General Comments

[Eric.B]

A very nice, long post. I've broken it down into chunks so my replied are more readable.

The dimensions seem to be off. In SI units (I'm European) the cars are always comically short and preposterously wide. Like 3 and 6 metres respectively, which doesn't make any sense at all. In inches I think that the measurements are right, but not being familiar with those units I'm not sure.

Yes, there is a problem with metric unit conversions, and a lot of the specs need tweaked. It's in my bug list, but near the bottom as I work out breaking bugs.

[Sometimes when you click on the safebox and want to go for an IPO the game crashes. This has only happened to me once.

You wouldn't happen to have the logfile.log from this game would you?

It's seems quite difficult to create a high performance car. I desgined a supercharged V12 Coupé which had 175bhp and could hit 123mph, and performance was still regarded as poor. There were not many cars which could do over 120mph in the 20's.

Right now the ratings aren't attached to the real world specs. I'll be fixing this soon as I get racing in.

I would lock newer technologies in early cars, or make them costly. For isntance a six speed gearbox in a car from 1900 doesn't look very realistic and neither does a V6 engine (the first manufacturer to mass produce them was Lancia in 1950).

I plan on having things that are technically feasible but rare be limited by "Design Image" ratings which the user does not see. Using your example, a V6 engine isnt' common until 1950, but they do exist and you could still make one if your design image is high enough.

Performance figures seem a bit optismistic in some cases, like cars in the early days doing 0-60mph in 6 seconds or less. Same can be said about about weight figures, a supercharged V12 can't be close to 100kg and neither can its frame be below that figure.

Weight figures are broken, and as such performance figures are broken.

I think you should be able to update certain parts of your current production cars without actually having to design a whole new vehicle; like for instance a new body or a new engine. This way versions of the same model should be able to be created more easily.

This is coming with our trim system. You can tweak the old design (without changing parts) under modify in the design room.

The business managing part also seems overtly complex to me, like hiring people and setting wages. If I want to make a small factory for high-end luxury automobiles I don't need to have as many people employed as a mass-production economy car manufacturer, yet you also get the same "Understaffed *whatever*" messages. Result? You end up with a large stock of unsaleable, massively expensive luxury cars.

That bug is also on my list, "Understaffed Factory" will only fire if you have 0 employees at a production line.

The game needs some testing with limited production car building. I haven't had the chance to test and tweak it. It should become more viable after I try the new buying system and update the factory/branch building stuff.

Following previous suggestion, I would also be a good idea to set not only a cost-per-unit, but also a projected price (or know what prices your rivals are selling similar cars, I personally couldn't find it anywhere). This way you know if you are selling your cars at more or less the right prices. Maybe it owuld be a good idea to include a more engineering based-mode and another more buisness-based mode which limited opposed functions in each mode.

You'll be able to see AI prices, world map, and vehicle specs in one of the upcoming patches.

The second part of the question I didn't really understand. Care to expand it?

Also, the car/part designer sliders are a bit sui generis. I mean you set everything to max and you seem to be getting the perfect car, but in reality it's not as easy. A Rolls-Royce and a Ferrari can both be great cars, but the Rolls-Royce does not have the handling of the Ferrari and the Ferrari does not have the comfort of the Rolls-Royce. It's impossible to create a car with perfect ride and handling, because they are opposed characteristics and you have to take a compromise; i.e. can't have both.

Nor do they have both. Sliders are relevant to the type of car you're building. High Comfort on a Luxury Sedan is not the same as High Comfort on a Supercar. The buyer looking for comfort is going to buy a Rolls, not a Ferrari. But if that buyer is in the market for a Supercar and Performance, Handling, Price, Image, and Marketing is the same between a Lotus Evora and an Alfa Romeo 4C. The Durability of the Lotus may put it over the edge. That's not to say Evora with its high Durability is more durable than a compact car. It says for a Supercar it's very durable.

(Couldn't think of any comfortable supercars, all the one's i've been in have been... barebones. And only the gearbox and engine of the Evora is durable, the coachwork is a bit crappy. )

The specs per vehicle type do need tweaked. If I'm not mistaken you can make a luxury sedan have very similar specs (minus wind resistance stuff) as a sports car.



Anyway, thanks for the response. The vehicle part of the game does need some work. And I'll be getting to it once I iron out some of the gameplay bugs and add in some missing features that really need to be added. We'll never get up to Automation level of details, nor do I really want a game that detailed on the engineering side. I did that sort of stuff for a few years, feels too much like the job I quit!