Talk:Custom Game Engine/@comment-99.119.14.242-20130504075227

Space Strategy Medium. 83 Design / 133 Tech. 7.25 rating, 4.7M sales. Mature/PC. 41 total benefit from features from the tables above.

I reloaded and repeating with everything same except I removed all the features (including using Text graphics tech). I got: 45D / 69T, scored 3.00 and 1.6M sales. Total 1 feature benefit (always 1 from Text engine).

Then I tried again, with only Engine and Gameplay modifications on. 60D /108T, 5.25 rating , 2.8M sales. 20 total benefit from features.

So it looks like Design and Tech are boosted in somewhat a linear way based on the sum of the feature benefit points. There is some randomization in the exact Design and Tech you get in each phase (doing it the same way twice yields slight different results). I noticed in just Phase 1 with all features on (most of mine were in Engine/Gameplay, about 20 points) I got 33D / 49T, I reloaded and stripped the features but left the base engine same (3D V1) and got 15D / 22T for the same phase.

Someone commented the features don't affect ratings. It may not directly, but I think the game looks at your best Design/Tech vs. what you just made so if you added a lot of features then did a game with much less features, you would get less D/T and be judged relative to your best, and suffer a penalty as seen above.

I noticed you can consistently score 7-8 average reviews using the same engine/features, slider settings, people (at least early-mid game). To get 9+ you bascially have to improve coding speed, add new features, or level up significantly, and/or hit a trend.

In summary, adding features appears to add a Design and Tech boost directly, and I think it does so in the relevant phase the feature belongs to. As mentioned in the review algorithm page comments, if you upgrade a lot in your next engine you may get a 1-hit wonder, but then you're sort of stuck keeping that same level of features to keep decent (7+) scores in the future.