Usage of the engine for other projects

[ethanwdp]

When Automation is finished, will you guys use the engine for other types of games?

There's so much potential with the core. A few examples off the top of my head:

A Computer/Console Tycoon, where you build your own PC/console, customize it, choose the internals, and compete against competitors. The performance of sales would be based on the cost you're selling it for, how much heat it generates, the reliability, the issues with certain components, the performance, the looks, etc. Perhaps a few twists, such as a fatal flaw in the built in software discovered leading to a patch, many machines being shipped in for repair because you didn't put enough into testing to fit the complexity of the machine, flaws in the BIOS causing it to overheat and detonate the Lithium-Ion battery causing millions in damage to your company, etc.

A medieval weapons/armor designer. You would have to design armor and weapons, choose the material, etc. Again, a few twists such as orders by kings. If your armor performed poorly for what they were designed for (scouting, skirmishers, etc), you would be exiled. This would severely dampen your profits, as an entire kingdom would stop buying, and your reputation would plummet. If you recover from that, you could, for example, retract your company into a single kingdom and grow exponentially in it, and make such well designed armor that you would have enough reputation to expand (profitably) again.



Seriously, the designer alone allows so many possibilities.

[KielEire]

As much as this sounds like a fun idea, I do not think that this would be along the lines of the Developers' intentions.

[Daffyflyer]

Nothing would be paticularly reusable for those kind of games, all the stuff we've done is very specific to car design and not really applicable to anything else.


We'd totally like to use it for other things like a factory race team manager game, or even a race sim where you design your own cars (if we had a huge enough budget)

[Trifler]

In reply to the original post,

For about a year now I've imagined something similar to this car designer used for creating naval warships and cargo ships in various time periods. You design the hull, armor, what propulsion and where, what weapons and where, fuel, etc.

- I can imagine early period with banks of oars and benches for rowers. What wood do you use? Do you have more than one deck of oars? Is it for carrying archers, or for carrying infantry, ramming, and boarding?
- Age of Sail ships, of course. Seasoned wood, cannons, copper sheathing, hull shape, sail shape, number of masts, cargo capacity, etc. Coastal or deep-sea? Maneuverability or capacity?
- Early steam, with sails, paddle wheels, and a wood/coal boiler. Where do you place the boiler? Do you put some iron armor around it (the boiler)? Boiler designing added.
- Early wooden screw-driven ships. Can you make the best iron-clad ship-of-the-line?
- First iron-hulled (rather than clad) ships. Side turrets become a thing. Do you learn from history and not put multiple boilers right next to each other? Do you continue using coal, which has plentiful refueling stations, or switch to more efficient oil-fueled boilers?
- All-metal (steel) ships. WWI. Oil-burning steam turbines become available. Center-line turrets become more common. Make the best Dreadnought!
- WW2. Diesel internal combustion engines are now available, but oil is still common. Torpedo bulges, armored decks. Some tasks will involve refitting old ships with new engines and/or armament within the limitations of an existing hull.
- Consider the risk vs. cost of using a double-hull on transports and oil tankers.

[Trifler]

Nothing would be paticularly reusable for those kind of games, all the stuff we've done is very specific to car design and not really applicable to anything else.


We'd totally like to use it for other things like a factory race team manager game, or even a race sim where you design your own cars (if we had a huge enough budget)

Military tank and wheeled vehicle design might work. They could use the engine designer at least.
Semi-trucks are another idea.

[chema1994]

I think that the engine designer has lots of potential.
Huge engines (marine and stationary), aircraft piston engines, generators etc
Maybe some elements could be reused to make a motorbike tycoon.

I think that motorsports could be integrated in the game itself, since some categories require homologation cars to be sold.

[carskick]

Or they could just keep making this game better and better...FOREVER!!!

[sc90]

Tank manufacturing company anyone?