Visual Entertainment and Technologies Forum

I really like the idea of being able to simultaneously assigning a marketing budget to all branches at the same time. Although I have a suggestion to improve it.

Each marketing channel has a slider and so the slider works on a percentage. A large city like London might need some 300 bucks on newspapers to hit 50%, whilst $300 for Lyons would be close to 100% investment in that channel. So would it be possible for the percentage figure to be applied to all cities as opposed to the actual figure?

Whoops, I didn't see this thread until after I posted mine..

This is pretty much what I was suggesting.

(12-05-2013, 05:11 PM)Giacomo Wrote: [ -> ]I really like the idea of being able to simultaneously assigning a marketing budget to all branches at the same time. Although I have a suggestion to improve it.

Each marketing channel has a slider and so the slider works on a percentage. A large city like London might need some 300 bucks on newspapers to hit 50%, whilst $300 for Lyons would be close to 100% investment in that channel. So would it be possible for the percentage figure to be applied to all cities as opposed to the actual figure?

I think this suggestion is more practical than the one suggested by Drake, because this one is based on a percentage change.
Beyond what you already mentioned, the advantage of using a percentage change is that you could use it repeatedly whenever the maximum you can spend on marketing increases.

I think you could also have, in newspapers for example a "set % to all in category in region/all" button.
So for example if you have 3 models, but your more than happy to spend 100% on newspapers for all of them(as that's the most cost effective early game), you can do that.

(01-15-2014, 06:55 PM)Drake Wrote: [ -> ]Whoops, I didn't see this thread until after I posted mine..

This is pretty much what I was suggesting.

I think your suggestion is less practical than the one in this thread.

From your thread, i think you wanted a slider to adjust all marketing sliders Newspapers to Miscellaneous, in one slider.
Thats different from this suggestion, which seems to be only changing the way the current "set all" button works. (currently only by dollar value i think)

For several reasons i think trying to have one button for all sliders is impractical.
1. The current marketing effectiveness report strongly pushes players to not spend equally in each area. In fact i was debating with someone yesterday who doesn't spend anything on half of those areas in early game.
2. While 50% of everything sounds reasonable, spending say 300 on newspapers, 50% of things like sports and miscellaneous is around 20k or more for some cities.
3. Following on from point 2, In most cases where you can sell over a 100 vehicles and you have decent money, you probably should always have newspapers on max. Its by far the most effective early game, and will cost you under $10 per unit if your selling more than 100 cars in the city.

Im not sure if there is any practical way to combine all the sliders.

(01-15-2014, 07:59 PM)Arakash Wrote: [ -> ]

(01-15-2014, 06:55 PM)Drake Wrote: [ -> ]Whoops, I didn't see this thread until after I posted mine..

This is pretty much what I was suggesting.

I think your suggestion is less practical than the one in this thread.

From your thread, i think you wanted a slider to adjust all marketing sliders Newspapers to Miscellaneous, in one slider.
Thats different from this suggestion, which seems to be only changing the way the current "set all" button works. (currently only by dollar value i think)

For several reasons i think trying to have one button for all sliders is impractical.
1. The current marketing effectiveness report strongly pushes players to not spend equally in each area. In fact i was debating with someone yesterday who doesn't spend anything on half of those areas in early game.
2. While 50% of everything sounds reasonable, spending say 300 on newspapers, 50% of things like sports and miscellaneous is around 20k or more for some cities.
3. Following on from point 2, In most cases where you can sell over a 100 vehicles and you have decent money, you probably should always have newspapers on max. Its by far the most effective early game, and will cost you under $10 per unit if your selling more than 100 cars in the city.

Im not sure if there is any practical way to combine all the sliders.

Personally I don't see any practical way NOT to have an easy way on controlling all sliders.. Perhaps removing independent adjustment of sliders is going too far, but there needs to be a way of setting all sliders to a % quickly and easily.

Also the "Set All" button is broken since it allows you to spend more than maximum on advertising and isn't really practical...

Now if a "Clone Marketing" button replaced it that would be much better, but only if it worked on % of the slider, and not the actual $ amount spent.

I think a slider that you can quickly adjust all marketing sliders with, but are still able to individually adjust the sliders would be best along with the button replacement mentioned above..

(01-16-2014, 06:20 AM)Drake Wrote: [ -> ]Personally I don't see any practical way NOT to have an easy way on controlling all sliders..
Perhaps removing independent adjustment of sliders is going too far, but there needs to be a way of setting all sliders to a % quickly and easily.

As i said in my original response, i also still agree with Giacomo's original suggestion in the first post, which was quite specific.


On your first sentence, i dont know what your trying to prove with that line.

Edit: I edited the following part 5-10 times, trying to be polite pointing this out. I don't know if i succeeded.

I make a post in a thread:
I said I don't think it is practical do something
I give reasons 1,2 and 3 (point 2 is especially important)

Then, you respond to that post
You say you do think it is practical to do it. ("dont see any practical way to NOT do it" an extremely confusing sentence btw)
You don't provide any reasons or justification, or say any of the reasons i posted are wrong.

After that, you might understand from my perspective why i don't find this at all convincing.
Your post would be (much) more convincing if you tried to give reasons or say why my reasons are wrong.

When people only respond to the last line of my posts, i tend to assume they've skipped over or ignored large sections of it.
I don't have a problem with this, but i expect people to at least throw in a "tl : dr" or something similar.

(01-16-2014, 06:20 AM)Drake Wrote: [ -> ]Also the "Set All" button is broken since it allows you to spend more than maximum on advertising and isn't really practical...

We agree on this.

(01-16-2014, 07:18 AM)Arakash Wrote: [ -> ]

(01-16-2014, 06:20 AM)Drake Wrote: [ -> ]Personally I don't see any practical way NOT to have an easy way on controlling all sliders..
Perhaps removing independent adjustment of sliders is going too far, but there needs to be a way of setting all sliders to a % quickly and easily.

As i said in my original response, i also still agree with Giacomo's original suggestion in the first post, which was quite specific.


On your first sentence, i dont know what your trying to prove with that line.

Edit: I edited the following part 5-10 times, trying to be polite pointing this out. I don't know if i succeeded.

I make a post in a thread:
I said I don't think it is practical do something
I give reasons 1,2 and 3 (point 2 is especially important)

Then, you respond to that post
You say you do think it is practical to do it. ("dont see any practical way to NOT do it" an extremely confusing sentence btw)
You don't provide any reasons or justification, or say any of the reasons i posted are wrong.

After that, you might understand from my perspective why i don't find this at all convincing.
Your post would be (much) more convincing if you tried to give reasons or say why my reasons are wrong.

When people only respond to the last line of my posts, i tend to assume they've skipped over or ignored large sections of it.
I don't have a problem with this, but i expect people to at least throw in a "tl : dr" or something similar.

(01-16-2014, 06:20 AM)Drake Wrote: [ -> ]Also the "Set All" button is broken since it allows you to spend more than maximum on advertising and isn't really practical...

We agree on this.

"("dont see any practical way to NOT do it" an extremely confusing sentence btw)"

Do you really need me to explain how impractical and tedious it is to adjust 5 sliders per city for 50 or more cities?.. I thought it was pretty self explanatory.

Giancomos idea is good, and should be added, but it still has the problem of not being able to vary the % from city to city.

Example: Say if you have 100 branches. You have a few, maybe 5 major selling Cities, then lets say 20 medium sales Cities, then 75 small ones that sell a few. You might want to spend max in the 5 big branches, but less in the others.. Or maybe you want to spend max in the small cities since its cheap anyways, but spend less % in major cities where 25% of sporting could be the entire budget @ 100% in a small city.

Personally I usually run 100% in the medium cities for everything, and in the large cities I hold off on the more expensive sporting and event sliders until my company is very successful.. But I usually end up with a ton of smaller branches I just can't be bothered to setup the marketing sliders..

What I'm suggesting is a slider that works per city, not for all cities. That way you can set 100% to all, then adjust the more expensive ones to more reasonable levels if needed.. Personally I never see a reason not to spend 100% on newspaper, magazines, and billboards.. Atleast as far into the game as I've been able to play, and this would streamline marketing setup.

Also % of total marketing is better than % change.. % change would cause the same problem we currently have where you can spend more on marketing than will benefit you unless it is limited to that maximum effective %. In which case, that defeats the purpose of % change if you don't really know if the whole % you want to change will be added..

Its much more logical(to me anyways) to have your marketing running at a % of maximum depending on the size of the city and your strategy. Since the game doesn't automatically adjust the %, all thats needed is a new button in the menu to.. "Refresh marketing %".. (Maybe Eric can come up with a better term.)

A quick point I would like to make: In a complex management game like this it shouldn't be a bad thing to have more than one way of doing something.. some people might find one way easier to setup, and others another way.. The 'tools' you have to accomplish the task, the easier it will be for everyone.

Offtopic:

I don't know what your problem is Arakash... Every time I make a post you reply with some condescending post, or acting like your forum moderator or something.. Frankly your a bit of an asshole, and it doesn't really encourage me to bother posting here..

Eric needs all the feedback he can get, and acting like your #1 Fanboy and you own the forum doesn't really encourage people to make quick suggestions that aren't up to YOUR standards.

Most of the time the posts are more of a retrospective of how a game played through and the issues that developed and how I felt they could be solved.. I don't always have time to try and find a specific save to take a screenshot of a specific thing that I may, or may not have found relevant when i was playing at that time.. Or to explain a obvious point in great detail.

Just because your disagree with or misunderstand my suggestions, that's no reason to make things personal.. And Yeah, I know I've probably insulted you by now, but I call it like I see it and I'm not here to make friends.

That being said, making debates personal on a forum is a waste of time. I wasted far too long writing this, and even by your own admission you editing your post 5 times for 'Politeness' (well, I guess you tried..).. Its not worth the effort, so tone down the condescending attitude and we won't have any problems...

Even your signature, which I'm sure is well meaning, comes off as arrogant and condescending.

(01-17-2014, 08:09 PM)Drake Wrote: [ -> ]

(01-16-2014, 07:18 AM)Arakash Wrote: [ -> ]

(01-16-2014, 06:20 AM)Drake Wrote: [ -> ]Personally I don't see any practical way NOT to have an easy way on controlling all sliders..
Perhaps removing independent adjustment of sliders is going too far, but there needs to be a way of setting all sliders to a % quickly and easily.

As i said in my original response, i also still agree with Giacomo's original suggestion in the first post, which was quite specific.


On your first sentence, i dont know what your trying to prove with that line.

Edit: I edited the following part 5-10 times, trying to be polite pointing this out. I don't know if i succeeded.

I make a post in a thread:
I said I don't think it is practical do something
I give reasons 1,2 and 3 (point 2 is especially important)

Then, you respond to that post
You say you do think it is practical to do it. ("dont see any practical way to NOT do it" an extremely confusing sentence btw)
You don't provide any reasons or justification, or say any of the reasons i posted are wrong.

After that, you might understand from my perspective why i don't find this at all convincing.
Your post would be (much) more convincing if you tried to give reasons or say why my reasons are wrong.

When people only respond to the last line of my posts, i tend to assume they've skipped over or ignored large sections of it.
I don't have a problem with this, but i expect people to at least throw in a "tl : dr" or something similar.

(01-16-2014, 06:20 AM)Drake Wrote: [ -> ]Also the "Set All" button is broken since it allows you to spend more than maximum on advertising and isn't really practical...

We agree on this.

"("dont see any practical way to NOT do it" an extremely confusing sentence btw)"

Do you really need me to explain how impractical and tedious it is to adjust 5 sliders per city for 50 or more cities?.. I thought it was pretty self explanatory.

Giancomos idea is good, and should be added, but it still has the problem of not being able to vary the % from city to city.

Example: Say if you have 100 branches. You have a few, maybe 5 major selling Cities, then lets say 20 medium sales Cities, then 75 small ones that sell a few. You might want to spend max in the 5 big branches, but less in the others.. Or maybe you want to spend max in the small cities since its cheap anyways, but spend less % in major cities where 25% of sporting could be the entire budget @ 100% in a small city.

Personally I usually run 100% in the medium cities for everything, and in the large cities I hold off on the more expensive sporting and event sliders until my company is very successful.. But I usually end up with a ton of smaller branches I just can't be bothered to setup the marketing sliders..

What I'm suggesting is a slider that works per city, not for all cities. That way you can set 100% to all, then adjust the more expensive ones to more reasonable levels if needed.. Personally I never see a reason not to spend 100% on newspaper, magazines, and billboards.. Atleast as far into the game as I've been able to play, and this would streamline marketing setup.

Also % of total marketing is better than % change.. % change would cause the same problem we currently have where you can spend more on marketing than will benefit you unless it is limited to that maximum effective %. In which case, that defeats the purpose of % change if you don't really know if the whole % you want to change will be added..

Its much more logical(to me anyways) to have your marketing running at a % of maximum depending on the size of the city and your strategy. Since the game doesn't automatically adjust the %, all thats needed is a new button in the menu to.. "Refresh marketing %".. (Maybe Eric can come up with a better term.)

A quick point I would like to make: In a complex management game like this it shouldn't be a bad thing to have more than one way of doing something.. some people might find one way easier to setup, and others another way.. The 'tools' you have to accomplish the task, the easier it will be for everyone.

Offtopic:

I don't know what your problem is Arakash... Every time I make a post you reply with some condescending post, or acting like your forum moderator or something.. Frankly your a bit of an asshole, and it doesn't really encourage me to bother posting here..

Eric needs all the feedback he can get, and acting like your #1 Fanboy and you own the forum doesn't really encourage people to make quick suggestions that aren't up to YOUR standards.

Most of the time the posts are more of a retrospective of how a game played through and the issues that developed and how I felt they could be solved.. I don't always have time to try and find a specific save to take a screenshot of a specific thing that I may, or may not have found relevant when i was playing at that time.. Or to explain a obvious point in great detail.

Just because your disagree with or misunderstand my suggestions, that's no reason to make things personal.. And Yeah, I know I've probably insulted you by now, but I call it like I see it and I'm not here to make friends.

That being said, making debates personal on a forum is a waste of time. I wasted far too long writing this, and even by your own admission you editing your post 5 times for 'Politeness' (well, I guess you tried..).. Its not worth the effort, so tone down the condescending attitude and we won't have any problems...

Even your signature, which I'm sure is well meaning, comes off as arrogant and condescending.

Thank you for providing examples in some good detail, that was exactly what i was looking for from the start.

In any discussion, its very common to be asked to justify yourself with examples and evidence. You shouldn't take it as some kind of insult, we aren't discussing people here, we are discussing ideas.
Your welcome ask me to justify myself at any time, im happy to. If i realise any of my points are shown to be wrong, im also happy to admit i was wrong as well. Again, this requires examples/evidence.

Edit: I only make exceptions in a few cases, one of them is when the poster/responder starts calling people names/using personal attacks as part of their responses, in scientific/formal discussions, this is called an Ad hominem. (or maybe not if it is just abusive language)
As i say at the end of this post, your on my ignore list(forum feature) now due to your personal attacks, so i wont be seeing your posts or responding to them.
/Edit

I said very clearly in my last post why saying what you did without examples is not constructive(especially the way you worded it), i don't think there is any way to make it more clear.


Im not going to respond to the off topic part of your post and personal attacks.(quote: "a***hole", "arrogant") I have no interest in being warned and potentially kicked off this forum.
Edit: Ill also add you to my ignore list(a forums feature), so i wont see or respond to any of your posts again. I have no interest in discussing topics with people who use personal attacks when they disagree with another post's ideas.

I'll refer you both to rule 1 of the forum:
"1. Treat other members with the respect they deserve. This should go without saying, but treat others like you would like to be treated !"

Pretty simple, please keep it civil in here. I don't have the time to monitor childish behaviors. I have to do that enough at work.

As such I'll close the thread to prevent any future issues... The next verbal or implied insult from either of you at each other will result in me going into Stricter-Eric mode.