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Quality of Life Changes in Upcoming Update 0.4 - Dev Log #17

Hey everyone!

Welcome to our latest weekly developer log! Last time we shared our upcoming rework to the soap system, which helps reduce accidental overspending and makes the cleaning liquids more meaningful. You can see the full log #16 here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1290000/view/3030341104940961580

Today, we'll be showing off many of the smaller quality of life changes coming to the next patch that have been requested by you, the community. We'll also give insights into why we're making these changes!

Update 0.4


We're very close to finishing off our next content update! We want to get this out within the Steam Summer Sale period and are aiming for next week. Of course, this could slip with several extra features still being tested right now, but we'll keep everyone updated here and on socials!

Update 0.4 brings new levels, challenge mode, quality of life changes and bug fixes.

On that note, get an extra clean 15% off PowerWash Simulator here on Steam for the duration of the sale (ends July 8th at 10AM PST)!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1290000/PowerWash_Simulator/

QOL - Quality of Life

We've made several additions to improve gameplay based on community feedback on top of the soap rework discussed last week. The list in this dev log is not final as we are still testing some other small features that we'd like to add to the game this patch.

Let's dive in!

Changes

  • We've added a to-do list to the HUD when there is only 3 objects/groups of objects left to do in a job.

    This is intended to make life easier, prompt those that aren't already looking in the details section and save time instead of needing to go into the menu.



  • Disabled the ability to purchase equipment for unowned power washers.

    A lot of people were accidentally buying the wrong attachments and felt a little cheated by the shop. We made the change as we don't want this to be a player's first buying experience!

  • Added a crouch option on top of the existing prone.

    We want to give more options to the player in how they wash. This should add another dimension to getting to certain details with your washer. There will also be the option to either hold to switch crouch or tap to switch between the stances in the settings menu.



  • Added in support for up to 240FPS.

    This is still a little experimental but you can select several increments up to this 240 FPS cap. We know people with high refresh rate monitors have been requesting this but we also hope it could help those suffering some motion sickness.



  • Added option to leave the crosshair on

    Again we are attempting to potentially reduce motion sickness for some players by giving a fixed reference point on the UI. Prior to this, the crosshair would fade whilst the washer was spraying.

  • 15-degree nozzle is set as default.

    We saw a lot of players and streamers not realise they could switch between nozzles for a while and though most people realise at some point, it might help with the first job being more frustrating than it should be.

  • Improved thresholds for very low opacity dirt.

    This will autocomplete when the dirt is almost invisible which quite a few players have been stuck on. Thresholds in general will continue to be looked at with making sure they don't pop too early or are too punishing. In this case, it should help stop people from having to spray a whole object even though there's nothing visible even on the dirt vision.


On top of this, we have a few improvements to the ambience SFX and UI. There's a few extra quality of life features we are testing, we aren't sure if they will make it into this patch but keep your eyes out for the full update notes when it goes live!

Quality of life is something that we will keep revisiting in future patches. If you've got any requests or feedback leave them here on the Steam forums or on our Discord linked below.

Community Map Suggestions


It's your last chance to suggest a job for us to put into the game in our first community map vote. Next week we'll be polling several of the most popular and doable jobs we see. This will be the first of several community map polls so don't worry if your idea doesn't make the cut this time, there's still hope!

Click the image below to share your ideas.



You can jump onto our Discord and directly chat with us and the rest of the community!

[h2] Join The Community On Discord[/h2]

As always if you have any feedback on anything you would like to see please put it in the comments below, on our Discord or in the feedback section here on Steam.

We can't wait for everyone to play around with the next update! :)

Keep up with everything PowerWash Simulator by following our channels:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PowerWashSim
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/futurlab
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@powerwashsim?
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powerwashsim/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/powerwashsim

Hot PowerWash Summer - 15% Off Sale! Keep it Clean!

Hey everyone!

It's time for a 'Hot PowerWash Summer', enjoy a 15% off discount on PowerWash Simulator for the duration of the Steam Summer Sale! Join us in keeping it clean!

You can buy the game right here:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1290000/PowerWash_Simulator/

Haven't seen PowerWash Simulator before? Check out our launch trailer:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2] Join The Community On Discord[/h2]

Keep up with everything PowerWash Simulator by following our channels:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PowerWashSim
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/futurlab
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@powerwashsim?
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powerwashsim/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/powerwashsim

Soap Rework - Dev Log #16

Hey everyone!

Welcome to our latest weekly developer log! Last time we shared our Steam Early Access development Roadmap which teases a lot of the larger content we have planned leading to launch. You can see the full log #15 here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1290000/view/5395856362740222299

Today we want to show that whilst there's a lot on the roadmap, we have plenty more qaulity of life changes based on community feedback to be constantly added! Let's dive right into one of those bigger tweaks.

Soap System Rework


We've been getting a lot of feedback on the soap system and have reworked it for our next content update. Our main aim has been resolving what a lot of streamers have jokingly called 'soap debt', where you accidentally spend too much on soaps and can't then afford better equipment in the future. On top of that, we have more general tweaks to make the whole system better.

Here's a few of the improvements:

Stockpiles

Each job now has a set amount and type of cleaning liquid you can buy for that level in career mode. We've set these soap quantities to reflect the materials in the level and to try to be reasonable in terms of spending. For example, the first job on the van gives you one glass cleaner and one metal cleaner. If you do want to use soap, there's enough to clean the windows and a sizeable chunk of the metal work.



If you don't use these on a level, the stockpile stays and rolls over for future jobs in the shop. It's your choice whether you want to use the cleaning liquids, save them or not use them at all.

Refills

To combat the overspending without realising it, all cleaning liquid is now bought through the shop in the menu. You can still purchase multiple cleaning liquids and there's a number on the UI which shows how many you have left.



You can now also only refill the soap dispenser when it is completely empty. This is to avoid accidentally buying too many soaps accidentally or when you don't actually need a refill. A message will popup on your screen too when the soap has ran out. This should help combat confusion when the spray stops cleaning.

We've also added a prompt that pops up when you're out of cleaning liquid that should help newer players with how to refill.





Surface Materials

We reworked the soaps to be more impactful when used on the correct surfaces matching the cleaner type and less impactful when used on the wrong ones. For example using glass cleaner on a wooden fence now will do much less cleaning than it did in the first Early Access launch.

We've also changed the 'Universal' solution which is now 'Multipurpose' which no longer cleans everything well but like all of the other solutions works best when matched on matching 'Multipurpose' surfaces.

Finally, we quickly covered some of these soap changes live on our Twitch weekly stream: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1060014610

Let us know what you think about all of these changes below! :)

Further Quality Of Life Changes


We've been listening closely to feedback whether it be here on Steam, on our Discord, socials or wherever else! From all of this we have a bunch of smaller things we aim to add in the next patch to improve the game overall. One of these focuses is to help with finding the final 1% of dirt but we're currently ironing these out and will share more closer to the next update launch. Plus, we can't wait to share several other small tweaks coming that have been requested frequently!

Again, you can jump onto our Discord and directly chat with us and the rest of the community!

[h2] Join The Community On Discord[/h2]

As always if you have any feedback on anything you would like to see please put it in the comments below, on our Discord or in the feedback section here on Steam.

The next update isn't too far off and we'll let everyone know when that's coming, soon!

Keep up with everything PowerWash Simulator by following our channels:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PowerWashSim
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/futurlab
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@powerwashsim?
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powerwashsim/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/powerwashsim

Early Access Roadmap, Challenge Mode & More - Dev Log #15

Hey everyone!

Today we're revealing our Early Access development roadmap. This is a rough guide for content that's already planned to be added in regular updates leading up to our full launch. Our Early Access launch was just the beginning!



Note this roadmap is not exhaustive and we are very closely listening to community requests on features to add or things to tweak. Some of the things on the list might not happen or could change completely based on your feedback too. We'll also constantly be squashing bugs and adding in smaller quality of life features with each content update.

In short though, there's lots of exciting stuff coming!



Challenge Mode


We've been teasing the existence of a challenge mode coming in our next content update with 3 more levels and a bunch of community Quality of Life (QOL) requests. Though today we have much more to share!



We also showed off the challenge mode in our most recent weekly livestream. This is still very much work in progress but we have fleshed out the system. You can watch the vod here if you want to see it in action.

There's currently two types of the challenge mode, first time and second water usage measured in litres.

Both of these modes have a set loadout includiung power washer, extensions, nozzles and soap. They also give gold, silver and bronze awards for how well you do.



For the first release it will be the PWS Van level but we'll be adding more challenge levels throughout our Early Access up to launch.

1000+ Steam Reviews




We are absolutely blown away by the positivity and useful feedback in the Steam reviews so far. With over 1000 positive reviews and sitting at 93% currrently, we just want to say thank you to everyone that has taken the time to write a review so far!

If you also want to leave a review, you can leave one on our Steam Store page! :)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1290000/PowerWash_Simulator/

Community Job Requests


We have several slots for levels that are suggested by you the community. We'll be looking at the most popular suggestions for jobs in this thread https://steamcommunity.com/app/1290000/discussions/1/3112530528183413533/. From these we'll pick ones that we think could work well in-game and are popular. Then we'll run polls on our community Discord to decide by popular opinion which ones we will make!

Hotfixes


We are really sorry that some players struggled to play the game at launch and we worked as fast as we could to get the hotfixes out to everyone. Whilst these were released in the past two weeks we thought we'd include these in this update for anyone who hadn't seen them. This includes the No Clean Patch, Save Issue Fix and Stutter Fix which are now live.

Read more on that here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/1290000/announcements/detail/3067494531917481715

And here:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1290000/announcements/detail/3067494531934955500

Discord 1000 Members




We've also just passed 1000 members on our Discord, well we're actually at 1200 members at the moment but that was a big milestone! There's already a great community there but as mentioned earlier we will be polling everyone on community map suggestions that will be developed in the game, so keep an eye out for when we run these! :)

[h2] Join The Community On Discord[/h2]

As always if you have any feedback on anything you would like to see please let us know in the comments below, on our Discord or in the feedback section here on Steam.

Keep up with everything PowerWash Simulator by following our channels:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PowerWashSim
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/futurlab
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@powerwashsim?
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powerwashsim/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/powerwashsim

Hotfix 0.3.2: Stutter Fix and Save System Tweaks

Hey everyone!

This hotfix follows the previous fix that resolved the save data corruption and no clean issue. You can read that here.

With our previous hotfix, we fixed an issue causing player save data to be corrupted after an unexpected shutdown. Unfortunately, the fix caused the autosave feature to be more intensive and introduced poor performance on certain PCs. With this hotfix, we have optimised the way that save data is created and provided a further option for players on PCs which may continue to see stuttering.

Changes


  • Moved the autosave off the main thread. Reports indicate this has vastly improved performance for those affected.
    Added an option for players to toggle autosave off. In the event you continue to experience stuttering, please disable this in the Options menu. When finishing a session, please be sure to quit the game from the menu to ensure progress is saved. (For example don't alt+tab to close the program or the autosave will not work and you will lose your wash progress on that level)
    Legacy wash mode improvements to bring the effectiveness more in line with Standard


Please let us know if this has resolved the issue using the in-game feedback/bug report tool by pressing F8. Although we have had great feedback so far on our Discord and here on Steam.

If you are currently using a beta branch, you will want to uncheck that option now and return to the main version of the game!

Thanks again everyone for helping us track these issues down as quickly as possible and we hope you all have a fantastic time in game!

If you want to keep in touch with us and the developers directly:

[h2] Join The Community On Discord[/h2]

Keep up with everything PowerWash Simulator by following our channels:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PowerWashSim
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/futurlab
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@powerwashsim?
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powerwashsim/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/powerwashsim