Alright so, the issue of making varied models (bigger/smaller engine and perhaps different bodies) has already been talked about I believe and I think this would be a great feature and have interesting repercussions on sales (cannibalization if you mess up, or truly targeting the full market if you segmented properly).
That got me thinking about more twists and turns which could influence sales in an interesting way, and hopefully not represent a ridiculous amount of work.
Paint:
I remember one of the devs dismissing paint as anything important and I thought about it and disagree. I think paint should reflect an eras tastes and furthermore that new colors should be the fruit of research because in 1940, all cars came out black because we didn’t have the technical means to have economies of scope and pump out cars of different colors as customers wanted. So cars could come out as red, white and black, or maybe a larger variety all according to player choice. On one hand you might take up more of the market, and on the other you might waste money producing cars in colors no one wants.
Secondly, this is slightly more part of my tacky era-copying desires, having custom stripe decals to denote the high-end model. (examples: Golf GTI, 205 GTI, Mustang GT350 ect.)
Materials:
I am not talking about carbon fiber here, but rather about bumpers and door handles. The switch from chrome to plastic around the 70’s-80’s probably meant changing the machines required to make them and maybe research to make sure the bumpers have the proper strength and safety rating.
This research or buying of machines could mean you would be able to change between chrome and plastic (and chrome-looking plastic? like on new cars), and reflect the era’s tastes better by having two identical models of the car, one with a black bumper, and another a chrome bumper, but also door handles, those circles around lights and indicators as well as grills and vents.
Except that the ford model T was available in several of colours for the first few years of production, none of which were black
(after a few years they stopped doing all the other colours and switched to black)
This explains what I am talking about. I had the wrong dates, but paint definately took a couple twists and turns before being standardized like today. I think it would matfh up to making gameplay slightly more complete by integrating this otherwise pretty important part of car making. Think about it, the first impression a car makes on you is the color of the bodywork!
About the “new colors should be the fruit of research” I don’t think it will be useful. The color chosen during the platform creation it’s just a… color. I don’t think it will set what the only color available for your car.
In the “game reality” the colors will be chosen by the marketing dept. as the same way the content of the advertisement will not set by you (influencing the game by using the proper word/sentences) but by the advertisement dept. You just say where do you want the ad. and how much you want to pay (it’s an example, i don’t know how it’s working the advertisement in the game).
Perhaps something half way, offer each model in a number of unspecified colours, each colour you add increases the per car costsand desirability a little, so if like Henry you only offer one it’s cheaper than offering say 8 but could affect sales overall
The difference between the color and the advertising campains is that the marketing department does not decide what colors the car can come in, and the types of paint determine not only the range of colors available but also the quality of the final finish.
A company lagging in this research would therefore output cars that are far less desirable in final quality than other companies. Does that logic make sense?
It follows the rule of making the game more challenging and adding trade-offs. On one hand you can do expensive research but you could also spend it on developing or producing the car. Also adding a trade-off on how large your output color variety is, which will add cost but also please a larger piece of the market.
Can there be an option to paint different panels on the car? As in say have black rear and front bumpers but the rest of the car be red or what ever colour u chose?
Can’t speak to the rest of your suggestions though…