The Roadmap of Computer Tycoon is HERE!

Hello everybody,

I'm really excited to announce the roadmap of Computer Tycoon for 2018. I will put a link into the game's description to an external site that will let you see the same things that I list here in this article.

It isn't going to be short guys... but I really hope that you will like what you read.

The Almighty Fans & Critics!

First of all, I'd like to tell you that I'm very pleased with the feedback of the community from 2017. I got a lot of stuff from you guys. 60-70% of the roadmap are your suggestions. Let me name some of my strongest influencers:

Accato895
cmpteki
død kråke
Eddie
EvilFinchen
FireSloth
Frodo
i_r_jordan
IamSpartakus
jm764
kaasunaamio
KG79
Krazyone
Midas
Ryne_S
Sad dog
Trifler
xShouldenx

Guys! Thank you! I will name you in the game as well. Thanks to everyone who has posted a review or who gave feedback on the forums. After this point I think we could really give a pledge for the game... something like "community-driven development" right? :))

This whole month was about planning with some prototyping. It was similar to what I did before I even started implementing Computer Tycoon. It was necessary because I decided to give a go and do a lot of the recommended/desired things. At this moment I think I will be able to implement everything. My current "budgeted deadline"... so the amount of time I can safely put into the game is 8 months meaning that I can work on Computer Tycoon until the end of September.
But of course, this can change if I have good sale numbers. (And I really tried to underestimate my earnings). I think if I will add anything "big" next to these things, then it will come only in a DLC. Such as smartphones or robots... or other things you can imagine.

A lot of you are really really excited about localizations. I get this, and in fact, I'm also very excited about it, but please understand that it would be really not beneficial to make it happen right now or too early.
Probably localizations will come after every bigger change, and before the social integration and steam features. It means that most likely there won't be localizations until August and still it isn't a promise. But I can assure you that there will be localizations before the game leaves Early Access.

Also, the game won't have a fully supported tutorial for a while. And in fact, the game is going to be a bit more complicated. But! The GUI and feedback both have a significant package early in the development, so I really hope that playing the game will be much more straightforward and natural. I will try to show you more and let you read less. We will see how it goes!

Computer Tycoon doesn't wanna be another Game Dev Tycoon or Software Inc. clone. It never wanted to be, and never will be. Thus I will focus on things that this game can offer. But... I guess you are already really bored with my monologue! So let's start!

So what will change?

I have created groups for the planned features/modifications. These groups represent given aspects or areas of the game. Also, the groups indicate the possible implementation order - although I will have to differ sometimes for given features because I have things that will modify the whole system.

Here are the Groups:

01 - Research System Modifications/Extensions
02 - General GUI, and some small other improvements
03 - Dynamic World, Other Additions
04 - Employee system (+PP, +RP, marketing)
05 - Selling & Designing Hardware
06 - AI & Simulation Improvements
07 - Statistics and Feedback
08 - RPG Elements
09 - Governments & Long-Term Investments
10 - Historical Map
11 - Tutorials & Progressive Feature Introduction
12 - Localizations
13 - Community/Steam Features

Huh... that's a lot!
I know... I know... But it is even crazier if we go into the details.

I will break your saved game often. I'm really sorry about this! I will try to reduce these occasions as much as I can.

So let's jump!

01 - Research System Modifications/Extensions

Maybe it is better to say ‘components’ instead of ‘techs’ in this next section?

• Research Three showing the techs in a horizontal view. The techs are connected to each other by lines so the player can see relations between them.
• The user can see only the upcoming techs in the tree IF he selects this option in the new game menu before the start, otherwise, he can see the whole tree.
• More requirements for the techs. For example, you can't research some kind of new memory modules without having a given level of CPU.
• Ability to filter techs by hardware type.
• Ability to filter and order techs by value types (such as performance).
• The process technology (VLSI) also allows a performance boost, not just lowering the costs. Basically, the player will have a two-sided slider instead of the price performance slider. It will either increase performance or decrease price.
• Specific techs will decrease noise, and others will increase/decrease heat. Removable Media gives too much performance compared to CPU and RAM at this moment! There will be a bigger re-balance in that area.
• CAPACITY: Capacity would be measured in KB, MB, GB, later in TB. Memory, Storages, Media Devices and Video Cards will all have capacity values. But Capacity also will be a PREFERENCE metric. This means that next to Ease-Of-Use, Prestige, Quality etc. we will have Capacity. While the preference metric called "Performance" will be renamed to "Speed". So how could CAPACITY work? In the RAM section, there would be another slider called capacity. Depending on which process tech you include the range would vary so you would not get 1 GB DIMMs with 10mm, but in this case perhaps a range between 1 and 16KB. With 6mm this would increase to between 2 and 32KB and so on. The higher the capacity, of course, the more expensive it will be, but with better process tech you get higher capacity for more or less the same price as before. For Storage and Removable Devices this would work similarly. New technologies would again push the range of capacity further. On graphics cards, we already can use DRAM or other memory techs. Here I would also add a capacity slider working in the same ranges as in the RAM category, but here not increasing the overall capacity value of a computer but either bumping a little bit the performance or quality of the card the more you have.
• FREQUENCY: There will be some basic architecture performance (let's call it on its new name: Speed) values for each CPU generation. Let's say in this example it is 1.0 point for a 4040, 1.1 for 8080, 1.2 for 8088 and so on. The increments between the generations can be different, as there always are major steps and smaller ones. Then we come to FREQUENCY. The range here also depends on the process tech, so you can't get 50MHz with 10mm, but perhaps a range up to 2MHz... The higher the frequency the higher the costs. Speed increases at the same factor as frequency does, but the costs are much much more. For an 8080 we would have in this example a performance of 1.1 at 1MHz, 2.2 at 2MHz, when one MHz is considered as the base. With cooling the possible frequency range should be expended, but very very slightly and at costs, not adding simply 300 points like now air cooling does, but as a factor affecting the max frequency.
• As CAPACITY will be in the game, we could also add cache to the CPU. Again the range and costs should be dependent on the process tech and increase the performance with a small factor, depending on the capacity you choose. Back to RAM. For the reason of simplicity, all RAM is synchronous RAM and has a frequency. Here the performance could also be not just dependent on the RAM technology but on frequency, which works similar to how it works in CPUs. Cooling is also similar. The process technology could determine the range of frequency that would be possible. For example, if you just have 10 micro-tech, then you just can go from 500KHz to 1.5 MHz. With 6 micros the range changes up to 2 MHz, with 3 micros up to 4 MHz... In the RAM category, the process tech would change the capacity range in the same way."
• From the above... Cooling will not add performance (on its new name: speed) but only extend the reachable speed range in a positive direction. The overclock technology will probably enhance this furthermore, but only with cooling.
• I will add new kinds of technology to our current technology list. Such as auto-update for Operating Systems, improved materials of a heat sink, improved thermal paste, ball bearing fans, peltier cooler, hyperthreading, more graphics card features etc.
• Ability to buy techs from opponents.
• Portable, but especially handheld design requirements will be more strict. For example, you won't be able to create tablets and laptops before you have proper display types for these devices.
• We had fixed RP prices for everything meaning that the more RPs you gather, the faster you research new stuff. While it remains true, the advantage will be smaller, because the RP points won't be fixed, they will be modified by era bars. If a technology comes too early then you will have to pay an RP penalty.

02 - General GUI, and some small other improvements

• Building Site List Screen, where you can see all of your sites and upgrade the departments, and adjust budgets - sell complete sites (with a huge loss).
• Country Screen List, where you see all of the countries and their most important data. Also, you can buy those and build their sites.
• A screen to get loans before bankruptcy. New building site environment themes. The middle stays the same, but the environment will have some variance.
• Buttons will behave more predictably - such as on the marketing screen, it will be more obvious if something is activated or not
• Hardware design type chooser rewiring.
• Emblem for our company shown on our computers.
• There will be another row showing you the average sales per day for the computers, perhaps an average of the last 7 days.
• You will see the name of the computer elements on the computer design screen, under the given elements.
• Hotkeys for World Map-Stats-Marketing etc. Function keys F1-F12…
• Delete Button for components that were never used in a computer. Once they get used in a computer, they will turn into an Archive Button. Likewise, the same thing goes for computers that have never been put on the market. This will allow you to delete your mistakes.
• Naming, pricing: The boxes where you either type in prices or names "remembered" the last thing you have typed in. But they will be filled with the last name or the last price for exactly the item you are now changing."
• Date format will be choosable in the settings.
• Multi select for computers and hardware for massive archiving.
• A hideable scrolling text area on the screen showing what you've built, what you've researched, what events happened!
• Ability to just double-left-click on a hardware as an alternate method of adding to a computer to reduce the amount of moving the cursor back and forth across most of the screen.
• ESC will close the actual window. 1, 2, 3 as game speed hotkeys will also pause the game when they are pressed again. If you're running at normal speed then pressing the 1 key pauses. If you're on speed 2 then pressing 2 pauses etc. Space also stays a pause button, but it will trigger speed 1 when you press it while paused. "
• No more auto-archive for computers after 5 years. But you will get a warning that its sale numbers are probably decreasing.
• The Videogame promotion screen will get an improvement with a slider showing where you are and where the goal system requirement is.
• Real-world clock in-game.
• Help button in the top toolbar (the F1 button remains as well).
• Option to highlight LP1, LP2, LP3, and LP4 countries to help when shopping for new markets!
• WSAD support on the map.
• Buttons on the screen to zoom in and out (the wheel will remain for the same).
• Budget will automatically open up when it is the end of the year (and time will also stop)
• Checkbox in the settings about the design chooser on the hardware screen asking for the design type or not when we create a new hardware.
• A screen to list all of your sponsored games!
• Auto selecting text in the field when you rename something.
• On the Hardware Design Screen when moving the mouse over a technology the game will show a tooltip after a short delay which shows again the description from the research view.
• Players will know if a tech is new on the hardware design screen, probably by color coding.

03 - Dynamic World and Additional Features

• Changing economy statuses
• Changing design interest
• Changing preferences
• Companies will have a prestige indicator while CEOs will have fan bases.
• These both will modify sale numbers.
• The game will break up the market into 3 main categories. People who need computers for work, games and casual use. Casual use will increase significantly after the invention of the internet.
• Strategic resources i.e. Aluminum, Gold, Silver, Tungsten, Copper, Platinum, Tin, Cobalt, Tantalum, Crystals, Nickel, Silicon, Crystals etc. will decrease the manufacturing costs if you can buy mines. The amount of the resources is not known - and it is pretty expensive. But with some nice catches, it is a good investment. Mines open and close dynamically during the playtime.
• To buy into a country will take time. It won't be automatic as it is right now.
• Random events will affect different parts of the game, such as research, production or marketing.
• Different building speeds for the departments/levels.

04 - Employee system (+PP, +RP, marketing)

• Hiring management staff for your departments
• Hiring leader-managers, your personal team
• Having somebody in the personal team who can be your successor
• Passive properties for department managers and active skills for the personal team
• The Active skills will cover marketing, research, espionage and software/game development. It means that the already existing research and marketing systems will be expanded to the employee system. Marketing actions will be like: "Supply computers to local schools" "Host free public computer classes "Hold annual (company-name) fan convention -- (optionally, small medium or large conventions?)" "Open technical support shops" "Toll-free phone support" "Programming competition" "Provide review units to influential local reviewers" "Radio interviews" etc... etc... etc... The actions will have different money and time needs.
• Available software per OS. You have to get software developers to develop for your platform or have contracts from others. The more software available the easier to sell your computers. This was extremely important in the 80's and early 90's before PC's took the whole market. This feature will be less relevant after your OS reaches a significant market share (not defined yet) - so a lot of other companies will sell their products on it.

05 - Selling & Designing Hardware

• Selling hardware separately, and also being able to sell hardware to opponents as well. The latter will be created by contracts. A contract can be unlimited in time length or fixed. You will be able to price your hardware per country for customers and also per opponent via contracts.
• More parameters on hardware elements. Such as CPUs will have "Frequency", "Amount of cores". Those together will calculate the value of "Speed". (More information on the Research modification plans)
• Creating new hardware items will need the creation of a prototype, they will also have a testing phase.
• You will be able to change the accessories even if the computer is already on the market. So at any time add something and take away, adjust the price and there it is.
• Compatibility management for some hardware elements. Including motherboards with sockets and on another level Operating Systems handling Hardware Elements. When a hardware element is compatible with older Operating Systems, it will give more sales, but it will make it more expensive. Every new technology must be handled by the new operating system. If the operating system cannot handle it, then it won't be compatible with the computer. A Computer or Hardware element without a working Operating System will sell badly...
• HEAT and NOISE will be new values of hardware. By lowering the heat and noise levels we will be able to increase the QUALITY of the computer. By decreasing the HEAT, we will also decrease the chance of malfunction/problems, so we will get fewer warranty costs etc. Warranty. You will have to guarantee warranty for your PC hardware, and warranty for your Computers. (only PC hardware will be sold separately). The longer the testing phase and the lower the heat values of the elements, the smaller the chance of problems appearing on the user’s side. A lot of problems on the customer’s side will also decrease the prestige of the company. It also means that after this is implemented, not only computers will have prestige values, but the companies themselves. More checks on the technology side to disallow combinations like "magnetic head" and "optical drive".
• Options to set sites to produce only some of the hardware or computer models. Also a possibility to create a priority between computers and hardware elements.
• Forced obsolescence will be removed. But once you built a computer people will lose some interest in it and the game will prompt you for it. Option to have Integrated Graphics Cards on the motherboard.
• Economical pricing next to the per country option you can set prices per economy levels... poor, average and rich etc. countries. Basic Price + X%. No need to manually type an amount other than in the countries where you'd like to differ.
• You will be able to buy parts from opponents to include in your own system. There will be a layer of smaller manufacturers providing hardware elements. Also, you will be able to buy from your normal opponents, but it will be a bit different. This is still a bit flexible area...

06 - AI & Simulation Improvements

• AI will have new kind of expansion strategies
• Advanced enemy simulation. The current AI cheats a lot. Instead of this, I will create more complex algorithms.
• Advanced computer manufacturing. The AI right now creates pre-defined computer models by generally the real world implementation dates of given technology - while some values on the market can trigger them to speed up the process. I will replace this system with a more advanced one. Especially because I'd show more information to the user about the opponents’ computers (such as statistics and main characteristics), and also the game will have more market specialization by the three new categories (gamers, workers, casual users).
• Competitor AI: - we should have opponents joining the game in mid and late game
• Companies will become harder to supplant in a region the longer they dominate the market there. If a company has dominated Canada's market for a decade and another company has just expanded operations there, the new company will have a harder time competing in the market than in a region where two companies expand to the same time.
• Ability to buy techs from opponents.
• Because of the new customer categories (gamers, workers, casual users), the customer simulation will be extended.
• Earlier avoiding opponents gave a huge advantage for players, mainly because the opponents did not try to avoid each other as hard as human players avoided them. Still I do believe that avoiding the opponents should be a legit thing, I'd like to mention that the historical mode won't really allow it (because of the lack of space), and also that it will be harder to surpass others with research in the future versions, because of a new research system. (We had fixed RP prices for everything meaning that the more RPs you gather, the faster you research new stuff. While it remains true, the advantage will be smaller, because the RP points won't be fixed, they will be modified by an era bar. If a technology comes too early then you will have to pay an RP penalty.)
• More difficulty levels are needed! At least 6.

07 - Statistics and Feedback

• Extended statistics per product with sales charts as in Game Dev Tycoon (daily income).
• Text description of your results, giving a CIV like rank at the end of the game. (such as "Andris the great")
• Sales statistics per country, per hardware and computer, per customer type.
• Getting letters and later emails from people why they like or dislike your computers - maybe magazines.
• More tips on statistics screens to help to use the data seen.
• Warnings to readjust prices on models time after time.
• More detailed feedback (including people's feedback on your pricing, preferably by poor, rich and categories such as gamers, workers, casual users)
• A News page that shows every company's public advancements, such as expansion into new countries or setting records that would typically be covered by news media in real life.
• Average sales per day per computer on the computer screen.

08 - RPG Elements

• Buying stuff for the CEO, such as cars, houses, islands etc.
• Extended life management of the CEO - vacation, sport, marketing events.
• More options to modify health.
• Permadeath will be optional. By default, you will be able to have a successor who will lead the company from your personal team. OR Having a wife to have children and potential successors.
• Giving interviews for the media. (answering simple questions about future plans)

09 - Governments & Long Term Features

• Ability to get unique selling rights from governments.
• Ability to get a monopoly in a country.
• Ability to ban the gov.
• Countries should have different taxation. Tax reduces the income got from a country.
• Countries will have elections. After the elections tax changes can happen.
• Ability to support the economy of a country to get more buyers later on (infrastructure, education, health etc - resulting in increases in their economy level). Cost depends on population. A slow process that works only in non-communist countries.
• Having bonuses for being a seller in a country for a long period of time.
• Communism as a random event for countries. Poor countries have a bigger chance to get communism. In that case, you can't sell there.
• Having goals with rewards like "Dominate Asia for two years" or "Russia needs a PC with xyz ..."

10 - Historical Map

• Border, population and economy authentic map from the 1970s.
• Banned countries because of communism. You won't be able to sell in communist countries.
• Dynamic country creation - for example having Czechoslovakia split into Slovakia and the Czech Republic on the given date.
• Funny messages about Communist countries stealing your computer designs.
• Messages about interesting historical facts.

Sidenote! "Historical Map" is not equal to a "Historical Mode". It means that it will much closer to the real world where you play, but the game won't aim to give back everything on an extreme level of realism. Honestly, the REAL historical computer market would be a very bloody story about a very few extremely talented people with very dirty hands, with a very small decision area.

11 - Tutorials & Incremental Feature Opening

• Changing the game to give you the possibilities/features one by one, progressively. This way the tutorial can be added naturally in smaller steps with fewer texts.
• Starting the game in a garage, without having the world map.
• Creating a game Wikipedia in-game to give more insights for those who are really interested in the mechanics. But reducing the texts for the majority of players, deleting the crash course.

Don't worry! The feature opening won't be so slow. So experienced players won't have to waste much time there.

12 - Localizations

Hungarian is going to be the first language implemented. Simply because this is my mother language, so I will be able to test out everything and having the needed texts immediately. After putting together everything in Hungarian, creating the other languages will be easier.

I think I will give a run for these languages:

German Chinese French Spanish Turkish Italian Russian

Again... I'd love to give you these as early as I can, but I just cannot. It takes time. It's an early access game, consider like it's not out yet and buy it when you have your localization if it is a must for you (though if you can read this text, probably you don't need it :/ :) )!

13 - Steam and Social Features

• Score lists for the different game modes.
• Achievements
• Ability to share game status and new computer models, milestones on social media.
• Picture about your best selling computer to share on Facebook.

And that's all... I could talk about these things all day long... but anyway! I hope these will give you a better idea of what is coming. Please stay with me, give me feedback (I will still need a lot because of a lot of balancing)... and write a review if you like what you see. It would mean a lot to me. I mean really, really a lot!

Your friend,
Andris