Changing the Technology Year

[FordManFromHell]

I havent noticed this before, but you can actually make your engine better just by rising the Technology Year. So basicly this means that in the final game the technology becomes automatically better every year, even without using any newly discovered components, wich is pretty cool since it makes the progression feel more linear.

Or am I way off?

[Killrob]

That's right, technology naturally progresses, even if you do not have any engineers working on improving tech. The current "discovery" years where tech unlocks is the "we don't research shit" tech level. If you do research you gain a bonus to techyear. Which means that you can unlock things earlier or just have the benefit of more reliable and efficient parts. The grand campaign goes from 1946 to 2020, techyear will go from 1940 to 2040 in the revamp.

[FordManFromHell]

Yeah I already knew that the player doesnt have to do any research to actually get some new stuff, but I didnt realize until now that the techyear in itself also actually effects the engine stats. Correct me if im wrong, but to me it sounds like that basicly there are 74 (2020 – 1946 = 74) "steps" in the technology progression, plus more of course if you count in the actual components that are discovered during this process. That kind of system has depth (with over 74 tech steps) but yet its simple. That truly sounds like a perfect system for this kind of game!

[Killrob]

Indeed components improve with techyear, and there will be 101 tech levels (1940-2040). Some components stop improving at some point though, for instance carburettors certainly have not improved much (if at all) between 2005 and 2010.

The revamp will bring another interesting mechanic regarding techyear: making "future tech" harder to control, causing reliability issues.
Examples:

1) You are in 1958 and have researched a +10 techlevel (up to 1968 where MFI unlocks) for fuel systems. This gives you access to MFI tech, but using it would be a huge technical challenge in price, manhours, and reliability. You'd need all your 10 tech points to unlock the tech... leaving you with an unreliable MFI built in 1958. -10 on the reliability scale.
2) You are in 1963 and have researched a +10 techlevel (up to 1973) for fuel systems. This gives you access to MFI tech and only "consumes" 5 of your 10 tech points. The other 5 go into making it reliable, and as it is 5 years in the future, you break even in reliability: 5 points to unlock, 5 points to get to 1968 standard. Effectively you thus have fully functional MFI 5 years earlier than your average competitor.

This system is very simple, but gives quite a bit of depth as you can choose if the loss in reliability really is worth the extra performance and marketing bonus.

[loady740]

well all i have to say is.............. MIND = BLOWN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[FordManFromHell]

Sounds absolutely great!