Which engine do you design in 1900?

[Unavailableartist]

Ive played around a bit with this car design its not been easy for me. I usually got for a sedan with a high horsies but I see torque is way more important. XD

my design are hugely based on power weight... but now I see the error in my ways lmao. I target wealthy (which may be why I go bankrupt lol)
my price usually goes
231~ I-2 for a first engine I find it gets best power (Ill do torque next time)... 8hp 40-50 nms of torque.
30 is my standard gas mileage.

And I leave material maxed out and weight low.
My chasis gears tend to be bad... I go for weight above everything else. for chasis and small. The gear box I usually go for economy 1 gear I get better mileage than you @ like 8mpgs.
22 MPH with car (torque is probably what hurts here)
I always use a t-head over others because for 2-3 dollars you get a significant bump in gas mileage and power.

I usually push out a $1000 car by 6/1/1901 and go bankrupt because I sell like 1-4 cars a month. And my profit margin is super low I usually go for %15 profit+corporate/unit costs.

[Cerberus23]

Anyhoo when I remove the empty world vacuum with pre-history. Your expansion rate will hopefully slow down a bit without my need of going in and balancing things.

There might also be some willing to create preset engines, gearboxes, chassis and complete cars the AI can choose from. Just sayin'...

I'd like to see myself loosing shares to other companies because they're just creating better cars and i'd have to find new ways to adapt to this. I barely ever get to see a report stating that i'm losing money from a build car on the long run expect it's a car purely build with racing intends. And even these are creating profit (which of course is not showing in the specific report )

[Eric.B]

Ive played around a bit with this car design its not been easy for me. I usually got for a sedan with a high horsies but I see torque is way more important. XD

Well torque is half the variable for horsepower (the other being rotation.) In early game years, the amount of torque output of engines are lower compared to modern engines of the same size. As such if you have a heavy vehicle, you're going to need more torque than horsepower to move it. You can make an engine rotate all it wants, if it doesn't have the torque to push the vehicle along it's not going to matter.

Later in the game horsepower should be playing a little more important role in maintaining adequate top speeds. At which point you can reduce torque and increase RPMs.

Up until you hit the point where you're fighting terminal velocity. In which case torque again becomes important as you need to push back against the atmosphere.

my design are hugely based on power weight... but now I see the error in my ways lmao. I target wealthy (which may be why I go bankrupt lol)

Throughout history most automotive companies that targeted wealthy owners have always gone out of business or have been absorbed by other companies. While it is possible to run a hyper luxury company in GC. It is suggested to do mass market consumer vehicles to get a feel for the game before trying your hand in the high end stuff.

my price usually goes
231~ I-2 for a first engine I find it gets best power (Ill do torque next time)... 8hp 40-50 nms of torque.
30 is my standard gas mileage.

Depending on the type of vehicle you're designing, torque, top speed, hp, etc may not be that important.

I usually push out a $1000 car by 6/1/1901 and go bankrupt because I sell like 1-4 cars a month. And my profit margin is super low I usually go for %15 profit+corporate/unit costs.

Which cities are you trying to sell in? $1000 sedan should do quite well.

I'd like to see myself loosing shares to other companies because they're just creating better cars and i'd have to find new ways to adapt to this. I barely ever get to see a report stating that i'm losing money from a build car on the long run expect it's a car purely build with racing intends. And even these are creating profit (which of course is not showing in the specific report )

Well the AI has improved since 1.19, it will get another around of improvements toward the end of Early Access. It just takes so much time to tweak the AI, I couldn't continue to work on it without a bunch of people grumbling that there hasn't been updates.

In any event, I still have a few things planned up my sleeves for the AI. And some of the new maps will condense the playing space, thus hopefully improving AI's production output, so that if a company designs a good vehicle, it can produce enough of them.

[Unavailableartist]

Well torque is half the variable for horsepower (the other being rotation.) In early game years, the amount of torque output of engines are lower compared to modern engines of the same size. As such if you have a heavy vehicle, you're going to need more torque than horsepower to move it. You can make an engine rotate all it wants, if it doesn't have the torque to push the vehicle along it's not going to matter.

Later in the game horsepower should be playing a little more important role in maintaining adequate top speeds. At which point you can reduce torque and increase RPMs.

Up until you hit the point where you're fighting terminal velocity. In which case torque again becomes important as you need to push back against the atmosphere.

Well I've since modified my design a bit. I've cut back to try to make a car sell close to 2x GDP.

It winds up being a small I-2 3hp (17nm torque) motor. Chassis that, while not great, is lightened as much as possible (via weight, performance, and material). And a light 1 gear gearbox (I find that early on 2-3 gears make little difference if any... 4 gives a slight bump in speed/gas but goes over budget).

All in all it adds up to be a $440~ sedan that doesn't pass many of the Importance stars, but I think its virtually impossible with some (particularly with fuel efficiency). Set Mid-low (quality, driveablity... and safety I think pass).

Which cities are you trying to sell in? $1000 sedan should do quite well.

I usually start in Atlanta. It's close to where I'm from so I figure why not.

I max production as much as possible which gives like cars that are worth around $600-700 with corporate costs/manufacturing figure in.

I usually go for this model when I calculate the price.

(Corporate cost per unit in stock) + (Manufacturing cost per batch i.e. if 163 units were made I use this same number until I run out or make more)+ Unit value + 15% profit.

All in all the car usually goes for mid $700 to low $1000 (if my stock is low).

I have managed to turn a profit during the months I'm not producing any cars... however I never make up the cost it takes to make the cars in the first place. I watch in dismay as A.I. manages to sell like 100+ low rank Sedans at 1,500 and keep positive over all, while I lose money.... slowly. I've even tried setting my price to just under the 'competitions' price as it more than covers my costs and gives me more profit... and still doesn't work XD.
The most I've ever even sold was something like 50 cars in month (hoping I could just be positive so I can star expanding or researching new stuff to make my car better or start making another high North America demand vehicle... trucks.

[Eric.B]

All in all it adds up to be a $440~ sedan that doesn't pass many of the Importance stars, but I think its virtually impossible with some (particularly with fuel efficiency). Set Mid-low (quality, driveablity... and safety I think pass).

In early game years, stars don't matter as much. Being able to build something people can afford is more important. That being said. You should be able to run a profitable company easily with sedans priced up to (and even higher) than ~$2000-$3000 in 1900. Your problem is a different one.

I usually start in Atlanta. It's close to where I'm from so I figure why not.

If you're only selling vehicles in Atlanta, and not expanding to larger cities in the north, then this is your problem. Atlanta does not have the population in 1900 to support an automanufacturer. Considering a vehicle selling at 2x per capita, you're limiting your self to about 20% of the population that can afford it. (Roughly $100,000 in today's money.)

Atlanta has a population of 80,000 in 1900? Roughly 1 car per 2 people. (A household of 4, with 2 adults ~2 cars.) You're looking at a buying pool of 20,000. A new vehicle is purchased roughly every 5 years. That's 60 months. So 20,000/60 = 333 people per turn looking to buy a vehicle. You're limiting your self to 20% of the market. So 66people. Of those 66 people. Roughly 20 people give or take want a more expensive vehicle than yours. So 46 buyers in the market at your price range. Of those say 20% want a sedan as first or second choice. You're down to 9 people max. Now how many of them buy from you in Atlanta, choose not to buy a vehicle, buy used, or have one shipped from somewhere else? At best you'll get 9 sales per month in Atl.


TLDL, build a branches in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, etc. You know places with people that have lots of money and can afford luxury items like cars in the age before the majority of homes had electric and running water... There is a reason almost all Auto Industry in the US was centered in the Rust Belt. And only the Detroit companies survived.

[Unavailableartist]

I believe you're correct. I sale slightly more than 9 cars per though. Its about 50-30 it takes 3-4 months to run out of a full batch of cars. First month might sale about 10 but it never really drops that low from then on.

So I think it's half the problem ...
I'm gonna try Atlanta 1 more time... then move somewhere with a larger pop.
As you say Detroit is a good choice... so is New Orleans, L.A.... and I suspect New York. As all those have have 100k + people. I will keep you updated.

[Eric.B]

Well, I always start in Jacksonville as it is close to where I live. Expand out with branches. You can run the company out of Atlanta, but build a branch as soon as you're ready to start selling, and ship those vehicles up there.