I want to talk about all the current goals revolving around time limits, giving the player less room for experimentation and making the scientific race to the top very stressful, as you cannot use the high tier items if you want to be “Master”. I therefor suggest something different. Goals that give the player as much time as he needs and act more as a sort of puzzle than a frantic race to get Master in a short time. I put bronze silver and gold here, because I cannot remember the current names other than Master, so replace as appropriate. Those goals would help introduce people to all the mechanics and ideas on how to approach situations, without putting time limits on them. I think they’d fit into a Puzzle or Experimental category.
How about the following goals:
Profit oriented - Make a level x cure:
Bronze - With at least xxx dollar profit
Silver - With at least xxx dollar profit and manufacturing costs below xxx
Gold - With at least xxx dollar profit, manufacturing costs below xxx and no side effects
Benevolent - Make a level x cure that has:
Bronze - No side effects
Silver - No side effects, 2 positive effects
Gold - No side effects, 3 positive effects
In high demand - Make a level x cure that has:
Bronze - 2 combined positive effects
Silver - 3 combined positive effects
Gold - 4 combined positive effects
Malevolent - Make a level x cure that has:
Bronze - 1 side effect
Silver - 2 side effects
Gold - 3 side effects
This one might be hard, because it will be costly to produce, but the side effects could increase the profits from other drugs as you have more people suffering from illnesses.
Please add your own puzzle ideas, keeping in mind that they should be without a time limit (directly or indirectly. Indirectly would be doing something before a competitor for example).
Thanks for the link. Your suggestion still included time limits, fixed time limits for all goals. I am looking for goals to achieve for the player that have no time limit whatsoever and act more like a puzzle/learning experience rather than a timed challenge.
I still would like to keep this thread, because people might have good ideas for more goals.
How about this then, something else people can think about and then suggest alternatives:
Earn x amount of profit with less than:
xxx input ingredients
xxx medicine sold
So much possibility, without being hurried. You could research everything, go slowly and cautiously, but still be rushed, as you need to pay your staff.
And I still think there is plenty of challenges possible with no time limit, just a different kind of challenge, rather than being rushed.
It depends on how it’s done. Having a tight time limit and a big tech tree that you don’t have time to fully explore gets really frustrating, and with the current RNG design some of the goals are down to pure luck whether you can possibly complete them before the timer is up. Having only tight time limits belong in a challenge mode. It shouldn’t be the only type of objective there is. And currently I find the time limits are way too short and it makes the game in its entirety not very long.
I know some people like the challenge of having almost no time to do anything. I’m not one of those. I find timers annoying and that they get in my way of enjoying a game like this. You can’t really have short timers, randomness, and complicated goals that take a long time, all at the same time. It has to be a choice between one or the other.
Looking at RollerCoaster Tycoon (esp the 2nd game which has no sandbox), the goals vary from making people happy, over repaying debt, to having to build a certain number of rollercoasters, or rides with a certain entertainment value. They usually all have time limits as well, but it’s made so you’re never rushed and can take your time to come up with some really amazing designs. Some of the scenarios in RCT don’t have a real time limit, but you start with such a big loan and is limited on how to make income, that if you don’t do things at a certain pace you’ll go bankrupt before getting your park built up.
I’m not sure how to translate RCT’'s design into the world of Big Pharma, but time limits don’t have to be only time itself. They can be created simply by thirsty bankers constantly draining large amounts of money from your account, or the market model being made so if you don’t do things with a certain urgency you’ll lose the market share and dig yourself into a hole with no way out. It’s called an implied time limit. Where you have to work against time, but don’t have an actual clock ticking down.
My take on this would be a system to play a specific game and a random game to keep you “coming back” once you did all the challenges…
This idea would work a lot better in multiplayer but here’s the general idea…
when you make a new game you specify the number of opponents, map size, money… and all the other starting conditions…
and then you specify “victory conditions”…
they could be simple ones… like in the standard missions “make X money” or “sell 200 of drug X”…
or you could make it so that you can combine them… “make X money while having sold 200 of Y drug and having all your drugs of rating B or higher”… and if you wanna make it really fancy… you can throw in “or” too… so “make X money or have 5 drugs with a rating of A”…
and every game, ofc, also needs a random button… maybe have modes… shot, medium, long… short would generate objectives you could do relatively fast… like have 3 level 2 drugs on the market… while long would generate objectives that would take you 3-4 hours to complete…
What about a taking a page from Off World Trading Company, where one of the goals and or challenges would be to buy out one or all of your competitors.
