Interesting post. I wouldn't be too worried about making a wall of text, you were clear and gave excellent examples for your points.
While you made excellent and varied points, the only part i think i can contribute to is the discussion on parts availability.
I discovered recently, mainly through testing, that some of the parts have a combination of a year of availability, and a skill requirement. ( i assume a design skill requirement)
The obvious example is the Ladder Frame,(release date 1903) which wasnt available in 1908 in one of my games if you hadn't designed a chassis yet.
Other ones i haven't tested, but have seen through editing save files:
Single, Straight, U V, Flat and H have same release year(1890), but different skill requirements.
The same seems to be true for all of the gearboxes, 2-8 gears are all available, but have different skill reqs.
(Edit: Rewrote this part)
I think it all used to be available at start in the last version, but i like the idea in the current version that you have to have some expertise to be able to design them.
Perhaps in the future we can have different game starts with different design skills, so:
- Your company are engine experts where you can design a variety of engines from the start
- Or your company is a Gearbox expert, who know how to make complex gearboxes from the start
(Edit: Rewrote this part)
Depending on whether it was some specific expertise or common knowledge, it could be edited down a bit i suppose.
Judging by your excellent examples, i figure you might be able to comment on whether these more complex arrangements or more cylinders were common at the time, or whether they were some kind of specialization.
At the moment at game start companies in gearcity seem to be terrible at everything and have to work their way up
While you made excellent and varied points, the only part i think i can contribute to is the discussion on parts availability.
I discovered recently, mainly through testing, that some of the parts have a combination of a year of availability, and a skill requirement. ( i assume a design skill requirement)
The obvious example is the Ladder Frame,(release date 1903) which wasnt available in 1908 in one of my games if you hadn't designed a chassis yet.
Other ones i haven't tested, but have seen through editing save files:
Single, Straight, U V, Flat and H have same release year(1890), but different skill requirements.
The same seems to be true for all of the gearboxes, 2-8 gears are all available, but have different skill reqs.
(Edit: Rewrote this part)
I think it all used to be available at start in the last version, but i like the idea in the current version that you have to have some expertise to be able to design them.
Perhaps in the future we can have different game starts with different design skills, so:
- Your company are engine experts where you can design a variety of engines from the start
- Or your company is a Gearbox expert, who know how to make complex gearboxes from the start
(Edit: Rewrote this part)
Depending on whether it was some specific expertise or common knowledge, it could be edited down a bit i suppose.
Judging by your excellent examples, i figure you might be able to comment on whether these more complex arrangements or more cylinders were common at the time, or whether they were some kind of specialization.
At the moment at game start companies in gearcity seem to be terrible at everything and have to work their way up