Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 258: Generations II Five Years On

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 258: Generations II Five Years On

Five years after wrapping up the Generations II challenge on the Automation Discourse, I began wondering how I'd rewrite the history of the Hampton Motor Group (my representative in that tournament) as a separate thread in the car design subforum using the current Al-Rilma stable release (in contrast to the obsolete pre-Ellisbury 4.24 build I was using at the time) if I were to do so. In fact, a remake or reimagining of those earlier designs would be a necessity in such a scenario, since all of my designs from the 4.24 version are incompatible with any 4.27 game build and are thus not transferable.

The original series had 12 rounds in total, so it would make sense for me to spotlight 12 critical years (each of which are 3-7 years apart, to set it apart from the source material where intervals between rounds were no more than 6 years long) in the company's history. To keep these "milestones" as close to the ones used in the original thread, I would suggest these model/trim years, with their respective company-wide combined techpool allocations (trim + engine) as follows:

• Round 1 (1955): $15m
• Round 2 (1962): $20m
• Round 3 (1967): $25m
• Round 4 (1970): $30m
• Round 5 (1975): $35m
• Round 6 (1982): $40m
• Round 7 (1987): $45m
• Round 8 (1992): $50m
• Round 9 (1999): $55m
• Round 10 (2002): $60m
• Round 11 (2007): $65m
• Round 12 (2013): $70m

This means that the combined techpool budget for the company would increase by $5m each round. However, budget (lower-priced) and prestige (higher-priced) segments could receive less and more techpool budget, respectively, than other segments, as follows, to align more closely with their price ranges:

• Rounds 1-6: -$5m (budget)/+5m (prestige)
• Rounds 7-12: -$10m (budget)/+$10m (prestige)

In addition, market segments could be classified according to price as follows, in keeping with my policy of making their positioning commensurate with their pricing:

• Budget: Lower-priced cars (compacts and subcompacts, regardless of body style) and lower-end performance cars of any kind (including sport compacts, which should ideally be a separate trim of an existing budget model). Smaller SUVs/crossovers and pickup trucks also belong here.
• Prestige: Higher-priced premium and luxury cars (including any high-performance variants of either), as well as trucks, crossovers, and SUVs. This also includes (usually) higher-end sports cars and grand tourers, in addition to supercars and hypercars.
• Standard: Includes mid-range family cars (sedans, wagons, hatchbacks, and minivans) and performance cars of various types that are priced between the budget and prestige brackets (including muscle/pony cars). Mid-priced utility body styles (trucks, SUVs, and crossovers) fall into this category.

Also, to avoid excessive min-maxing, the maximum techpool point allocation for any tab would most likely be set as follows:

• Rounds 1-4: 6 Points
• Rounds 5-8: 8 Points
• Rounds 9-12: 10 Points

Finally, unlike Generations II, this budget and class system would also cover specialist manufacturers, which could focus on just a few segments per round (sometimes as few as one, but usually no more than three), in contrast to a full line manufacturer, which would need to be represented in at least three segments per round (as in the original).

In short, looking back on Generations II shows how far the game and I have come since its conclusion, and gives me an insight on how a car company thread on the Discourse forums could evolve over time, based on the tournament's principles, but adapted to account for the changes introduced in the Ellisbury and, in more recent times, Al-Rilma game builds (along with the future Terso build) that have debuted in the years since.

Update (August 7th, 2026, 10:35 am, UTC+7): I am proposing adding four more rounds, bringing the total to 16; however, several changes must be made to accommodate this.

Any item defined as "advanced technology" (which requires at least 5 techpool points to use in the current round) could be treated like an extra-cost option as follows:

• Rounds 1-8: Base price of $2000 + $500 per techpool point
• Rounds 9-16: Base Price of $5000 + $1000 per techpool point

This should prevent overreliance on these items throughout a company's entire lineup; in addition, the cost of using advanced technology could be halved for specialist manufacturers (to reflect their generally smaller output and/or real-life trickle-down effects).

In addition, using a body set with an unlock year that is at least one year newer than the car's model year (which I would've treated as any other form of advanced technology, but instead decided to give a smaller price penalty by comparison, given that using such items is much more commonplace than I thought), may incur a base price increase of $1000 AMU per year relative to the current model year, regardless of the current model year - another measure that could deter overuse and/or abuse of such items, although specialists may get to use such items at a 50% discount compared to other brands.

Finally, if, as I suspected, 14 rounds turns out to be insufficient, it may be possible to extend the competition to 16 rounds, with the new techpool allocations as follows:

• Round 1 (1946): $5m
• Round 2 (1952): $10m
• Round 3 (1956): $15m
• Round 4 (1962): $20m
• Round 5 (1967): $25m
• Round 6 (1970): $30m
• Round 7 (1975): $35m
• Round 8 (1982): $40m
• Round 9 (1987): $45m
• Round 10 (1992): $50m
• Round 11 (1999): $55m
• Round 12 (2002): $60m
• Round 13 (2007): $65m
• Round 14 (2013): $70m
• Round 15 (2017): $75m
• Round 16 (2020): $80m

This would necessitate an adjustment of price-dependent techpool bonuses and penalties, as follows:

• Round 1: No changes
• Rounds 2-8: -$5m (budget)/+5m (prestige)
• Rounds 9-15: -$10m (budget)/+$10m (prestige)
• Round 16: -$20m (budget)/+$20m (prestige)

Moreover, the maximum techpool point allocation per area would also have to change, as follows:

• Rounds 1-4: 7 Points
• Rounds 5-8: 8 Points
• Rounds 9-12: 9 Points
• Rounds 13-16: 10 Points

This extended season would not only be 33% longer than the original, but also cover the entire Automation timeline from 1947 to 2020 inclusive, giving a broader range of aesthetic and technological evolution than before, and thus providing a more representative snapshot of the game's scope.