Number of suggestions

[freeman2344]

Hi,

after countless hours with this (awesome) piece of software...there are a few things that I've been wondering about.

1. Development time and cost for marginally different trim variants of a vehicle should be significantly lower. I like the option of offering different variants of the same car to different target markets (higher classed, more expensive trim variants for a wealthier segment of the population and so forth). In most cases, these changes would merely affect the interior setting. IMO something like this should not take as long as the design of the original vehicle, if the trim variant is developed after the development of the original car and not be as expensive as said development either (the same should apply to trims that are developed at the same time as the original vehicle). Development time and cost could, for example, be made dependent on the amount of changes made to the vehicle with a chassis change necessitating almost a complete redesign and small changes, like the interior rating, only accounting for a small percentage of the original time and cost (with stuff like different engines maybe coming up to 25-30%).

2. Players should be able to select from which factory a branch is supplied to prevent trans-atlantic transportation. In my first game I nearly went bankcrupt due to cars being shipped overseas against my will. I have since adopted the strategy of developing different trims of the same car for different markets to prevent this issue (but that in itself is already problematic, as stated above, though actually somewhat realistic).
In any case, cost of transportation needs to become a little more transparent.

3. IMO a different measure of acceleration is required for the early game years as 0-60 is obviously not a relevant value. Maybe 0-10/20 or even 0 to top speed (which would probably make the most sense).

4. If it is not too much GUI work, maybe consider implementing a statistics screen containing the number and model of cars sold throughout history and similar information. Current report options (IIRC) only contain information concerning the last month's sales.

5. Maybe implement a factory overview screen where all factories are listed underneath each other (as part of the mega menu), as it becomes very cumbersome to change production values once you reach 5+ manufacturing places.

6. An option to automatically adapt wages to the average value would be nice, as the current auto wage is always way too high and adjustment by percentage is not ideal IMO.

Edit: Sorry about the amount of suggestions, I just saw the sticky. Leaving it as it is right now, I think having all of these in separate threads would be a little ...off.

[Arakash]

Nice thread, some good suggestions here. Id like to talk about a few of them, ive left out the ones which ive seen discussed and suggested elsewhere. Ill leave those to other forum users or Dev's.

1. Development time and cost for marginally different trim variants of a vehicle should be significantly lower. I like the option of offering different variants of the same car to different target markets (higher classed, more expensive trim variants for a wealthier segment of the population and so forth). In most cases, these changes would merely affect the interior setting. IMO something like this should not take as long as the design of the original vehicle, if the trim variant is developed after the development of the original car and not be as expensive as said development either (the same should apply to trims that are developed at the same time as the original vehicle). Development time and cost could, for example, be made dependent on the amount of changes made to the vehicle with a chassis change necessitating almost a complete redesign and small changes, like the interior rating, only accounting for a small percentage of the original time and cost (with stuff like different engines maybe coming up to 25-30%).

I thought i could add an example to this, a similar mechanic in a different game, to flesh the suggestion out a bit.
Specifically the part where your saying that minor changes to a vehicle should be much easier/cheaper than major ones.

In a game called Aurora(a turn based 4x game that isn't related to Gearcity), they have a system where you can produce ships from specific lines in shipyards. You can also upgrade any old ship to the new designs in those same lines.
Unless the ship you want to upgrade is similar to the new upgraded model, it actually costs more (much more) than just building a new one. So basically its usually pointless to try and convert a Destroyer into a Battleship, its cheaper to build a new one.
(For people not familiar with warships, a Battleship is probably 10-20x larger than a Destroyer)

What your suggesting sounds like much the same thing, but for designs instead of production. The smaller the difference between the old and new one, the cheaper and easier it is to design. The reverse would also be true, that the bigger the difference, the more expensive and harder it is to design.
I actually like this a lot. It would encourage you to use the trim system for minor changes(which would be cheaper) and save the "New Model" one for major changes.

3. IMO a different measure of acceleration is required for the early game years as 0-60 is obviously not a relevant value. Maybe 0-10/20 or even 0 to top speed (which would probably make the most sense).

This is a very good suggestion, i like it. Ive seen the accel before early on ingame and it really doesn't give you or customers any good information in its current form.

6. An option to automatically adapt wages to the average value would be nice, as the current auto wage is always way too high and adjustment by percentage is not ideal IMO.

I think the reason the wages are set automatically high (in my experience) is if you put them any lower you risk getting strikes and having to deal with unions.
On the games where ive set auto wages ive never had to deal with that. When i try to do it manually i usually do.

[freeman2344]

I think the reason the wages are set automatically high (in my experience) is if you put them any lower you risk getting strikes and having to deal with unions.
On the games where ive set auto wages ive never had to deal with that. When i try to do it manually i usually do.

I do get the occasional strike with the setting at the average value, though that may also be due to increasing wage averages (if such a mechanic currently exists).

I also like your Aurora comparison as it is a game I also enjoy very much, even though the very slow development progress is kind of a turn-off. It could become so much more if he (the developer) would commercialize it.

[Arakash]

I think the reason the wages are set automatically high (in my experience) is if you put them any lower you risk getting strikes and having to deal with unions.
On the games where ive set auto wages ive never had to deal with that. When i try to do it manually i usually do.

I do get the occasional strike with the setting at the average value, though that may also be due to increasing wage averages (if such a mechanic currently exists).

This may have just been an assumption i made, rather than something that is actually true for the game. I dont really know whether that level of wage stops strikes/unions, but i always assumed it to be so.

I also like your Aurora comparison as it is a game I also enjoy very much, even though the very slow development progress is kind of a turn-off. It could become so much more if he (the developer) would commercialize it.

Yes, i enjoy Aurora too, it has a lot of unique and interesting mechanics, though it certainly has no shortage of its own problems/issues/limitations as you mentioned. Its a pretty distant game to be comparing to Gearcity in general.(they are very different games)
That said, if we only consider the one mechanic i mentioned without looking at the rest of the game, i think its a decent example of the sort of mechanic you were suggesting.

[Eric.B]

Hi,

after countless hours with this (awesome) piece of software...there are a few things that I've been wondering about.

1. Development time and cost for marginally different trim variants of a vehicle should be significantly lower. I like the option of offering different variants of the same car to different target markets (higher classed, more expensive trim variants for a wealthier segment of the population and so forth). In most cases, these changes would merely affect the interior setting. IMO something like this should not take as long as the design of the original vehicle, if the trim variant is developed after the development of the original car and not be as expensive as said development either (the same should apply to trims that are developed at the same time as the original vehicle). Development time and cost could, for example, be made dependent on the amount of changes made to the vehicle with a chassis change necessitating almost a complete redesign and small changes, like the interior rating, only accounting for a small percentage of the original time and cost (with stuff like different engines maybe coming up to 25-30%).

2. Players should be able to select from which factory a branch is supplied to prevent trans-atlantic transportation. In my first game I nearly went bankcrupt due to cars being shipped overseas against my will. I have since adopted the strategy of developing different trims of the same car for different markets to prevent this issue (but that in itself is already problematic, as stated above, though actually somewhat realistic).
In any case, cost of transportation needs to become a little more transparent.

3. IMO a different measure of acceleration is required for the early game years as 0-60 is obviously not a relevant value. Maybe 0-10/20 or even 0 to top speed (which would probably make the most sense).

4. If it is not too much GUI work, maybe consider implementing a statistics screen containing the number and model of cars sold throughout history and similar information. Current report options (IIRC) only contain information concerning the last month's sales.

5. Maybe implement a factory overview screen where all factories are listed underneath each other (as part of the mega menu), as it becomes very cumbersome to change production values once you reach 5+ manufacturing places.

6. An option to automatically adapt wages to the average value would be nice, as the current auto wage is always way too high and adjustment by percentage is not ideal IMO.

Edit: Sorry about the amount of suggestions, I just saw the sticky. Leaving it as it is right now, I think having all of these in separate threads would be a little ...off.

1) You are correct, it's sort of a design flaw in the game mechanics right now.

2) See this thread: http://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=898

3) Once I fix the top speed bug then this should be less of a factor. Most cars were able to hit 60mph by 1920... (excluding microcars of course)

4) There is a spot for this in the sales book, under "History" It's one of the later features I'll implement as I fix everything else in the game. Your own sales history is located in the showroom.

5) There will be a combo box on the upper right of the megamenu only listing cities with factories in them.

6) Current auto wages prevents any forms of strike, including random event strikes. Also higher wages improves the city's growth somewhat. The more the city grows, the more people can spend on cars.


I don't mind this many suggestions in a post, as long as the forums do not get too busy. When I start getting too many duplicated suggestions in posts then there is a problem.


Thanks for playing, I'm glad you're enjoying it!

[freeman2344]

3) Once I fix the top speed bug then this should be less of a factor. Most cars were able to hit 60mph by 1920... (excluding microcars of course)

Thanks for your answers. Any chance of that getting hotfixed maybe? It's really quite annoying.

[Frankschtaldt]

3) Once I fix the top speed bug then this should be less of a factor. Most cars were able to hit 60mph by 1920... (excluding microcars of course)

Thanks for your answers. Any chance of that getting hotfixed maybe? It's really quite annoying.

It would still be cool to have a 0-60km/h and a 0-200km/h figure displayed though =)

[Arakash]

3) Once I fix the top speed bug then this should be less of a factor. Most cars were able to hit 60mph by 1920... (excluding microcars of course)

Thanks for your answers. Any chance of that getting hotfixed maybe? It's really quite annoying.

I would vote against a hotfix in this kind of situation.
There are a bunch of annoying bugs in every release, but i only think the ones that really break the game need to be hotfixed. (e.g. the spiralling admin costs which bankrupted players in the last release and got hotfixed)
From what Eric has said, making a hotfix takes time and effort which could be spent on fixing/improving other things.