Management - Shops, stalls and stock

[Curlyriff]

So there was a large set of replies in Management Matters and I have extracted my list of ideas to improve, advance, develop what we currently have in hopes we could discuss and get some feedback on peoples thoughts. We have seen there are a good number of management styled players in the game so it appears things are wanted to get the best management possible that is accessible to all player types/styles.

- Stock Management which I am hoping Bitter will comment on my thoughts with his idea so that it is easier to use without having to place hundreds of paths but still got enough depth of game play for us to manage and control accordingly.

-Shops and stalls We have seen the latest image that shows shops and their management. I would like to take this a step further and include a few others;

- Clothes Shop (t-shirts, hoodies, button shirts)
- Food Stands (Popcorn, Prezel, Candy Floss, Slushie's)

The management of the shops to incorporate a menu system with slots:
-1-5 main slots
-1-3 side slots
- Condiments for each
- Discount if you purchase main and side (set by player)

I would like to remove the fries stall and place them as a side dish (sorry but I have never seen a fries only stall in my life). At least not without having hotdogs & nuggest on the menu or significant fries options which come with special toppings (check out best fries forever on google for an idea).

Add nuggets to the chicken stall.

Wondering sellers of Gulpee Energy drinks similar to Redbull sellers.


Closing Thoughts and Thanks for Reading
I think most of these have been discussed here or in a few sporadic threads so just wanted to list them all out and see peoples thoughts on basic concepts are and if they have any impact.

The good thing about the ones that are maybe more deep in design and which not everyone wants to use, they have ways to short cut them such as hiring senior staff rather than training, always scrapping the ride for recycle so it's done and dusted etc.

I don't want to limit/remove fun for players who like to be creative and those that only want a basic management system, however I do think a lot more can be given to the game for people who want more depth to this area. If you have managed to read through all this and get this far then thank you and all opinions matter from everyone playing [happy]

Regards,

Curly

Link to original thread by Curlyriff:
Management (Evolved)

 

[danijami23]

Regarding the fries stall: Frontier are from the UK, and in this part of the world we have chip shops, which is basically an entire meal built around eating fries. I suspect they called it fries to keep it recognisabke for American customers.

 

[Curlyriff]

Regarding the fries stall: Frontier are from the UK, and in this part of the world we have chip shops, which is basically an entire meal built around eating fries. I suspect they called it fries to keep it recognisabke for American customers.

I am from the UK where we have Fish & Chip shops but certainly not chip shops. At least nothing South of Birmingham that I have been too/seen/heard off or Manchester where I spend a lot of time at. Maybe I have just missed all these gourmet chip shops?

I did try to google to confirm but haven't found any and as said the only one google brought up was the one I named so thought that might be an option? My point was more Burgers come with fries, Hot dogs come with fries, Chicken comes with fries. It is certainly more of a side although you could just order them without the main as such.

Just an opinion on what really exists and how it could work. Maybe the gourmet fries stall could be like the one I named that could have different toppings so:

- Nacho cheese (lashings of mexico cheese)
- Wicked West (chilli beef & cheese)
- Flaming Fire (Hot chilli sauce)
- Curry Curlies (Curly fries with curry source)
- Want me Naked (just fries, no sauce)

(Reworks of what they do for ideas)

Thank you for the feedback and hope the above response gives some thought on why I would either like to see the changes or how we could adjust my initial thoughts to suit the player base further.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

Also in regards to stock management, I would say that it would work where we see stock items as percentages being used. This way we would have it maybe as;

- Burgers (bun and meat) X%
- Salad (garnish for burger) X%
- Ketchup X%
- Mayonnaise X%
- Burger Sauce X%
- Salt X%
- Vinegar X%

This way we can see what is being used and how quickly. If we control what runs out we can adjust our menus until we are restocked.

Stuff spoils so if it is in the warehouse too long before being assigned to the distribution centre then it is wasted stock). Once it is ready for distribution I would suggest that it can no longer spoil otherwise there would be too many points to manage.

Restocking happens every night automatically but you can set if the shop should be restocked when the items are at say 70% or 40% or similar. This way you are managing your stock control by trying to calculate how much you have stored, when are you likely to need to order it again and thus what the running costs are which fluctuate to this accordingly.

This of course could be automated if you had the options in menu for something like "basic management" or "advance management" gameplay.

 

[xyphic]

Hi Curlyriff,

First up, thanks for pulling your thoughts out of the big thread. I know this is a lot of work, but even now this is a long list and it'll be hard to keep a coherent debate going on a single point. I think that your ideas would better get the attention they deserve if they each had a thread of their own (e.g. "Management Matters - Stock", "Management Matters - Staff", etc.). Maybe a friendly mod could help here. That being said, I'll put my thoughts inline.

To start with, and my biggest concern about adding 'depth' to the management side of things is that if you're not careful, you will actually fail to add that depth and instead simply add busy work. If you end up in a situation where you're reacting to something (because you've got a notification that something is wrong such as low stock levels or unhappy staff) then it takes you away from what you were doing and it ends up being an annoyance. What you really need to be doing is planning so that you're doing the work up-front, and reacting to problems should be something exceptional rather than the norm.

The other concern is that by adding all this 'depth' you move from the 'simulation' genre to the 'resource management' genre. One of my favourite games of the past was The Settlers, and I loved that in order to build something you first needed to gather the resources for it, and you had to keep on top of your resource management otherwise your settlement could fail. But that's not what this game is or should be, IMO. That's not to say that there can't be aspects of this type of game.

Stock Management

I like the idea of managing stock. I like the idea that if you order too much stock, you'll lose money. If you order too little, your shops will have to close. If this were to be implemented, there should be a lag between placing an order and its arrival. The shortcut here would allow the game to place the stock orders for you, but they would always err on the side of caution and order too much rather than too little, so if you don't care about stock management you won't see your shops close but you also won't be able to minimise expenditure (or maximise profit).

I don't like the idea that it would take time to transport stock from an on-site warehouse to each individual shop. That's a step too far for me.

Shops and stalls

Definitely scope for more advanced management of menus. It has to add significant gameplay though, and I'm not sure what that would actually be beyond the obvious: more salt => thirsty guests => more drinks sold. I also agree that the more shops the better. I'm sure they'll come with time.

Closing Thoughts and Thanks for Reading

The biggest thing that has to come with any of these 'optional' management aspects is that there must not be an explicitly punitive aspect in ignoring them. Basically, if you don't use them it should make no difference to you, but if you do choose to use them you can improve your margins. Of course, if you choose to use them and use them badly, then you might lose out but you at least had the choice. This is why I don't think the idea of purchasing senior staff as a shortcut works.

I hope you don't get me wrong; I'm not trying to say that these ideas don't have merit -- they do, and should be welcomed. What I'm trying to say is that if you're aiming a game at a wide demographic, achieving balance is always going to be hard. The trick is finding those areas where you can strike the balance, and implement something that works but isn't punitive in the 'simple' mode but where moving into the 'advanced' mode can provide depth for those who want it.

 

[Curlyriff]

xyphic,

Thank you for the feedback and the break down response which makes it easy to follow. I put them in a post because I didn't want to clutter the forum but I can understand that each may be better to be separate. I will ask a mod what they would like to see in that regards and ask them to split if needed.

Your points certainly make sense and I do agree with you. I have been wrapping my head around about what makes depth and what makes it tedious. I have tried to strike a balance. It is a bit like why the devs decided to just add more levels to the training without understanding what we would like from that training so going from 3 levels to 5 levels but making them still generic hasn't really added anything in my opinion.

Stock Management ties in with shops and stalls. Your solution for the auto manage stock seems like a good solution and as you say you can only maximise profit/minimise losses by doing manually but it wont be so adverse that you are forced into manual management.

The time itself to walk to and from I didn't like either. My thought was just that stock updates to what you have set at midnight each day. The distribution centre was the thought that you would need to have a distribution centre for 'X' number of shops and if you have more shops than the distribution centre can support then it means that the shops are not being restocked properly either they only get % of stock instead of being refilled or 'X' shops do not get stocked at all and are forced to close till you sort your distribution out.

Shops and stalls

My main problem is they just don't feel like real shops in honesty. Seperate shops with very limited food is not how things work and it takes away from the great feeling that Frontier have created with their guests "living" as such.

Further to that the idea as you with salt etc is in the game and assume that is how it works because it has before. With that in mind, the idea to combo sell and that some guests would only buy say item 'Y' because they brought item 'X' and get a discount is something that you are influencing with your options and offers. Again this is to maximise profit and you could just select auto or set all and be done and not worry if you don't want to manage all your shops to be optimised.

Closing Thoughts and Thanks for Reading

Cheers for all of the input and I am hoping it can be seen that all of these layers are adding depth maybe only a small amount, maybe by some more but they all add up to make it feel more fulfilling. The ability to make sure that all of the player base has got at least 2 ways to achieve the same goal with one being more simplified than the other whilst really making people care to at least try them out.

I feel these are certainly a good step in the right direction with that.

Thanks again [happy]

 

[danijami23]

Haha sorry Curlyriff, I didn't realise youre from the UK, i hope my explanation of chippies didn't sound too patronising.

But yeah youre quite right - chips vs fries. Fries are usually what you get with your burger etc, but I guess it's just a good way for Frontier to flesh out their shops with some different bits. Either way, definitely kudos to you for getting so many ideas out there... plenty for FD to spend months arguing about implementing!!

 

[Curlyriff]

Haha sorry Curlyriff, I didn't realise youre from the UK, i hope my explanation of chippies didn't sound too patronising.

But yeah youre quite right - chips vs fries. Fries are usually what you get with your burger etc, but I guess it's just a good way for Frontier to flesh out their shops with some different bits. Either way, definitely kudos to you for getting so many ideas out there... plenty for FD to spend months arguing about implementing!!

No worries [wink]

All is good. Angelis has shown me that in parts of Belgium at least there may well be fries stalls but that is very limited compared to what I was trying to get at. I think a Friterie place makes sense with fried & grilled food though works instead of fries. Pizza is missing. There are many more things you could do and if you made them all serve say 5 menu items and 3 sides whilst having say 10 to pick from it means you can make different styles of the same chain of restaurant like when different Weatherspoons have different menus depending on where you are in the UK.

 

[Joël]

The thread Management (evolved) has been splitted into separate threads in order to keep things focused on each individual idea/suggestion. This was done on request of the OP.

Discussion about the topic as specified in the thread title / original post can now continue.

Thank you for using the Planet Coaster forums. [happy]

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

I, of course, have a different view.

I want something more than just some clicky-clicky management. I hate setting all the toppings on stuff in RCT3. Hate it. It's boring.
Training staff...it's good that PlanCo makes you wait, otherwise, for me...like in RCT3 Hire a bunch of staff, and enter the click fest of training them to the max all at once.
Hated it. Sure, sure, you might say I am playing it wrong? Nope. Hire them, train them, and then forget about them.

Even from what we have seen in PlanCo, I can do the same. Except I have to do it every month.
I just doubt there will be that much variety to the staff. They will all probably like to be paid a certain amount, and training them up will be beneficial to you, and there will be no bad effects of doing so aside from the increased cost. From what I have seen in the Alpha, is that the game is fairly consistent. There is no variablility.

Real management? A shop is down in sales because the employee is stealing. Fire them and hire another, and wait.
Real management? Hire old people and place them in your slower shops.
Real Management? Hire young people who frequently call off or are late to work because of hangovers.
But what does this achieve? Constant attention to employees.
I don't think I have ever used the reprimand button in RCT3. Is that going to reappear in PlanCo?

It's hard for me to really enjoy management in sim games, because it is never like real management.
It's just a bunch of clicky clicky.

Please don't take this post in a bad tone. I am not being combative or anything, just sharing how I feel about it, according to how I play.
You don't need to defend your suggestions, or try to change my mind. However the game works in the end I will deal with in my style. I will find the optimum settings, and that will be the end of it.

Now, to why I liked my idea of paths to the back of the shops to deliver stock...Because it is a creative logistical challenge, for every stall you place. You would have to make design decisions, you might have to make concessions with your original design plan. (see what I did there???). It's also realistic! How many shops take delivery through the front window? Having delivery staff have to go from one point to another efficiently comes down to the design and flow of your park. Consequences!! A park with poor peep flow can now have significant repercussions! This is my ideal! I like puzzles!

It would take some thinking in to how to implement it. How to place orders. Automatically? Based on last month? Average of three months? How does it go up as your park grows? So it needs a method of setting stock. Then you need to figure out how often delivers are to be made. How frequently could the shop potentially have to close because the delivery staff didn't make it in time? See, theres actually a lot to this idea, and I think it would be super hard to implement in a way that isn't "set it and forget it" which is the problem I have with most management features. But this idea has so much more depth.


In the end, a lot of our ideas really really complicate the game, in perhaps a boring way. At what point are you no longer building a park, but stuck managing supplies?
My feeling has always been, that the clicky clicky stuff is just a way to make you feel like you are doing management. To me, it's just always been a task that you have to suffer through. So much so, that there must be a tick box for "make all shops of this type the same" set it and forget it. That's not management. That's "set up". Management deals with changing variables, and your reactions to them, whether you over react, or underreact, or ignore them, and the repercussions for each choice. And then the variable has to change again!

The other problem we have had in the past, is once you know the optimal prices/toppings peeps will pay for, that feature no longer matters. Sure, sure, lemonade doesn't sell well in a cold rainy park, and hot cocoa and coffee isn't the best choice for the desert park. Though, I'd happily drink coffee in the desert! But you'll know that peeps are not likely to pay more than $1.25 for a balloon. As much as I know in Alpha 3, that peeps will pay $28 to ride your coaster.

So, again, I am just giving you my take on management. And why I think it is really, really hard to do very well, and maintain the balance between fun, management, and creativity. Not everyone plays the way I do.

With the choices of toppings on food...if you only offer curly fries with curry sauce, will half the peeps go hungry if they want mayonnaise instead? Will they be unhappy and effect the park rating? Do you then have to also offer fries without curry, with mayonnaise, and with out either, or with both? And like in RCT3 multiply that by different sizes??? Will peeps opt for the 3/4 pound burger because that is the only option that has bacon, rather than the quarter pounder without bacon because it is cheaper? These variables make my head explode!


I implore you to again regard this post as lighthearted ramblings rather than argument for or against things. I am fairly non vocal about management, because I would rather people who find it important, get closer to what they want, and I can work around it. [wink]

 

[Curlyriff]

Haha no worries Bitter, I completely understand where you are coming from. I understand also that tbh we would never really have real management in the game. It wouldn't be fun for the masses and it would even give limited fun to actual manager styled play.

The middle ground is hard to find. This is the reason both of us I feel think the training system at the moment is just button bashing and a slog to get through rather than of interest. I actually think by adding waiting times and more levels how it is at moment just makes the grind to get to the end of it longer without adding anything to the gameplay.

I also am not enthralled by the idea of toppings etc but people see that as "managing". When I talk about the reason to have different menu options is that I am hoping that the AI is clever, maybe more so than we even think it is. I would love to see that each play through the wants and needs of guests is randomised, the amount of monies they are willing to spend is randomised, the rides they like and enjoy the most is randomised or at least they are influenced by what we do.

So let's say we have the marketing department promote something then the AI will then say OK that has increased the want from the guests by 'X'%

We can then sync our menus to our sales pitch, to our marketing. It may be that upon doing so we are spending so much to advertise that our profits on that item are low and so our overall profit margin if you take into account all the costs isn't a lot and could even net us a loss if we are not careful.

I want the ability to show things as well a little more realistic with menus more purely because it feels like it fits the game more in what Frontier were aiming for in giving us a living world we can believe in which isn't so managerial.

I would like to have seen that sales are down because our staff member is too slow because they lacked the training for time management & till training or similar. And that we have to have them shadow a senior member (mentor) and so that person can be training over a number of game months while improving their skill set. To manage the cost and time it takes to get that employee to that level is what I would like to see.

My concern with your idea of backstage paths is this; we have paths to get the people about. We have paths for queues, we have paths for exits, we have paths for fast pass. There are so many paths that it becomes a mess of paths. Now in a lot of parks we go too there are not paths to the backs of these shops because they are on plaza. They are stocked first thing in morning before opening so they use the same paths that the guests use just out of hours.

What we have already with paths, guests, fast pass, plaza I believe already gives us this puzzle myself. Adding one more too it is not enough to what it takes away with creative freedom but I do understand your point and view. Just believe we already have this.

t would take some thinking in to how to implement it. How to place orders. Automatically? Based on last month? Average of three months? How does it go up as your park grows? So it needs a method of setting stock. Then you need to figure out how often delivers are to be made. How frequently could the shop potentially have to close because the delivery staff didn't make it in time? See, there's actually a lot to this idea, and I think it would be super hard to implement in a way that isn't "set it and forget it" which is the problem I have with most management features. But this idea has so much more depth.

If I take this part though, yes we could still do this. We still need to balance stock and orders based on how much is used. We are just taking that restock happens during closed hours (how it works in majority of parks). It just means it would be how often does the shop close because you miscalculated your stock and how often restocking was required to be done compared to what you anticipated.

The other problem we have had in the past, is once you know the optimal prices/toppings peeps will pay for, that feature no longer matters. Sure, sure, lemonade doesn't sell well in a cold rainy park, and hot cocoa and coffee isn't the best choice for the desert park. Though, I'd happily drink coffee in the desert! But you'll know that peeps are not likely to pay more than $1.25 for a balloon. As much as I know in Alpha 3, that peeps will pay $28 to ride your coaster.

This is why I mentioned above that I hoped the AI has improved enough so that it is at least randomised during the time your park is open. Maybe as if seasons were passing where you have to deal with adjustments to different guests wants and when they want.

At the same time, real management and price setting is also similar that you get to the point and you know when your customer is not willing to pay anymore and so that is where you set your prices, at least based on trial and error if not market research. Again this could tie in with promotion and marketing though where if you push a new ride or a particular item that for that window you are able to increase the cost of it and improve your profits from the higher mark up during that time.

It again links the different parts of gameplay together.

And I know you have picked the curly fires as a principle, however it was just a base idea. I would be more happy if you just had a tick box that said "condiments" and they either pay the extra price you set or don't regardless of what sauce it is. In regards to curly fries you could just have it as an upgrade from regular fries which again you set your price. It means that all have the option without you needing to set 20 different things.

And as much as they make your head explode they are also real things that managers have to decide, they are what McDonalds or KFC have to do with their foods where they need to judge what the mass of the market would like and how to sell it and with what options such as burger with cheese and bacon or just cheese.

I understand why you they make your head explode mind but it is just another area of management that is something that is management. The puzzle here is to try and get the best return from the most guests in your park. It is just not a design puzzle like the paths.

Don't worry never read it in anything other than constructive criticism and it helps us to work to a happy medium that hopefully more of the player base feels works. A lot will be compromises because we all want so much difference. Last nights stream showing the rides and those threads I think show that so much with the anger and disappointment that comes across from the player base even though we have already so much from Frontier.

 

[Abletudu]

Is there anything in the game that could make us lose money?

 

[Curlyriff]

Is there anything in the game that could make us lose money?

Well all the shops and staff cost money so if you are not making enough you would loose money. But having more ways of doing so because you mess up for instance stock like being discussed I feel is a good way as well or certainly by short-cutting it you are not maximising profits as Bitter stated.

 

[widlanquebec]

Personally, I find micromanage toppings for example very boring. Same thing for staff training the way it's implemented. Like Bitter Jeweler said, a lot of click click and forget.

That's always the thing I don't like about management in previous RCT. Hire some staff, pay them well and train them to the max. That's it. Restaurants, click the topping and choose "the way the guests want it (or something like this)" and the guests always find it "great value or excellent item". It's boring.

For me, the fact to micromanage thing doesn't really add to my personal fun.

I want to manage some "real-life" events.

For example, vacations for employees, your choice to give them or not, their choice to work well or not after this. About restaurants, having to please the kind of food the guests wants (not how much salt in fries), but build variety of different types (asian, american, etc.) and/or different type (fast food, casual, high-end, etc.). Rides, the mechanic tells you that there's a problem with a specific piece, your choice to change it now or wait a little bit or lot longer before changing it. Sure, it can have impact on safety. I want to manage stock, have to deliver it to the stalls, etc.

I want to see consequences to my choices... not click and forget it. Because if it's the case, it will add nothing to the management feeling.

 

[Curlyriff]

Personally, I find micromanage toppings for example very boring. Same thing for staff training the way it's implemented. Like Bitter Jeweler said, a lot of click click and forget.

That's always the thing I don't like about management in previous RCT. Hire some staff, pay them well and train them to the max. That's it. Restaurants, click the topping and choose "the way the guests want it (or something like this)" and the guests always find it "great value or excellent item". It's boring.

For me, the fact to micromanage thing doesn't really add to my personal fun.

I want to manage some "real-life" events.

For example, vacations for employees, your choice to give them or not, their choice to work well or not after this. About restaurants, having to please the kind of food the guests wants (not how much salt in fries), but build variety of different types (asian, american, etc.) and/or different type (fast food, casual, high-end, etc.). Rides, the mechanic tells you that there's a problem with a specific piece, your choice to change it now or wait a little bit or lot longer before changing it. Sure, it can have impact on safety. I want to manage stock, have to deliver it to the stalls, etc.

I want to see consequences to my choices... not click and forget it. Because if it's the case, it will add nothing to the management feeling.

I remember we spoke about that holiday idea. That was good and had forgotten about that. Not sure if you read all the thread or skimmed but I also agreed with Bitter about the click and forget we have now. And am trying to thing of ways that training and promotions, senior staff can be improved/implemented to make it feel meaningful/fulfilling to the player.

Yes the training in game is meaningful in that we can see it improves things but it feels disconnected to the game and it's spirit.

I haven't thought of a better way then to make training more specific and for them to be unable to work whilst they are on a 3 day training course where you then have to manage staff numbers and holidays and shift patterns etc.

The part about toppings, I also don't like but the idea of making meal deals that affect your sales and they just use the sauces they want regardless of what they are and again it's just a logic option the guests complete so you can choose to charge or not is more simple but yet feels more in depth to me as it is as a menu would be in a real shop.

Working out your stocks and overheads and what happens if 100% brought the deal that you offer 50% off the meal deal, would you still cover your costs if everyone did? How do you manage the demand. Here the management side is more simple, it is about pricing your foods correctly and if not you will be loosing.

I have to say watching how much money some of the YouTube streamers are making on the easy scenario is concerning in that everything still appears to cost too little compared to your income.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

I have to say watching how much money some of the YouTube streamers are making on the easy scenario is concerning in that everything still appears to cost too little compared to your income.

[uhh]

Really? I hope it ramps up.

I keep mentioning that I'm re-playing RCT3, but its fun. My goal is speed play. But its hampered some of the time goals. $1000 a month for at least three months for Tycoon Goal?
Sure! I got that during the Silver Goal. LMAO But they are the beginning scenarios. I don't remember how they ramped up.


Discussing this stuff with you (Curlyriff) and Widlanquebec, make me sorta realize how hard it is to really flesh out ideas for a game. things get so intertwined. Ideas quickly become to involved, or just don't evolve enough.

 

[Curlyriff]

[uhh]

Really? I hope it ramps up.

I keep mentioning that I'm re-playing RCT3, but its fun. My goal is speed play. But its hampered some of the time goals. $1000 a month for at least three months for Tycoon Goal?
Sure! I got that during the Silver Goal. LMAO But they are the beginning scenarios. I don't remember how they ramped up.


Discussing this stuff with you (Curlyriff) and Widlanquebec, make me sorta realize how hard it is to really flesh out ideas for a game. things get so intertwined. Ideas quickly become to involved, or just don't evolve enough.

Yep and I think that is why we end up with pretty much the same gameplay a decade later [sad]

I just don't know how far we could take it or how much we really want a career mode with almost a storey behind it such as you being general manager for a theme park company and competing against the equivalent of Disney, Paramount, merlin & 6 flags for instance. What can we do to really break the mould and keep the game flowing. I have watched the beta vids and those monoliths are still annoying me. Not even so much the gameplay but visually they are so boring. They are just black walls stacked in boxes.

If they really wanted to have done that then at least make the Monoliths interesting and have them pulse with green light and look like this

In regards to the actual topic. So far we have ideas on the fact that shops need stock and that maybe a revamp to the menu would be better than the salt and ketchup with currently have but not significantly. What about where we source our supplies from. Maybe we can buy from cheaper places but they are not environmentally friendly and the press may catch wind of it and write a bad article about your park cutting corners or maybe we buy from an organic, local grown specialist supplier but of course our public image increases.

Maybe if you cut corners and the food is bad quality then you could cause an outbreak of sickness? If it happens you get fined by the health & safety officer.

What about external HSE park inspections where they rate the park safety and depending on that depends on having mini goals whilst also completing the main scenario (slightly off topic but just thought whilst on about HSE stuff).

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

The monoliths immediately took me too:

I think making choices of suppliers is a cool idea. I think we've talked about this before, where I mentioned the Ice Cream shop having an outbreak of Lysteria, and having to close at the peak of hot season (if there is one). I think the supply source choice could be interesting. Organic would be more expensive, but you could charge more, and actually have increased sales for that choice. Or regular cheap supply that gives you maximu......oh, wait, haven't we had to choose "quality levels" before? RCTW has that actually.

*sigh*

 

[Curlyriff]

The monoliths immediately took me too:

http://img.over-blog-kiwi.com/1/46/43/03/20150915/ob_50434e_monolithe.jpg

I think making choices of suppliers is a cool idea. I think we've talked about this before, where I mentioned the Ice Cream shop having an outbreak of Lysteria, and having to close at the peak of hot season (if there is one). I think the supply source choice could be interesting. Organic would be more expensive, but you could charge more, and actually have increased sales for that choice. Or regular cheap supply that gives you maximu......oh, wait, haven't we had to choose "quality levels" before? RCTW has that actually.

*sigh*

Maybe, I haven't played that game (if you can call it that). However having a choice of suppliers is still something that I think if done correctly (and that's the key really) and with true world geographical explanations where the coffee shop can use organic grown beans or not etc. then it would get people involved in that.

And yeah, having things like the Ice cream as you say and then having to work the press to get your reputation back. Getting fined over it etc.

In regards to the Monoliths so does the following;

I know the black rectangle is the default as such, but just to see them in game looking so bland tbh in a creative game. It just would have been nice to see something more interesting than big black rectangle. The little ones I don't mind so much but just that main one in the centre is what I think makes it feel off for me.

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[widlanquebec]

Always great discussion Curlyriff... I agree that finding a good way to implement things in the game could be hard. But sure there's a way to find improvements in staff and stocks management. I can't imagine that newer game could not be as great as one of my favourite old management game: Theme Hospital.

I like your idea of staffs being on training and have to replace them.

About stocks, personally, I would remove the toppings options as it doesn't add fun. I would like to have to choose type of restaurants (asian, american, etc.) or just have to be sure to have a good variety and of different prices (fast-food, casual, premium table). After this, we have to check the selling of each menu item (for example # of burgers sell) and order a good quantity and be sure to deliver it to the stall before they're empty.

As always, a pleasure to talk about management but as I see in the beta, I'm really not sure we're enough wanting these kind of things to see them implemented in game. Let's hope I'm wrong.