[Suggestion] A few actually

Big Pharma General Discussion
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First…fun game. And no, suggestions…

  1. Machine balancing

Currently it costs $600 for a 1-up or 1-down machine and $10 to use…while it costs $2200 for a 3-up or 3-down and $35 to use. This is not logical from a gaming standpoint, costs are normally outweighed to its efficiency. I understand that machines take up space and so when doing huge setups, you have to resort to the higher cost machines, but to maximize profits completely, the low-end stuff is much better. This is not intuitive…even the research tab decreases the use-cost down by $1 and $3 respectively…that means it mins out at $5 and $20. Although $20 would beat out having 3 un-researched singlets, you are better off just putting 3 points in them and losing the $1 difference. Even the cost to place the machine is almost 4 times the value…it’s just crazy.

For balancing reasons, here are my figures…
evaporator/dissolver - cost $600, $10 use, -$1 use per research
agglomerator/ioniser - cost $1700, $35 use, -$4 use per research
autoclave/cryo - cost $6000, $60 use, -$6 use per research

The cost to bear up front is reduced to make it more attractive to buy the ±3 machine for a $100 discount but costs $5 more use in the long run (20 runs destroys your savings). At just 2 research points will put the ±3 machines in direct competition with the ±1 machines…mins are at $5 and $15…an extra $10 at maximum research isn’t so bad on the bottom line for a cost at reducing floor space. With so many other huge machines (like syringe/multimixer/etc.), it will give us better decision making.

  1. Analyzer change

Currently there is absolutely no need to use this machine. As I wrote in another post, at lower levels you don’t have access to it and it isn’t cost effective as compared to just bumping the drug 1 or 2 points and exporting it unknown (and later throwing it in a lotion), and at higher levels, you end up multimixing out most of the bad stuff and mid-lining between good drugs to maximize profit with the sachet. Instead…make this tool available from the start, no research needed. Secondly, make it so that new ingredients found in the wild and new drug upgrades are completely unknown until you use the analyzer (the range bar is empty, or has question marks on all 4 spots until you’ve identified the components). Third, make it cost nothing to test the drug, it already costs money to import the drug, there is no need to double charge us for a test…for research, each point should reduce the failure chance, lessening the time it takes for us to completely analyze it.

Lastly…any drug that has been fully analyzed should get a 5%-10% bonus for valuation because of full-disclosure laws (meaning if you don’t analyze the drug, you are selling to third world nations, if you analyze it, you can sell to first world).

  1. Right-click should not delete

This is obvious…and if not, then you really haven’t been annoyed at accidental deletions because you are trying to clear your menus or selections or drag lock.

  1. Inventory

Each object in the selection menu should have a number ‘0’ in it. When you delete an object, this number should increase in comparison to the object you deleted…no money is given to you. When you place an object down, it should reduce this number and not charge you for it, unless the number is ‘0’. If you right click the object in the menu itself, THEN it will reduce the number and give you half the money back in selling it. That simple…belts should be the same way. It’s troublesome to move objects around to “store” them for later because the more objects you have, the more lag, this would help with that possibly.

  1. Crossover junction

A 1x1 machine with 2 green and 2 red arrows. Objects going in a green will come out the opposite red side. Should be straightforward really…maybe make it researchable?

  1. Output limiter

Either a machine that you can put down that limits the flow of materials (set it to no/1/2/4 delay) or allow the export setting. Why? Because maybe supply is too saturated on the market right now and you want to reduce your drug making costs a little until demand replenishes without having to destroy belts and babying your idle machine. Like DeBeers and diamonds, to keep prices high, you sometimes have to limit your supply to the stores. On that note…

  1. Storage Stockpile

I imagine a doctor’s cabinet with a guy standing in front of it, who takes drugs/ingredients off the belt and stores it in the cabinet and takes the oldest dated out of the cabinet to put on another belt (a first-in-first-out stack), 2 cycle time, $5 use-cost and a 10-unit storage (upgrade increases storage by 5 per). Why? Because maybe the price to purchase an ingredient off the market is too pricey or goes out of stock for the season…you have to plan ahead for these things.

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  1. Balance issue, will be looked at before release I assume.

  2. I really like this idea. Would definitely make the analyser more viable, though as I have in the other thread, I argue it isn’t completely worthless as it is right now.

  3. I agree, right click has too many things attached to it.

  4. You have inventory for your machines, it’s called unused floor space. If I shut down or move parts of a machine I no longer use I move them to the corner of my factory until I need them again. I don’t need a magic Bag of Holding to hold my machines for me.

  5. This is mentioned as an upcoming feature all ready here: http://www.bigpharmagame.com/schedule.html

  6. Want to limit your flow? Slow your machine down, take out the second pill printer. I’m advocating for faster input/output in my idea thread and you want the opposite? Actually ya, that sounds reasonable. :wink:

  7. Tim has said he will not be including a stockpiling mechanic in his dev-vlogs. He feels the game is about making new drugs and shipping them, not managing a warehouse.

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  1. Thanks
  2. As I stated, keeping machines around on the floor adds lag to the game…I find that when I reach about 40+ machines, double-clicking to move objects becomes difficult because the game’s update tick doesn’t catch the clicks correctly. I’m not running an old machine either, it is still near the top in gaming. I just suggested for an inventory in order to reduce the amount of object updates in the factory. If this is not possible, then make objects be event-driven rather than always updated, and I’m not sure how they are handling the graphics pipeline. The other option would be to put the mouse events onto a separate thread altogether, so that clicks are not missed.
  3. Awesome
  4. Speed can be given by purchasing more input lines…in fact, a suggestion to add more “doors” to the map might be a better choice rather than requesting to speed belts up. However, my throttling suggestion is based on market saturation effects…I’m a micromanagement player and like a chance to tweak sales profits by hitting the high point on the demand curve (where supply is just shy of demand in order to keep prices climbing). If it doesn’t get added, no big deal, I know I can delete a pill machine or add a shaker for no reason at the end of the line.
  5. Bummer…Always loved a buy-low/sell-high mentality in economic games. Just would like to buy my ingredients when they hit low price, stockpile them and sell the drugs when it gets high.
4

The Analyizer isn’t completely worthless. It is useful for burning off the unwanted half of centrifuge reaction.

5

Just a side note on this: Tim has worked a lot on performance optimization. I guess that point should be much better with the new version (v0.41.00)
Also, I agree the “inventory” is basically factory floor space (and usually, I end up reusing the machines I “stored” and/or blaming myself if I forgot them.)

6

…I can’t help but feel this shouldn’t be the case.

Perhaps introducing an Incineration machine that destroys everything entered into it, and instead make the Analyzer into an “Inline” machine with and Input and Output but only using every second set of ingredients passing through it… add variable/random strength medicine/effect strength on imports and it could also double as a “Quality Control” machine.

7

New thought, a high couple high end machines, an Extractor, and Injector: Both working with only one Effect/Cure. Incredibly useful but also probably incredibly expensive. They do not exchange, but instead take or add that one effect/cure.

8

Oh actually just to clarify, I will not be including a stockpiling mechanic outside of your factory. I actually really love the idea of stock piling within your existing factory floor space. The main reason I’m against stock outside your factory is I don’t like manual price setting and I like the immediacy of exporting your drug from your factory and the money appearing straight in your coffers.

In terms of stockpiling within your factory I already have a plan to achieve this. The “Drug Packer” will be an additional auxiliary machine which will take 2-4 drugs in (depending on upgrade level) and when ‘full’ will spit out a box with all the drugs in. The box will count as a single drug (as in it only takes up one floor tile/belt) which will make stockpiling more viable. It can also be sold in a single day by an export socket thereby giving you a way to free up more sockets for imports as well as ‘dump’ loads of already boxed up drugs in a short amount of time.

Not sure when this is coming. I’m currently working my way through every post in the forum trying to prioritise and work out what to add next!