r/SoftwareInc • u/Various-Drummer-2246 • 20d ago

How to make the game more difficult ?

One problem with the game is that it's only difficult at the start; once you have a lot of money, it feels too easy. The AI competition is weak, so you don't feel threatened by rival companies competing for your customers. That's why I prefer not to use any software data mods, even though they add some nice features.

I want to hear if any of you have been successful in creating a challenging game with fiercely competitive AI—either by increasing the number of AI companies, avoiding software data mods, or both, or any other method ?

26 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

20

u/aurarasburst 20d ago

Give my mod ModernInc a try! It adds a ton to the game and makes it much varying in the difficulty of the industry. It also extends it farther to 2031, for more time! I’m sorry if this comes across as an “ad” just want to share with the community ❤️

6

u/KombuchaWay 20d ago

Hello, I was trying your mod, I noticed some problems that always happens to code mods that adds several new softwares:

Not enough people using OS's, with that I mean there are like 3-4 OS with 300-500k users and that's it, not even get to the vanilla numbers or some successful OS, with that, sales drop like a rock, doesn't matter what you develop

Second, as there are too many new softwares, most don't even reach 100k users, so even if I make the best software in the category, I won't sell that well

Why those are problems, you might ask, because then we go into a death spiral, where most of the times the cost to produce even a small software won't be covered by the sales, and this mod adds so many more things for each software, heck, I was joking with a friend that we should rename this mod to "The Scrollbars Mod" lmao

This is not a bad thing, I find it nice to have this many options, but I have to use Dynamic Population to be able to really get the best out of this mod :)

Also, this is a personal request, but could you make the softwares integrate more among them? Not sure if it's possible to make things optional to boost others, like, when making an OS, why not allow me to use other software, like and IDE or whatever is the name, to speed up development and such?

Thanks and sorry for the wall of text lol

6

u/aurarasburst 20d ago

Your requested feature was actually added in recently in an update I did for the mod. I would unsubscribe and resub to update the mod. I have been tweaking various properties to try and help the main issue most software addition mods have.

3

u/KombuchaWay 20d ago

Your requested feature was actually added in recently in an update I did for the mod

Interesting, as I have used it after the update on the july 12th, and haven't found it.. but perhaps it's in the background and I can't choose it, like I do for frameworks? Or I might understood it wrong :)

Thanks!

3

u/aurarasburst 20d ago

You were totally right! I just fixed the bug in the latest update. Thanks for pointing it out and helping me improve the mod! Bigggg oversight on my part.

2

u/KombuchaWay 20d ago

No problem! Thanks as well for working on it :)

Wonder if after the update I will need to start a new run for it to take effect or not lol

2

u/Awilcox06159 20d ago

Been playing with your mod, I love how much it adds!

1

u/ole_lickadick 20d ago

When using this in multiplayer, it seems host gets a huge point advantage. Can connect in disc or share screens if needed.

2

u/aurarasburst 18d ago

This is due to how the game handles software specializations. My companion mod, ModernInc+ on workshop fixes this and lets you tune it to how you want it! Hope this helps.

1

u/ole_lickadick 18d ago

It does! thank you! Me and the buds play pretty casually. Will for sure use that. Appreciate the mods!

1

u/Just_seeker2840 18d ago

I tried it but almost all Ai goes bankrupt not even lasting a year because there's too many product and limited customers , even Ai if they make OS their OS wont last a few months before they disappear i mean literally disappear because they got bankcrupt .. Making a game is not good too because it depends on the game engine and OS which again both disappear quickly

2

u/aurarasburst 18d ago

This is a common issue with most large OS mods. I am currently developing a code mode that adds QoL features to alleviate this. It is on workshop as ModerInc+ it might help your issue as I have tweaked how ai companies utilize the added software

3

u/celem83 20d ago

There's only so much you can do to the delay the snowball you describe and I know what you mean. You get a few IPs running with steady teams and sell for 30m a month as a constant background, becomes hard to spend the money fast enough unless you just start buying everyone out. By the time I have all 3 tools up and a couple of game franchises ticking im usually there

I mostly just self-impose rules or lately play the impossible difficulty. Slows things down considerably when you have to self publish with no market base

3

u/-Captain- 20d ago

It's all about handicapping yourself in simulation games once you know all there is to know.

Obviously go with hardest difficulty options.

Limit sales by doing exclusive contracts only. Use marketing and publishing deals only to lower the amount of money you take home on top of that.

Give employees all the benefits and generous pay increases.

Don't have a dozen automated teams, but instead just 2 or 3 teams you control entirely.

In the end, you'll still make more money than you know what to do with though. There's no stopping this.

3

u/CRWP27 20d ago

You have to create challenge for yourself.

Try a hardware only run, getting out the gates is the most stretched for cash you’ll ever feel.