03-13-2015, 03:11 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-13-2015, 03:19 PM by Frankschtaldt.)
I have some ideas for licencing, I'm just going to bullet point them because no one should be awake at 6am on a Saturday.
- When listing an offer to licence a component there should be five parameters. 1) upfront payment (0-50% of components R&D cost) 2) fee per unit (0-10% of cost of component) 3) minimum number of units paid for per month (0 to as high as you want to go) 4) time period to reach minimum (0-6 months for a car, 6-24 months for a component) 5) duration that the minimum will valid for.
- The player (and AI) should always get to approve each individual licence because sometimes you want to be careful about the competition you create.
- When accepting a licence, the player (and AI) should have the option to make a counter offer. So, for example, you see a licence for a good cheap engine you could use to make your next compact car but the fee per unit is to high to work. You counter offer with a lower fee per unit but increase the minimum units per month and double the duration the minimum applies for because you expect to sell a lot of these buzz boxes and you plan to use the same engine for at least 2-3 model updates.
- When receiving a counter offer, the licenser should get three options: 1) Accept counter offer 2) Reject counter offer but allow licence at original listed rates (if licencee still wants the component at those rates) 3) Reject licence.
- There should be a way to get out of a licence. If your struggling and your super car is only selling 100 units per month, being forced to pay for 10,000 V16's every month will bankrupt you fast. There should be some way of getting out of a licence or renegotiating after a licence agreement is active.
- You should be able to easily see who is licencing components off you, which vehicles they are using your components in and how many (and maybe where?) of those vehicles they are selling.
- When licencing a vehicle, the licencee should get the option to re-name said vehicle.
- When licencing a vehicle (or components for that matter), it should be possible to use the components from that vehicle as the basis for R&Ding updated components (when that system gets implemented). Look at BMW as a perfect example of this, nearly every engine they built for their first 30 odd years was a progressive upgrade of the engine out of their first car which they licenced of Austin.
ooh, ooh, ooh!
- AI's should favour seeking new licence agreements from companies they already have agreements with (or have had in the recent past) and having pre-existing agreements should effect the chances of the AI accepting offers and counter offers.
- Also, when players receive (or make) counter offers, the same screen should also give a summary of existing licence agreements with that AI.
- When a player is looking through the licence offers list, it should be possible to filter to only show companies you've already had agreements with. It'd probably be worth having some other filters too, like if their HQ is on the same continent or in the same country, model type, engine capacity/cylinders/hp/mpg, number of gears, price range etc etc.
- When listing an offer to licence a component there should be five parameters. 1) upfront payment (0-50% of components R&D cost) 2) fee per unit (0-10% of cost of component) 3) minimum number of units paid for per month (0 to as high as you want to go) 4) time period to reach minimum (0-6 months for a car, 6-24 months for a component) 5) duration that the minimum will valid for.
- The player (and AI) should always get to approve each individual licence because sometimes you want to be careful about the competition you create.
- When accepting a licence, the player (and AI) should have the option to make a counter offer. So, for example, you see a licence for a good cheap engine you could use to make your next compact car but the fee per unit is to high to work. You counter offer with a lower fee per unit but increase the minimum units per month and double the duration the minimum applies for because you expect to sell a lot of these buzz boxes and you plan to use the same engine for at least 2-3 model updates.
- When receiving a counter offer, the licenser should get three options: 1) Accept counter offer 2) Reject counter offer but allow licence at original listed rates (if licencee still wants the component at those rates) 3) Reject licence.
- There should be a way to get out of a licence. If your struggling and your super car is only selling 100 units per month, being forced to pay for 10,000 V16's every month will bankrupt you fast. There should be some way of getting out of a licence or renegotiating after a licence agreement is active.
- You should be able to easily see who is licencing components off you, which vehicles they are using your components in and how many (and maybe where?) of those vehicles they are selling.
- When licencing a vehicle, the licencee should get the option to re-name said vehicle.
- When licencing a vehicle (or components for that matter), it should be possible to use the components from that vehicle as the basis for R&Ding updated components (when that system gets implemented). Look at BMW as a perfect example of this, nearly every engine they built for their first 30 odd years was a progressive upgrade of the engine out of their first car which they licenced of Austin.
ooh, ooh, ooh!
- AI's should favour seeking new licence agreements from companies they already have agreements with (or have had in the recent past) and having pre-existing agreements should effect the chances of the AI accepting offers and counter offers.
- Also, when players receive (or make) counter offers, the same screen should also give a summary of existing licence agreements with that AI.
- When a player is looking through the licence offers list, it should be possible to filter to only show companies you've already had agreements with. It'd probably be worth having some other filters too, like if their HQ is on the same continent or in the same country, model type, engine capacity/cylinders/hp/mpg, number of gears, price range etc etc.