Max's Beginners Guide

A guide to help those new to the game. May contain some insight for experienced players.

Getting Started

DISCLAIMER: This guide contains my preferences, your experience may differ.

Enter your character/game creation screen. Set up you initial character's looks.

I prefer to play with my character as a part of their own team or as a leader of a programming team. If you want your character to be a loner, then choose traits that will make him/her hardworking, independent and middle bar for lazy/stressed. If you want him/her to lead a group, you want them to be social instead. Regardless, you want to lower the bars for Lead and Market completely.



Set your staring funds, in game you can start with a 100,000 loan, but on the 5000 start you can create a minimal office for your character to start contracts. You can set difficulty and days per month. More days = longer game. I prefer 4 per month.

You are ready to begin...

My First Building/My First Contract

First off Pause and build yourself a building.

I prefer to lay the infrastructure for what is to come. On a standard 5000 start, I will max out the loan.

Build a 4x4 Room for reception, a 3x4 room for utilities, and a 3x3 room (with room to expand) for your character. Build a sizeable basement 7x7-10x10 and connect to surface via elevator.

Reception will be for reception and coffee. You want the building heating and cooling. The basement will be used for building pallets, printers, and servers.

Note: As you expand your building keep an eye on your heating and cooling. If you click on them you can see how much is being used.

Build a parking spot and set the spots to guests and couriers (delivery). This will ensure you are able to get deals and ship products.
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Your character should be able to knock out close to 2 contracts per month. You want to look for items that do NOT require art (no game assets) for now. All available contracts will be worth about 8-12k, if you have options then pick the ones that have the smallest per/bug penalty. Design/develop then quickly release before searching for bugs (or allow a small time). More contracts in less time = more money.

As you satisfactorily complete contracts/deals you will gain more business recognition (denoted by stars at top of screen). Black means you have acheived that level, green means growing, and red means shrinkiing. Better business recognition and better quality reception area (unconfirmed) = more and better contracts and deals.

Pay back your loan, save money (you earn interest on your insurance), and start looking for printing deals.

My First Factory?

NOTE: If you desire a more difficult experience, then skip building a factory.

As of the current version, print deals are kind of... game breaking, but perfect for new players. It is easily the most lucrative of the deals. Here is the breakdown of creating a running factory:

Beginning printers - Minor Costs to electricity prints 18 boxes per month.
Each box contains 1000 products
Each product costs 0.10 to make

Overall costs at full printing is 18 x 1000 x 0.10 = 1800

Pallets - will hold 27 boxes at a time

Courier - A hired courier costs 2000 a month and takes 54 boxes/month (on 4 days/month).
An outsourced courier will come once and take all boxes, but will charge 75 per box.
- It will reach the cost of a hired courier at about 27 boxes.

I prefer the math of hiring a courier team and keeping the print deals rolling. 3 printers per courier. You can see your monthly creation and shipping on the distribution table.

You will need to dedicate one parking spot per courier per shift. They work 4 hours so you can have 6 shifts only requiring the one parking spot. 12k/month for a full day of courier service.

Your recurring costs per 54 boxes totals 7400 (in addition to a slight electrical bill).
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Deals will generally offer 4-9 months to complete 25,000 - 6,000,000+ copies at between 0.25 and 0.65 per copy.

Divide by 1,000 to quickly figure out how many boxes this is: 25 - 6,000.

Additionally multiply the price by 1,000 to figure out how much each box earns you: 250-650

Low End: 25 Boxes at 250 per box = 6250 and will cost 4500 (2500 Print and 2000 courier) for a Total Profit of 1750

25 Boxes at 175 per box = 4375 and will cost 2550 (Print/ 50 for courier) for a Total Profit of 1825

Medium: 750 Boxes at 400 per box = 300000 and will cost 103000 (75000 Print and 28000 courier) for a Total Profit of 197000

750 Boxes at 325 per box = 243750 and will cost 75050 (Print/ 50 For courier) for a Total Profit of 168700

High End: 6000 Boxes at 600 per box = 3600000 and will cost 824000 (600000 Print and 224000 courier) for a Total Profit of 2776000

6000 Boxes at 525 per box = 3150000 and will cost 600050 (Print/ 50 For courier) for a Total Profit of 2549950

Note: Keep in mind that your couriers will charge regardless of if there is anything to ship or not. They can be quite a drain if you aren't getting enough deals, but it can be a pain to fire/rehire.

Skills and Teams

It is time to start thinking about teams. Eventually you will have the money to set them up.

SKILLS

There are 5 skills that gain experience. 3 of these skills have specializations or subskills such as System, 2D, and Audio. If a project you are working on requires System - then the speed and quality will be based on the experience of the Skill (Design/Program/Art) and specialization System. All Skills and specializaitions will gain skill by doing, albeit very slowly (1% per day on 4 days/month).

Role	Description	Specialization	Training
Leader	Effectiveness of leaders ability to raise others effectiveness	No	Trains Skill Experience
Designer	Speed of design phase quality of design	Yes	Trains Specialization Experience
Programmer	Speed of Programming phase quality of Program	Yes	Trains Specialization Experience
Artist	Speed of Art quality of Art	Yes	Trains Specialization Experience
Marketing	Effectiveness and speed of Marketers	No	Trains Skill Experience

It is somewhat difficult to train up the base Design, Program, Art skill at an estimated 36%/Year if constantly working, where it takes a three month course to max out Leader and Marketing. Each of the specializations will take three months to max, but seem to degrade to the overall skill. So after a person with a base design skill of 25% goes to a 3 month audio course and gets max audio skill, audio will slowly tick back to 25%.
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TRAITS

Traits drive personality:

NOTE: Untested/cannot find values.

Hardworker: Raises worker effectiveness
Fast Learner: Raises Rate of Learning
Independent: Low Socialization need, unlikely to become lonely
Social: Higher Socialization need, but more compatible with others
Lazy: Lower stress gain, but prone to wander or have reduced effectiveness
Stressed: Stays on task... too on task. Very prone to stressing out...

All like traits will be 100% or above. Anything above 100% provides an effectiveness boost. The best are Flirt/Extrovert and generous/Optimist with 187.5 compatibility which gives about a 20-25% boost.
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TEAMS

So we know a bit about skills now and how long it can take to train, so lets look at some team compositions and how to build them. We will be focusing on maximizing effectiveness.

There are many options to choose from:

All-Rounders: Attempt to make teams that max every skill. This way you can flow from development-marketing/support without much thought. Employees will want compensation for their skills and it will take a few in game years to gain experience and then the training. Art is the hardest skill to consistantly gain and is the most damaging to development. Programming can be trained fairly consistently with support jobs.

Multi-Role: Teams that contain members specialized in each role. 2 Designers, 5 Programmers, 1 Artist. It takes less time to complete training and they can also go from development-marketing/support, but members not currently in use will be idle and require a lounge to avoid bugging others. (I have noticed in some games, the speed associated with design/development/art seems to be tied to the overall team rating.)

Single-Role: Teams consist of a single role. A Design Team, Programming Team, Art Team. High Team rating. Education only in primary field means they can be 100% in about a 1.5 years. They will all be idle/working at the same time. Setting the vacation to maximum months means the team is always about 85-95% staffed.

Teams should be about 10-12 people to maximize project effectiveness. Multiteam penalties have been nerfed so assigning 3 teams of 10 to a project that requires 30 is not a big deal.

Being Effective

Effectiveness is a percentage that shows how quickly your personnel will work. Under the employee screen most of the effectiveness affectors are listed under Work Affectors.



Several things can impact effectiveness:

Satisfaction is the easiest to fulfill and the hardest hitting.

Energy	Will lower over time and will be counteracted by coffee
Bladder	Lowers over time and counteracted by using the toilet
Social	Lowers over time dependendant on traits counteracted by using a watercooler, attending meetings, and eating together
Hunger	Lowers over time counteracted by using a vending machine, or eating cooked meals
Stress	Lowers over time dependendant on traits counteracted by using a watercooler, attending meetings, and eating cooked meals

Mood boosting items help to offset the decreases you will suffer in order to keep satisfaction at 100%. If Satisfaction falls below 100% Effectiveness will fall as well. If any item that pertains to satisfaction reaches -100% (All Red) then the overall satisfaction will be 0.

Light is required to work. There is no noticeable difference between windows and lights. Windows supposedly leak AC, while lights cost electricity to run.

A noisy environment will reduce effectiveness.

Unideal temperatures will reduce effectiveness.

The environment of the room will impact effectiveness. A clock, later computers and the TV can improve effectiveness.

Increasing the salary will boost effectiveness. Right click on a character or their name to bring up character options, then choose raise. In testing, a slight move to the right, about 500 (4200 salary) gave about 15% for 1.5 years. All the way to the right (Full green/2000/150% pay increase) increased effectiveness by 60% from 120% to 180% (150% effectiveness increase) and lasted 4 years 1 month until i got tired of testing it. My assumption is that the bonus remains until the salary 'catches up' through skill/time pay desires increases.

Expansion!

Now you have some money saved (hopefully). So let's talk about building. Rent is calculated from built on land, not land expansion. So feel free to expand those borders.

Up can be better than wide. You can have 10 floors, so a small building with 1 team/ floor can have 10 total teams. Your folks will have to walk longer if you build wider.

I prefer to build in multiples of 8x8, so : 16x16, 24x24, 24x16. This is so i can put parking right up against the building. Who needs outside areas? It ends up looking like: a building surrounded by parking, surrounded by roads, surrounded by a double layer of parking and another layer of roads. This should provide close, ample parking for your needs.

If you can't expand, but are having issues with parking, then change your teams shifts around so only a fraction are using parking at a time. It is more efficient to have folks drive to work versus bussing.
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When building it is all about minimizing travel distances so that work is more efficient. You don't want an individual or group travelling 10 floors and 20 tiles to have a meeting, walking all the way back to their desk and then travelling back that same distance to get a coffee. If you select a room and right click, you can set both the usage and teams for that room. For some rooms, like the canteen or meeting rooms, you can and should set multiple teams.

A floor should contain at minimum: a team room, a leader room (Bonus for own room), 1-3 toilet rooms, a meeting room (if not in the team room), and a canteen. You can set two or more teams to one floor and have them share the canteen/meeting/restrooms. On that floor restrict usage to all rooms to the teams assigned to that floor. If you are setting your teams up to contain different roles, then a lounge becomes necessary. As individuals without work will go there instead of making noise at their desk.

Example set up:

Basement: Contains printers, servers and pallets. 'Morale' room for lazy Pallets are located near the Elevator/Stairs.

Floor 1: Reception/Marketing team(s): canteen, meeting, toilets all assigned to marketing
Rooms for heating/AC

Floor 2: Art team and Design team: canteen, meeting, toilets all assigned to both art team and design team.

Floor 3: Production team: canteen, meeting, toilets all assigned to production

Rooms

There are a few different types of rooms to build. The goal will be to maximize effectiveness by having rooms close enough not to waste time, but far enough to eliminate noise. Have enough decorative items to increase rooms environment to 200%. If it falls below 100% it will start to be considered shoddy.

Team rooms: These will require enough computers for all of your workers. If you have multi-role teams you will most likely want to assign computers so they use the proper work boost item (Calculator, Drawing tablet). You will want a clock, bookcase, and a few mood boosting items to bring environment up to 200%. A water cooler will allow socialization in the office. Avoid noise making items. Leaders will get a bonus if assigned their own room.

Canteen: Needs tables and chairs and tables for serving trays, can double as the coffee room. Use a vending machine in case cooked food runs out. You can wall off and seperate your kitchen, but that is not necessary.

Meeting: Meeting rooms will require enough tables and chairs for everyone on a team. If there are not enough the meeting will happen with a reduced number, however, those not in attendance do not get buffs.

Lounge: If unassigned all idle workers (cleaners, IT, Mx, Courier) will gather here. So place it near the elevators. If assigned to a team, personnel from that team will utilize it when idle, which is a MUST for multi-role teams.

Restrooms: For potty breaks.

Coffee/Vending Rooms: Loud items should be kept out of offices, create a separate room for these items or include them in the Canteen.

Reception: Will contain reception desk and receptionist. (Untested: More receptionist = More Deals) Can double as an unofficial lounge for workers. Ensure adequate nearby Guest parking.

Printer Room: Must have Printers and Pallets. LOUD. A must for aspiring factory managers. Good option for the basement... does not require good environment.

Server Room: Tables and servers. LOUD. Good option for the basement... does not require good environment.

Hallways: Build hallways (2 wide) to eliminate noise pollution between your team rooms and other rooms.
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Noise

Noise maxes out at 80db. It is stackable and travels around corners as if walls were not there. Noisy items placed next to each other amplify. Noise is only a concern for personnel that are working.

Walls block 60% of noise and shorten range.

Cubicles Block 30% of noise for 2 spaces, but do not reduce overall range. Noise will return to normal after 2 tiles. However the effect is stackable. Reducing Espresso to 25 db at 4 tiles with 3 layers.



Glass doors (Single and double), openings and Large windows leak extra ambient sound and allow sound to travel between rooms.

Name	Decibels (db)	Range	Range Thru Walls
Fridge	50	5	15 db thru 1 tile
Central Heating and A/C	80	9	25 db thru 2 tile
Vending	30	3	Not thru walls
Espresso	70	7	20 db thru 2 tile
Coffee	50	5	15 db thru 1 tile
Instant Coffee	30	3	10 db thru 1 tile
Toilet	30	N/A	10 db thru 1 tile
Computer (With Phone)	20 (30)	1 (2)	Not thru wall
Idle Worker	30-40	2	Not thru wall
Ambient Outside Noise	15	1	Travels from first floor walls adjacent to outside

My First Project

So you have yourself some teams and the rooms to house them, you are ready to start a project.

(I usually assign my character to do the first one on his own.)

Picking your project:

All software besides OS, CMS, and a few other modded items will require other software/OS to run, you will be charged a licensing fee per.

You can select multiple OSs to port to in order to maximize your reach.

Building OSs, CMSs, and certain modded items will always have max reach.



Determine which product you want to make and note about how long it will take. Great now back out of the creation menu... Check the Upcoming software to make sure you will not be in direct competition with anyone else.



Since this is your first project your market recognition is low. This means you are not competitive. It also means that the default price is way too high. You need to lower it to gain more sales -> to gain more followers-> to gain more recognition.

Design and specialization skills determine the rate of design. Outstanding is a matter of time. The products finished quality will be dependent on the skill of assigned programmers and artists. They have to have a high base skill and a high specialization skill. You need to note on the creation screen/design pop-up which specializations are needed.

Hire external reviews of your products @ 100/per in order to figure out how good the product is prior to release.

Marketing will increase followers for about three months... you can hold off on assigning a date and releasing press releases/press builds until then.

Do not neglect marketing after release.

Final Takeaways

Build for effectiveness.

Hire teams members with like traits. It will always be at least 100% team compatibility. 100% team compatibility = 111.99% effectiveness, while 187.5% team compatibility = 123.76% effectiveness.

Determine desired traits for your team... and set up your team. Do you want Hardworking Snob -Introverts, or Social Flirty - Extroverts, or Generous - Dramatists that fall apart after 6 hours of work... but they are on point for those 6 hours...

Will each team have its own private room with their own private computers (No known bonuses)? Or will they share on shifts?

I hope you have enjoyed and have taken something away!

[LarryWF]

"on 4 days/month"

Who the hell plays this way? Default is 1 day a month.

[[DSTM] Misha600]

I was doing a print job for the first time. I didn't realize i needed to print 7 FUCKING MILLION COPIES! Now i'm 7 million in debt.
fml

[ZeketheKaiser]

TheGamerOfDaAges you would buy all their stocks everyone of them and then you can make them subsidiary

[Carl Bread]

How would I take over a company/ Make them a subsidary?

[ToT]

i cant get the printers to put stuff in the pallets i have, whats wrong

[MaxMoore]

I have started a game with OSs in older alpha's... when it was a little more gamebreaking. It seems like your would have to put out a few before you would have enough recognition to corner the market now. Thanks for the tips!

[Fluffy The Destroyer]

besides that, adding a few extra images should help. For some reason when I click on them it refuses to popup larger, it gives me an error that its not available. and lastly, just a bit more details in your first projects or couple of projects at start should help with this guide. good work

[Fluffy The Destroyer]

in your getting started section. You could probably add (you can test it if you want too) that if you want to start doing "Operation System", I max out the funds to start with that way I go wtih the optimal number of employees, have enough to make a small office and assign roles to them seperately. That way I can almost start right away in the month of febuary by doing an OS with all my people working on one. I can start making money when its finished. I've done it multiple times and that one seems to work if I want to do OS's.

If I ever do that with 12.5k starting funds, forget that OS even with bare minimum, it wont work...well not with me it didn't anyways.