The random questions thread

[Spookyashell]

Figured I'd just make a thread where people could add all their questions about things they wonder about ingame.

I'll start off with a few, and I'll keep asking more as new things come to mind.

1.) When designing ie. a engine. Theres a little text in the bottom right saying things like, "This engine gives good milage" and so on.
What really puzzle me is if I adjust a slider and put it back exactly where it was without touching anything else the text could change to "This is a poor engine, we should not make it". Why is the comment different when I put the slider back to where it was on "this engine gives good milage"?
Should I just ignore the text and just focus on the star rating? Perhaps the text part needs some tuning and tweaking?
Sidenote to this: the text in those comments are cut on the right hand side, going outside the textbox thus the last (few) letters are not visible. ( I use 1920x1200 windowed )

2.) Why do workers get seriously overpayed when I use autowages? I run a business here, not a charity organisation And how often do I need to check the average wages to avoid strikes on manual setting. once a year, every 6 months, every 3 months?

3.) Does the body design affect ratings on the car? Like having small headlights and mirrors give less safety, but better drag values? Does wheel sizes affect comfort, handling and so on. Or are these things purely cosmetic?

4.) When I retool a factory it says production not optimized, we should be making more cars on some lines. What do they want me to do really? Drag the slider towards quantity over quallity?

5.) On city ratings what does Manufactoring capacity mean? Maximum size of factory I can build there? Efficiency per line for a factory in the city? What does it really mean. I guess worker skills has to do with efficency.

6.) How do I know what areas to focus on from modeltype to model type, like ie: the Phaeton ( I don't even know what kind of car it is, as far as I can figure its like a convertible touring car??) ?

7.) Where can I find the manual, I know its not done. But think I saw Eric say in some post that the raw text was done but images and such was not in yet. I'd still like to read the raw text

I'll be back with more. Other people feel free to ask your random questions here, or answer questions you know the answer to.

Smashing game, love it.

Edited to add 6 & 7

[Eric.B]

1) The advice text is kinda stupid. I plan on revising the entire "recommendation" system in the RnD department soonish. In the meantime I wouldn't listen to your engineers. Unless you want a good engineering joke.

2) Autowage pays well enough to prevent all chances of strikes. I believe wages either update every turn or at the end of the year. Can't remember. But if I was manually running it, I would just set a few bucks over average then at the end of year use the Auto Command wage increase and raise by 2-3% Every few years you can skip doing this.

3) The actual body does, mainly for aerodynamic drag and physical dimensions. Accessories do nothing as of yet. Not sure if they will ever do anything. Since design is in the eyes of the beholder.

4) The production lines are unoptimized because when you retool, your tools are better. Which means you can produce the same amount of vehicles using either less employees or fewer lines. The reason we don't automatically update the amount of vehicles you produce is because it could easily bankrupt you, specially if you retool a very old factory.

5) Manufacturing Capacity effects how many vehicles you can build per line, how many lines a factory has, and a factory's costs. And is part of a check to see if you can build a vehicle efficiently at a factory. Think of it as which cities are better for manufacturing. (But because they're better, they'll be more expensive upfront sometimes!)

6) It's coming when I do what is in the 1) question. Phaetons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaeton_body

7) It is for 1.11, and Is missing MANY charts and pictures and fine details:
http://gearcity.info/Downloads/Beta/gcManualTextFin.odt

I'll do some revisions in the near future.


Thanks for the questions, feel free to ask more.

[shadow]

Ok I'm stuck!
I'm on 1998 and still using old style head lights.
Any help , ideas welcome

[Eric.B]

Late game artwork such as headlights and taillights are not implemented yet. They will start to be included with our new decal system.

[Spookyashell]

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. I have another.

I'm probably missing something here. But is there a auto function to auto retool all branches. Or maybe an option like retool all branches under ie. 70% efficiency?
When you have branches in pretty much every city in europe and North America it takes some time to manually retool all branches every 5 years, coz then they are down to around 45-50% efficiency.

[Eric.B]

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. I have another.

I'm probably missing something here. But is there a auto function to auto retool all branches. Or maybe an option like retool all branches under ie. 70% efficiency?
When you have branches in pretty much every city in europe and North America it takes some time to manually retool all branches every 5 years, coz then they are down to around 45-50% efficiency.

There are no auto systems in place yet. I may put some in next week.

If you want to quickly retool everything, there are two buttons in the Auto-Commands list that will help. "Retool Factories" and "Retool Branches." These should save you some time.

[madman12]

3) The actual body does, mainly for aerodynamic drag and physical dimensions. Accessories do nothing as of yet. Not sure if they will ever do anything. Since design is in the eyes of the beholder.

Does this essentially mean we could skip adding any accessories such as tires and the likes without it having any measurable effect on the final car ratings?

[Eric.B]

3) The actual body does, mainly for aerodynamic drag and physical dimensions. Accessories do nothing as of yet. Not sure if they will ever do anything. Since design is in the eyes of the beholder.

Does this essentially mean we could skip adding any accessories such as tires and the likes without it having any measurable effect on the final car ratings?

Yup.

[Myquandro]

I've got two questions.

The first is that I've been watching some gameplay on YouTube and I saw some kind of an advisor comment when designing components. When I'm playing this space is empty. Is there a setting I've to use to enable this or something?

The second thing is that designing a car involves fuel efficiency and top speed, but I can't find anything about drag coefficients and frontal area. Is this not used in the game, is is used but not displayed or am I not seeing something that is there already? If I would be able to read these values I can better focus on reducing fuel consumption and top speed.

[Eric.B]

The first is that I've been watching some gameplay on YouTube and I saw some kind of an advisor comment when designing components. When I'm playing this space is empty. Is there a setting I've to use to enable this or something?

This feature was disabled around version 1.16, it is set to be replaced by a much better and more informative system for 1.18.

The second thing is that designing a car involves fuel efficiency and top speed, but I can't find anything about drag coefficients and frontal area. Is this not used in the game, is is used but not displayed or am I not seeing something that is there already? If I would be able to read these values I can better focus on reducing fuel consumption and top speed.

Aerodynamic drag is calculated in the game using the shape of the vehicle body you design. To see information on the actual numbers, click the buttons that say "Ratings." If you're designing a vehicle body it will be on the right hand side below the lights. If you're in assisted designer it'll be above the "Design It" button, and if you're in Advance Designer, it should be the button next to the cancel button.

Frontal area is not shown, but it is calculated. Drag is important in quite a few things in the game.

[Myquandro]

... Drag is important in quite a few things in the game.

Do you mean for more the top speed, fuel economy and acceleration?

Thanks for the quick answers and I love this type of game as automotive engineer.

[Eric.B]

... Drag is important in quite a few things in the game.

Do you mean for more the top speed, fuel economy and acceleration?

Thanks for the quick answers and I love this type of game as automotive engineer.

And braking.


Those all in turn effect the actual ratings you see with the stars. (Especially true if you're playing 1.17.5 or newer.)

[vulkus]

I am kind of unsure what the use of add or reduce frame does in the vehicle design area. All it appears to do is add or reduce the draught of the vehicle, much like the distance from the waterline to the bottom of the hull of a boat.

[Eric.B]

I am kind of unsure what the use of add or reduce frame does in the vehicle design area. All it appears to do is add or reduce the draught of the vehicle, much like the distance from the waterline to the bottom of the hull of a boat.

Mostly it's for ascetics. The artist were given free rein over what kind of "morphs" they wanted to add to the game. In terms of stats. Increasing the depth of the frame would probably increase drag, thus slowing the vehicle down a very tiny amount. But of course, it probably looks better on some vehicles.

[vulkus]

Thanks Eric, awesome game btw!

[rustic]

Hi,

I noticed a in-game hint saying that "sometimes it's better to have two smaller factories than one large" or something like that. The problem is that I have no clue at all as to what counts as a small or a large factory. In my current game I have a factory (in Birmingham) with 9 production lines. Is that small? Large? Goldilock zone? The year's 1918 if that matters.

[Eric.B]

Hi,

I noticed a in-game hint saying that "sometimes it's better to have two smaller factories than one large" or something like that. The problem is that I have no clue at all as to what counts as a small or a large factory. In my current game I have a factory (in Birmingham) with 9 production lines. Is that small? Large? Goldilock zone? The year's 1918 if that matters.

Depends on how much you can move the production capacity slider. 9 production lines isn't very much no matter the year. That being said that suggestion is probably a bit outdated. As factory costs are only factored in depending on how many production lines you are using. And the more factories you have the greater the administrative costs. On the pro side, transportation costs are typically cheaper.

[Tridon]

If there is any doubt at all what the hint means and how valuable the hint currently is, I vote that the hint is removed for the time being This is a very complex game with a somewhat steep learning curve, so one thing we players do not need is more doubt about how things work (I say "we" because I like to pretend I speak for others even though I clearly don't)

[ResFu]

I have a question. How "modifying" or "modernizing" chasis/engine/gearbox in RnD Depo works?
The modernization is working or it is not in the current state? (im using normal GearCity withut any of the betas in steam)

I have and odd feel that currently it is not working but i want to assure myself and maby others

[Eric.B]

I have a question. How "modifying" or "modernizing" chasis/engine/gearbox in RnD Depo works?
The modernization is working or it is not in the current state? (im using normal GearCity withut any of the betas in steam)

I have and odd feel that currently it is not working but i want to assure myself and maby others

It doesn't update the components already in designed vehicles.

Outside of that, it increases the stats of components based on how much you wish to modify it. Any future vehicles that use these components will use these new stats.




I may or may not allow retroactive changes to already designed vehicles based on component modification in the future. (Depends on the complexity of redoing the stats for said vehicles.)


Hopefully that answers your question. If not let me know!