A game where you design, produce and sell cars (tycoon). This topic is for a mechanic in an existing prototype which i'm willing to adjust or replace completely.

The goal is so the player can select car MODEL and decide the VOLUME of production. I'm interesting in both the interface and the mechanic.

How it works now: There is a factory and it has several assembly lines (the player can buy additional assembly lines, up to 16 lines). You can select what car model each assembly line produces and there is displayed how many cars this assembly line produces per turn. You can upgrade assembly line (level) which increases output and assembly line's upkeep (if an assembly line is idle it has only 25% of upkeep). You have 5 worker slots and you can -/+ them, the output is multiplied by the number of workers. You have also "work overtime" check button which increases output but also wages (balanced so it's an expensive option to be used temporarily only).

The biggest issue with the existing mechanic is the workers part. Since there are slots of workers and you have upkeep of assembly lines it's the most optimal to always use fill all workers slots... unless you want less output and you have no choice. Also, there is no hiring workers (not that it must be in the game), you simply slick -/+ and you hire/fire workers on a per assembly line basis.

Ideas?

I assume you've done your market research and have examined Production Line?

1 minute ago, Kylotan said:

I assume you've done your market research and have examined Production Line?

It is a completely different game. In Production Line (which is a clone of Big Pharm made by the same developer :D) or the older Free Enterprise it focuses on the factory. While I'm making a tycoon where you run a company, the factory part is nowhere near this level of detail or complexity. Factory in my game is just a small part of the things the player deals with (basically just one screen where you decide how many cars you produce).

It seems to me those workers have no purpose in your game, they should probably cost money when idle but you got that covered with upkeep, and i see no problem with saying they get a reduced salary from that 25% upkeep.