<![CDATA[Visual Entertainment and Technologies Forum

<![CDATA[Visual Entertainment and Technologies Forum - Archive: AAR]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/ Sat, 25 Apr 2026 19:04:48 +0000 MyBB <![CDATA[King Cars - A new Start - Extreme difficulty, minor tutorial use]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=3357 Mon, 29 May 2017 08:22:18 -0400 Curse]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=3357 http://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2837

9th of August 2018: The first attempt at creating a second part was a failure - and I had not enough free time to allocate to Gear City to fix the problems that occured, mostly the not anymore working strategy of aiming directly at the luxury segment. I've got a bit of time on my hands again and I try to restart the AAR.

This first update lacks a bit of structure as I wrote it after the first two years passed by. Smile

Settings:
"ultra deluxe super nightmare hard" with the following changes
- slight increase in customer base and purchase power
- cannot be fired
- no monopoly lawsuit
- random history
- real AI mod with 71 real companies

HQ: New York City

Goals:
- start from the buttom and work the way up
- get the rare achievements
- Do whatever is necessary for success. Screw customers, screw workers. A totally different concept to my earlier attempts.

1900-1902:
Our workers have no skill. They mostly never worked in a factory before and especially not in one with line production. Our engineers aren't skilled either. On the other hand there is a huge market for motor vehicles and only very small numbers are produced.
There are several companies in the luxury segment that's very small to begin with.

There is no real middle segment as people (customers!) are either very rich, so they purchase luxury cars, or they are wealthy and can only afford cheaper cars.

In the cheap segment the so called Phaeton is very popular. There are three models on the market, all concentrate to be of standard quality and manufacturing price - around $550 to $600. Our goal is to produce a full car for a maximum of $450.

Our not yet skilled engineers receive in January 1900 the order to create the cheapes engine. The cheapest gearbox. And the cheapest chassis. Cheap not just to keep costs low, but also to don't care about features. There we go with a 1kW engine that can't pull anything, a two speed gearbox and a very small chassis. The car resulting from this is a bad piece of work. But it drives and there are people who want it.
Also in January 1900 we start the construction of our first factory in New York City. $400.000 of our $900.000 get into a single lane middle technology building complex.

August 1901 is the month of truth. We timed the design and prototype phase of our King Cars Phaeton I together with the finishing of the NYC factory. The first two branches in NYC and Philadelphia were created one month before, both with a two star rating (by the AAA) in dealer and sales resources.

Our factory is able to produce 92 cars per month if we accept a negative production effect. That's ok for now. Our sales director suggests a price of $1000 per car. We start at $1500 per car.

During the following month we adopt a strategy: We open up new branches in huge cities. Boston, Baltimore, Cleveland. This opens the market for more customers - while we don't produce more cars. We therefor increase price per car up to $2000. This keeps our profit, just around $65.000 per month, steady, but allows to build up a dealership base.

We also started the development of a new car. The King Cars Coupe I. With the same components as the Phaeton I, but with a bit more quality and luxury. Not too much. Again we aim for mass, not class.

The loan we had to start our company was also paid back early and we put our first $20.000 into the pension fond. There was no money spent for marketing yet.

In early 1902 we issued $640.000 in Bonds until 1910 with annual costs of $50.000 to finance a $950.000 factory in Chicago. Two lines, full technology. We expect the factory to get online during 1904.

Around this time we also decided to offer our engine, gearbox and chassis for licence. We don't expect someone actually wanting to have these bad pieces of engineering but it's not very expensive to offer them to the market.

Chicago Factory:

King Cars Phaeton I:

King Cars Coupe I (yes, it's named Sedan I. Don't ask biggrin

]]> http://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2837

9th of August 2018: The first attempt at creating a second part was a failure - and I had not enough free time to allocate to Gear City to fix the problems that occured, mostly the not anymore working strategy of aiming directly at the luxury segment. I've got a bit of time on my hands again and I try to restart the AAR.

This first update lacks a bit of structure as I wrote it after the first two years passed by. Smile

King Cars Phaeton I:

King Cars Coupe I (yes, it's named Sedan I. Don't ask biggrin

]]> <![CDATA[King Cars - hard difficulty (with small tutorial steps at the start)]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2837 Sun, 10 Jan 2016 08:49:56 -0500 Curse]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2837
So, here's my second real game and I try to get an AAR running up for you guys, but also to have a small history for myself. City names are always the biggest ones, so London is always in the UK and Frankfurt is always in Germany, despite the fact there might exist more in the world.

Settings:
-1900
- hard
- all AI (+ real company names)
- no advanced options/changes

The company is called "King Cars" as all my companies are part of the "King Corp." group.

The goals are:
- Make profit by the end of 1902.
- Avoid losses except when building early factories.
- Shift to high quality and expensive cars as soon as possible to build up image and worker skill (etc.).
- Deliver quality products for high prices. However, this also includes not screwing over customers and not maximize profits on the cost of our products or customers.
- Never produce so many cars the quality starts to decline. Quality over sales amount. An exception may be financial difficulties.

1900:

I decided to HQ the company in London. As biggest city of that time and the UK being one of the technological leaders I see a reasonable real world background to jump in and get the 28% tax rate as well as a top factory place, just short of New York.

Auto settings for hire and wage were deactivated in the first round. Wages for all groups were set to average, branches staff was fired for the moment.

Cash on hand: $ 450.000, no loans, no IPO.
Factory: 5 production lines in London, bad quality.
Branches: 1 branch in London, bad quality.

Three design projects were started with the goal to make them not too pricey while keep at least a minimum standard in quality and to keep them as multi purpose as possible, while maintaining a specific item level somewhere around 28.
Of course the first design was the engine, as this will, especially later in the game, decide how big the engine spaces in our chassis must be.

Uni 1 engine:

Uni 1 gearbox:

Uni 1 chassis:

Research teams were staffed to 100%, timing was set for all the same and a very cheap approach. Loss was about $22k per month, so there was no point to rush designs to get cars earlier as that would never have made up the rush costs.

As soon as the parts were done I offered them for licence. One time fee was set to be at about 80% of the maximum the game suggested, same for the one time unit fee, both rounded up or down to make it a nicer looking number.

Same I checked the competition in London (and Paris) and there was a huge list of sedans already, about 8-10 different ones. Phaetons, Coupe 2+2, Town Car and Landaulet were completely uncontested.

As Landaulets (as well as Limousines) are low piece high profit cash cows and the Phaeton is a mid-high piece cash cow I went for those two designs. As creative as I am they are called the
King Cars Phaetom (yes, seriously):

King Cars Landaulet (you didn't see that name coming, eh?):

Both were designed in a few minutes and with two goals in mind:
1) We can't produce too much of them anyway, so our target audience is not everybody, therefor we must have not high ratings everywhere the usual target audience likes. The landaulet for example isn't that much luxurious.
2) The most important stat is specific type rating, followed by dependability. GearCity citizens somehow love things that basically never break but unfortunately we don't produce bricks. Or diamonds. Or Chuck Norris.

Again rush (= development pace) was done just very slightly as there was no way 1-2 months earlier car sales can make up for the rush costs.

1901:
Research of the Landaulet was finished February 1901, a single product line with 10 units per months was created.
Price per unit was set to $8000, as landaulets are the most expensive and "best" cars in the game.
We also started Newspaper marketing at 100% at all branches.

Auto hire staff was put back on, wages were again set to average everywhere.

We opened several new branches on the lowest possible resources level and therefor making them as cheap as possible.
Thought was: Just a single sold unit can turn such a branch into profit. Also numbers of production and therefor sales are so low there is no chance 100% resources branches will create noticably higher sales that would be necessary to make them a financial success.

New branches were: Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Leeds, Birmingham.

King Cars made its first profit in March 1901 with 8 sold by 10 produced landaulet. Actually London hat just a single sale but Brussels and Amsterdam had two each.

The King Cars Phaeton research was completed in May 1901 and one production line with 15 cars per month was opened. We opened branches in Belfast and Berlin. One Phaeton is going to cost $2000.

The months after we had sold 14 landaulets (4 from reserves) and 15 Phaetons with 5 possible more deliveries. Therefor a second production line was opened and we build 2x 15 Phaetons per month now.

Profit in June 1901 was $42.557.
Cash on hand is $207.495, no loans, no IPO.

Sales 6/1901:

Revenue 6/1901:

Landaulet Sales until 6/1901, monthly:

London Factory 6/1901 with Phaeton overview:

I'm going to play a bit further and come back when a bit more happened or the company went bust. Also feel free to ask or let me know what you think about this AAR.
The current savegame will be attached at the bottom of the post. Especially for someone new who read this and wants to see how things unfolded in the game this might be useful. Or whatever. Tongue

Curse1.7z (Size: 438.91 KB / Downloads: 1119) ]]>
So, here's my second real game and I try to get an AAR running up for you guys, but also to have a small history for myself. City names are always the biggest ones, so London is always in the UK and Frankfurt is always in Germany, despite the fact there might exist more in the world.

Settings:
-1900
- hard
- all AI (+ real company names)
- no advanced options/changes

The company is called "King Cars" as all my companies are part of the "King Corp." group.

The goals are:
- Make profit by the end of 1902.
- Avoid losses except when building early factories.
- Shift to high quality and expensive cars as soon as possible to build up image and worker skill (etc.).
- Deliver quality products for high prices. However, this also includes not screwing over customers and not maximize profits on the cost of our products or customers.
- Never produce so many cars the quality starts to decline. Quality over sales amount. An exception may be financial difficulties.

1900:

I decided to HQ the company in London. As biggest city of that time and the UK being one of the technological leaders I see a reasonable real world background to jump in and get the 28% tax rate as well as a top factory place, just short of New York.

Auto settings for hire and wage were deactivated in the first round. Wages for all groups were set to average, branches staff was fired for the moment.

Cash on hand: $ 450.000, no loans, no IPO.
Factory: 5 production lines in London, bad quality.
Branches: 1 branch in London, bad quality.

Three design projects were started with the goal to make them not too pricey while keep at least a minimum standard in quality and to keep them as multi purpose as possible, while maintaining a specific item level somewhere around 28.
Of course the first design was the engine, as this will, especially later in the game, decide how big the engine spaces in our chassis must be.

Uni 1 engine:

Uni 1 gearbox:

Uni 1 chassis:

King Cars Landaulet (you didn't see that name coming, eh?):

Revenue 6/1901:

Landaulet Sales until 6/1901, monthly:

London Factory 6/1901 with Phaeton overview:

Curse1.7z (Size: 438.91 KB / Downloads: 1119) ]]> <![CDATA[Great Lakes Motors: The Rise of a Company (1900-)]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2810 Thu, 03 Dec 2015 00:16:03 -0500 mungojerry311]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2810 BACKGROUND

Theodore James Brewer, known as Ted to his closest friends and associates, was born on a farm near present day Oak Park, Illinois on August 6, 1858. As a child, he divided his time between working on his father's sprawling farm and experimenting with machinery. A favorite hobby of his was taking apart his father's old pocket watch, which his father barely used, and putting it back together again. He got so good at it that the other local farmers who came to help during harvest season would ask Ted to fix their watches. Because of this, his father encouraged him to tinker with anything he could find around the farm. Many say it was this that planted the seed in his mind for what he would do a few decades later. Although he was a reliable helper on the farm, he was inwardly bored with farm life.

After graduating from school, with his parent's blessing, he went to seek his fortune in Chicago. Evidence shows that Ted landed a job at the Chicago Marine Machine Works in the summer of 1877. After a few years, he worked his way up to become a shift manager. In the meantime, in 1883, he married Elaine Hodge, whom he'd met at a company sponsored dance. Ted's absence during the day took an early toll on their marriage. However, the events of the next decade would help turn things around.

After German inventor Karl Benz invented what is now known as the automobile in 1886, many small automakers began popping up around the country in an effort to capitalize on this new technology. Seeing an opportunity for both him and his family (his son Robert had been born in 1885, and his daughter Margaret later in 1890), Ted quit his job as shift manager at the machine shop and became a "horseless-carriage" salesman working in the Chicago area. Ted made enough over the next several years, that he was eventually able to move his family from the somewhat cramped 7th-story apartment they were living in, and into an affluent neighborhood on the north side of Chicago.

Although he enjoyed this line of work, his real interest was in starting his very own company. In 1896, he and a group of other car salesmen, whose identities remain a mystery, formed the Brewer Motor Company. This company seems to have lasted for only two years and produced only one automobile, the Overtowner, which was patterned after Henry Ford's Quadricycle and sold abysmally. Records show that in the 10 months the Overtowner was on the market, it sold only 56 units. Today, it is highly sought after by car collectors. Needless to say, this drove the Brewer Motor Company right into the ground and the company declared bankruptcy in the fall of 1898.

Not one to be easily discouraged, in the summer of 1899, he brought together another group of car salesmen together to form another company. In order to distance themselves from the failure that Brewer Motor Company was, and for the fact Chicago was located on Lake Michigan, they named this new company Great Lakes Motor Company. By the fall of 1899 they had bought a former textile factory downtown to serve as the company's first factory. Corporate offices would also be housed there.

The company's first factory as it appeared in 1919

In late December of 1899, the state legislature of Illinois granted the Great Lakes Motor Company a license to begin operations on January 1, 1900.

INTRODUCTION AND GOALS

Hello folks, and welcome to my first ever GearCity AAR! I've always had a slight interest in cars. In fact, for many years I collected die cast models of various cars. I discovered this game just recently, and I am quite impressed with it as it is. I feel this game has lots of potential to be something great.

I'll make this AAR a history book/narrative style, because that is my favorite style of AAR anywhere. It helps the creative juices flow, so to speak.

My goals for the Great Lakes Motor Company (referred to in-game as Great Lakes Motors) are to make it the biggest car company in North America and possibly the world. I also want to make it all the way to 2020.

In addition, I want this to be a learning experience both for me and others in the GearCity community. Any advice you can give me would be extremely welcome.

Lastly, I'll play this game on Normal difficulty with no additional advanced options selected. Of course I'll be starting in 1900.

I probably won't be able to start playing until tomorrow or so. Until then I leave you with 2 questions:

1) Which vehicle should I build first, and
2) How do I make money while my first chassis, engine, gearbox, and eventually vehicle are being developed?

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the ride!]]> BACKGROUND

Theodore James Brewer, known as Ted to his closest friends and associates, was born on a farm near present day Oak Park, Illinois on August 6, 1858. As a child, he divided his time between working on his father's sprawling farm and experimenting with machinery. A favorite hobby of his was taking apart his father's old pocket watch, which his father barely used, and putting it back together again. He got so good at it that the other local farmers who came to help during harvest season would ask Ted to fix their watches. Because of this, his father encouraged him to tinker with anything he could find around the farm. Many say it was this that planted the seed in his mind for what he would do a few decades later. Although he was a reliable helper on the farm, he was inwardly bored with farm life.

After graduating from school, with his parent's blessing, he went to seek his fortune in Chicago. Evidence shows that Ted landed a job at the Chicago Marine Machine Works in the summer of 1877. After a few years, he worked his way up to become a shift manager. In the meantime, in 1883, he married Elaine Hodge, whom he'd met at a company sponsored dance. Ted's absence during the day took an early toll on their marriage. However, the events of the next decade would help turn things around.

After German inventor Karl Benz invented what is now known as the automobile in 1886, many small automakers began popping up around the country in an effort to capitalize on this new technology. Seeing an opportunity for both him and his family (his son Robert had been born in 1885, and his daughter Margaret later in 1890), Ted quit his job as shift manager at the machine shop and became a "horseless-carriage" salesman working in the Chicago area. Ted made enough over the next several years, that he was eventually able to move his family from the somewhat cramped 7th-story apartment they were living in, and into an affluent neighborhood on the north side of Chicago.

Although he enjoyed this line of work, his real interest was in starting his very own company. In 1896, he and a group of other car salesmen, whose identities remain a mystery, formed the Brewer Motor Company. This company seems to have lasted for only two years and produced only one automobile, the Overtowner, which was patterned after Henry Ford's Quadricycle and sold abysmally. Records show that in the 10 months the Overtowner was on the market, it sold only 56 units. Today, it is highly sought after by car collectors. Needless to say, this drove the Brewer Motor Company right into the ground and the company declared bankruptcy in the fall of 1898.

Not one to be easily discouraged, in the summer of 1899, he brought together another group of car salesmen together to form another company. In order to distance themselves from the failure that Brewer Motor Company was, and for the fact Chicago was located on Lake Michigan, they named this new company Great Lakes Motor Company. By the fall of 1899 they had bought a former textile factory downtown to serve as the company's first factory. Corporate offices would also be housed there.

The company's first factory as it appeared in 1919

The WFA (or as it should be mentioned during that time Ð’ÐÐ— - Ð’Ð°Ñ€ÑˆÐ°Ð²ÑÐºÐ¸Ð¹ ÐÐ²Ñ‚Ð¾Ð¼Ð¾Ð±Ð¸Ð»ÑŒÐ½Ñ‹Ð¹ Ð—Ð°Ð²Ð¾Ð´, as this part of Poland was still under Russian rule) is established. Reports show that compact cars, microcars and phaetons are the bee's knees around Europe.
WFA starts working on the Econo line of chasses, engines and gearboxes. It'll be a few years of strife.

04/1901

The WFA 1901 201 compact car is introduced. The sales? A bit low- only 16 sold in the first month.

6/1901

The WFA 1901 101 microcar arrives on the market. Sales are even lower, starting with 12.
In hopes of increasing sales I open a branch in Vienna, Austro-Hungary.

1/1902

The WFA 1901 101 P phaeton is ready for the picking but it will have to wait a bit â€“ it'll be available on 1/1903 when the resizing of our Warsaw factory is finished.

6/1902

Pickings are slim so WFA goes public but earns only a measly $25k.

8/1902

Situation is so bad a loan was in order - $200k should keep the company afloat.

1/1903

The long awaited WFA 1902 101 P phaeton is going into production.

2/1903

Back in the black. The company is making money. The R&E Report

12/1903

The award show proves WFA can make good cars. Every year from now on WFA will enjoy a couple of trophies. The 101 P is voted the world best car of the year. Just a month later the loan is paid off in full.

11/1904

The engineers start their work on designing the new MC1 chassis, Mid 42-169 engine and 4R-M gearbox for the new mid-sedan model.

5/1905

The works on designing the 301 mid-sedan are starting.
R&E Report for the 7/1905

1/1906

The WFA 1905 301mid-sedan introduced. Sales are through the roof. Next month a loan of $930k is secured in order to build a second factory, in Lodz.

08/1907-04/1908

Engineers work on the new Performance line of equipment for the 101 R coupÃ©.

08/1908

The WFA 101 R introduced.
Repaid the loan in full.
R&E Report for 8/1910.

9/1910

The new 1910 model of the 201 is introduced.

10/1910

The new 1910 model of the 101 is introduced.

1/1911

The 101 R set for qualifications in the World Grand Prix.

1/1911

The 1911 101 P replaces the old model.

7/1911

Bought all the outstanding shares from the stock market. 99% WFA controlled from now on.

12/1911

WGP championship shows 101 R had racing pedigree. Next year we're also gonna win
The Parisian Police Force contracted the 1910 201 as their car of choice. For the next 36 months WFA is supposed to guarantee them 44 car monthly.

6/1912

The 1912 301 replaces the old model.

5/1913

R&E Report

3/1914

The 301 is contracted for the Viennese Business Fleet at 26 cars monthly.

6/1914

The WFA QRQ is introduced.

7/1914

War breaks out in Europe. The Russian Empire is first on the front line meaning WFA has to close all of its factories, as well as some branches in the Austro-Hungary. Next month same goes for the branches in the German Reich.

]]>
WFA Warszawska Fabryka AutomobilÃ³w (English: Warsaw Automobile Factory)

01/1900

The WFA (or as it should be mentioned during that time Ð’ÐÐ— - Ð’Ð°Ñ€ÑˆÐ°Ð²ÑÐºÐ¸Ð¹ ÐÐ²Ñ‚Ð¾Ð¼Ð¾Ð±Ð¸Ð»ÑŒÐ½Ñ‹Ð¹ Ð—Ð°Ð²Ð¾Ð´, as this part of Poland was still under Russian rule) is established. Reports show that compact cars, microcars and phaetons are the bee's knees around Europe.
WFA starts working on the Econo line of chasses, engines and gearboxes. It'll be a few years of strife.

04/1901

The WFA 1901 201 compact car is introduced. The sales? A bit low- only 16 sold in the first month.

6/1901

The WFA 1901 101 microcar arrives on the market. Sales are even lower, starting with 12.
In hopes of increasing sales I open a branch in Vienna, Austro-Hungary.

1/1902

The WFA 1901 101 P phaeton is ready for the picking but it will have to wait a bit â€“ it'll be available on 1/1903 when the resizing of our Warsaw factory is finished.

6/1902

Pickings are slim so WFA goes public but earns only a measly $25k.

8/1902

Situation is so bad a loan was in order - $200k should keep the company afloat.

1/1903

The long awaited WFA 1902 101 P phaeton is going into production.

2/1903

Back in the black. The company is making money. The R&E Report

12/1903

The award show proves WFA can make good cars. Every year from now on WFA will enjoy a couple of trophies. The 101 P is voted the world best car of the year. Just a month later the loan is paid off in full.

11/1904

The engineers start their work on designing the new MC1 chassis, Mid 42-169 engine and 4R-M gearbox for the new mid-sedan model.

5/1905

The works on designing the 301 mid-sedan are starting.
R&E Report for the 7/1905

1/1906

The WFA 1905 301mid-sedan introduced. Sales are through the roof. Next month a loan of $930k is secured in order to build a second factory, in Lodz.

08/1907-04/1908

Engineers work on the new Performance line of equipment for the 101 R coupÃ©.

08/1908

The WFA 101 R introduced.
Repaid the loan in full.
R&E Report for 8/1910.

9/1910

The new 1910 model of the 201 is introduced.

10/1910

The new 1910 model of the 101 is introduced.

1/1911

The 101 R set for qualifications in the World Grand Prix.

1/1911

The 1911 101 P replaces the old model.

7/1911

Bought all the outstanding shares from the stock market. 99% WFA controlled from now on.

12/1911

WGP championship shows 101 R had racing pedigree. Next year we're also gonna win
The Parisian Police Force contracted the 1910 201 as their car of choice. For the next 36 months WFA is supposed to guarantee them 44 car monthly.

6/1912

The 1912 301 replaces the old model.

5/1913

R&E Report

3/1914

The 301 is contracted for the Viennese Business Fleet at 26 cars monthly.

6/1914

The WFA QRQ is introduced.

7/1914

War breaks out in Europe. The Russian Empire is first on the front line meaning WFA has to close all of its factories, as well as some branches in the Austro-Hungary. Next month same goes for the branches in the German Reich.

]]> <![CDATA[Queso Spanish Supercar AAR (1.18)]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2694 Tue, 23 Jun 2015 07:28:44 -0400 Frankschtaldt]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2694
Couldn't wait for 1.19 and it's juicy district system so I decided to have a good bash at playing the game in it's current state.
To keep things simpler I decided to focus on a low volume high margin company and as I've already given luxury a go I decided to go with performance.

After much deliberation I decided the Spanish needed a supercar so I started a game in 1950 on normal difficulty (because hard will only let me start with single cylinder engines and that's craptacular for trying to make performance cars...) with no special scenario options and my head office in Barcelona.

1950
I had to resist the urge to try and start the game with a high output monstrosity and eventually managed to talk myself into making the La Mancha. A tiny little sports car powered by a 999cc F head V6 putting out a fairly meagre 41kW, not terrible for the displacement at the time though. Despite the fairly average power, the tiny 560kg (coincidentally, still the lightest car on the superlatives page in 1973!) car with it's 3 speed trans-axle gearbox was capable of a fairly respectable 162km/h! Not bad!

At this early point in the game I only had branches in Barcelona, Madrid, London and Paris but because of it's small size and weight the La Mancha was quite cheap to make so I was able to under cut my opposition despite being at least as good. This meant that these four cities alone were enough to take up most of my production and keep me profitable.

[/b]1953-56
Late in 1952 my engineers figured out how to make SOHC and OHV (I head) engines so I took this as the right time to design the La Mancha a big brother, enter the De Biescas powered but an all new 92kW, 1.6L SOHC V8 with it's own purpose build chassis, though still using the same gearbox as the La Mancha. Capable of 199km/h with a 0-100km/h sprint in only 6.9 seconds, the new De Biescas blew it's baby brother away! However, at almost double the price, it only shifted around 1/5th the number of units.

As soon as the De Biescas was launched our engineers updated the La Mancha with an OHV (I stuck with this to keep the price down) version of it's 1.0L V6 boosting it's power output to 49kW and it's top speed up to 174km/h.

During this time, increases in my own prices and opposition from other companies (particularly in London) saw sales begin to decline, to compensate I opened branches in a few new cities such as Birmingham, Berlin and Rome.

1957-60
In 1957, our engineers began work on updating the ageing La Mancha and De Biescas. Both cars received updated chassis and increased displacements, the V6 grew to 1.2L with a new SOHC head and the V8 up to 1.8L with an all new DOHC head. Both cars also received a brand new 4 speed trans-axle gear box now also fitted with LSD. Toping out a 242km/h, this new De Biescas would be Queso's first entry into the "worlds fastest production car" list!

The end of the decade saw a continued decline in sales as Queso continued to push into a more premium market and more opposition commenced trading. Once again this was countered by opening more branches across Europe as well as our first branch in North America in New York.

In 1958, Queso made it's motor sport debut winning a clean sweep in the Vent championship series, proving the pedigree of it's updated De Biescas sportscar. In 1959 we continued this outstanding success as well as taking the championship in the GearCity cup!

1960+ coming soon....]]>
Couldn't wait for 1.19 and it's juicy district system so I decided to have a good bash at playing the game in it's current state.
To keep things simpler I decided to focus on a low volume high margin company and as I've already given luxury a go I decided to go with performance.

After much deliberation I decided the Spanish needed a supercar so I started a game in 1950 on normal difficulty (because hard will only let me start with single cylinder engines and that's craptacular for trying to make performance cars...) with no special scenario options and my head office in Barcelona.

1950
I had to resist the urge to try and start the game with a high output monstrosity and eventually managed to talk myself into making the La Mancha. A tiny little sports car powered by a 999cc F head V6 putting out a fairly meagre 41kW, not terrible for the displacement at the time though. Despite the fairly average power, the tiny 560kg (coincidentally, still the lightest car on the superlatives page in 1973!) car with it's 3 speed trans-axle gearbox was capable of a fairly respectable 162km/h! Not bad!

At this early point in the game I only had branches in Barcelona, Madrid, London and Paris but because of it's small size and weight the La Mancha was quite cheap to make so I was able to under cut my opposition despite being at least as good. This meant that these four cities alone were enough to take up most of my production and keep me profitable.

[/b]1953-56
Late in 1952 my engineers figured out how to make SOHC and OHV (I head) engines so I took this as the right time to design the La Mancha a big brother, enter the De Biescas powered but an all new 92kW, 1.6L SOHC V8 with it's own purpose build chassis, though still using the same gearbox as the La Mancha. Capable of 199km/h with a 0-100km/h sprint in only 6.9 seconds, the new De Biescas blew it's baby brother away! However, at almost double the price, it only shifted around 1/5th the number of units.

As soon as the De Biescas was launched our engineers updated the La Mancha with an OHV (I stuck with this to keep the price down) version of it's 1.0L V6 boosting it's power output to 49kW and it's top speed up to 174km/h.

During this time, increases in my own prices and opposition from other companies (particularly in London) saw sales begin to decline, to compensate I opened branches in a few new cities such as Birmingham, Berlin and Rome.

1957-60
In 1957, our engineers began work on updating the ageing La Mancha and De Biescas. Both cars received updated chassis and increased displacements, the V6 grew to 1.2L with a new SOHC head and the V8 up to 1.8L with an all new DOHC head. Both cars also received a brand new 4 speed trans-axle gear box now also fitted with LSD. Toping out a 242km/h, this new De Biescas would be Queso's first entry into the "worlds fastest production car" list!

The end of the decade saw a continued decline in sales as Queso continued to push into a more premium market and more opposition commenced trading. Once again this was countered by opening more branches across Europe as well as our first branch in North America in New York.

In 1958, Queso made it's motor sport debut winning a clean sweep in the Vent championship series, proving the pedigree of it's updated De Biescas sportscar. In 1959 we continued this outstanding success as well as taking the championship in the GearCity cup!

1960+ coming soon....]]> <![CDATA[Landmair - A History of the Canadian Automotive Industry from 1900]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2633 Mon, 06 Apr 2015 11:02:26 -0400 Geredis]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2633 Starting Parameters

Difficulty Settings - Normal, with 100 Million Starting Funds.

Location - Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Date - January, 1900

Background
The explosion over the previous ten years in Europe and the United States of a burgeoning automobile industry largely overlooked Canada. Though little more than a curiosity, a fanciful mechanical toy for those with money to spare in its early days, many engineers saw the promise of further exploration of this new method of transit. This was especially true in the United States and Canada, where vast tracts of land had to be crossed in many areas, and where the greater speed and carrying capacity of the automobile promised greater commercial and industrial efficiency. The only issue, especially in Canada, was that there was no native automobile industry, and tariffs of prototypical vehicles from the United States or even mother Britain made imports prohibitively expensive.

Thus was born Landmair. The brainchild of Baron Mount Stephen, the very same man who had created the Canadian Pacific Railway. In the 19th Century, he saw the need of a railway across the country to maintain Canadian economic relevance. Now, in the 20th, he saw the revolutionary nature of the automobile and, with his own money as well as that donated by his close cousin, the Lord Strathcona, he financed Landmer (IPA: /lÃ¦ndmÉ›Ê/), an Anglo-French portmanteau meaning LandSea, a uniquely Canadian approach to the promise of a transportation revolution in all realms in the upcoming century. Ever the forward thinker, and knowing too that experiments into aerial flight were progressing quickly, by January 1900, just prior to the final documents were signed, Landmer changed its name. Maintaining the pronunciation, Landmer became Landmair, encapsulating all three environments of the upcoming transportation revolution in two languages.

Philosophy and Goals
The coal of the AAR is to take a Montreal-based car company and make it become the leading transportation giant in North America, and eventually the whole Western Hemisphere. The monetary values, while significant, are there primarily as a safety net, not as a way to 'break' the system if you will.

I chose Canada for its 30% tax rate (compared to 40% in the United States), plus the fact that while infrastructure is comparable to the United States, its Labor Costs are approximiately one half of the United States. Montreal in particular was chosen for its proximity to the major American markets in the Northeast (Philadelphia, Newark, and New York). Given the early Canadian entry into World War One, I am concerned about that, however I believe it will be manageable. And depending on how the Depression plays out, I expect that being situated outside of the epicenter of the economic collapse, that is the United States and the weak European postwar economies will allow me to continue through this period with only minor adjustments. Beyond that, I've not put much thought to it.

Outside of cornering the Canadian market, ideally, and selling when and as possible in the primary American markets, I hope to expand to not only the whole of North America and the western Hemisphere, but also to attain respectable UK, West German, French, and Commonwealth markets (India, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand primarily).

Production for the West will be focused in Canada, while Commonwealth markets will hopefully be supplied by cheap Indian labor.
---
With all that aside, updates will be coming as worthwhile things happen.]]> Starting Parameters

Difficulty Settings - Normal, with 100 Million Starting Funds.

Location - Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Date - January, 1900

Background
The explosion over the previous ten years in Europe and the United States of a burgeoning automobile industry largely overlooked Canada. Though little more than a curiosity, a fanciful mechanical toy for those with money to spare in its early days, many engineers saw the promise of further exploration of this new method of transit. This was especially true in the United States and Canada, where vast tracts of land had to be crossed in many areas, and where the greater speed and carrying capacity of the automobile promised greater commercial and industrial efficiency. The only issue, especially in Canada, was that there was no native automobile industry, and tariffs of prototypical vehicles from the United States or even mother Britain made imports prohibitively expensive.

Thus was born Landmair. The brainchild of Baron Mount Stephen, the very same man who had created the Canadian Pacific Railway. In the 19th Century, he saw the need of a railway across the country to maintain Canadian economic relevance. Now, in the 20th, he saw the revolutionary nature of the automobile and, with his own money as well as that donated by his close cousin, the Lord Strathcona, he financed Landmer (IPA: /lÃ¦ndmÉ›Ê/), an Anglo-French portmanteau meaning LandSea, a uniquely Canadian approach to the promise of a transportation revolution in all realms in the upcoming century. Ever the forward thinker, and knowing too that experiments into aerial flight were progressing quickly, by January 1900, just prior to the final documents were signed, Landmer changed its name. Maintaining the pronunciation, Landmer became Landmair, encapsulating all three environments of the upcoming transportation revolution in two languages.

Philosophy and Goals
The coal of the AAR is to take a Montreal-based car company and make it become the leading transportation giant in North America, and eventually the whole Western Hemisphere. The monetary values, while significant, are there primarily as a safety net, not as a way to 'break' the system if you will.

I chose Canada for its 30% tax rate (compared to 40% in the United States), plus the fact that while infrastructure is comparable to the United States, its Labor Costs are approximiately one half of the United States. Montreal in particular was chosen for its proximity to the major American markets in the Northeast (Philadelphia, Newark, and New York). Given the early Canadian entry into World War One, I am concerned about that, however I believe it will be manageable. And depending on how the Depression plays out, I expect that being situated outside of the epicenter of the economic collapse, that is the United States and the weak European postwar economies will allow me to continue through this period with only minor adjustments. Beyond that, I've not put much thought to it.

Outside of cornering the Canadian market, ideally, and selling when and as possible in the primary American markets, I hope to expand to not only the whole of North America and the western Hemisphere, but also to attain respectable UK, West German, French, and Commonwealth markets (India, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand primarily).

Production for the West will be focused in Canada, while Commonwealth markets will hopefully be supplied by cheap Indian labor.
---
With all that aside, updates will be coming as worthwhile things happen.]]> <![CDATA[â€œAzulâ€ and other colors]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2572 Sat, 24 Jan 2015 19:57:29 -0500 kallesito]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2572
The first period until WWI

So in the beginning I built a company in New York, made a cheap Pick Up and started to sell it. It worked well and quite soon I started to build more and more models. Phaeton, Sedan and Touring followed in 1900. And all of them were a success.

In 1906 and 1907 I started many other models. Mostly capacity was the main problem, else I could have sold even more cars. About 1910 I started to go also overseas to Europe and Australia. I made a lot of money, but I did not want to purchase other companies. So my bank account was full, when WWI started. At that time I closed all branches and factories in Europe.

Azul developed new models continuously and after WWI branches I reopened in Europe even more branches and started to extend my sales network in Japan and South America.

Not enough capacity - the big expansion after WWI to every continent

Until WWI have always been able to sell everything, what I build. My companies were always running almost 100%. Since I had always capacity problems and a lot of money I built on all continents big factories to conquer all the markets, soon. I planned, that each continents made its own cars. The models were the same worldwide, but I wanted to save transport costs, so I limited the radius of the shipping distance in a manner, that I had the following areas:

1.North America and Latin America. 3 factories were in the East of the USA.

2.South America. 1 factory in Montevideo, since labor was cheap there.

3.Europe until the Asian border (unfortunately including the African states along the Mediterranean and Israel, since it is a shipping range radius and is not taking care for the borders of continents). I had factories in London and Paris.

4.Africa excluding the Cities close to the Mediterranean. One factory was in South Africa.

5.Asia with some cities in Western Russia, which got already also deliveries from Europe (once again the radius-continental border problem). The factory was in Japan, since this was the most developed area on the continent.

6.Australia, including New Zealand and New Guinea.

Of course I made only branches in cities which were big enough and which had an income, which was promising enough car sales, to make profit in each branch. So for example in the USA I had branches in all cities over 400,000 inhabitants, since the income was high enough everywhere. The same was valid for Europe and Oceania. In South America I made branches in the bigger Argentinean cities of Buenos Aires and Cordoba, but also in Santiago de Chile, since they were big and had a reasonable wealth. The other cities were not that wealthy, but I decided nevertheless to establish two branches in Brazil, in Rio and Sao Paolo, since they had a very big population at a low wealth rate.

Africa was quite tough. Besides South Africa, where Cape Town and Johannesburg had a bigger population and wealthy inhabitants there were only the Egyptian cities, which promised some business, due to their size. But they were receiving the cars from Europe, so I put them out of the â€œAfrican shipping rangeâ€.

Asia was quite hard for decision making. There are a few bigger areas in Asia, with completely different customers. The easiest one is Japan. In a small area you can find quite wealthy cities with reasonable number of inhabitants. Besides them you have Singapore which has already some wealth in the â€™20s and â€˜30s. The other countries are poor. China is a big market with many inhabitants, but they are very poor, India is the same. The Arabs have some money, but are very small. Some cities exist in Russia, but nothing special.

Before WWI I made quite big profits. I am not sure about the amount, but it was about 18 â€“ 20 Million if I remember well. I had always a racing team in a few important series and also spent some money on the general R&D. Marketing was never interesting for me, since my main problem was to enough build cars, not to sell them.

Too much capacity â€“ the shutdown of plants

As soon as all the factories were built up I realized, that I had been too optimistic. The factories were all built at the same time and the result was not the best, since after all were ready I saw, that I had to much capacity. The plants in South America and Australia were running at a low rate, since the producible quantity was much lower that the demand in the respective areas. In the USA I had too many factories, so even here I had capacity for too many cars.

The company in Africa was absolutely useless, only a few lines were necessary. Africa was really disastrous. It was impossible to sell the same car models in the USA and in Africa. They were too expensive and the market was too small. A trial to make a car for Africa and other cheap countries under the same â€œAzulâ€ brand failed. At that time I wanted to make a second, cheaper model of a Micro car. But as soon as it was ready nobody wanted to buy anymore the other more expensive and older Micro car even though its quality was better. My strategy at that time was to sell all cars in all branches worldwide, so I did not continue to make new cheaper models for poorer markets or any other special models.

So it did not take too much time and I closed the African plant, which cost about 30-35 Mio to build it up a few years before, Sad

. The branches in South Africa were closed also, since it did not make any sense to pay the transport costs from elsewhere. At that time I used to make a world price for all cars, by using the â€œSell everywhereâ€ button in the Mega menu. Else it would take too long to introduce a car and change the prices in different cities. I did not want to change price for all cars for these two cities.

To use the â€œsell everywhereâ€ button is fast, but you will have a lot of trouble due to the transport costs if you deliver to other continents. At least in times, when the cars are sold at prices of 1,000 â€“ 2,000 as it was the case at that time and delivery cost from South America was about 400-500 per unit. Increasing the worldwide price by 500 would lead to a worldwide decline in sales for the respective model, changing the price for each city would lead to the much hated micromanagement.

Since the buildup of these factories and branches took a lot of time and immense micromanagement to pay attention to produce not too many cars (now I had much too much capacity) I did not really care for new models. So in the end of the â€˜20s I renewed almost all of my models, which lead once again to a lot of micromanagement.

In the meantime I closed also one plant in the USA leaving me with 3 plants in the US, 2 European ones and one in Australia, one in Japan and one in Montevideo. But these were always made with the maximum of lines and capacity on each line. In most car categories I was market leader, but my profit was never again on the same level than before WWI. It was always about 5-10 Mio each turn. But I wanted to sell cars on each continent of the world, except Africa due to the low demand there.

I had more branches now, since I tried to sell more cars, to be able to increase the utilization of my factories. This lead to increased sales, but profit did not really change. After some turns I checked the branches and found out, that many of them made losses, so I closed them in cities like Teheran, some South East Asian and South American cities, but also in Russia, where business did not run well in some smaller cities.

WWII and the first reorganization

In the mid â€˜30s the civil war started in Spain and I closed my branches there. In 1939 this war ended, but WWII began and the number of my branches and factories decreased dramatically. But I did not want to leave Europe completely and started to built up a new plant in Stockholm, which should deliver to those countries, which were still in peace, like Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and those who entered the war only later.

At the same time I tried to improve my overview from the point of view, which plant produced which models. Before the war this was quite hard, since I produced almost every model on every continent. So I had to pay a lot of attention where I produced how many cars of which type. Sometimes it happened, that I produced in two plants in the US the same car. This lead to huge stocks after a few turns. Since I had 15 or more models I did not want to make the micromanagement every turn in every factory, since this would mean about 100 production lines to adjust.

I was not really pleased with the Auto production system either or at least did not completely understood its logic. I used it, while I had only 1 plant left due to the war. Well it showed some good tendencies, but sometimes it produced cars, which seemed not making too much sense, but others which seemed to be necessary were not produced at all. I used it only for 3-4 turns, so maybe it works well, but I had no patience.

So coming back to my problem with overproduction and missing overview. In the Mega menu you can see the demand of a car type in the shipping range and the global demand. It is in the menu, where you can adjust the number of produced cars. This is very good, if you produce one model only in one plant of the shipping range.
You can also see how many cars have been produced in this plant and globally, but you can not see the quantity of this model, which is produced in all the plants in your shipping range. So it can happen, that you produce in two plants of one shipping range (remember North America was one shipping range with 3 plants) the same model, but you will not notice it through the figures in this menu, since the produced quantity of the other plant is not shown directly, but is hidden in the global production quantity.

Therefore maybe another field should be introduced here, showing how many cars of this type have been produced in the same shipping range last turn. This would ease life drastically.

In 1939 I had 3 plants in the US. All of them were as already mentioned huge. I decided, that I will try to specialize them somehow. So I made a trial to get a better overview by creating more brands. I made a brand called â€œRossoâ€, which would be a specialist for all the fast cars (Sports, Roadster, Coupe, Shooting brake). One plant would make all of these cars only. This system would lead to a better overview, regarding how many cars were produced in the same shipping range (=continent). The system worked well, so I built up Negro, which was responsible for the limos, town cars and landaulets. The heavy duty sector for pickups, full sized vans, SUVs and Minivans was represented by â€œVerdeâ€. And finally I made a last brand named â€œBlancoâ€ for the small cars, like Micro, Subcompact and Compact. All the other cars remained under the core brand â€œAzulâ€.

One plant made the â€œRossoâ€ and â€œNegroâ€, one the â€œVerdeâ€ and â€œBlancoâ€ and one made the â€œAzulâ€ cars. So I had a very good overview of the US-plants from now on. And then came 1941 and I closed them allâ€¦ïŒ

So I continued with Montevideo and Stockholm until the end of the war.

The second reorganization

In 1945 the war ended and I had my 2 big plants and many people which wanted one thing: cars. Since I wanted to be on all of the markets quite fast and since I had bad experiences with my big plants I started to buildup rather medium sized plants immediately. The big plants would have taken many years for the buildup, while smaller ones where established in maximum 2 â€“ 3 years.

The following plants were built up:

In North America I created 3 plants Ottawa (23 lines), Montreal (27 lines) and Chicago (30 lines).

In South America I had the old Montevideo plant with 28 lines and started a new one in Buenos Aires with 42 lines.

In Europe I made in Lisbon (22 lines) and London (27 lines) smaller plants, in Stuttgart a huge one (47 lines, which is still under construction in 1952). Stockholm had already 20 lines.

Africa remained without plants.

In Asia I established a plant in Nagoya (12 lines).

In Australia I built up a plant in Brisbane (17 lines) and after short time an additional one was necessary in Perth (26 lines).

I really liked the system with the different brands, so I wanted to continue with it, but wanted even to try a more diversified system.

The cars of the 5 existing brands (call them Latin brands) were a bit old fashioned at that time and I wanted to make better cars for Europe and later after the plants were ready in the US for North America. So I made better cars under the brand â€œblauâ€. and developed a Sedan and a Hatch.

At the same time another problem occured. On the one side I had the plant in Montevideo with many lines, which operated with low capacity utilization on the one side and markets like the USA without any plants. So I changed the shipping range from 5522 km to â€œglobalâ€ to see what happens. Well, all the stocks were sipped away in a few turns, profit rose and in short time Montevideo ran at 100%, as did Stockholm, where two models under the brand â€œblauâ€ were produced. Step by step my new plants were ready and soon more and more new brands existed, like â€œblueâ€, â€œredâ€, â€œrotâ€â€¦.. Now about 15 brands exist.

One group of brands produces in South America. The second is in North America, the third in Europe, the fourth in Australia and the fifth in Japan. All brands deliver worldwide, so I have some kind of multiplayer here, since the different brands are competitors to each other. But the plants are quite well utilized.

Of course it takes a lot of time and money to develop new models, so I always made just new trims and depending on the area of the plant I made the cars a bit better (expensive) or worse (cheaper). And finally profit increased again to about 20 Mio per turn.

But then I found out, that transport costs are disastrously high, because Europeans liked Australian cars, Australians bought American ones and those tiny Japanese cars were selling like hell in South America. Of course nobody in South America bought its home products, since the models were to oldâ€¦

So some models had huge losses due to transport costs. It was quite hard to find a good and fast solution for this issue. At that time 40 models and 11 plants existed, so 440 lines to check in the mega menu to adjust production. You can imagine, that I did not do this every turn.

As mentioned before there was one price for every car on the whole world. The sales price was cost x 3. Small cars were at costs of 100-200, big cars of up to 1800.
I tried to find out the delivery cost per model to the different continents, which was not to easy, but finally it was clear, that shipping from the US to Europe may be around 300-500 per Unit. So the transport cost was more expensive than the sales price of my smaller cars. It was time for a new system.

I did not want to go back to the system of shipping range restriction for each plant, even though it would have worked absolutely properly.

On the long term I wanted to make really different cars for the different brands and want to deliver worldwide.

So the only possibility was to adjust the prices according to the transport costs. I was looking for some Automenu button, but there was nothing similar. The only possibility was to try the â€œsell in regionâ€ function. After a short trial with three models from Japan it worked properly.

Sales price was basically the same as before (cost x 3), but I added a transport fee according to the continent, where I want to deliver. So price for a North American car in North America is â€œcost x 3 + 100â€, but will be â€œcost x 3 + 700â€ in Australia and â€œcost x 3 + 500â€ in Europe.

So the next three hours were passing with changing prices of my 40 models in 6 regions with the â€œsales by regionâ€ button. (Therefore I would really ask Erik to introduce some Auto menu button, where the transport costs can be entered faster, maybe added automatically in some kind of matrix.)

After having changed the prices the demand for many models decreased of course drastically. (Nobody wants to buy Australian Microcars in Europe anymore, if their price is double to the European ones.)

So after adjusting the quantities I checked my profit and it was 40 Mio instead of the 22 Mio before my small change, so seems to be a good change if you consider that I even produce less cars than before, so I can increase production.

Conclusion

Now it is 1952 and I have to see, how this system will work in the future years. I have to make many new models, since many of my cars are really out-fashioned. The last time passed only with micromanagement of production, establishing of brands and changing of prices. (ok and writing this AAR)

As a conclusion for this letâ€™s say really too long AAR it would be nice to get some improvements, which I will also introduce as a suggestion on the forum.

- In the Mega menu you can see the demand of a car type in the shipping range and the global demand in the same menu, where you can adjust the number of produced cars. But on the other hand you can see how many cars have been produced in this plant (but not in all the plants in the shipping range) and globally. -> A field should be introduced, showing how many cars of the same type have been produced in the same shipping range last turn.
- I would really ask Erik to introduce some Auto menu button, where the transport costs can be entered faster, maybe added automatically to the sales price.
- Sometime I am missing information (like transport costs for Model x from Sydney to Rome), but that is another topic.]]>
The first period until WWI

So in the beginning I built a company in New York, made a cheap Pick Up and started to sell it. It worked well and quite soon I started to build more and more models. Phaeton, Sedan and Touring followed in 1900. And all of them were a success.

In 1906 and 1907 I started many other models. Mostly capacity was the main problem, else I could have sold even more cars. About 1910 I started to go also overseas to Europe and Australia. I made a lot of money, but I did not want to purchase other companies. So my bank account was full, when WWI started. At that time I closed all branches and factories in Europe.

Azul developed new models continuously and after WWI branches I reopened in Europe even more branches and started to extend my sales network in Japan and South America.

Not enough capacity - the big expansion after WWI to every continent

Until WWI have always been able to sell everything, what I build. My companies were always running almost 100%. Since I had always capacity problems and a lot of money I built on all continents big factories to conquer all the markets, soon. I planned, that each continents made its own cars. The models were the same worldwide, but I wanted to save transport costs, so I limited the radius of the shipping distance in a manner, that I had the following areas:

1.North America and Latin America. 3 factories were in the East of the USA.

2.South America. 1 factory in Montevideo, since labor was cheap there.

3.Europe until the Asian border (unfortunately including the African states along the Mediterranean and Israel, since it is a shipping range radius and is not taking care for the borders of continents). I had factories in London and Paris.

4.Africa excluding the Cities close to the Mediterranean. One factory was in South Africa.

5.Asia with some cities in Western Russia, which got already also deliveries from Europe (once again the radius-continental border problem). The factory was in Japan, since this was the most developed area on the continent.

6.Australia, including New Zealand and New Guinea.

Of course I made only branches in cities which were big enough and which had an income, which was promising enough car sales, to make profit in each branch. So for example in the USA I had branches in all cities over 400,000 inhabitants, since the income was high enough everywhere. The same was valid for Europe and Oceania. In South America I made branches in the bigger Argentinean cities of Buenos Aires and Cordoba, but also in Santiago de Chile, since they were big and had a reasonable wealth. The other cities were not that wealthy, but I decided nevertheless to establish two branches in Brazil, in Rio and Sao Paolo, since they had a very big population at a low wealth rate.

Africa was quite tough. Besides South Africa, where Cape Town and Johannesburg had a bigger population and wealthy inhabitants there were only the Egyptian cities, which promised some business, due to their size. But they were receiving the cars from Europe, so I put them out of the â€œAfrican shipping rangeâ€.

Asia was quite hard for decision making. There are a few bigger areas in Asia, with completely different customers. The easiest one is Japan. In a small area you can find quite wealthy cities with reasonable number of inhabitants. Besides them you have Singapore which has already some wealth in the â€™20s and â€˜30s. The other countries are poor. China is a big market with many inhabitants, but they are very poor, India is the same. The Arabs have some money, but are very small. Some cities exist in Russia, but nothing special.

Before WWI I made quite big profits. I am not sure about the amount, but it was about 18 â€“ 20 Million if I remember well. I had always a racing team in a few important series and also spent some money on the general R&D. Marketing was never interesting for me, since my main problem was to enough build cars, not to sell them.

Too much capacity â€“ the shutdown of plants

As soon as all the factories were built up I realized, that I had been too optimistic. The factories were all built at the same time and the result was not the best, since after all were ready I saw, that I had to much capacity. The plants in South America and Australia were running at a low rate, since the producible quantity was much lower that the demand in the respective areas. In the USA I had too many factories, so even here I had capacity for too many cars.

The company in Africa was absolutely useless, only a few lines were necessary. Africa was really disastrous. It was impossible to sell the same car models in the USA and in Africa. They were too expensive and the market was too small. A trial to make a car for Africa and other cheap countries under the same â€œAzulâ€ brand failed. At that time I wanted to make a second, cheaper model of a Micro car. But as soon as it was ready nobody wanted to buy anymore the other more expensive and older Micro car even though its quality was better. My strategy at that time was to sell all cars in all branches worldwide, so I did not continue to make new cheaper models for poorer markets or any other special models.

So it did not take too much time and I closed the African plant, which cost about 30-35 Mio to build it up a few years before, Sad

. The branches in South Africa were closed also, since it did not make any sense to pay the transport costs from elsewhere. At that time I used to make a world price for all cars, by using the â€œSell everywhereâ€ button in the Mega menu. Else it would take too long to introduce a car and change the prices in different cities. I did not want to change price for all cars for these two cities.

To use the â€œsell everywhereâ€ button is fast, but you will have a lot of trouble due to the transport costs if you deliver to other continents. At least in times, when the cars are sold at prices of 1,000 â€“ 2,000 as it was the case at that time and delivery cost from South America was about 400-500 per unit. Increasing the worldwide price by 500 would lead to a worldwide decline in sales for the respective model, changing the price for each city would lead to the much hated micromanagement.

Since the buildup of these factories and branches took a lot of time and immense micromanagement to pay attention to produce not too many cars (now I had much too much capacity) I did not really care for new models. So in the end of the â€˜20s I renewed almost all of my models, which lead once again to a lot of micromanagement.

In the meantime I closed also one plant in the USA leaving me with 3 plants in the US, 2 European ones and one in Australia, one in Japan and one in Montevideo. But these were always made with the maximum of lines and capacity on each line. In most car categories I was market leader, but my profit was never again on the same level than before WWI. It was always about 5-10 Mio each turn. But I wanted to sell cars on each continent of the world, except Africa due to the low demand there.

I had more branches now, since I tried to sell more cars, to be able to increase the utilization of my factories. This lead to increased sales, but profit did not really change. After some turns I checked the branches and found out, that many of them made losses, so I closed them in cities like Teheran, some South East Asian and South American cities, but also in Russia, where business did not run well in some smaller cities.

WWII and the first reorganization

In the mid â€˜30s the civil war started in Spain and I closed my branches there. In 1939 this war ended, but WWII began and the number of my branches and factories decreased dramatically. But I did not want to leave Europe completely and started to built up a new plant in Stockholm, which should deliver to those countries, which were still in peace, like Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and those who entered the war only later.

At the same time I tried to improve my overview from the point of view, which plant produced which models. Before the war this was quite hard, since I produced almost every model on every continent. So I had to pay a lot of attention where I produced how many cars of which type. Sometimes it happened, that I produced in two plants in the US the same car. This lead to huge stocks after a few turns. Since I had 15 or more models I did not want to make the micromanagement every turn in every factory, since this would mean about 100 production lines to adjust.

I was not really pleased with the Auto production system either or at least did not completely understood its logic. I used it, while I had only 1 plant left due to the war. Well it showed some good tendencies, but sometimes it produced cars, which seemed not making too much sense, but others which seemed to be necessary were not produced at all. I used it only for 3-4 turns, so maybe it works well, but I had no patience.

So coming back to my problem with overproduction and missing overview. In the Mega menu you can see the demand of a car type in the shipping range and the global demand. It is in the menu, where you can adjust the number of produced cars. This is very good, if you produce one model only in one plant of the shipping range.
You can also see how many cars have been produced in this plant and globally, but you can not see the quantity of this model, which is produced in all the plants in your shipping range. So it can happen, that you produce in two plants of one shipping range (remember North America was one shipping range with 3 plants) the same model, but you will not notice it through the figures in this menu, since the produced quantity of the other plant is not shown directly, but is hidden in the global production quantity.

Therefore maybe another field should be introduced here, showing how many cars of this type have been produced in the same shipping range last turn. This would ease life drastically.

In 1939 I had 3 plants in the US. All of them were as already mentioned huge. I decided, that I will try to specialize them somehow. So I made a trial to get a better overview by creating more brands. I made a brand called â€œRossoâ€, which would be a specialist for all the fast cars (Sports, Roadster, Coupe, Shooting brake). One plant would make all of these cars only. This system would lead to a better overview, regarding how many cars were produced in the same shipping range (=continent). The system worked well, so I built up Negro, which was responsible for the limos, town cars and landaulets. The heavy duty sector for pickups, full sized vans, SUVs and Minivans was represented by â€œVerdeâ€. And finally I made a last brand named â€œBlancoâ€ for the small cars, like Micro, Subcompact and Compact. All the other cars remained under the core brand â€œAzulâ€.

One plant made the â€œRossoâ€ and â€œNegroâ€, one the â€œVerdeâ€ and â€œBlancoâ€ and one made the â€œAzulâ€ cars. So I had a very good overview of the US-plants from now on. And then came 1941 and I closed them allâ€¦ïŒ

So I continued with Montevideo and Stockholm until the end of the war.

The second reorganization

In 1945 the war ended and I had my 2 big plants and many people which wanted one thing: cars. Since I wanted to be on all of the markets quite fast and since I had bad experiences with my big plants I started to buildup rather medium sized plants immediately. The big plants would have taken many years for the buildup, while smaller ones where established in maximum 2 â€“ 3 years.

The following plants were built up:

In North America I created 3 plants Ottawa (23 lines), Montreal (27 lines) and Chicago (30 lines).

In South America I had the old Montevideo plant with 28 lines and started a new one in Buenos Aires with 42 lines.

In Europe I made in Lisbon (22 lines) and London (27 lines) smaller plants, in Stuttgart a huge one (47 lines, which is still under construction in 1952). Stockholm had already 20 lines.

Africa remained without plants.

In Asia I established a plant in Nagoya (12 lines).

In Australia I built up a plant in Brisbane (17 lines) and after short time an additional one was necessary in Perth (26 lines).

I really liked the system with the different brands, so I wanted to continue with it, but wanted even to try a more diversified system.

The cars of the 5 existing brands (call them Latin brands) were a bit old fashioned at that time and I wanted to make better cars for Europe and later after the plants were ready in the US for North America. So I made better cars under the brand â€œblauâ€. and developed a Sedan and a Hatch.

At the same time another problem occured. On the one side I had the plant in Montevideo with many lines, which operated with low capacity utilization on the one side and markets like the USA without any plants. So I changed the shipping range from 5522 km to â€œglobalâ€ to see what happens. Well, all the stocks were sipped away in a few turns, profit rose and in short time Montevideo ran at 100%, as did Stockholm, where two models under the brand â€œblauâ€ were produced. Step by step my new plants were ready and soon more and more new brands existed, like â€œblueâ€, â€œredâ€, â€œrotâ€â€¦.. Now about 15 brands exist.

One group of brands produces in South America. The second is in North America, the third in Europe, the fourth in Australia and the fifth in Japan. All brands deliver worldwide, so I have some kind of multiplayer here, since the different brands are competitors to each other. But the plants are quite well utilized.

Of course it takes a lot of time and money to develop new models, so I always made just new trims and depending on the area of the plant I made the cars a bit better (expensive) or worse (cheaper). And finally profit increased again to about 20 Mio per turn.

But then I found out, that transport costs are disastrously high, because Europeans liked Australian cars, Australians bought American ones and those tiny Japanese cars were selling like hell in South America. Of course nobody in South America bought its home products, since the models were to oldâ€¦

So some models had huge losses due to transport costs. It was quite hard to find a good and fast solution for this issue. At that time 40 models and 11 plants existed, so 440 lines to check in the mega menu to adjust production. You can imagine, that I did not do this every turn.

As mentioned before there was one price for every car on the whole world. The sales price was cost x 3. Small cars were at costs of 100-200, big cars of up to 1800.
I tried to find out the delivery cost per model to the different continents, which was not to easy, but finally it was clear, that shipping from the US to Europe may be around 300-500 per Unit. So the transport cost was more expensive than the sales price of my smaller cars. It was time for a new system.

I did not want to go back to the system of shipping range restriction for each plant, even though it would have worked absolutely properly.

On the long term I wanted to make really different cars for the different brands and want to deliver worldwide.

So the only possibility was to adjust the prices according to the transport costs. I was looking for some Automenu button, but there was nothing similar. The only possibility was to try the â€œsell in regionâ€ function. After a short trial with three models from Japan it worked properly.

Sales price was basically the same as before (cost x 3), but I added a transport fee according to the continent, where I want to deliver. So price for a North American car in North America is â€œcost x 3 + 100â€, but will be â€œcost x 3 + 700â€ in Australia and â€œcost x 3 + 500â€ in Europe.

So the next three hours were passing with changing prices of my 40 models in 6 regions with the â€œsales by regionâ€ button. (Therefore I would really ask Erik to introduce some Auto menu button, where the transport costs can be entered faster, maybe added automatically in some kind of matrix.)

After having changed the prices the demand for many models decreased of course drastically. (Nobody wants to buy Australian Microcars in Europe anymore, if their price is double to the European ones.)

So after adjusting the quantities I checked my profit and it was 40 Mio instead of the 22 Mio before my small change, so seems to be a good change if you consider that I even produce less cars than before, so I can increase production.

Conclusion

Now it is 1952 and I have to see, how this system will work in the future years. I have to make many new models, since many of my cars are really out-fashioned. The last time passed only with micromanagement of production, establishing of brands and changing of prices. (ok and writing this AAR)

As a conclusion for this letâ€™s say really too long AAR it would be nice to get some improvements, which I will also introduce as a suggestion on the forum.

- In the Mega menu you can see the demand of a car type in the shipping range and the global demand in the same menu, where you can adjust the number of produced cars. But on the other hand you can see how many cars have been produced in this plant (but not in all the plants in the shipping range) and globally. -> A field should be introduced, showing how many cars of the same type have been produced in the same shipping range last turn.
- I would really ask Erik to introduce some Auto menu button, where the transport costs can be entered faster, maybe added automatically to the sales price.
- Sometime I am missing information (like transport costs for Model x from Sydney to Rome), but that is another topic.]]> <![CDATA[LMC - My first company]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2561 Tue, 20 Jan 2015 23:21:59 -0500 listl89]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2561 Loving the game so far and I think the game is way more developed than I expected when I bought it on steam (early access).

I started my first company in New York which I named LMC (*last name* Motor Company). I started in 1900 and on my first try I went bankrupt in 1927, when all of a sudden I started losing money. The result of which was that I went bankrupt within a year.

I didn't understand what the reason was for losing basically everything in a matter of months. Luckily I saved my game just before this happened. I reloaded my save and I discovered that I spent WAY too much on marketing by accident. Nearly went bankrupt again during WW2, when my factories were closed for about 5 years.

Anyways, my company is now in the year 1995.

Here are some figures:

Cars currently on sale:
LMC Transit (Minivan), selling about 15000 units per month.
LMC Coupe de Ville (2+2 Coupe, sort of resembles the real thing), selling about 11000 per month
LMC Jolt (Hatchback), selling about 6000 units per month.
+ several older models which either still sell good enough or are still in stock/reserve.
The cars sell through branches across the US and Canada.

I currently own 56% of my own company and my broker says the market cap (which I think is the value of the company, but I'm not sure) is $14.846.479.302.656 or 14.8 trillion dollars.

I currently own 34% of a company called 'Seed Cars'. The market cap for this company is 6.1 trillion dollars. I suppose 34% of that is mine. I was lucky to buy a lot of shares from this company early in the game.

That's about it Smile

If anyone is interested i'll upload some screenshots.]]> Loving the game so far and I think the game is way more developed than I expected when I bought it on steam (early access).

I started my first company in New York which I named LMC (*last name* Motor Company). I started in 1900 and on my first try I went bankrupt in 1927, when all of a sudden I started losing money. The result of which was that I went bankrupt within a year.

I didn't understand what the reason was for losing basically everything in a matter of months. Luckily I saved my game just before this happened. I reloaded my save and I discovered that I spent WAY too much on marketing by accident. Nearly went bankrupt again during WW2, when my factories were closed for about 5 years.

Anyways, my company is now in the year 1995.

Here are some figures:

Cars currently on sale:
LMC Transit (Minivan), selling about 15000 units per month.
LMC Coupe de Ville (2+2 Coupe, sort of resembles the real thing), selling about 11000 per month
LMC Jolt (Hatchback), selling about 6000 units per month.
+ several older models which either still sell good enough or are still in stock/reserve.
The cars sell through branches across the US and Canada.

I currently own 56% of my own company and my broker says the market cap (which I think is the value of the company, but I'm not sure) is $14.846.479.302.656 or 14.8 trillion dollars.

I currently own 34% of a company called 'Seed Cars'. The market cap for this company is 6.1 trillion dollars. I suppose 34% of that is mine. I was lucky to buy a lot of shares from this company early in the game.

That's about it Smile

If anyone is interested i'll upload some screenshots.]]> <![CDATA[Youtube Let's Play]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2483 Wed, 10 Dec 2014 09:26:51 -0500 Alfapiomega]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2483
with the approval of the local overlord and administrator I'd like to present my Youtube Let's Play here and invite you to share and enjoy the game with me.

I have started a campaign in the latest version where I run the company Praga. The company is modeled after a real world company of the same name and we are selling cars manufactured in Prague in Germany (Berlin) and Austria (Vienna).

So far I have four models out:

1901 Phaeton Redfox
1901 Microcar Franciska
1904 Sedan Praha
1905 Luxury Sedan Agata

In the last episode (not published yet) I just managed to launch the production of Luxury Sedan and also finish our second factory in Bratislava.

The entire playlist is here: Let's play

Thank you and I hope you will enjoy! Smile

]]>
with the approval of the local overlord and administrator I'd like to present my Youtube Let's Play here and invite you to share and enjoy the game with me.

I have started a campaign in the latest version where I run the company Praga. The company is modeled after a real world company of the same name and we are selling cars manufactured in Prague in Germany (Berlin) and Austria (Vienna).

So far I have four models out:

1901 Phaeton Redfox
1901 Microcar Franciska
1904 Sedan Praha
1905 Luxury Sedan Agata

In the last episode (not published yet) I just managed to launch the production of Luxury Sedan and also finish our second factory in Bratislava.

The entire playlist is here: Let's play

Thank you and I hope you will enjoy! Smile

]]> <![CDATA[VENT Luxury AAR]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2427 Sat, 01 Nov 2014 15:02:10 -0400 Eric.B]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2427 Also I attempted not to game the game. Took a few tries to become profitable, but I managed to do it. First few tries I HQ'd in Jacksonville, USA. This resulted in failure. The game that worked was my 6th attempt! Here's the breakdown:

Started Company in Baltimore
Closed Baltimore Branch
IPO'd company, sold off 45% of the shares I retained, and took out a 500k loan. Thus leaving me with $2.1 million in cash.
Designed Chassis, engine, and gearbox
Allowed designs to be licensed.
Designed Luxury Sedan: Divine
Opened branches in Philadelphia and New York.
Bounced Prices between 1700-2200
Over produced 100 units. Cut production completely.
With 900k in cash remaining, and 28 months left on my loan, I pay it off early to avoid interest.
Sold low volume units (3-8 per month) while more competition enters the market.
Licensed chassis revenues out pace vehicle sales.
Profits for a few months, Chassis revenues fall, new engine revenues open up.
Look to develop engine for Indian Army and Korean Airforce. Unable to meet specifications for both at the same time. I don't approve project.
12/1902 Engine, Chassis and Vehicle revenues increase. Profitable month! Vehicle reserves down to 39.
1903 sees increase competition in the Luxury market. Playing on hard is not helping me compete against the AI...
Started a new chassis design using modern technologies. While the C-2 is low end because it is using ladder frames instead of Horse Carriages, it should perform just as well if not better than our C-1 (which was middle-upper end)
New 440k loan taken out. The plan is to develop new chassis and a new luxury sedan to dilute the market and hopefully push some of my competition out of business.
C-2 set for licensing. New Trim of Divine started.
1904 Global Reserves of Divine run out, start both Divine and Divine L production.
Sales are steady, although I am still bleeding 10k a turn. Buy 1500 shares of Eisenwerk. 273k left in cash.
Built up a big supply of Divines, cut production and will sell through the remaining models before ending production.
Rising incomes and good management brings me to making 20k a turn by 1905...
Divine is still selling decent enough to attempt another production run for 1906.
12/1905 Chassis and Engine revenues dry up completely. Heavy 22k loss for the month.
High development costs brings back some Chassis and Engine Revenues. However I do really need to design a new engine, but can not due to the poor economy, rising prices, and low cash reserves I have.
1907 rolls around, still with the same two models, and remaining flat as far as revenues, I really need to make a new engine and vehicle.
I am able to secure 197k loan, but at an extra 1% interest rate, I design a new Straight 3 1L motor. It's not much better than my original Straight 2, but meh, it's 1907!
New engine design up for licenses.
Started production of the latest Divine model. Cut production of the 1900 Divine, so I can sell through reserves by the time the 1907 Divine comes out.
1907 Divine launched, less than 85k In cash.
1907 Divine does extremely well, 400% gain in stock price in less than a year.
Cash buy back of our stocks, buy back 99% of the company, 16k in cash left.
Sold off shares of Esienwerk, net loss 70k (should of sold it when I was up 30k!)
2/1908 Divine L get a price cut. New Chassis, Engine, and Gearbox are put into development. (All better than average designs)
Over spent in RnD, sold off some shares of my company, allowed licensing for all new components.
Built up cash reserves
1910 start development of new Divine L
My plan on diluting the market of Luxury Sedans worked. Going from 4 companies in New York to just 2. Assuming it stays like this I should limit my self to 1 model to prevent competition with my self. Time to move into other segments, after 1910 Divine L is finished I will work on a limo.
Company is now in the red, 1910 Divine L ready for launch. Sold off 17% more of the company to fund 1910 Divine L launch.
1903 Divine L production ended.
2/1911 expanding into Chicago
Building up reserves of the Divine L
1/1912, time for me to pause for a bit.

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screenshot_2014-11-1-150-14.png (Size: 1.29 MB / Downloads: 1185) ]]> Also I attempted not to game the game. Took a few tries to become profitable, but I managed to do it. First few tries I HQ'd in Jacksonville, USA. This resulted in failure. The game that worked was my 6th attempt! Here's the breakdown:

Started Company in Baltimore
Closed Baltimore Branch
IPO'd company, sold off 45% of the shares I retained, and took out a 500k loan. Thus leaving me with $2.1 million in cash.
Designed Chassis, engine, and gearbox
Allowed designs to be licensed.
Designed Luxury Sedan: Divine
Opened branches in Philadelphia and New York.
Bounced Prices between 1700-2200
Over produced 100 units. Cut production completely.
With 900k in cash remaining, and 28 months left on my loan, I pay it off early to avoid interest.
Sold low volume units (3-8 per month) while more competition enters the market.
Licensed chassis revenues out pace vehicle sales.
Profits for a few months, Chassis revenues fall, new engine revenues open up.
Look to develop engine for Indian Army and Korean Airforce. Unable to meet specifications for both at the same time. I don't approve project.
12/1902 Engine, Chassis and Vehicle revenues increase. Profitable month! Vehicle reserves down to 39.
1903 sees increase competition in the Luxury market. Playing on hard is not helping me compete against the AI...
Started a new chassis design using modern technologies. While the C-2 is low end because it is using ladder frames instead of Horse Carriages, it should perform just as well if not better than our C-1 (which was middle-upper end)
New 440k loan taken out. The plan is to develop new chassis and a new luxury sedan to dilute the market and hopefully push some of my competition out of business.
C-2 set for licensing. New Trim of Divine started.
1904 Global Reserves of Divine run out, start both Divine and Divine L production.
Sales are steady, although I am still bleeding 10k a turn. Buy 1500 shares of Eisenwerk. 273k left in cash.
Built up a big supply of Divines, cut production and will sell through the remaining models before ending production.
Rising incomes and good management brings me to making 20k a turn by 1905...
Divine is still selling decent enough to attempt another production run for 1906.
12/1905 Chassis and Engine revenues dry up completely. Heavy 22k loss for the month.
High development costs brings back some Chassis and Engine Revenues. However I do really need to design a new engine, but can not due to the poor economy, rising prices, and low cash reserves I have.
1907 rolls around, still with the same two models, and remaining flat as far as revenues, I really need to make a new engine and vehicle.
I am able to secure 197k loan, but at an extra 1% interest rate, I design a new Straight 3 1L motor. It's not much better than my original Straight 2, but meh, it's 1907!
New engine design up for licenses.
Started production of the latest Divine model. Cut production of the 1900 Divine, so I can sell through reserves by the time the 1907 Divine comes out.
1907 Divine launched, less than 85k In cash.
1907 Divine does extremely well, 400% gain in stock price in less than a year.
Cash buy back of our stocks, buy back 99% of the company, 16k in cash left.
Sold off shares of Esienwerk, net loss 70k (should of sold it when I was up 30k!)
2/1908 Divine L get a price cut. New Chassis, Engine, and Gearbox are put into development. (All better than average designs)
Over spent in RnD, sold off some shares of my company, allowed licensing for all new components.
Built up cash reserves
1910 start development of new Divine L
My plan on diluting the market of Luxury Sedans worked. Going from 4 companies in New York to just 2. Assuming it stays like this I should limit my self to 1 model to prevent competition with my self. Time to move into other segments, after 1910 Divine L is finished I will work on a limo.
Company is now in the red, 1910 Divine L ready for launch. Sold off 17% more of the company to fund 1910 Divine L launch.
1903 Divine L production ended.
2/1911 expanding into Chicago
Building up reserves of the Divine L
1/1912, time for me to pause for a bit.

screenshot_2014-11-1-150-37.png (Size: 1.27 MB / Downloads: 1224)

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screenshot_2014-11-1-150-28.png (Size: 1.27 MB / Downloads: 1200)

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screenshot_2014-11-1-150-14.png (Size: 1.29 MB / Downloads: 1185) ]]> <![CDATA[Imaginary Motors]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=1689 Mon, 14 Jul 2014 20:50:06 -0400 -root]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=1689
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-...e4C6pn257g

There is the playlist, I'll post the link to each episode as I release it.

I'd love to hear your tips/hints if you see something I could do better. Really enjoying this game so far.

In the first episode, I design my first components and then my first car. I get it onto the market and actually manage to turn a profit as well!]]>
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-...e4C6pn257g

There is the playlist, I'll post the link to each episode as I release it.

I'd love to hear your tips/hints if you see something I could do better. Really enjoying this game so far.

In the first episode, I design my first components and then my first car. I get it onto the market and actually manage to turn a profit as well!]]> <![CDATA[VENT AAR]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=1684 Sun, 13 Jul 2014 13:45:17 -0400 Eric.B]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=1684 At least not serious games. Anyway on Sundays I can't program too much unless I yank out my huge tower out into the living room and hook it up to a little 1024x768 monitor (I could I work on the Linux port in FreeBSD, but I'm going to wait for 1.15 to be finished before continuing that effort so I can have a purely unified codebase for 1.16). If I ever get paid *stares at his publishers* I'll probably buy a used laptop that can handle programming GC in windows... Until then I thought I'd give the latest build a spin in WINE on FreeBSD!

VENT Motor Corp was founded in 1980 in Jacksonville, FL. Due to economic issues the company was only founded with $75 million. (Normal Mode)

VENT primary focus is sport and exotic cars using Colin Chapman's idea of performance through lightweight. (How Lotus operates.)

First order of business was to secure more funds, first we had an IPO and raised an additional $15 million. Then we approached the banks for a $51 million dollar loan. With $140 Million in funds we set out to design a low cost roadster.

Here's the timeline (really need to fix "History" so we can generate these for AAR!)

1/1981 Launch the 1980 VENT Voyager, A Roadster with a 92hp 1.5L I4, Top Speed: 96mph, 0-60: 9.6 Unit Cost at Launch: ~$4500 Sell Price at Launch: $12500
1/1981 Opened branches in all major cities with 1 million in population or more in United States and Canada.
9/1981 Began design of the 1981 VENT Ash. A Roaster 2+2 using the same components as the Voyager.
1981 Sales:
1980 VENT Voyager: 1784 (1784)
5/1982 The 1981 VENT Ash Launched, with a 92hp 1.5L I4, Top Speed: 85mph, 0-60: 12.5 Unit Cost at Launch: ~$5000 Sell Price at Launch: $14000.
9/1982 Paid off loan, bought shares in Ablion.
11/1982 Expanded to 5 more cities in NE USA. Spent too much money, we're in the red.
1982 Sales:
1980 VENT Voyager: 3033 (4817)
1981 VENT Ash: 1757 (1757)
1/1983 Cut production to sell through reserves, get the company back into positive funds.
4/1983 Sold off shares of Ablion, profited $10million. Company back in Green.
7/1983 Started Design of a better chassis and a super charged v6 for use in a sports car and coupe models.
9/1983 Took out $34 Million dollar loan to help off set new component's costs.
12/1983 Sold 44% of VENT for $29 Million. Bought 72k shares of Apol for $6 Million.
1983 Sales:
1980 VENT Voyager: 2282 (7099)
1981 VENT Ash: 3011 (4768)
4/1984 I4 engine entered into Atlantic Algorithm. V6 is entered into Algorithm 4000.
5/1984 Paid back $8 Million in loans.
8/1984 Paid back $10 Million in loans.
1984 Sales:
1980 VENT Voyager: 2598 (9697)
1981 VENT Ash: 3544 (8312)
1/1985 Expanded west coast operations into San Diego, San Fransisco, Vancouver, and Phoenix.
1985 Sales:
1980 VENT Voyager: 4320 (14017)
1981 VENT Ash: 4622 (12934)
2/1986 Started research on the VENT Phenom, a 196hp V6 Sports car with a Top Speed of 118 and a 0-60 in 7.4s. Unit Cost: $13,380 Design Costs: $57m
9/1986 VENT Phenom goes on sale for $29,210 across the USA.
12/1986 Started Development of a 1.7L Super Charged i4 which produces 165hp. This engine will be used in the redesigns of Ash and Voyager.
1986 Sales:
1980 VENT Voyager: 7260 (21277)
1981 VENT Ash: 4697 (17631)
1986 VENT Phenom: 489 (489)
2/1987 Paid off remaining $12m in loans. $22m In cash
6/1987 Entered the new engine in many racing events. Expanded into racing for nearly all series listed.
7/1987 Started new model years for Ash and Voyager with the newest i4 engine.
1987 Sales:
1980 VENT Voyager: 8087 (29364)
1981 VENT Ash: 4930 (22561)
1986 VENT Phenom: 4330 (4819)
1/1988 Launched 1987 Voyager S for $16000 along with opening multiple branches in the mid west.
2/1988 Production of 1980 Voyager halted.
4/1988 Launched 1987 Ash S for $18000 and production of the 1981 Ash halted.
7/1988 1981 VENT Ash Officially Ends Production.
8/1988 1980 VENT Voyager Officially Ends Production.
9/1988 Started designing a front engine, AWD chassis. Design Cost: $74m
1988 Sales:
1980 VENT Voyager: 1769 (31133)
1981 VENT Ash: 1896 (24457)
1986 VENT Phenom: 6274 (11093)
1987 VENT Voyager S: 9869 (9869)
1987 VENT Ash S: 3629 (3629)

]]> At least not serious games. Anyway on Sundays I can't program too much unless I yank out my huge tower out into the living room and hook it up to a little 1024x768 monitor (I could I work on the Linux port in FreeBSD, but I'm going to wait for 1.15 to be finished before continuing that effort so I can have a purely unified codebase for 1.16). If I ever get paid *stares at his publishers* I'll probably buy a used laptop that can handle programming GC in windows... Until then I thought I'd give the latest build a spin in WINE on FreeBSD!

VENT Motor Corp was founded in 1980 in Jacksonville, FL. Due to economic issues the company was only founded with $75 million. (Normal Mode)

VENT primary focus is sport and exotic cars using Colin Chapman's idea of performance through lightweight. (How Lotus operates.)

First order of business was to secure more funds, first we had an IPO and raised an additional $15 million. Then we approached the banks for a $51 million dollar loan. With $140 Million in funds we set out to design a low cost roadster.

Here's the timeline (really need to fix "History" so we can generate these for AAR!)

1/1981 Launch the 1980 VENT Voyager, A Roadster with a 92hp 1.5L I4, Top Speed: 96mph, 0-60: 9.6 Unit Cost at Launch: ~$4500 Sell Price at Launch: $12500
1/1981 Opened branches in all major cities with 1 million in population or more in United States and Canada.
9/1981 Began design of the 1981 VENT Ash. A Roaster 2+2 using the same components as the Voyager.
1981 Sales:
1980 VENT Voyager: 1784 (1784)
5/1982 The 1981 VENT Ash Launched, with a 92hp 1.5L I4, Top Speed: 85mph, 0-60: 12.5 Unit Cost at Launch: ~$5000 Sell Price at Launch: $14000.
9/1982 Paid off loan, bought shares in Ablion.
11/1982 Expanded to 5 more cities in NE USA. Spent too much money, we're in the red.
1982 Sales:
1980 VENT Voyager: 3033 (4817)
1981 VENT Ash: 1757 (1757)
1/1983 Cut production to sell through reserves, get the company back into positive funds.
4/1983 Sold off shares of Ablion, profited $10million. Company back in Green.
7/1983 Started Design of a better chassis and a super charged v6 for use in a sports car and coupe models.
9/1983 Took out $34 Million dollar loan to help off set new component's costs.
12/1983 Sold 44% of VENT for $29 Million. Bought 72k shares of Apol for $6 Million.
1983 Sales:
1980 VENT Voyager: 2282 (7099)
1981 VENT Ash: 3011 (4768)
4/1984 I4 engine entered into Atlantic Algorithm. V6 is entered into Algorithm 4000.
5/1984 Paid back $8 Million in loans.
8/1984 Paid back $10 Million in loans.
1984 Sales:
1980 VENT Voyager: 2598 (9697)
1981 VENT Ash: 3544 (8312)
1/1985 Expanded west coast operations into San Diego, San Fransisco, Vancouver, and Phoenix.
1985 Sales:
1980 VENT Voyager: 4320 (14017)
1981 VENT Ash: 4622 (12934)
2/1986 Started research on the VENT Phenom, a 196hp V6 Sports car with a Top Speed of 118 and a 0-60 in 7.4s. Unit Cost: $13,380 Design Costs: $57m
9/1986 VENT Phenom goes on sale for $29,210 across the USA.
12/1986 Started Development of a 1.7L Super Charged i4 which produces 165hp. This engine will be used in the redesigns of Ash and Voyager.
1986 Sales:
1980 VENT Voyager: 7260 (21277)
1981 VENT Ash: 4697 (17631)
1986 VENT Phenom: 489 (489)
2/1987 Paid off remaining $12m in loans. $22m In cash
6/1987 Entered the new engine in many racing events. Expanded into racing for nearly all series listed.
7/1987 Started new model years for Ash and Voyager with the newest i4 engine.
1987 Sales:
1980 VENT Voyager: 8087 (29364)
1981 VENT Ash: 4930 (22561)
1986 VENT Phenom: 4330 (4819)
1/1988 Launched 1987 Voyager S for $16000 along with opening multiple branches in the mid west.
2/1988 Production of 1980 Voyager halted.
4/1988 Launched 1987 Ash S for $18000 and production of the 1981 Ash halted.
7/1988 1981 VENT Ash Officially Ends Production.
8/1988 1980 VENT Voyager Officially Ends Production.
9/1988 Started designing a front engine, AWD chassis. Design Cost: $74m
1988 Sales:
1980 VENT Voyager: 1769 (31133)
1981 VENT Ash: 1896 (24457)
1986 VENT Phenom: 6274 (11093)
1987 VENT Voyager S: 9869 (9869)
1987 VENT Ash S: 3629 (3629)

]]> <![CDATA[Tardis Mobiles]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=1682 Fri, 11 Jul 2014 14:09:07 -0400 ResFu]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=1682 I was playing beta before but this company is my first after release.

I started in 1900's in London with company named Tardis Mobiles Wink

Generally it was a company to refresh knowledge i have gained during beta and from this community board. I didnt thought ill be so happy and keen to share my story (ongoing).

Long, long ago, behind forests, nehind mountains, behind seven rivers ...
Whoops wrong forum ;P But seriously, here will be lotsa languistic failures because im not "native" (or "born" whatever your fancy) english speaker... I want to write shortly dropping insignificant facts of gameplay but ill put always info about my cars on end (infos like selling, production costs and how long they were produced). By the way how to remove cars from production list in factory? Is it possible? Ill like it clear)

My first step was investing $5k/m into lobbying and i tried the automatic designing of parts because i wanted to check it out. As said this is my first game after release.

In 1901 first car was send to factories to sell in branches (sedan called 1900's Arrow). In 1901 first factory retool occured also. When i was sitting on around $500k i expanded to two closest cities to London. My first $2M was put in bank (with mind of Great War in 12 years). In the meantime i designed new parts and in 1902 new car has arrived in dealerships called Auriga Max 1902 (phaeton)

Soon enough when GDP got a rise ive started selling many more "Arrows" and for first time $2M were put in to expanding of factory. After checking demands and shares on market i started thinking about expanding into MiniCar market to beat up my UK competitor so in 1904 ive made Seagull MiniMine (i like those MiniCoopers Smile

All microcars will have trim "MiniMine"). Seagull in 1904 was not selling so much but he messed with market in 1905 after changing price. Seagull was much better in years 1911-1913 after that he was pushed on side by other companies. In 1905 my flotilla of cars welcomed a new baby - or rather black sheep in herd - sedan Boline M105 (was designed to replace Arrow... but it was too expensive) i dont like this particular car. In the same year i have set up branches in last two cities on islands of UK (Irish ones)

In 1906 i introduced Chester RR-105 (roadster) which also was too expensive and did not sell very well.

When 1907 came i started selling DeFrail (touring) after 3 years of pause and sitting on cash (and putting some dollars to bank) I spent circa $7,8M expandind my London factory. As you probably calculated i spent sum of around $10M down the sink on factory(not counting retools). Why down the sink? We are getting closer...

But before the harsh time of surviving Great War and the years after...

In 1910 i made Mark 911 Duke which was not a hit in beginning - but he started shining in years 1913-1914 and one extra year after war.

From this year also i started stock operations... Mainly buying shares of competitors to possibly take them out - right now im holding 85% of my company shares so im assured no one will buyout me or do a takeover - about mergers and takeovers - how it works?

Continuing. 2 years later ive expanded to Paris and started selling landaulet Provence T13 which in beginnings was quite a hit. To be honest I thought that it will be a failure similar to Boline M105. I was quite surprised by that fact that my pessimism was not met.

Year 1914 witnessed the emergence of two vehicles which are now very well established and I still didnt met the demand for them - and these are Kea MiniMine and Wombat RR-113 (if you read all this wall of text you know which types of car these are Wink

).

Than the great war came... I was hoping ill survive firing all staff and disabling marketing but i was forced to close my factory... I was loosing $2,3M a month after closing factory $400k - $500k... Why? Because i forgot about R&D and after doing that designs it was $-180k/m.

I was grateful that there were around $9M in my vault in bank. It helped me survive Great War without loans and setting up new factory based in Scotland. In preparations to great war i have piled around 15k of cars which were sold like hotcakes after the war and helped me with expanding factory in Scotland to 10 production lines (which is only a half of that what was London factory).

In years after i didnt do much - i'm still slowly getting out from the recession, earning an average of $250k/m.

But year 1923 will see more Tardis Mobiles cars. Those are Sedan M23 (sedan) and Bristol 1923 (shooting brake) both with cutting edge designs of Tardis Mobiles including 4x4 Frame and V8 engine. Gearbox is good new-old standard Manual 6 with Acceleration (those were the designs of Great War - Frame with 4x4 setup, engine and the gearbox. I know that is probably too early for those but im hoping those new cars will help me get out of recession).

The only thing is...1900's Arrow saw his end in 1922. He was on market for 21 years (including Great War stall).

[spoiler] [Image: 7DF866BFDA3D719F3406082260BAE1E017076B13]

[Image: 7DF866BFDA3D719F3406082260BAE1E017076B13]

[/spoiler]

And here is my stock stuff:
[spoiler]
[Image: 916F48FD6E027EBAF95010A4C8402434C0AE5D58]

[Image: 23E9F21C763C1C83E98929ACB50FE395BBE2F538]

[Image: 5F6ED09CFED102222FA993CABDBC7BEA83F1BB10]

[Image: 09CF240B3CEA10F431FA6D3A15DEC87556C2A20F]

[/spoiler]

And here is my stock stuff:
[spoiler]
[Image: 916F48FD6E027EBAF95010A4C8402434C0AE5D58]

[/spoiler]

About stock... How work mergers and takeovers. Oh and small curio - during Great War two big guys bankrupted - americans! GMT and American something.

Now into my cars:

1900's Arrow 1901-1922
Units sold: 122'750 Production Costs for 1922: $244
Top speed: 56 km/h 23m/h Engine: 2146cc 14HP

Auriga Max 1902 1902-1920
Units sold: 25'508 Production Costs for 1922: $660
Top speed: 107 km/h 66 m/h Engine: 5532cc 37HP

Seagull MiniMine 1904-1914
Units sold: 8'630 Production Costs for 1922: $902
Top speed: 84 km/h 52 m/h Engine: 3052cc 20HP

Boline M105 1905-1919
Units sold: 5'498 Production Costs for 1922: $2198
Top speed: 103 km/h 64 m/h Engine: 2146cc 14HP

Chester RR-105 1906-1914
Units sold: 1'199 Production Costs for 1922: $2416
Top speed: 154 km/h 95 m/h Engine: 6790cc 83HP

Defrail 1907->
Units sold: 5'431 Production Costs for 1922: $718
Top speed: 78 km/h 48 m/h Engine: 3354cc 17HP

Mark 911 Duke 1910->
Units sold: 19'060 Production Costs for 1922: $694
Top speed: 151 km/h 93 m/h Engine: 8764cc 97HP

Provence T13 1912->
Units sold: 2'302 Production Costs for 1922: $871
Top speed: 86 km/h 53 m/h Engine: 3959cc 42HP

Kea MiniMine 1914 ->
Units sold: 12'640 Production Costs for 1922: $434
Top speed: 97 km/h 60 m/h Engine: 2267cc 21HP

Wombat RR-113 1914 ->
Units sold: 5'606 Production Costs for 1922: $800
Top speed: 124 km/h 77 m/h Engine: 4566cc 58HP

After looking at building cost/prices ratio my first step will be lowering all prices for - probably -25%.

Now questions for you (besides those earlier about stock exchange operations). Im thinking about taking big loan to expand my factory - as I said she is not fullfilling demand. What do you think guys?
Second question when to start getting into races?

Edit: No spoiler BB code here? Or im doing it wrong?]]> <![CDATA[Leo Motors]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=1638 Tue, 17 Jun 2014 11:28:43 -0400 RoninGT21]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=1638 So I paid for the game, and was enjoying the time up until the moment I tried the short game from the 1980's. Around mid 80's one make popped up named LEO, and ok, I get it, it's not an original name, but back when update 1.10 was out I tried the demo and created a company called Leo in Detroit, and did a decent job at it, after which completely forgot about the game. And now it turns out you somehow managed to create exact duplicate of my company. Is that a coincidence or did you guys collect info from the people who played the demos?]]> So I paid for the game, and was enjoying the time up until the moment I tried the short game from the 1980's. Around mid 80's one make popped up named LEO, and ok, I get it, it's not an original name, but back when update 1.10 was out I tried the demo and created a company called Leo in Detroit, and did a decent job at it, after which completely forgot about the game. And now it turns out you somehow managed to create exact duplicate of my company. Is that a coincidence or did you guys collect info from the people who played the demos?]]> <![CDATA[1907 Budget Company Snapshot]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=1518 Thu, 01 May 2014 11:52:49 -0400 Arakash]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=1518
Its not any kind of record breaker and i make no claim to be the expert on Gearcity Strategy, but i thought it might be interesting to share it anyway.

Im playing Open Beta Version 1.13 of the game.

As normal for me im aiming to do 95% of my sales in London, following a budget car strategy. I sell in London because its an enormous black hole of vehicle demand.
With this economy strategy, i need to sell a lot of units to actually be profitable, because i sell cars at low prices with low profit margins. Usually i need to sell at least a few hundred per month for it to actually work.

One of the first things i do is make sure i resize or demolish and build a new factory that can produce 800-900 cars per month. If you drag the tech slider down a lot this isnt an expensive process.

Branch and Marketing costs are managed by my usual strategy, to keep them under $40 per unit in the Expenses per unit per city screens. Usually i spread my marketing across all types, just to keep it simple. For Branches, i just resize them as necessary.

In practice, this means the size of my Branches and Marketing budget tend to scale as my sales volume increases, which is exactly what i want for this strategy.
As of 1907, im spending 30k on marketing per month in London alone, which i suspect is much much higher than my competitors.
Im also spending 45k for my London branch, which i also assume is helping.
I'm doing very little in a few other nearby cities except a few min sized branches and some tiny marketing budgets.

For my R&D strategy, i wasn't able to afford much beyond designing components for vehicles to sell before about 1903-4. Since then ive started Designing a few max slider components which is needed to optimize turning on Research Teams. As of 1907 im spending about 50k per month in total on research teams. On the actual sliders, i think this is 150k per year per research team slider.

The Lobbying slider has also been at max almost since i started selling vehicles. I tend to think it saves me enough money in taxes to be worthwhile, but im never entirely sure.

For my cars.

I started off with a Cheap Phaeton.
This one ended up costing ~260-290 to produce, here's what its stats look like with some stat degradation by 1907.
Its a basic design, light to be efficient, fuel efficient and durable as those are the primary ratings of the Phaeton car type.
Its sales price has been $600 for all its life, undercutting a good 80% of the cars on the market.

I suspect mostly on the basis of its price and targeted statistics, as well as marketing its been my best seller for the last 7 years, selling 55k units in total.

My second car was a compact produced in 1905, and pretty poorly designed. Its not bad, but just far too expensive for its type and my strategy at 650-700.
Most of this is because i spent far too much trying to make a nice Straight4 engine, which raised the price of the entire vehicle dramatically. With a Sales price of $900 i was selling about half as many of these as my phaetons in 1906. I sold about 8k units in 1906.
Ive got a SC of it as well, but keep in mind i consider it pretty poor.

My third car i just put into R&D in 1907, its a new model Year Phaeton built on my original vehicle, with new components.
Ive taken advantage of later tech, especially of using the FF drivetrain, which is the cheapest by far and helps keep costs down.
Its production cost is $551, which i hope will be decent for selling the vehicle somewhere in the 700's mark.
In retrospect, its engine might be a bit too weak to last a long time. Ill soon find out i suppose.
Here is a SC of this one.

From the two designs ive been selling, the two best months ive ever had for them are in Jan Feb 1907.
Each month i was:
Selling +1500 of the original Phaeton
and 1000 of the Compact
Im spending an extra 150k on Research projects, but i still made a good 300-400k profit on each of those two months, which is more than the usual 100-200k i make.

All of this has resulted in some decent profits over the years. As i mentioned clearly at the start of this, its not intended to be and certainly isn't a record breaking profit. It has been enough to allow me to expand my research budget and start new research projects to support the research teams mechanic.
Ive got 4mil in cash to spare, which gives me some flexibility in my options and a decent cash buffer.
If you've never played a economy/budget car manufacturer before, the profit chart might look strange to you, but i think it tends to show the difference in profit margin in the vehicles i'm selling.

So that's a snapshot from a normal game for me in 1907.
Any thoughts?

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Its not any kind of record breaker and i make no claim to be the expert on Gearcity Strategy, but i thought it might be interesting to share it anyway.

Im playing Open Beta Version 1.13 of the game.

As normal for me im aiming to do 95% of my sales in London, following a budget car strategy. I sell in London because its an enormous black hole of vehicle demand.
With this economy strategy, i need to sell a lot of units to actually be profitable, because i sell cars at low prices with low profit margins. Usually i need to sell at least a few hundred per month for it to actually work.

One of the first things i do is make sure i resize or demolish and build a new factory that can produce 800-900 cars per month. If you drag the tech slider down a lot this isnt an expensive process.

Branch and Marketing costs are managed by my usual strategy, to keep them under $40 per unit in the Expenses per unit per city screens. Usually i spread my marketing across all types, just to keep it simple. For Branches, i just resize them as necessary.

In practice, this means the size of my Branches and Marketing budget tend to scale as my sales volume increases, which is exactly what i want for this strategy.
As of 1907, im spending 30k on marketing per month in London alone, which i suspect is much much higher than my competitors.
Im also spending 45k for my London branch, which i also assume is helping.
I'm doing very little in a few other nearby cities except a few min sized branches and some tiny marketing budgets.

For my R&D strategy, i wasn't able to afford much beyond designing components for vehicles to sell before about 1903-4. Since then ive started Designing a few max slider components which is needed to optimize turning on Research Teams. As of 1907 im spending about 50k per month in total on research teams. On the actual sliders, i think this is 150k per year per research team slider.

The Lobbying slider has also been at max almost since i started selling vehicles. I tend to think it saves me enough money in taxes to be worthwhile, but im never entirely sure.

For my cars.

I started off with a Cheap Phaeton.
This one ended up costing ~260-290 to produce, here's what its stats look like with some stat degradation by 1907.
Its a basic design, light to be efficient, fuel efficient and durable as those are the primary ratings of the Phaeton car type.
Its sales price has been $600 for all its life, undercutting a good 80% of the cars on the market.

I suspect mostly on the basis of its price and targeted statistics, as well as marketing its been my best seller for the last 7 years, selling 55k units in total.

My second car was a compact produced in 1905, and pretty poorly designed. Its not bad, but just far too expensive for its type and my strategy at 650-700.
Most of this is because i spent far too much trying to make a nice Straight4 engine, which raised the price of the entire vehicle dramatically. With a Sales price of $900 i was selling about half as many of these as my phaetons in 1906. I sold about 8k units in 1906.
Ive got a SC of it as well, but keep in mind i consider it pretty poor.

My third car i just put into R&D in 1907, its a new model Year Phaeton built on my original vehicle, with new components.
Ive taken advantage of later tech, especially of using the FF drivetrain, which is the cheapest by far and helps keep costs down.
Its production cost is $551, which i hope will be decent for selling the vehicle somewhere in the 700's mark.
In retrospect, its engine might be a bit too weak to last a long time. Ill soon find out i suppose.
Here is a SC of this one.

From the two designs ive been selling, the two best months ive ever had for them are in Jan Feb 1907.
Each month i was:
Selling +1500 of the original Phaeton
and 1000 of the Compact
Im spending an extra 150k on Research projects, but i still made a good 300-400k profit on each of those two months, which is more than the usual 100-200k i make.

All of this has resulted in some decent profits over the years. As i mentioned clearly at the start of this, its not intended to be and certainly isn't a record breaking profit. It has been enough to allow me to expand my research budget and start new research projects to support the research teams mechanic.
Ive got 4mil in cash to spare, which gives me some flexibility in my options and a decent cash buffer.
If you've never played a economy/budget car manufacturer before, the profit chart might look strange to you, but i think it tends to show the difference in profit margin in the vehicles i'm selling.

So that's a snapshot from a normal game for me in 1907.
Any thoughts?

.png

screenshot_2014-5-2-136-54.png (Size: 907.51 KB / Downloads: 1423)

.png

screenshot_2014-5-2-143-16.png (Size: 833.96 KB / Downloads: 1393)

.png

screenshot_2014-5-2-143-17.png (Size: 832.25 KB / Downloads: 1393)

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screenshot_2014-5-2-143-20.png (Size: 833.17 KB / Downloads: 1336)

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screenshot_2014-5-2-145-26.png (Size: 911.53 KB / Downloads: 1231) ]]>