Expansion of Talents System

[mrgarrettscott]

Talents definitely changed the way we approached research. Initially, since R&D cost was associated with the wage rate of the city, it made sense to do all your R&D in low wage cities where you could pay less and get the same result. Now, talents that lead R&D Units are chlling in high wage cities and commanding top digital dollars. So, if you want your research to move along faster, you gotta go where the talents are located.

I think talents can change our approach to manufacturing and farming as well. Right now, the only way to impact how fast a factory or farm levels up is by hiring a COO with the desired expertise, the factory/farm training budget, Human Resource organization-wide training, or having the player character with expertise in manufacturing/farming In the games I play, I'm into farming, manufacturing, retailing, raw materials, everything, I can't, as many real-life CEOs can't have expertise in everything. I can have some expertise further down ladder though. Enter talents!

Talents, i.e., unit team leaders, can get more production, sales, and levels at a faster pace if you are willing to invest in them by bringing that factory/farm to high(er) wage city where the talents are waiting to be employed and help you produce more, sell more, and get higher quality on local level versus the overall impact of COO/CEO/player expertise. Plus, it is optional, unlike R&D.

My proposal is to significantly expand the talent system to include manufacturing, retailing, and farming. As is the case with R&D talents, the talents are grouped in product classes or can be very specific.

Your thoughts, fellow CEOs?

[colonel_truman]

One of the best suggestions so far. Thanks!

[leveragedbuyout]

Good ideas.

If this is going to be implemented, there should also be possibilities to train talents from scratch to increase their supply.

[David]

I think talents can change our approach to manufacturing and farming as well. Right now, the only way to impact how fast a factory or farm levels up is by hiring a COO with the desired expertise, the factory/farm training budget, Human Resource organization-wide training, or having the player character with expertise in manufacturing/farming In the games I play, I'm into farming, manufacturing, retailing, raw materials, everything, I can't, as many real-life CEOs can't have expertise in everything. I can have some expertise further down ladder though.

This is one of the more promising ideas of new features that have been suggested and the dev team is currently evaluating the feasibility of implementing it.

We would like to get your input on the following game design matters:

1) For farming, there are 3 types of functional units, namely the crop growing unit, the livestock raising unit and livestock processing unit.
a) The crop growing unit will require talents. It will be called "crop farming" skill.
b) For livestock, it seems logical to only require either livestock raising unit or livestock processing unit to have talents, but not both. Otherwise, it will seem excessive. Do you prefer livestock raising unit or livestock processing unit to have talents? And what should the skill be called? How about calling it the "livestock farming" skill?

2) More questions to follow later.

[mrgarrettscott]

David,

Regarding which direction to go for the Livestock Raising or Livestock Processing. I would lean towards the Livestock Raising as it impacts quality. As far as naming it,"livestock farming" works!