Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 105: Electric Problems

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 105: Electric Problems

With the electric car gaining in popularity with every passing year, I would like to take some time to ponder on why Automation does not support this form of propulsion. There are a few reasons for this. The first one is that back in the earliest days of the Kee era, electric cars were nowhere near as common as they are today, and so the developers decided not to implement EV powertrains, nor have they done so in the UE4 era. The second reason is complexity: implementing electric drivetrains would require a lot more coding than what the game already has, and even after the next game engine update is released, such complications are undesirable. 

It is for these reasons that all EVs shown thus far in the Automationverse, whether created for company lore or for competitions, or both, are nothing of the sort underneath the skin. Instead, a placeholder internal combustion engine is chosen, after which the chassis and trim elements are selected accordingly, as they would be for any other car. This glaring lack of support also partially explains why I chose not to make (or rather simulate) any purely electric vehicles when creating the lore for the Hampton Motor Group during the Generations II challenge, the other reason being that the game does not continue beyond 2020 - a patch to extend the timeline further, to the years 2021-30 would be most welcome, but that's a subject for another time and post.

Game of Life Careers, Ranked

Game of Life Careers, Ranked

Until now, I have never attempted to rank the various careers in most versions of the Game of Life, simply because usually, each career has a set salary (either fixed or variable) tied to it. However, this wasn't the case in Generation II, where the careers could be paired up with one of multiple salaries (or one of any of those in the original version), and even had spaces on the board that were associated with them. If you had the corresponding Career Card for that type of space, any player who landed on it would have to pay you instead of the bank, and you would not have to pay anything whenever you landed on any spaces that matched your career card.

With this in mind, here is my definitive ranking of all nine careers in Generation II of the Game of Life:

1. Accountant: With 4 associated career spaces and the ability to prevent its user from paying taxes, this is certainly the best career to have. It is even more useful if your salary is lower than those of your opponents. Its only drawbacks are that it requires a college degree or Night School to obtain, and one of them can only be reached on the right-hand branch of the second fork on the board. For this reason, some players deliberately avoid it just to seek out a tougher challenge.
2. Athlete: Almost as useful as the Accountant, this career has five associated spaces that pay out a fixed total of $185,000. However, while it does not "protect" its user from taxes, it has a major advantage over the Accountant in that it does not require a college degree, effectively making it potentially available sooner. Another reason for its runner-up finish in my rankings is that none of its career spaces are on a particular branch of either fork on the board.
3. Artist: This has a total of four associated career spaces paying out a total of $205,000. However, one of these (the one that requires you to pay $35,000) can only be reached from the left-hand branch of the second fork on the board. Even with this shortcoming, this is still considered to be one of the best careers to have in Generation II of the Game of Life.
4. Travel Agent/Computer Consultant: Like the Athlete, the Travel Agent (Computer Consultant in the 40th Anniversary version onward) has five associated career spaces. However, they only pay a total of $160,000, slightly less than those of the Athlete. Even so, this is one of the better choices you can find in this game. Unfortunately, an overpowered revision in Generation 2.5 (which allowed it to collect a whopping $50,000 every time the spinner got stuck or fell off its track) led to it being nerfed to the point of near total uselessness for Generation III.
5. Superstar/Entertainer: As with the Doctor below, this career has three associated career spaces, but they only pay out $155,000 in total. One of these is found only on the left branch of the second fork, but it doesn't pay out much ($15,000 to be precise); if it paid out more, this career could have been ranked even lower (or higher depending on your view). As it stands, however, it sits right in the middle of the list.
6. Doctor: Although it has only three associated career spaces paying out $135,000 in total (with one of them on the right-hand branch from the first fork), this is still not the worst choice among the nine available. It does, however, require a college degree, which is why I had to put it in sixth. Apparently Hasbro took notice of this and buffed it for Generation 2.5 so that it was only compatible with all but one of the five highest-paying Salary Cards (see below).
7. Teacher: Why did I choose to rank this career so low? Because it is unique in that the potential earnings from its career spaces (of which there are three) are dependent solely on the number of children your opponents have. As such, this career becomes almost totally useless if none of your opponents have children, if it were not for the fact that you won't have to pay for your own children's tuition fees either. At least in Generation 2.5 it no longer requires a college degree - this change was implemented to avoid an unresolvable career shortage if no standard careers were available, and would retroactively become a common house rule in the original version.
8. Salesperson: In all honesty, this is not a good choice at all. Not as bad as its incarnation in Generation III, where it was nerfed to the point where it became the very worst career you could have, period, but still ranked very low, because its four career spaces pay out a total of - wait for it - just $70,000 (of which $25,000 comes from a space on the left-hand branch of the second fork on the board). Its only redeeming feature is that it does not require a college degree, but then again, neither do most of the other careers.
9. Police Officer: This is, by far, the worst career in Generation II, regardless of salary - it has only one associated career space, which pays out just $15,000, and even then, it's only found on the right-hand branch of the second fork. It does, however, have one thing going for it: the unique ability to collect $5,000 from any opponent who spins a 10. The amount earned from this ability would be doubled in Generation 2.5, but the addition of special abilities to all other non-college careers made it seem even less significant by comparison.

On the subject of special abilities, when more of these were introduced in Generation 2.5, this shook up my career rankings significantly. Here are the changes:

• The Athlete is now the #1 career to have now that the Accountant can no longer use green or yellow Salary Cards - the former's ability to discard 4 Life Tiles to upgrade to a yellow Salary Card (of which there is only one, valued at $100,000) puts it even further in the lead.
• The Entertainer can't use green or yellow Salary Cards by default either, but it can upgrade to the $100k Salary Card immediately after two identical numbers greater than 7 are spun, putting it in a close third, ahead of the Artist.
• The Computer Consultant is, at worst, a close second behind the Athlete since it collects $50,000 every time the spinner gets stuck between numbers or falls off the track entirely. Unsurprisingly, this made some people consider it overpowered, and I even considered disregarding this ability entirely and replacing it with a house rule in which it received $10,000 every time two identical numbers less than 4 were spun.
• The Accountant has dropped to fourth overall; as a College Career, it cannot have a special ability, and now requires $125,000 of debt instead of $50,000.
• The Artist is now ranked fifth overall since several careers have leapfrogged it in overall usefulness as described above. Even the fact that it can collect $10,000 from any opponent who spins a 1 does not help its cause much, if at all.
• The Doctor remains at sixth overall, but despite also being a College Career (which now requires taking on $125,000 of debt), it is now closer to the Accountant since it can only accept green or yellow Salary Cards.
• The remaining careers' positions also remain unchanged despite the effects of their special abilities. At least the Teacher's ability to use the special ability of another unused Career Card makes it a more viable option now.

Notice how I avoided ranking the careers in any other version of the Game of Life - until now, that is. The reason for this is simple: In all other versions, salaries are always tied to careers. This makes ranking the careers in those versions much more clear-cut, especially in Generation III where the Doctor was the best career (of any kind) to have, period, followed closely by the Lawyer, while the Athlete and Entertainer rounded out the top four. Further down the field are the Veterinarian, Accountant, Computer Designer and Police Officer, with the Teacher, Hair Stylist, Mechanic and Salesperson at the very bottom. However, the Enhanced Mode of the video adaptation of Generation III switches things up by reintroducing special abilities, and their effects on the rankings are shown below.

• The Athlete has a 2x multiplier for any and all Pay Raises it earns, allowing it to potentially earn even more money than any other career, including the Doctor and Lawyer. Also, as a standard Career, it does not require debt to select at the start of the game; therefore, anyone who starts with it will not be rendered immediately ineligible for the Debt-Free achievement. In short, it has now become the most useful career in Enhanced Mode, period.
• Among College Careers, the Lawyer is now the most useful one, since anyone who uses it can collect $10,000 from the winner of a Trial mini-game between two opponents, and will also receive a bonus whenever they play that mini-game.
• The Doctor is now only the third-best career overall, but is still a solid choice, and even more so now that it can collect medical fees from other opponents, without having to pay for them as well, as was the case in Generation II.
• The Entertainer can play the Pay Raise mini-game whenever two identical numbers greater than 7 are spun on consecutive turns, increasing its earnings potential even further, and in some cases, matching the Lawyer and Doctor. As such, it is much more competitive now compared to the standard rule set.
• As was the case in Generation II, Accountants no longer need to pay taxes, but this time, they can't get tax refunds either, although they can collect $5,000 from the bank whenever other players pay taxes.
• Veterinarians can now collect a Life Tile upon reaching a Pay Raise space, as long as there are Life Tiles still available.
• Computer Designers can select two numbers during Spin to Win instead of one. Given that players have only one number to choose from during Spin to Win under the Enhanced rule set, this can be quite useful.
• Teachers no longer have to pay to return to school, which comes in handy if they want to trade in their current career for another one.
• The Police Officer's special ability (which allows them to collect $5,000 from any opponent who spins a 10) is unchanged.
• Hair Stylists now get to spin for baby gifts whenever an opponent lands on a baby space, with the value of the gift determined in the same way as wedding gifts. Even so, this career is still one of the worst options available due to its low salary.
• Mechanics can now collect $10,000 from any opponent involved in an overtaking maneuver, i.e. when a player passes another on the board. However, given the Mechanic's low salary, this may not help them very much in the long run.
• The Salesperson can now collect 10% of the price of any house bought by an opponent - a handy boost considering that this career is the least lucrative one in Generation III.

In short, the changes to Generation III for Enhanced Mode have made for a less predictable game - and potentially a more enjoyable one. But regardless of what version of the Game of Life you are playing, the most important thing to remember is that the highest-paid players tend to win most of the time - but not always.