Unclear reasons for loss of quality

[The Other Otter]

Hello! So I get that the studio in the demo is full of inexperienced people, and that at the start of the game it's pretty hard to make a very good movie. But I had a script (written by a freelance writer) that started with a score of 9.7/9.8, I sent it to pre prod and when they were done it dropped to 3.1/2.7.

I'm used to pre production lowering the project's quality, but not to that magnitude. Sure, the supporting actress was the worst comedian in the world (Wendy Carpenter, 0.1 stars), but still, surely she did not butcher the ENTIRE movie all by herself, even before they started shooting, did she??

More generally speaking, I wish the game was clearer about how much every factor impacts the end result at each step of the way. In the example above I only had the usual list with everything in red and no clue as to why the drop in quality was so dramatic.

Except for that, I really enjoyed the demo and that game is now on my wishlist.

[greifental]

I figured out: To not drop in pre-production you need people and locations at the same level as the script is. So you need actors/camera operator/producer/director in the 9.x and 4-star-locations. At the start of the movie you only have 1-star-locations, the bare minimum. Of course there will be a big drop when starting so high. And never ever put Wendy into a quality script!

But with a high happiness of the involved people the rating will rise again after filming.

[DottorCaligari]

Originally posted by greifental:

I figured out: To not drop in pre-production you need people and locations at the same level as the script is. So you need actors/camera operator/producer/director in the 9.x and 4-star-locations. At the start of the movie you only have 1-star-locations, the bare minimum. O
But with a high happiness of the involved people the rating will rise again after filming.

Thar's almost entirely true. Although sometimes, under the very same conditions, a 9.9 script became a 5 and other a 9.9 became an 8.

Originally posted by greifental:

And never ever put Wendy into a quality script!

That's not true. That's the very case of the 9,9 script that became 8 I wrote above. The rest of cast was 7+ though.

[The Other Otter]

Originally posted by greifental:

I figured out: To not drop in pre-production you need people and locations at the same level as the script is. So you need actors/camera operator/producer/director in the 9.x and 4-star-locations. At the start of the movie you only have 1-star-locations, the bare minimum. Of course there will be a big drop when starting so high. And never ever put Wendy into a quality script!

But with a high happiness of the involved people the rating will rise again after filming.

Aah, so it's at least partially based on the difference between the script quality and the pre prod's! That explains it. Sadly, I didn't get to see the ratings rise again because the demo ended before I could go into filming. But that's good to know, thank you!

I wish the game explained that though, that's an important piece of information and I would certainly not have tried my best to get the best possible script - also, in that case, a bit strange for the demo to hand us over the Rotten Fates script which is pretty good, but oh well.

[Kexan]

When you expectedly get a script that's too good for your in-house people you can hire free agents with high ratings to a single movie contract and try to make a classic that way. Or just shelve the script until you feel your studio is good enough to do it justice.

[greifental]

Originally posted by DottorCaligari:

That's not true. That's the very case of the 9,9 script that became 8 I wrote above. The rest of cast was 7+ though.

Oh, okay. Good to know that other talented actors can make up for putting Wendy in.

Originally posted by Kexan:

When you expectedly get a script that's too good for your in-house people you can hire free agents with high ratings to a single movie contract and try to make a classic that way. Or just shelve the script until you feel your studio is good enough to do it justice.

Exactly.

[Ace490]

Yeah, as the game indirectly tells you, how well your respective employee groups can fit the script's quality is averaged among the groups (at least it seems like that). Putting Wendy together with high class actors mitigates her negative effect and even more so if you have more actors in the movie (so try to pick 3 or 4 rather than just 2).
From my experience crew happiness is pretty impactful while locations aren't that important if you have a top talent director.

[greifental]

Originally posted by Ace490:

Yeah, as the game indirectly tells you, how well your respective employee groups can fit the script's quality is averaged among the groups (at least it seems like that). Putting Wendy together with high class actors mitigates her negative effect and even more so if you have more actors in the movie (so try to pick 3 or 4 rather than just 2).

Cool. I should make a movie only with a protagonist and put Wendy in just to see the drop. :D

[CryonicSuspension]

Please dress Wendy up in an animal costume - nobody will notice her.

[Ace490]

There are two aspects so far that are the most unclear when it comes to how movie quality is influenced. First is whether department heads also have an effect on it (they get experience for every movie that passes through their respective production phase so it could be). Second is how this works for the producers. Adding more producers should have a cumulative effect on quality rather than them being averaged like the other employee groups because otherwise it wouldn't make sense to ever pick more than one producer, but you can't observe that in any way right now.
Weappy always had one horribly bad meme char in their games and you would get an achievement for carrying them with you until the end of the game or training them to max lvl. I guess the same will be the case here with Wendy. I always rehire her after the movie for the mayor is done since she costs almost nothing.

[Xeirus]

Originally posted by CryonicSuspension:

Please dress Wendy up in an animal costume - nobody will notice her.

Poor Wendy, she's doing her best.

[greifental]

Originally posted by Ace490:

Second is how this works for the producers. Adding more producers should have a cumulative effect on quality rather than them being averaged like the other employee groups because otherwise it wouldn't make sense to ever pick more than one producer, but you can't observe that in any way right now.

I hope they get at leeast experience of their own and not half the share.

[DottorCaligari]

Originally posted by greifental:

Originally posted by Ace490:

Second is how this works for the producers. Adding more producers should have a cumulative effect on quality rather than them being averaged like the other employee groups because otherwise it wouldn't make sense to ever pick more than one producer, but you can't observe that in any way right now.

I hope they get at leeast experience of their own and not half the share.

Agree. I also plan to add younger unexperienced producer to make them improve. Similarly, I also plan to employ poor younger directors in the Second Unit (when I will be able to unlock it in the complete game).

[Ace490]

XP gain is always the same for the respective employee group, so 2nd or 3rd producers are getting the same amount as the first one and as far as I remember the xp also isn't split up but rather everyone gets the full amount. However, has been a while since I used multiple producers.
Since bad movies are financially quite viable, the easiest way to train employees is to just make a few bad movies inbetween and use your full training crew on them. It's one of the really nice aspects of this game that this is possible and you don't always have to aim for the stars just to survive.

[greifental]

Originally posted by Ace490:

Since bad movies are financially quite viable, the easiest way to train employees is to just make a few bad movies inbetween and use your full training crew on them. It's one of the really nice aspects of this game that this is possible and you don't always have to aim for the stars just to survive.

My latest run was with fast produced romances. And it was the most profitable one. I had the most cash left when the demo ends. Cheap in production and you don't have the risk of losing profit potential caused by too few rented cinemas in the first weeks, because your own cinemas are always more than enough.

[Generic Crevice Gaming]

Originally posted by CryonicSuspension:

Please dress Wendy up in an animal costume - nobody will notice her.

I put Wendy in Rotten Fates because I'm a monster