(01-11-2014, 07:54 AM)Giacomo Wrote: I've been playing a game of Gearcity on the 'hard' level for the last couple of weeks. I'm really enjoying it, but I have some concern with the AI. Almost all of the competition is continuously making a loss. I understand (from reading a post elsewhere) that this is probably mimicking reality, but it makes is very difficult for a human player.
My main bone of contention is that these companies that are performing poorly, are under pricing their vehicles. They seem to sell them far too cheaply. This means that when I'm selling vehicles in the same segment and market as the AI, I can't compete.
With the current number of AI competitors, this is manageable. I'm concerned when the game has it's full complement of car companies, that the AI behaviour will make it next to impossible for a human player to compete.
Edit: I see Eric.B responded before i posted. I think this post is still relevant though.
This should be an interesting discussion.
I agree on the mimicking reality part. Ive heard it mentioned many times that most of the Car companies failed at this time.
Part of the problem is that many of the yet to be implemented AI you mentioned are some of the largest in the business. I think the massive Ford Company has been mentioned for example.
So currently what we are seeing is a large number of historical failures
Ill comment more on balance later probably, but for now, i think a lot of it depends on the intention of the game designer.
Are the current companies supposed to be mostly successful or even partly successful?
Are the companies which will be added later supposed to be the large successful ones?
Finally, a suggestion
I think it might help to provide a clear example of a time the AI is "underpricing" their vehicles for a loss.
You might also want to mention the quality of the vehicle and the quantity of them being sold compared to others there.
This will help clarify your point as well as eliminate other explanations for the AI behaviour.