My take on the Service Industry DLC

[Pat_theBrat]

This may come in late as the DLC is now in full release but I wanted to share some of my impressions on the new features.

Shopping malls are a game changer. They help get you started when money is scarce. They're also great in the late game as they save some precious land space. Also, once you have many different product lines setup and you just want to expand retails to gain market shares you can simply setup a shopping mall, setup your different stores within it to serve all your supply chains and then copy/paste them all at once (as long as you can afford the investment of course).

The service firms are also a welcome addition. It's a new twist to known mechanics. I hope even more firms type are coming. Like a fancy restaurants, movie theatres, etc.

I haven't really played with import/export companies yet.

Logistics, I like the concept but I see some missed opportunities with logistics. For example, I wish the IT System was based on tech R&D just like Internet Companies (that could also work for Telecom btw). Also, a big part of logistic IRL is warehouses. We already have warehouses in the game, maybe just add one or more new units specific to logistic companies. Warehouse distance to destination becomes a factor in costs. Further integration with e-commerce would also be great. The quality of your logistic could directly affect the quality of your e-commerce. Also, I wish I could pick the logistic companies I use for my own goods. Sometimes I notice that my warehouse uses the logistic company of a direct competitor. In some cases, I wouldn't mind paying a bit more to avoid funding my nemesis. Finally, that might be a big push, but having trucks and vans as an input for logistics could also be an interesting way of integrating the firm with existing gameplay mechanics. There is a lot of untapped potential with Logistics.

Integrated retail space in apartment and commercial building is also very nice. Again it saves some land spaces in the late game. I use it to host my bank and insurance firms. The only thing that bothers me a little is that there no visual clue on the map that a building has a store. But it's a really minor inconvenience.

[David]

Integrated retail space in apartment and commercial building is also very nice. Again it saves some land spaces in the late game. I use it to host my bank and insurance firms. The only thing that bothers me a little is that there no visual clue on the map that a building has a store. But it's a really minor inconvenience.

In the latest version 11.0.62, when Firm Info display mode is enabled, the first four retail products available in a retail store will be shown at the firm’s building on the city map. This applies to retail stores in apartment and commercial buildings as well. So you will be able to see product icons displayed over Apartment and Commercial buildings on the city map as visual clues that they have retail stores.