Where exactly are you supposed to spend your research points? Typically, I put them all into making new engines and this seems to keep my engines “ahead”, earning high scores easily. I always seem to reach a point where I always seem to release 8s and 9s, constantly making money and generally being a great Game Dev Tycoon, but then the crash happens.
Once I move to the final office, soon enough I get the message that I need a specialist to open an R&D lab, and I need seven hundred design or tech points, while my three or four employees, while usually around level 8, are lucky if their highest stat is in the low 400s. I spend an entire console generation or more just trying to get one specialist, and this takes so much time and research points that I’m lucky to have released a single AAA game before the time is up, let alone a console or an MMO (though my games still usually get 8s or at worst, 7s that entire time).
If I attempt to train my employees more in the first office, my engines start to get old fast and I’m stuck using 3D Grapics v2 on the TES 64, causing poor scores despite the super employees.
training is more important then engine, i had a game where i had 3d v2 graphic engine at the third office and i had good games with high score, game engine is not everything!
while training will give you the same high scores as a new engine but with more benefits such as more research points, faster development and better specialization.
Always train your employees first and then thing about researching engine features.
For always have enough research points make sure you train everyones research stats reguraly.
As for getting poor ratings for later games, remember that Large games need at least 2Dv4 or 3Dv3 and AAA 3Dv5 ( no 2D ) and have 3 specialist that are important for the genre you’re making.
Well, I figured out what I was doing wrong. I played a new game and did something drastically different - most of the time, I stuck with Topic/Genre combos I knew worked, and used sequels as much as possible to simulate game franchises. This time, I tried using new topics as much as possible (and some of it was by force - my standby favorite, fantasy was near the bottom of the topic list this playthrough) and I noticed I was getting about umpteen million research points - I was able to train after every game and STILL maintain a decent engine.
By the end of year 12, I had an employee with boost, an engine with 3D Graphics v3, and 3 Large Games released for the TES 64. I guess my problem was never under-training my employees at all, it was getting too few research points to begin with. Maybe this game I’ll be able to open the R&D lab before the mBox one comes out.
