We hope you've had a good start to the week and had lots of fun playing Good Company so far. Today, we're happy to share a hotfix for Good Company.
Bugfixes
Stability issue where the game would end shortly after saving, without any further notice. If this issue persists please contact us at support@chasing-carrots to report it.
Characters that are out of bounds when loading a savegame now get reset into a building
Sometimes the market appeal and market rating was wrongly recognized by milestones preventing progress
Other We've added a crash reporting tool called ‘Bugsplat’ which will pop-up after a crash. Please use it to report issues you're encountering, so we can get a better overview. Issues reported with Bugsplat won’t need to be reported via support mail as well, Bugsplat will handle that for us.
Good Company - Update v0.6.1
Dear Tinkerers and Tycoons,
Thanks for your continued support and your trust in both us and the game.
We truly appreciate your comments, feedback, bug reports and reviews! We've read through your issues and feedback and, while some of them can be addressed relatively quickly, others will take additional time to work on.
We hope that you understand that not every matter can be taken care of in this short time, but we will ensure that every issue that's been raised will be addressed and discussed in our team.
For today, we would like to update you on the latest changes we’ve implemented based on your feedback over the past few days.
Good Company, v0.6.1
Logistics
Incoming Zone behaviour has been updated:
You can now reduce the orders to 0, without removing reservations and breaking logistic connections.
Adding and removing material manually will increase and decrease the reservations.
The default number of shelf slots a product occupies in an inventory has been increased from 6 to 15. This will make it less likely that you’ll encounter issues fulfilling the early product goals during the campaign (please note, slot bandwidth can be increased and decreased manually at any time).
In the logistic widgets, you can now see the used inventory slots of an item by hovering over it (click an item to increase/decrease how many slots that item occupies).
Employees
Employees now always have the same wages (we will revisit this again when we implement different staff abilities).
The average employee wage has been reduced from 25 G to 20 G.
Employee wages of hired employees can now be seen in the employee panel.
[note] Wage changes are not retroactive, only newly generated employees will have the new wages.
Levels
Starting funds of all levels have been increased.
Money rewards for completing milestones have been increased across all levels.
Products in levels 1-6 now yield more money when selling them (60% increase at level 1 going to a 20% increase by level 6).
Requirements for products in levels 5-8 have been decreased.
[note] Level changes will only affect newly started levels.
Freeplay
The minimum duration of market phases is now 120 days.
Reduced the market rating decrease when market phases are progressing.
Slightly increased the number of acceptable drawbacks.
Increased the maximum prices across all market phases for all products.
[note] Balancing changes affect old save games, but only when a market phase progresses.
Other
All module sell prices have been increased by ca. 10% on average:
This should ensure that modules can always be sold for a profit, given the setup is efficient enough.
We still recommend aiming to sell products to truly succeed; modules are designed to be sold when they are overproduced.
Components won’t yield any profits, yet. They just give enough revenue to pay your employees.
It is now possible to use characters from all supported languages in product names, no matter the currently set game language.
Bugfixes
Fixed a bug that leads to crashes after longer periods of play. This will hopefully improve stability for several players.
Update on our next steps after v0.6.1
Camera improvements: allow moving the camera independently from the player character and controlling parts of the production line setup
Additional logistics improvements
Further balancing iterations
More bugfixes
We appreciate your continued support through feedback and bug reports! If you're enjoying Good Company and want to support the game, please take a moment to tell your friends about it or leave a review on the Steam Store page!
Edit: Please note that because of the urgency of wanting to get this information out to the community, we decided to publish the initial English version. Additional languages are being worked on and we'll have them out to you ASAP. As always, thanks for your patience!
Hello fellow tycoons,
Paul here, Lead Game Designer on Good Company! Happy to see you enjoying the game!
Since Good Company hit Early Access, there’s been a lot of debate about how certain parts of the logistics work. We are aware of numerous shortcomings in that area and of course we are planning to improve those as we move forward with the development. Our hope is that this system will soon change in a way that makes it more accessible and more fun to interact with.
We can see some folks are having issues with the current system, especially when it comes to logistics bandwidth. Until we can implement these improvements, here’s a quick guide to help you get started and some tips on how to make the most of the system.
Adjusting Bandwidth
The logistics bandwidth determines how many slots of an inventory are reserved for a particular item type. If you create a connection between two inventories (or a crafter and an inventory) the system reserves one slot for the transported item type in the target inventory, unless there already is a reservation for this type.
You can increase how many slots an item occupies on a shelf using the 'bandwidth control options'. Switch to Logistics Mode and click to expand the logistics node of the inventory. Here you can view the reserved items for this inventory and how many inventory slots each one is occupying. You can adjust these by selecting the item and increasing or decreasing the bandwidth (i.e. the number of reserved slots in the shelf) in the bottom area of the logistics node widget.
Notice that you can only decrease the bandwidth if there are reserved but empty inventory slots. This is because putting items into an unreserved slot automatically creates a reservation. You’ll have to make sure that inventory slots you want to be unreserved again are empty first.
Bandwidth and Products
Since products don’t stack like other items (there can only be one product in an inventory slot) we’ve set a default bandwidth of fifteen slots for products when we first launched into Early Access.
However, later in the game you might want to sell more than fifteen products per week. Or maybe your production cannot supply all fifteen reserved slots and you want to use the other reserved slots to sell a different product.
Let your Logistics Employees do the Walking
Since crafting tables cannot store items, the carrying from and to a crafting table has to be done by the crafting employee. If crafting employees have long walking distances to their storages, they will spend far less time actually producing new things and your efficiency will suffer. Remember: time is money. Try to keep input and output inventories which are directly connected to crafter as close to the crafting stations as possible. Let logistics employees fill up and empty these storages. Your production will be faster and your staff costs much lower.
Prioritize your Logistics Connections
This is an advanced technique and most setups should work just fine without it. However, if you want to have that little bit of extra control you can set the importance of each logistics connection. Logistics employees will try to satisfy connections with higher priority.
This is useful, for example, if you want to siphon a part of your modules from your production to supply an analysis table. In order to reduce impact on your production you’d want to set connections going to your analysis workstation lower than the connection resuming your production chain.
Priorities only affect logistics employees and can only be set on connections between inventories. Production employees will ignore priorities entirely.
We hope this helps you in your future endeavors.
All the best, your Chasing Carrots
Update: Languages, In-Game Manual, Logistics Bandwidth & First Fixes
Greetings tycoons!
We hope you’re having a great time with Good Company so far!
We just wanted to say a massive thanks to everyone so far who’s helped out the team by sending us feedback, thoughts, and reporting any bugs or issues you’ve come across. We really appreciate it and just want to let you know that we’re reading through every thread. We can’t reply to everybody, as we’re working hard on investigating issues and developing fixes, but we are seeing your feedback and we hear you.
Our priority is to better your experience with the game, whether that’s working on major bugs or considering what tweaks we can make in order to improve understanding in certain areas.
It looks like some people are finding the game not displaying in their expected language. The advertised languages on our Steam page should all be working correctly. If your language is not showing up by default, please use the game’s PROPERTIES menu (accessed from your Steam library) to manually change the language.
Right-click the game in your library
Select ‘Properties’
Navigate to the ‘Languages’ tab
Select from the 8 currently supported languages in the drop-down menu
Close the Properties menu and relaunch the game
We’ve also noticed some confusion around logistics, especially with regards to shelf slot bandwidth. We'll be sharing some info to help guide players in the short term while we continue to think about ways of improving the game moving forward. Keep an eye out for this!
Some pro-tips in the meantime - you can access helpful information about Logistics, bandwidth and other game areas using the in-game manual. Hit F1 to bring this up or click the icon to the left of your inventory.
For anyone looking to store even more items on a shelf - while in Logistics Mode, click on an item’s reservation slot to access advanced options including transportation priority and how many slots that item will occupy within a shelf or inventory.
We have also deployed a fix today that will resolve a few key issues:
Profiles created with special characters in the name will now be created properly.
Profile progress can't be recovered for those missing their game profile entirely, but if you recreate a profile on the same slot as your previous one, you might be allowed to continue using your save games.
If you are still running into profile or save game issues, please reach out to us using: support@chasing-carrots.com
If profile creation fails, you will be notified.
Chinese localization in challenges was broken. Text should now be properly displayed.
As always, we’re really grateful for your continued support and understanding :)
All the best, your Chasing Carrots
Good Company - Early Access Kicks Off!
Dear Tinkerers and Tycoons,
We hope you and your loved ones are well, and that you can be there for each other!
The difficult situation during the past weeks has been challenging our workflows, forcing us to work from home. But we're proud that our small team managed to maintain our schedule, and we are extremely happy to contribute our part to provide fun and distraction for players all around the world.
So, today is the big day! After over two years of development, Good Company enters Early Access!
It's been a thrilling journey so far, and it wouldn't have been possible without the terrific support of our community. We want to express our deepest gratitude to everyone who shared their enthusiasm, provided valuable feedback – and to all of you who purchase Good Company, of course!
Our vision of Early Access is to continue developing Good Company together with our community, as closely as possible. We are looking forward to being in touch with you on all available channels - which you can find via our central hub, by the way.
Don't hesitate to share your impressions and ideas, as well as any issues you might be encountering. Also, help us spread the word about Good Company even further by posting about it, or streaming your play-sessions!
If you prefer to just keep an eye on Good Company, for the time being, be sure to wishlist us!
We are so excited to take this huge step today! Let's continue our adventure of creating an outstanding tycooning experience together, even during these demanding times. We can do it, and it will be awesome! Here's to the great months to come for Good Company and you, our community!
All the best, take care, and stay safe! Your Chasing Carrots
Good Company - Roadmap
Good Company is just one week away from entering Early Access 🤖 Check out our roadmap to see what's in store for the game... The countdown starts now! 🗓️
Large version: https://twitter.com/Chasing_Carrots/status/1242858805504983041/photo/1
Good Company - Early Access, Here We Come!
Hello, dear Tinkerers and Tycoons!
You know what? We are almost bursting from excitement! With the Final Public Test kicking off today, it's our utmost pleasure to share with you an amazing announcement...
Good Company will be launching into Early Access on Steam on March, 31st 2020!
But why wait? You can pre-order Good Company now! Fire up that link and earn yourself a 10 percent discount plus exclusive access to three shiny Bonus items to make your company visually outstanding. More news on that coming up... now!
Your ongoing support, your encouragement, and your feedback over the past few months has been nothing short of fantastic. We are extremely happy to have such a kind and invested community.
Whenever you choose to join our journey through Early Access, what's most important to us is just to have you on board! And for those who need further convincing, please sit back, relax, and enjoy the following presentation...
[previewyoutube="c3kBmkneWtQ;full"]
Good Company already has a lot to offer and what we're going to add during the coming months will be far more than just icing the cake. A roadmap to outline future features is in the making and will be shared shortly after Early Access has started.
If you prefer to just keep an eye on Good Company for the time being, be sure to wishlist us on Steam! In any case, we’re doing our best to create a great game for you that lets you, in turn, create not only good, but great companies!
We will be streaming the game live on steam on the 10th March!
Please don't hesitate to get in touch via our central hub if you have questions, suggestions or just want to say hi.
All the best, your Chasing Carrots
Good Company - Final Public Test Upcoming!
Greetings, Tinkerers and Tycoons!
It's been a while since our last newsletter. We could start off by mentioning that we have put a lot more work into Good Company and that the game is coming along nicely, but how about sharing more surprising news instead? So, here we go...
The Final Public Test for Good Company will be from March, 10th - 16th 2020! Everyone who successfully registered will be receiving a Steam test key.
Good news, right? We're thrilled to know that so many people will be playing Good Company for the first time. This will be the final litmus test before we launch into Early Access.
We can't wait to watch you streaming your play sessions, follow your discussions about company setups and management strategies, as well as receive your highly anticipated feedback after the test has ended.
The test key and more information will be sent to all participants when the Public Test begins. Stay tuned!
However, even if you don't participate you might be eager to know what's new in Good Company since we last updated you. Let's fill you in...
Graphics During the past three months, our art team has been investing much love in the environmental design of Good Company, in order to bring the various campaign and challenge maps to colorful life.
Game modes Besides the campaign mode, which comes with a light-hearted story to follow, and challenges to give you new ways to test your skills, we have implemented the Freeplay Mode for players with a rather open and experimental mindset.
Gameplay Being a core element of Good Company, we have been constantly refining the logistics system, which lets you expand and automate production processes. The markets have also been improved to offer more dynamic progression while products are being sold.
Balancing, polishing & bug fixing Needless to say, the aspects listed above require a lot of balancing and continuous playtesting - which gives us the opportunity to spot and fix various issues, as well as polishing off any edges that became apparent during the process.
We hope you are all as excited as we are about the upcoming Final Public Test. We're really looking forward to knowing what you think about Good Company after diving into your first hands-on experience with the game!
As always, we are happy for you to get in touch with us about anything Good Company related. You can find many ways to drop us a line via our central hub.
Most importantly, if you like Good Company so far, be sure to wishlist it here on Steam and share the news!
All the best, your Chasing Carrots
Good Company is getting better and better!
Greetings, Tinkerers and Tycoons!
Our Public Test has just kicked off – participants of the first phase are finally able to play Good Company for a limited amount of time. To say we are thrilled would be a huge understatement!
We have put a lot of thought and work into improving various features and gameplay mechanics, as we mentioned in our recent newsletter.
For those who missed it, but are eager to know what we have been improving during the past months, here comes an update with more insights.
The way Workplaces are constructed, as well as how Modules and Products are built, is way more straightforward now.
We have improved the visualization and controls of the Logistics System. It’s still a powerful system, but much easier to use.
Markets have been restructured and now react more distinctively to product properties, prices, and demands.
Furthermore, we have overhauled the Research System to allow for more meaningful choices. Research now even has an impact on how markets develop.
Also, the Product Design has been significantly changed, particularly how modules are involved and how they determine features and drawbacks.
Last but not least, a new Onboarding Process aims for a smooth introduction to starting up your big endeavor from your small garage.
A lot of content and previews is work in progress. But, of course, we won’t stop here. We will add more gameplay, features, assets, and music until and during Early Access.
Needless to say, we hope for your continued support and help throughout our journey to make Good Company an outstanding experience!
If you don’t want to miss future news and updates, please sign up for the Good Company newsletter via our central communications hub.
There you can find more ways to get in touch with us. We'd love to hear from you!
All the best, your Chasing Carrots
P.S. If you haven’t already, be sure to wishlist Good Company on Steam and spread the word!
Public Test, First Phase!
Greetings, fellow Tinkerers and Tycoons!
We know it’s been a while since our last update. Many of you are looking forward to reading news about Good Company and the postponed Public Test. Well, here we go!
We have worked hard on improving various key aspects of Good Company’s gameplay during the past months.
Finally, we feel the time is right to commence the Public Test and we hope you share our excitement, despite the delay!
The number of registrations to participate far exceeded our hopes, and we would like to thank everyone for your overwhelming support!
We value our community and are hoping that your dedication means that we can count on plenty of in-depth feedback to make Good Company an even better experience.
This kind of feedback will take quite some time to be properly analyzed and addressed. The best way for our small team to handle this is to split the Public Test into two phases.
The first phase will be from Friday, 13th December until Monday, 16th December 2019.
The second phase is planned for early 2020. We hope those of you who will have to wait until then understand our approach under given circumstances.
We will be sending out keys and further details for participants of the first test phase in the coming days ahead of the starting date. Stay tuned!
For now, we’d like to thank you all for your continued passion and patience. We couldn’t hope for a better community!
If there’s anything you want to share with us, be sure to drop us a line or let us know here in the Steam forums.
All the best, your Chasing Carrots
P.S. If you haven’t already, be sure to wishlist Good Company on Steam and spread the word!
