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How does techology progess in the game?

In one of your videos you guys mention that you can have techology that is beyond the in-game time but it would be more expensive the further out you get. Does that mean technology will get cheap over time to allow you access to tech at the appropriate date? Or is there research invovled? How does cross company tech work? can you only buy a engine and plop it in a car or can you modify it?


On a side note: In my dreamworld (I realize this probably isn't possible) I would have a sort-of-technology tree. It would be a technology tree in the sense that you could research new tech (like a diesel, hybrid tech, EV, etc). Then when you researched the new tech you could pour money into that tech to make it more efficient/cheaper to produce/reliable/etc.

As far as cross company tech. I would say it would be cool to "rent" tech. Meaning that if I wanted to rent diesel tech from some company, I could use their tech to design my own engine but could only use it so long as the agreement is in place or until I research up to/past that tech level. Now that I think about it, it would also be cool if you could buy an engine from another company but for cheaper but as a draw back couldn't modify it.

All of that was pipe dreams. I'm sure you guys have better (or at least more reasonable ideas). sorry for the mostly incoherent rambling.

Basically there will be a world technology level, that progress's that unlocks developements for free, so everyone can access them.

You can pay for research, to get ahead of this, but gets prohibitively more expensive, so you cannot push much further than 5-10 years past the normal technology pace.

fair enough. I guess ideas like mine would turn the game into duke nuke'em forever. But it is always fun running anyway in the tech tree from the AI.

another question! Will we be notified when the world technology level increases or do we have to go hunting?

Hehe when you said that I instantly thought about "Motor City" a.k.a. "Oldtimer"... where you had to GRIND through your frigging locker in order to discover new ideas for new technology I am perfectly sure it won't be done in that way at least

What we have in the alpha/beta right now is a general quality slider that is the manufacturing year. This is "area specific", i.e. fuel system, top end, exhaust, etc.
Now starts my guessing: In addition to that new system sub-types will be unlocked at certain years per default, and the more you invest into research in a specific area, (get a bonus to "manufacturing year"... kinda), you unlock that technology earlier (ahead of the release to general public xD) than your competitors, for example direct injection or a baffled exhaust system.

So instead of making yet another thread i'll just keep posting semi random questions in this one

Not sure if you guys have gotten this far in the planning but how will managing employees work?

Will we have to negotiate with unions? I assume work forces in poorer countries will be cheaper to employ. Will there be a way to view a country's economic strength? Maybe like seeing the strength of the currency?

can we raid the north pole and force the elves into slave labor?

just a few more thoughts rolling around in my head.

hehe the elves and the north-pole will be the secret cow level of Automation xD Good questions... the different countries and their worker/labor costs are indeed implemented. For the rest we have to wait for the devs to talk about the prototype they produced a while back

Well I figure, they work for that fat diabetic drunk all year. So why can't they work for me.

I have yet another question!

In light of the up coming Frankfurt IAA, will we be able to bring concepts to auto shows to test market interest?

One more question!

How will financing in the game work? If my company gets into financial trouble can i take out a loan or beg for a bailout?

That's a good one, don't know if it's been hammered out yet though Being able to get a loan would be a useful feature to expand or retool so you can make higher profits rather then waiting and waiting for profits to trickle in with the old stuff before you can expand or update.

Actually on that note, will there be government mandates and incentives like real life, e.g. pollution caps or loans for low-emissions tech?

Commercial loans would be an interesting addition - they're certainly used widely in the real world, as vehicle development programs can run over $1 billion and companies would sometimes rather take the loan and pay interest than dip that much into their cash reserves.

Regulations on octane ratings, safety, and emissions has already been stated as going to be a requirement for the various markets you sell cars in and will vary by where they are sold (ie different governments have different regulations)

Something I was curious about though, will tech research just be a blanket advancement of everything or will we have options to focus reserch in different areas so more effort it put into advancing in specific areas?

There will be a blanket advancement rate. Where things unlock for everybody, e.g. EFI.

But you can pay/invest to get that before anybody else.

so it's like packages that are all opened up as you progress to tech levels (such as getting EFI, disk breaks, DOHC etc in a bundle), either though reserch or standard rate, or is that all for individual techs, like EFI, Disk Breaks, Overhead Cams, etc that open up on their own. eg. put reserch into DASOHC and get those ahead of everyone else while techs you don't put effort into you have to wait for the 'normal' time?

Its still subject to ongoing design but that's pretty much what it's about