Industries becoming available?

[1Lt. Killroy [42ndPA]]

Another "I haven't played in a while and my brain lost the information," question.

But can anyone remind me what needs to happen to make an industry available? Sometimes when I go to build my second factory in a city, the price for some industries is just question marks. I feel like I've seen this even if I had the needed resources getting piped into the city. I also know, eventually, I have access to them, but I've not associated what action it was that I took that unlocked it for me.

So I just couldn't remember what needs to happen there. My tired brain thanks you in advance.

[Thineboot]

Citizen.

Too short? The more citizen, the more goods they want and as soon as they want a good the corresponding factory becomes available on the map.

[Maxim]

1. Look at the spot where you see graphics across the bottom of your screen that
contain an empty space for a factory that has a "plus symbol +".

2. If you push the plus sign, then it (displays) distracts you with the list down the right side of the screen where the game is showing purchase prices for the factories, including the factories with the "question marks ??".

3. Underneath each of the factory spots at the bottom however, are the requirements for the total number of citizens displayed for each factory spot.

4. The missing requirement you are looking for, is the fact that factories with a "??" cannot be purchased until the product they produce becomes in demand in some city, which must grow past the lower citizen counts before getting to the advanced products being in demand.

[chaney]

I'll put it yet another way: until a particular Factory product is in demand *somewhere* on the map, the player can't build that kind of Factory. There is some detail in that, I'll leave the explicit details to be asked for because some of them are fun to discover for one's self and I'd rather not spoil that fun if you want it :)

[1Lt. Killroy [42ndPA]]

That all makes sense. I appreciate it. It usually ends up not being a problem in the long run, but there are sometimes I see proactive opportunities early in a scenario and I try to get ahead of the game, only to find those pesky questionmarks. Usually when I need to build the factory "on scenario schedule" its available. This is helping me connect the dots more.

Thanks!

[chaney]

Yup, anticipating the tough goal needs is key! Maybe you can get ahead of the market by Building some place to stockpile the anticipated goods.

[Dray Prescot]

If you see ??? marks for the cost of the Industry, then you can not build it, because there is NO CITY on the the ENTIRE GAME MAP (including Cities served by the competing RRs) that has a population large enough to demand that good OR it is before the Date the good becomes available in the Game.

If it is a resource or good needed as an input to an Industry, then there is NO Industry on the Game Map that demands the resource or good. There is no demand for Iron until there is a demand for steel, and there is no demand for steel until there is an industry that needs steel to make something. I think that there can be a demand for coal by the population, on at least some Maps, well before there is a demand for iron, i.e. they are probably burning coal to heat their homes.

Look at the demand list for resources and goods, it shows you at what size of population in any City that resource or good starts being demanded, and if there is a date involved as well.