Will we be able to pick a year to start, say 1900 and then build our car company from scratch, and then have changes that reflect real life changes up until the present day? Or does the simulation involve different aspects but remains static in time?
Will there be external competitive pressures like poor sales if you build a model that has poor performance or is ugly? Will there be other brands in our game controlled by AI that will have products and varying levels of success that have an influence on our company, like in real life. Will the game be pretty easy to play or will there be some strategy involved? All of this real simulation would make this game great.
Yeah… That’s kind of point of game, except you start in 1946.
Will we be able to pick a year to start, say 1900?
Probably yes, but definitely only years between 1946 and 2020.
reflect real life changes up until the present day?
Yes.
poor sales if you build a model that has poor performance?
Big yes! Also, reputation will stick, just like IRL.
AI that has products and varying levels of success that have an influence on our company?
Yes. It’ll be like real competition.
Will the game be pretty easy to play or will there be some strategy involved?
If you play the Engine Designer demo you see what level of difficulty we are aiming at. If strategic gameplay is not required in the final game then I would have failed big time - and I won’t let that happen. 
Cheers!
Thanks so much for answering and getting back so quickly.
I did expect all of these features to be in the game, but I just wanted to confirm. Because I have been wishing a game like this would come along for years! I played Detroit and another similar game whose name escapes me, but it is nothing compared to Automation. I already have my company planned out and I just wanted to be sure it would work before I got too carried away. I will start a thread for ideas. I’d like to post mine and see what other people have in mind.
Very excited for this game!
I just thought of another, more specific question - Will the AI represent real life styles of competitors, like Asians with economy cars and Americans with muscle cars? I would love to make an American style company and obliterate the Asain competition.
That is what we plan at least, every AI will have different “profiles” depending on which markets they want to satisfy… so in the US you will probably find some muscle car competition because there is a market for it there. How exactly all that is handled we don’t know yet, but I think we can make it much better than any game with a car theme before us.
That is what we plan at least, every AI will have different “profiles” depending on which markets they want to satisfy… so in the US you will probably find some muscle car competition because there is a market for it there. How exactly all that is handled we don’t know yet, but I think we can make it much better than any game with a car theme before us.