NEW UPDATE: Welcome To Hungary - Spray Paint, Odometer, Decals, Scrapyard
Hello everyone,
Today, repairs on the bridge to Hungary have been completed. This means you can drive your very own Laika 601 Deluxe across the Hungary route right now! We are looking forward to seeing players share their screenshots as they explore. However, the new route is not the only addition, there are a variety of features that have been added to compliment the Hungary update.
Spray Paints
The spray can is our first new addition. You will be able to purchase these from your Laika Dealership. However they can only stock a limited number of supplies so you’ll need to visit the shop often to make sure they have the colour you want.
If you have a red coat of paint on your Laika 601 Deluxe, you can spray a blue paint over it to mix the two colours and create a purple variant. Experimenting with colour mixing allows you to create some great personal designs.
You’ll also be able to spray paint the interior of your Laika 601 Deluxe
For those looking for a stylistic sheen, then you are going to want to slap some metallic paint on your Laika 601 Deluxe.
And finally, a special addition to the spray paint are the Decal boxes. The decal boxes allow for more customisation options for your Laika 601 Deluxe and come in several variants. From a classic checkerboard roof to flames.
The decal system is more than likely to be expanded upon throughout Early Access. Do let us know what kind of decals you would like to have in the comments below.
Odometer
A big request from players has been to keep track of the distance traveled via an Odometer. We’re pleased to reveal that this is a part of the update.
Country branded items
Each region will now have their own brand identity as you travel across the three areas. Coffee from one region will have a graphic change to make players feel like they are truly entering another country. The Petrol stations now also change visually depending on the location.
New spawning system for abandoned cars
Abandoned cars now spawn more dynamically in the world. Eagle eyed drivers will need to keep an eye out for these as they can hold some valuable engine parts or replacement wheels.
The scrapyard
When selecting a route, you may come across a scrapyard. If you have the tools, you can fix the mechanism at the front of the gate and enter the scrap yard to search for engine parts. Be cautious as using your own engine parts is a big risk of getting yourself stranded… But don’t you want to know what’s inside!?
New main menu background
The games menu now remembers where you have last saved and will create a background image to match the next area.
New music
Jeremy has produced some excellent new tracks for Jalopy. You will be able to listen to them in the main menu or even in game on the radio. We hope you enjoy them and hope that as the game continues to grow, Jeremy will continue to provide some new music for the game.
You can head over to Jeremy’s website below:
https://jeremywarmsley.wordpress.com/music/
Weight limit in the manual
The car manual has gone through a small overhaul. Various texture issues have been addressed and we’ve added some more functionality. Towards the back end of the manual you can check the weight limit of your car.
The uncle will now remain at the home garage
Unfortunately, the uncle has been causing some severe issues and we’ve had to ask him to stay at home. He may join you in the journey for the future but for now, he’ll simply walk you through the tutorial and then leave the car so you can journey without him.
Hungary
And of course, Hungary! We’ve held back on revealing too much so players can explore the new country. However, we have created a brief summary video that shares some of the features mentioned above and just a couple of shots of the Hungary landscape.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL-2VNX8xsk
We hope you enjoy exploring Hungary, we will be keeping an eye in the forums for any bugs or issues so please do let us know if you experience anything out of the ordinary. We hope you enjoy the update, the next major update planned is for the country of Yugoslavia.
Build Notes 0.512
MAJOR - Added Hungary
- Added Decals
- Added Paint Cans
- Added Scrapyards
- Added Abandoned Car Spawning
- Additional Music from Jeremy
- Added Storage page to manual
- Added Country Specific Goods
- Added Odometer
- Added item in the back seat
- Petrol stations now spawn based upon country
MINOR - Changed daytime ambient audio
- Various oil Mix issues fixed
- Various Battery issues fixed
- Sleep texts fixes
- Car Tilting fixed
- Decals being deleted fixed
- Fixed Newspapers not displaying correct information
- Desktop Icon added
- Menu Music updated
- Front End Menu background now changes based on save location
- Uncle restricted from travel
- Fixed Manual flickering
- Increased Day Cycle from 15 minutes to 18
- Oil should now work and display correctly, with refueling reducing oil mix
- New Weather effects
Known possible issues: - One of our machines had experienced some crashing when interacting with certain items. We nailed this down to directx9 on that machine. But it was working well on other machines. When launching on DirectX 11, there were no more crashes. We have added an option when loading the game to select which DirectX version you would like to launch the game in. if you experience any crashes, it might be that you have to choose a different DirectX at launch
- Black screen when changing graphical options – If this happens, alt tab out and force the game to close. The game will remember your graphical settings even if you force a close.
- Low FPS – Some users are still running the game with V Sync on and highest graphical settings. Turning V Sync off significantly decreases FPS loss at night (our machines here run at a minimum of 50FPS at night and experience upwards of 120FPS during the day).
- Passport at border – Sometimes the game will not allow you to pick up the passport once you get to a border patrol. This seems to be an issue when completing an entire run from start to Hungary. The workaround for this is to save and exit if you are unable to pick up the passport, loading up will fix the issue. We are looking to fix this.
As always, if you come across any issues do let us know in the forums and we will do everything we can to help.
UPDATE 22nd JULY 2016:
Hi everyone,
Thank you to all who have been patient with us and provided us with reproduction steps for certain issues. We have made progress and anticipate a few new fixes in this latest hotfix. The fixes include the list below:
- Fixed several issues where battery functionality at 0% was causing components to think that they could still work (caused hazard and engine horrible sound bugs
- Fixed passport being broken after crossing the first border
- Fixed a lack of collisions on the Germany to CSFR border tunnels
- Uncle should no longer complain if the radio is too loud
- Rain Audio should no longer continue into sunny days
- Fixed a decal still having debug text present
- Using the scrapyard engine no longer destroys components but instead uses 1 lt fuel, and 10% battery charge
- Scrapyard engine gates now better displays information regarding what is wrong with the gate engine
- No more tiny tyres on abandoned cars
- Scrapyard items no longer mess up engine components in the car
- Fixed some interaction issues between removing a component from its holder and placing it down too quickly
- Fixed inventory save/load issue: Inventory wasn't clearing the recorded data for the country you purchased a tradeable good in, so when swapping that out with another item (I.e a bottle of water) it would try to assign a country ID to it and get stuck.
If anyone has any issues, please do keep letting us know. We thank you all for getting involved in the development of Jalopy.
UPDATE 25th JULY 2016
Hello everyone,
Jalopy patch has gone live today. We’re looking at ironing out some of the bugs that players have discovered. This may not be all, but please bear with us as we are still working on them.
This hotfix includes:
- Fixed an issue where the roof rack caused a save and load corruption
- Fixed an error where Save & quit, Restart and Return Home options in pause menu would not work
- Fixed an issue with items in the inventory becoming unparented when trying to pick them up with your hands full
- Fixed an issue with loading from motels causing a path finding loop which resulted in a performance drop
- Fixed an issue where doors would not have bells
- Fixed uncle talking when not in car and telling the player to put items back
- Fixed interior rain audio still playing on the next day after rain conditions
- Fixed uncle appearing in the car the following day after playing the tutorial
We are still working towards fixing some of the more serious issues. So please keep checking back as we look to issue another patch this week. We thank every one of you who has helped provide reproduction steps so that we can try to locate and eliminate these issues!
Spray Painting, Decals And Scrap Yard
Hello everyone,
Today I have prepared a couple of videos to show you some of the new features that will come with the Hungary update.
Not only will you be able to mix colours to paint your very own Laika 601 Deluxe, you will also be able to apply decals to fully express yourself! There are a variety of decals to choose from go fast racing stripes, hot rod flames and a two tone effect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laKwvE3eU4o
Additionally, there will be a new building to explore, the scrap yard. You may be able to find valuable parts but the gate must be repaired in order for you to enter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS4uj4X-JDU
Closer to the launch we’ll be sharing some of the beautiful vistas of Hungary. As always, thank you for all of your support!
Jalopy Performance Patch
Hello everyone,
Today we’re releasing a new update for Jalopy which introduces a few changes to performance. As you know, optimisation is something that we are planning to work on throughout development and it will take some time.
ChangeLog:
Flickering lights option in the option menu now works
Work done towards framerate drop at night
Trunks should no longer duplicate items when placing 1x2x1 items in roof rack
Placing engine components into trunk should no longer make your car freak out
Adjusting graphic settings:
We’ve noticed that V sync can cause the game to suffer from a severe FPS loss. If you are experiencing any FPS drops at night, we recommend you turning off Vsync and SSAO. Running the game on low to medium settings during this can make the game run on our machines at around 90FPS in towns during night, where on high they could drop to about 20FPS.
Do adjust your graphical options, the low poly allows for a lot more leeway on these settings and know that optimisation will continue to be an ongoing process during development.
Hungary Update
Regarding the Hungary update, Greg is working very hard on the core generation of Hungary and will be spending more time refining new features. This will of course go into some internal testing before release and over the next few weeks we will begin to share more details on the update and what features you can look forward to seeing. Thankyou everyone for your patience!
Build 04695: Conquering Inclines, AI Driver Improvements, Ear Drums Saved!
Hello everyone, in today’s update we have continued our quest to stomp out bugs! We’ve also added a few options to customize your experience while on the road.
First, we’ve been working towards the dangerous drivers who have been reversing up hills because their car lacked the momentum to travel in forward motion. Drivers can now stop on a hill and perform a true hill start by applying the handbrake, releasing and then accelerating. A variety of other car handling fixes have been made.
Additionally, we’ve been having a chat with some of the AI drivers who have been finding it difficult to build up the courage to enter a roundabout. They have since returned to driving school in order to become more confident behind the wheel. This should mean that there are no longer large traffic jams approaching a town.
Should there still be any AI driver issues, we’ve also added an option to decrease the density of traffic.
Fans of having ear drums will now be able to open the game without fear of them bursting from the main menu music. While Jeremy’s music is lovely, we had to turn it down a little bit!
We’ve also nailed the issue where water tanks do not spawn when ordered from the Laika dealership. They will currently float just outside the shop, but that’s a pretty good compromise to get the feature working!
Finally we have made some work towards lighting optimisation, added an SSAO video option, fixed an issue with fuel mix load save issue, fixed an issue where abandoned cars would spawn items that they shouldn’t
On a final note. I feel it is important to note that optimisation is an ongoing process through development, we have made some changes however it is something that will continue to be worked upon throughout the entirety of development. It will take time, but be assured we will be working on optimisation.
If you have any bugs to report, as always do let us know in the forums. Thankyou!
Something for the future
This is a new section, where we tell you about something that Greg is working on, but is not yet in the game. As you may know, the next major update will be the Hungary update. We don’t yet have a date for this just yet as we are focusing on bug stomping..
As part of the Hungary update, Greg has shared details on his dev blog (http://minskworks.tumblr.com/) that shares details on a new feature, the spray cans.
Check them out below:
On the tumblr blog Greg shares just a little more detail on the plans for the spray can:
“… I’d like to make a load of different styles that you can mix and match with. Metallic colours, gradients, florescent, all change depending on the colours you mix together. Basically, the painting works based on applying the current colour you are using to your car by how long you spray your car for. So if you want a really blue car, hold down the blue spray can on the car. If you want a darker blue, use the blue spray then add some black with the black spray can”
Once we nail down a date for the Hungary update, we’ll post more details
Build Number 04693 - Numerous fixes and Bug Stomping
Hi everyone.
Today we’re launching a new patch for Jalopy which addresses a few issues and bugs. Our priority before adding more content is to continue stomping these bugs out before we begin work on Hungary. I’d like to thank everyone who has been reporting what they’ve found and told us how to replicate their issue so that we can try to fix it.
Additionally, we’ve had some amazing YouTubers play through the game over the past few weeks including Robbaz, Draegast, WhyBeAre, Weaselzone among others. We hope many of them do continue to check out the game as it continues in development!
Danny O’ Dwyer from Gamespot has also recorded an excellent video feature which shares a brief summary of the games core mechanics for those who are not familiar with Jalopy. Though we believe we fixed that pesky uncle issue Danny spotted in his video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDZOa3AxmmI
Full details of the changelog below!
Build Number 04693 ChangeLog
Fixed bridge collisions issue & falling through world
Uncle no longer clips through world on motel load to find a faster way to the other side of the continent
Water bucket no longer loads a bulbar on load
Work towards water tanks not loading (Though may still be present)
More page fixes for the Laika catalogue
Mouse SHOULD lock on start now
Weather now changes to sunny after being rainy
New game deletes save data correctly
Fixed tiny bucket issue
Fixed sponge not washing windshield
New repair kit break effect
1x2x1 inventory issue fixed
1x1x1 & 1x2x1 inventory conflict fixed
Fixed tyre spam click onto the wheel issue
Saving stolen items now results in a punishment
Fixed AI driving into wall
Made AI faster
Tool kits can no longer be used if they have not been purchased
Added an option in the options menu to fix flickering lights for those with sensitive eyesight
Car radio now plays in main menu
Fixed issues with options menu not saving correctly
Fixed issue with objects getting stuck in hands
Can no longer have 8 tyres in the car at once
Fixed buy exploit where shops wouldn’t register the transaction and players could repeat sell items
Fixed map vanishing issue
Known Issues:
We are aware of people struggling to get up hills. We believe we’ve found the culprit of this but need just a little more time to fix this. For now, we do have a work around to help players to complete a hill start. When at a hill hold the space key to initiate the brake, then hold the W key. While holding the W key now release the brake, press the brake and then release the brake. If you do this while holding the W key, you will begin a true hillstart! It’s a tad complicated, but for now this exploit allows you to traverse up any hill until we fix this issue!
As always, if you find any issues do let us know in the forums. Thankyou everyone!
Build 04692 Now Live: Save Progress After Sleeping At A Motel & Various Fixes
Hello everyone, build number 04692 goes live today! The most prominent addition to this build is the ability to save and quit after sleeping at a motel, and when you continue the game you will be at the last motel you slept at.
There are a few notes to consider on this. Firstly, we have added a new selection in the pause menu titled “return home”. Pressing this will return you back to the original garage area, pressing restart will return you to where you last slept.
Additionally the game calculates the games economy on route generation, if you save in Dresden, quit and then load the game again, The Autershop in Dresden won’t have an economy and will have a closed gate... We strongly recommend you make all your shops in the Autershop before sleeping in a motel... Once you’ve crossed the border, the game will generate an economy so any petrol stations or Autershops on the route will remain open.
List of changes for 04692:
Can now save progress after sleeping at a motel
Added a return home button in the pause menu
A drop & pick up timer that creates double click issues.
Fixed an issue where the Laika catalogue will steal your wallet
Crate prices update when in trunk
Additional inventory fixes (Large crates mostly)
Fixed wine clipping issue on wooden crates.
If you spot any issues, do let us know in the Steam forums!
Build 04691 Now Live: AI Driver Improvements, Uncle Issues Addressed And More
Hello everyone,
We have been overwhelmed by the amazing amount of support from the community for Jalopy. There have been some teething issues regards to bugs, but we are in the process of stomping these out with great force. Today we’re launching our third patch with some quite noticeable improvements.
The first of which is the refinement of AI drivers. If you park with your hazards lights on, they will now stop for the player. This means that the player will no longer see their car rammed by a selection of impatient drivers! Check out the video below to see the new AI details in action
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_amRK_NKxiw
We have also made some fixes towards not being able to store items in your trunk, if you are still having issues, it might mean that you will need to start a new save or delete the inventory save file in the save data.
This can be found in: C:\Users\Username\AppData\LocalLow\MinskWorks\Jalopy
Gas cans can now be refilled, but you will have to pay for the fuel!
We have for now removed the Uncle repair and fuel tutorials, this is because they were causing some issues and causing the uncle to lock up users from interacting with objects or the uncle getting stuck outside the car.
04691 ChangeLog
Improved AI behaviour, other cars now stop instead of giving poor Uncle terrible whiplash
Work done on Trunk space (players may need to start a new game or delete the inventory save data if there are still issues)
Gas cans can now be refilled
Market gate should be fixced and work as expected
Uncle tutorials for fuel and repairing have been disabled due to causing some issues.
If any issues arise with this new patch, do let us new and we will look to address them!
I would also like to take some time to thank everyone who has been helping other members of the community with any issues or game tips. The community forums have been moving very fast and I am very grateful that there is already a great engagement and community around to help. Thank you!
Jalopy Out Now In Early Access
Hello everyone,
Jalopy has now released into Early Access! We are overwhelmed by the massive amount of support the community has given us, from preordering to offering suggestions and generally showing as much enthusiasm for the game as we have. Thankyou!
Now, Jalopy is at a stage where it is considered an Early Alpha, I feel we do have to stress that there will be bugs, there will be some features not fully implemented and that the game will continue to grow and improve over time. Choosing to purchase now allows us to continue improve the game and lets you get involved in the development process.
So if you’re not prepared for a few issues, we strongly recommend that you wait to buy the game until it reaches a stage that you wish to invest. Those who want to join us now to report bugs and get involved in the process we welcome you to Jalopy!
We have been spending a few weeks eliminating some rather nasty bugs, but we have also eliminated some humorous issues. I felt it would be interesting to actually share a couple of the interesting bugs that we eliminated over the past week.
Floating Uncle So majestic, the uncle is a master of levitation. Or merely he has hijacked Wonder Woman’s invisible plane. Whatever the case, it was not working as intended and the uncle himself was fully aware of the bug!
Unlimited boxes The trunk of the Laika 601 deluxe is used to transport goods which the player can sell. More often than not, decisions will need to be made regarding which goods to take on your journey. In one circumstance the boxes in the trunk would multiply up to 18 times, providing a wealth of items to sell, completely breaking the economy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_OK910XHvo
These, along with many other bugs have been eliminated. If you want to track the current issues and follow our bug fixing procedure, you can even do so by visiting the following link:
Only Excalibur and Minskworks can edit this document, but if you are interested in reporting an issue, you can use this document to see if a bug you want to report is already present in the form.
So that’s it, the game is out now, and we hope many of you will join us to help us make a great game over the coming months. If you have any questions, do get in touch with us in the forums if you have any questions.
JALOPY LAUNCHES THIS WEEK
Hello everyone, it will not be long now before Jalopy releases into Early Access. On the 22nd of April, the game will unlock for players. We have been taking notes on the suggestions of players and have created an internal suggestions and QA list. Very shortly we will begin work on a template of sorts that will provide details on the development roadmap.
Jalopy is for all intents and purposes considered a Pre Alpha during the first stage of Early Access. What does this mean? Well, let’s try and share our thoughts on what the definition of pre alpha means:
A time in development where the game is not yet feature complete
At a stage where suggestions and thoughts can still shape the core gameplay
Particularly large bugs will still be present, perhaps some that may prevent progress
The game will not be optimised fully
There will be bugs, there will be some features not yet implemented and maybe the game will not run well on certain PC configurations. We believe the game to still be enjoyable, but it is vital that we let you know the current state of the game so that you can make an informed purchase decision.
If you do plan to support us, thank you! We value all feedback and if you can help stomp out some bugs by reporting them on the forums (perhaps with screenshots and video) that will really help.
So, that’s it for now! We hope that many of you will be looking forward to driving the Laika 601 Deluxe when the game launches later this week.
