Some feedback on alpha 1.18 issues

Production Line Game discussion
1

After playing with alpha 1.18 for a while, I decided to hop onto the forums and give some feedback on some things that might deserve some attention.

  1. I don’t remember if right clicking to delete was a thing before, but I both like it and hate it. Its far too easy to remove something by mistake. I think this could be fixed with ether an “Undo” button, or by allowing players (like myself) who tend to right click by mistake too often to change a setting requiring say Shift + RClick. Using Ether or both methods would be fine.

  2. I managed to play a few hours of 1.17 before 1.18 came out (lucky timing I guess), and the rate at which the AI researches is MUCH better now. That being said, in the late game, I found that the cars I was producing, with all the bells and whistles were worth less then the basic model I started with. Although I can make up for it in volume, it somehow feels discouraging.

I would like to see some tech remain forever rare. Some should also be common but never universal. This would go a long way IMO.

  1. I ran into an issue in the game where the AI researched “Start-Stop engine” and due to it being “Universal” I am losing value on my cars without it. The thing is, I have not found out how to produce these. I couldn’t manage to manufacture them, couldn’t upgrade any of the fit engine sub stations for it. Until I have the ability to produce/upgrade that on my cars, I would like it if the AI didn’t research it and reduce the value of my cars. This is of course assuming I am not just missing something obvious, which I could be.

  2. I have a factory (savefile provided) that works great on normal speed. When the factory is set to x3 speed however, things start to break down. From what I can tell, resource conveyors, or importers cannot keep up with the factories trying to pump out cars. I assume that if a production line runs smoothly on normal speed it should in theory run the same on x2 and x3. I have not tested this issue on x2 speed but I can confirm that with this save file it consistently works well on normal and consistently backs up on x3.

  3. I noticed that the “+” symbol to open up categories in the build menu sometimes decided to not work. If I moved the mouse away and back, or jiggled it a bit the “+” would then work. It makes the UI feel ether unresponsive, or like the hitbox for the button is smaller then it looks like it should be.

Other then those things I’m enjoying the current version very much. Glad I found this little gem.
Medium 1.18.xml (958 KB)

2

  1. Personally I feel it’s unnecessary, but if people want it then it should probably be added. Shift+right click is a no-no, as that combo is used for deleting resource conveyors without deleting the things they sit on.

  2. Agreed. I’ve touched on this in other threads, but it’s unsatisfying to not be able to do anything about changes in the game environment completely outside your control.

  3. Fit engine -> Fit power train -> Make starter motor -> (upgrade researched from Performance features -> Start-stop engine)

  4. Now that, is very interesting.

  5. I’ve experienced that, too. Although sometimes I have to completely close the Slots picker UI to fix it.

3

I’ve checked out the save and he’s right. When simulating at 3x speed, the line just starts backing up, particularly behind the breaks slot. When you drop to 1x or 2x, the blockage starts to clear, so something isn’t simulating as fast as it should - or too fasts when on 1x/2x.

4

Glad someone was able to confirm that changing the speed of the game was in fact causing the issue. Was beginning to think I was crazy lol.

5

Thanks for the feedback, I shall work my way through this list!

6

Number 1, the right clicking issue certainly bothers me repeatedly, however having the ability to customize controls would give everyone what they want.

7

The only reason this is not implemented yet is I want to roll this into a more sensible update of the whole mechanic. Essentially the rarity needs to be more complex, and deal with different price points.

For example if you buy a $70,000 car, you damn well expect it to have electric windows right? But buying a $15,000 without voice recognition isn’t exactly a big deal.

I think this also needs to be folded in to the thing a lot of players have asked for, which is the ability to define different classes of car. So for example:

Luxury Sedan:
Comes with electric windows, anti-lock breaks, leather seats, leather interior, cruise control, automatic wipers and headlights, in-car music and bluetooth and sunroof.

Standard Sedan:
Comes with electric windows and anti-lock brakes.

That then requires me to have an economic model showing the total demand for cars with each level of luxury. So for example, there is a market of 20 cars an hour for cars under $20,000, a market of 2 cars/hour for cars between $20,000 to $40,000 etc.

I’m still thinking hard about how all this will work. I want the player to be rewarded for being ‘quick’ to tech advances, whilst avoiding the need for all cars to have all features.

8

That makes a lot of since. I assumed that the issue of tech was likely due to ether missing or incomplete features, its alpha after all. Just felt compelled to mention it. Looking forward to future updates :D.

9

Few Ideas
Lock/Unlock of delete slot, there are times in game play were you’re just observing/scrolling through your line and an inadvertent right click removes a conveyor or production slot.

Add a full “nuke” allowing you to clear your entire production line.

Add to Supply Stockpile/ Copy From slot: Allow copy from your already set for custom slot. Right now you can only copy a “base, no upgrades”.

Add Keyboard HotkeyTo Bring you to center of factory, there are times when your screen drifts to all black.

If as we play we are competing against AI, can there be a market to sell of surplus parts/power.

Allow deeper select into tech tree, allowing me to select level 3 tech. Research will proceed levels 1 and 2 without interruption. (Similar to CIVs)

Allow tech to be traded with AI.

Allow purchase of factory, not just rent.

Research can be selected (Late game need for Research office) to Quality that will be a # of cars produced/research. This would factor into market model.

Instead of pause, can there be a stop line, so slots can fill but line doesn’t run.

Add wear to slots, so slots must be replaced/maintained over time.

Allow control of conveyor speed. (Slower only)

Allow select all of one type slot to upgrade/select import at once.

Add custom/ Dealer orders as challenge, they need a X spec’ed price and in Y time, qty Z

Select on slot menu ALL/Slots/Production to filter and expand all.

Financial Department—Imports, allow clickable to take you to slots that are consuming import.

View filter, Select to make Resource conveyors/cars invisible to allow to see below mess.