I have been fiddling around with the latest build.
The hardest thing for me is resource management. The biggest problem is not knowing all the parts that each station needs. This makes it difficult to try to arrange general supply depots where you can select to store the more used parts (such as 4 tires, 8 valves, and so on). People are currently using written lists to know what to select.
I have worked on production lines in real life and the game has one part travelling over a separate resource conveyor. A car needs 4 tires but they are sent 1 tire at a time. In my experience supplies usually are sent on pallets so I would think that you would get 4 at a time. I am hoping that this part of the sim improves (the biggest complaint right now is that what holds up the main car production is the lack of supplies). This is of course a part of the game and its logistics and what makes it interesting. Cliffski is very involved in player feedback and actually rewriting code (resource & resource conveyor issues being the biggest priority at the moment). I am very impressed with Cliffski’s presence on the official forums. I am certain that the resource aspect will improve.
As the game progresses you can choose to research actual car add ons (safety items, brake systems, etc) or put your research into more efficiency (such as breaking down each station into smaller tasks thus speeding up the line). There are a lot of choices and I can see people trying a myriad of options repeatedly trying to build a car efficiently and still producing a profit.
I think the game is going to be great as the actual simulation gets ironed out and QoL helps get added.
Very. Big Pharma is (for me) much more a puzzle—it’s all about fitting machines into a certain space in the best way. Production Line is all about finding the next 5% or 10% in efficiency by making sure materials get somewhere faster, or by doing things in parallel.
ARISE! For it is I, cliffski, after losing my account details and then being busy… making this game :D Anyway, we are heading to an early access release on steam next week (18th) with any luck, and thats build 1.18 which is now the exorbitant rip-off price of $13. (It will be $15.99 once we enter EA).
Anyway… we did a teaser trailer here:
And I blogged on video (yikes) about it here:
If you want to know anything about the games development, just ask :D
We will also keep selling direct using the humble widget and be on GoG in early access too. I dont think Humble store does early access. I really should ask. I am so slack.
Also, hello again all :D
Apologies if these are answered in the videos, but I’m at work:
What’s the timeframe to 1.0?
How systems complete is the initial EA build?
Compared to Big Pharma, how big/what type of role do things like research, market dynamics and staff play?
I imagine I will be at final release at the end of the year, although thats very variable.
The current build has a LOT of stuff in, but its lacking marketing, some further complexity in the economics model, defect & quality stuff, mod support, cross platform support & non-english languages. We also only have placeholder sound effects. There are some future techs still to go in such as hybrid/electric engines, diesel vs petrol, catalytic convertors and a bunch of engine related tech stuff. We will probably make the tech tree quite a a bit bigger (its already big :D)
Research is a big part of the game. its currently divided between process-related (factory) research, and tech research such as GPS, Anti-lock brakes, heated seats etc.
Staff are less of a concern, although I do plan eventually to support upgrading staff to be robots. Currently each production slot has 2 robots, and you can research upgrades to 4, 6 or 8 robots. Better robot quality/speed and reliability will come eventually, as will robot breakdowns and maintenance.
The economic model is relatively basic at the moment. The sale price depends partly on your output volume, and partly on the novelty of your tech vs the established AI competitors. A more complex economic model which has different market for bidy styles (ie compact vs sedan vs SUV…) is in planning.
Just as a followup, im not sure how the loans are suppose work. I still see messages that a new loan is available but when i check the loan screen i see the three loans i took out and a fouth unused loan. My first loan has 20 days left, second 17 and third 8. the 4th unused loan says it has 7days on it and its for 2mil or so. which seems steep to pay back in a short amount of time. Im not sure when they stopped counting down because until recently i couldnt pay them back. Im not sure if there is a way to check how many ingame days have past. Ill also register on your site and add stuff there as well.
Hmmm interesting. We just added a feature where your ‘risk’ rating to the banks is affected by how many loans you already have, and how large they are, so you should expect interest rates to shoot way up if you have a bunch of big outstanding debts.
