Multiple Floors System for Factories

[mrgarrettscott]

This has been previously requested and the implement solution was the factory capacity modifier. I find the factory capacity modifier to be a partial solution at best.

The factory capacity modifier excels when the product can be centrally distributed and shipped anywhere because the freight cost index is low. Gasoline Products from the Real World Mod is an example of a high necessity product with a low freight cost index and huge potential market that benefits from factory capacity modifier.

The factory capacity modifier fails when the freight cost index is high and it makes sense to manufacture that product in the same city that it is sold. The bed is a perfect example of this. Because the factory is serving a single city versus multiple cities, even a small factory can overwhelm the market demand for that city. A possible way to overcome this to set the factory capacity modifier to a lower setting. Because it is set using a script, it can't be adjusted midgame. Whatever you choose, you have to live with or start the game over.

Enter the real solution: Multiple Floors System for Factories.

This solution is better because, in the space of a single factory, you have the potential of three factories, giving us more control over factory output compared to the factory capacity modifier where your choice is for the duration of the current game. Now, some might point out that if a factory is for a single city, why would you need multiple floors? My answer is demand! Advertising a high-quality product increases demand. Using specialty stores increases demand. A factory with the Multiple Floors System can easily adjust without taking more real estate.

In my view, the Multiple Floors System was a brilliant stroke for retail stores and warehouses. Factories are the next logical step. If you feel the factory capacity modifier is a great solution, please share your experiences with it.

[choum]

mmm i'd prefer to upgrade factory to produce more, easier to manange than diversity. How to scale pollution?

[mrgarrettscott]

mmm i'd prefer to upgrade factory to produce more, easier to manange than diversity. How to scale pollution?

I'm looking for a solution that can be implemented within the currently available systems in the game. We already have multiple floors system for retail stores and warehouses. If you think about adding a floor, that is essentially upgrading the factory because you are adding capacity in real-time.

Regarding pollution, I'm down for that. Though I'm not sure how it would be implemented.

[mrgarrettscott]

I'll start by writing about how the MFS (Multiple Floors System) has impacted the other areas where it has been implemented.

In retail stores, the single product store has been eliminated. This question from 2015 no longer matters. The MFS allows for a maximum of 12 products; however, that isn't the way to maximize the space. Nine products leverage that space. Three products per store maximize the layout potential of a single floor. In a DLC all about the subsidiary, the MFS is the feature I use most often.

In warehouses, the single product warehouse is eliminated. If you look at how it was intended to be set up, Input-Storage-Output, with a maximum of three products per warehouse, it becomes evident how inefficient it is when an input can only be linked to a single factory, farm, or mine/oil well/logging camp. What if you have multiple factories? Three inputs for the same product create a single product warehouse. The MFS solves this problem. Now, I can store coal, iron ore, timber in the same warehouse with room for multiple inputs if I need them. Using the Real World Mod, I can have 15 total inputs and 9 outputs in a warehouse that stores gasoline or diesel fuel while attempting to dominate that huge market.

Why MFS for factories should be implemented? First, because the benefits are evident in other areas it has already been implemented! Second, within the current system, single-product factories are superior to factories where multiple items are manufactured due to the layout system. The MFS makes take the superiority of a single-product factory and maximizes its potential. Third, the MFS is flexible. Upgrade as needed. Fourth, space savings, which is one of the issues that Factory Capacity Modifier can address to a limited degree.

I'd even be willing to pay more to build a factory up front if I can later upgrade it with multiple floors.

Come on, Devs... make it happen. Based on the results of this poll/post, this is popular feature request.

[mrgarrettscott]

I want this feature which is why I keep posting on my original post. In gathering information for this post, I found one of my older posts from 2017 requesting Multiple Floors for Warehouses. It lacked a poll which means it couldn't get the kind of traction needed for implementation. Three years later, it was delivered to us as an additional feature for the Banking and Finance DLC. The Subsidiary DLC delivered the Multiple Floors System for retail stores. Maybe I should pin my hopes on the MFS for Factories debuting in the upcoming Real Estate DLC.

Nope!

On January 24, 2020, Avengergb got things moving with this post requesting multiple floors for all buildings. The All of the Above option won, gathering 33 percent of the vote. Factories came in second with 24 percent of the vote. Surprisingly, 8 people voted against implementing multiple floors for any of the buildings.

Lagrelax commented on running out of space for factories in low-wage cities, an indication that he was playing a centralized distribution style while saving on manufacturing costs. Avengergb fleshed out his thoughts a bit more while discussing manufacturing similar items in the same warehouse, i.e, car body, wheel and tire, and engine. Or, in the case of farms, having frozen beef, leather, and milk all on the same farm using multiple floors.

I jumped in and discussed the space limitations, especially when playing with the Real World Mod.

Leveragedbuy chimed in the first dissenting opinion, arguing complicating the user interface and introducing AI and balancing problems. I countered this argument by pointing out the interface clutter of multiple floors in retail store, of which, there is none; however, in hindsight, I do agree with his thoughts on gameplay balance. One solution he proposes is playing with or building more cities. The former suggestion can be achieved by script, the latter is only possible if you own CES DLC. Those solutions ONLY work if you tend to build all your factories in the lowest wage cities. Later in the thread, leveragedbuyout writes the retail stores benefit from multiple floors because high-traffic, downtown real estate is limited. A bigger point is that he segues to production capacity which was not at issue to that point in the thread.

Enter a poll by David: Potential Solutions to the problem of running out of space building factories

In this poll, he offers two solutions. One is the currently implemented solution which is the Factory Capacity Modifier. The second solution, which actually won the poll with 58 percent, was the different medium and large factories having different capacities. Both of these solutions attempt to deal with the space problem by increasing capacity. There is a lot of good discussion on this thread. Let's examine some of it in hindsight.

David replies to avengerbg, asking if he sees any reason why either solution 1 or solution 2 wouldn't work to address the problem of space. The main selling points David is pushing are ease of implementation, requiring no new interface elements. Also, David writes, " With 10 cities, it may be enough space to build factories to produce most of the products. But a certain percentage of players within this group of players prefer playing with a fewer number of cities. Because of that, the problem of insufficiency of space will surface." His assumption is if you play with more cities, space shouldn't be a problem. David acknowledges neither solution 1 nor solution 2 may be suitable for players who play with fewer cities.

Let's agree, playing with more cities affords more space. What playing with more cities doesn't solve is the need the manufacture AND sell some goods in the same city because of the freight cost index. It makes more sense to build a bed factory in every city versus building 5 bed factories in one city and paying freight to ship it across the world. If you take a similar approach for other products with a high freight cost index, you begin to quickly fill up that space.

Avengerbg's idea of being able to increase the capacity of a specific factory stroke of genius when I think about the limitation of the Factory Capacity Modifier which is set by script and locked in for the duration of the game. At the same time, a real-time capacity adjuster probably hurts the training aspect of the game. Here is an idea I'm opening to, being able to adjust the capacity of a factory down from a level already achieved or given via script. For example, if the factory capacity modifier is set via script at 200, which is double, that would be equal to a level 4 factory. Being able to adjust down from would make the feature way more useful. Avengerbg acknowledges that increasing capacity doesn't solve the problem of mods growing, adding more products.

In my own reply in this poll, I proposed to David a what-if scenario, i.e., the retail capacity modifier, to address the issue of limited, high-traffic, downtown real estate. In it, I acknowledge that it would work and that developers had already given us an elegant solution, now proven in retail and warehouses.

Leveragedbuyout points out this it should be done by script only and that if was a part of the new game menu, people may wonder other buildings don't have a capacity modifier. In this post, leveragedbuyout hits upon something: modifying the capacity of factories, but not the other buildings that interact with them.

Colonel_truman, advocating for solution 2, wanted the A.I. to be able to choose their factories better. David replied that he would forward the suggestion to the development team. Since colonel_truman was leaning towards solution 2, solution 1 leads to exactly this quote from colonel_truman: "Fantastic. They often become unprofitable and then spiral down to bankruptcy because of the factory size" Indeed, I ran a test using the factory capacity modifier at 500. The result was AI competitors going bankrupt, The increased factory production produced way more than it could ever sell. Avengerbg hit on this same point later in the thread writing, "Hope the Ais won't keep building largest factories with this increased capacity, thus making them work always on loss .... Actually another thing comes to mind, maybe even don't touch capacity, but make all factories 2x2 in size, that will reduce greatly the space need to build factories, especially in modded games."

The end result of this thread was the announcement that the factory capacity modifier had been implemented as of version 6.4.02.

Going back to Avengerbg's original post, he makes a compelling visual argument for multiple floors using farms to show how large farms or factories eat up space. Image that scene each city.

GnoSiS discusses firm density, suggesting buildings with the same footprint 2x2 or 4x4, with more production. This is basically the factory capacity modifier with more in-game flexibility. Avengerbg counters with the right point. It isn't about production capacity. It about the sheer variety of products.

Yimmy points out how the factory capacity modifier set at higher than 100 percent eats through suppliers that are only operating at 100 percent. That is another issue.

All this is to show how this discussion evolved from a space argument to a capacity argument. Even on Script - Special Rules, it is presented as a solution to the capacity problem. The idea is if you increase capacity, you also decrease the number of factories that are needed. Why it works, it fails when a factory serves a single city. It fails because if you double a factory capacity by DEFAULT (via script), you cannot, in turn, double the capacity of a farm, mine, oil well, logging camp, or warehouse.