Visual Entertainment and Technologies Forum

Hello,

I start my games expanding very agressive. First game on normal instead of easy i went bust very quickly. Due to overextension and administrative cost, i could no longer afford my branches (i like constructing branches big for some reason, not sure why).

In order to limit costs i made a descision to manual hire / set wages. Auto wages / hire causes overspending on salaries a lot. However, lowering salaries did not increase my profit marging enough. So i continued by laying of my workers in branches. I even started new branches without any personal at all.

In multiple games i noticed sales continued on the same level as before. Even if there was no personel at all. So: i can expand my branches without personal costs. Making a huge profit! I'am not sure about the mechanics in game, however if i have a branche, requiriring 1000 workers. Having only 50 employees should reduce efficiency a lot. I don't think this is being calculated correctly.

Onother issue: i messed up setting manual wages, so one of my branches went on strike (Paris, see screenshot). I rised their salaries. 3 turns later, strike is over. However, my branch is still not selling any cars (only 1). I have uploaded a screenshot and my save game. My solution is to close my branch, and rebuild it.

It's supposed to reduce efficiency, and at one point it did. I think I commented out branch efficiency to fiddle around with turn speeds. It should be a quick fix, thanks for pointing it out I would of never caught it with the auto hiring/wage system.

When I get to working tonight I'll check the both these issues and let you know when I fix them.

Great! You could also take a look at the ratings. I'am not sure how it should work. However i notice the following:

- I start selling a car in 1901. It's percieved value is something like 51. After time passes: the value decreases in my R&D department. However my branch which started selling the car is still being rated 51. Branches which started selling the car in 1906 for example, are having significant lower ratings. I have made a screenshot, and uploaded my recent savegame. If you need more information i would be happy to help!

One more suggestion: currently it is pretty difficult to figure out how your company is comparing to other companys. Yes: it pricing versus rating is visible. However, it's is pretty difficult to see how effective my company is in marketing and branding product. For example: I have started spending a lot of money in a couple of cities in order to improve my brand image, but after a couple of years i am not sure if it's effective. I am not selling more cars versus cities without marketing.

Maybe you can take some inspriation from Capitalism Lab. In my opinion Capitalism Lab is a pretty good example, they use branche awareness and branche loyalty. In this game you get a very nice overview on how effective your marketing really is. You can see a preview here: http://bit.ly/GMyj8c it's a combination of quality/price/branche name.

I've finished everything in the orginal post and it'll be included in 1.09. However the post above this one i'm having a little issues with.

Did you add the cars with the bad ratings via the quick calculator menu? I Think the duplication of names has messed it up somehow.

I will try and explain it better.

1. I Started selling 3 models in 1900 - 1902 in my first branche London. It is now 1907, the stats of the cars have decreased over time in my R&D department.
2. I recently started (1906) selling my cars in a newer branch (Lyon). After 1906 i researched 3 new cars.
3. My ratings for new models in London en Lyon are exactly the same. However my cars i started selling in London in 1900-1902 are still being rated the same as they were in 1900. So my ratings haven't decreased in branches.

Yea I found the bug, but I also noticed other bugs with using the Quick Calc tool. So both issues have been resolved and will be included in 1.09

Sorry

As far as branch awareness/ marketing, you'll see a much bigger difference in sales numbers in this up coming build. It makes it much more visible.

Great! Looking forward to 1.09!