Originally posted by ratqueenathena:

is it me or do contracts seem for lack of a better term random? if i create a pickup with over double the torque over triple the cargo space and over 5 times the speed the contract demands and they are the ones setting the price so i know im not getting undercut on the price...should i not be winning these contracts and not an "outside contracter"?

They are not random. There is a detailed look at how winners are selected in the game's video tutorial's: https://youtu.be/49SsFBb-lPY

For an even more detailed look, you can find pseudo code in our Game Mechanics manual: https://wiki.gearcity.info/doku.php?id=gamemanual:gm_contracts#contract_winner_selection

i would very much like a contract feedback system where it is stated what needs improvement for future contracts of similar types

In short, it jumbles everything together in a single score and then compares that score to a minimum required score. The more things submitted, the lower that minimum score goes. And it is completely removed at 3 bids. There is no set one thing that the game can tell you to improve.

This system was designed this way to prevent the player from getting every contract, because the AI rarely designs anything specifically for contracts, therefore many contracts go without bids. Also the game has about 1/10th the amount of competition from Auto manufacturers, and zero competition from engineering firms (who in real life make up the bulk of many component contractors).

Anyway, I am no longer working on GearCity outside of bug fixes and documentation. There is a crowdfunded DLC that will be released for free when it is finished (about 2 more years). There are several related bounties for that which contributors might fund. These bounties include, displaying the contract score, adding engineering firms as competition (who specifically make things for contracts), etc. But I have no say what gets crowd funded into that DLC.