Hey JacobD88, thanks for the thoughts and feedback. It's much appreciated.
JacobD88 wrote: ↑09 Jun 2023 14:57
... the following industries NEVER appeared ...
This is intentional. All secondary industries from 1895 or later will need to be funded. There are a couple of reasons for this. 1) It adds a new dimension to the gameplay. The industries shouldn't cost too much, but you will need to place them strategically. 2) This should keep the maps more realistic. A factory would have needed to be placed in or near a town in 1895, so this avoids them randomly spawning in the middle of nowhere.
JacobD88 wrote: ↑09 Jun 2023 14:57
... as many as 187 in the case of builders yards ...
This sounds like it could be a bug. I'll check the spawn ratios and check if it needs adjusting.
JacobD88 wrote: ↑09 Jun 2023 14:57
... abundance of machine shops ...
This is a bug. I don't think I've pushed this updated out yet, but the Machine Shop should act like the other secondary industries and should require funding and manual placement.
JacobD88 wrote: ↑09 Jun 2023 14:57
I too would like to extend my request for something else sea-based, such as the fishing (although simplified to Fishing Grounds Fish Output to Fishing Port Food Output) proposal by a user above or something relating to maybe the export of vehicles via the container port. If only to make the sea / lake areas of the game less dead in terms of use.
Fair point, it does seem to new a popular request. I think I will look at adding some sort of fishing in my next economy, which is likely to be based on the countries around the North Sea (some sort of approximation of Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark or the northern part of Germany). This will definitely feature Oil Rigs and Oil Refineries. I'm not sure how I will approach fishing yet. Personally, I feel like the Fishing Grounds have the same issue as Farms, in that they would be serviced by lots of very small vehicles in real life, which are tiresome to manage in-game. Fishing Grounds would make the sea feel more alive, so I will definitely consider it.
Great shout on exporting vehicles at a port. I like that idea, though I might spin it out into a completely new industry!
JacobD88 wrote: ↑09 Jun 2023 14:57
Something to improve the supply of Iron Ore from the landings would also be welcome as there is currently no way to increase imports as Iron Ore Mines on land appear less and less with the march of time
Yes, I did want to do this. The issue here is I thought it was incompatible with the structure of FIRS without a fair amount of extra work.
The Ore Landing is descended from a 'Mine' class to which all the mineral industries belong. This class has a toggle where I can say,
I want this industry to increase production on the delivery of some supplies. The current problem is the Ore Landing isn't descended from that class, it's part of a different class that is missing that flag, but this does contain the necessary bits for a coastal industry.
Essentially the increase output code is available in one place, which isn't available to the Ore Landing as it stands.
JacobD88 wrote: ↑09 Jun 2023 14:57
The Liquids Terminal has the dialogue to provide something to boost production - but does not clarify what that is on the Industry chain in game.
This is likely a bug, similar to the Ore Landing problem, but for the opposite reason. The class the Liquid Terminal belongs to is expecting a delivery of a cargo to boost production. I think this could actually be the solution to the Ore Landing issue. The Ore Landing needs to act more like the Liquids Terminal and visa versa. I will experiment with switching the classes around, so each of them behaves as originally intended.
JacobD88 wrote: ↑09 Jun 2023 14:57
Power Stations appear FAR too early - they were around from the outset
Yeah, good point. I might update this so they only appear in 1895.
JacobD88 wrote: ↑09 Jun 2023 14:57
I really like the "beautification" farm industries - it's nice to have an economy where they exist but I don't have to pay them attention
Glad to hear someone else shares this viewpoint!
JacobD88 wrote: ↑09 Jun 2023 14:57
... none-functional "coal heap" industries being built within 5 tiles of a power station which would artificially increase their footprint and beautify and similarly a "slag heap" industry appearing near Coal Mines and Iron/Steel workings ...
Ooooh. I quite like this idea. It definitely would add a new challenge and make the map placements a little more realistic. It'll likely take a lot of experimentation as I wouldn't want them to become annoying if they start disrupting the game. It should be easily achievable, so I will definitely look into this at some point.
JacobD88 wrote: ↑09 Jun 2023 14:57
In terms of disasters ...
I'm not sure whether this is possible in FIRS. I'm not a big fan of disasters myself as I find them irritating, so they are always disabled for me. Do you know happen to know if Coal Mines in FIRS cause subsidence?
Thanks again for the feedback. I'm glad you are enjoying the set!