Production Line - Cliff Harris takes on car manufacturing

started a new game with the new update. i took out three loans and i took pictures, the loan amount is going down but the days remaining isnt changing. so it may end up being a visual bug. unsure if the loan will go away once paid off though.

The most recent Idle Thumbs has a discussion of the game, which of course in true Idle Thumbs fashion devolves into predictions about our future as organic batteries for driverless cars.

I spent a few hours playing through the most recent release. It has potential, but also some annoyances in its present early-access form.

I like

  1. The concept: all the factory management and process optimization bits of Big Pharma, without as much puzzle as Big Pharma.
  2. The style: it looks good and runs smoothly.
  3. The complexity: lots of parts make up a car. The assembly lines are complicated.

I don’t like/couldn’t figure out

  1. The market: it doesn’t make a great deal of sense to me what controls the price of a car. My sedan with Very Rare features out the wazoo simply wouldn’t sell at anything less than a 10% discount. I couldn’t find any feedback on why cars in stock weren’t selling.
  2. The loss condition: the game ends when your cash on hand goes to zero, which seems odd to me.
  3. The limited information on production costs and efficiency: I couldn’t find a way to get the total production cost, counting raw materials and worker time, of a car. (Prices pop up in the click-on-it display, but that looked like sale price to me?) Given that one of the decision points seems to be “should I keep buying this component or produce it in house?” it feels like a big loss being unable to really determine how my decisions are affecting the bottom line.
  4. The lack of planning tools. I found myself saving the game once or twice, then trying to lay out a new production line, then realizing I didn’t actually have the money for it and having to go back to the save.
  5. The setup for different models of car. I couldn’t figure out how to produce two submodels on the same line: one premium car with bluetooth and satnav, say, and one basic model without.

None of those issues are flaws in design, and all of them are things I expect to improve, especially the ones concerning access to data. (Cliffski’s games are always a breath of fresh air in that regard.) I’m looking forward to its ongoing development.

Thank you for making this game @Cliffski. Can I ask, is there a way to change the floor textures for the included scenarios without modding the game? The “background noise” from the grey tiles is making it difficult to see the fantastic detail of each workstation. It’s like those pictures where the image is obscured by patterns, except in reverse. The floor might look more bland without alternating squares, but then I could see better. The darker shades of grey are distracting even though I know they shouldn’t be.

I saw the Big Pharma thread get bumped and wondered how this game was doing, not much life here in the thread.

@jpinard did @cliffski ever get back to you? If not , then bad dev! :p

I checked his blog and he is working on the UI:

http://positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/2017/11/10/designing-a-user-interface-for-variable-screen-size/

Also has a new video blog thing from November 1st.:

And he talked about how not to go bankrupt at some conference here:

http://positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/2017/11/02/how-not-to-go-bankrupt-cliffs-2017-indie-talk/

I really love the game, but I’ve never played a production type game before so I don’t know if that diminishes my opinion. I actually modded the tiles bothering me so I can see/appreciate all the little things going on. I wish I could fast forward Earth to see how it looks when Cliff finally has everything added in.

Still in EA, looks like its getting bug and balance patches now!

How’s it looking lordkosc? Have you played it at all yet? I say @jpinard has a ton of hours in it so I’m pretty sure he’s liking it! Have anything to say about the game jp?

Do not own it! Just following, hoping for a fun game at 1.0

Hey isn’t it like 4 AM there?

Gotta make the donuts soon! :D

It’s been a bit since I played as I was hoping Cliff would implement some changes to a few facets of the game to make some facets of management a more consumable. Looks like the last update may have hit the spot, but I haven’t had time to check it out. I enjoyed the game even in its rough alpha state many months ago.

Do we know when he’s planning on exiting early access? I couldn’t find a date scanning the steam page quickly.

If you find out, plz let me know…
TBH its likely to be November…Maybe a bit later. I want to get a defined V1.0 out there at some point, but also make it clear that I’m likely to keep tweaking it (albeit at a less frantic pace) post release.
My plan is to port it to directx11, then to 64 bit, to add in some more techs like parking sensors & self driving things ( I have the artwork already for AI chip manufacturing machines), to improve the level editor and mod tool stuff, add in a new vehicle (mini van), and options for the front grille, lights and wheel styles… then I think that should be version 1.0.
it may slip a bit…

Great job @cliffski2, it must be hard to consistently take projects from beginning to end on your own. I’m going to pick this up when it reaches 1.0.

Then you have to get going (with Jeff) on democracy 4!

Nice. I’m looking forward to it!

I think if I’ve got it on the wishlist steam will let me know when it exits early access.

Super geeked about that list Cliff! If I wasn’t in the hospital right now I’d be checking out the new showroom. Did you happen to implement a special option for “sale price” for older models there? I know I may have bothered you a few too many times for that feature, so apologies if I’m annoying you :)

Hope you get better soon!

Thanks Rob.

Yup, this is now a thing! There is a clunky ugly ‘discounts’ button on the (much nicer) showroom screen now which lets you set options for automatic discounts for defective cars, or cars that have been sat in the showroom more than X hours.