Gear City
Testing Build Save Game Changes May 31st
Thanks.
v1.24.2 Testing Build
Testing Build is now on Version 1.24.2. If you would like to switch to Testing Build or back to Default Build, you can find directions here.
So what's new in this build? The biggest change was the internal workings of the Review system. Reviews are now only generated the first time you open the magazine after designing a vehicle. Review weightings have also been adjusted and AI built racing vehicles no longer affect the results.
Beyond that, I mostly focused on clearing out remaining tickets in the tracker system. This has resulted in several small new features in the game, a couple of GUI tweaks, and some bug fixes.
We've got one minor build left before work on v1.25 begins. V1.24.3 will focus on remaining tickets. Most of these tickets are small feature requests or recently discovered bugs and issues. When I complete this build, I will shift gears and focus finishing up text content (reviews, DYKs, Tutorials, Editing, Translations) for v1.25. And of course, continued bug and issue squashing. Looking further ahead, v1.25 should be a fairly long-lived build. I have no plans on breaking save games between v1.25 and full release. I'll give more details on that build when the time comes.
v1.24.2 Change Log:
-----------------------------------
-Engine: Added Japanese language support.
-Engine: fixed issues with dynamically generated html pages and Japanese fonts.
-GUI: Fixed incorrect header text for District Competition graphs.
-GUI: Added introduction and information on which vehicles are eligible for GCM awards.
-GUI: Fixed display issues with Chassis and Gearbox design/manufacturing requirements ratings when designing components.
-GUI: Added missing city status' to the City Government help button.
-Engine: Enabled ray casting (clicking cities/territories) while reports are opened on the World Map.
-Gameplay: Engine length and width sliders no longer have an effect on a stroke calculation which is used to generate RPMs. Therefore, these sliders no longer affect performance specs outside of weight.
-Gameplay: Factory construction is now slowed if the city is at war.
-Gameplay: Players can now issues grant funds for new dealerships. This system can be found by clicking the + button next to dealerships in the Branch View Details window on the World Map.
-Engine: Added support for multi-banked radial and rotary engines.
-GUI: Changed "Shipping Distance" terminology to "Sourcing Distance" to better reflect what is happening. (Shipping Distance was used originally because shipping was assigned at the factory level.)
-Gameplay: Reduces luxury requirements for the Hyper Luxury achievement.
-GUI: Reorginized Racing Setup GUI.
-GUI: Embedded Racing Team/Series Focus with the Racing Setup window.
-Engine: Due to popular demand, Main Menu theme song has been replaced with Four Seasons (Trailer music). KB's GearCity remains in the main music rotation.
-GUI: Mega Menu Window will now open to the last selected Factory.
-GUI: Fixed issue with view competition lists which showed vehicles with $0 sale prices.
-Bugfix Fixed issue with random history and city growth when player continues the game after it officially ends.
-GUI: Added "World" district to the District Sales Report
-GUI: Added player vehicle sales, production, and inventory by type into the Vehicle Type Market Share Report.
-GUI: Right aligned numbers in report tables.
-Bugfix Fixed issue with miss matched data in the Quarterly and Annual reports.
-Bugfix Fixed issues that caused the borderless windows setting not to show up on the Windows 64 build.
-Engine Fixed and enabled shader generation for the 64-bit builds.
-GUI: Company Directory Report now lists subsidiaries directly under the parent company's listing.
-Bugfix: Fixed issue causing the AI not to race in series with non-popular vehicle type restrictions.
-Gameplay: AI race vehicles no longer affect review scores.
-Gameplay: Review scores are now weighted down so the player gets a better review.
-Gameplay: Vehicle reviews are only generated once when the magazine is first opened after a vehicle design is finished. This review will be used as long as the vehicle is active.
-Gameplay: Newest 50 player vehicles reviews are readable in the magazine.
-Engine: Review text can now be assigned to a specific vehicle type.
-Mod Tools: Magazine Review editor now supports creating reviews for specific vehicle types.
-Gameplay: Fixed issues preventing contract renewals in many conditions.
-GUI: Replaced some red text with our existing pink text.
-GUI: Rewrote unibody's description, as it had some false information in it.
-Gameplay: Research delays to parent designs now effect vehicle trims.
-GUI: Vehicle or Component name is now displayed in the contract completed memo.
-Gameplay: 29 new predesigned vehicles thanks to TheBear and Xylon
-Gameplay: Several new review clips added.
-Bugfix: Fixed issue with parts shortage breaking auto productionf or a turn.
-Bugfix: Fixed insanely high bond coupon rates.
-GUI: Fixed clipping issue in the New Game Window.
-Gameplay: Removed 6 and 10 cylinder's from H-layouts and added 16 cylinder.
Testing Build Save Game Changes April 27th
Thanks.
v1.24.1 Testing Build
Version 1.24.1 has been released to Testing Build. This update requires save game changes. Instructions on how to change builds can be found here. Remember, you can always return to Default build to continue your v1.24 save games.
I would like to apologize for the Save Game Change notice not appearing in the in-game news. Testing build and Default build were merged into a single build for the v1.24 release, and thus they shared the same news feed. I assume most folks on Testing Build are capable of returning to Default build to continue their save games if they wish.
So what about v1.24.1? This update focused on clearing up the remaining tickets from our ticketing system. Several small new features added to the game. This includes a "quick trim" system which skips the vehicle designer part of making trims. Auto-Sale, which automatically assigns vehicles for sale using the default recommended price. And an expanded striking system.
In addition to this, a number of balancing changes was made to the stock market system, contract payments, contract unit numbers, contract renewals, and labor costs. Please provide feedback on these changes to the forums. I would like to get these systems finalized before v1.24.3 is completed.
On the mod tools side of things. A contract editor has been implemented. We also included 2 new variables for contracts which allow you to adjust contract prices and number of units.
Half of v1.24.1 tickets were pushed back to v1.24.2, and v1.24.2 tickets are now assigned to v1.24.3.
That should allow me to wrap up the remaining features in preparation to finalizing tutorials and magazine reviews for editing and translation.
Version 1.24.1 Change Log
-64-bit Engine: Fixed nameless child nodes issues caused by structural changes in third party code. (Exception crashes fixed and backported to v1.24 SP9).
-Gameplay: Contract Component Production amounts reduced per production line.
-Mod Tools: Fixed list duplication issues when opening a second racing series in the Racing Editor.
-Gameplay: Implemented a "Quick Trim" system, which allows you to by-pass the vehicle designer tools when wanting to make vehicle trims with just different components. (Should save several clicks).
-Gameplay: Auto-Sale system implemented. This will automatically assign new vehicles for sale at all branches at recommended prices. It will also automatically start selling all vehicles at any new branch using the recommended pricing. The system will not adjust pricing, however the player can still manually control pricing. Including via the auto-commands system. Manually set prices are deleted if the player purchases an AI company or an AI marque.
-Gameplay: Additional forced body scale adjustments for vehicle bodies based on track width vs body width.
-Gameplay: Additional bonus applied for automatic transmissions on high luxury vehicles.
-Gameplay: Hard and Nightmare mode sliders are now checked for achievements.
-Gameplay: AI New Design, Reuse Design, Outsourcing, Licensing, and Share Platform selection code has been rewritten to allow more diversified actions.
-Gameplay: Increased the amount of designs the AI is willing to license.
-Bugfix: Fixed several issues that caused low amounts of chassis, engines, and vehicles to be licensed by the AI.
-GUI: Fixed several GUI Scaling issues through out the game for folks using HiDPI monitors.
-Artwork: Changed the viewport background from grey to black. Sadly there won't be any fixes for the office art on UWHD (21:9) monitors. The resolution doesn't allow me to scale the main picture without distortion. But the black looks better, and you never know. You might get as Easter present someday.
-Gameplay: The game will no longer allow you to open a report if it were generated on a future turn. (Normally due to playing ahead, exiting the game without saving, and then reloading the old save game.)
-Gameplay: Adjusted employee wages based on historical labor rates for specific job markets.
-Gameplay: Dynamic changes to wages based on macro economics events.
-Gameplay: Changed wage strokes into wage demands. Added an Ignore option.
-Gameplay: Implemented a large scale strike system which disables a department until the situation is rectified.
-Gameplay: Added a Random large scale strike event.
-Gameplay: Adjustments to marketing effect on buyer rating and generating new customers.
-Gameplay: Changed how a company's evaluation is calculated.
-Gameplay: Implemented a pure minimum market cap of a company based on equity.
-Bugfix: Fixed incorrect outstanding shares due to institutional shares being subtracted a turn late.
-GUI: Institutional shares are now shown on share holders lists.
-Gameplay: Increased the amount of Institutional share holders and adjusted when they buy and sell.
-Bugfix: Fixed sell marque double payout.
-GUI: Warning button added when player increases dividends high enough that a lawsuit is possible.
-Gameplay: Players are no longer allowed to buy shares of their company within 7 months of an IPO.
-Gameplay: Stock market cap table added to the reports.
-GUI: Marque's monthly revenues are now displayed in the Marque information screen in the Stock Broker window.
-Gameplay: Large changes in macro economics now throw a high priority memo.
-Gameplay: Reduced cargo space requirements so that predesigned vehicles can qualify for them.
-Gameplay: Removed the possibility of large single cylinder and large steam engine contracts.
-Gameplay: Increased contract unit prices for most contracts.
-Gameplay: Decreased possibility for contract renewals.
-Gameplay: Contracts and renewals now factor in the age of the component or vehicle design.
-GUI: Reworded contract renewal wording to make it more clear the amount of units the new contract needs.
-Bugfix: Fixed some incorrect unit type wording when renewing contracts.
-Engine: Implemented contract unit payment and unit numbers in the enginecontracts.xml file.
-GUI: Contract unit payment advance game setting.
-Gameplay: Decreased contract renewal amount of units.
-Mod Tools: Removed 2020 upper year restrictions in some tools.
-Mod Tools: Contract Editor Tool
-Mod Tools: Included missing mod tools' 32-bit lib for 64-bit Linux installs.
-Bugfix: Fixed issue with auto-production system when player disables auto-production at the same time a contract is won or renewed.
-Gameplay: Reworked secondary market processing. Missed sales/Customers who do not find what they want are now recycled into other vehicle's sales the next turn. This should improve turn times and robustness compared to the old secondary sales system.
-Gameplay: Implemented a minimal customer pool for large cities. Which should increase sales slightly.
-Gameplay: Decreased prices effect more on high wealth indexed vehicle types.
-Maps: Increased City Buyer Rating in late game years on Base City Map. With the main focus of increasing sales outside of NA/EU. It is now closer to real world sales figures, even though we have fewer AI in the game than in the real world.
-GUI: Reduced speed of map movement for both keys and mouse movement.
-Gameplay: Outsourced components costs are now factored into vehicle unit costs in key places such as the Showroom. But not in places where you make manufacturing decisions. Such as the factory. (Because you already paid for the outsourced components.)
-Gameplay: Additional tweaks to the AI in order to reduce extremely high market values.
-Gameplay: AI pays out more dividends.
-Gameplay: Tweaks to the growth rates of both Research and Administration skills.
-Bugfix: Fixed "Full Sized Van" and "Van" naming miss matches.
-Engine: GUI now auto scales for Apple users if the game detects an HiDPI monitor. This will hopefully reduce the amount of OSX returns I get from people who can't find the settings button.
-Gameplay: Minimum vehicle fuel economy reduced to 40% of Engine's Brake Specific compared to the previous 50%.
-Gameplay: Increased the penalty for too strong of an engine paired with a weak gearbox.
-Gameplay: Increased dependability and quality's affect on vehicle image.
-Gameplay: Increased the effect of vehicle image on buyer ratings.
-Engine: Japanese font support.
Testing Build Save Game Changes March 30th
Testing Build will be updated to version 1.24.1 on Saturday March 30th. This update requires save game changes. If have no idea what Testing Build is, you are not affected. If you are subscribed to Default Build you are not affected. Currently Testing Build does not identify as Testing Build inside the game. So if you don't remember if you switched to Testing Build, you should check.
To check which version of the game you are subscribed to, or to switch builds, follow these instructions: http://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2594
And remember, you can switch between builds at any time using the instructions above if you wish to continue your old save games.
v1.24 SP9
Default and Testing build is now on v1.24 SP9.
This builds adds a number of improvements to the 64-bit engine as well as several bug fixes to game play.
Of major note, I have implemented a "Dynamic Reports Size" setting, which can be found in the Main Menu of the 64-bit engine. This will allow the web browser (reports windows) to automatically scale closer to your resolution instead of the predefined 1024x512 or 1024x1024 windows.
I have also added a "Scale GUI" setting which increases the size of the in game GUI. This should help out HiDPI (Retina Display) users. There may be a few issues with dynamic sizing and reports windows with scaled up GUI. I am currently working on that.
I will spend the next week doing any clean up fixes necessary to this build. I'll also finish up some of the external documentation while I wait for any major issues to be reported. I plan on starting v1.24.1 by Friday.
Changelog:
-Engine Scale GUI Setting. This setting allows you to increase the size of the GUI. This is particularly helpful for HiDPI monitors.
-64-Bit Engine: Dynamic Report Size setting. This causes the reports windows size to be closer your vertical resolution. However, this requires a little more performance for 2k+ resolutions.
-64-Bit Engine: Removed unsupported resolutions from the in game settings drop down.
-64-Bit Engine: Fixed incorrect resolution being displayed in the in game settings with fullscreen enabled.
-64-Bit MacOS Engine: Implemented Fullscreen mode.
-Engine: Hard frame limiter can now be adjusted via settings.xml file.
-64-Bit Windows Engine: Which Monitor the game will open on can now be set in the settings.xml file via an index number. This is only supported in Windows. (Can also set via the External Settings Editor as well, however it will not poll how many monitors you have. You'll have to enter the proper index number yourself.)
-GUI: Resize scaling to center implemented for side by side lists.
-Tutorials: Fixed some issues with the tutorial which allowed the player to return to RnD or did not popup a message when components designs were not finished.
-Tutorials: Disabled normal to nightmare modes for tutorial plays initiated from the Main Menu.
-Gameplay: Increased spec effects on racing and contract wins.
-Bugfix: Fixed the game not rewarding revenues for the last month of a contract in some cases.
-Engine Added weight and size modifiers to Car Type in the components.xml file. Both default to a normal value of 1. Currently size has no effect on anything in game. Variables have been added to the mod tools
-Gameplay Added weight values for all vehicle types in the game.
-Gameplay: Car Type's weight now effects the weight of the vehicle.
-Gameplay: Tweaks to vehicle's weight effect on fuel economy and maximum fuel economy achievable by an engine design in a vehicle.
-64-Bit Engine: Fixed javascript error popup when viewing reports.
-64-Bit Engine: Automatic reports page zooming based on GUI scaling.
-Gameplay: Ordering more outsourced units will replace the previous order.
-GUI: Contracted outsourced units are now sorted by name.
-Gameplay: Vehicle Image growth rates have been increased by about 20%.
-Bugfix: Fixed a couple issues with new trim design times.
-Bugfix: Fixed issues with competition charts.
-Bugfix: Fixed issues with Factory Expense table.
-Gameplay: Minor tweaks to credit rating score calculation
-Bugfix: Fixed issue with component amounts not being shown in stock window.
-Bugfix: Fixed contract renewals having incorrect amounts in memos.
-Gameplay: Adjustments have been made to the bulk production discount values.
Hotfix #1:
-64-Bit Engine Fully implemented reports zooming when the GUI is scaled up.
-Bugfix Fixes dragable buttons in the office reports windows.
Hotfix #2:
-Bugfix Fixed sound library causing crashing in RnD on the 64-Bit Linux build.
Hotfix #3:
-Bugfix Fixed designing vehicle body crashes in RnD on the 64-Bit Linux build.
Price Increase Mid-March
The price of GearCity will be increasing to $19.99 USD (~17.6% increase) in March. The current Lunar New Year sale and an upcoming week long deal will be your last chance to lock in GearCity at current prices for the foreseeable future.
Thank you for your time.
v1.24 SP8 Hotfix #1.
Enjoy!
v1.24 SP8 + 64-Bit Engine Upgrades
Over the last month and a half, I have made upgrades to our engine. The updates include 64-bit support, a more modern web browser (for reports), Cocoa API on OSX, and DirectX9Ex for Windows 7 and newer. In addition to this, there is around 8 years of bug and performance fixes to third party code.
Feedback from testing seems positive, and it seems fairly stable compared to the old build.
The SP7 release was supposed to be the last release for the v1.24 line. However, there were several major issues with the build. As such, I have decided to fix these issues and release the engine upgrades in one supplemental patch. There will probably be an additional supplemental patch in the coming weeks to finish up the missing features of the new engine.
If you are on a 64-bit OS. The new engine is used default. However, if you have problems with it, or wish to use the old engine, you can still use it by selecting "32-Bit Build" in your Steam Beta's tabs. For directions, see here: http://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2594
Windows
Windows XP64 and Vista 64-Bit users should use the 32-Bit Build, as the minimum requirements for the 64-Bit engine is unfortunately Windows 7 and newer.
We recommend Windows users to use the updated DirectX9 renderer unless you know what you're doing. We will have a warning popup message for the next couple of months for people who don't read the announcements.
Mac OS X
With the depreciation of OpenGL in Mojave and beyond, I can't fully guarantee stability on newer versions of OSX. The 64-bit engine fixes many issues folks have had with the old engine, but there may still be issues with the game on Mojave with AMD gpus. (It all works fine on my Mac Mini...) Feedback from OSX users on the new engine is greatly appreciated. Please let me know if it works or doesn't for you!
Linux
It just works. If not, you can probably figure out how to fix it. And if you can't, feel free to post a thread, email me, whatever. :)
What's in SP8?
-Bugfix: Fixed top speeds of finished vehicles not matching top speed in ratings windows.
-Bugfix: Fixed possible negative weight modifiers if weight to hp ratio was rounded to 15 or 38 kg per hp.
-Bugfix: Fixed global demand randomization values not being tied to administration skills. Now missed demand for global shipping should be the same as shipping range demand estimations.
-Bugfix: Changed ambiguous wording in "contracts can't be bid on" memos.
-Bugfix: FIxed several issues with awards and race championships in the Showroom vehicle report.
-Bugfix: Fixed marketing funds not being cleared when spinning off or selling a marque and including branches.
-Gameplay: Now generating first turn contracts.
-Bugfix: Fixed issues with Auto-production restriction lists which was causing the lists not to refresh.
-Bugfix: Fixed issue causing discontinued parts which were being licensed to AI companies not to clear out their licensing revenues during the end turn phase. This fixed an issue with the licensing revenues report having more income than listed in other reports.
-Gameplay: Increased image growth rates dynamically if the target skill is much higher than the current skill.
-Gameplay: Linked marque's researching skills with parent companies'.
-Bugfix: Fixed possible negative loan situations.
-Bugfix: Fixed issue with branch wear reports not having the correct wear amounts for every branch.
-Bugfix: Fixed issue with Chassis RnD View name sort.
-Bugfix: Fixed issue with holdings list not showing after taking your own company private.
-Bugfix: Fixed late game possibility to go bankrupt if playing on infinite cash mode.
-Bugfix: Fixed issue with year interpolation system that caused nation and flag changes not to register if starting in a later game year.
-Engine: Merged GearCity Beardgine 1 and Beardgine 2 code bases together.
-Bugfix: Fixed contract crashes in respect to not having a component selected in the contracting lists whilst bidding or canceling a submission.
-Bugfix Fixed sliders loading crash in 64-bit build due to VS2013 code optimization system.
-Bugfix: Fixed crash related to hitting + or - while RnD is loading or doesn't have keyboard focus.
-Bugfix: Fixed crash in tutorials on Linux 32-bit build, 64-bit build, and possibly other systems.
-X64 Engine Implemented a popup warning for OpenGL players on 64-Bit windows build, letting them know that the DirectX9 system is probably better now.
-X64 Engine Implemented non-character keys for web browser Linux and Mac 64-bit builds.
-Bugfix: Fixed HR help button not having proper text.
-Bugfix: Fixed WW1 and WW2 achievements triggering a year too late.
64-Bit Testing Build Engine Upgrades
I have spent the last month or so working on upgrades to our home made engine, Beardgine. Version 2 of this engine has reached parity with the old version. The original Beardgine has over 9 years of testing behind it. To make sure Beardgine v2 is as stable (if not more stable) I am using all of you on the Testing Build as beta testers. (That's what the purpose of Testing Build is.)
So if you are on a 64-bit computer and are subscribed to Testing Build, you are using the new engine. In the upper left hand corner of the Main Menu it should say "x64 BG2". If not, you do not have the new engine yet.
If you have any problems with the new engine, please report them here. If you are unability to play the game, please switch to the None/Default build in the Steam Beta tabs. Currently there is no difference in gameplay between the two builds.
So what's new in this engine?
We have mostly upgraded various libraries to the latest version. We also replaced several discontinued libraries and APIs with alternatives. The most noticeable change for all users is the replacement of Berkelium (Chromium 12) with CEF (Chromium 70). This should give us a more stable reports system, however it is slower than the old browser in some respects, especially on Windows OpenGL2. The engine is also 64-bit for all operating systems. OpenAL has been switched from the Creative version to OpenAL-Soft on Linux and Windows. Which will hopefully fix the rare audio issues we have with usb-headphones.
For OSX users, we have done a major overhaul of the backend. We have replaced Carbon with Cocoa, and all that entails. Sadly, this has caused us to lose the "Hardware Mouse" feature, but the game is significantly more stable and faster on modern versions of OSX.
- All OSs: Ogre3D 1.7.1 and 1.8.1 (OSX) -> Ogre3D 1.10.12.
- All OSs: Berkelium (Chromium 12) -> CEF 3538 (Chromium 70).
- Linux & Windows: OpenAL 1.1 -> OpenAL-soft.
- All OSs: OgreOggSound 1.21 -> 1.27
- Windows & OSX: Ogg and Vorbis latest builds
- Windows & OSX: OIS latest builds
- All OSs: Latest Freetype.
- All OSs: Removed Freeimage.
- All OSs: Removed CG shaders system.
- OSX: Replaced Carbon with Cocoa API.
- OSX: Replaced windowing system with GLFW.
- Linux: SDL 2.0.2 -> SDL 2.0.9.
- Linux: glibc requirement increased to 2.19
(Probably a few more smaller things which I failed to rememober or list.)
Upcoming plans for the engine?
- Attempt to implement OpenGL3 renderer. (Depends on shader hang ups and the need to replace the OpenGL2 renderer in Windows.)
- Attempt to implement resizeable reports/webrowser windows. (Early testing of this feature is looking good so far.)
- Attempt DPI scaling for people running 4k resolution on 13 inch screens....
- Attempt to implement DirectX9ex for Windows 7 users and newer.
A 32-bit build of BGv2 is possible in the future if the OpenGL3 renderer fixes performance issues in Windows. In the meantime we will maintain both versions of the engine.
Known Issues:
- OSX: Terminal pops up when you run the game.
- OSX: Hardware mouse mode does not work. (May not be fixed.)
- OSX: Backspace does not work. (Use Delete key)
- All OSs: Webpage buffer is not cleared with blank pixels before loading a new page.
- All OSs: Showroom lighting still poor.
- Windows: Shaders do not work in DirectX.
- Windows: OpenGL performance is slow.
- Windows: Enabling Shadows Crashes the game in DirectX