Let me first thank you for writing up such a detailed reply. I hope some of the particulars of my question were relatively unique, and were not something that a precursory search could have easily answered for me, because I did do some research on Steam.
Let me clarify one or two small things that, judging from my reply, I did not explain very well. Mainly, was that I understand overall rating is not [very] important—my questions were more so directed at using the Vehicle Type Specific Overall Rating (exact term is probably not right) as a general indicator and whether or not there were some thresholds on specific values that had to be met. You did answer this for top speed, I believe you mean the red text warning in the advanced vehicle creator. Is it true that the other red text warnings work in similar ways, effecting a decrease in overall buyer rating in a way that is not necessarily reflected in Vehicle Type Specific Rating? If this is true then perhaps my low (relative) sales were caused by this—I assumed that Vehicle Type Specific Rating was by far the most important factor for vehicle desirability and that if that rating was still good then the customers were content with my "red text" flaws. But if that's not true (and it seems to not be) then that would explain a lot.
Also I should clarify very briefly that all my comments regarding "low sales" are relative to the total of cars being sold: I understand that the low GDP of the early years makes total sales low.
Your explanation of the Customer purchasing formula was very helpful (and largely what I was looking to hear). It seems that with these extra factors it should be possible to eke out good sales even facing a lot of competition, but I just wasn't establishing myself as superior as well as I thought I was. I hope to be able to read the "In-Depth Manual" someday soon, because I can tell a lot of effort and research went into determining your formulae.
Let me clarify one or two small things that, judging from my reply, I did not explain very well. Mainly, was that I understand overall rating is not [very] important—my questions were more so directed at using the Vehicle Type Specific Overall Rating (exact term is probably not right) as a general indicator and whether or not there were some thresholds on specific values that had to be met. You did answer this for top speed, I believe you mean the red text warning in the advanced vehicle creator. Is it true that the other red text warnings work in similar ways, effecting a decrease in overall buyer rating in a way that is not necessarily reflected in Vehicle Type Specific Rating? If this is true then perhaps my low (relative) sales were caused by this—I assumed that Vehicle Type Specific Rating was by far the most important factor for vehicle desirability and that if that rating was still good then the customers were content with my "red text" flaws. But if that's not true (and it seems to not be) then that would explain a lot.
Also I should clarify very briefly that all my comments regarding "low sales" are relative to the total of cars being sold: I understand that the low GDP of the early years makes total sales low.
Your explanation of the Customer purchasing formula was very helpful (and largely what I was looking to hear). It seems that with these extra factors it should be possible to eke out good sales even facing a lot of competition, but I just wasn't establishing myself as superior as well as I thought I was. I hope to be able to read the "In-Depth Manual" someday soon, because I can tell a lot of effort and research went into determining your formulae.