more products

[choum]

Hello,

Once for long i began a new party without mods, and to be honest you need to implement more products (maybe not 700, but 50 would be good).
Another thing i noticed is that your IA seem good to manage build-in products but seem to not use mod product, mostly when there are complex manufactor chain like smartphone, electronic devices etc.
So even with mods it look like that IA want to use only basic build in products... is it possible to tune it a little?

A last point that i raised already, i like to make research mandatory for all products and it's still not OK. Even without mods i request research for 100% of products and it's not OK. Beds for exemple needs reserch when jewelry or desktop computer don't...

My best regards

[mrgarrettscott]

After playing the RealWorld Mod, going back to Capitalism Lab without mods would make the game seem light on products. One of problems with more products is that provides more opportunities to avoid direct competition making it easier to become profitable.

Research, in a way, is mandatory for all products which are don't have research prerequisites just to make a low-quality version of it. In most cases, research is about improving on the bed, the gold ring in order to produce a higher quality product that can be sold for a premium price. If you gave the bed or the gold ring research prerequisites, what purpose would it serve? I think you would have a much stronger argument for getting rid of prerequisites.

[David]

FYI, you may see these related posts:

http://www.capitalism2.com/forum/viewto ... 063#p29160
http://www.capitalism2.com/forum/viewto ... =14&t=7374

[saffgee]

I like the idea of more pre-requisite tech, in fact its become my new fave thing. I very much dislike the method you highlight of ever greater tech levels determining your competitive lead over other producers (for certain products), so I'm trying to change the dynamics of it. Therefore in-keeping with my overall complexity theme, I'm working on adding a lot more pre-req tech for many products, but at the same time toning down how important tech is in the product itself.

eg. Currently ModWorld sees product tech as 50% important for wedding rings (ie gold rings), not sure what vanilla is, but likely similar. I would tone this down to 10% or lower if I can, but add some pre-reqs to complicate the industrial scale mass -production. So something like "Wohlwill Process" & "Lost-Wax Casting" would be added as pre-req techs (and yes I know both are older techs, but the point here is their implementation in a modern factory setting). This means you will have to conduct some research if you want to produce gold rings on a mass scale and thereafter the quality of the gold going in will be the single biggest deciding factor as to how well these rings sell, not so much the research done on the "gold ring" tech. So in my mind kind of how it should be - after all the production process is the production process, there aren't really any major nuances between one manufacturer to the other, other than material quality of course. It makes for an overall more interesting game dynamic if your competitor is sitting on the best gold reserves.....

This can be replicated for pretty much any product and many of the pre-req techs will also give access to multiple products - for example "RF heating" and "Precision Veneering" would allow for a whole host of furniture based applications, such as tables, chairs and bookshelves, with some other pre-req techs being sprinkled in for specific high-end products like certain types of bed (Divan for example). In particular this method of using pre-req techs will really come alive in the electronics and computing industries, where literally hundreds of techs might need to be researched in order to build a full slate of computer/electronic goods, making it potentially more important to specialise in certain areas, rather than go broad. A tech advantage can then be quite significant as a rival would need to "catch-up" on multiple techs before he can effectively compete. As a final point, pre-requisite techs make it far easier to play a historical game (1900 onwards) as it can be defined when these become available for research and helps establish a lag time between the product becoming available and the tech required to make it. This historical mod is the one I am currently working on (alongside other substantial tweaks to ModWorld).

The one nagging doubt I have about the playability of this is how the AI will react, which ties in with what the OP says. Potentially it could actually lead to some AI improvements, as it will be forced to research pre-req techs and may find its product set therefore significantly streamlined - or it may just tap out and decide it simply can't build anything at all and focus on basic foodstuffs. Hard to say at this point.

[David]

Once for long i began a new party without mods, and to be honest you need to implement more products (maybe not 700, but 50 would be good).

Which additional 50 products would you recommend adding to the standard game?

[saferain]

You don't need too many products in the game; too many can be distracting.Concentrate on monopolizing a dozen products

[Kristo]

Hi,

i too think 50-100 new products is too much. Although i agree some little expansion can be good in retail sector. May be add 1-2 new products for every type of retail store. In some types make the number of products around 4-5 total, if they're lower now. Some other classes like food, clothes, electronics and vehicles - add 3-4 where possible.

Additionally, i think existing stores are utilised well in matter of products, so may be - add more stores? Like a Bookstore, SportsStore, Farmer's Market (for food directly from farms), Gift Shop, etc.