Still Confused - Car Making Details and Wealth Details

[Frankschtaldt]

Hi Ukir. The others have already given some good solid advice and I don't really have a lot more to add but I figured I'd point out a couple if things that haven't been mentioned in this thread.
You may already be doing these but it's worth saying in case you're not.

Chassis: For your first car, it's worth making your first chassis as small as you can go. It will negatively effect your finished vehicles stats slightly but big saving in weight and costs massively outweigh any negative effects. (even if your starting with a pickup or full size sedan imo)

Gearbox: For your first vehicles a 1 speed box is all you need. Unless your targeting a really high performance car, you'll gain almost nothing from more gears other than extra cost and weight.


Also, with regards to power figures in early game. The Benz patent motor wagon didn't even produce 1hp and it was pretty common to have single figure outputs well into the 1910's. I don't think it's actually possible to make an engine that makes less than 3hp in the game currently but for a 1900 compact or phaeton even that tiny output is plenty if you're chasing a cheap car.

[Ukir]

Thanks for the help, everyone. I've been doing pretty well by making cheap cars, now. Around 1900 I had a boom of sales with over 1000 sales a month with my first two cars, a compact and a minicar(I produced more compacts). Both were worth roughly 400$ to make, and I was selling them for 900$ as I mentioned.

Then around 1905 I made a mistake that almost costed me bankrupcy, I made two cars which weren't too popular because they weren't as cheap(still sort of cheap, but nowhere as close), I think they costed 900$ to make and 1500$ to sell, but either way they didn't go so well, because I overdid with the overall material price.

But by 1908 I started making a new car which was worth roughly 350$ to make, and by 1909 I made a even cheaper new model year of my first compact. Both were compact this time around. They were done shortly after I had to get a loan to avoid bankrupcy due to the last failure, but I went all or nothing and sold them for 1000$ each, while producing them in every production line I had(roughly 15 lines by then, since I sold factories to avoid bankrupcy by 1905). The result was a crazy success, I was getting 800,000$ or more a month.

Then I made a new factory, slightly bigger than my first one, in Paris(yes I was in London at first). Started producing a car by 1910, which was done in 1911 or 1912, roughly. It had a new engine, chassis, and gearbox, which were all cheaper than 200$(heck, the chassis was only 45$, and the gearbox was below 100$ as well), for a total production price of 400$. It was better than the other ones for everything though. It had 100km/L fuel consumption due to higher quality materials and was comfy due to higher quality interiors. So I placed every production line in Paris to make it, and surprisingly, it sold almost all of it. I got a profit of 3,000,000$ on that month.

So, to put a long story short, since this isn't the place to tell how my games went, I got an extremely successful company after following most of your tips. I did fail a LOT by 1905, but by 1910 I was making the ideal car, cheaper than everything to sell, while still being EVEN cheaper to make and still retaining most quality.

It had 28 horsepower, 100km/L fuel, and many other things. Probably thanks to me discovering that if I only increase one of the two displacement sides(to be exact, the lower one in the menu, forgot its name right now), it increases the horsepower quite a bit without making it super heavy, big, or ruin the fuel consumption. It also did not raise the value too much, so the engine was still roughly 150$.

I'd say my questions are about done, at any rate. If any more questions appear later, I'll post again.

[Arakash]

Nice to hear it. Sounds like you had a good game there.

If your in France your going to get a rude surprise when it hits 1914
Surviving can be difficult depending on your situation in that year. I wont spoil the surprise unless you ask about it or mention it.

There is quite a bit of depth to the game and much of it is yet to be documented, so feel free to ask other questions in new threads/areas of the forum if you like.

[madman12]

Going off everything mentioned in this 10 month old thread, focus on going as cheap as possible while keeping the main values for said body type as high as it is cost effective sells in a nutshell? I understand there are heaps of other variables which go into how much.

Going into the demographic targeting a bit here, how much of an effect does details such as affording a higher comfort rating have on it's attractiveness to the wealthier class or making that design more reliable to the younger consumer? And by attractiveness I mean its effect on whether they'll buy it or not. Is it sufficient enough to add it as a value to focus on when making your design decisions?

[Eric.B]

In 1.17 and older, not much if unless your targeting luxury sedans. It does improve sales of older and wealthier people. However It's not really a strong enough draw so to speak.

In 1.18 and newer, it'll be quite a bit stronger. I'm in the process of rewriting much of the code that handles this stuff. Comforts and luxury options as well as manufacturing quality will actually increase your consumer ratings and maximum price range over per-capita. However it's also going to become much more expensive to increase luxury ratings. So it's a bit of a balancing issue. Demographics code is also getting a pretty big overhaul, so things like this will become much much more important.


Also I'm adding a bunch of Demographics/Advice stuff into the RnD. So the game should actually tell you what your focusing on, how to improve it, etc.

[madman12]

In 1.17 and older, not much if unless your targeting luxury sedans. It does improve sales of older and wealthier people. However It's not really a strong enough draw so to speak.

That's what I had guessed. How does it improve sales of older and wealthier people btw? Thought GearCity was selling cars not people

Guessing you mean for luxury sedans having a higher comfort rating would increase its sales to older and wealthier people but the primary value for a luxury sedan is luxury so it sort of comes with the body type.

In 1.18 and newer, it'll be quite a bit stronger. I'm in the process of rewriting much of the code that handles this stuff. Comforts and luxury options as well as manufacturing quality will actually increase your consumer ratings and maximum price range over per-capita. However it's also going to become much more expensive to increase luxury ratings. So it's a bit of a balancing issue. Demographics code is also getting a pretty big overhaul, so things like this will become much much more important.

Also I'm adding a bunch of Demographics/Advice stuff into the RnD. So the game should actually tell you what your focusing on, how to improve it, etc.

Yeah, been following your 1.18 thread so am aware of those changes. It'll certainly make designing vehicles tougher due to the increased effects of the other values but the addition of the advice in RnD should help offset that to make it more understandable imo.

[Eric.B]

That's what I had guessed. How does it improve sales of older and wealthier people btw? Thought GearCity was selling cars not people

You don't sell to people directly, however the ~things~ that buy vehicles in the game are artificial people lumped together in demographical groups.

Just like in real life. If you don't have people buying from dealers, then you don't have dealers ordering from branches.

Guessing you mean for luxury sedans having a higher comfort rating would increase its sales to older and wealthier people but the primary value for a luxury sedan is luxury so it sort of comes with the body type.

For 1.18, no, I mean older and wealther people will put more weight into luxury and comforts as it's what their demographics typically want. Younger demographics will want performance and fuel economy, middle aged demographics look for cargo and safety.

As it is now (1.17) demographics only get a tiny boost to certain ratings depending on the group.

The more demographics that buy a vehicle, the more your dealerships will request, the more vehicles you sell. People are represented in the game. That's why we have "demographics" in the first place.

It's just implemented poorly, and not very transparent. Which should hopefully improve after 1.18 is released.