[FIXED]Too many passengers (create car)

[Corwin86]

My first creation was a commercial failure (no selling, also setting it to 10$ ), but a marvel of transport...

5 passengers for two seats? (see the image)...

[MrX_ua]

Besides the passengers (that's Eric's deal) ... why a commercial fail? What were you selling it at and how many cities?

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Oh... and I love the effort that went into the screen, including the car itself and the captions

[Corwin86]

Hi,

I tried to selling it in Genoa (my starting city) in 1901.
Maybe I'm just doing something wrong with all the settings:
- I produce the car (I arrived to have 500 car in my factory)
- I set the branch to selling it (at 1000 $)
- and then nothing, I sell nothing

I apologize, but I was too anxious to try the game and I still have not watched the tutorial

Anyhow, if you need the save, I can attach here or sent it to you (maybe tomorrow, here in Italy is 4 AM, and I have to consider to go to sleep... hell of a game cool ).

[MrX_ua]

Well - the tutorial explains basic mechanics, so in your case it would not metter TOO much, unless you have flaws in components or car design (people may just not like it - what did the car review say in the magazine? ) ... BUT ... do look at per capita and city population (as well as avarage income) in the starting city, or any other city you plan to sell at. My (personal.. sh... ) advice - for starters... try setting up in Paris and immediately after you desing the car start selling in major cities near by.. say.. London ...

[Eric.B]

The passengers is a known issue. I have it set per vehicle type and not per base mesh. That being said I think we could fit 5 people in there!


$1000 is probably too expensive for Genoa. You should be selling a few, but if there is AI companies there they might out price you. I have successfully ran a company out of Milan so it can be done.

[Daniels]

So cool, I like it.

[Corwin86]

Maybe it's true, the car has flaws, but it's not always so simple to understand what type of flaw

I will try again with another draft and I will see and say to you.

[Eric.B]

My advice would be to make a cheap cheap car. And keep on the look out for AI in your city. (You can view them in the charting/graphing stuff in the log.) If they enter Italy, be more aggressive with pricing.

Also don't be afraid to expand throughout Europe. France and Germany are prime targets for a more expensive vehicle than Italy.

Also consider this, dilute the cost of your branches by selling more variety of models.

[Corwin86]

Ok, creating a "cheap" car seems to work fine, but only if you sell that in some "big" city (in Genoa, at 1900, you sold nothing... cool )

Only, this time I spent too much in branches... and I go bankrupt in six month with a market share of 10%!
I will be more careful, next time

[Eric.B]

Are you sure there is no AI in Genoa at the same time selling the same type of cars you are?

[Corwin86]

In fact, no... how can I control this?

[Eric.B]

Under charts in the sales log, check to see the models sold in the city... I don't think I have a way to see AI cars specs yet, it's on my todo list.


If you upload your save file(located in My Documents/VENT/GearCity/savegames/. (zip it up, attach it to the thread) I can take a quick look real quick and tell you why you're not moving any units.

[Corwin86]

Ok, thanks very much for explanation

I attach my save.

[Eric.B]

At a quick glance, there are 7 different cars, by 4 different companies (including yours) in Milian.

The prices range between $600 to $3717... Your main competition funny enough is the $3717... Yes a $3717 microcar in 1900... I think AD Cars will be going out of business soon. Luckily, they're not selling anything either. So why are you not selling anything?

Remember this is early 1900s, there isn't much wealth. Italy's per capita at the time is 166. A $600 car is 5x greater than the average person's one year income. On top of that, if you were to actually look at a wealth distribution chart such as this one: http://www.mybudget360.com/wp-content/up...tates1.png

The US percapita at this time is 48k, We'll see that a HUGE chunk of the population falls under $250,000 (5 times per capita.) On top of this you're making a microcar. Who's target demographic is generally the less well off. When was the last time you saw anyone driving a $250,000 micro car?

So in summation only the super wealthy in italy can afford your car. And those people will be snobby to the idea of a driving microcar. Try making something more popular with the well to do like a touring car, then switch to microcars in the 1920s when car manufacturing prices lower enough to where the middle class can buy your car.

Also I noticed you're building way to many units. You're selling 70 per turn but building 144... You can see your reserves in View Detalis under Factory window on the world map:


Breakdown for last turn:

Compact Car $1745 - 3 sold
Coupe 2+2 $2419 - 3 sold
Luxury Sedan $3318 - 1 sold
Microcar $3717 - 0 sold
Microcar $600 - 0 sold
Pickup Truck $2601 - 3 sold
Roadster 2+2 $2705 - 2 sold
sedan $2576 - 5 sold

[Corwin86]

Thanks very much for explanations

But is it possible to get the all this data in the game?

I mean, a little help can be very important, at least to know the "average" level of spending limit for a nation or a city.
Maybe, instead of a number, you can use the "stars" as a describer... I think that is already possible, but I have not clearly examined the instruments already in.

[MrX_ua]

Whenever you look at the cities in the world map you can see the population and per capita in the city at a given time and even more information that you probably have missed )

[Corwin86]

Yeah, now I have seen and understood them

I think this game is very "complete", I certanly don't expected so many information/possibilities in a BETA.
In fact, I really think that, with a little of advertising, it can become a decent success (I prefer not to go over, for good luck ).