New Retail Store Function

[David]

This bug has been fixed in the latest post-release version 5.5.07. You may download it from: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=5175

[wwloon32]

Hi, this is my first post. Would like to share some thought on service line.

For manufacturing, every input is heavy, you can have tons and tons of wood to create pieces of furniture. Then you sell it online or through physical shop, that's the channel.

But, for services, your input essentially is 0. It is all about services, you open a location, anticipate demand and start selling. Either you make money or die, that's simple.

Imagine you are selling furniture, yes, you would require a channel to sell it and manufacturing to support as it requires thousands and thousands of furniture.

But for Cafe, let's say Starbucks, you still require furniture, coffee and milk to sell it, but you dont really require thousands pieces of furnitures.

Also, you don't requires tons of coffee beans to just serve your customers, whilst manufacturing coffee products do requires tons of coffee beans.

The whole idea of services is that it doesn't require much resource, mainly relying on human to sustain it.

Some improvement/add on that can be suggested:

1) Instead of using input system, try software-type system whereby talent is the deciding factor. Also probably a training center for talent will be good idea to produces unlimited talent;

2) Occupying large plot of land make no sense for service industry. Make it small until 1*1 for a coffee kiosk, or 2 * 2 for a really large drive through, the idea is to fill in every inch of squares with services, even though each kiosk probably not generating millions; Maybe even better to make a mix-and-match combination, ie, open a coffee kiosk, then open a burger kiosk beside to improve traffic, and then steak kiosk, and so on and so on.

3) Location, Location, Location. This translate into traffic traffic traffic. Even you have the best services, operating out of nowhere is nowhere, but operating in somewhere is somewhere even though your services sucks. Traffic factor a lot in services;

4) One key feature is price, there must be a base price for it. A kiosk selling $10 coffee won't have another same brand kiosk selling $1 coffee. It will either deviate 30% of its price on the same brand. Else it would be silly that anyone buy from Kiosk A then flock to Kiosk B without any noticeable effect, not logical.

5) Brand name. Service industry establish their brand quicker than manufacturing as it generate word of mouth much quicker. Also, this brand effect could be utlise to produce products, which is then can be carried onto every kiosk outlet, again with some limited quantity for each kiosk. But again, by then if your company has a chain of 200 kiosk, and each kiosk is selling daily 100 of your products, in addition to supermarkets, retails and online!

[NFortuna3110]

Is it possible that the Service DLC will add fast food stores/chains/franchise possibilities? Also I think it would be interesting to have Medical Clinics. This could affect city health ratings without the over head or costs of a fully operated Hospital. Due to the freight element of transporting Franchisee materials to stores (this could be interconnected with the Transportation DLC). In addition, a Funeral home would also make sense (service), along with a Graveyard business.

The ability to sell fixed product financial instruments would also be interesting (if not overtly complex or cumbersome). You could have like Car insurance and term life health insurance (fixed policy products). The insurance firm could specialize in one area/market of insurance or be a Insurance/Investment firm that does it all (sells medical insurance, Whole Life insurance, Long Term Care, Business insurance, Key Person policies-- all policies that are manged by the Larger Investment/Insurance firm would be subject to management performance within the stock market (with premiums available for management in the stock market- by a hired CFO with analyst that you hire like a researcher to work under the CFO person). The main suggestion here is to augment the "Financialization" of the economy (as in FIRE = Fire, Insurance, Real Estate) using both fixed and variable products. This would take advantage of the awesome stock market you guys have created!

Supposedly the Glass Steagal Act had separated Finance firms and Banks from being run under the same house. However, I think Dodd-Frank bill tried to ease that possibility and the dangers it can bring about with all that money available to invest and back variable products for sale to the public. Of course if you guys added this then Home & Flood insurance could also be fixed products that could be sold and then having Real Estate firms would be interesting.

[David]

Is it possible that the Service DLC will add fast food stores/chains/franchise possibilities?

Have you tried the new "Prepare" unit? You may view the details at viewtopic.php?f=49&t=2861&start=20#p24149

[Arcnor]

I've been using the prepare feature and I've noted that if you use "prepare" for products then those products do not appear in the Dominance screen of Corporate Details. If I have goals established around dominating a specific product class then by using prepare this can never be achieved. Can someone please look into this issue?

Also from a modding standing point, is there a way we could add the feature to make specific products only available to be produced through Prepare?

For example, if I want to run a fast-food business that is selling burgers then it wouldn't make sense for those to be made in a factory. They should only be made in the fast-food retail location.

Another example, if I want to create a mod that creates a service such as "hospital treatment" then that should only be prepared in the hospital and not somewhere else.

[David]

I've been using the prepare feature and I've noted that if you use "prepare" for products then those products do not appear in the Dominance screen of Corporate Details. If I have goals established around dominating a specific product class then by using prepare this can never be achieved. Can someone please look into this issue?

Also from a modding standing point, is there a way we could add the feature to make specific products only available to be produced through Prepare?

For example, if I want to run a fast-food business that is selling burgers then it wouldn't make sense for those to be made in a factory. They should only be made in the fast-food retail location.

Another example, if I want to create a mod that creates a service such as "hospital treatment" then that should only be prepared in the hospital and not somewhere else.

These are all good ideas. If you could let me know your plan of implementing such a mod, I will discuss with the dev team and try to get their support on your requested feature. So far, it is just that nobody has been using the Prepare function even thought we had made it available for some while. In order to have any chance of the dev team stepping up the dev effort on it, we will need to present them with concrete facts that the Prepare function is actually being utilized.

[Arcnor]

I've been using the prepare feature and I've noted that if you use "prepare" for products then those products do not appear in the Dominance screen of Corporate Details. If I have goals established around dominating a specific product class then by using prepare this can never be achieved. Can someone please look into this issue?

Also from a modding standing point, is there a way we could add the feature to make specific products only available to be produced through Prepare?

For example, if I want to run a fast-food business that is selling burgers then it wouldn't make sense for those to be made in a factory. They should only be made in the fast-food retail location.

Another example, if I want to create a mod that creates a service such as "hospital treatment" then that should only be prepared in the hospital and not somewhere else.

These are all good ideas. If you could let me know your plan of implementing such a mod, I will discuss with the dev team and try to get their support on your requested feature. So far, it is just that nobody has been using the Prepare function even thought we had made it available for some while. In order to have any chance of the dev team stepping up the dev effort on it, we will need to present them with concrete facts that the Prepare function is actually being utilized.

I think part of the low usage of prepare is that there is no specific product manufacturing that requires prepare. When playing the game currently, prepare is a little difficult to set up. The game doesn't seem to recognize it as a function when trying to build a layout from a template.

I think you would have greater use of the option if specific products could only be made through the use of prepare and not made at a standard factory.

In the current mods available, both Real World and Capitalism World offer Energy contract type products, telecom contracts, fast food, and other service-related products. Currently, these products can be made in factories and the specific retail buildings that have been modded into the game for them. When I am playing I use prepare to make these items in the retail stores, just like what happens in the real world. The problem is that I'm not forced to do so by the game. I can make them in a factory. The game is ultimately more efficient at making these items in a factory, since thats how the game was originally designed.

I think by mandating specifics products be made through prepare you will increase adoption and make the game more realistic. We could then build kick-ass scenarios where the objective is to start off with a single fast-food franchise and build it out into an empire without ever building a factory.

[David]

In the current mods available, both Real World and Capitalism World offer Energy contract type products, telecom contracts, fast food, and other service-related products. Currently, these products can be made in factories and the specific retail buildings that have been modded into the game for them. When I am playing I use prepare to make these items in the retail stores, just like what happens in the real world. The problem is that I'm not forced to do so by the game. I can make them in a factory. The game is ultimately more efficient at making these items in a factory, since thats how the game was originally designed.

This is a very good point. If you could come up with a list of products and the types of specific retail buildings in which they should be made using the Prepare unit, I will pitch this to the dev team with the notion that it will indeed increase the gameplay variety which is otherwise not possible when only using standard retail stores.

[Arcnor]

In the current mods available, both Real World and Capitalism World offer Energy contract type products, telecom contracts, fast food, and other service-related products. Currently, these products can be made in factories and the specific retail buildings that have been modded into the game for them. When I am playing I use prepare to make these items in the retail stores, just like what happens in the real world. The problem is that I'm not forced to do so by the game. I can make them in a factory. The game is ultimately more efficient at making these items in a factory, since thats how the game was originally designed.

This is a very good point. If you could come up with a list of products and the types of specific retail buildings in which they should be made using the Prepare unit, I will pitch this to the dev team with the notion that it will indeed increase the gameplay variety which is otherwise not possible when only using standard retail stores.

Retail Building: Hospital
Products:

• Emergency Services

• Physical Exams

• Cancer Treatment

• Delivery Services

Retail Building: Fast Food Joint
Products:

• Burgers

• Fries

• Chicken Sandwich

• Salade

Retail Building: Hotel
Products:

• Room

• Room Service

• Conference Room Space

Retail Building: Coffee Shop
Products:

• Coffee

• Capaccuino

• Latte

These are just a few thoughts. I'm sure there are even more.

[Arcnor]

Couple of bugs to report in the Prepare feature.


1. Using Prepare you can build products at a retail store where that product wouldn't normally be able to be sold.

2. When you set up Prepare and Inputs to build a product on one floor, a lot of times the rest of the retail store's floors will not allow you to purchase and sell products like normal. The products do not come up when clicking Purchase. Instead, only semi-products show up. I have not seen this happen consistently in the game.