2020

[cardude1991]

when we hit that year with are company will we have to start the company over or how will that work

[Daffyflyer]

Well, that'll be the end of the game, it'll score you for your performance as a company etc and you're done with that game.

[sc90]

one thing, will end year be moddable

[Killrob]

Year 2020 is a hard limit that will not be moddable. All performance calculations are tied to the year, and would break if you go beyond what is foreseen.

[Daffyflyer]

one thing, will end year be moddable

Well, you could set it to end earlier, but past then all the tech year calculations break, the population/demographic data for regions runs out etc.. so can't set it past then.

[Lanarius]

Let's pretend the game will be around for a looong time. Would you consider updating the data at some point, so the endgame will be further out?

[Killrob]

If the game is around a looong time, that would mean that we can afford to do that, yes expansion packs going beyond 2020 are not ruled out, but it will take some effort to get there.

[cardude1991]

i would pay for a expansion packs going beyond 2020 i like to have a gamemode where you can create a comapny and keep that one company and sell 20 mill cars

[Donforce]

I'm not sure if there has been an update to this subject (search engines on ALL forums are bum juice!) but I find the idea of the game suddenly stopping in 2020 to be a bit 'off putting' on the whole thing.

Would it not be possible to just have the years tick on without new technology coming in? If the campaign game is slow enough then its not too much of a problem, like in 'Darkest Hour' I didn't like the end game limit being 60's (start at 1939 or something) so I edited a notepad file so it would finish in the 90's or later! Only to find that after I had spent many days playing I found that I was still in the year 1943/44!

The game progresses by the hour which makes for good pacing on a realistic scale, and stops people from hitting these end limits too soon.

Another quick example was back on 'Rome:Total War', I had a campaign that I kept going back to over a year or so, but was pretty much done after 300 turns or so. For those that don't know, there is a time limit to conquer a certain amount of land within a certain time, and if you are victorious. you can choose to continue despite no new technology or historical events happening. Although I never got too far beyond the end time, I like having that peace of mind that it won't suddenly end and ruin all my hard work.

If the game has good pacing then it might not be so bad. Though would the designs from say, the 90's from our first campaign, be used again in our second campaign/play-through? But to say only be available from the date we actually designed it? That actually sounds good just thinking about it! It would mean our hard work won't be wasted but would stop us from 'cheating' by releasing our design for supercars before we should, even if we have a factory with all the necessary tools to make the cars (our version of a Zonda in the 60's would be silly!).

Just to add, this is an amazing game (as I've said before on YouTube and whatnot) and have always wanted a game like this for years! Keep up the excellent work because ALL of us appreciate it even if we don't say so

[Pleb]

Found this with the search function: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3593&hilit=calculations+2020

Basically, some calculations get messed up after the year 2020.

I also read this regarding an MMO-style game mode in a very old topic from way back in 2010, so I'm not sure whether Daffy and Zeussy will actually go through with this:

3) Not for launch, but there are plans for an MMO style extended game system. Where one game would last about 6-9 months. The game is persistent, with about a quarter of a game year passing every real day. You can login and logout of the game at will to manage your company like a real CEO. We have also toyed with the idea of cash prizes at end of every round for various categories (e.g. biggest company, most profitable company, has most tech etc). This mode of play will be subscription based and entirely optional.

[gt1cooper]

I do like the idea of the game just stopping progression at 2020, but still being able to play; as in reaching 2020 and no new tech comes out; however, you can still develop your company further to emulate later years. The devs have said that each tech point is like a year ahead, provided that you can still go beyond 2020 using those tech points, you can reach a point at which all of your sub-assemblies have tech pools of 15, your company is using the largest, most efficient factory, and you are at max output; at this point, I can understand the game stopping.

However, even then, I would like a way to have the opponents keep releasing cars, and you keep releasing cars, for all that tech doesn't advance more. Simply playing it like the ultimate sandbox, as the way I seem to understand it is the sandbox in game currently will only ever be for creating cars, not selling them, as that would be cheating to know how the car will sell! On the other hand, when you no longer care about losing the game anymore, you can create wonderfully radical designs, which may fail and may succeed; you could still have the public changing their tastes and thus develop your playing style more; you can still have fun, and at the end of the day, isn't that the point of the game?

Provided that it doesn't break the game of course.


As for what the other people are saying: It seems like what you guys are struggling with is the idea of developing your company for so long, working so diligently at making it successful in its niche, and then having it just disappear. I agree with this, in that it would be a problem. In the last 5-10 years, immersion would be broken; you would be rushing your cars in the last year, hurting their successes not because things which should dictate decisions such as these, but external, non-immersive things such as the year limit. If we end up with such a limit, at least for me personally some of the enjoyment would be gone at the end game.

You guys know how important immersion is; that is why games like Detroit and Car Tycoon failed; bugs, bad ideas, anything that breaks a game thus breaks immersion and breaks the enjoyment. Heck, Wolfenstein is not realistic at all and still manages to be immersive! To get the everyday person into Automation and not just the car guys, people need to get into their companies; you cannot rely on just the fact that you are creating and selling your own products to keep people interested, but the fact that they put real thought into their company's success because they want it to succeed because they are immersed into the story of their companies, for the fact that they want to beat those competitiors that are always releasing those annoyingly good cars, for the fact that they want to help the environment or set a new speed record, for the fact that they want to succeed because they ARE the company, rather than being the player!

Well, I should look at who I'm preaching to You guys probably know exactly this already.

[WizzyThaMan]

I think a better approach to this would be to just keep all the figures and percentages of population and everything at the end of 2020, and then just decrease slowly over the years and (maybe?) end the game in 2050 (or dont end at all). This way you could continue for 30 more years after end game. I know the devs want players to just start over, because there is no real point. But in Transport Tycoon Deluxe for instance, I like continuing for years on after end game just to make more money and make more railroads and airfields and such. I think it contributes to being able when to choose to stop, instead of just sayin. End of the line, get out!