[MOD] Modern World - Complex manufacturing mod

[saffgee]

New forum post setup for the newer version of this Mod: viewtopic.php?f=39&t=7639

What exactly is Modern World anyway ?

MW is a version of the game that adds staple manufacturing and retail industries beyond what vanilla has and does so in a way that not only increases the complexity of the game, but allows players to really flex their specialisation muscles and delve deep down into the rabbit hole of any of those particular industry segments. Simply put, MW adds an unbelievable amount of product depth, manufacturing chains and retail specialisation and tries to replicate how a modern, modular corporation may need to go about its business, whilst still using some of the games conventions to find creative problem work-around's.

Ok, sounds good, but I'm still struggling to visualise this - examples please ?

There are companies (and quite a few actually) that are making more than decent money in many of the industry sectors outside of the normal ones you know from the Vanilla game. For example the global cosmetics market is about $200 Billion a year and is serviced by an untold number of pharmaceutical, chemical and industrial companies.

MW introduces not only additional consumer products in the sectors you love, like Cosmetics, Body care and Electronics, but also literally 100's of semi products, all grouped into additional industry segments like Packaging, Chemicals and Plastics. The ABS plastic found in Auto parts, baby products, Shoes & bodycare products has to come from somewhere; Polyethylene and Polypropylene feature prominently in packaging materials, as well as Bottle tops and Auto batteries; and Polyester and Nylon - well I think we all know how much of those we use nowadays.

My point here is: Silicon = CPU just simply won't cut it in MW. If you want the same in MW, you'll need to get hold of semiconductor wafers and find some copper and silver to put on it. Once you've done that, multiples of those will need to be embedded in a microprocessor before its useful and then those themselves onto a motherboard and well needless to say...so on and so on. MW will make you constantly evaluate where you can best source an input and what products to make next, all the while wondering when to actually branch into another industry, because now that really is a challenge. Suddenly, buying from another player may make the difference between getting a product made or not and being an "industrial semi" conglomerate will now be a viable strategy for both player and AI. Selling what others need is a very profitable business in MW.

Ok, so when and where can I get this mod then ?

The latest version is available now over at Moddb - https://www.moddb.com/mods/modworld

Disclaimer and comments

I'm doing this for me first and foremost because I love this game and this level of detail, but I am willing to put it out there to share with anyone else who likes what they hear/see - what I absolutely encourage is constructive feedback. Tweaks, improvements, corrections are always easily done.

Overall, my work on MW encompasses something in the region of 1800+ products at last count and over 1500 manufacturing processes. I am fully aware that this not only exceeds the current data limits (700 + 20 software products), but actually finds new meaning for the word "exceed" in the process. My hope is to eventually petition David and the Enlight team for a trial run of a few games (on a separate build) with a much higher data limit and see what happens. I think with a few restrictive competitor tweaks and the like it would probably run quite smoothly. Anyway, for now I release it as a mod with the max number of products possible (700) and look forward to perfecting that first before pioneering new limits.

Known issues:
- The latest build is fairly polished. Some new graphics to be added in the upcoming v2.1. Head over to this link for the new posts on the upcoming MW retro historical Mods viewtopic.php?f=39&t=7639

Download link:

***New versions available*** Mod can be found here: https://www.moddb.com/mods/modworld

Version history:

Compatible with Capitalism Lab version 5.1.30 or later only ***IMPORTANT: Set "Competitor Startup Capital" to "Massive" for a better game experience

V1.01 - Full release version. Tested compatible up to 5.1.04
V1.02 - Updated to fix some issues with Digital age
V1.03 - Fix for fur and some minor balancing improvements, tested compatible up to 5.2.01
V1.03a - David was kind enough to provide banner which I've added here; no other changes
V1.04 - Updated for game version 5.7.05, but should work with all. Lots of products added and many other improvements. Still beta as have not tested extensively yet. Also added company logos (keep scrolling) and some real world people.
V2.0 - Should work with all game versions; separate downloads for Post Release Beta and retail versions. Many improvements, real companies and real logos + new product chains and a complete product class overhaul.

[David]

Cool! Look forward to your mod.

[meRlinX_AT]

Hi,

had something similar in mind - prim. for the the whole DEVICE megaclass (Communication Devices, Computer, Consumer Electronics, Home Appliances, Photography Products, Electronic Semi Products). you can make too easy, too much money in this class.

i have already
- overhauled some freight-cost's (for all products)
- overhauled the NECESSITY, PRICE_CN, QUALITY_CN, BRAND_CN (for all products)
- added PCA, Wafer, LCD, MCPU, ...
- overhauled the existing manufacturing process

... and now i stuck at balancing the manufacturing capacity. it seems impossible to generate the needed output -how did you solved this?

please - if you have an hint - would be nice!

looking forward to your mod - sounds interesting.

thanks
greetz

[saffgee]

balancing the manufacturing capacity. it seems impossible to generate the needed output

What do you mean by this ? Impossible to generate the needed amount of output ? Factories will have a hard-coded amount they can produce if that's what you mean. Obviously this can be nuanced by changing some of the settings, but if you are trying to produce millions of TV's where previously there were thousands, this may simply be impossible. One way could be to increase the amount that are built in 1 "operation" on the manufacturing tab under OQTY (obviously respecting the changes needed to the various IQTY1 as well when you do).

That aside I think that would be more a question for David though.

[meRlinX_AT]

balancing the manufacturing capacity. it seems impossible to generate the needed output

What do you mean by this ? Impossible to generate the needed amount of output ? Factories will have a hard-coded amount they can produce if that's what you mean. Obviously this can be nuanced by changing some of the settings, but if you are trying to produce millions of TV's where previously there were thousands, this may simply be impossible. One way could be to increase the amount that are built in 1 "operation" on the manufacturing tab under OQTY (obviously respecting the changes needed to the various IQTY1 as well when you do).

That aside I think that would be more a question for David though.

the hard-coded amount (1.333.333 / price 0,3 / PROD_SPEED 1000) nor the wish to produce millions of TV'S is the prob.
as long as the price of a product (!!) has an huge impact of the production output... it's not possible to create an electro SEMI supply chain or maybe any other horizontal chain.
OQTY seems to do nothing.
the possibilities with PROD_SPEED are limited (max between 1? - 1000).

same here http://www.capitalismlab.com/forum/view ... =13&t=4202 (which can still be balanced)

ex: product with price 50,-- = output from 1 large Mfg Unit of 800 (PROD_SPEED 100) or 8000 (PROD_SPEED 1000)
but i need an output of 25.000 which is just possible with an price of 16,--
but with this price it's not possible to make an profit nor pay for the products which are needed for production.

hope you will not encounter this situation ... if yes and you solve it, please let me know

thanks

[saffgee]

I'm not entirely convinced you've narrowed it down to the price being the main culprit here. It might be, but from that thread you posted that seems a somewhat premature judgement. Are you editing the manufacturing chain itself or just the product types ? I've played with OQTY before and i'm pretty sure it does work.

Assuming for a minute that what you say is indeed the case though, maybe playing with conversion factors (for weights) and adjusting the inputs needed for products that use those elements might yield results. It's a type of workaround, but it may work. In other words, play with the silicon part of the equation.

[saffgee]

Also, I'd appreciate it if you PM me with questions like that and leave the MOD thread free for questions/observations related to the actual MOD itself. Alternatively we can take it over to the thread you posted on the topic. Thanks !

[tycoonheaven]

if you need me to find and make complete supply chains. i will.
I agree, silicion to cpu WHAT!?
I have enjoyed, more than once, good lectures on the complete supply chain of microchips and cpu's. And the point is, to have a game so complex it's daunting.

[saffgee]

if you need me to find and make complete supply chains. i will.
I agree, silicion to cpu WHAT!?
I have enjoyed, more than once, good lectures on the complete supply chain of microchips and cpu's. And the point is, to have a game so complex it's daunting.

Thanks, but that part of the work is mostly done. Took the better part of 3 1/2 months for all the products, but I hope it will be worth it. Now it's just the mundane task of editing all the files and tweaking all the numbers so that it all balances. Not so easy (or quick) it turns out....

[saffgee]

So, apologies for the somewhat tardy update on my mod, but I've had more business trips than I planned recently and whilst I don't really mind them much as they break the grind of the "every day", they do throw up challenges in sticking to deadlines. That said, I have still managed to keep busy adding more and more products.

As there is still much to do though and in order to alleviate the monotony, I've decided to launch an updated version of vanilla as an interim mod. Essentially I will update all the currently existing products to my enhanced versions, add in the new buildings & graphics, tweak the product classes and groups and then release it as a modern world version of the regular game. This will naturally only have the existing products (plus the required additional semi and raw products), but should play quite a bit differently if it all goes to plan. I have two more trips this month, but schedule permitting I could have this done by the end of may. I suppose somewhat better late than never....

As stated before, I will also be releasing my excel files (my work books) to go with the mod. In other words if you find stuff you don't like in mine or even just want to start developing your own mod with a head start, those should help.