New Retail Store Function

Suggestions for new DLC projects.

Should the "Prepare" function described below be added to the game

Yes
52
83%
No
11
17%
 
Total votes: 63

Arcnor
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New Retail Store Function

Post by Arcnor »

I wanted to suggest a new function for retail stores. I'm calling this function "Prepare" which will allow retail stores to produce an end product that you wouldn't typically see produced at a factory such as food & beverage preparation. This would allow users to build restaurant chains or perhaps building a chain of coffee shops.

In my example below the layout would include two purchase units that would purchase the raw materials to make a meal. I have the units purchasing frozen beef and potatoes. This feeds into the "Prepare" function and then output to sales the new product "Steak & Potatoes." The quality of the end product would be determined by the quality of the raw materials and the "technology" or training to the staff preparing the meal.

In terms of the MOD_Kit my suggest would be to add a new field to the Product_Types file called "Prepare" that the user would set as either Yes (Y) or No (N or blank). Then a new mod file will function just like Manufacturing and set what products can be combined and the subsequent output.

This would allow users to set up service like firms where raw materials are required.
Attachments
Product MOD.PNG
Product MOD.PNG (78.89 KiB) Viewed 8678 times
Prepare.jpg
Prepare.jpg (315.79 KiB) Viewed 8678 times
Last edited by Arcnor on Fri Sep 11, 2015 1:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
piermario
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Re: New Retail Store Function

Post by piermario »

Ciao! it will be a nice feature maybe you can add a poll to know also community thinking.
Arcnor
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Re: New Retail Store Function

Post by Arcnor »

Ive added a poll above
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Re: New Retail Store Function

Post by Arcnor »

Any further thoughts from anyone? I think this will add a new dynamic to the game and allow all new kinds of business.
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David
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Re: New Retail Store Function

Post by David »

One issue is that the business of restaurants is not as scalable as retail stores. Compared to retail stores, restaurants have a smaller capacity in terms of the maximum number of customers that can be served in a day. Because of this, you will have to build a large number of restaurants in order to scale up your profit, which may not be the type of things that you would like to do especially when there are players who have found the amount of space available for building new firms already insufficient.

Besides restaurants, could you come up with ideas about applying the same mechanism to other business types? Perhaps it might work with other business types?
Parkerrush92
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Re: New Retail Store Function

Post by Parkerrush92 »

I think this:

Restaurants could be incorporated into this game. I personally believe that if they are, that they should be a new retail store type. As mentioned by David, there would be an issue with adding a new sort of supply and demand, in relation to restaurant capacity. Pierre Marios Mod, has products manufactured by factories that combine food elements, so there is no issue there. If this feature were to be added, many new buildings would appear in game, by the a.i. We need to make sure that as we start encountering space limitations that we prioritize new features. I would recommend to David, to keep in mind that many features can be modded into the game by third-parties, and that if Mods become very popular, could be converted to a new expansion.

Sincerely

Parker
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Re: New Retail Store Function

Post by piermario »

Ciao in new realworld mod in development i added new retail store, pizzeria, but all kind of pizzas are manufactured by a factory and not directly in pizzeria.
I think it would be a nice feature what they purposed if it can add to the game.
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Re: New Retail Store Function

Post by Parkerrush92 »

I just want to reiterate, that modding capability in this game should allow for a development like this one, and I would like to encourage the developers to take their time and test full game balance before releasing game altering content.

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Arcnor
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Re: New Retail Store Function

Post by Arcnor »

David wrote:One issue is that the business of restaurants is not as scalable as retail stores. Compared to retail stores, restaurants have a smaller capacity in terms of the maximum number of customers that can be served in a day. Because of this, you will have to build a large number of restaurants in order to scale up your profit, which may not be the type of things that you would like to do especially when there are players who have found the amount of space available for building new firms already insufficient.

Besides restaurants, could you come up with ideas about applying the same mechanism to other business types? Perhaps it might work with other business types?
Yes, so another example would be the airlines. In my own mod, I have added the Airport as a retail building. From this I sell airline tickets and planes. However, the airline tickets are produced at a separate factory that manufactures these tickets by combining jet fuel, a plane, and paper. This is of course not realistic. Having this prepare feature would allow for the airport to produce and sell the airline tickets as occurs in reality. To offset the earnings from these ticket sells I have dramatically increased the overhead cost of an airport.

Another example might be to produce auto service to sell by having auto parts as an input. The quality of that service would be the combination of the quality of the parts and the tech. This is a new product that could be sold at the Auto Outlet.

Another example could be health care. The inputs could be drugs and medical equipment that are combined to produce health care. This could be sold at a new retail hospital.

On the restaurant note, to scale up profits the other route other than mass expansion would be to sell more menu items or menu items that are higher grossing. Likely at least two items could be sold per location in the current retail UI.
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David
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Re: New Retail Store Function

Post by David »

It seems to me that this might be made possible by allowing the modders to add new firm types under the Factory category that sell directly to end consumers instead of B2B.

A new variable can be added to the firm type database file that indicates whether the firm type sells products as a B2C or B2B business.

These are just my personal thoughts in response to your suggestions and I will have to check with the dev team on the feasibility and will suggest them to seriously consider implementing this if it is feasible.

And it will take time to modify the AI code to support this. The difficulty in programming the AI will be a major factor determining whether this feature will actually get implemented or not.

But first, I would like to hear about what you guys think about the approach described above, before I will try to get this moved forward. Do you think that the approach will support your ideas about the new service industries like Arcnor suggested?

On a related note, Arcnor has mentioned combing the new technology feature with it.
Another example might be to produce auto service to sell by having auto parts as an input. The quality of that service would be the combination of the quality of the parts and the tech. This is a new product that could be sold at the Auto Outlet.
I was wondering if any of you could think of any way to combine the new custom product image feature with any of the service businesses as well?

Lastly, would any of you be interested in creating a MOD with new service business types if the requested feature get implemented? This will help me persuade the dev team to allocate the resources to it, as there are many tasks (including the two DLCs currently under development) that are competing for the limited resources and time that they have.
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