Surviving world wars

[Frankschtaldt]

Hi guys, firstly first post so worth saying I'm totally loving the beta and really looking forward to buying the full game when it's released.

I have a few questions but I see that the next update (1.12) is all about a manual for the game so I'll wait to see that before I ask everything in case some are answered by that.

I will ask one question though: can anyone give me any tips for surviving a world war? I encountered it for the first time yesterday (annoying bugs and crashes have forced me to restart a few times but it's a beta so I'm not complaining). I did survive the war but only because I was lucky enough to go into it with close to $50m in the bank but but I only had about $2m left by the end. Do all factories shut down regardless or does it depend on where they are (I only had one in Berlin which obviously shut down for the duration of the war) because that was probably the biggest thing that hurt me. Sales backed off pretty harshly but I spent the last 2 years of the war this nothing to sell and no way of making more.
On a related note, if you design a big powerful engine can you put it up for contract for use by the military (ala Rolls Royce)?

I did search the forums for "war" before asking this but I'm on a phone so apologies if I missed and answer to this that someone has already posted.

Cheers.

[Eric.B]

Feel free to ask any questions. I've been a bit slowed down, but I do try to answer everything that hasn't already been answered by others...

Factories shut down depending on where they are located. You can see what countries are at war by going to the world map (globe in the office), selecting map, then select conflicts.

Any country red is at war, production and sales will cease. Countries in yellow are in low level conflicts, which means sales and production is reduced but still occurs. Green is normal...

There is also a hidden value which is total war, this means factories can be destroyed. In WW1 you'll probably want to avoid Belgium...


Government/fleet contracts will come eventually. I'm not sure when, but I will try to work something in someday. I would love to add military vehicles if we sell enough copies for me to justify making the multiplayer expansion pack.


What you'll probably want to do is completely idle production and close down branches in war zones. They're cheap to restart up. Cut off all marketing (use the autotools in the megamenu). And perhaps cut racing budget. You'll lose image points, but you'll survive the war.


Again thanks for playing, I'm glad you enjoy it!

[Frankschtaldt]

Thank you so much for the quick response and handy hints! =)

Looking forward to the government contract content!

Can I suggest that during times of war another option to military vehicles could be an engine market for powering aircraft and tanks. There could also be a smaller market for these engines during peace times. Perhaps this could somehow be implemented as part of the government contract system? Personally, I'd rather supply massive V12's for use in spitfires than trucks for transporting troops =)
Of course if you were to implement this you'd also need to introduce radial engines and that might be too much work. Still, it'd be cool =)


On a similar note: How are contracted parts supposed to work? I tried to dabble with them last night but as soon as I listed one thing for sale the game listed every available part I had at the same price (I confirmed this when I received reports that items I hadn't listed had been sold). Anyway, my question wasn't about the bug, my question is: When you contract items for sale are you selling rights for someone else to manufacture it or are you selling the finished product? If the latter, does it use up some if your factory capacity to do so? I suppose this is linked to my above idea of wanting to sell engines to the military.

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Also, hurry up and release a pre-order or something so I can give you some money!!!

[Arakash]

Thank you so much for the quick response and handy hints! =)

Looking forward to the government contract content!

Can I suggest that during times of war another option to military vehicles could be an engine market for powering aircraft and tanks. There could also be a smaller market for these engines during peace times. Perhaps this could somehow be implemented as part of the government contract system? Personally, I'd rather supply massive V12's for use in spitfires than trucks for transporting troops =)
Of course if you were to implement this you'd also need to introduce radial engines and that might be too much work. Still, it'd be cool =)


On a similar note: How are contracted parts supposed to work? I tried to dabble with them last night but as soon as I listed one thing for sale the game listed every available part I had at the same price (I confirmed this when I received reports that items I hadn't listed had been sold). Anyway, my question wasn't about the bug, my question is: When you contract items for sale are you selling rights for someone else to manufacture it or are you selling the finished product? If the latter, does it use up some if your factory capacity to do so? I suppose this is linked to my above idea of wanting to sell engines to the military.

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Also, hurry up and release a pre-order or something so I can give you some money!!!

I just recently played a game as a company Japan during WW1 (low level conflict instead war).
Biggest thing i was forced to do was recalculate branch sizes due to the reduced sales i was getting.

(Edit: Due to the fact there are no taxes in the current version, that's probably not going to be an average experience though. Its also the main reason i wont write an AAR on it, though it would be an interesting subject. Ill just wait till the next version.)

You mentioned contracting. I think this is a really great way to guarantee income in any downturn or during wars. That supplementary income also makes it easier to downsize and stay profitable.

[Celeste]

I think that no car company got bancrupt during a war. Most of the companies became problemes direct after war as the war contracts were not renewed and the private buyer avoid buying new cars because of the economic depression after a war. In WWI and WWII every car company had to build military components. So contracting pickups, Vans, engines and some normal cars to government would be great. I wouldn't go the route to aircraft engines, because it doesn't really fit in car tycoon game.

[Arakash]

There are already several suggestion threads discussing military contracting in its various forms and how it should be implemented, infact i created one myself a day or two ago. They are all in the Beta suggestion and regular suggestion forums.
Here is one(that one is even about aircraft/radial engines), which spiraled into a separate suggestion thread of mine here.
Its also been discussed earlier here.
So i think i would be derailing the thread by going into detail on that again

Back to the Surviving world wars topic, i suppose i shouldnt be surprised by the fact you pointed out, that few companies went bankrupt because of it, as Eric has mentioned before that in a lot of cases things went back to normal quickly afterwards. (i hope im not misrepresenting him by saying that, i think that was the general idea)

[shadow]

What then would be best cities during ww1 and 2? I also have gone bankrupt during these periods. 3 times! Lol

[Eric.B]

What then would be best cities during ww1 and 2? I also have gone bankrupt during these periods. 3 times! Lol

There is a couple ways to go about saving your company during war times. The most common is to idle factories, close branches, and zero out marketing.

Another thing you could try is playing in neutral nations like Switzerland. However, you will still have to close down international branches when the wars occurs.

[shadow]

I am trying that now. Thank you.
also on subject , engines , gearboxes , lorries and even tanks an excellemt idea during war. But please , no planes. Would be an excellent addition.
Also , I must congratulate you on an excellent game.

[Eric.B]

Thank you much, eventually we'll have war contracting. In the single player version it will be limited to csuv's (jeeps) and engines for airplanes (no actual airplanes)


If we do the multiplayer expansion then we'll get some tanks!

[Arakash]

What then would be best cities during ww1 and 2? I also have gone bankrupt during these periods. 3 times! Lol

Ive played a few games in the US during WW1. It was a few versions back but i remember it being pretty easy compared to pretty much any of mainland Europe.

I haven't played any WW2 games yet, so i'm not sure how the low vs high level conflict plays out there nation by nation.

Just going on my historical knowledge of the period, i imagine low level conflict on the map is pretty widespread and high level conflicts cover almost the entire of Europe as well as most of Asia.
Spain would be another good neutral choice in Europe during WW2 if it wasnt involved in a massive civil war beforehand
The South American countries should be low level i think, as most of them(perhaps all?) didnt divert their entire country to the war effort as many others did. So perhaps they are the best choice.

The best advice ive heard is just to make sure you have a lot of money beforehand and get your expenses as low as possible during the war.

[shadow]

I'll look forward to it. War contracts would be an excellent addition.
For anyone else stuck on ww bankrupts the advice given works really well.

[shadow]

Just to let anyone that's having difficulty during ww1 . I survived making a profit of between 20k and 100k a month by having factories and branches in japan , Switzerland , new york and Cuba.
Hope this helps people going bankrupt during ww1