[Suggestion] Factory Mode | Manufacturing | Minigames | Etc

General Chat Suggestions
1

Disclaimer: This would be for the actual finished game, and not for whats being used now.
Disclaimer 2: These are based since it’s a “Tycoon” game.

  1. Factory Mode:
    Factory mode would allow you to buy equipment and specialize what it’s making.
    Since Car factories tend to build plants that build specific cars. There’s no one machine fits all for all the different models. *.

What it would be: A big factory building open floor, and you’d use a grid system in placing machines. You’d then select what it is supposed to make.

Players could then either expand their factory, or even open new ones. This would be useful for when you add the Motorsports portion of it, so we could have a Factory specific for R&D + Race Cars.

Also, you can upgrade your factories to include things like the test track, and stress test machines. [These could just for animation + add hype to the car].

  1. Manufacturing (R&D):
    I realize that you can build engines and bodies, but it would be neat if you could research better materials / quality for things like… Tires…Suspension, etc.

  2. Mini games:
    These would be PURELY optional.
    Scenario: Carroll Shelby has returned from the grave, and asked you to build a high revving engine with atleast X hp, and X ft-lbs of torque. He needs 500 of these engines by the end of Year XXXX.
    Solution: Build the engine, send it to manufacturing, wait for 500 to be set into inventory. Deliver. Receive payment.

Scenario: Cynikal has brought his 2013 [Insert car model name here]! He wants it upgraded for more HP! He wants atleast 1,000HP and is willing to pay $10,000.
Solution: …Upgrade the engine to produce atleast 1k HP within the budget given.

Scenario: KillRob’s car is constantly breaking on him! Figure out whats wrong!
Solution: Diagnose the engine [figure out what part is failing] and fix said part.

  1. Dyno’s.
    This is somewhat under the manufacturing / R&D portion…
    But, if your factory does NOT have a dyno, it should cost you money PER RUN. That’s per test.
    If you spend the money and purchase a dyno, your cost per run is 0, HOWEVER, you now have maintenance for the machine.

Dyno’s should be able to be “upgraded”. Examples…

lvl 1: Basic HP/TQ (no curves either), no wideband readings, etc.
lvl 2: Basic HP/TQ (w/ Curves), fuel / oil pressure display.
lvl 3: HP/TQ including some statistics of the engine.
lvl 4: basic diagnostics “Sounds like the cars knocking.” <-- Might not always be the case. (Has a chance to give false info)
lvl 5: Fully advanced dyno which includes the diagnostic parts (shows whats failing and when), with all the bells and whistles.

The factory mode should also include a similar setup with the machines that you place, that can be upgraded for speed, efficiency, quality, and costs.
Ex, a lvl 1 machine might require 5 workers[You can assign skillless to expertly skilled], slowest efficiency.
lvl 5 would be a fully automated, robotic machine.

Or maybe even have 2 types: Manual Labor lines, or Automated… Why 2 types? For when you have your high end cars, a team of expert skilled workers would provide hand made engines / bodies / etc for higher quality than that of a machine… [Think i’m wrong? Look at a lot of high end cars such as Bugatti, and even Ferrari. Ferrari’s engines are hand made.]

I am sure there is more I could put in this thread, however, i’ve been typing for awhile, so i think here is a good place to stop.*

2

  1. There will be factory management, R&D, add-on facilities that take care of for example QA, etc.

  2. Already in the game mechanics. R&D will be an important factor to success, unlocking tech earlier than your competition.

  3. Sounds more like standard scenarios, which will come for the Car Designer as well, of course.

  4. We’ve thought about that, yes. Attaching a cost to dyno runs would be an interesting thing for higher difficulty levels, but should not be a standard thing as it punishes new players we want to draw into the game the most. About dyno upgrades… I don’t know. That would make the early part of the game even harder, and would be irrelevant later in the game. I don’t think that would make for a good game mechanic. You need to be able to make decisions based on information, not guesses.

  5. Your factories will have main buildings and slots around them that you can fill with expansions or specialized facilities. Also, of course there will be different levels of automation in those factories… a small sportscar manufacturer doesn’t need lots of machines for his handcrafted cars.

3

ve one question, will the cars have total cost production by car?
Like, you pay 10 engineers to produce and develop the car, you pay the dyno, the materials, you produce the whole car, will all this cost be in the game? Like, you need to surpass that whole cost to make it profitable.

Like, the whole cost is 100 Millions for the production of Clio, as example. The company needs to sell 1 Million cars costing 30000 dollars each one as example, so that way the project is profitable, if you sell more, the project is very good and so on.

4

Yes, all the costs will be made visible, we want to make it as transparent as possible. The current total costs you see for engines is not really the total cost! To that comes the tooling costs, engineering costs, facility costs, etc. We’ll find a way to display it such that it becomes obvious how many you have to sell at what price to make things profitable. Kinda essential if you want to make good decisions for the company :slight_smile: