Pushing this update a bit earlier than initially planned due to the cashier bug. Hopefully the new sounds don't cause too many problems. Sound design will be refined in the upcoming 0.2.2.
Patches Notes
0.2.1
Added: sounds for cars, birds, crickets, fountains, cooking stations, crowds, builders (driller and jackhammer).
Added: options to delay or disable notifications individually (this is saved per game, not globally).
Added: a lot of logs to help debug rare problems.
Changed: the needs screen to be more colorblind-friendly.
Fixed: a major bug that messed with staff worked hours, potentially made some counters inoperable and caused various other problems.
Fixed: you are now properly prevented to overlap various vertically oriented objects.
Fixed: improper 'building overlap' message when building roadwork next to a building.
Fixed: the 'lit' grass tiles when removing an exterior fountain.
Fixed: a potential overflow for users with multiple monitors.
Update 0.2.0.3 released
This is the first release for Alpha 2, introducing Bus transport and (finally) implementing rotated shelves.
Additional content updates will be released before we move onto Alpha 3.
The save format has changed and therefore old saved games are obsolete. You can opt-in to the Alpha1 branch if you want to continue playing your old malls without corrupting data.
Patches Notes
0.2.0
Added: the 'Bus transport' research project which unlocks buses/bus stops. Once a bus stop has been built, buses will pop every hour and deliver and collect passengers at every bus stop. They currently deliver up to 6 customers per bus stop, per hour (depending on your capacity to meet the customers' needs). Buses will also transport staff in a future build, and more importantly allow special venues that require massive attendance to be viable.
Added: you can now rotate shelves, fridges, tables and clothing racks. Both orientations of these are now accessible from either side.
Changed: the fridge is now top-opening to allow for easy identification of products and stock when rotated.
Added: you can now setup a business to open late and close in the morning.
Added: an option to automatically set products when building shelves. (bottom-right below the objects list).
Added: a warning when roads are disconnected from the main road network.
Changed: the save menu to allow easy overwriting of existing saves.
Added: the hourly sales graph to the hourly workforce graph, to help identify peak hours.
Changed: doubled the delivery rate between 0:00 and 6:00.
Changed: builders now build foundations twice as fast.
Changed: builders now use a jackhammer to build roadwork.
Fixed: garbage and delivery trucks being depoped when loading a game.
Fixed: garbage trucks no longer attempt to reach inaccessible areas.
Fixed: a bug with order counters miscalculating their max queue size and potentially preventing the business to attract any customer.
Fixed: a bug when determining staff optimal pop hour to meet their work starting hour.
Fixed: order counters wrongly working in stores and checkout counters wrongly working in other businesses.
Fixed: some tips not appearing on the needs screen.
Fixed: minor bugs and glitches.
0.2.0.1
Restored: ability to load obsolete save files. You will now be prompted and warned about consequences. Please DO NOT report bugs for such games.
Restored: ability to sell appropriate beverages in fridges.
0.2.0.2
Added: staff can now use bus transport. It is now technically possible (but not recommended) to have a mall with no parking at all (customer or staff).
Changed: you are now prevented to build bus stops next to each other.
Fixed: a possible actor overflow when building hundreds of bus stops.
Fixed: bus stop signs randomly appearing on the map.
Fixed: the locked tooltip wrongly showing when bus transport is unlocked.
Fixed: garbage bags spawning on walls.
0.2.0.3
Changed: now compiled with C runtime 2010, which should greatly improve compatibility.
Restored: the stress test map.
Update 0.1.8.1 released
Apologies if you were expecting more object rotations (notably shelves, fridges and tables), it's going to take a bit more time as we figure out how to keep the products and their stock identifiable when shelves are rotated (it will probably be alternate versions of the shelves instead of the current version rotated, which looks bad and obfuscated).
This update is focused on store specialization and products quality tiers, and fixing/improving some important game systems (staff commute, shift transitions, restaurant queueing logic).
Although old saves should load, some objects/characters that got corrupted will remain so, and it is highly recommended to start a fresh game.
Patches Notes
0.1.8.1
Fixed: customers coming to closed shops.
Fixed: a possible crash.
Added: an option to enable screen edge scrolling.
0.1.8
Store specialization and products quality tiers
All physical products you sell now have a maximum quality tier which is determined by the store's specialization.
A supermarket that sells all kinds of products can only satisfy demand for the lowest quality tier.
A store that focuses on a category of products (food, clothes, etc.) will satisfy demand for the first 2 quality tiers for this category.
A store that focuses on one single product (specialty store) will satisfy demand for all 3 quality tiers for this product.
The needs/demand menu has been reworked to show various quality tiers demands and now more accurately monitors demands.
References to WIP products/demands have been removed to avoid confusion.
Other changes
Changed: cashiers and cooks will now always show up to work even if all the counters/cooking ranges are already manned. They will hang around until a work station is available, which should greatly improve shifts transitions.
Changed: rewrote the restaurants queueing logic. Restaurants-related notifications should now make sense.
Added: employees now monitor their daily commute time and try to account for it the next day. As a result your staff will now sometimes arrive early, sometimes late, and sometimes will be right on time, instead of being invariably late.
Added: a graph of hourly sales on the store manage menu.
Fixed: some character logs that were overwritten.
Fixed: firing employees while they're on their way to work no longer leaves their work station flagged as occupied indefinitely.
Fixed: players bowling in the wrong direction.
Fixed: some minor bugs/glitches.
Known issues
In certain configurations, cashiers working at order counters leave work immediately after arriving.
Some employees still get 'stuck in traffic' permanently (you can fire and re-hire them until this is fixed).
Update 0.2 (Alpha 2) is coming soon™!
Update 0.1.7.3 released
Patches Notes
0.1.7
Added: you can now rotate the following objects (press the mousewheel button or Q in build mode): toilet cubicles, sinks and urinals, movie projectors and spectator seats, diner, food court and restaurant tables.
Added: you can now set the daily working time for each employee between 1 and 15 hours (the default is 8). The working time will affect the employee's desired salary.
Fixed: employee satisfaction now properly affects their efficiency.
Fixed: a bug where businesses open 24/7 could get corrupted and prevent staff from showing up.
Fixed: default orientation order counters can't be built in places where they could cause problems.
Fixed: movie projection highlights ignoring doors and extending more than they should.
Changed: restaurant tables are now generally more accessible (removed the warning).
0.1.7.1
Added: a 'Safe mode' launch option to help diagnose various launch problems.
Fixed: a problem where the game would assume incorrect hardware capabilities on first launch.
Changed: the way logs are written, to improve reliability.
0.1.7.2
Changed: updated the GLFW library to version 3.2.1
Added: a couple more debug logs
0.1.7.3
Added: support for Windows usernames in Unicode characters.
Known issues
Toilet sinks and urinals built on the right side of a wall can't be removed without removing the wall.
Restaurant goers tend to stack (even more than before...)
There is no penalty to building 'stupid' theater layouts (where the projector and seats don't face the same direction).
Update 0.1.6.3 released
Patches Notes
0.1.6
Added: you can now rotate checkout and order counters (press the mousewheel button or Q in build mode)
Changed: objects now use soft walls, which should resolve a lot (all?) of the inaccessible objects problems
Changed: removed some dll dependencies, which should improve compatibility
Added: ability to filter and sort staff on the manage menu
Fixed: customers now walk directly to their queue position instead of going to the max queue position first
Fixed: customers flying over walls to their order counter queues (should slightly improve restaurant's attendance as a result)
Fixed: a rare bug that could freeze the game
0.1.6.1
Fixed: staff showing up at midnight instead of their normal starting hour
Fixed: wrong tooltips on the manage staff menu
Changed: UI tooltip now displays real-time satisfaction instead of daily average
0.1.6.2
Fixed: a lot of doors appearing in the build objects menu
Fixed: spectators are now sent home when deleting movie theaters instead of staying there forever
Fixed: issue with rotated checkout counters not working properly
Fixed: doors built on the side of roads can now be removed properly
Fixed: the maximum pathfinding threads is now capped to 8 on configs with more than 8 available threads
Changed: roadwork invisible walls are now soft walls
Changed: reduced the unremovable main road entrance to 4 blocks instead of 8
Changed: minor changes to the build tooltips
0.1.6.3
Changed: the way sprites priorities are handled (could affect performance on big malls)
Changed: cashiers now stand closer to rotated counters
Changed: increased fast food profits by 50%
Fixed: the infinite transaction bug for ticket lobbies without a theater (for the 3rd time!)
Fixed: a rare bug that could crash the game
If you want to help test new changes, update 0.1.7 is now available on the unstable branch with more object rotations:
Fixed: removing unfinished roadwork now works properly
Fixed: builder's AI when work orders are far from their maintenance center
Fixed: an issue that could affect performance on slower PCs
Changed: graphs now use the proper scale and format
Added: a warning when restaurant tables are inaccessible
Added: some technical preparations for objects rotations
Added: dimensions when building foundations and walls, or assigning zones
Most of the work is now focused on implementing objects rotation, with bug fixes, balancing and QOL changes making up the rest. Work on new content and features will begin after objects rotations are in.
Thanks for your patience.
Patch 0.1.4 released
Patches Notes
0.1.4
Fixed: you now can't build 2x2 road blocks that could freeze traffic
Fixed: when deleting a storage while it's in use, the affected staff will now be sent home instead of waiting forever
Fixed: ticket lobbies without an associated theater no longer attract customers and generate infinite sales
Fixed: the wrong product sprites being displayed on the counters
Fixed: orphan cars are now despawned upon loading
Changed: delivery priorities improved when you have a lot of small storages
Changed: hunger and bladder now rise twice as fast
Added: a warning when shelves are inaccessible
Added: keyboard shortcuts to zoom in (T) and out (G)
Added: a button to access the savefile folder on load/save menus
Added: you can now hold backspace when renaming a zone or savefile
Added: an experimental option to scale text (in options>game)
Patch 0.1.3 released
Patches Notes
0.1.3
Fixed: a problem that could freeze traffic and prevent deliveries
Fixed: janitors leaving before the end of their shift
Fixed: ability to run the game in offline mode
Fixed: the 'fast builders' sandbox setting not loading properly
Patch 0.1.2 released
Patches Notes
0.1.2
Fixed: walls not being removed properly
Fixed: a bug where staff wouldn't come when you only have staff parking
Fixed: possible crashes when ordering builders or janitor to prioritize something
0.1.1
Fixed: staff getting permanently stuck in traffic*
Fixed: builders not able to build vertically oriented doors on closed buildings
Generally improved builders AI in complicated situations (It might take them a few seconds)
Fixed: traffic freezes when inaccessible parking spots are built
Fixed: removing objects no longer resets the floor to the default tile
Fixed: staff will now prefer staff-only parking unless it is really far from their workplace
*Please note that the fix prevents this from happening. If you have the problem in your current game, you should fire and re-hire the buggy employee.
Alpha 1 - Early Access Begins
It is Grand Opening Day at last!
I want to remind everyone that the game is in Early Access and therefore there are bugs, and if you binge on it you will likely run out of challenges as the game currently lacks events to keep you on your toes.
It you are not willing to endure the bugs and contribute to the development, it is perfectly OK to wait for a more fleshed out update or even full release.
Now there are some undocumented mechanisms that I couldn't safely address in time for this release and that you should be aware of:
Shelves, tables and cloth racks are accessed by clerks and customers from below: you should always leave an empty lane below them for them to be functional.
Similarly, restaurant tables are accessed from above, and you should keep an empty lane above them.
You can order builders and janitors to prioritize a specific area by selecting them and right-clicking on a walkable tile and selecting the appropriate order.
In the coming weeks, the focus will be on fixing major bugs, fleshing out and polishing current features and quality of life improvements.
After that we will move on to new features and content, which you can find sorted on the Trello idea board: https://trello.com/b/MRvVVwxD
One last thing you might want to know: due to Steam's store policy the game will not be in the (eventual) thanksgiving sale as we can't have a discount in the 30 days following launch.
Happy building! And please share screenshots of your malls, ideas, suggestions and bug reports in the community hub ːsteamhappyː
