Update on Next Update a.k.a. “Germs...germs everywhere”
Hi All,
In the last few days, I had to be testing various anti-flu medications instead of the game (it appears my immune system was battered by stress and an army of diverse kindergarten viruses and bacteriae), so I’m afraid I also have to postpone the release date of the new update to the second half of this week.
Apologies for that.
Until then, let me recap/highlight the (most) major issues in the current build. These will all be eliminated in the update.
If you start a new game from the Main Menu after you went bankrupt, you won’t get a fresh start but will instead find yourself on the day of bankruptcy again (with your budget in the red). WORKAROUND: if you go bankrupt, quit to Windows, run the game again and start a new game from the main menu
DO NOT USE THE “ACTOR PROPERTIES” EDITOR IN THE TALENT DATABASE! This tool was unintentionally left in the game by some lame developers. It is outdated, incompatible and untested beyond belief, so using it can lead to all kinds of major problems and disasters in the game.
Major reputation should be unlocked when your budget exceeds 10M USD. Due to a script bug, it is unlocked at 2M USD now. To make matters worse, the game deducts 2M USD from your bank account at the same time, which can lead to a quick bankruptcy.
The game does not save your agency’s reputation. When you load your savegame, your reputation will always be reverted to “Minor”.
Please don’t use the Actor Properties (actor editor)
Dear All,
While we are working on the next update, slated for later this week, I got more and more bug reports stemming from the use of the Actor Properties that you can reach by right clicking on an actor’s name in the talent database.
I must admit (honesty overrules pride) that this feature was left in the release version by accident. I haven’t used it for about two years and completely forgot about its existence.
Therefore, THE ACTOR PROPERTIES IS TOTALLY UNTESTED, LARGELY OUTDATED AND IS LIKELY CAUSING ALL SORTS OF PROBLEMS (CRASHES, DOUBLE MESSAGES AND MORE) IN ITS CURRENT FORM.
PLEASE DO NOT USE IT AND IT WILL ALSO BE REMOVED FROM THE NEXT UPDATE.
I’ll give you back this modding tool at a later stage when it’s thoroughly tested.
Thank you and apologies for the problems it has caused.
Sitrep and update news
Dear All,
We are currently (or constantly rather) waist deep in shi...ny bugfixing, tweaking and general improvements.
Expect the arrival of the next update some time next week.
After that - while bugfixing, tweaking and improvements based also on your feedback will (always) remain part of the process - we can finally start working (fast) on the addition of the two most prominent aka. “A-lister” features that are sorely missed now:
Mr. Ingame Awards (Oscars and co.) and Mrs. Steam Achievements
Thank you for your attention, stay tuned and please don’t stop being awesome! :)
(28/11/18) New update available: crash fixes and some more
Dear All,
A new update to the game has been released. We are continuously trying to fix every issue as quickly as possible, thanks a lot for for bearing with us!
Cattle Call is a quite complex game with a lot of calculations and processes going on “in the deep”, so even a tiny error can derail the train and set the whole station to fire (not to mention that the trains and the station are different for every player in every game).
Anyway, the following issues have been resolved in this update:
Signing actors who had already been attached to a movie could cause a crash when the movie finished its run at the box office – this has been fixed
The same issue could cause My Agency/Roster Rankings to crash – also fixed
There was an error in the Major reputation event that might have caused the player’s budget to go in the negative – fixed
Actors got depressed too often – this has been fixed with some antidepressants
If you still encounter a crash (or any other issues for that matter) which always happens at the same time, I’d be grateful if you could send the savegame to me directly for inspection:
Zsolt.tatrai@funnyanglegames.com
I’ll also return to the forums (after another very long shift at the testing factory) tomorrow and answer all questions and comments.
After a mentally and physically excruciating 5 and a half days, where we were maniacally and sometimes desperately chasing some game breaking bugs (I’m considering that the horrifying line of “Shader must be null” should be written on my tombstone...) it’s time to...fix some more bugs but at the same time, also start improving the game.
While we’ll try to annihilate any crashes that still occur immediately as usual, I also want to fix some more hidden bugs that affect the game’s balance and general enjoyability.
To mention just two:
There is a bug somewhere in the code in calculating the actors’ morale score. No matter what I (their creator, their god) do, no matter that I turn them into multi-millionaire A-listers in two years, still almost everybody is depressed all the time. And while Cattle Call is in Early Access where bugs and balancing issues are tolerable, trust me I didn’t designed them to be such neurotic, spoiled a-holes.
Something is also not quite right with their fame score. A-listers demand that I turn them into A-listers and then become frustrated saying it didn’t happen, this must also be ironed out.
While I expect that we can fix these (and more) issues as well as make some other improvements in a couple of days, I will give the game a very thorough test (learning from past mistakes), so I’ll probably upload a new version next week only.
I intend to create some order in chaos anyway, and a regular weekly update seems like the “weapon of choice” in doing so.
Stay tuned and thanks for your support and patience as always!
Build Update – 2019 spring bug fixed
Dear All,
After another long and bloody battle, we’ve caught and fixed the bug that crashed the game (mostly) in spring, 2019.
Aside from that, two other issues have also been fixed.
*****WARNING! Because of the changes and because no two games are the same in Cattle Call, it’s (very) likely that your previous savegames won’t work anymore. Apologies for that.*******
Fixes log
“2019 spring” bug fixed (it might have occured before that date for some because no two games are the same in this random world)
“Min. income crash” bug fixed – when you negotiate a contract with an actor, the game no longer crashes if you decrease the Min. income term to minimum and click Negotiate
“Invisible events from 2019 jan 1” bug fixed – many events did not spawn anymore after 1 January, they do now
As always, thanks guys for your patience and expect more fixes and improvements shortly!
ROADMAP Stage 1 – Bugfixing, Bugfixing and some more Bugfixing
Dear All,
Now, that the two of us are through one of the worst days of our lives (thanks to Mr. (Mrs.?) “Shader Must Be Null”), I’ll be regularly posting our plans for the next updates.
Cattle Call is an Early Access game, so - like I said previously- there is still much room for improvements and expansion. Some of these are obligatory, i.e. I’ll put them in the game even if you curse my name till eternity :), like Awards and Steam Achievements.
Others will be decided on and scheduled in accordance with your precious feedback.
Stage 1 is very simple though. We’ll work hard on any major bugs you've encountered and I’ll encounter during my excessive testing in the next few days.
Again, thank you very much for your support and patience!
VERSION UPDATE - SHADER MUST BE NULL BUG FIXED!
Dear All,
It seems that, with the help of two helpful souls from the community, we have finally managed to fix this bloody bug that prevented some of you from even starting the game.
In the end, the culprit wasn't the installation path but a conflict between some of our shaders and some outdated OpenGL drivers.
Anyway, it should run now, so let us rejoice! (until further bug reports but after this, nothing scares us anymore :)
Thanks a lot for your patience and support, it really meant a lot!
Expression: shader must not be null - FIX UPDATE
Hi Guys,
I've updated the game with a new exe, which should eradicate the launch game crash we've been discussing and trying to catch for the last few hours...
The updated version should run now no matter what the game's installation folder is.
Fingers crossed, prayers and thank you all!
Expression: shader must not be null - HOTFIX
Dear All,
Unfortunately, some of you could not start the game getting an (more verbose version of a) error message about "shader must be null".
We are really sorry for the inconveniences. According to my programmer friend/colleague, this is caused by "Windows changing the path of the exe".
Until we work out a more elegant and automatic fix, we updated the game with a quick fix (hopefully):
- If you encounter this problem, please edit the rootdir.cfg file you can file in the game's Steam folder.
The path in this cfg should match that of the installation folder of the game.
I hope it solves the problem until the more proper fix.
