Expenses

[n1ghtstalk3r423]

I have a couple of thoughts for improvements. Still relatively new to the game so I may have missed it, but is there a way to display the breakdown of expenses? I know there's the pie chart for rough breakdown and there's the the parts cost list. But is there a way to sort them by assembly segment(i.e. Chassis, body, engine) that way it is easier to target which to start making in house instead of scrolling through the whole list?
Another thing I was looking for was profit margin on the cars themselves. Again I may have missed this but that is something else that could help drive research and/or manufacturing expenses.
General comment on the game itself. I really enjoy this came so far. I am a mechanical engineering and this reminds me a lot of my manufacturing systems class and my manufacturing experience in general. I think there's a lot of good stuff already and it has even more potential.

[Obiwan]

Your finanace button is the count of your cash in the top right.

Finance ==> Imports ==> Sort by price.

Also note the price is total per hour which is better than just the single item since arguably 1 item could cost 10k but you only need 1 per car where as another item could be 5k but you need 4 per car.

So pay attention to the count per hour aswell as the cost.

You can change the title now because that which has existed almost since day one does not needeth improved.

[n1ghtstalk3r423]

Thanks for that. I didn't realize clicking on the time increment sorted by price.

I would stil like to see the profit margins on the cars. That way you could see how much you're spending on a car and if it's actually worth putting the combination of features in or if its just not worth making that kind of car.

[Obiwan]

You can do that too ... one moment. Income tab.

It shows how much is being made per car and how many are sold within the respective times.

Click "details" on any one of them will show you the car in a detailed breakdown and it doesn't just show you the profit margin it shows you the profit margin on EVERY single feature equipped aswell.

Couple this with the market screen which is accessed from the showroom button and hittin the "Market" tab and you then can get a full picture.

You know how much the car is making, you know what parts are of value, you know how many you are making per hour, you know how well they sell, you know if you meet demand and you can easily see which cars spin the cash, which need reconsidered and everything inbetween.

Between the Financial ==> Income

Car Stock/Sales (looks like a car with dollar tag along the top of GUI) ==> Market.

and finally Car Designs ==> Default screen which can also be accessed by hitting "Details" button from the Income tab of the "Financial" screen.

Hopefully this helps out. It is not that our beloved Cliff never thought to put these necessities in. It is that he was 10 steps ahead because the way he is doing it means the profit margins and break down are FAR more detailed than you would expect and split across forms for the reason that you can get very specific levels of info about the car or you can see a good idea of what is going on at a glance.

It also is designed that expanding on any aspect of the car be it body, features, price fluctuations and all that is to come does not require a re-design to facilitate.

Hope this all helps again.

[TheWhiteFlame]

as i understood it the "details window" only shows you how much you get as additional profit from the premium fee. but the true net profit would be [sales price - (running) manufacturing costs] but these costs are not comprehensivly listed as i understood it. since this would involve (even if we neglect one time costs like purchasing slots) not only from importoted goods but also from electricity and personel, right? however it would maybe be nice if the price of all raw components would be shown, so you can see the differents between market value and added up raw components. but even this seems difficult, since if you produce SOME of it for youself and buy SOME of the same components - which should the game use for calculation? the only way i see, this is possible if it is calculated for each INDIVIDUAL CAR. (then also maybe the time and thus costs for elec/pers could be tracked) - but then again this could only be shown in the showroom - since the detail window is for all of the same "type".
one more difficulty... in th end game you add features faster than one car takes from start to finish, so you end up with lots of cars in the showroom that are labed with "missing features". as a result THEIR price (the old version) is different from the price shown in the detail window (which is the NEW version of the car).

and if this feature is added, maybe there could also be a list of last SOLD INDIVIDUAL cars, so these numbers can be accesses even if the car LEFT the showroom.
this are just some suggestions...

[Obiwan]

i really dont understand why this matters if the income and expenses tale tells all.

Individual car profit is moot due to fluctuations in the value. You dont set a price you set a markup over base cost.

Income makes it very clear what car is making money individual price is moot given 100k car that only sells 1 an hour vs 12k car that sells 10 is pretty obvious.

People want info for the sake of it even though it is not necessary in the context they request it.

Same goes for seeing what parts are costing and working out what to produce in-house.

[TheWhiteFlame]

Originally posted by Obiwan:

Individual car profit is moot due to fluctuations in the value. You dont set a price you set a markup over base cost.

not really. the premium may be 0 or even negative. premium 0 does not equal a profit of 0% as i understood it... it just means you sell it at market value. how much profit that is per car is totally unrelated and dependent on your production. well at the very least i would be very interested in what the BASE MARKET VALUE is approximatley over the prodcutions costs... even if the dev would just state that fact somewhere as the approximate number...

Originally posted by Obiwan:

Income makes it very clear what car is making money individual price is moot given 100k car that only sells 1 an hour vs 12k car that sells 10 is pretty obvious.

well you can choose to produce MORE of the that type that makes you more money PER car and then decide to procude less of the type that nets you less per car BASED on exactly these values (within the limitations of maximal global demand ofc), or am i missing sth here? and well calculating it all by yourself is a bit tedious. i mean you cant tell me that a manager doesnt want to know what a finished product had cost - or at least its raw materials summed up.

Originally posted by Obiwan:

People want info for the sake of it even though it is not necessary in the context they request it.

different people look at different values to make different decisions so what? who defines what is necessary as you said? i mean practically finished my first scenario after 3 days with millions of $ without ever caring much about any of the finance tabs. since basically whats necessary is really just having the right ratio of cars for each market section with the optimal number of features (which featuers is absolutley not important) and you get away with importing everything anyway, since manufacturing is even post-late game. so i if it helps some people or even just for curiosity, why not? i mean business guys look at all kinds of numbers just to get the picture right, right? sure you can live without it, but you could play without many things and still got it working somehow - so thats also not the best argument against it - though i agree with you on the fact that its simply not a *necessity* in that sense, but as i said what really is? if players feel its added value then it maybe is (at least as long as the programming effort is reasonable).

[TheWhiteFlame]

i mean the income tab tells me the income per car but NOT the profit margin?!
btw maybe you have better knowledge here than me, what exactly is the difference between profit and operating profit in the finance window?

[cliffski]

Profit is the actual profit, as you would normally calculate it, ie: the income minus the expenses for that hour. Operating profit is the same, but it ignores capital expenditure on stuff like new slots and facilities. Its a good way to show if you are profitable on a general 'day-to-day' basis, ie: are you making a profit on each car.

[n1ghtstalk3r423]

Like I said, I'm relatively new to the game so I might just need to play it for another 10-20 hours. I've really enjoyed it so far and like a lot of the realistic aspects to it. I also understand its still in early access. So i'm just going to play through it some more and then go from there.