Is GCs market big enough?

[Frankschtaldt]

The other night I received a notification that I had sold over 1m vehicles in 1959 (not sure if that new but I've never seen it before, nice touch ). So, that notification got me thinking, how big is GCs market and is it actually big enough to simulate the real world?

I can't draw any solid conclusions because this is only one game and I only have 2 years worth of data to work with which is why this is a discussion thread rather than a suggestion.

So, in 1959 I built just over 1m vehicles and my market share was just over 40% of the world market. This means the world market in this game in 1959 is about 2.5m vehicles. My production in 1960 and 1961 both increased slightly but so did my market share. So let's assume the mark stayed at around 2.5m cars.

Compare this to the information presented in this web site which claims the total world car production to be just under 25m cars in 1960.

This would suggest that in 1960 GCs simulated market is about 1/10 what it needs to be.

Again, this is based on the data from only a couple of years of gameplay from one game (where I am focusing on utility vehicles such as trucks and vans).

Does anyone else have useful data from recent games we could use to compare to real world numbers to help Eric fine tune GCs market size?

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That fact that I have 40% of the market with only pickup trucks, vans and suvs could also suggest that the market in this game is much bigger than 2.5m cars and that there is simply an under supply of sedan and hatch type vehicles.
I might expand my operations into a broader market next to see what happens.

[Eric.B]

I believe the market curve I have in the game is correct, or at least close. The real problem is AI and filling all the vehicle types. Something I am slowly working on but haven't focused on as I should probably finish most of the game play before putting too much effort into the AI.
(Interesting note, the more people selling vehicles in an area, the more people will buy vehicles. It's specific to dealerships. As they will have their own advertising as well.)


Pickups, vans, and SUVs. are about 10%-ish of the popularity values. So there is still 90% out there. (Not including what the AI fills) still probably little less than real values.

Also difficulty plays a factor, 10% more people on easy, 10% less on hard.

That being said, there are a few things I need to improve before we add more people. Specific to this issue:
1) Need to improve AI's profitability and niche market expansion.
2) Need to improve game's turn times. Optimization and Redesigned maps will help a great deal with this.
3) Need to increase AI up to 600. The current game only use 300 which is about half of slightly important vehicle companies to date.
4) Need demographics to jump around more. I was supposed to do this for 1.18, but it was pushed back.
5) Used cars need to lower buying populations. As such I can increase the pool significantly since people will have a used vehicle option as well...

[Frankschtaldt]

Thanks for the info, very interesting. So I really should go ahead with my plan to expand into broader product groups to see what size global market I can create!

So, on that note, with regards to this statement:

(Interesting note, the more people selling vehicles in an area, the more people will buy vehicles. It's specific to dealerships. As they will have their own advertising as well.)

If I make two marques, each selling two sedans, will that create a bigger market than one making 4 sedan trims? Or have I totally missed the mark?

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Actually, I have misread it.... I should pay more attention.

So, I'll rephrase my question.

So, if I build bigger branches and thus get more dealerships. I will actually activity create a bigger market for my vehicles rather than just nabbing a bigger percentage of what's already there?

[Eric.B]

Thanks for the info, very interesting. So I really should go ahead with my plan to expand into broader product groups to see what size global market I can create!

You might want to wait for the first or second minor build of 1.19. As I plan on implementing districting and grouping which should make managing very large companies easier.

If I make two marques, each selling two sedans, will that create a bigger market than one making 4 sedan trims? Or have I totally missed the mark?

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Actually, I have misread it.... I should pay more attention.

You missed the mark. It's based on number of dealerships. Which means its for per parent holding company and not sub-brands.

So, if I build bigger branches and thus get more dealerships. I will actually activity create a bigger market for my vehicles rather than just nabbing a bigger percentage of what's already there?

Yes, exactly. You create a bigger market for you, and a slightly larger market for your competition. This is primary due to what's called the shop around effect. If one dealer is throwing a sale and advertising, I will probably stop at two or three other dealerships to make sure it's a good deal. The bigger purchasing costs the more likely this happens in real life.

So yes, building better branches should increase dealerships which will increase sales for you and your competition. The amounts however still need to be adjusted.


I've also been needling with the idea of splitting a city's population up using dealerships. But it'll be a while once things slow down before I can play with this idea.