Quality instead of Technology Work, How to Unlock Stuff?

[stephenl9000]

I was watching over the video with all of the new updates and you mentioned and showed that the technology year slider was changed to a quality slider. How will the process of unlocking new technologies happen now? Or will things unlock as quality gets better? The way I see it, in the sixties a company could hae really good quality carburetors and still be unable to make EFI systems, and on the other hand, in the nineties a company could have a really poor quality EFI system so that they could get around emmissions regulations while still delivering an inexpensive vehicle.

[Water77]

I have the same question. Maybe they will leave the technology slider there but have it just act strictly as the technology available in that year and also have the quality bar there strictly for quality level? I don't know another way it would work besides when playing the grand campaign and instead of having a tech slider you research new technologies.

[loady740]

i see it as 0 is the current year in game and increasing the slider would be like using parts with quality from a later year
and decreasing the slider would be like using parts with quality from an earlier year


Example: The current year in game is 1970, the quality slider is currently at 0 indicating that you are using parts with the quality of the year 1970, increasing it to where it says +2 would mean you are using parts with the quality of 1972 and decreasing the slider to where it says -2 would mean you are using parts with the quality of 1968. That is the way i think it would best work but i could be wrong, DAFFY YOU HAF SOME EXPLAININ TO DO !!!!!

[Daffyflyer]

In sandbox the tech available will be based on a combination of the current year of the factory, and the quality slider.

In the grand campaign its.. different, research and stuff, Killrob can probably explain better than me

[loady740]

KILLROB YOU HAFF SOME EXPLAININ TO DO !!!!!

[Kubboz]

If I understand it correctly, it goes like this:

In grand campaign mode, each company has something called Tech Pool, right. Normal company has techpool of 0, which means using average technology for the period, while very, very advanced company has got techpool of 15, which roughly means being 15 years ahead.

Techpool can be used in two ways
1.Raising quality without increase in price (which also means reduced price at the same quality). In that case, you can bring your quality to your Techpool level (assuming you are using parts everone else has unlocked), with cost the same as quality 0 with tech pool 0. Internally, raising quality by x means raising technology year by x.
2.Unlocking new tech. (spending points entirely on the new tech means you get the parts from T years ahead, where T is your techpool)

The problem with the new tech is that it is in prototype phase and thus, much more unreliable than the same technology unlocked at the introduction year. Internally, their tech year at quality 0 would be C-x, where C is the current year, and x is amount of years the technology is ahead. (

For example, in 1987, you could unlock 1992 MPFI with techpool 5, but internally, the tech year of that part would be 1982, which translates to system being horribly unreliable, a less precise, and tus yielding less power and being less. It could be offset with raising quality by 10, which would make it horribly expensive, unless you have more techpool points. You could as well have the 1988 SPFI, which means it's techyear would be internally 1986, so SPFI system, while still being less reliable than the one unlocked for everyone, would be improved with smaller quality increase, so you would still have it cheaper than mechanical injection, while being more efficient and more reliable than it.

Of course, as in the current system, there would be different techpool values for different sections.

[Killrob]

Thanks, Kubby, this is pretty accurate! I'd like to add that each tab in the engine designer (apart from testing of course) has its own tech-pool value, which indicates the amount of research your company has put into that subsystem.

In the case of scenarios in the demo, some scenarios have non-zero tech-pools for the different tabs. This means that, like Kubby described, you can choose to either invest those points to unlock (less reliable) future tech, build common tech to a higher standard, or keep the standard on par with others while reducing costs.

This system really gives the player a lot of tough choices to make... as you now basically have to consider both the tech-pool AND the quality slider... including the penalties for using tech that you'd barely unlock with your pool.

Cheers!

[utopian201]

I still dont get how it works.
In some of the scenarios, there may be a tech pool of 10.
We can use the tech pool as follows:
1. Unlock new technology
2. Build higher grade items for a small price increase
3. Build normal grade items for a lower price

My questions are:
1. How do you unlock new technology?In the older years, even when I move the quality slider to highest, newer technologies eg DFI doesn't become available.
2. Normally when you increase the quality slider, it will increase the price of the part. So as long as the quality slider is not moved higher than the tech pool, you are building higher grade items for a small price increase?
3. Conversely, if you set quality to 0 and have excess tech pool points (eg quality 0, tech pool 5), that counts as building same quality for lower price? In which case, because it would only cost a small amount to increase quality within the techpool available, it doesn't make sense to not use all tech pool points on quality. Is that correct?

[Kubboz]

I still dont get how it works.
In some of the scenarios, there may be a tech pool of 10.
We can use the tech pool as follows:
1. Unlock new technology
2. Build higher grade items for a small price increase
3. Build normal grade items for a lower price

My questions are:
1. How do you unlock new technology?In the older years, even when I move the quality slider to highest, newer technologies eg DFI doesn't become available.
2. Normally when you increase the quality slider, it will increase the price of the part. So as long as the quality slider is not moved higher than the tech pool, you are building higher grade items for a small price increase?
3. Conversely, if you set quality to 0 and have excess tech pool points (eg quality 0, tech pool 5), that counts as building same quality for lower price? In which case, because it would only cost a small amount to increase quality within the techpool available, it doesn't make sense to not use all tech pool points on quality. Is that correct?

1.You unlock new technology simply by having more techpool. Since sandbox always has 0 techpool (unless you modify your engine/platform/model file), there is no way of unlocking new tech in sandbox, but in campaign mode, you will be able to unlock new tech by investing in research. To further explain it, the quality slider does not unlock new tech. It only affects how well the parts already unlocked are.
2.Yes, that is true. The higher grade items will have relatively small price increase
3.Well, it certainly depends on the size of the item. I could see bodywork or platform having that "relatively small price increase" still large enough to consider setting quality below the techpool, especially if you can't outsource the production to some country with cheap labor for some reason. Also, I do not really know how the techpool system will interact with the factory system.

[Der Bayer]

Lower quality can be worth a look if you want to make lots of cars in a small factory because man hours (production units) will be lower. So if you cannot/don't want to spend money on a bigger factory and you think that people will still buy your car (for example if there are only few and rubbish competitors in your region), it might be worth a try. By decreasing man hours and increasing the car output, you can not only decrease production costs but also the fraction of the engineering cost per car because you can build more cars. This way you can sell even cheaper.

[Dragawn]

I have some questions too:
1 - Will there be a techpool for using specific engines (v8, v6 , i4) (like 1-3 pool boost for all parts)?
2 - Will you get bonus techpool for using a specific kind of engine or parts (ex. pushrod) by "becoming a specialist" in using them? Or will this only be available through hired engineers? Or both? If engineers, will these have a rpg-like exp pool?

[Jakgoe]

I cant speak for 1, but you will get bonus techpool and quality if you specialize in a certain kind of engine for a long time. (American pushrod V8s).