Congratulations for your 500.000 copies sold. Your roadmap sound great also but … there is an essential feature that is not planned and it is for me the one that will change this game from a shop builder to a real management game. The delivery system.
Currently you can buy goods in ports and everything is teleported directly in your warehouse without any cost. Carrying goods should be huge cost and logistics problem. It has many consequences, fuel consumption, traffic disturbance, trucks maintenance, more employees, etc …
Goods are also teleported from warehouses to shops without any cost again. With 2 drivers and 2 trucks i can supply my 6 shops without any problems, delivering thousands of goods each day with my small trucks and everything is done on time and for free ( except drivers salary )
With a real delivery system many things will change, all for a better realism.
- Traffic disturbance : The trucks will have to travel through the traffic and may be late if you underestimate the number of trucks needed for all your deliveries. Drivers probably won’t be able to park in front of the shop to deliver, so they will disturb the traffic for the time they are delivering.
- Trucks fleet : Because of all delivery problems it will be necessary to have a real management for trucks and drivers as their number will increase significantly
- Costs : fuel consumption and trucks maintenance will generate cost, currently trucks works for free, also more drivers will be needed
- Warehouses proximity : it will be needed to hire more warehouses and choose the ones that are really closed to shops to deliver
- Supply disturbance : as often the deliveries will not be made on time, shops will have shortages, lowering money earned
This list is probably not complete but it will have many consequences on many aspects of this game, especially on money gain.
I understand it is a big feature with many changes but really i was surprised that you didn’t do this feature since the beginning. You have developped a good city engine, but the only use of this is that the player can drive in streets, surprising.
After opening my 6th shop i have stopped playing because it is too easy and i feel like i’m playing to a shop builder and not a management game, i make so much money that the only task is opening a new shop to spend this money, and another one, and another one. I haven’t tried the factories yet, it sounds goods, but it is the same problem, i will teleport goods i’m producing for free and finally factories will be just another kind of shop.
I will give another try in the future, i’m waiting for this game to become a real management game, and it has the potential to become the best in its category, currently it is really too easy, i hope you will make this feature one day and many others that will make this game more challenging. Keep on your good work !!!