You can now customize every difficulty setting individually, including turning off taxes and removing the impact of lead designers
There's a new logo editor, which uses a much more intuitive layer-based system. It is not as powerful and efficient as the old editor, but the old editor is still available.
Multiplayer
You can play up to 4 players on a map at a time. Each player starts on each side of the map. You are all playing in the same market, with the same competitors, deals and distribution platforms. You can outsource tasks to other players, and trade stocks, plots and intellectual property.
Price change
The game's price has increased, not only to reflect the addition of multiplayer, but also the size of the game at this point. I initially wanted to release the game for $20 after working on it for about 3 years. We're coming up on 10 years next year, and the scope has gotten so much larger than when I started.
Full patch notes for Beta 1.7
Changes
Added multiplayer
First day now starts at 7AM and employees will arrive same day if they are hired before their scheduled arrival
Overhauled difficulty structure, difficulty mods will no longer work until updated
Added ability to customize difficulty
Disabling taxes, removing effect of lead designers, removing fires and removing burglaries are now difficulty options
Added new simple but less powerful logo editor
Optimized pathing step when loading a save, should be a lot faster on older < 5 core Windows computers and all newer > 4 core computers
Added ability to enter precise amounts when buying stock
Added option to auto save every x minutes in build mode
Server choices for design, updates, contracts, deals, etc. are now saved to file
Added ability to send employees home for several months by using scroll wheel on the send home button
Awards are now added to inventory when moving company, instead of being sold
Added SWINCBETA, SWINCBETA1 and SWINCBETA1_7 (for 1.7) define symbols for code mod compatibility, which will be updated for each version going forward (will become SWINCRELEASE eventually)
Added compass
You can now see how many tasks a team is assigned to during assignment
Awards will now end up in inventory when they are not directly being sold, but just removed as a result of other actions
Employees will also start complaining about computers that are slow due to age, as well as condition, to warn player of old computers
Employees will now react immediately to player changing a room's team assignments
Added lightstrips to conveyor belts to make it easier to see which are turned on
Changed how company assets are divided among shareholders when a company bankrupts, so it will be distributed even if less than 10% of the company is listed
Quit confirmation dialog now asks whether to save instead of whether to quit
Furniture that contain perishables are now auto-stocked when purchased
Bug handling has changed to use method Product.ChangeBugs(startBugs, bugs) and Product.FixBugs(fixes), data mods will be auto upgraded on load
Updated Steamworks SDK
Added support for on-screen keyboard in Steam
Reduced penalty for failing to deliver on prints and manufacturing jobs to 10%
Increased payout for manufacturing contracts
Added icon to show whether a task is part of a deal
Screensaver :)
Fixes
Fixed shortcut panel not clearing after moving or duplicating furniture outside of build mode
Fixed player work on design and development deals not actually applying to end product
Fixed not having to pay for licenses when updating software if not also fixing bugs
Fixed furniture rotation sound stacking after placing multiple furniture at a time
Fixed placing a room duplicate in an existing room charging for all walls of the new room instead of just the necessary split
Fixed wall mounted furniture being placed on top of each other when duplicating room inside another
Fixed cases of doors and windows not getting copied over when cloning rooms
Fixed all undo bugs when dealing with awards
Fixed issues with basement rendering in first person mode
Fixed subsidiaries failing to retire lead designers
Moved security desk from Staff to Security function category
Fixed game saying tutorial has more steps than it had due to skipped parts
Fixed not being able to use close window shortcut with tutorial active
Fixed furniture modding tool breaking mod when refreshing mesh in Model menu and then saving
Fixed issue when a furniture's point of interaction inside an atrium resided in an adjacent balcony
Increased window margin to the left of the screen so titlebar doesn't become inaccessible
Fixed rooms becoming inaccessible to all teams if it is surrounded by other rooms outside
Fixed game not fetching all languages that share language codes from Localizor
"Missing qualified employees for a project"-message now specifies whether it is in regards to an update, to clear up project management issues
Fixed all interior doors not coming back when undoing selling plot
Reduced compression of character animations to remove foot sliding
Fixed noise visualization not working when rooms don't have default floor mapping
Fixed furniture sitting on the outside of a wall sometimes going inside when undoing moving a wall
Fixed security guards not going to security desk as soon as one becomes available during their shift
Security guards will now also hunt burglars when they are walking to/from security/surveillance desks
Fixed all burglars near each other not fleeing when one has been caught
Fixed product selection window sometimes filtering too many products
Fixed lead designer not being properly assigned when renaming a team
Fixed atrium bannister color not loading from save file
Fixed bugs when coloring cloned buildings with balconies
Fixed bugs relating to undoing use of wall removal tool on atriums
Fixed bannisters not being visible on upper atrium floors
Fixed precious metals and awards sticking around in maps that have been moved out of
Fixed bugs when undoing changes to wall with shelves on it
Old deals are now cleaned up to reduce file size and load/save time for long running saves
Fixed leader inspiration warning not clearing until lead designer actually starts working again after being replenished
Patch notes for Beta 1.7.21
Changes
Reduced penalty for failing to deliver on prints and manufacturing jobs to 10%
Increased payout for manufacturing contracts
Added icon to show whether a task is part of a deal
Fixes
Old deals are now cleaned up to reduce file size and load/save time for long running saves
Fixed leader inspiration warning not clearing until lead designer actually starts working again after being replenished
Various multiplayer stability fixes
Patch notes for Beta 1.7.16
I'm hoping to add the ability to outsource printing and manufacturing tasks to other players before November 12, and releasing multiplayer officially before November 20, with a launch discount.
Patch notes for Beta 1.7.17
Fixes
Random server outsourcing stability fixes
Patch notes for Beta 1.7.16
Changes
Added ability to sell server capacity to other players as a cloud service in multiplayer
Fixes
Fixed bugged references when joining a game with existing server tasks
Patch notes for Beta 1.7.10
Changes
Players will now always start day at 7AM when joining a game to get their first day in
Moved furniture and code mod settings into new game screen, since they are permanent changes
Added error message to make it clear when host and client saves have discrepancies
Made game autosave in multiplayer when game is closed by closing game window
Game will now check through backups to see if there is a better save when joining a server
Fixes
Fixed game saving 3 times in a row for online games with only 1 player
Fixed multiplayer work deals bugging out when joining an existing game where the host saved before the deal took place
Fixed security guards not going to security desk as soon as one becomes available during their shift
Security guards will now also hunt burglars when they are walking to/from security/surveillance desks
Fixed all burglars near each other not fleeing when one has been caught
Fixed shared map objects like windturbines getting duplicated for player every time they joined a previous game
Lead designers with the IP Ownership demand can no longer work as lead designer on outsourced projects in multiplayer
Fixed issue with clients not connecting up if a new player is hosting an existing game
Fixed clients getting stuck at midnight when the host player disconnects
Fixed deals getting cancelled when they shouldn't and not cancelled when they should
Fixed ID clash between network objects causing local player to gain money from selling wind turbines when removing a window or door from the network
Fixed all players getting money when a player sold windturbines obtained through a rural plot
Fixed parking lot player assignment sometimes being wrong when hosting game
Fixed time buttons being unavailable when launching previous game as host in which player was waiting for other players
Fixed project management tasks losing leader assignment when joining a game
Changed how plot adjacency is calculated to avoid situations where a plot is unreachable
Fixed manufacturing tasks and assembly lines not being deserialized properly when joining a game with an existing save
Fixed some server processes not being deserialized properly when joining a game with an existing save
Patch notes for Beta 1.7.3
Beta 1.7.4 fixes game crashing when starting a new multiplayer game
Patch notes for Beta 1.7.3
Changes
Other players can now vote to force skip day if non-ready players are AFK
Added option to limit how long a day can last before a player is forced to skip to next day
Added ability to change game and lobby port for LAN in settings.txt
Fixes
Fixed deal filter not being loaded properly from save
Fixed plots not being purchasable after a reload in multiplayer, games will need to be saved and reloaded again to fix this
Fixed deal accepted by a player still coming in from receptionist for other players, if they hadn't gotten it yet
Fixed an issue that would make game unable to load multiplayer saves with corrupted buildings, they should now load
Some multiplayer saves had corrupted network data that would eventually break the game for everyone and will now be deleted on load
Bunch of stability fixes
Multiplayer out in unstable branch
Major changes
Online multiplayer!
You can now customize every difficulty setting individually, including turning off taxes and removing the impact of lead designers
There's a new logo editor, which uses a much more intuitive layer-based system. It is not as powerful and efficient as the old editor, but the old editor is still available.
Multiplayer
You can play up to 4 players on a map at a time. Each player starts on each side of the map. You are all playing in the same market, with the same competitors, deals and distribution platforms. You can outsource tasks to other players, and trade stocks, plots and intellectual property.
Price change
The game's price has increased, not only to reflect the addition of multiplayer, but also the size of the game at this point. I initially wanted to release the game for $20 after working on it for about 3 years. We're coming up on 10 years next year, and the scope has gotten so much larger than when I started. I expect to have a launch discount when multiplayer releases officially. If you don't care about multiplayer, there's a cheaper LAN-only DRM-free version available.
Patch notes for Beta 1.7.1
Changes
Added multiplayer
First day now starts at 7AM and employees will arrive same day if they are hired before their scheduled arrival
Overhauled difficulty structure, difficulty mods will no longer work until updated
Added ability to customize difficulty
Disabling taxes, removing effect of lead designers, removing fires and removing burglaries are now difficulty options
Added new simple but less powerful logo editor
Added ability to enter precise amounts when buying stock
Added option to auto save every x minutes in build mode
Server choices for design, updates, contracts, deals, etc. are now saved to file
Added ability to send employees home for several months by using scroll wheel on the send home button
Added compass
You can now see how many tasks a team is assigned to during assignment
Awards will now end up in inventory when they are not directly being sold, but just removed as a result of other actions
Employees will also start complaining about computers that are slow due to age, as well as condition, to warn player of old computers
Employees will now react immediately to player changing a room's team assignments
Added lightstrips to conveyor belts to make it easier to see which are turned on
Changed how company assets are divided among shareholders when a company bankrupts, so it will be distributed even if less than 10% of the company is listed
Quit confirmation dialog now asks whether to save instead of whether to quit
Bug handling has changed to use method Product.ChangeBugs(startBugs, bugs) and Product.FixBugs(fixes), data mods will be auto upgraded on load
Updated Steamworks SDK
Fixes
Fixed shortcut panel not clearing after moving or duplicating furniture outside of build mode
Fixed player work on design and development deals not actually applying to end product
Fixed not having to pay for licenses when updating software if not also fixing bugs
Fixed furniture rotation sound stacking after placing multiple furniture at a time
Fixed placing a room duplicate in an existing room charging for all walls of the new room instead of just the necessary split
Fixed wall mounted furniture being placed on top of each other when duplicating room inside another
Fixed cases of doors and windows not getting copied over when cloning rooms
Fixed all undo bugs when dealing with awards
Fixed issues with basement rendering in first person mode
Fixed subsidiaries failing to retire lead designers
Moved security desk from Staff to Security function category
Fixed game saying tutorial has more steps than it had due to skipped parts
Fixed not being able to use close window shortcut with tutorial active
Fixed furniture modding tool breaking mod when refreshing mesh in Model menu and then saving
Fixed issue when a furniture's point of interaction inside an atrium resided in an adjacent balcony
Increased window margin to the left of the screen so titlebar doesn't become inaccessible
Fixed rooms becoming inaccessible to all teams if it is surrounded by other rooms outside
Fixed game not fetching all languages that share language codes from Localizor
"Missing qualified employees for a project"-message now specifies whether it is in regards to an update, to clear up project management issues
Fixed all interior doors not coming back when undoing selling plot
Reduced compression of character animations to remove foot sliding
Fixed noise visualization not working when rooms don't have default floor mapping
Patch notes for Beta 1.6.8
Changes
Reduced saturation of generated team colors
Added button to auto color teams based on skills and meeting time
Changed CCTV cycle rate from every 30 minutes to every 15 minutes
Fixes
In-house products can no longer receive best product or designer awards
Fixed some bugs in the furniture modding system introduced in the last patch
Proper handling of modded furniture where the primary color can't be edited by player, but secondary or tertiary can
Logos and awards officially out
Full patch notes for Beta 1.6
Changes
All companies now have procedurally generated logos
Added logo editor
Added yearly awards with 4 categories
Added shelf furniture that supports table lamp, table plants and awards for now
Heavily improved schedule window and made it interactable + added shortcuts in team and staff window
Added complaint when commute times are above 3 hours
AI companies can no longer dilute shares if one company owns more than 50%
Founder no longer reports precious metals
Only realized gains and losses from investments are now taxed
Improved furniture interaction distance visualization to work outside as well
Added furniture interaction distance to couch, which is 50 meter radius
The effect of mass layoffs on applicant appeal is now relative to company size
More in-game UI elements are now affected by UI scaling, e.g. the context menu
Team colors are now randomly chosen on creation
Improved random color selection for servers, teams and assembly lines to space colors out more
Save times in save window now use AM/PM based on player options
Fixes
Fixed chance of getting missing sink warning, when employees are getting sick for other reasons, e.g. Just the flu trait
Fixed taking a huge performance hit with destroy wall tool active in some cases
Fixed random name generator getting stuck on a word after having used it 100 times
Fixed 2 color materials not getting copied correctly when splitting room
The AI will no longer place bids on IP that is owned by a lead designer, since it doesn't concern the company
Fixed bug when undoing selling plot that caused an atrium to get removed
Fixed replacing wall mounted furniture on the outside of a building placing it inside
Fixed not being able to put company logo and title on both sides of a wall
Fixed furniture placed on wall mounted furniture not moving with it when using wall drag tool
Fixed wage negotiation window not closing if the only employee on the list was poached while the window was shown
Fixed logo editor breaking when placing a shape or image directly on top of an existing connection
Fixed position tool in logo editor not working with UI anti-aliasing turned on (All platforms but Linux by default)
Fixed logo editor being broken with UI scale above 100%
Fixed logo editor sometimes breaking when breaking connection down the line of a finished logo
Fixed logo editor breaking when trying to save with a logo that is missing connections
Patch notes for Beta 1.5.6
Changes
Three cooks can now queue up for a fridge at a time and fridge capacity has been increased by 10 to 50 (waiting around in queue makes cooks a bit slower)
Cooks will now prioritize fridges closest to their stove, rather than to themselves
Fixes
Fixed bug where some furniture primary colors would not load properly when loading save
Fixed game reporting missing support staff because support task didn't have any tickets in queue
Fixed bus being stuck waiting on employee that's being pushed out into the road by other waiting bus passengers
Fixed issue with building textures having tiling issues when viewing it zoomed out at sharp angles and SSAA disabled, e.g. red lines on the floor
Fixed room maintaining limitations when converting to pillar
Fixed game sometimes failing to place back wall furniture on balconies when undoing
Fixed issues when visualizing noise radii when there were too many furniture on the floor and added culling
Taxes and accounting officially out
You are now required to pay taxes, and as a big IT company, it would be unusual not to try and get out of it...
Full Beta 1.5 patch notes
(Beta 1.5.5 patch notes at the bottom) Changes
Added taxes that have to be paid yearly and requires the production of a tax report
Added ability to dodge taxes, store money in an offshore account and use it for various purposes
Changed the cost of loans and added bank loans
Added applicant appeal score to punish player for firing a lot of people or having a lot of unhappy employees
Whenever a company closes there'll be a temporary increase in job applicants
Seniority now lowers salary expections, instead of the other way around, as switching jobs usually increases pay + it makes hiring younger more appealing
Added "Idle" amount to company balance sheet to show how much is being wasted in paying idle employees
You can now see whether a team will prioritize a task as secondary before assigning it
You can now somewhat overlap cubicle walls again
You can now manually set the default priority from the options menu
Changed how room boosts are calculated to avoid placing a hundred clocks being the optimal choice
Server downtime now affects refunds
Wall mounted furniture marked as being valid outside can now be placed directly outside, which currently includes wall lamps, security cameras and company logos
Changed sink notification from tip to issue so people can't ignore them (Some sinks from the workshop are not marked as such and do not work properly)
Added ability to view specializations of terminated employees for 1 year after they were terminated
Moved shortcut panel into build panel
Upgraded puddle shader
Added window edges to make them easier to tell apart
Added ability to view add-on info from parent product info window during development
Saving a founder now also saves their skills, specializations, personality and traits
Added the born leader trait icon above employees working slower because of it
Added ability to change whether a product has out of stock notifications
Added warning if no employees with support specialization is assigned to an active support task
Snapping furniture is no longer limited to being placed on the current floor, but instead limited by the room height, including atriums
Fixes
Fixed extra valuation on plots never actually being deducted from player account
Fixed bug with blue channel of building material textures
Fixed team compatibility calculation when loading game not taking friendships into account
Fixed characters not being escaped properly from Localizor resulting in new lines and tabs being replaced with n's and t's
Fixed being able to place furniture outside in rented maps
Fixed being able to assign teams to a task that has already completed while assigning
Fixed product printers not maxing out printing capacity in some cases with finished and low priority jobs left
Fixed being able to use wall drag tool to create unsupported rooms
Fixed cases of getting an angle error when trying to build wall against existing wall
Fixed HR not hiring anyone because friendships raised the lower compatibility bar too much
Fixed employees not using mini fridge if it was actively being used when they arrived
Fixed edge aliasing issue when making thumbnails for furniture mods
Fixed boxes getting bunched up on conveyor ramps with tier 3 conveyors at max game speed
Fixed bugs when using wall drag tool on atriums
Optimizations
Newspaper articles older than 5 years and archived public domain products older than 20 years are removed to increase save speed and reduce file size
The compression and IO part of file saving has been offloaded to a background thread to reduce lag during auto-saves (Probably about 10% faster depending on hard drive speed)
Patch notes for Beta 1.5.5
Changes
Added exception for fire inspector when reporting precious metals, as it would be impossible to avoid otherwise
Added ability to change whether a product has out of stock notifications
Added warning if no employees with support specialization is assigned to an active support task
Snapping furniture is no longer limited to being placed on the current floor, but instead limited by the room height, including atriums
Fixes
Fixed bugs when using wall drag tool on atriums
Fixed saved founder specializations not loading properly
