automationgame.com

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.

I like the ideas of actually being able to promote models, which will certainly be in there. Think about like just spreading flyers, invest in a radio/tv ad, be on big billboards, or that kind of stuff. Definetly something that will be in there to bost sales and brand awareness. So not only models/engines can be advertised, but also the company itself and what it stands for.

As for the TURN BASED system, I do not like this. Turn based is totally not exciting in my eyes and only works for strategy games like Rise of Nations, Civilization, Risk, or that kind of things.
I have never seen a tycoon game use a turn-based system either. Also, turn-based on a yearly basis, would mean the game lasts from 1940-2020, which are 80 turns. Quite decent, but way too little room to do what you want with the company. I was rather thinking of time passing by at a certain speed, so your games last for several hours (2,5 hours or so?) I believe KillRob explained this in a post on the forum somewhere before how they had this in mind, with what speeds, and that it wouldn't be turn-based either. Cant find the post this quick.

Spying on your rivals could be done, but I think their should be heavy penalties for when you get caught. Also R&D times could be better calculated in months. Lets say you have inline 4 and you want inline 6, you need to do R&D for 4 months, since the step isnt that big. But when developing boxers in example, it would take 14 months, since its a complete new layout and everything.

As for the interior, I agree it would be cool having different background for when setting up your factories and dealerships.

had a talk with Killrob about this, suggested basicly the same thing with the factory view..

speaking of time advance - imho it should be something like a month or so, with the idea that a year is a lot of time and would have a lot of stuff happen and you would be just overwhelmed with the information

I'm okay with the turn based idea but maybe by fiscal quarter? Giving us four turns per year and offset from the normal calendar year. each quarter gives you a set number of month or week time units you can use to decide how each department spends its time. Or maybe a partial turn based where at the beginning/end of each quarter the game gives you a menu screen where you assign the time and orders then you proceed at a selectable dpeed through the quarter with stops for random events that need your attention.

how about this - 4 turns/years with a half turn if something goes wrong and you need to address it

I can't find it at the moment, but I' sure it has been said the game will not be "turn based". Instead time will flow in a linear fashion, with about 1 hour real time = 1 year game time. (5mins per month) with appropriate pause and speed buttons.

Yes, it will be (auto-) pausable realtime with different game speeds / time acceleration to choose from. In the harder difficulties it is optional to have no ability to pause, to really have the game test your decision making skills. That is how multiplayer will be run too: a game speed is chosen at the start and you cannot pause. We may be adding in a turn-based mode too for the players that prefer to play a month at a time - that's not decided yet though, but it would base on the same system, just auto-pausing every month and let players perform actions until they indicate they're done.

The game will be a lot like Detroit on the world view, but significantly less shit. 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).

There will be some form of showroom of course. But presentation-wise we haven't decided much yet depends on what we have time and money for!
More info of course will come once we've started planning and development of the tycoon part. The first things we're going to attack is getting in buyer demographics and all the underlying calculations for car comparisons.

Cheers!

THIS. When this is right, probably the most difficult and time consuming part is done. When this is right, you have such a great substantial part of the tycoon part set up, that when done good, it can never get worse from that point on.

What are you doing man!!! Go knock on wood turn around 3 times and spit right this instant!

Still. Could be worse...
-Jeremy Clarkson

I have a small idea to improve our model for of better sale it is to have the notices of the buyer for example: engine not asse the powerful consumes too etc. great games(sets) be urgent of the next putting has in the daytime excused I if the translation and bad I am French I have translate the text with Reverso

Can you type it in french please? It doesn't make sense. We have some french speaking people here that do speak english and can translate for us.

J'ai une petite idée pour améliorer nos modèle pour de meilleure vente est d'avoir les avis des acheteur, par exemple: moteur pas asser puissants consomme tro etc super jeux j'atten la prochaine mise a jour je sui impatien

Translation: I've an idea to improve our (car) models, for better (in-game) sales. It would be to have input from the buyers, for example the engine should have enough power, if it consumes too much, etc. (By the way) Great game, I'm waiting for the next update, I am an impatient person.

@bat25570 Les développeurs veulent pas avoir un limite rigide pour les spécifications, par exemple, personne n'allait pas acheter une voiture parce que elle a 99ch, au lieu de 100ch. Pour éviter, ce genre de problème, ils ont développé les concepts de docilité, sportivité, etc.

Mon français n'est pas très bon, j’espère avoir été suffisamment clair quand même .