Gameplay

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First of all i have to say i am very impressed with Automation. Bought it on Steam 2 days ago, tho i have been following it for years.

It seems every post here is from proffesional car and engine builders going so deep into the technical aspect that i fall off most of the time. Well i am a guy who drives a car from A to B and thats abouth it, and thats why i am wondering abouth the game play more than how big a thingy with a dingy can be. I have been looking for a car game like this since “Detroit”, a game made back in 1994 witch still is the best “car” game i have played so far. I appologise for any questions that has been answered in other post, i have been searching tho :slight_smile:. So here comes stuff from a car idiot, enjoy

When making a new car, first page you get the option (i think) back wheel drive with engine in back, middle engine back wheel drive and front engine back wheel drive. It would be nice getting text info when holding mouse over them, same goes for the car types and the wheel thing in the bottum with some arrowes… i guess thats space between wheels or something?? So yes info boxes for non grease monkeys are essencial if you want em to buy and play the game :smiley:

If you design a small car and then go for the engine, will there be a warning if you build the engine to big for the engine bay? (max size engine for this car is bla bla bla)

Since a 1499 CC engine dont tell me anything, tho i know this is the correct technical terms, would it be possible to to ad how many liters a engine this sice is? Most noobs know the difference of a 1.2l engine and a 2.0l engine. The 1499 CC engine is a 1.5L but… i had to look it up… and just adding stuff like that would make it easyer for us noobs.

In campain mode will there be hints and tips like: If you start in the 1940: Game tip when making a engine - In the 1940 cars normaly had between 40 and 100 HP and used 1 to 1.6L pr 10 km. This might sound silly to some but for me who has no clue abouth it, it would be most usfull and apreciated. Spending 6 houers making a engine with 6hp in the 1940 and think you have struck gold just to see it all goes off a cliff isent that fun. Game tips should offcourse be able to turn on and off and should cover all aspects. I love the way you have made turtorials about the different aspects.

“If you’ve ever played “Detroit”, “Car Tycoon” or “Motor City”, we’re basically building a more technical, more fun version of those” - This is very promesing as i guess you guys will fix every thing that was missing in that game like - Can you join/enter car races with your company and choose budget and so on “winning” races and get “cred”? I am not talking about actuly drive em like in 3d but more like, choose a body engine and so on to join f.eks Le Mans, World Sportscar Championship ect.

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cc = cubic centimeter or one thousandth of a liter, which is one cubic decimeter.

There is a warning if an engine is too big for the engine bay. If you look at the engine itself, when designing an engine for a car, you should see 3 arrows that will change color. The usual scheme or red = bad applies here.

Tool tips for the filters in the body selection menu would in fact be a nice addition. Maybe it’s already planned.

As for racing, AFAIK it is in the category of: “Features we might add later, maybe as DLC.” But this might have changed, especially with Der Bayer’s simulator, so i’ll let them confirm that.

If you want to take part in some racing for now, the “community challenges and competitions” sub-forum mainly consists of races between various players in the community, with the rest being engineering challenges were you need to build the best car for a certain purpose.

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Just to elaborate on what trackpaduser already stated:

1000cc is 1.0L. 2000cc is 2.0L. And it continues on forever. Engines (and metric volumes in general) over 1000cc are typically not measured in cc’s, but shifted to liters for marketing purposes, but cc’s still can be applied (as they are in this game). It is no different from changing 1000m to 1km, though the unit actually changes with volume instead of a simple appending prefix.

In contrast, if you’re American, 1000cc = 61 cubic inches (61.0237 to be precise). A Chevy 305 is almost exactly 5.0L, or more precisely, 4998cc. Most people may not know CI to L conversions, but CC to L conversions are pretty straightforward, even for most Americans.

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I want to add to that, if I am not mistaken, that the closer you get to red (so orange, for example) will also add on servicecosts, since it will be harder to maintain the engine more easily. There is simply no room to easily reach parts that need maintenance or being changed every once in a while!

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[quote=“WizzyThaMan”]

I want to add to that, if I am not mistaken, that the closer you get to red (so orange, for example) will also add on servicecosts, since it will be harder to maintain the engine more easily. There is simply no room to easily reach parts that need maintenance or being changed every once in a while![/quote]

Looking at you Audi with your “service position”…

i.imgur.com/XSxvhFW.jpg

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[quote=“trackpaduser”]
If you want to take part in some racing for now, the “community challenges and competitions” sub-forum mainly consists of races between various players in the community, with the rest being engineering challenges were you need to build the best car for a certain purpose.[/quote]

Not thinking of a real race race, but in gameplay 1 player, you can like use your engine in a car, or even make a “race” car and have a budget for it. Text bases, get info if the car breaks down in race, what needs to be better so on and if you win you get reputation boost, and so forth. Can even be simulated like on the the simulation on the tracks now… hmmmm not bad :smiley:

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There will be a simulation like thing like you can test your car now. It is being developed but not sure if it will make it into the game. Depends on quite some stuff. The Devs want things to either be good or not in the game at all, not half-baked stuff.

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Ok, so i have been playing the game a bit more and since my native language isent english and the fact that i am not a grease monkey makes me fumble in the dar alot.

Made a car in 1940, its a 1200cc and kinda looks like a Beetle, had a round on the track and got the stats. This is where i kinda fall off, the lack of information.

Drivability 20,5
Sportiness 0.0
Comfort 13,4
Prestige 8,7
Safety 23,5

What are theese numbers? is it 20,5 of 100? If it is 20,5 of 100, is this for 1940 tech? or compared to like 2020 tech? Or could i do it 80 to 90% better as it stands today with the tech available to me?

Going to the sub category you get like under/overstear - 22,7% Where can you fix this? I realy hope there comes info when hovering the mouse over it like you get when you hold the mouse over parts of the engine: “The engine is knocking, try lowering the compression”

The same goes for the rest aswell, i have -16,7% on the gearbox but i cant realy choose from much, hoping the game vill take to consideration what tech is available at the given time and grade it from there so that you get ok review or stats and comparing to the AI´s car. I would also like to have hints what/where i can improve the steering. If every car out there uses 20ltr pr 100km in 1945 and you make a car that uses 19ltr its not a gas guzzler compared to the other cars around, remembering this was anoying in “Detroit” witch was comparing to the very best cars in “now” time even tho you were in 1915.

So more info and help is needed for non grease monkeys and especially for people that dont have english as their nativ language… i dont even know what footprint + 9,2% stand for or what it meens let alone fix it if it´s low…

“WizzThaMan”
Yes it is but i am not talking abouth testing your car, i am talking abouth your company can join races in campaign mode, not in 3d driving sim, but more like the test tracks are today and you can see your car agains the others.

Is 1940 the earlyest you can begin? Will the game end like in 2050? That would be anoying :smiley:

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@Shiriken: There will be more feedback in the form of tool-tips for the different partial stats, yes. We are not going to “adjust” values to compensate for it being 1940 though, that would take any sense of progression out of the game which will be really important and fun in the tycoon part of the game. :slight_smile: As long as there is no competition in the game or no comparison vehicle, those stats indeed don’t mean much. They have to be compared to something else to make sense, but are balanced such that if you really go for it, you could get a 100 or slightly above if you tried to max them in 2020.

Cheers!

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Well this is kinda a yes and no. I understand that you have to have a top score to go after so you know you are making progress and it would be difficult to make new values year from year to what tech is available. I hope atleast you can make the “paper” reviews on the car being compared to the AI´s car around. Get the review “best family car around today” instead of “If you wanne die quick, buy it straight away, it has no safety” tho there was no safety around when the car was made.

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That’s a good point - it would definitely be nice to have rough benchmarks for what is a poor/good/excellent value for each stat, each year.

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I’d say in the final game those benchmarks will very much be set by what your competition is doing. You don’t need to make a great car, you need to make one that is better than the cars it’s competing against.

Plus of course the huge range of different buyer types will mean that what is ideal stats wise could be very different to different buyers.

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Of course. I’m just thinking of having numbers like those from the Car Tycoon Challenges to evaluate by - e.g. “for 1955, a safety of 10 or more is okay and 20 or more is good”. Enough to say, “I’m aiming at a safety-conscious market, so this is the target I should be aiming for”, or, “The people I’m selling to have other priorities, so that number will be fine.”

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I currently envision it the following way: when you have designed your car you get a target demographic analysis showing you which target groups your car scores best with. When you look at one of these it then gives you the stats comparison of your car to the current top scoring cars in that demographic. In that way you always know where you are and what you could aim for to improve. Also this ties right into the stats you hopefully have grown accustomed to during the Early Access phase of the game :wink:

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Makes sense!

16

Sounds real good :smiley:

Was wondering abouth a few more things aswell. As i have understood different part of the world will be in demand for different cars. will this be a set fixture or random for each game? Can you see what people like in your area/town/country?

Will you be able to buy shares from other companies? Buy up other car companies? If you want/need some tech from them for example.

Will you get goverment contracts? They want you to make a engine within thoose repesifications and if you make it they buy them from you? Or maby even whole cars, like making Jeeps?

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I believe there will be a randomized world and a realistic one to play through. So demand for different types of cars will change for the random one with every game, where the realistic one might be fixed more, but not absolutely fixed so the next time you know what is coming.

Buying shares and complete companies for tech and sich will be possible eventually.

Government contracts will occurs like police cars and taxi’s for example.

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I hope to help them with this portion of the game.