Seeking feedback to the new feature Product customization

[David]

We would like to hear what you think about the new feature Product Customization

Details: http://www.capitalismlab.com/product-customization.html

Have you tried it? If so, with what products?

Would you like to share screenshots of your custom products with the community by posting them here?

Do you like it? Do you think it adds to the gameplay?

Any feedback is welcome.

[brianwiz]

To myself it does not give me anything extra lift in terms of game value.

Now with the expansion of being able to control companies and having my own subsid companies it might prove useful. Unsure at this point.

[David]

We have added a new section on the web page:
http://www.capitalismlab.com/product-customization.html

Effects on Gameplay
By utilizing product customization, you can release two or more products of the same product type into the market. Each of them will have their own demand and supply.

For example, your company may sell two motorcycle products with different product images and different technology levels at the same time, targeting at different segments of the market.

The motorcycle product with a lower price and less advanced technology (thus lower quality) will appeal better to consumers who are more price conscious.

On the other hand, the motorcycle product with a higher price and more advanced technology (thus higher quality) will appeal better to consumers who are more quality conscious.

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It explains the new feature in terms of its gameplay implication. Perhaps you may want to give it a try and see if it makes any difference in gameplay.

[brianwiz]

Bows down to greatness

[David]

Thank you for your kind word. I hope the new feature will work as intended, as there are many variables that will influence the actual user experience. (e.g. whether the new feature really makes a big enough impact on the gameplay or whether it is too tedious to manage all the different products.) That's why we set up this early access beta testing program to collect you guys' feedback to gear the game design of the DLC towards the right direction!

[Malaras]

This sounds great.

EDIT: Don't like the fact got to turn Technology Disruption off though. I like the disruption.

[David]

FYI, technology disruption and product customization cannot co-exist because technology disruption will scale back technology levels whereas product customization depends on progressively higher tech levels to function.

For instance, if you have a custom product image that is set to be used when the tech level reaches 200. When technology disruption occurs, the tech level may be scaled to a value below 200. This will create an unwanted situation where you are selling products that in fact should be prohibited because their tech levels are lower than what the custom images are set to.

[Malaras]

FYI, technology disruption and product customization cannot co-exist because technology disruption will scale back technology levels whereas product customization depends on progressively higher tech levels to function.

For instance, if you have a custom product image that is set to be used when the tech level reaches 200. When technology disruption occurs, the tech level may be scaled to a value below 200. This will create an unwanted situation where you are selling products that in fact should be prohibited because their tech levels are lower than what the custom images are set to.

I understand it just fine, Is there a way to make the both to exist together? Like make production halt when tech goes below the required level, As the factory's making said product?

[blaster79]

Hi David,

i think that when we choose to play with product customization set to on, every product should start with some kind of basic customizations (every 100 tech level until 1000?) that we can modify/add/remove if we want. As it is now, you have to manually care for every product of your interest at the start of the game, or before researching/manufacturing a new product.. choosing the images, resizing them and then set the tech levels. That's time consuming!

With this feature on, it should be natural that after a certain tech level is reached, the product is different: if you want to fine tune the customizations you can, if not you'll stay with the predefined ones.

You should then be able to choose, clicking on a manufacturing unit in a factory, what tech-level to produce. For example:

Product v1 - tech level 0
Product v2 - tech level > 100
Product v3 - tech level > 200

Even if you upgrade all of your manufacturing units, they will still be able to produce low tech products. Actually the production is automatically set to highest tech level product after the manufacturing unit is upgraded and you can't go back.

[David]

Hi David,

i think that when we choose to play with product customization set to on, every product should start with some kind of basic customizations (every 100 tech level until 1000?) that we can modify/add/remove if we want. As it is now, you have to manually care for every product of your interest at the start of the game, or before researching/manufacturing a new product.. choosing the images, resizing them and then set the tech levels. That's time consuming!

With this feature on, it should be natural that after a certain tech level is reached, the product is different: if you want to fine tune the customizations you can, if not you'll stay with the predefined ones.

Our expectation is that there will be users who would like to share their custom product images with the user community and they will post them on mobdb.com like what people have done with Capitalism Lab MODs.

And like the Capitalism Lab MODs, we will create links and download guidelines to assist people to download such files easily.

If any of you would like to start sharing the custom product images that you have created with others now, please feel free to do so by creating a post on this forum with a download link to your file.