After a pretty long wait for the next stage in the open beta, we bringing you a big one! With this update the Car Designer Revamp is pretty much feature complete and only a bit more polish is needed before we push this version to the default branch and move on to implementing the Lite Campaign V3.
Competition judge NormanVauxhall flexing his Automation design muscles.
With this update the first step towards the new campaign has been taken already. This update includes the first draft of the project manager for the Lite Campaign V3. Like in sandbox play, this new manager allows you to create a model with several trims, but also adds "facelifts". In the campaign this allows you to selectively refresh your model trims while only investing a fraction of the original engineering time. Likewise, engines will be possible to reuse and refresh with the latest tech to keep an engine family alive for decades. Basically for now this is like sandbox mode, but with more structure to it the way you will see it in the Lite Campaign V3.
The entirely new and revamped Photomode 2.0 will give you a lot of tools to visually make the most of your designs. We’ve added various post processing options, improved and added scenes and locations, giving you more freedom with various filters and allow much more precise tweaks to the parameters. All that is packed in a more user friendly UI, too. We sure look forward to browsing the screenshot and artwork sections in the coming weeks!
B180302 Fixes
Unified Level Steaming code across the game. Was a hodge podged mess.
Fixed Crash relating to manipulating fixtures on multiply entries into Car Designer
Fixed selecting a fixture not bringing up the family and its variants into view.
Fixed various fixtures missing Set CPU Access flag, making them invisible when placed.
B180301 Features
Photomode 2.0: post processing, car visibility, preset saving, and UI improvements
First version of the model and facelift manager for the coming Lite Campaign V3
Decluttered fixture UI with more features
Added function to lock fixtures in place
Made fixture materials order by type: Panel, Grill, Glass, ...
Added seven more car bodies: six mainly utility focused, plus one sedan
Added save as / clone function for car paints
Added direct link between sandbox and photomode (vice versa) via button
Added legend to warnings screen to avoid confusion of severity levels
Added button to help translate the game to the main menu
B180301 Balancing Changes
Implemented dynamic minimum stat requirements and penalties by demographic
Improved AI for generation of (currently static) competitor cars
Balanced / revamped new chassis, chassis materials, and panel materials
Made bottom end quality effect on engine smoothness stronger
Weakened engine smoothness dependence in comfort stat
Implemented new AFR dependence for sportiness, punishing lean settings
Revamped throttle response dependencies in Drivability, Sportiness, Comfort
Revamped roll angle dependencies for Drivability, Sportiness, Comfort
Implemented negative effect of swaybar stiffness in Comfort
Implemented spring type affecting load capacity
B180301 Fixes
Fixed many issues with various car morphs and meshes
Fixed various convertibles not being recognized as convertibles
Fixed various issues with the chassis models
Fixed fixtures cutting holes in UTE beds and tray sidewalls
Fixed issue with grille scaling and them cutting unwanted holes around their edges
Fixed engines not appearing in list after creating new one to replace existing engine
Fixed issue where using undo function would mess with fixture rotations
Fixed engine placement bug with selecting semi space frame option
Fixed issue with tutorial scenarios being unable to be interacted with
Fixed tutorial scenarios not dropping you on the correct starting tab
Fixed scenario medals not showing up after a restart
Fixed issue with demographics that want small cars not calculating correctly
Fixed issue with VVL profile settings when switching cars
Fixed issue with downforce graph and active wing effects
Fixed issue with false below minimum safety notification
Fixed being able to select an active wing without having a wing
Fixed tire load capacity ratings being 5%-10% too low compared to IRL
Fixed body quality and fixture quality sliders resetting upon loading a car
Fixed rim offset not changing when upping tyre widths
Fixed issue with carbon fibre, steel and chrome car body paint
Fixed bump graph not loading correctly when loading a car
Fixed model year not displaying correctly in car manager
The car design competition has moved into the final rounds and the first four category finals are up. If you have not seen them yet, here are the links:
As always, we’re very thankful for bug reports in the bug reporting thread. This will help us in the spurt to the line for the Car Designer Revamp now that all the big items are off our list to wrap it up.
Cheers!
Car Design Competition Update (Preliminaries Done!)
We have had an excellent turnout for the competition, it has produced over 450 entries and many many amazing designs. It is pushing the use and combination of fixtures in the game to the next “how did they do THAT?!” level. Recently we wrapped up the preliminary round and are now into the finals!
And last but not least, Mr. Regular's own category:
https://youtu.be/q-BTReHtpRI
On our AutomationGame YouTube channel we will release the remaining finals in the coming days and weeks.
What's Next?
Next up: the finals of the 60s Muscle Car category, scheduled for Sunday 18:00 CET. We hope you’re enjoying the competition so far!
Regarding the ongoing open beta, we do have R6 almost done with plenty of really cool stuff in it, big updates to the photo scene features, important balance changes, as well as various bugfixes. This should hit early next week.
Cheers!
Car Design Competition and Open Beta (R5)
Car Design Competition
We’re stoked to announce the first proper Car Design Competition for Automation! What better way to properly showcase the Car Designer Revamp than this? There are a total of 11 varied categories to compete in, out of which one actually features Mr. Regular reviewing the finalists.
Mr. Regular was invited by us to come to New Zealand to do some proper Kiwi-car reviews of cars we’ve organized and lined up, but also to join us for a few videos and this competition. It will be great fun! Here is the video announcement summarizing all the rules and showing what categories there are:
https://youtu.be/x7p5mLyYywE
To discuss the competition you head over to either our main forum thread for the competition:
http://discourse.automationgame.com/t/official-car-design-competition-ue4-open-beta/23023
or you find a thread about the competition here in our general Steam forums too.
You can win game keys and V16 keys, Automation hoodies, and $50 Steam Gift Cards. There are plenty of categories to shine in. Please share around the news of this, the more players that are participating, the more awesome the results will be!
B180126 Car Designer Revamp Open Beta (R5)
Things have continued to progress well and we’re mostly done implementing the new Lite Campaign UI for model / variant facelifts that will play a huge role in the Lite Campaign V3. We want to include that one in the Car Designer Revamp so that you can get used to the design flow using it. It will most likely have its debut in open beta R6. For now, have a look at the latest Little Dev Update to see what that is all about:
https://youtu.be/gK1kExEcf34
Here is the changelog for the Car Designer Revamp Beta (R5)
B180127 Hotfix: Fixed fixtures disappearing when choosing drive type
B180126 Additions & Improvements
Added plenty of excellent fixtures, thanks to the awesome modders!
Added new simple but pretty and effective photo scene
Added sorting functionality to car manager
Added back in the Engine Designer Scenarios
Added engineering time dependence for amount of cooling
Added mousewheel support to manual engine testing rev slider
Improved graph line visibility by switching to a better color scheme
Prepared the design flow ordering for the lite campaign
B180126 General Fixes & Tweaks
Fixed remainder of tire size bug for effective year 2025+
Fixed car economy calculation artifacts that could give negative fuel economy
Fixed not being able to properly load in an existing engine into a new car
Fixed various tooltips and data displays
Fixed up many car bodies and their morphs
Fixed up several fixtures and how they conform to the car bodies
Fixed Brazilian Portuguese not loading in language selection menu
Tweaked braking reserves progression for utility stat
This is all!
Cheers
Car Designer Revamp Open Beta (R4)
Today’s update fixes many of the annoying smaller bugs that remained, for instance some calculation inconsistencies and the tire size bug. Some new cool stuff has been added to spice up your photoshoots with your creations: steering angle, brake calipers, and moving the car around in the photoscene are now all options therein.
Using steering angle for a little bit of attitude.
Apart from those of you who unfortunately get the “random crashes” we’re still chasing down, this should feel a lot more polished overall and we’re aiming for getting this Car Designer Revamp update out of its open beta phase at the end of next week, with a few more bigger changes to come - scenarios coming back and introducing the new facelift car manager UI for the next iteration of the Lite Campaign.
B180117 Quick Fix
Fixed levels not getting unloaded when leaving photoscene
B180116 Additions & Features
Added steering slider to the photoscene
Added possibility to move the car in the photoscene
Added coloring option for brake calipers
Added a few new van and ute body variants
B180116 General Fixes
Fixed tire size bug were sometimes wheels would become tiny
Fixed fixtures disappearing when changing trim year
Fixed chassis scaling and wheel placement while on chassis tab
Fixed tire speed rating not affecting material costs
Fixed suspension ride height switching format at 0.5m
Fixed suspension preset assigning wrong damper setting to rear
Fixed final testing tab being one step behind actual car calculations
Fixed calculations not showing previous values for car using new engine
Fixed (almost) top speed not being displayed in gearing graph
Fixed emissions becoming a very large number with knocking engines
Fixed a lot of data and tooltip issues on new final testing pages
Fixed various tooltips, removing unnecessary and adding relevant data
Fixed some broken behavior of new chassis types we added too early
Fixed when understeer / oversteer warnings come up
Fixed undergearing warning not showing up at all
Fixed crash when using the engine AI to make an engine
Fixed fourth demographic in side panel not being clickable
Fixed Portuguese and Brazilian languages missing
Fixed seating issues for 90s pickup body
Fixed aspect of the logging code to help us catch the big crash bug
