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

jbvisual
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Re: New Retail Store Function (Service DLC)

Post by jbvisual »

David wrote:As the Digital Age DLC has reached at the final beta phase, the dev team now has time to revisit the various ideas for a potentially new DLC project.

The Service DLC is among the top 3 DLCs with the most votes at http://www.capitalism2.com/forum/viewto ... =49&t=4166 and it potentially could be the new DLC project.

Right now, there are some good ideas about the DLC, including primarily Arcnor's idea for a new retail store function. In order to justify being a full DLC, it needs to have a lot more content, either on par with other released DLCs in terms of the amount of new features and content, or to be released at a lower price point if the amount of content is relatively smaller than other DLCs.

So I would like to hear what you guys think about the types of features and content you want to see in the Service DLC, if it is a product that you would consider buying at $9.99.
I would pay $9,99 for any dlc, to support capiatlism labs!
There ware no simulation games like this, and future support with more functions and dlc... sign me up.
But my priority is mostly Service DLC, not the restaurant part.
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Re: New Retail Store Function (Service DLC)

Post by Arcnor »

David wrote:As the Digital Age DLC has reached at the final beta phase, the dev team now has time to revisit the various ideas for a potentially new DLC project.

The Service DLC is among the top 3 DLCs with the most votes at http://www.capitalism2.com/forum/viewto ... =49&t=4166 and it potentially could be the new DLC project.

Right now, there are some good ideas about the DLC, including primarily Arcnor's idea for a new retail store function. In order to justify being a full DLC, it needs to have a lot more content, either on par with other released DLCs in terms of the amount of new features and content, or to be released at a lower price point if the amount of content is relatively smaller than other DLCs.

So I would like to hear what you guys think about the types of features and content you want to see in the Service DLC, if it is a product that you would consider buying at $9.99.

Here are some of my initial thoughts on expanded content:

1). Similar to how the City DLC allowed for the Govt to fund education, this proposed Service DLC would expand on this by allowing for the recruitment and training of people for specific skills. For example, those Universities would train future employees in Banking, Medicine, Culinary arts, Acting, Engineering, and Management. Basically, the Universities would train citizens in those fields (plus more that can be added later) and then Companies would work to recruit those professionals through an updated HR function in the Co. HQ. You can also send your Co. executives back to university to expand their skills and increase their expertise through training in Management (i.e. take your COO from a rating of 20 in retailing to 80 through paid education).

2). Based on those educated fields you can then build service products. For example, let's say I want to start and run my very own Walt Disney Company. I would recruit employees educated in acting to make movies at my studio. I would then provide two different services: feature films and tv programming. As a studio, I would have several different inputs I would need to make a movie. I'd need the actors, I'd need cameras, costumes, and sets. The cameras, costumes, and sets I could purchase from other third-party companies. You'd then have a blending of physical products (which the game already does great) and human capital to make your service product. In this case the keeping of Actors on my company could work similar to how I keep my researches on in R&D. The actual making of a service like films and tv programming could work similar to how the game makes software. I'd hire a director and editor to make the movie. I'd select the genre (this can work similar to how we have different software classes). Once the movie was made it could be distributed to Movie Theaters and then combined with DVD's to make Home DVD's that could be sold in retail stores. The theaters would be a new service firm. The user would have a selection of movies to show (similar to selecting products for resale) and agree to pay a fee per customer to the studio. The user then could set the price based on combined 1) product quality 2)banding and 3) service quality. The service quality would be based on his customer service ratings, training of his employees, and the venue quality.

Basically, the service quality and pricing is what the service firm can control and is the deciding factor in obtaining customers. If your customer service sucks then in the above example customers will go to a different theater. If you haven't spent money to upgrade your theaters then your venue quality will suffer.

This would support the creation of firm upgrading. Similar to how we can expand floors on retail firms, the user/AI would upgrade their facilities to increase their venue quality. Venue upgrades could be unlocked based on your level of research. Same goes for training of employees.


This could be done also for running a chain of hospitals. The inputs would be the various drug products, the doctors, and then research of medical procedures. The firm attracts customers by having the best employees (doctors), availability of drugs, and having multiple levels of medical procedures available.

I'll try to put some diagrams together that better explains how this could work.
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Re: New Retail Store Function

Post by David »

These ideas sound very interesting!
I'll try to put some diagrams together that better explains how this could work.
Look forward to seeing them, especially to get a better understanding of how the new mechanics will work on the 3x3 layout.
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Re: New Retail Store Function

Post by David »

We have done a test based on Arcnor's "Prepare unit" idea. Attached are the screenshots.

Any ideas about the next step?

Here are our ideas:

There will be a new guide called the Service Guide or the Service Provider's Guide. It will be similar to the Manufacturer’s Guide except that the recipes in the guide are for service industries. And each type of service require a specific firm to operate.

For example, a beauty treatment service must be carried out in a beauty salon. The player will have to set up a beauty salon and add a Prepare Unit for preparing the service. We have created a mock-up screenshot illustrating that.


Let us know if you like this idea. Any suggestions are welcome.
Attachments
Beauty Salon.jpg
Beauty Salon.jpg (372.02 KiB) Viewed 4896 times
Prepare 2.png
Prepare 2.png (552.73 KiB) Viewed 4896 times
Prepare 1.png
Prepare 1.png (470.65 KiB) Viewed 4896 times
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Re: New Retail Store Function

Post by Arcnor »

Looks awesome!

Can't wait to see what else can be added to the game through this!

Is there an ETA for when this will be released for testing?
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Re: New Retail Store Function

Post by David »

Arcnor wrote: Wed Jul 11, 2018 2:43 am Looks awesome!

Can't wait to see what else can be added to the game through this!

Is there an ETA for when this will be released for testing?
Hi Arcnor,

Actually we have started some experimental work with the Service DLC as it has got the highest number of votes in the New DLC suggestion poll.

If you are interested in testing it at this early stage, you may use the development key Ctrl-P to enable [Prepare] units in the latest post-release version 5.5.02 (download link: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=5175)

Please note that this function is not intended for future release for the base game, but rather for the Service DLC. So it is for internal testing only. But I thought that it would be cool to share that with you since you came up with the original idea of "Prepare" unit. 8-)
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Re: New Retail Store Function

Post by Arcnor »

Hey David,

I gave prepare a try. One issue is that you can't purchase semi-products and therefore you can't make some items. We probably will need a new class of product that is used in inputs for items that are prepared or some other work around.
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Re: New Retail Store Function

Post by David »

You could set up an "Input" unit instead of a Purchasing unit for purchasing raw materials and semi products, as shown in the attached screenshot.
Attachments
Prepare 2.png
Prepare 2.png (552.73 KiB) Viewed 4848 times
Prepare 1.png
Prepare 1.png (470.65 KiB) Viewed 4848 times
Arcnor
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Re: New Retail Store Function

Post by Arcnor »

Alright, I'll give that a try! Thanks!
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Re: New Retail Store Function

Post by Arcnor »

Yeah it seems to work, but I'm noticing that the purchase and sell units do not match up. See below for example. Not sure if this is an issue related to the Prepare or just the current version.
capitalism error.PNG
capitalism error.PNG (374.82 KiB) Viewed 4802 times
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