Inconsistancy: AI players get demand bonus?

[mwyeoh]

Hi David

Here, the AI play is getting a much higher market share despite my having a much greater rating.
I checked the customer traffic, and his is marginally higher 64 vs 69 (Think cant have that much of an effect can it?)

[David]

The AI is selling motorcycles at about half the price you are selling, so consumers think that it is a better deal.

[mwyeoh]

Hmm, so the 'rating' is not the be-all-end-all then?

Ok

[Purifier]

also, it could be his store is higher lvled and thus able to sell more units... ?

[David]

We are still tuning the price sensitivity, which has been increased in the current version.

We will tune it down a little bit in the next version in the aim to achieve the best possible. You may then try and comment.

[mwyeoh]

also, it could be his store is higher lvled and thus able to sell more units... ?

No, both stores are doing fine, under capacity. Mine barely has any demand at all!

We are still tuning the price sensitivity, which has been increased in the current version.

We will tune it down a little bit in the next version in the aim to achieve the best possible. You may then try and comment.

Hi David

The price sensitivity itself is good. The current game is extremely challenging. I am only making 200mil after 18 years in the current challenge game, and already ranked #1
(So it may be to the AI's detriment)

Its just that in my past experience, the market share has always been a direct correlation with the rating, but if its the new price sensitivity that has changed this, then its fine. If you could reflect the new sensitivity effects in the ratings, then it would be even better!

Here's my latest save from the challenge game
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23145017/CHAL_007.zip

On a side note, even with this new system, I am finding myself in the situation where I may need to build additional factories to satisfy demand.
The decrease in worker skill everytime I upgrade my tech is quite annoying though! Its gone back down to 1!

[David]

It is interesting to see that a significant portion of your profits come from leather. Good strategy! It makes sense to put a focus on raw material supply when the consumer goods market is too competitive.

Is this strategy easy to pull off? I guess you used a lot of intensive training to boost up the level of your farms to achieve 100 quality rating in leather, and lower the unit production cost. You have many AI buying from your leather warehouse. How long did it you to accumulate all these AI clients?

It seems that you have been serving the AI really well and they have become your loyal customers.

-----------

I saw that you are using range brand. Is it reasonably useful?

[Purifier]

The decrease in worker skill everytime I upgrade my tech is quite annoying though! Its gone back down to 1!

yea i noticed that too.

I changed my research strategy when my factories are running on or near max with lvl 1 manufacturing to 5 yr research instead of the 1yr i usualy do. This will give the factories time to lvl, without having the training lvl at max all the time. And with that strategy the lvl decreases only by 1 lvl every 5 yrs.

[mwyeoh]

You have many AI buying from your leather warehouse. How long did it you to accumulate all these AI clients?

It seems that you have been serving the AI really well and they have become your loyal customers.

For the leather products, some AI were quite keen to jump in and buy from me. I think they were just waiting for leather to become available.
Other AI slowly joined in as other leather suppliers outpriced themselves. I now offer the best quality leather and for the best rating too, so I have a good stream of customers for that

I saw that you are using range brand. Is it reasonably useful?

As for Range Brand, I decided to try something different this game.
For Range branding, Ive found that increasing its awareness to be far longer than Unique Brand, nearly comparable to Corporate Brand- maybe slightly shorter.
In range branding, it does have the advantage over Corporate Branding that loyalty does not go below 0 (So far, every game Ive played, Corporate Branding always goes to around -20 after about 20 years. It starts out positive but once I spread to other areas, even in the game megaclass, it falls very quickly).

I am yet to work out how to increase Brand Loyalty. Its hit & miss.
Currently, Panama has a good Brand Loyalty, but all the other cities have a very low loyalty. I have not done anything different either, so Im not sure why it is so much worse in the other cities