Big Update Release: LCV4.1 [openbeta]

Speedy cover art by titleguy1.

The long-awaited LCV4.1 milestone is now available on the opt-in open beta branch!
If you are keen to try it out and don't mind experiencing more bugs than usual, you can opt into the current version via your Steam Library by right-clicking the game, choose Properties, Betas, select the openbeta branch and let the game update. No password required.

While this update should be compatible with your cars, engines, and mods, we recommend you make a backup of your sandbox database with all your cars and engines in case you want to go back to the stable version. You find that here:

\\Documents\\My Games\\Automation\\Sandbox_openbeta.db

A beefy truck by Yangx2 (using mods).

This update does pack a punch with lots of big additions and changes to both campaign and the car / engine designers, the latter especially on the visual side. The following is the condensed list of features and changes.

[h3]LCV4.1 Campaign Features[/h3]

• All new sales model and market simulation
  
• More in-depth dealership mechanics
  
• Implemented preorder sales of cars before and during production
  
• Improved hub calendar UI [WIP]
  
• Implemented competitor companies with specific company profiles
  
• Revamped credit score calculations and financing
  
• Added a first project engineering time reduction for quicker start
  
• Factories can be added to productions without a facelift
  
• Factory deterioration and car stocks now affect company valuation
  
• Revised all factory plot, build, and add-on costs
  
• Added a labor cost dependency on shift range and shift count
  
• Added manual control of car sales prices (to dealers)
  
• Implemented automatic overdrawn-account loans
  
• Added a car bodies unlock overview on the R&D screen
  
• Added an engineering times multiplier option in the campaign setup
  
• Market volatility scaling options added to campaign setup
  
• Additional market information overview modes
  
• Added a yearly finance report as a news item
  
• Revised falloff of body age penalty, more in early years, less after 2000
  
• Added an HQ country bonus to company prestige and reputation
  
• Added forecaster access during engineering and production
  
• Added marketing options for secondary and special stats
  
• Cars can now run on more premium fuel when built for lower octane ones
  
• Added button to delete all campaign saves

[h3]LCV4.1 Sandbox, Art, & Misc Features[/h3]

• Implemented 3D fixtures
  
• Added ability to turn on a car's lights [WIP, coming in next patches!]
  
• Player defined headlights, brakelights, etc. (BeamNG compatible)
  
• Added transparent windows controls (BeamNG compatible)
  
• New engine block [done] and engine head art [WIP]
  
• Implemented basic engine visual customization [WIP]
  
• Suspension and chassis rework [WIP] partially completed
  
• Merged fixture and car paint systems to allow custom fixture paints
  
• Implemented car and engine tagging system in managers
  
• Added new convertible roof type selection and stats
  
• Implemented car stats comparison tool for side stats like for engines
  
• Added a control to reset fixture materials to their defaults
  
• Added highlight to paint sections on car to show what will be painted
  
• No more fixture reloading when going from designer to photo scene
  
• Major improvements to fixture UI material loading performance
  
• Added reset morph button to trim designer
  
• Added a CTRL-drag mode to slow down fixture translation / scale / rotation
  
• Added Shift + C free-roam camera
  
• Hold down arrow keys to continue moving fixtures after a small delay
  
• Added mod banner to rim selection UI
  
• Added option to menu to disable automatic camera rotation
  
• Main menu screens now full height to see more trims/engines in managers

[h3]LCV4.1 Other Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed an issue where moving the car in a photo scene halves the fps
  
• Fixed issues with high DPI windows settings
  
• Fixed issue with tire size controls
  
• Fixed test track sectors ordering incorrectly
  
• Fixed prestige and reputation marketing not working without sales
  
• Fixed text boxes reaction to decimal separator in languages where it is not "."
  
• Fixed fixtures causing errors in beam, slowing down loading
  
• Plus tons of little fixes and improvements here and there...

Photo Scenes Note: We have ripped out quite a few of the older (and lower quality) photo scenes and packaged them as a mod called "Legacy Photoscenes". This saves a lot of space for players who don't want or need them, while you can download the pack as an "official" mod from the workshop if you wish to continue using them.

[h3]Outlook[/h3]
In the coming weeks we are going to frequently update the game as we address the various issues and exploits still present and polish up this version before it is merged with the default branch, after adding the last missing bits and pieces supposed to make it into this version. Once done, we're off to working on LCV4.2, which focuses on improving and rebalancing a lot of game mechanics and revamping turbos.

We hope you will enjoy and look forward to seeing all the amazing new things these features will allow you to create.
Cheers!