Aircraft and Ship Engine Contracts

[Ektor Gomes]

Hello. I've been wanting to do a company focused solely on contractor work, whilst it might not be very profitable, I find designing the contract components a fun challenge. The issue is, I never manage to find the correct settings for aircraft and ships, I only succeed at doing vehicle engines. What am I missing here? I managed to design a tank engine quite well, but right now I was trying to develop my first aircraft engine around 1922 and the design requirements are as follow:

Power: 124 HP
Torque: 79 Nm
Fuel: 3.1 km/l
Weight: 223 kg
Length: 1294 mm
Width: 710 mm

Seeing the length requirements, I decide to run an inline engine with 8 cylinders, which is the best I can design. I run into the following issues:

1)Engine is underpowered.

They ask for 124 hp but the absolute best I can get is 113. I've taken all the performance enhancing options I'm aware of. I've set it to direct acting camshaft, chose diesel, pumped the performance and torque sliders to 100, added a supercharger and still it seems my engines are simply too weak for this aircraft, and this was the "easier" contract that paid less, the one I actually wanted to take demanded 175 hp of power. I have no idea how to improve this. I've seen around the Steam forums that you need to unlock higher cylinder counts to attempt these, but all the cylinder options in the design screens are like, ten points away from my engineering skill. How can I feasibly unlock those? My company has operated since 1900 and I still don't have the necessary skill.

In my general contracts I run into the following issues:

2) Engines are too heavy.

Even in the above example where I can pull off the other requirements, I've had to crank the weight modifier to 0, massively reducing potential profits. No matter what configuration I choose, when I crank up engine power and size to match requirements, the engines end up being too heavy. How can I solve this?

3) Engines have poor fuel economy.

I always run into this when trying contracts as well. They usually require power figures that even when I can match, I arrive at with fuel economy nowhere near the required amount. I'm talking half the value here. What can I do about this?

4)Engines are too expensive

Even the example I gave here where I can't even match the power requirements, I'd still only be earning about 90$ profit per engine if you calculate purely based on material cost. I get it that the game intends for you to sell civilian cars as your main source of profits, but I'd really like to be able to have a bigger variety and profitability in contracts, because I really want to make a company that's less about fulfilling the consumer market and more about doing service engines and vehicles. I'd love it if the game had trucks as well instead of only pickups and minivans, I'd have a lot of fun designing some trucks for the military.

Anyway, thanks for reading this and for any advice you might have!

[caaron14]

Just from having attended aviation maintenance training I can tell you at that time a radial engine is the only way to have much success with aircraft. Look at historical aircraft from the era such as the Ford Tri Motor, and almost all transport aircraft. All of these used either single or twin row radials.

[Eric.B]

The issue is, I never manage to find the correct settings for aircraft and ships, I only succeed at doing vehicle engines. What am I missing here?

Not every engine contract is do-able in the game depending on your design skill and technologies you've unlocked. Also there are some core technologies missing in the vanilla game, such as multi-row radials or oil burners, that would make these types of contracts easier to win. In many cases, you're going to have to pass on contracts that you can't supply.

Seeing the length requirements, I decide to run an inline engine with 8 cylinders, which is the best I can design. I run into the following issues:

The length requirement is maximum length, and not minimum.

As Caaron14 mentions, your best bet for old aircraft engines are going to be Radials or Rotories. These will minimize weight and size, which will allow you to create larger displacement engines.

They ask for 124 hp but the absolute best I can get is 113. I've taken all the performance enhancing options I'm aware of. I've set it to direct acting camshaft, chose diesel, pumped the performance and torque sliders to 100, added a supercharger and still it seems my engines are simply too weak for this aircraft, and this was the "easier" contract that paid less, the one I actually wanted to take demanded 175 hp of power.

There is no replacement for displacement, as the old saying goes. You need to create larger engines by using more cylinders or greater bore and stroke ratios.

I've seen around the Steam forums that you need to unlock higher cylinder counts to attempt these, but all the cylinder options in the design screens are like, ten points away from my engineering skill. How can I feasibly unlock those? My company has operated since 1900 and I still don't have the necessary skill.

See this recent thread about how to increase your design skills: https://steamcommunity.com/app/285110/discussions/0/2643000642398783105/

In short though, you build better designs, that you use in vehicles, fund research teams, and fund racing series. Those three increase your design skills. Sub-component skill requirements also decrease over time.

By 1922, you should have access to 9 cylinder radials and up to 12 cylinder double banked engines. 16 is also a possibility, although a stretch.

2) Engines are too heavy.

Check out Radials and Rotories as Caaron14 mentions. Other things to look at are turbos and keeping displacement down, but cylinder count up.

3) Engines have poor fuel economy.

This is probably because you're increasing the various performance metrics so high that it robs fuel economy. Using more cylinders would get you the performance you need, which will allow you to improve fuel economy.

4)Engines are too expensive

Military Contracts are not lucrative unless there is a war OR you can reuse the components for multiple contracts. The later is the main way to turn a profit on them.


Summation, try to unlock some additional technologies. Increase cylinder count to help the power/fuel economy issues. Weight will always be a problem with aircraft designs. You will not always be able to design early year contracts, so don't sweat it if you can't.

but I'd really like to be able to have a bigger variety and profitability in contracts,

Have you considered being a B2B supplier and outsourcing or licensing your designs to other manufacturers in the game? That might fill a little more of what you're looking for.

but I'd really like to be able to have a bigger variety and profitability in contracts,

Contracts have be balanced in a way that they don't break the core game. As for adding a bigger variety, sadly, there is a limitation to the amount of work I can continue to put into the game, so what you see is what we get for now.

I'd love it if the game had trucks as well instead of only pickups and minivans, I'd have a lot of fun designing some trucks for the military.

I would love to add more vehicle types to the game, including types specifically for the contracting system. Sadly however, it costs several thousand dollars worth of artwork for each type added to the game, and the game doesn't make anywhere near enough to justify the expense. After release, I hope to start a "Feature Bounty" system, in which players will contribute money, and in exchange they will vote for new vehicle types or systems to be added to the game. Many of these vehicle types include contract specific types. You can find much more information by doing a search for "Feature Bounty" or "Expansion" here on the forums. Unfortunately, due tot he nature of crowd funding, and the fact that contributors will vote on what I work on, I can't guarantee anything will be made.

I can also add, all of these systems are moddable, you can add contracts for anything want to the game, adjust the payout values for the contracts, etc. I believe there is one mod in the workshop that includes tanks for example. Although there is not artwork for them.

[Ektor Gomes]

Thank you, Eric. As always you're very open and helpful. When you get to crowd funding extensions to the game, I'll definitely pitch in if I can afford it (which I likely won't, lol)