4,000/hr	5

Tier 4 — Retail & Distribution

The final stop. These properties sell to end consumers or act as large storage hubs.

Property	Recipe	Maintenance	Max Staff	Notes
Distribution Center	None (storage only)	$3,000/hr	10	150 slots / 1M weight — massive trading hub
24/7 Retail Store	None (market sales)	$800/hr	4	Default NPC market when unowned
Gas Station	None (market sales)	$1,000/hr	3	Default NPC fuel sales when unowned
Restaurant / Bar	Sandwich ×5, Water ×5, Wine ×3 → $3,000	$1,200/hr	6	Consumes goods, generates money directly
Ammu-Nation Licensee	None (market sales)	$2,500/hr	4	Default NPC weapon sales when unowned

Creating Custom Property Types

You can add your own property types in Config.PropertyTypes. Here's the anatomy of a property type:

Config.PropertyTypes = {
    my_custom_property = {
        label = "My Custom Property",       -- Display name
        base_maintenance = 2000,            -- Hourly maintenance cost
        storage_slots = 60,                 -- Inventory slot count
        storage_weight = 200000,            -- Max inventory weight
        max_employees = 6,                  -- Max assigned employees
        require_manager = true,             -- Require a manager to produce

        icon = "fa-flask",                  -- FontAwesome icon for UI
        color = "linear-gradient(135deg, #9C27B0, #6A1B9A)",  -- CSS gradient for UI card

        -- Production recipe
        recipe = {
            inputs = {                      -- Items consumed per cycle
                chemicals = 10,
                plastic = 5
            },
            outputs = {                     -- Items produced per cycle
                my_custom_item = 8,
                my_other_item = 3
            },
            time = 1200                     -- Base cycle time in seconds (20 min)
        },

        -- Map blip
        blip = { sprite = 498, color = 15 },

        -- (Optional) Default NPC market for when property is unowned
        default_manager = "doris_manager",  -- NPC from Config.NPCWorkers
        default_market = {
            my_custom_item = 500,           -- Item name = price
        }
    },
}

Recipe Variants

Raw generator (no inputs):

recipe = { outputs = { my_raw_material = 20 }, time = 600 }

Processor (inputs → outputs):

recipe = { inputs = { iron = 10 }, outputs = { steel = 8 }, time = 600 }

Money generator (inputs → cash):

recipe = { inputs = { food = 5, drink = 5 }, money_output = 3000 }

Storage only (no recipe):

-- Simply omit the recipe field entirely

TIP

Remember to add any new items to Config.MarketItems if you want them to be tradeable on property markets, and to your inventory system's item list.

International Market (NPC Fallback)

The International Market is a global NPC vendor with intentionally punishing prices. It exists so players can bootstrap their supply chain when no other businesses are selling yet, but it should never be the profitable option.

Category	Buy Spread	Example
Raw Materials	6-8x	Iron: buy $120, sell $15
Refined Materials	5-6x	Steel: buy $450, sell $80
Manufactured Goods	5-12x	Pistol: buy $6,000, sell $500

Prices fluctuate dynamically every hour (±10%, within 0.7x-1.5x of base price) and stock is limited (50-500 units per item, replenishing over time).

The goal: make player-to-player trading always more profitable than the NPC market. A mining company selling iron at $60 beats the NPC's $120 — and the buyer still pays less.