Purchasing AI

[Eric.B]

Let me first thank you for writing up such a detailed reply. I hope some of the particulars of my question were relatively unique, and were not something that a precursory search could have easily answered for me, because I did do some research on Steam.

I've explained most of it before. But it would be buried in bits and pieces in 8 years worth of posts. So it's fine. I do not mind typing this stuff out. I write quickly, although a bit sloppy at times. Forgive me if I get a bit terse when I write long replies, specially since it's 3am .

Mainly, was that I understand overall rating is not [very] important—my questions were more so directed at using the Vehicle Type Specific Overall Rating (exact term is probably not right) as a general indicator and whether or not there were some thresholds on specific values that had to be met.

Yes, the type rating is a general indication of how well the generic consumers for that vehicle type sees the vehicle. However it is not 100% accurate. As mentioned before, some customers may want a sporty minivan, some might want a luxurious one, etc. Also the value is not recalculated with new values at as states degrade. So the values displayed may be a little lower than they actually are for older vehicles. While some stats fall at a constant fixed rate, such as safety, other stats like the fuel rating are tied to specific specs. Therefore they do not decline. Sadly there is not enough processing power in the game to recalculate all the type values anytime ratings decline, thus the type rating falls at a standard rate. If you're working on more spec oriented cars (power, fuel, cargo), this might be more an issue.    

You did answer this for top speed, I believe you mean the red text warning in the advanced vehicle creator. Is it true that the other red text warnings work in similar ways, effecting a decrease in overall buyer rating in a way that is not necessarily reflected in Vehicle Type Specific Rating?

The Type Rating is only for the individual ratings in the game that have the stars, IE they're abstracts (or used to be before changes to the game were made). Off the top of my head, Safety, Luxury, Dependability, Performance, Power, Quality, Cargo, and Fuel Economy.

So no, the minimum top speed requirement, nor anything else beyond those ratings are in the Type rating.  

As for how the minimum top speed system works. (your speed / minimum speed) * number of customers that would have bought your car if you hit the minimum speed.  This is a penalty added to the game to prevent people from making 1hp cars and selling them for $100 in 2020....

If this is true then perhaps my low (relative) sales were caused by this—I assumed that Vehicle Type Specific Rating was by far the most important factor for vehicle desirability and that if that rating was still good then the customers were content with my "red text" flaws. But if that's not true (and it seems to not be) then that would explain a lot.

The type rating only factors in the "star" ratings in the designer. This I believe is explained in the help buttons. It does not include everything else, not limited to:
Branch Selling Efficiency
Number of Dealerships
Marketing
Price
Fuel Type Popularity
Engine Smoothness
Gearbox Smoothness
Minimum Top Speed
Vehicle Image Rating
Company Image Ratings
City's infrastructure ratings (effects various things with chassis and vehicle dependability)
City's fuel prices
Global Fuel Prices
Global interest rates
Used vehicle effect
Sub-demo desires
How well you designed for your selected demo focus
Amount of competition directly effecting you because they target the same demographics (where other vehicle on the market may not)
Little bit of randomness.
Etc....

Also I should clarify very briefly that all my comments regarding "low sales" are relative to the total of cars being sold: I understand that the low GDP of the early years makes total sales low.

Sure, but without numbers I can't really tell how low you're talking about.
Are you selling 40 and they're selling 50? Yet your car is rated 35 and theirs is 28? What about all the other companies? How many overlap you. Are you out selling everyone within 10-20% of your price range? What about these lower rated vehicles out selling you, how big are their dealer networks? Etc.

Your explanation of the Customer purchasing formula was very helpful (and largely what I was looking to hear). It seems that with these extra factors it should be possible to eke out good sales even facing a lot of competition, but I just wasn't establishing myself as superior as well as I thought I was. I hope to be able to read the "In-Depth Manual" someday soon, because I can tell a lot of effort and research went into determining your formulae.

No worries, and if you have any more questions feel free to ask.