automationgame.com

Hello

Just got the game the other day and am really enjoying the engine and car design so far - though I will admit, I'm much more interested in the Tycoon aspect of it, and how the design and Tycoon will blend together in the final product.

Now, as I understand it, we will be able to create companies in just about any country we want, and presumably they will have different markets, which would affect labor costs, material costs, and of course the market itself for any vehicles you locally produce. Now, one thing I wonder is, in some countries (espeically Europe just before and after WW2, but even today) there was a notion of the taxed horsepower, wherein based upon bore diameter, stroke length, and a few other details, a fee was often levied at the time of purchase and later on as a sort of luxury tax for the owners. Will this be factored in for the Tycoon mode in certain countries?

And perhaps more generally, will special regulations in the same vein of the horsepower tax exist in other markets as well, perhaps along the lines of vehicle size, HP or mileage regulations, reliability standards, etc etc as things become more evolved?

A search for this sort of thing turned up nothing, hence the question.

I would say probably yes, we will cover those where possible

Excellent. I'm glad to hear that there will probably be meaningful pros and cons to starting in various countries beyond a simple wealth rating to help you choose markets or a home country.

I must say im also glad to see this. Of course I can assume labourcosts will also differ between countries?

Yep!

Please note though that some regulation might be so frustrating to car makers and would come with so much micro management to the players that we will NOT include it. Realism does never go over playability in Automation.

^Yeah, that, there will be regulations per country, but only the INTERESTING ones

I think the game should get harder the longer you play it.
I think it will keep it interesting.

I've been playing Detroit again, I'm up to the 1970's and already maxed out the tech and have so much money it is now boring.
All have have to do is maintain stock levels and production.

Detroit is indeed horribly broken in its difficulty progression, to large extent because there are no real money sinks, tech progression is linear instead of exponential for instance.

Things I think of right now to actually implement and have a decent playability:

- Labourcosts
- After a certain year, % off for customer to buy cars which are cleaner for the environment (so a certain value of emissions must be met to get those %, becoming stricter over time)
- Weight taxes, where veary heavy vehicles over a certain limit cost a bit extra, thus possibly less sales because of that
- Horsepower taxes, the more power, the higher chance of accidents, thus more taxes to pay ontop of your selling price

Just a couple I can think of which might be there to influence the choice of the player to start their company. China might offer cheap labour and no real strict rules, where-as Western countries do, but there is more people able to buy cars (even luxury cars) that don't sell as well in Asian countries for example.

Horsepower taxes in Italy depend on the "european emission regulations" (Euro 1,2, 3, 4 , 5, 6) so my girlfriend's car (an 1989 Alfa Romeo 75) pays much more than my 2008 Alfa Romeo 147, even if the kW are the same (80-90 kW).
This is because her car is more "pollutant" (ok, less pollutant than an old diesel engine, but, what do you want, italian rules and rulers... ).

Then we have more horsepower taxes when you own/buy a "luxury" car, I mean a car with more than 185 kW (251 hp) and the fee is 20 €/kW, for the kWs up the 185kW.
For example a Renault Megane RS pays 786 euro.
A BMW M3 V8 pays 3000 euro...
This is to fight tax evasion, because if you can mantain a 3000 cc car, you can also pay taxes on it, I mean, for sure you are not poor if you can pay the petrol for that engine.

In Italy insurance don't link more horsepower with more accidents, I mean, in Italy it's the opposite!
If you own a diesel (more km/l) you are "predictable" to run more kilometers, so more possibilities to encounter accidents (the same for LPG and CNG, less fuel costs so more kilometers, so much insurance costs).
Viceversa with a V8 petrol/gas (I never remember the english word for "benzina" ) you won't cover much kilometers (unless you are a millionaire).

Weight taxes... I don't remember it but I know for sure that if it there was, it was only to avoid tax evasion, so is linked with the HP taxes (ah in the 80's we had displacement taxes, so we had many and many turbo engines).

About labourcosts and "tycoon taxes" (I don't know the english name, the taxes that depend on "tax office"), you can see the Fiat Group example, now is Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, with "tax office" in UK and "registered office" in Holland/Netherlands, factories in Poland and Serbia...

We actually pay taxes for more HP over here in The Netherlands. Also the heavier the car, the more tax you pay for it. Hummers cost A LOT.

You could actually have regional regulations. Dont know how the regions are in the future, but they could differ.
In Europe you could have a normal car tax based on the displacement and emissions of the car, like in germany. A horsepower tax is quite senseless to me, but the matter on the insurance costs (additional costs eventually in the game)