[FIXED]Overall rating + engine costs

[freeman2344]

Two small things, which Eric can maybe try to sneak in for the next small update.

1. The overall rating for cars is still too low IMO, I can barely make it past 30...if pretty much everything about the car is great, the rating should reflect that, shouldn't it? Not sure if this is currently a bug or intended feature. Let me know.

2. I realize that balancing is not a top priority right now, but costs are still all over the place (understandable as the past-1930 years are still new to all of us and not much playtesting has been done). My problem rests primarily with costs associated with engine volumes. Depending on the era (and especially in the later periods) there can be some fairly odd results due to poor costs scaling, such as a 250HP, 3L V6 being just 10% or 20% more expensive then a much smaller 1.5L I4 or something similar, while the V6 still offers comparable economy. Sure, it's a little heavier, but there are not enough drawbacks associated with bigger engines in total. To this end, the costs scaling should be increased (moving the slider further to the right to increase volume should cause the costs to increase exponentially, not linearly). Putting something like an 8L or 9L engine into series production should not be impossible - but it should carry realistic drawbacks. As it is right now, it is almost always better to just produce a fairly large volume engine as the added costs are too little to justify going for a downsized model, which would be more realistic, especially in today's market.

[Eric.B]

1) Looking at the code, it does not look like an issue. Tally up all the vehicle ratings, then the overall ratings of all the components you use, divide by 22. Then factor in a few points here and there for skills and images...

2) Yes, the late stages of the game still need more refinement and balancing. Maybe I can get to this while I work on the racing code. At least we fixed it to where you don't use single cylinder engines all the time like in the past

[Frankschtaldt]

1) Looking at the code, it does not look like an issue. Tally up all the vehicle ratings, then the overall ratings of all the components you use, divide by 22. Then factor in a few points here and there for skills and images...

There's your issue. Too many factors of equal importance makes it really hard to influence the overall number. Especially when you have different numbers that totally oppose each other with equal weight (power vs fuel economy anyone?)
Numbers should be given weights so players can target the right things to improve their ratings. For a start I'd suggest making the rating favoured by that body type a much higher weight (say 10 for primary and 5 for secondary maybe) and then probably increase the weight of material quality values (2 should do) them trial it. It will almost definitely need more tweaking but I think it'll be much more intuitive.

[Eric.B]

The weighted values take effect when consumers buy the vehicles. Not when designing an overall car.

No matter how great of a supercar the Veyron is, ultimately, overall, it's a shitty car. If I were to specifically set values for body types there would be no way to compare different body types.


Design system will eventually get a new panel suggestion what to focus on for your body type. But there won't be any specific body code for overall values.

[freeman2344]

I don't know, I agree with Frank. Again, the system doesn't work if it's exceedingly difficult to get past, say 40, even after lots of playing I have never managed that and this seems counter-intuitive to players. If it's a scale from 0 to 100, then 35 seems like utter crap (let's not forget that it will have decayed even further after just a couple of months).

I guess the real question is, does the overall rating have a significant impact on sales? Example: Will a sportscar with perfect (90-100) power and performance, but with an overall rating of 24, due to other factors such as luxury and fuel economy, be bought significantly less often?

The way I understand it now is that 100 cannot even be obtained due to factors opposing themselves to similar degrees. Doesn't seem ideal. I like Frank's idea about making the rating dependent on the body type...you mentioned in opposition to that idea that this would prevent different body types from being comparable to each other. But is that really necessary? Think about real life. There is only a need for comparison within vehicle segments and with "bordering" segments, such as compact vehicles and subcompact vehicles or roomy hatchback vs small sedan...someone looking for a city car will not be comparing it to a 5-Series either.

[Eric.B]

This has been discussed many times on these forums at great length.

A supercar with perfect power/performance will outsell a supercar with a higher overall rating but less power/performance. Overall rating is just another rating for how "perfect" the car is. It is not the main factor (barely even a minor factor) when it comes to selling a vehicle.

The RnD system is not complete. So don't judge the tiny rating panel we have in the corner as the end-all. I've already stated a number of times, as in this thread, that specific body advice and tips will be added to RnD as a new panel (taking up the middle space.)

The overall rating can not change. It is needed to compare vehicles across all platforms. This is needed to effect consumer decisions in a meta sense. In a micro sense the consumer already does body specific ratings that are dynamically calculated based on a variety of factors.

[Tridon]

Reading those explanations makes the ratings a bit more understandable

[Eric.B]

I think everyone will be pleased with the new panel I'm adding to RnD. If not you guys can tar and feather me, and I'll fix it the way you want.

[Eric.B]

With the new specific vehicle ratings, and the revised unit costs, stats, overall ratings, etc. I believe thread can be marked as fixed for 1.17.5.

The GUI changes coming in 1.18 should make everything more clear, but internally I believe most of these issues are addressed.

[Myquandro]

If the overall rating won't be changed for reason I understand, so no problem for me. Is it then possible to add a new column for body type rating which takes into consideration the type of body and gives a rating based on weighing factors for that body type. This would make it easier to build 3 times about the same car and comparing these before bringing them to the market.