Increasing the number of competitors past 30

[msuddd]

I am using the realworld mod at the moment. Since the number of companies is capped to 30 I am finding that there is not enough competition to produce all of the products (or at least most of them). Ideally I would like to find a way to up the number of companies so that I can get competition in most products. At the moment it seems companies only build in certain product lines (maybe their specialty governs this). Is there any way to do this at the moment.

[David]

We can increase the maximum number of AI companies in a future post-release beta version.

But this may still not completely resolve the lack of competition issue. Perhaps it is better to set the Invention Dates of various products in the MOD to decades after the game's starting date to reduce the number of products available for manufacturing in the beginning and thus increasing the market competition.

[Zlot]

Yeah more is better. Give us the option for 50, maybe even 100.

[megapolis]

These news are definitely good. Even on standard gameset there are not enough rivals for hard competition. On large gamesets like Piemario's amount of AI companies should be more than 100.

[msuddd]

Well yes that would be quite nice, I suppose it would be best to have it as a mod option as opposed to in-game so that people dont yank it up and get massive lag. I would say though It would mean that the multi-item mods would really flourish with more competitors! Setting the invention date would also be a good idea.

[counting]

I think besides the upper limit (say 100), the actual in-game competitors number should be more dynamically changed according to the market potentials. The hard upper limit is just for simulation speed, the real issue in game is sometimes late in game, you will find little market left untouched, and lots of idle AI companies holding cash, doing nothing (besides becoming stock market baits). Or simply make AI active trying at least something.

[David]

We tested with setting the maximum to 50 but the outcomes were not entirely positive as far as fun factors go.

We have now settled for increasing the maximum AI competitors from 30 to 40 for the next beta patch v2.7.00.

Our tests also drew the conclusion that the best way to cope with the ever increasing varieties of products in user-created MOD would be to set product invention criteria. This would effectively limit the number of products available for manufacturing as well as the amount of micromanagement the player has to deal with.

One example is the JASM MOD: http://www.capitalismlab.com/forum/view ... =39&t=1977
While there are many ice-creams and chip products in the MOD, new products will phase out old ones, keeping the number of active products in those two categories relatively steady. And the need to keep building new retail stores is thus reduced.

[Zlot]

We tested with setting the maximum to 50 but the outcomes were not entirely positive as far as fun factors go.

We have now settled for increasing the maximum AI competitors from 30 to 40 for the next beta patch v2.7.00.

Thats good news, keep the updates coming!

[counting]

We tested with setting the maximum to 50 but the outcomes were not entirely positive as far as fun factors go.

I am curious though, what's the real hinder factor when the number goes up to 50? Constant lagging even in the early game? Building spam by too many AIs? ? Or are there unforeseen consequences?

[therealevan]

We tested with setting the maximum to 50 but the outcomes were not entirely positive as far as fun factors go.

I am curious though, what's the real hinder factor when the number goes up to 50? Constant lagging even in the early game? Building spam by too many AIs? ? Or are there unforeseen consequences?

I'm also curious in this as well. Increasing competitors might quarrel some of our supply & demand issues that players encounter in upstream industries.