Game Question

[xXRKellyXx1]

How will you implement the business side of our car company into the game? Would it be something like Detroit?

[Eric.B]

The main focus of Gear City is the business simulator. Our fundamental goal is realistic simulation of the economics that affect Automobile Manufacturers. I personally find "tycoon" style games far too easy to play. Which over time causes the game to be boring. Sure designing cars is fun, but eventually the game suffers from the 'Spore' effect.
We alleviate this by making the game difficult and we make it difficult by making it realistic. On top of this you're competing against approximately 300 AI companies (that come and go mind you.) which is both realistic and challenging.


Stylistically we're similar to Detroit although we draw more inspiration from Oldtimer (Motor City).

Essentially the game is ran Hub style much like Detroit and Oldtimer. The office is the main connection points to the other parts of the game. It also is the focus point for human resources, union negotiation, charts/figures, news, lobbying, etc.

In the world map screen you control production, distribution, and marketing. Areas are set up as major cities. There are 273 of them all with historical data figures from 1900 to 2010. This data includes but is not limited to: population, per capita, manufacturing capacity, infrastructure, growth rates, tax rates, demographics and a number of other things. You are allowed to build one factory and one distribution branch per city. Dealerships automagically appear based on the quality of your branch/service/sales.

Marketing works the same as Detroit however it is per city and is easier to manage than Detroit.

There is also a stock market and banking system.

Thanks for the questions.

[Shleizer]

I don't want to create a new threat and this one have a general title, so I will ask here

Any progress with the project?
When we can expect any update and news about it?

Good luck

[Eric.B]

I don't want to create a new threat and this one have a general title, so I will ask here

Any progress with the project?
When we can expect any update and news about it?

Good luck

No worries!

A month ago (8/31) I released a few new screenshots and an update which can be found here

Since that time the AI has been pretty much been under constant tweaking. World War I ended up bankrupting everyone, kinda unrealistic if you ask me. AI testing has shown a number of bugs in the system which had to be taken care of. This has slowed down progress somewhat but it should all be taken care of now. The last game I played I went bankrupt in 1935, however, the AI still seemed strong even then... As of this writing I have 27 tickets remaining for this version. Once I finish these tickets a new art tool will be released and we'll have an updated video.

On the art front we've almost hit our quota. As of right now cars for 1900s-1930s are finished and a good chunk of 1980s-2010s as well. Soon we'll begin working on peripheral models such as tires, molding, and lights.


In other news we'll be officially on Little Indie sometime after I finish making the new video. At which time we begin doing actual PR. (ads, forum postings, media, etc).

EDIT: Side note, sorry I didn't catch you on IRC, I'm teaching classes between 15:00 and 18:00 -5 GMT

[Shleizer]

Good to hear that works still going forward. Don't forget about 1930s-1980s cars
And I hope you fixed the problem with xram.

About IRC don't worry, I was only checking is there going on something. I wasn't going to join to any discussion, my English isn't so good to write "on live" and because I live in Europe (+1 GMT) I won't be even able to catch you on IRC.

[Kubby]

Will we be able to make custom maps, with custom data?

[Eric.B]

Will we be able to make custom maps, with custom data?

Almost all of the game data is in xml files. So yes you will be able to customize city data. (However I do not have an editor for this, it's all raw xml)

I will probably be including the .max files for the actual maps in some sort of modpack. To add another city you'd just add new sphere to the map with the name being the ID of the city defined in the xml file.

The map changes however are hardcoded in the game. So the first map runs between 1900 and WW1 (1915 I think) second map runs until the 30s, 30s map runs until the 50s or 60s, and so on.

[summeryang000]

Thank you. i have the same question...

[Bluetrane]

1. Will you introduce SUVs and offroad cars to the mid/end game?
2. What will you do with wartime? This sudden drop of demand during world wars is annoying. At least we should be able to produce vehicles or spare parts for army (like BMW, Maybach, Henschel and a lot of other manufacturers did).
3. Will luxury car manufacturers be able to sell their cars worldwide without being ruined by costs of upkeeping branches on every continent? Bugatti doesn't have showroom in every country but everybody can buy their car, no matter where they come from.

[Eric.B]

1. Will you introduce SUVs and offroad cars to the mid/end game?
2. What will you do with wartime? This sudden drop of demand during world wars is annoying. At least we should be able to produce vehicles or spare parts for army (like BMW, Maybach, Henschel and a lot of other manufacturers did).
3. Will luxury car manufacturers be able to sell their cars worldwide without being ruined by costs of upkeeping branches on every continent? Bugatti doesn't have showroom in every country but everybody can buy their car, no matter where they come from.

1) SUVs and Compact SUVs are already in the game around their historical introduction times. SUVs 1935 and Compact SUVs 1930.

2) Originally I had planned on allowing you to do government production during war time (as well in communist countries). As of now, none of this is in the game. I'm not sure if I will be able to implement this in time for retail.

3) Branches are not showrooms. They are distribution centers which serve a dealership network. Most hyper luxury cars such as Bugatti utilize their parent's existing distribution network. (In Bugatti's case, VW/AUDI/Porche)

I'm going to test a low amount pseudo-random sales for cars over 6x the highest per capita. This will constitute the specialized, order only, limited sales vehicles. You will still have to have at least 1 branch however. So that $50,000 v16 might sale 1 every few years.