I bought this even though I'm not a car guy to try it to see if a guy I know who doesn't use computers could play it. I'm glad I opted to try it before gifting it. The open beta isn't stable at all but is way better featurewise (engineering time has a slider in beta) than the stable version, so I'm going to wait for a beta patch before I try again. I do think that guy could play it once it's more stable. I had a hell of time trying to figure out why I could not build car only to learn there is a bug that prevents starting car projects sometimes. It doesn't flash WARNING: BUG at you so I thought my design was flawed in a way the game wasn't telling me about and I messed with sliders for a long time before I gave up and looked at the steam forums for the game and learned it was bugged. Overall though I like the game and I think once it's playing well it has a lot of potential as I think people into cars but not so much computer games might take a look at it if they somehow become aware of it.
I've been playing 1946 Archaea starts. At first I didn't realize you could start with aluminum bodies in tiny factories, so initially I was starting with like $2billion to soak up the operating costs of a medium 1 factory. Now I've been starting in Archaea with $50 or $100 million, a tiny car factory and small engine factory, so as to start with little. Haven't tried starting with no cash and relying on loans yet so I don't know if it would work. I am guess it may because with a tiny factory you reach the green profits including factory tooling in the first or second year if your car isn't unworkably expensive or crappy and you keep factory tooling cost low. In the open beta I was able to get engineering time down to 1 month on my minibus and van model; but then I screwed it up somehow and had to settle for a 4 month period of not making cars.
My best strategy in an Archaea start is to make the first engine factory produce a 3-Cylinder 1000cc tractor engine (generally top speed around 50mph). Archaea loves it because it's cheap and works in most budget vehicles..
While I would prefer to produce a V8 or something in a small factory for premium cars, the engineering time for fancier engines means a longer period of not producing. I can get engineering + tooling down to 4 months or less on the preexisting factories, whereas a 1000cc V8 takes much longer even though it works for Light Sports and such vehicles which would be better for a tiny-small factory to make. I plan to switch the small factories to premium builds once I had a larger engine factory producing the 3-Cylinder 1000cc budget motor to reduce costs and increase affordability through scale of production.
I put it in a big ass van and a minibus for the first factory. The Delivery demographic actually has money to spend, unlike Archaea's budget cars which will have under 10% affordabilitywhen producing in a reasonable tiny factory for those demographics, though delivery aren't large demographics. The bright side of Archaea is that cheap cars can sell in higher categories; for example my 3rd model is usually a cheap budget convertible that can touch convertible+ and family segments. The minibus actually sells better than the vans in the long term; even though the vans are rated much more desirably in their target demogaphics the lower rated minibus spans more demographics at a much lower desirability.
The funniest Archae market oddities example is that the crappy vans going 40-60mph top speed qualify just barely as track cars in Archaea. I like to think I'm selling to a go-kart track equivalent that races or otherwise competes tractor cars. It racks up impressive sales for what it is in scale to the smalle demographic due to lack of affordable competition I assume.
/
Then the second factory I was trying to make a utility pickup as that is a small demographic overall, so a tiny or small factory could handle enough to be profitable without overproducing.
Unfortunately the open beta has a bug that will not let you tick the checkbox in the project sign off screen and I can't figure out how to avoid it or firx it once it occurs. It's enough to wait for a new patch for, because it is RIGHT AT THE END of the design process, after you've moved sliders around for what feels an hour and then spent another timebit adding fixtures.
This one was the WORST because I actually tried and then once I was FINALLY SATISFIED I saw the bug. RAGEQUIT CAMPAIGN
It did turn out nicely. It was actually a budget car but when I was messing with body molding I accidently made what looked like the head of a snake after I inverted and reverted the texture a few times with the new tool for stretching and rotating. The texture snaps to place so even if it looks unworkable it "settles down", in this instance it looked like a snake so I went with it. Not really carbon fiber, just chose that paint because it looked like scales. I was going to either try to import those fixtures to another model if possible, or if not rework the design into a sports car in the 50's. I'm not terribly happy with the lower jaw, was planning to rework that part on facelift. I wish I had exported it but I was going to do that once I had the design in production and that bug is maddenning
EDIT: Is there a way to delete a concept motor design or at least hide it from the menu? I had to quit a campaign because I had the bright idea of spending corporate dollars on engine concepts. It worked fantastically to improve familiarity, but my menu was filled with what I called prototype designs I'd rather delete.
EDIT2: I jut saw there is a new patch on the open beta version I either didn't notice when I started Steam or just went up, I'll check it out.
EDIT3: Well it updated but there are no notes so I don't know
I loaded my save with the broken projct sign off and it's not working.
It's a cheap truck made in a tiny or small factory but not so crappy that it would score anywhere near 0. It's odd because until you go back the desirability score is drastically lower in the vehicle designer too... but still not 0 and only until you move a slider at which it goes back to normal for designer. The real problem though is that this model is unable to ever be produced by this bug as I don't know how to figure out the checkbox's demands. Tried new engines, new factories etc. just seems random and uncorrectable by the player.
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Topic: Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game (Read 20672 times)