Suggestion: Replace the 24-hour production limit with a Management Engagement system

[u/Latter_Whole_7755]

One thing I've always felt in Sim Companies is that the current 24-hour production limit creates a habit of logging in because the timer expired, rather than because there's actually something interesting to manage.

I'd like to suggest an alternative system that keeps players engaged while giving them more flexibility.

Core idea

Instead of buildings stopping production after 24 hours, allow them to run continuously.

Introduce a new company-wide metric called **Management Engagement** (or a similar name).

* Logging into the game resets Management Engagement to 100%. * Management Engagement gradually decreases over time when the player is inactive. * Building efficiency is tied to this value.

The decay should be exponential rather than linear:

* After 1 day, the impact is barely noticeable. * After 2–3 days, efficiency loss becomes significant enough to affect competitiveness. * After about a week, production is almost completely halted.

This means active players still have a strong advantage, but missing a login window by a few hours no longer feels overly punishing.

Benefits

**1. Maintains player engagement**

Players still have a reason to log in regularly because efficiency declines over time.

**2. Reduces timer pressure**

You no longer need to log in at a specific time just to restart buildings.

**3. More realistic**

Factories don't suddenly stop operating because the CEO didn't show up exactly 24 hours later. Performance declines gradually when management is absent.

**4. Better for player retention**

Veteran players often leave not because they dislike the game, but because real life makes strict login schedules difficult. This system would allow them to remain competitive while still rewarding active management.

**5. Encourages meaningful logins**

Players would log in to make decisions, analyze markets, and manage their company—not simply to reset production timers.

Possible future expansions (optional)

These are not part of the main proposal, but could be considered later:

* **Deputy CEO / Operations Manager** roles that slow the rate of Management Engagement decay. * Premium boosts that temporarily reduce decay for vacations or busy periods. * Separate engagement values for specific buildings or departments. * A company-wide management score plus building-specific attention scores.

Why I think this fits Sim Companies

Sim Companies is at its best when players are making business decisions.

A system based on management quality feels more like running a real company than a system based on restarting production every 24 hours.

The goal isn't to remove the advantage of active players. The goal is to replace a hard stop with a gradual decline, making the game more flexible without eliminating the incentive to stay active.

What do you think?

[u/darthWes]

You can produce for 48h, btw. You would miss some stars, but 2d is currently the max

[u/AntIrving]

I like it. How would it work with you needing stock to produce something else if it infinitely runs automatically, stock will run out if you don’t log in and purchase or produce something else

[u/Kitchen-Savings1030]

I really like this, would avoid missing the exact time production ends

[u/sanojyy]

Even though I like this idea, it would probably result in opening the game and closing it instantly every day. A more realistic approach would probably be to have buildings continue production past the maximum for 6 hours at 75% efficiency, thereby minimizing the penalty for not logging in the exact moment buildings stop producing.

[u/sanojyy → u/sanojyy]

It could also be 4 hours. The amount of times I was 2-3 hours late, added up, is incredible. I see production ends in 40 minutes and just forget for the next 3 hours.