Building layouts instead of 9 squares

[Caplabusername]

This might be something for Capitalism 3 or the next graphics overhaul, but the nine square layout feels antiquated and abstract. Instead of the squares it would be awesome if there were actual parts of a building to interconnect or blueprints to draw up like Evil Genius.

Also, it might be interesting if the final building had to be built after it was designed.

Also, each department could also have its own animation. The Purchasing Department could show trucks showing up to the store with products. You could see workers from the Inventory Room go pick up crates and haul them to the Inventory Room and other workers haul stuff from inventory to the Sales Floor. And see customers buying things from cashiers and salespersons.

Also, if a store is designed incorrectly, you could see confused workers scratching their heads wondering how they're supposed to get the places they're supposed to go.

Also, Level One departments could have workers who are hunched over, sluggish, dull eyed, picking their nose. Level Five department workers would be peppier, stand taller, well-trained, happy healthy workers. Each level would be like an evolutionary step for the employees.

These sort of things also might make the game a little more friendly to new players.

Also, maybe instead of having Drugstores, Convenience stores, discount stores, etc. Just buy plots of land and build any size store you want and sell whatever you want there. Make things more organic.

[BigWolf]

I agree a new system should be considered over the 9 squares

This idea of yours sounds interesting... but could this not make things to simple?
Depends on the implementation I suppose

[Kamino72]

I agree a new system should be considered over the 9 squares

+1

9-square system is original, I really like the idea BUT imho it is far from fully exploited.

1a) It is nice to see flows and stocks of merchandises.

1b) It is funny to design factories...

2) ...the first time. Once you have discovered the best design, it is painful to use it again and again.

3) That makes full sense for factories design, but less for other buildings, especially retail buildings.

4) That creates dubious limits, like a mall unable to sell more than 4 products.

5) Worse, in my games, most of retail buildings are selling only 1 product, which is not logical, not fun and totally boring in term of building design.

6) Big buildings should have more squares than smaller ones.

7) 9-square not enough complex ? What about 16-square ?

8) More unit types ? Quality control ? Restaurant to attract customers ?

9) Develop (R&D ?) industrial organization : unit efficiency, new units...


In the actual game, the UI could be more friendly :
- identify suppliers is hard (we should be able to name buildings to differenciate them, and see thoses names without opening the supplier popup),
- the game should display the input/output capacities of a unit

[Esoteric Rogue]

There have been other suggestions about changing the layout. I do find the whimsy of 9-square attractive, but it simply lacks flexibility and has other minor implications (e.g., people that were suggesting since the HQ uses 9-squares, we need 9-positions. Get real, in that case, it represents list, so make it a list.)

I honestly think adding animations is a waste of resources. Despite admiring the whimsy of the 9-square layout, I'd be quite happy if it was text only. Id rather focus on changes that help to access the FirmOverview less often, rather than making it more attractive. For instance, retail price setting I do from ProductDetails, and I'm happy because I visit less firms that way.

I'll mention that the interior view that existed in Cap 2 has already been removed from CapLab.

+1 using less restrictive design as opposed to 9-square layouts.
-1 adding details within firms.

[dancognac]

Agree the 9 squares is limiting to much the deep of the game. It limit at 3 the input of intra to manufacture a product. Also it limit at 4 the number of product sell in a store. For store that sell low cost product its a problem as fix cost is the same for most of the store. Exemple the cost of the land is the same if you sell low price product as beverage and hight price product as car . A grocery store shoulb be abble to sell many more products with ability the reduce the micro management.

Daniel

[BigWolf]

Another idea might be of instead of having the current purchase->sale system using 2 blocks, we allow stores to add the sale/output block on top of another block, this allows for a maximum of 9 products per store (less if you wish to use advertising/labelling/inventory)

What I mean by this, you drop the sales/output box and add new boxes like
input-output
purchase-sales
inventory-sales
etc

if you are labelling products within the store
instead of the current
purchase->labelling->sales using 3 blocks
it becomes
purchase->labelling-sales using 2 blocks

Same idea if having inventory stocks within the store
This idea can also be extended up to factories and warehouses allowing them to output and store more products

Now, I'd imagine that might take some fancy reprogramming due to how product storage is handled, but it should lower the need to have so many stores, factories and warehouses (which do take up alot of tiles tbf), and hopefully lower micromanagement

Of course, to offset such a reduction in the needing to build more properties, prices of construction needs to increase, and also add monthly maintenance expenses per box used (increase them if they already exist) or something to that effect

[Kane]

+1

I would really appreciate a new system and as i always found it confusing how many people work in small/medium/big factories this would be a chance to make a new system where all factories have the same amount of workers in one unit, but bigger factories have more slots:
Small: 3x3
Medium: 4x4
Big: 5x5

[jacklowe]

While I do like the idea of building layouts I am uncertain how feasible they would be to add to the game as is without a serious overhaul. I do believe the gist of this suggestion is to add a bit more versatility and variety to the different structure. Doing so without causing major parts of the interface to be redesigned is the major issue I imagine from the devs standpoint.

In reality the 9 box system can be used it's all a matter of the functionality of each box. If we make some changes there making them fit into the existing structure of the game we should be good. I myself always found the idea of only having 4 products hysterically funny. Go find me a store in any developed or semi developed country that only has for products to offer, find me one, except perhaps a pizza shop. Any department store, supermarket, grocery, or even small mom and pop dollar store that only had for products for sale would never survive, be laughed at, and hemorrhage cash til it went out of business.
It also puts a cap on the number of products possible in game. Offer more product options and the game screen becomes cluttered with stores and with the 4 product limit reduces competition.

So what if we broke up a retail store like this, storage unit, floor space, and sales unit. A storage unit square could hold stock for up to 4 products, floor space could offer up to four products for sale, the sales unit could handle up to a certain predefined quantity of volume of sales. I chose four because it requires less work on the dev end to implement. Instead of seeing the four products your store sells you click on a unit and it displays the four products it sells. The store overview window would need a bit of reworking so a player easily see how it was operating overall and quickly find problems. Other than the obvious 4x increase in items sold and thus allowing a similar increase in possible new products to offer it does a couple other things.

One I said up to... if you offer less than 4 you'll need less manpower allowing more control over this aspect and the retail unit as a whole.

Two if stock levels for each good are made adjustable it allows a player better control here as well maintaining higher levels of stock in goods that are selling well and less of those doing poorly. Again more control over things, if you can have for example two stock units maintaining supply over one very strong set of products now we start to get some diversity.

Sales needs a revamp as well. If I go to a store and get milk, eggs, pork chops, and cheese I don't go to four different cash registers unless I have serious mental issues. I go to one and one person takes care of it. She doesn't say sorry I'm only the eggs cashier girl, unless she likes unemployment. Therefore it should be more of a total volume based type of square again it can process up to a certain amount so you can add or detract employees.

Training would need a rework. If I had one product and one unit of employees for awhile trained to level 5 say. Then added another product and unit of employees, they are level 1, the game would need to reconcile that difference. There are a few options to do this but it's certainly doable.

Finally doing this would open the door to something mentioned elsewhere here, shipping times, and shipping companies although not a necessity it would be more possible and have greater impact on a businesses performance. How much of an impact would be determined by the levels of stock that a store room unit could hold.

The nine box system although perhaps a tad dated is still quite adequate to the task and has still a good bit of give to allow for more expansion and diversification of the game, just a matter of whether the rest of the game can handle it.

[Arcnor]

I've always found the 9 box system a little fustrating especially for retail outlets. I especially hate it in later stages of the game when there are literally hundreds of firms.

I really like jacklowe's idea. Perhaps though in the mean time a simpler solution (I'm sure though this has been suggested before) would be to keep the 9 box system and implement a page system.

Small retail outlets/factories would be limited to the current set up.

Medium retail outlets/factories would have access to two pages.

Large retail outlets/factories would have access to three pages.

This would require only a slight change to the firm set up from a graphic standpoint by adding a page button to move between the various pages. I'm not sure what sort of development problems there would be, but I'm sure they would be limited to some extent.

[jacklowe]

I don't see a problem with a easier short term solution, provided it doesn't create double work so to speak. I also don't see a problem with a gradual implementation if the idea seems sound from the devs end. Say altering aspects of sales to more of a volume base design see how it works. Add in another small change if the first is well received and so forth. Even just a change to how sales work will change how the game is played and how stores are laid out. Again depends on overall reception by the community of different aspects of the main idea and implementing those that will be most beneficial and desired.

At a certain point a bottleneck would probably be reached where a final push to change over would be needed. However some items can be done individually. During the process the overall main idea may even morph into something similar but different. Provided it adds to the game keeps it interesting for old players accessible to new players, and most important fun. I'm good with it.