Auto Dealership
I've just finished added Auto Dealers to the internal build, these will be coming to the 0.3 release over on itch to Patreon subscribers, no date for this yet.
The Auto Dealers allow players to purchase second-hand kei trucks. Players can take on loans to purchase these trucks, and even sell their own truck to reduce the cost.
Players can access the Kei Dealership by selecting it from the world map, and driving towards it. Much like routes, trucks have their rarity influenced by the route generation. Truck stock is refreshed daily.
Each region contains a dealership which specialises in each type of truck currently in the game. Wadashima's kei dealership specialises in selling Batako Type 1 trucks, Mizunuma's kei dealership specialises in selling Batako Type 2 trucks and Yamanashi's kei dealership specialises in selling Daizo type trucks. Each dealership also has a small chance to spawn a truck from outside their speciality.
With this first implementation, players must sell their current truck when purchasing a new truck. Truck storage - the ability to allow owning multiple trucks - is planned at a later date.
With these auto dealerships finally in-game, I can now rethink how truck selection at the start of the game will work. Currently, players select from 6 trucks; Easy, Medium, Hard, Wildcard 1, Wildcard 2, Wildcard 3. Each of these slots generates a truck based on these factors. Easy generates trucks with a grading between 6 and S (almost new), hard generates trucks with a grading between 3- 1 (very poor condition), and wildcards generate at full random.
The new game start selection will probably contain Batako Type 1 only trucks, with generation forced at 3-1 condition (very poor). Forcing players into the rags-to-riches journey with their truck front and centre of this.
Rethinking Debt
I wasn’t happy with the direction I’d taken for the game’s debt system. As an independent game developer, debt is something I spend a fair amount of time juggling, so I’d be remiss not to take this seriously...
Debt in Honcho can be incurred through various means, from large expenses like vehicle purchases to small oversights such as forgetting to pay for fuel. The intention here is to avoid railroading the player into tedious "work for hire" and instead allow them to play the game the way they find most engaging. In a tycoon game, I feel it's important to ensure players make the choice in how they go about earning money.
Loan is acquired.
Has a fixed-term, usually 30 days.
Has a set interest rate, e.g. 2.5%. This is applied daily.
Change 1, Compounded interest removed
Debt in the 0.2 Patreon build has compounding interest that continues to apply to the overall total in-perpetuity. This is extremely aggressive and can lead to players drowning in unpayable debt. Interest on debt is therefore no longer compounded, and is instead only taken from the principal loan. Here's how this change now looks.
Principal: ¥250,000
Rate: 2.5% per day
Term: 30 days
Old, compounded:
Total repayment : ¥524,250
Interest paid : ¥274,250
New, principal only:
Total repayment : ¥437,500
Interest paid : ¥187,500
Change 2, Final Notice
As stated above, loans having exponential growth could lead to out of control debt. Whilst stressful, players soon realised they would never pay it off, and would just have to deal with the invisible fist of the free market destroying their truck every end-of-notice period. Now, if the player fails to pay their loan in time, instead of the interest rolling on and another repayment period being applied, they are given a letter of final notice.
The invisible fist of the free market - the player's truck being vandalized when missing a payment date - will still occur, but interest will no longer be applied to the loan. Players are then given a 30-day period to get their final notice loan paid off. Failing to pay off a final notice loan will result in a player's company and all assets seized. Or in game design terms, a fail state.
Players can still pay off loans early to reduce the interest applied and avoid these outcomes, but it is always best to only take on loans you feel you can pay off. An important point with the introduction of purchasable trucks revealed above. So make sure to make those deliveries, and stock those vending machines.
Classifieds
Classifieds now contain ad listings for repair parts. A few players were complaining that finding repair parts was too difficult. I'll continue to rework repair part acquisition, so parts can be "target farmed", but some friction is needed here. It should be a task to get a truck into perfect running condition and maintaining that, but not one of hopelessly searching and praying for parts. I'm aware of the issues, and more work is to come on this. For the moment, keep in mind that repair parts can be obtained from abandoned vans and second hand parts dealers.
Thank you to all the supporters. My plan for the next few weeks is to finish up the fail-states with debt and return to working more on vending machines and managing the tycoon elements. With these done, I can then focus on preparing the game for the Steam Next-Fest during the summer of this year, and soon after an Early Access launch.
Greg.
Comments (4)
Will there also be cars that you can purchase or just the trucks? I'm curious, I see cars outside the dealership in the photo but those may just be props
Those are just props. I'd love to add a car the player could purchase that isn't very practical for work, but is more of a trophy car. The issue is the amount of work needed to refit the systems to a whole new layout (I can't think of any Japanese performance cars that have mid-engine layout like the kei trucks in-game). If the game somehow blows up as a viral sensation then I'd have the safety net to get one in, but as is, I need to maintain focus on this being a Kei Truck Simulator. With that said, even without the resources to add entire cars, I do have plans to add engines from some iconic models of that period, one of which is the 1.6 4A-GE inline-four from the Toyota AE86. Which will be tuned in-game to use the real-world performance and sounds.
Really comprehensive update, really looking forward to everything that you've included in the update. I was thinking that maybe the game could start in the dealership, with an old friend of the family "gifting" you your first truck, and it's them you owe the money to at the start? Just an idea, it puts a face to starting truck and debt.
Thanks! Adding a face to the debt system is a solid idea and would certainly add to the rivalry element Keiko has toward the Keiretsu (financial elite). I'd like to lean more into a shark-like banker type character, who is friends with her big rival "Honcho". Though this is all narrative flair which I'm trying to avoid till the game has a solid loop that's brought in a bigger audience. Rest assured this stuff is on my mind, I am just trying to hold off for the moment, as narrative stuff can force me to lock down a lot of design. I did think that maybe the first truck should be a gift from Keiko's granpa, but I also like the idea that maybe he had everything stripped from him. Plus the starting debt does feel like a good motivator for players to get busy earning. There's also the issue of NPC's needing character models, rigging and animation. Which is a big task, and one I'm not great at. So I'd like to keep narrative elements to letters the player receives.