Realistic playthrough (possible!)

[Stormmaster]

I wonder if it is possible to play this game realistically without AI workers, driving by all rules, completely avoiding teleportation, not moving crane manipulator while engine is not started yet and so on.

On my new profile I tried it, but once I relocated to city, 2.5 hours economy cycle (max) turned out to be very hard to deal with. So I ended up driving above speed limits, sometimes going on red and so on. And even then had to replace rigid trucks with semi-trailers to cut down costs.

Also I used teleportation into vehicles (by selecting a vehicle from the list), when I had no other means to get there (i.e. I want to move several vehicles from a construction site, but if I drive there, this will bring another vehicle, so I have to move one at a time and teleport into the next). Going on foot would certainly mean bankruptcy.

Btw, if you don't have enough money to pay the monthly statement, balance will only go to 0. No negatives, no overdrafts, no vehicle confiscation, no deduction from future income.

Now I am consideting making one more profile and trying a different approach: to remain a bit longer in the village and avoid teleportation completely (there is a taxi option after all).

So what are your thoughts and suggestions on how to play in a more realistic way and whether it is possible solo at all?

[Chacal]

The "without AI workers" restriction is the hard part. I don't know how I would do it.

[Computer player 1]

I play this as if I were playing Grand Theft Auto (I mean GTA5)

[Stormmaster]

Well, this game's physics engine, controls (having to hold RMB to look around) and poor in-cab visibility in combination with other feautures somewhat promotes fun comedy/parody style gameplay. When I deliver some cargo, pizza delivery from Home Alone film often comes to mind :D

But I am going to give it a realistic go. In addition to things mentioned above I am going to keep track of jobs and not take jobs for the same place twice. I suppose that "family" is the key to job's location, right?

Also I have a couple more questions.
1. Does time towards economy cycle work when the game is paused (menu opened) or minimized? I know job lists continue to refresh and sounds work even when minimized.
2. What is company color for?

[Stormmaster]

So it looks like I will be forced to use teleportation to vehicles after all. Not all locations can be reached with paid taxi, so if one of your vehicles is left at a construction site after the job is done, you can either reset it to homebase or "beam" into it by selecting it from the menu or go on foot from the nearest point reachable by paid taxi.

Ok, after the job is done, Pete (Harpe?) becomes unoccupied and can give me a lift in his car. That's why I don't pay for getting to vehicles on ex-construction sites ;)

[Chacal]

Company color is one feature that was developed but never used.

[Stormmaster]

Thanks.

edit: I did some testing. Time towards economy cycle stops when menu is open. Minimizing the game has no effect on economy time: if menu was opened, time stops; if game was minimized without open menu, time goes on.

edit: Looks like site location is indeed determined by client. So if you see a job for "Lawn family", it will be at a particular place. So you can keep track of clients and not take a job for the same person twice. After you move to the city, village jobs no longer get offered, but families with similar names (maybe it's the same people) will have jobs for you in city.

Also there is a slight variation for particular jobs. Like "Single-family house with attic" can have just palettes delivery and pay 36000, but similar looking job with the same name can have more tasks (+ digging) and pay 56500. However, this particular case requires tier 2 digger, even though actual digging can be done with Small Excavator (and the first stage is to bring Small Excavator without digging).

[Chacal]

These variations are normal because each mission (job) is built by someone using the mission editor. They probably didn't want to build similar missions.

[Stormmaster]

Yes, it's absolutely fine. I am just noting this detail to clear some confusion. I used to be a little lost earlier trying to figure out which ones I did and which I didn't (before I came to conclusion that for realism it is more important to pick different clients rather than different projects). Although as long as I am in the village without economy cycle, I can afford picking up not just different families, but different projects too.

All this is, of course, not very interesting for most players. But there may be other roleplayers, and some of them might find it useful.

edit: Btw, such variations sometimes have slightly different pictures too, so I am not yet sure
whether they count as different missions in the jobs map you created or not. I should find out soon as I almost went through all missions offered in the village.

[Stormmaster]

Is there a way to know which tower crane would be enough for which mission? I am considering taking one of the smaller cranes (high Flattop seems to be inapropriate for small houses), but I don't know how many jobs would be doable with those and at which point I would have to sell the small one and replace it with Flattop.

I had a look on my older profile (it's for testing only now). And the L1 fast-erecting crane from the latest DLC seems to have too short boom for reaching far sides even on small construction sites. And the old Tower Crane costs the same as Flattop.

So I am looking for some recomendations regarding tower cranes for my realistic playthrough.

And I am going to skip Concrete Pump and use tower cranes with bucket for pouring instead. Therefore another question: do jobs with concrete always have a place for tower crane or will I have to use Concrete Pump anyway?

[Chacal]

Have a look at this chart I made: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=606124688
I'm guessing that each type (e.g. residential normal, apartment, office, industrial) only uses one specific site size, of which there's only a few. Verify this by sampling a few. This gives you an idea of the crane size needed.

But there are two other factors:
- building height
- position of the crane area at the site.

So it's probably better to just have a look at the site and decide which crane to assign to it, which is what's done in real life anyways.

I don't think the residential_normal sites have crane areas, but it's really the choice of the author of each mission.

It is possible to read the mission files to get this kind of information (that's how I built my chart) but you never have all of them on your computer, they are downloaded from the server as needed.

Other points:

It is not necessary to sell the smaller crane, you can just store them all and pull out the one you need.

I'm not sure the L1 is useful. Here in North America I've never seen a tower crane used for building a house, only for big apartment and office buildings.

Don't ditch the concrete pump, they are used a lot in real life for foundation work or for faster work, especially when the tower crane is busy with handling other materials.

[Stormmaster]

Thanks Chacal. Your map is great, and I have been using it for a long time. Even downloaded the picture and placed it in a favorited folder to have faster access. I also keep track of all jobs I do, adding simple notes (project name, payment, client) in Notepad, in the same folder.

Unfortunately, when you accept a job, you can't always say for sure which type it belongs to (which group).
Btw, is this chart about different jobs or about construction sites? Before relocating to the city I counted 10 usual (not special) kinds of jobs (not including container transport), while Job Map says 6+2.

As for Concrete Pump, I was considering ditching it for 2 reasons:
1) to keep monthly costs lower;
2) realism: playing alone I can't start and stop Mixer's pouring while I am in the Pump, so Mixer keeps on going all the time. Though I might disregard this small issue. Indeed using tower cranes for small private houses would be more unrealistic.

Well, here is a couple more questions.
1. What do you think about Gravel Plant's mounds of earth? Would using a Wheel Loader to take it for free be inappropriate/unrealistic? I remember you mentioned doing so, but could such thing be legal in real life? Something like an agreement between construction company and quarry that would let to just come and take (but pay in case of being loaded from silos)?
2. Is it ok (realistic) to use a Mobile Crane for some residential sector jobs or for faster loading at a shop (not parking it there permanently)?

edit: I just watched Squirrel's stream about this game. Yes, some jobs need concrete, but don't have a place for tower crane, so Concrete Pump is really useful (and much more realistic than using a Mobile Crane with bucket, I suppose).

[Stormmaster]

Alright. It looks like family name doesn't really mean anything gameplaywise. When you accept a job, it simply starts on one of the default sites (if there are still default sites) or replaces one of the earlier jobs (if there are no default sites left). So to avoid replacement I simply need to keep track of how many jobs I took for particular sector and avoid taking too many.

edit: I also noticed that job variations with the same name simply have additional stages and therefore pay more or less. So, for example, "Modern single-family house with wood panels" can be a job for about 25800 or with additional task for 28300. If you are doing the more expensive version, then you will get 25800 by the time the cheaper version would be finished, but then the additional stage will make that difference. So variations of a certain job are actually exactly same project: the only difference is how much of it is contracted to your company. And the slight visual difference is a cosmetic variation that doesn't depend on what version of the job you had been doing.

edit: It looks like there are 8 construction sites in the village (including first tutorial) and 3 construction sites in the area near hotel (this is only for jobs called "Modern."). Accepting the 8-th usual job in the village will automatically demolish either one of the houses from your previous 7 village jobs or the building from tutorial. Likewise accepting the 4-th "Modern." job will demolish one of the 3 houses you built near hotel.

At the same time there are 6 unique projects for the village and 1 ("Modern.") for vacational homes area. Variations with the same names, but less stages and lower pay are available for some of the projects.

EDIT: What I really wonder is how many construction sites there are in each area. According to game files there should be 180 construction sites total, but how many in each area is unknown.

[Warren C.]

if you want realistic game play with no teleport at all there is an older game called Baumaschinen Simulator 2012 where there is no teleport. Its fun to play but can get annoying with the vehicle handling.

[Stormmaster]

Thanks for the tip, Miku Hatsune 01. Now I know why the foreman is called Pete and Hape at the same time! His name is Hans-Peter, but friends call him Hape. 2012 seems to be a really nice game and many gameplay features I like more than in 2015, but vehicle handling is more realistic in 2015.

I actually came to terms with occasional teleportation in my playthrough.

Originally posted by game's manual:

TAXI FUNCTION
In order to save time and avoid having to walk so far, you can “beam” yourself directly
into your vehicles – we call this the taxi function. Just click on the vehicle button at the
top left of the screen and choose the desired vehicle from the list in order to go directly
to the vehicle.

So I consider Hape giving me a lift, and only do this when it's really necessary.

What bothers me the most now is that I don't know how many construction sites there are in each area. The thing is I want to avoid accidental removal of houses from previously completed jobs, so I have to be careful not to take too many jobs in the same area. And also have to leave some space for Hospital, e.t.c, e.t.c.

[Chacal]

Be aware that completed jobs have a performance impact on the game. The effect is quite evident on the loading time when a new player joins the game.
Personally I don't keep them because I never go back to look at them anyway, but I'm not striving for realism.