[WONT]Localization and related expenses

[Frankschtaldt]

Being from a fairly small market that's big enough to think it's special, this is something I'm very aware of.
Many markets have localized design requirements that car manufacturers need to meet to be able to sell cars there. Often cars that meet these requirements because the country they come from have more stringent requirements, the new market will still require a full test program to prove it.
These requirements cover a huge range of things from standard safety fittings like seat belts and air bags to much more detailed demands such as fuel tank placement, side intrusion protection and even windshield angle requirements .
Meeting these requirements is expensive, so much so that manufacturers often choose not to sell cars in certain markets because there is a very real risk they won't recover the costs of making the car meet the local design requirements
These expenses were simulated in the previous editions by the trims people were making for different regions though that wasn't that accurate.
I don't know when these design rules started to kick in but I think it was somewhere around the 30's in most countries.
I don't know if this is the best way to handle this idea, other people might have better suggestions, but here's my suggestion:
In the vehicle design screen add in another button for "Localization" with a series of check boxes for different markets. The game should turn on the check boxes for any markets you have a branch in and default all others off but let the player turn on and off whatever they want. Each check box selected would add maybe 5-10% to the R&D cost for the vehicle but you can't sell in any market you haven't checked the box for.
The biggest issue I see with this approach is how to handle meeting the local design requirements for a new market for an already completed vehicle. It should be possible to do this and it should be more expensive and time consuming than doing it during the original development.

[freeman2344]

Like the idea in general - also a great way to introduce more costs, which is important as we know.

I'm not sure though if this would actually be worth the effort?

[Frankschtaldt]

Like the idea in general - also a great way to introduce more costs, which is important as we know.

I'm not sure though if this would actually be worth the effort?

I think maybe the execution I suggested might be too much effort which is why I threw it open to other suggestions.

I think for a game that is trying to simulate a global automotive manufacturing business something like this is a must as these rules are generally one of the most significant controls over what they can and can't do and it really does have a massive effect on how the real world companies do business.

I think that there could be a better way to execute it but I'm currently stumped for ideas.

[Arakash]

Like the idea in general - also a great way to introduce more costs, which is important as we know.

I'm not sure though if this would actually be worth the effort?

I think maybe the execution I suggested might be too much effort which is why I threw it open to other suggestions.

I think for a game that is trying to simulate a global automotive manufacturing business something like this is a must as these rules are generally one of the most significant controls over what they can and can't do and it really does have a massive effect on how the real world companies do business.

I think that there could be a better way to execute it but I'm currently stumped for ideas.

I think its a reasonable concern your having over whether its going to be a lot of effort.
I say this based on the assumption that most of these markets your discussing with local requirements will be country based. (those are the ones im familiar with at least)
Just from my observations ingame, most of the things that actually differentiate countries are city based modifiers, so i suspect that countries may not even exist as entities that effect statistics in the game.
Im open to being corrected on that, as i dont know for sure either way.

All that being said, i can certainly see the benefit of what your suggesting and from the very marginal research ive done, it seems to be something that comes up often in descriptions of design processes.

I may be able to propose something that may fit your requirements using current (or near future) mechanics.
I believe Eric has mentioned that eventually the customers will have certain preferences for certain types of components. For example, they prefer a 4 cylinder over a 1.
Perhaps you could have these preferences be roughly country based(practically city based) to heavily penalize designs outside of the design code/requirements.
Not an ideal solution, but its a thought i had.

[Frankschtaldt]

Just from my observations ingame, most of the things that actually differentiate countries are city based modifiers, so i suspect that countries may not even exist as entities that effect statistics in the game.

Yeah, I'm not too sure about that either. All of the cities tell you which country they are in but that could just be part of their name. If it was an assigned attribute then maybe something like "vehicle must possess the same country attribute as the city in order to be sold here" and give each vehicle country attributes based off which markets it is designed for.
Another complication here is I'm pretty sure the borders of these rules have changed over time. I'm pretty certain all of the EU (with the exception of the UK that drives on the other side of the road) has the same design rules now but I'm pretty sure that wasn't always the case.

I may be able to propose something that may fit your requirements using current (or near future) mechanics.
I believe Eric has mentioned that eventually the customers will have certain preferences for certain types of components. For example, they prefer a 4 cylinder over a 1.
Perhaps you could have these preferences be roughly country based(practically city based) to heavily penalize designs outside of the design code/requirements.
Not an ideal solution, but its a thought i had.

I may be misinterpreting what you're suggesting here but it doesn't really seem appropriate. A markets tastes and rules are two different things a manufacturer has to contend with and I don't really think there's a way to make one system cover both.
If you don't match a markets tastes your sales will suffer but if you don't meet it's rules then you wont be allowed to sell there at all.
Also, the cost of meeting a new markets taste could be nothing, Japanese manufacturers didn't have to change their designs much at all to meet local tastes when first breaking into European markets but they (most likely, I can't actually support this claim with hard evidence) would have had to spend a decent amount of time and money meeting the regulations.

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..... Er, actually, I think I worked out what you meant and I think it could work.
Actually, it's a pretty good idea!

[Arakash]

I may be able to propose something that may fit your requirements using current (or near future) mechanics.
I believe Eric has mentioned that eventually the customers will have certain preferences for certain types of components. For example, they prefer a 4 cylinder over a 1.
Perhaps you could have these preferences be roughly country based(practically city based) to heavily penalize designs outside of the design code/requirements.
Not an ideal solution, but its a thought i had.

I may be misinterpreting what you're suggesting here but it doesn't really seem appropriate. A markets tastes and rules are two different things a manufacturer has to contend with and I don't really think there's a way to make one system cover both.
If you don't match a markets tastes your sales will suffer but if you don't meet it's rules then you wont be allowed to sell there at all.
Also, the cost of meeting a new markets taste could be nothing, Japanese manufacturers didn't have to change their designs much at all to meet local tastes when first breaking into European markets but they (most likely, I can't actually support this claim with hard evidence) would have had to spend a decent amount of time and money meeting the regulations.

..... Er, actually, I think I worked out what you meant and I think it could work.
Actually, it's a pretty good idea!

Yeah, its a solution which i would describe as pretty makeshift, but im always keen to try and suggest ways of implementing things with current mechanics, even if its just brainstorming.

I still think your original solution is a far cleaner way of doing it.

I asked Eric a Q on IRC about the country based stuff and i think it confirmed my suspicion that they dont really exist as entities. This is going to make several of the other suggestions that are country based more difficult to implement imo.

[Frankschtaldt]

Yeah, its a solution which i would describe as pretty makeshift, but im always keen to try and suggest ways of implementing things with current mechanics, even if its just brainstorming.

I still think your original solution is a far cleaner way of doing it.

I asked Eric a Q on IRC about the country based stuff and i think it confirmed my suspicion that they don't really exist as entities. This is going to make several of the other suggestions that are country based more difficult to implement imo.

I think it could be applied in a way that would look a lot like my original idea.
Keep the list of design rules from my original idea but rather than introducing a new system to keep track of them simply make cities demand their design rule with not having it causing zero demand.
The down side to this is that the only clue that you forgot to check the right box will be your cars not selling rather than actually getting a proper "You can't sell here because you don't meet the design rules" warning.
As for the lack of cities as an entity. That's a bit of a bummer. I guess you could just give the regions as they exist their own design rules. It's not particularly accurate but it's closer to reality than nothing at all.