This is the Gearcity (Unofficial FAQ). It was originally on the Gearcity Official Forum, but i thought id share it with the wider Gearcity Steam Community.

Originally it was intended to help new Open Beta testers learn the game, but since then it has expanded to include a lot of basic game concepts and more than a few pieces of basic advice for the game.

I intend to update it to reflect any changes in each update.


The introduction from the forum post will follow:

This is a large list of Frequently Asked Questions below, but if you would like to ask any other questions, or contribute questions to the FAQ, leave a response below.
Commentary and Feedback is also welcome.

I encourage all new players to first look at the tutorial videos created by Eric(The creator of Gearcity).
Edit: As of 1.15 they can be accessed Through the Gearcity Community page in steam in the Guides section.
Or, if you have the Steam Overlay activated, you can press shift-tab while ingame to access them.
These videos will teach you the basics of playing Gearcity. Eric has said that in the future they will go into some of the more advanced features of the game.

I hope to be able to share basic game information as well as tips, hints and advice to new players.
This FAQ is a resource i was looking for when i started to play the game, so i hope by creating it new players will find the learning curve gentler than i did.

Currently Gearcity is in Open Beta, parts of it are still being developed, tested and refined.
If your looking for more information on the origins of Gearcity, have a look at the brief FAQ written by VENT, the producer of Gearcity, here[www.gearcity.info]. (Click button on the far right to the left of the fuel gauge.)

If you notice any bugs or crashes, you have two options.
You can use the big section of the Gearcity Steam forums, or use the Official Bug forum linked below

If you use the official Forums:
For reporting Bugs/Crashes/Technical issues:
First use the search function in the link below to check if your bug/crash has been mentioned. If you cant find it mentioned, start a new thread. Try to keep one bug per thread if possible.
Official Bugs Forum[www.ventdev.com]
If you have any suggestions for the game:
Try to search for a similar suggestion first. You also might want to check the (Unofficial) Suggestions Link thread[www.ventdev.com], which i try to keep updated with all the current suggestion topics on the official forums.
If you cant find it mentioned then post it in the Suggestions Forum linked below. Again, try to keep one suggestion per thread.
Suggestions Forum[www.ventdev.com]

Both London and New York are very easy starts.
You can choose either depending on your personal Preference.
London is probably the easiest of the two. Both have large populations which means more people to sell to, but London has the largest population, as well as low tax and one of the highest Per capita(income).
Once you get to 1914, which is quite a ways into your game, New York becomes a lot easier as Europe is involved in war.

Easy for most new players.
If your more comfortable with learning through trial and error, or are experienced with complex strategy games, you can start on Normal.

Any vehicle with "High" or "Above Average" Demand in the:
"Sales book"-"Reports"-"Body Style demand" (Note: the Sales book is directly above the chair in the office screen)
Don't forget to select the region your planning to sell to next to the button.

If you are still unsure, Sedans are consistently popular in most areas. In the US there is usually high demand for Pickups and in Europe there is usually above average demand for compact cars. (Which are also cheap to make)
In the very early years (before 1910) the open top 2 seater cars called Phaetons also tend to be temporarily popular and also cheap to produce.

One Cylinder engines are cheap, reliable and reasonably powerful. (anywhere from 1-25hp)

2-4 cylinder straight engines were also common in a number of vehicles at the time. (the model T from 1908 was a 20HP Straight4) By reducing most of the sliders, you can even reduce the cost down to similar figures as the Single Cylinder, though at a serious sacrifice of quality.

Depends a lot on your location/date.
For starting players in 1900, I would suggest focusing on mass market vehicles, like Sedans/Phaetons(if before 1910) and depending on your region, either Pickups(US) or Compact Vehicles (Europe).
Make them low quality with low sliders and they will be cheap to design and cheap to produce.
You can sell high quantities of these vehicles and get good profit margins off their sales.

Once you start making money, use that money to spend more time on design and vehicle testing. This will give you better quality components and vehicles which will sell better.

For new players in 1900, you will usually spend $150-300 per unit plus the Production cost listed in R&D and the showroom(which is just materials) actually getting the vehicle to the population.
For example: If your vehicle costs 800 to produce, it will likely cost $1000 or $1100 per vehicle to get it to the customer.
Try to sell very close to your production locations, to limit transportation costs, which are very high early in the game.

So if we follow those rules, with an average new player vehicle, like a Pickup Truck.
If its production cost is 1000, we know that its going to cost perhaps $1300 just in expenses to get it to the customer.
We obviously want to make money off it, so we set the price 1400-1500 and see how well it sells. Over time it gets cheaper to produce, so you can reduce the price gradually or just take the extra profits yourself.

For a more technical answer, around 1900 most players seem to put their non-luxury vehicles selling price around 3-5x per capita(you can see per capita on each city in the map)
Below that usually only for middle class/cheap vehicles and above that usually only for expensive/luxury vehicles.
For example, around 1900, using our 1000-1100 as an example, 1500(4xcapita) would net good profits, but you could put it up to 1800-1900(5xcapita)

For Factories first:
The two things you need to think about here is the monthly cost of the factory and your overall strategy. You will also probably need over 500,000 in cash.

Mainly you need to focus on how many vehicles you intend to produce and sell.
For new players, id just use your starting factory or keep to a 100-200 car per month factory.
Once youve guessed the number of vehicles per month:
- Don't forget to use Lobbying (click the phone in the office screen) to reduce your factory cost before you build
-Try to keep the tech slider as low as possible. Its the main slider that determines cost and upkeep
-Keep in mind the type of vehicles you are producing there. If your making luxury/quality vehicles you might want to heavily favour quality over quantity.
- Feel free to turn the production capacity slider to wherever you need it, its the cheapest way to adjust the number of vehicles being produced.

On Branches:
Branches can be Extremely expensive.
Even with minimum sliders, around 1900 a minimum sized branch costs you 3,000 per month.
Consider that even if you sell 50 cars in that location, youll still be paying $60 per vehicle just for the branch.

So if your a new player, try to stick to minimum sized(sliders all the way to the left) branches.

Once your sales volume gets into the hundreds in that city:
Look at the White Sales book in the Office on the bottom left.
Go to "Expenses"-"Branch Cost per city"(in the dropdown menu on the top of the book) then scroll to the right.
You should see how much that branch is costing you per vehicle you sell.
For a new player around 1900, id recommend keeping it below $30 per unit.
The game models a decrease in the value of money, so by 1980, id try to stay below a few hundred, though ive played a lot less games in that era, so im less sure on that figure.
If its lower than that, you might want to increase your Branch size, as having a larger branch can also help your sales.
So resize your branch in the world/globe map, then check it again next month and repeat as necessary.

For new players, start small by producing 10-30, then each month increase production until your producing roughly as many as your selling.
Ideally you want to produce a little more than the number your selling, so that you can sell more if the demand increases.

For new players
Give your Vehicle as well as Broadbase(general advertising) a low number like $10 in each marketing type(Newspapers, Magazines etc)
Once you pass a turn, look at the White Sales book in the Office on the bottom left.
Then "Expenses"-"Marketing By City"(in the dropdown menu on the top of the book)
From that area you can monitor how much your marketing costs per vehicle you sell.
Set an aim to spend a set amount per vehicle then increase/decrease your marketing budget and see what happens.
In the early game around 1900-1910, usually you can spend $10-20 per vehicle sold and still see good results without having to concern yourself with high marketing costs.
Later in the game, around 1980, because the game models an decrease in the value of money, the same amount adjusted for that would likely be in the hundreds per unit. So $200-400 per unit.

There is no all sizes answer to this question, as it depends a lot on what vehicles you are attempting to sell. Just as in modern times, you try to reach different people depending on your vehicle.

In general when choosing marketing type:
Keep in mind the date/period in history you are playing in. In 1900, some forms of marketing are less developed, less prevalent and therefore less effective than others. Newspapers are usually a good choice early in the game for this reason.
You also might want to keep in mind type of vehicle you are attempting to market. You might expect to find an advertisement for a luxury sports car in a magazine for example.

Choosing between Broad Base and specific:
Specific marketing(choosing a model to market) will only advertise (and increase sales) for that specific model of vehicle
Broad Base marketing will advertise for all of your models to a lesser degree, but will also increase your company image. Company image effects a number of things, one of which is your car sales.
You can view your company image in the "Sales Book" - "Reports" Section under "Prestige"

Usually in order to increase the number of vehicles sold, players use a mix of Broad base and Specific Marketing.

This is for designing vehicles where the engine is rotated 90 horizontally. Usually this is done so you can have a larger engine in a wide vehicle without having to make it longer.
You have to make sure that transverse is ticked on both your Engine and your Gearbox for it to work.

Lobbying has two major effects, it reduces the cost of Factory Construction and it reduces the amount of taxes you pay over time.
Your Factory Construction Cost can be reduced by as much as 20%, which, compared to the usually low lobbying cost, usually results in large savings when your making large factories.
Depending on the first city you selected, your company is forced to pay taxes on its profits. Lobbying can reduce these taxes by as much as 80%.

If the Manufacturing requirements of your vehicle are higher than the Labour skill of your workforce in that city(which you can find under each of the city views on the world map), then you have severe penalties to the number of vehicles you can produce.
Its rarely a problem unless you are building vehicles in minor or undeveloped countries.

Contracting, is a way to let other companies buy and use your designs in their vehicles. You can also buy their designs and do the same.
In the R&D screen, click Contract, then click the component category you want.(engines for example)
In order to contract your components out:
Click a component (like engine A), type in a price then press agree.
Over time you will be informed if companies have contracted out your components. You can see the money your making off this contracting in the Sales Book - Revenue - Component Revenue Screen
In order to buy another companies design:
Click on a company on the left then from their list of components. View the stats of their offerings by clicking on each one and looking at the display below.
Press agree when you find something you want and it will appear in your View-Component screen in the R&D (View-Engine for example)

In this section you can do several things which are divided up by exactly what your intending to modify.

If you Modify a Vehicle:

• New Year Model will, using the slider settings and vehicle body from one of your existing designs, allow you to create a follow up model or as the name suggests new model for a new year with different components.
  This allows you to for example put a new engine in the vehicle for example.
  
• New Trim is mostly designed to allow cosmetic design changes, like new bodywork or other minor changes.
  Its often used to create a new trim of an existing design to sell overseas.
  At the moment it boasts the same functionality as New Year Model in most cases.
  
• End Production is a button that will remove that model from your list of vehicles and components and production, effectively rendering it obsolete.
  Usually this is something done after all production sales and marketing is stopped through the buttons in the mega menu.

If you modify your Gearbox/Engine/Chassis you can:

• Improve an existing component by a certain percent. This will only apply to designs produced after the modification is done. This piece of information is important, it means that your existing designs on the production line will not be improved by this process until they are redesigned.
  
• End Production of a component. This works exactly the same way as the End Production button related to vehicles i explained above.

Wear generally represents the damage and deterioration to sections of Factories and Branches over time.
The effect is most noticeable in Branches, which sell far less vehicles over time if you dont retool them.
You can either retool each Branch/Factory individually on the World Map, or use the handy Mega Menu shortcut to Retool all Branches or Retool all Factories.
(Note: The mega menu can be found under the Globe in the Office screen. The Shortcuts can be found by clicking on the "Auto Commands" button on the top left of the mega menu)

(The credit for the answer to this question goes to Eric.B, who cleared up the exact meanings of most of these ratings)

• Per capita is the most important figure in each City. It defines the average income of people in that city.
  I go into more detail on this in another question of the FAQ
  
• Infrastructure- Infrastructure changes to cost of running your business and changes the number of people who will buy cars.
  
• Manufacturing Capacity- Manufacturing Capacity is one of two main ratings that define the number of vehicles you can produce in a factory. The other one is Labor skill.
  (This is also likely to change manufacturing requirements in the future, which i talk about under Labour Skill)
  
• Manufacturing Growth- The Manufacturing Growth rating is the rate that Manufacturing capacity will grow.
  
• Resources - The resource rating defines how expensive it is to build factories and maintain them.(This is likely to also effect production costs in the future)
  
• Fuel Prices - The Fuel Prices rating shows if the fuel is cheaper or more expensive in that city. The higher the Fuel prices(Lower Fuel Prices rating), the more people will want Fuel efficient vehicles.
  
• Labour skill - This is currently one of the most important ratings. This determines the manufacturing requirements rating of the factory. If you try to build vehicles with higher manufacturing requirements, you will get severe penalties to the number of vehicles you can make.
  Like manufacturing Capacity, it also changes the number of vehicles you can produce in each line of your factory.
  
• Corporate Tax- This is a direct tax on the monthly profit of a company with a HQ in the city listed as a percentage.

The Per capita of each city lists the average income of the people in that city.
This is only an average however. Just like real life, in Gearcity there are people richer than the average and poorer than it. (The game actually mimics real world income distribution)
This information is important, as it helps you understand the demographic you are selling to (especially either Low/Middle/High) and design and price vehicles for them.

e.g. Wealthier people don't need so much fuel economy, but want more luxury and comfort.

Most of the vehicles produced by players in the early game, costing around 1500-2000 are equal to 3-5 or more years wage for the average person, not including everyday living expenses, which means that most of the people buying them are actually the wealthy and upper classes in the country.
Some of the most famous vehicles, like the Model T, were the first vehicles to be sold to the larger middle classes, and were much cheaper.
The Model T for example, eventually cost as little as 400, which was below per capita income at that point. (probably several hundred below)

There are three main things to consider here.
First is the time period you are in.
Right in the early game, around 1900, many Women still couldn't even vote and had less property/jobs etc., so you would expect less of them to be buying Vehicles. So its unwise to be targeting vehicles at women this early.
Also worth considering is that from 1890-1910, vehicles were usually the toys of the wealthy and upper classes, rather than the mass market vehicles we see today. The Model T, which started to be sold in large numbers right around 1910, was one of the first mass market vehicles.
So for example, you might want to set early vehicles to Wealthy and Male Demographics, or at least lean more towards the Upper-Middle class demographics.

Second is the type of vehicle
Some vehicles just have a tendency to be bought either by lower middle classes, due to their small size/low cost, or by the rich elite, due to their high cost and luxury/novelty status.
As an example, it would be unwise setting the primary demographic of a compact/economy car to be the super rich/elite.
Also, in the same vein, setting the primary demographic of a supercar, usually only bought by the very rich, to ultra-low, is unwise.

Third is the price you are planning to sell it at, based on the Per capita rating.
As mentioned in no18, you should try to make sure your price is within the means of the demographic you are targeting.
As an example, if you plan to put your price at a level beyond the average middle class person, it is unwise to be making that its primary demographic.

(This question was directly explained by Eric, which I paraphrased below)
Even though you build branches in cities, the actual distribution/sales of your vehicles is handled by third parties in those cities, called Dealerships.
The Employees in these branches dont actually sell cars, they work as middlemen between Dealerships and Factories, handling everything from staff training to parts supply.
There are two sliders when you are creating a branch, "Dealership Resources" and "Sales Resources"
"Dealership Resources" effects the amount the dealership will be willing to use and expand your brand and vehicles.
The "Sales Resources" slider dictates how many incentives are given to dealerships to sell your vehicles and how devoted you are to those dealerships. These incentives can be things like free training and display models.

This is a feature that's been implemented in version 1.11.
In Earlier builds, you could design a component like an engine with any configuration you wanted, limited only by the date the technology becomes available. Now, you are also limited by the skill requirement, which restricts your access depending on the skill of your design team, which starts off low in 1900.

The skill requirements of various components will go down over time, so you will eventually gain access to all components, but having a higher skill will mean you get access earlier than your competitors.

In order to raise this skill, you need to design new components.
Also since 1.13 in order to speed up the process you can design components alongside Research teams. See the next Q for more detail on this topic.
Once you do so, you will notice that more and more options become available, some of these are restricted by date, but most are restricted largely by your skill.
For example, a V6 can be accessed relatively quickly before 1910 after some research.
A H16 however, and extremely complex design by the standards of the era, requires a lot of skill from your company to design.
If you have questions on a specific design and how to access it, ask in the help section of the forums[www.ventdev.com].

Research Teams speed up the rate at which you increase your skill in designing various components as described in depth in the previous question.

In order for them to work, you need to make sure you have a design which was produced recently enough to still have good ratings. This applies regardless of whether your researching anything from engines to vehicles.
The rating of the design will effect how much you can gain from the Research Teams.
Note: The above step is required, otherwise your Research Teams could potentially do very little or even nothing if you have no designs at all

Once you have those designs, you can spend money on research teams in order to increase the rate your company/workers will gain skill. Keep in mind the teams are very expensive, so you might want to be cautious.
I would suggest using them in affordable amounts over a 10-20 year period in order to speed up your natural skill gain from designing components and vehicles to sell.

User Defined Reports are a section of the Sales book where you can set a number of specific reports to be generated, which can give you a lot of detail on what is actually happening in your Gearcity World.
Many of them are very useful, giving you information that isn't normally available in many of the screens.
Note : You need to create reports one or more turns before you need them.

In order to create one, click the Generate Report button and in the window that appears select up to 5 of the reports that you think might be useful individually then press add to get them into the report. (Ive listed some of my favorites at the end)
Give it a name in the bottom left then click save.

Once a turn has passed you can view it as often as you like then and every turn afterwards. The information will update itself without you having to make a new one.
You can view them with the "View Generated reports" button which has a drop down box to choose the report you want.
You can also delete reports using the button below that one with the same method.

Some User generated reports that i often use are:

• Top 50 Best Selling (or best selling in region) - to monitor competitor activity
  
• Vehicle Type - Leader / Leader Market share - again monitoring competitor
  
• Research and Construction Status
  
• Profits per City - Very useful to see which cities are actually making you money
  
• Profits per Model - This can tell you at a glance which of your models are profitable.
  
• Cost of delivery per unit - This will summarize how much it costs in total to get your unit to the customer for each of your models. Very useful information.

As of 1.14, Your Save/Log and Screenshot files can be found in the folder you installed Gearcity into.

Specifically:

(Where "Installation Folder" is the folder in which the Gearcity.Exe is located")
Installation Folder/Gearcity/Screenshot

In this folder you should see the logfile called "logfile.log"
You should also see the Screenshot and Save folders.

If you want to upload a Save file as an attachment to a bug report or thread on the VENT forums, you have to put it inside a rar/zip file, otherwise the forum will not accept it.
If you get a message like "file is being accessed", the simplest workaround is to copy the save file, then add the copy to the rar/zip file mentioned above.

Like all forms of dev tools/cheating, use can take fun/enjoyment out of the game, so unless you have some amount of discipline and self control, i would recommend against using them.

I will list the process for those people who have read the warning and still want it for testing/cheating.
The saves for the game are in a format i believe is called a SQLite Database.
You can Open and edit them using the SQLite Studio, which ive linked here.[sqlitestudio.pl]
Once you install the program and open it, you have to go to Databases- Add Database and find your save file. (I listed the location of these in the last question)

Once the save file/database is open, the money of your company can be found in the "CompanyList" Table.
When you enter the table, switch from the "Structure Tab" on the top to the "Data Tab".
If you scroll through the list, you should be able to find your company name on the left.
To the right of that name, you should see a column labelled "FUNDS_ONHAND"
As you would imagine, you can edit this to change your money.
Once you have edited it, you need to right click on the cell you edited and select "Commit selected Cells"