Feedback And Questions V. 10.0.28

[thomy22]

Hello David

I've noticed the following in the last few days while playing:

If you play with several floors in the stores (example 3), then it takes about 200-300% longer to get to the maximum utilization than if you have 3 individual stores with one floor.

I am aware that 3 stores bring more awareness than just one store with 3 sales areas, even if it is mathematically identical, but the difference should not be so high in my eyes. I made 2 different games and played everywhere for 3 years, with otherwise identical conditions and with the variant without several floors I had a profit of several 100 million 200-300% faster than with several floors. The reason is also quickly found, with several floors the sales activity in floor 2 is only started when floor 1 is at 100%, the same with floor 3 which also only starts when 1+2 are full, in my opinion not correct, because with 3 branches it starts identically for all of them which is also normal.

As I said, it is correct for me that several stores bring more than just one, but the difference should be in the low to mid 2-digit range and certainly not 200-300%.

I have also noticed that every now and then there is a drop in sales on one floor, where sales then go to 0%, which does not happen in individual stores. I think there are still errors in the capacity utilization calculation or something.

Could it be that the service companies are still lacking balance? If I look at how little market share I have with 4 Sers in the first attempts, then I will need 25-30 stores in the whole city for a good utilization, is this the intention? For me, this is a huge difference compared to one store if I otherwise have a market share of just under 50-70% after 3 years with 2-3 stores, I need several 100% more service companies than stores.

Then something general for the settings:

You have an incredible amount of setting options, but you can't preselect the cities. I would like to be able to choose which cities I have at the start to customize my game and have different scenarios and options. It's always a matter of chance, but I often end up with two completely identical cities in terms of size and wage level, etc. I would much rather be able to decide for myself. So I sometimes have to restart 10-20 times before I get something exciting by chance.

I look forward to your answers and perhaps something can be done about one or the other with a new update.

Greetings

Thomas

[David]

I made 2 different games and played everywhere for 3 years

Could you please provide these two games?

It could be intentional by design to balance it, as you have to buy land plots for the 3 stores, whereas you only pay for one land plot for the single 3-floor store.

For the 3-floor retail store, is it selling 12 different products across the 3 floors?

Could it be that the service companies are still lacking balance? If I look at how little market share I have with 4 Sers in the first attempts, then I will need 25-30 stores in the whole city for a good utilization, is this the intention? For me, this is a huge difference compared to one store if I otherwise have a market share of just under 50-70% after 3 years with 2-3 stores, I need several 100% more service companies than stores.

Some players seemed to enjoy being able to set up more service firms and generate more profits.

Since there are only 4 types of service firms. If their total sales were lower, there won't be much incentives to run service firms.

I think whether it is balanced or not depends on whether the players enjoy it or not. Perhaps you could create a new thread on this and invite the community to discuss it. Once there is a consensus from the discussion that suggests tweaking the numbers, I will then forward it to the dev team for their consideration.

You have an incredible amount of setting options, but you can't preselect the cities. I would like to be able to choose which cities I have at the start to customize my game and have different scenarios and options. It's always a matter of chance, but I often end up with two completely identical cities in terms of size and wage level, etc. I would much rather be able to decide for myself. So I sometimes have to restart 10-20 times before I get something exciting by chance.

You can use a script to preset the cities in a new game. Please see: https://www.capitalismlab.com/scripts/script-cities/

[thomy22]

You already have both games. I sent you one last week and the new one yesterday.

Yes, as I said, I understand that several stores have to bring in more profit, but to justify this with the purchase of the land is certainly not correct. After all, every land always brings an increase in land prices, but 200-300% is unrealistic, because there is no less sales area in the individual stores. Whether I now have 4 stores (example furniture store) each with one sales slot per piece of furniture or whether I have a store with 3 floors each with one piece of furniture plus the 4th slot per floor, I ultimately also have 4 sales units per piece of furniture.

I would understand if this sales bonus is in the small to medium 2-digit percentage range, but not 3-4 times as much.

I think you could only solve the problem if you would make sure that all sales areas start directly and it doesn't go to 100% on the 1st floor first and then start on the 2nd floor, because with all individual stores it also starts directly with all 3. Because there is demand, the red bar is fully up and the stock availability is 0, but those in the color scheme are bored and not fully utilized, it takes about 3 years to get to the same level as with 3 individual stores after one year.

As I said, the service companies are probably a balancing problem. I understand that it needs more pizzerias per city than electroshops etc. but maybe not 9-10 times as many but let's see how it looks when I've been playing for 10-20 years. So far I've stopped after 3-4 because I keep noticing mistakes like the ones above.

I'll take a look at the script, even if I don't really understand why you can't just choose the cities you want or don't want in the settings, like with the products, and why you need a script for that.

[David]

The reason is also quickly found, with several floors the sales activity in floor 2 is only started when floor 1 is at 100%, the same with floor 3 which also only starts when 1+2 are full, in my opinion not correct, because with 3 branches it starts identically for all of them which is also normal.

I tested it but couldn't replicate the problem you described above.

I loaded your save game and tested it by creating a store and added 12 products to the 3 floors. Then let the game run, products from the 3 floors generated sales at the same time - please see the attached screenshots. I can send you the save game with this test if you want.

[thomy22]

Yes, with 12 different products this is probably the case, but not with the special stores where you can only sell watches or jewelry or furniture, electronics or computers, if I have the same on each floor, then he makes one floor after the other, so only when floor 1 is at 80-100% he makes floor 2 and so on.

But if I have 3 stores and make it identical that all sell the same, then they all start selling immediately and not only when the 1st created store is at 80-100%.

As I said, from my point of view, several stores may certainly have an advantage in terms of sales (as the specialty stores also have) but it shouldn't be that much in the first few years, afterwards it evens out, I noticed that when simulating, but the first 2-3 years there is easily a 200-300% difference and this is only because, as I said, he doesn't start selling right away but takes months until all sales outlets are at 100%, which is much faster for individual stores.

[David]

Yes, with 12 different products this is probably the case, but not with the special stores where you can only sell watches or jewelry or furniture, electronics or computers, if I have the same on each floor, then he makes one floor after the other, so only when floor 1 is at 80-100% he makes floor 2 and so on.

In the attached screenshots, all the 3 chairs from the 3 floors are actually the same product. As you can see the sales graphs are the same, and if you change the price of the chair on any floors, chairs on other floors will have the same price.

I think it always works like this. For example, if you set up two teams of purchase-sales units on a single-floor retail store selling chairs, you will also see only one chair. I believe it works this way since Cap2. So it is a general gameplay mechanism that is actually not specific to 3-floor stores only.

[thomy22]

I think we are currently talking at cross purposes or you have misunderstood my concern. Sorry, English is not my mother tongue and I always have to work with translators.

It's not about an advertisement. The fact that the product is only displayed once is normal and makes no difference, the price is also correct and should be so.

My point is that the sale from the start is not the same as if I have 3 stores or if I have a store with 3 floors. You can verify this very easily when you start and produce and sell a product, once with 3 individual stores and once with one store and 3 floors. Then you will see that the sales figures and income are worlds apart. As I said, after about 3-4 years it will be almost identical and there will hardly be any difference, but in between there are simply several million missing per product, which makes it much more difficult at the beginning with several floors than with several stores.

From my point of view, it's really only because sales don't start at the same time on all floors. Everything else seems to be right.

[David]

From my point of view, it's really only because sales don't start at the same time on all floors. Everything else seems to be right.

I just tested it again by setting up a specialty store - furniture store and added 3 floors. The sales did start at the same time on all floors. Please see the attached screenshots from this test.

[anjali]

I think we are currently talking at cross purposes or you have misunderstood my concern. Sorry, English is not my mother tongue and I always have to work with translators.

It's not about an advertisement. The fact that the product is only displayed once is normal and makes no difference, the price is also correct and should be so.

My point is that the sale from the start is not the same as if I have 3 stores or if I have a store with 3 floors. You can verify this very easily when you start and produce and sell a product, once with 3 individual stores and once with one store and 3 floors. Then you will see that the sales figures and income are worlds apart. As I said, after about 3-4 years it will be almost identical and there will hardly be any difference, but in between there are simply several million missing per product, which makes it much more difficult at the beginning with several floors than with several stores.

From my point of view, it's really only because sales don't start at the same time on all floors. Everything else seems to be right.

of course there is a difference and thats normal ... as if you put in 1 store 3 guys selling the same product ... thats kinda senseless
as those 3 guys will sale the same amount of crap so the 2nd and 3rd guy will be unemployed until guy numero uno is 100% bussy .. then the 2nd guy jumps in and helps out serving customers ...

while when ou open up 3 shops in 3 different locations of the town and 1 guy in each shop serves the customers .. then you ll get your revenue 3 times faster up thats standard as those 3 guys can talk 3 times more customers into buying your crap and always been like it ... even in real life its like that ... you want to get your revenue up fast? send a few hundred guys across the city and make sure they have enough space between them then let talk to ppl walking their and sell them your crappy contract... you find 100 times faster those idiots signing your contract then by squeezing those 100 guys in the citycentre on 25 sqm and all 100 talking the same few ppl that passing by then those 100guys will actually IRL sell less then a single guy in the citycentre on a 25sqm field. as the 100 guys will be too penetrant and gonna get ppl even not to sign because of this penetrant approach... so any sales unit selling the same product in same shop will stay idle at 0% until the 1st sales unit cant keep up with demand.

i never get to this issue because what i do is .... at a product launch take 3 or 5 or more multi floor shops i.e. jewelry and plant 1 purchase + 1 sales unit per product at start in each shop .... and turn the training on a 2nd sales unit will be used when 1st sales unit is at lvl 9 maxed out 100% (i place 3 products per shop level only and never the same product twice so a 3 story shop sells max 9 different products as a purchase unit can easily serv 2 sales units. it also saves space on the map as u need less shops when u save 50% off all purchase units in a city)

in the past this was also good for brandrating as you got plenty sales in a city of the same product ... unused store floors in special shops stay empty in my games if i cant fill it with something elsethat isnt already sold in that shop (but thats only the last shop of a product range if its special store)