automationgame.com

Will we be able to buyout other car companies when the game is released?

We will have have a stock market in the finished game, so buying out companies should be possible too Your competitors might try to do the same though xD

Thanks Killrob

Will we be able to form an alliance with another company?. for example renault and nissan or toyota and peugeot

Hmm, you will be able to buy engines from other companies, so that would kinda count as cooperation I guess. The same should work for car platforms

The Allianceterm always gives me doubts. I don't know about Peugeot and Toyota, but the Renault-Nissan alliance is a just a weird form of merger. Same factories, same platforms, same engines, same production practices and guidelines for workers. They even have the same CEO.

Otherwise, alliances just seem to be long term comercial agreements where one comapany buys x part from second company and maybe vice-versa.

just to make this clear we can own more than one company right?

I'm not sure, you'll definitely be able to have more than one brand under one company, but how owning two companies would work I'm not sure.

It all comes down to control. If you own 50% plus one of the shares of a company, you control it. So if you own 60% of the shares of your company and you buy 55% of the shares of another company, than you control both companies.

I say this because I've read several times that you guys are planning a stock market and to be honest this has always concerned me.

Stock markets are complex. I'm not corcerned with development challenges, I'm concerned about the mechanic from a player stand-point.

Imagine your company is in trouble - you need money, so you decide to go public and sell some stock. How many stocks do you sell? How much control will you be left with after the operation? Are we going to have a financial analyst assisting us? Seems way too much complexity, even if realistic.

I would propose a system where companies can sell infrastructure (factories, dealerships), car brands and whole companies. If you are in trouble, you put some factories or car brands for sale, which means there would be a market for them, just like there will be one for engines and platforms. Then, there would be an option to buy entire companies. If the company is doing alright, they would ask for a lot of money, if they aren't they would ask for a more reasonable number and if they are really in trouble, they would come up to you with an offer to sell. A bit like buying and selling players in Football Manager. In this case its less realistic, but I think more fun than watching graphs with stock value evolution and stuff like that.

I think it will be important to have ownership, control and co-operation between different brands because it will play a big part in the tycoon aspects of the game. Groups such as; General Motors, BMW, Chrysler, Fiat Auto, VW etc. play a huge part in the automotive world. And I think I know a way this can work...
The Campaign mode will feature just five titles...

-Company Management -Vehicles -Research -Motorsport -Save Progress

Under the; -Company Management you are able to buy shares, trade companies, co-operate, build factories, develop parts, trade parts etc.,
-Vehicles, you can select the marques that you currently own and make changes to the current models on sale and
-Research, we are given information on the current models on sale and the views of the consumers at the current moment in time...
I think you can guess the other two

Thinking about it a little bit more the -Company Management should be split into another section called -Finances...

Just to recap:
-Company Management handles staff, locations and co-operation, while
-Finances allows you to trade shares and control finance

I believe someone once mentioned in the forums (some time ago) that the personal life should be like that of fifa manager... since then I played fifa manager 11 at a friends house and I noticed that there's a calender at the top of the screen that changes to represent that you are moving day to day... there is also a news page at one side of the screen that gives you the latest updates and news. This system would work perfectly on this game and there is a little pause/play button in the corner to allow you to make changes as you progress through time... I'll send a pic

Yep, I see what you're getting at. We will see how it turns out once we get to the stage of doing more indepth design for the Tycoon side of things.

That sounds great! I know it won't look anywhere near as cool as that pic, but I'm sure it'll be just as good

What makes you sure it doesn't look as great

Back to the cooperation thing - do a yearly competition where companies work with companies of their choice (in groups of up to like 3 or somet) and make the best car possible.