06-05-2014, 09:33 AM
Well, to me, this has always been somewhat problematic and I believe that the research system itself is to blame. In the early period of the autmobile, companies were experimenting with all kinds of wacky designs - there were no 'dos and dont's' yet. Therefore I don't like the idea of limiting the player in his choice. Who's to say that the player's company isn't one of those attempting to build an early V8? The first one for car use was built in 1904 IIRC.
The current 'research system', and I believe I have said this before, does not really live up to the rest of the game. It's too intransparent (designing components hoping that research will be progressed?) and there's practically no player control, which does not make for interesting game mechanics. In fact, until recently (when the research budget allocation was implemented) there was practically no involvement with research at all.
I realize that it's probably too far into the project to implement any drastic changes, but it's something that, to me, is probably the weakest point of an otherwise excellent simulation.
I would envision a system where players can select from a more-or-less 'free-flowing' research tree and allocate budgets to research projects, such as 'Experiment with new engine configuration' or 'Attempt to increase the number of cylinders'. Research progress would then depend on how difficult such a technology would have been to research at that point in time and the player's monetary investment (further modifiers could be added by the construction of research centers or purchasing university resources and the like). At some point, enough progress would be made to design a prototype. The player would then go on to design this new prototype in the engine designer - with a certain chance of the protoype failing depending on other factors (complexity of the design, etc.), which would cause the development cost for that prototype to be lost. The player would then be given the option of designing another prototype (maybe at a higher cost?), which would be more likely to succeed. After the prototyping stage has been successful, the player could then be given the option of modifying the engine for production (and thus have it ready at a lower cost and more quickly than would usually be the case). Such a research system, which would in fact be quite similar to a lot other games (especially the 4X genre), could, of course, provide any number of other gameplay benefits, such as research into 'Engine reliability' and the like.
Maybe that's something for the expansion. With the present system there's always going to be some sort of compromise.
The current 'research system', and I believe I have said this before, does not really live up to the rest of the game. It's too intransparent (designing components hoping that research will be progressed?) and there's practically no player control, which does not make for interesting game mechanics. In fact, until recently (when the research budget allocation was implemented) there was practically no involvement with research at all.
I realize that it's probably too far into the project to implement any drastic changes, but it's something that, to me, is probably the weakest point of an otherwise excellent simulation.
I would envision a system where players can select from a more-or-less 'free-flowing' research tree and allocate budgets to research projects, such as 'Experiment with new engine configuration' or 'Attempt to increase the number of cylinders'. Research progress would then depend on how difficult such a technology would have been to research at that point in time and the player's monetary investment (further modifiers could be added by the construction of research centers or purchasing university resources and the like). At some point, enough progress would be made to design a prototype. The player would then go on to design this new prototype in the engine designer - with a certain chance of the protoype failing depending on other factors (complexity of the design, etc.), which would cause the development cost for that prototype to be lost. The player would then be given the option of designing another prototype (maybe at a higher cost?), which would be more likely to succeed. After the prototyping stage has been successful, the player could then be given the option of modifying the engine for production (and thus have it ready at a lower cost and more quickly than would usually be the case). Such a research system, which would in fact be quite similar to a lot other games (especially the 4X genre), could, of course, provide any number of other gameplay benefits, such as research into 'Engine reliability' and the like.
Maybe that's something for the expansion. With the present system there's always going to be some sort of compromise.