Hi Cliffsky,
I like the game a lot. It is a good idea for a tycoon game and so far the game is getting better with every new version. I am playing it from time to time and want to share my opinion of the current game and inspire you with ideas for future improvements.
current gameplay:
- when you have placed 2 or 3 different construction paths (which is done after 15 minutes playing at super speed), you are earning a lot of money, that you actually don’t need anymore (10+ millions) - there is no possibility to spend such an amount of money, which ruins the longterm motivation of playing it for me.
- there is actually no need to optimize a construction path, because you earn enough money as mentioned above, even if the there is only 40% efficiency.
research:
- each research project should cost money ($20.000, $50.000, $100.000…) - right now there is only the wage for the researchers which makes it clicking one project after another - each project might need software, material and so on; if there is initial costs you would have to decide what you need the most and have to wait until you have the funds for it
- add some research milestones - for example hybrid engine technologies - which costs a huge amount of money ($5 million, $10 million, even $20 million… in that case, earning more money in the endgame is finally usefull
other ideas
- you can buy additional import and export slots for a huge amount of money (like the first one for $1 million, the second one for $2 million… ) during the game
- add an option which let you determine the premium/discount percentage for every following new exported car or maybe add 3 favorite percentages (right now the slider takes too long to get your desired percentage)
- in 1.10 you added the feature, that you have to keep an eye on the premium percentage over the time. If you have like 50 different cars (which can be achieved easily by combining different upgrades, see the next paragraph), you have to adjust the 50 sliders again and again. add an option that lets you set if the premium percentage is fix at 50% for example, and the the price drops automatically. In that case your good idea of collapsing prices and reducing margins is still realised in a way you can handle it comfortable.
- using shift/ctrl/alt while building a slot keeps the slot activated for building more of it
- make buying power plants more expansive as you already mentioned in your last video
an alternative way to build cars:
Right now you lay down your slots, add the upgrades and export the car. But in an advanced stage of the game, you want to offer different cars by offering differnet combinations of upgrades - and this is where it gets confusing and stressfull:
- in my last game for example, I build 3 roof slots (1 normal, 1 sunroof upgrade, 1 panorama upgrade),
- after that there were 3 different door panals (1 with central locking and car alarm upgrade, 1 with central locking only, 1 with car alarm only),
- after that 2 different tire slots (with and without pressure sensor upgrade)… and so on.
I think you see where this is going.
summing up all possible variations would be 3 x 3 x 2 x 2 x … my number of variations was 576 different cars. now I have to name them and use the slider to add the premium for every single car…
And now think of having 4 or 5 different car types (sports wagon, suv etc.). that would be more than 2500 cars you have to name.
So it might be an alternative to build the slots, buy all the slot upgrads you can afford, name the hole car type and set the premium amount for the basic car as well as every upgrade (i.e basic car +50%, SatNav +10%). Then the customer itself will order a car with all the upgrades he wants to have and pays the defined price for it. It would make offering a good amount of variations of one car model easier as it is now.
If that is not the way you want to go, thanthink of leaving the production process as it is right now, but add an option to set the prices for the basic car and every single upgrade (as described above), to avoid naming every single upgrade variation of a car.
These are my thoughts that I have collected over the past days. I hope that is serves as an inspiration for your upcoming work.
ttyl.
dustman.
