Turbocharged
Posts: 391
Joined: Fri Jul 05, 2013 1:02 am
Cars: A high tech sportscar consisting entirely of air!
Tue Aug 05, 2014 2:57 am
My vision on tycoon
Alright, so, with the main part car designer development coming to an end I'd like to put my vision on the tycoon part of the game here. I don't exactly know what's in and not so far, but I'll put my ideas here and a bit of how I'd like the game to become.
First off is the general working of the game: My suggestion would be a turn based game on yearly basis, since changes don't come that quick in the automotive world. Every year you can design a new car (if you have the budget), review sales, competitors, hire engineers,... along with maybe some random events like a faulty part in the car, to ignore it, costing you some reliability reputation, or do a recall. Possibly quality in parts could reduce the frequency of this event. Or some car company (outside of the competitors possibly to keep it simple, a small brand like Pagani or Lotus) wants to use your existing engine for their next car, choosing to export to them, taking some capacity of your plant, but earning money, or to just decline. Can possibly be increased by making good engines. Stuff like that to keep things interesting.
As for the UI I'd suggest something in the likes of Dragon Commander's.
But instead of an airship as background, the interior of a dealership of the company with some or all models parked there (all platforms, if there's place left: filled up with the trims). A cool thing would be if you could click on the car (engine of the car starting up and revving to about halfway) to see an overview of its sales/profit, market analysis, main competitors and maybe a possibility to put a discount on it (like real dealerships do when you order if sales don't go well) with the trims in tabs. Another nice thing would be the ability to visit a competitor's dealership to check on their line-up or maybe even tag them as rival so you get notified when they bring out a new model.
Another thing I'd like to suggest, and maybe even recommend, is a nice showcase/press conference of the new model you brought out on a small stage with lightening, with the necessary beauty shots of it with the camera. (example, (ignore the ponies): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYhmiRRZRak) Yeah I know, it's a pain in the *beep* to make, but it brings an important sense to the player: the sense of achievement and pride. These things is what people really like nowadays, hell, it's the main reason why the MMORPG genre got so big.
After this ofcourse some reviews of the car as suggested earlier somewhere in this forum.
As for R&D time of a new car before your creation starts selling my idea is to follow somewhat the real deal. Very short in the beginning (immediately the next turn) and 3 turns/years in the end or something, that's not really realistic though. I feel that having to wait long before they can would just frustrate people unnecessarily except for realism, but wouldn't add to the flow of the game at all. Although maybe a nice feature would be spies: so you can see what your rival is going to release.
First off is the general working of the game: My suggestion would be a turn based game on yearly basis, since changes don't come that quick in the automotive world. Every year you can design a new car (if you have the budget), review sales, competitors, hire engineers,... along with maybe some random events like a faulty part in the car, to ignore it, costing you some reliability reputation, or do a recall. Possibly quality in parts could reduce the frequency of this event. Or some car company (outside of the competitors possibly to keep it simple, a small brand like Pagani or Lotus) wants to use your existing engine for their next car, choosing to export to them, taking some capacity of your plant, but earning money, or to just decline. Can possibly be increased by making good engines. Stuff like that to keep things interesting.
As for the UI I'd suggest something in the likes of Dragon Commander's.
But instead of an airship as background, the interior of a dealership of the company with some or all models parked there (all platforms, if there's place left: filled up with the trims). A cool thing would be if you could click on the car (engine of the car starting up and revving to about halfway) to see an overview of its sales/profit, market analysis, main competitors and maybe a possibility to put a discount on it (like real dealerships do when you order if sales don't go well) with the trims in tabs. Another nice thing would be the ability to visit a competitor's dealership to check on their line-up or maybe even tag them as rival so you get notified when they bring out a new model.
Another thing I'd like to suggest, and maybe even recommend, is a nice showcase/press conference of the new model you brought out on a small stage with lightening, with the necessary beauty shots of it with the camera. (example, (ignore the ponies): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYhmiRRZRak) Yeah I know, it's a pain in the *beep* to make, but it brings an important sense to the player: the sense of achievement and pride. These things is what people really like nowadays, hell, it's the main reason why the MMORPG genre got so big.
After this ofcourse some reviews of the car as suggested earlier somewhere in this forum.
As for R&D time of a new car before your creation starts selling my idea is to follow somewhat the real deal. Very short in the beginning (immediately the next turn) and 3 turns/years in the end or something, that's not really realistic though. I feel that having to wait long before they can would just frustrate people unnecessarily except for realism, but wouldn't add to the flow of the game at all. Although maybe a nice feature would be spies: so you can see what your rival is going to release.
You can open branches in other regions, manage your factories in each region and so on. Research and marketing is done from a centralized HQ and we'll cut out as much shallow micro-management as possible. Some RPG elements are introduced by star engineers, which are buffing your tech and/or factories, but do cost more than a bit of change. We're planning on adding basic stock market and commodity market features too. Each factory can only build one or several models of one platform, but you can have multiple factories in each region. Each factory must be tooled for a specific chassis and material type, and factory sizes go from tiny to huge in 11 steps, with several add-ons for things that require special facilities (forgeworks, for example). 
depends on what we have time and money for!
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