Consumer and Societal Trends

[buells]

Right now we have two forms of unpredictability to deal with in the game:

1. Economic cycles
2. Random events

I find the random events are not that impactful or just annoying in the case of fires. The economic cycles are great, but real world companies need to deal with an evolving marketplace that is subject to the whims of consumers among other things.

What if the game included some trends that would cause the demand for certain products to wax and wane over time? These trends could also impact cities, for which populations and product interest could shift over time.

For example, perhaps Low Carb diets become popular for several years and demand for bread, ice cream, etc. would dip meaningfully while demand for frozen meat products would benefit?

Another example would be a refugee crisis occurs and the population growth of a given city accelerates while the wage level in the city falls due to the supply of new workers without jobs?

Certain retail store types could fall in or out of favor as well (department stores are going the way of the dodo one year triggering a customer traffic penalty and perhaps a few years later they come back).

You could have some short-term trends that last for a few years and other "macro trends" that last for a long time (10, 15, or 20 years).

A macro trend could be global warming that reduces farm productivity for a long period of time. The impacts could be phased over time. An aging population could be another, which might increase demand for certain products at the expense of others (e.g., more drugs and fewer toys).

The supply of mineral, oil, and timber deposits could also be impacted by certain trends. E.g., discovery of fracking cuts the price of oil deposits drastically for a period of time. Alternatively, forest fires could wipe out timber resources, but one needs to be careful as timber is often insufficient in the game currently.

[colonel_truman]

What if the game included some trends that would cause the demand for certain products to wax and wane over time? These trends could also impact cities, for which populations and product interest could shift over time.

I think this is an excellent suggestion.

[mrgarrettscott]

The game already has some examples of this. Tobacco and cigarette demands drops over time. I believe it also happens with mobile phones with the smart phone becomes available. I still like the idea. A great opportunity in the Digital Age DLC is how digital downloads take over package software sells.

[David]

Tobacco and cigarette demands drops over time. I believe it also happens with mobile phones with the smart phone becomes available.

The MOD kit allows you to assign such characteristics to any products. For details please see: https://www.capitalismlab.com/mod/advan ... -products/ Check out the subset of data fields starting with the "OUTBY" field.

For sales trends triggered by events as suggested in the original post. If someone is serious about creating a mod with such feature - associating product demand with scriptable events (For example, perhaps Low Carb diets become popular for several years and demand for bread, ice cream, etc. would dip meaningfully while demand for frozen meat products would benefit?), I can set up a poll to gauge the interest level from the community if they want such features, then subsequently talk to the dev team about the feasibility of implementing them.