Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game News

Some quick fixes to issues uncovered in yesterday's big patch. This should address most of the game breaking ones!

[h3]General Fixes[/h3]

• Switched over to using the new troubleshooting-focused launcher
  
• Fixed crash entering factory on new campaign save
  
• Fixed lua error selecting Dalluha in campaign setup
  
• Fixed lua error when changing turbo count
  
• Fixed suspension weight being 0 or too large
  
• Fixed up a few wrong starting familiarity stats
  
• Fixed front and rear wing angles not being saved
  
• Fixed MCost multiplier not being shown in quality slider tooltip
  
• Made old campaign savegames incompatible to prepare for public launch
  
• Balance changes to muffler selection in engine generation AI

[h3]BeamNG Exporter Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed info files displaying peak torque at 0 RPM
  
• Fixed rear progressive springs taking compressed stiffness from front springs
  
• Fixed dampers causing the suspension to bug out

This is another release candidate build. Tonight we'll see if this is solid enough or if we need another hotfix.

Cheers!

This is the last big polishing patch before the big merge of 4.2 with the public default branch! We're aiming to get it all wrapped up this week. Pour yourself a drink, get some snacks, and have a read of one of the longer changelogs in recent times:

[h2]General Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed failed car generation not deleting the engine it made for itself
  
• Fixed trimslots that were not in the latest facelift not being able to be unpaused
  
• Fixed factory shifts going higher than supported by engine production
  
• Fixed factories that took 1 month to retool not get their hitpoints back
  
• Fixed forecaster oddites with required vs estimated shifts
  
• Fixed issue where you would not gain 36 months engineering bonus in first project
  
• Fixed cars with missing mod rims not complaining when imported
  
• Fixed a hardcrash from attempting to export a car with a name that is too long
  
• Fixed there being an explosion icon on healthy engines
  
• Fixed factory staff sometimes getting stuck and not increasing
  
• Fixed forecaster to be able to cope with non default margin modes
  
• Fixed specific lua error that could occur on month tick
  
• Fixed issues with steering options with imported cars from pre 4.2
  
• Fixed stopping trim preorders barring deliveries with existing stock
  
• Fixed hardcrash when exporting animatics at any super resolution
  
• Fixed procedural meshes receiving decals
  
• Fixed issue with transverse FWD unlocking

[h2]Gameplay Changes & Fixes[/h2]

• Full revamp and fix-up of country-themed competitor companies and their lineups
  
• Implemented country-based company starting familiarity ratings
  
• Implemented engine bay filling calculations for turbos
  
• Implemented tech cost multipliers for R&D and in difficulty score calculation
  
• Implemented weight optimization slider into AI car generation
  
• Implemented costs, manhours, and engineering times for turbo setups
  
• Implemented MCost / PU / ET for springs & lifters slider
  
• Car generator AI now uses springs & lifters correctly
  
• Increased turbo oil costs in servicing by 2.5x
  
• Tweaked country tax rates, worker skill, and wage levels
  
• Tweaked how campaign setup works for awareness and dealership levels
  
• Tweaked familiarity gain speed and fixed various familiarity issues
  
• Tweaked pressure slider's effect on familiarity gain in engineering projects
  
• Tweaked prestige bonus for having the latest entertainment packages
  
• Tweaked difficulty starting defaults for campaign
  
• Tweaked how worker hiring speeds & XP gain depend on wages and worker quality
  
• Rebalanced brake cooling costs (ET / PU)
  
• Rebalanced market volatility
  
• Fixed Footprint+ / Footprint- marketing not being hooked up
  
• Fixed creating a facelift removing some company value
  
• Fixed production units not being added to car total from brake cooling slider
  
• Fixed steering quality not affecting comfort correctly
  
• Fixed turbos not experiencing mechanical stress correctly

[h2]UI Fixes & Improvements[/h2]

• Added description for Factory Shifts graph in car project
  
• Added tooltip display of each marketing category's costs
  
• Added missing PU/ET numbers to quality sliders
  
• Added various new icons replacing placeholders
  
• Added a calculate button to the forecaster screen
  
• Added 2 buttons in photo manager to reset camera settings to default or last loaded setting
  
• Added list of dis-/advantages to springs & lifters slider plus its description
  
• Added display of price perception desirability penalty for target demographic in hub
  
• Added sales chart to trim sales tooltip
  
• Added a copy-to-all countries button for marketing choices on marketing screen
  
• Updated campaign welcome texts
  
• Updated various descriptions / tooltips and eliminated missing ones
  
• Polished up start menu news and socials links, fixing some UI scaling issues
  
• Smaller gearbox gear counts are now unlocked until the list would overflow
  
• Fixed and tweaked map zoom and detail levels
  
• Fixed negative stock levels showing as zero and sales graphs disappearing in hub
  
• Fixed factory production tooltips not updating correctly in hub calendar
  
• Fixed campaign setup top bar not updating correctly
  
• Fixed oddities in factory warnings and sales for paused factories in hub
  
• Fixed car and engine side stats formatting for non-English languages
  
• Fixed full lineup mode button getting stuck
  
• Fixed tooltip description of blue sales bars on markets screen of car designer
  
• Fixed factory list in hub not being sorted in meaningful way
  
• Fixed forecaster screen items not updating when entering forecaster first time
  
• Fixed hub calendar not showing model car profit correctly
  
• Fixed quality tooltip jumping up and down as you drag slider
  
• Fixed marketing tab not working with high minimum awareness settings
  
• Fixed setting up a factory throwing you back to the engineering tab
  
• Fixed drivability stat not shown correctly in car manager after generating a car
  
• Fixed issue with sorting of trims in the main campaign hub
  
• Fixed financial report not coloring income green
  
• Fixed issue where you'd only be able to increase deposit %
  
• Fixed issue display of competing trims in side stats demographics
  
• Fixed inconsistency with factory refresh underfunded alert pop up
  
• Fixed side stats demographics sorting being weird when mixing pin and target
  
• Fixed reset all camera settings not resetting all settings
  
• Fixed the desirability tooltip on hub calendar being incorrect
  
• Fixed UI interaction issues with hub stock manager
  
• Fixed the engine ET shown in car engineering not being the current value
  
• Fixed no engine production warning getting confused with multiple facelifts
  
• Fixed factory production / shifts not correctly being limited by staff availability
  
• Fixed top bar not updating engine model name after switching engine
  
• Fixed pausing production not switch icon to confirm it has done that
  
• Fixed downforce aero graph having switched colors for front / rear

[h2]BeamNG Exporter Changes[/h2]

• Implemented progressive springs
  
• Added ability to export several trims as configurations of one car (configurations must be exported unpacked with the same mod and car name)
  
• Added electric powertrain swaps
  
• Added ability to export cars preconfigured as EVs (add !ev! to the car's description)
  
• Added manual gearbox whine now depending on trim year, quality and tech pool
  
• Added new main jbeam part
  
• Added more data to configuration files
  
• Added off-road mode to active sway bars
  
• Added that parts of cars now can ignite from collisions
  
• Added fire simulation adjustment sliders
  
• Added BeamNG physics aerodynamics and buoyancy modifier slider
  
• Reworked engine friction
  
• Split fuel tanks and transmissions into separate jbeams
  
• Twin-tube dampers now lose effectiveness under fast movements due to aeration
  
• Active springs now export with adaptive sway bars
  
• Increased damper stiffness
  
• Tweaked steering wheel lock
  
• Increased race final drive tuning range
  
• Fixed leaking parameters in suspension jbeams
  
• Fixed cars getting more flammable with higher safety
  
• Fixed leaking parameters in body and fixture jbeams
  
• Fixed leaking parameters in coilovers

If no big issues pop up, this might very well be the release candidate build that becomes the new normal for everyone. :) Let us know how it plays and if you run into any game-breaking issues.

Cheers!

We're continuing to polish up this version, getting it ready for the big merge with stable, and have lots of good tweaks and fixes for you today. Plenty of campaign testing was done too, fixing all kinds of issues and adding QoL little bits and pieces.

[h3]LCV4.2.34 Improvements & Fixes[/h3]

• Implemented turbo surge stress and mechanical stress effects on reliability
  
• Improved display of expenses / revenue in main campaign hub
  
• Improved layering of autohold lines
  
• Improved competitors and competitor companies with more competing cars
  
• Changed advanced trim settings engine sound sliders to go from -1 to 1 instead of 0 to 1
  
• Changed markets tab monthly sales matrix to use orders instead of deliveries
  
• Added links to our socials in the main menu
  
• Tweaked primary & secondary stat progression in regards to car desirability scoring
  
• Tweaked undertray costs to not make None have free engineering
  
• Tweaked drivability to not have a gear number penalty in base stat for manual gearboxes
  
• Tweaked gearbox stats and progressions
  
• Fixed issues with AI car generation
  
• Fixed issues with display of stock months
  
• Fixed props not spawning on the first attempt of loading a photo mode preset
  
• Fixed Lua error sliding quality slider in drivetrain tab while using techpool
  
• Fixed 10th gear line not showing on the gearing graph
  
• Fixed massive reliability hit for using 10 gears
  
• Fixed abrupt image changes on loading screen when loading default images
  
• Fixed lua error when sliding engine capacity after forgetting to select a block material
  
• Fixed project map navigation not remembering which tab they were on
  
• Fixed autohold not being active for power / torque graph in 4-way split view
  
• Fixed setting up factories increasing company valuation
  
• Fixed using engine "AI Tune" in campaign creating a full new car and engine
  
• Fixed errors when making new factories
  
• Fixed clicking a level preset in the photo manager taking you to the level tab
  
• Fixed issues with the pricing pie in factory setup when you pick specific trims

As always, there are more issues unaddressed still in our bug tracker and we'll continue to work on those next week. We're looking to wrap this all up as soon as possible for a nice proper 4.2 release. On the other hand, we've said that for the past few weeks already, so let's just state the obvious for now: it's done when it's done. ;)

Cheers!

With this update we've focused on fixing up issues in the campaign and general gameplay, as well as the AI competition present in both campaign and sandbox. This has significantly improved the engine and car generation algos too, making it a more useful tool especially for beginners.

The 1955 Zephorus Espion (II) by Riley

In general, we're in the middle of fixing and polishing up the game for the big merger of the openbeta with the stable branch, even though it is pretty safe to say that it already is way better and more stable than 4.1 ever was. Have a look below to see what's been changed and addressed - plenty of big ticket items in there!

[h3]LCV4.2.33 Improvements & Fixes[/h3]

• Implemented better progression for big negative % multipliers, harder to hit zero in main stats
  
• Implemented balance options in engine building AI
  
• Implemented fuel map and octane margin settings into AI generation
  
• Implemented that competitors now correctly select fuel for their company home region
  
• Re-implemented renaming factories in factory manager UI
  
• Added warning for pre-powersteering cars, suggesting Recirculating Ball if car is too heavy
  
• Tweaked stats balance of gearbox choices
  
• Tweaked many car and engine AI lookups and overall significantly improved AI competitors
  
• Tweaked power steering warning levels
  
• Changed car and engine production cost fields to show labor cost + material cost in factory UI
  
• Fixed crash when clicking Affordability tab when on "select target demographic for car" screen
  
• Fixed FWD unlock behaviors with techpool
  
• Fixed bug in brand bubbles strength calculation
  
• Fixed issue with campaign hub calendar trims tooltip sales numbers
  
• Fixed bug in the calculation of body and trim age penalties
  
• Fixed sorting order of trims in post-signoff forecaster
  
• Fixed issue with missing out on 36 month engineering bonus after deleting first car / engine project
  
• Fixed score multiplier not updating correctly in advanced campaign setup
  
• Fixed car project UI incorrectly showing engine engineering time reduction
  
• Fixed hub calendar mouse click offset in early years
  
• Fixed a specific crash in campaign happening on month tick
  
• Fixed & improved AI tuning of steering behavior in car generation
  
• Fixed AI using legacy car bodies for car generation
  
• Fixed specific memory leak issue in car project calculations
  
• Fixed issue making the sandbox market screen show zero sales while they clearly were not zero
  
• Fixed body tooltips showing a calculated CD for 2016 not the current body techpool year
  
• Fixed lua error when adjusting engine project
  
• Fixed animatics not rendering out properly
  
• Fixed flow bench getting stuck when mouse leaves graph
  
• Fixed single row bodies selecting 2 seat rows by default
  
• Fixed tooltip for out of production stock showing wrong title
  
• Fixed mod / vanilla car body filters
  
• Fixed photoscene DoF not working on tyres
  
• Fixed missing-mods prompt being layered wrong
  
• Fixed no-loan standalone factory builds being almost free

Part of the team has started work on 4.3 features in the meantime, while we're continuing to tie up loose ends here, especially in the campaign.

Cheers!

With this patch we're addressing a whole bunch of stability issues that seem to have cropped up with 4.2.31, and also just in general add lots of extra polish and tweaks.

We're approaching the public, main branch release of LCV4.2, and this patch should clear out a fair few hurdles to get there.

[h3]LCV4.2.32 Fixes & Improvements[/h3]

• Improved the campaign hub engine production warnings to be variant specific
  
• Added rear chassis morph slider in advance trim settings
  
• Added mod name to mod body tooltip
  
• Added field to show percentage of preorders lost from adjusting the price in hub forecaster
  
• Added mod animatics
  
• Added Advanced Trim Widgets to allow custom widgets for manipulating fixtures & other data
  
• Tweaked compression progression vs octane requirements for high compression ratios
  
• Tweaked effects of AFR related exhaust gas temperature cooling
  
• Tweaked behavior of morph slider UI
  
• Fixed "Clone models and corresponding trims" button causing issues when deleting cloned cars
  
• Fixed inconsistent desirability based on save reload
  
• Fixed Lua error after deleting a trim in campaign and opening another trim
  
• Fixed Lua errors when changing model body on car with multiple trims
  
• Fixed forecaster button not being disabled for incomplete trims
  
• Fixed model body selection breaking calculations until another setting was changed
  
• Fixed closing the Create a New Car Project popup taking you to a blank screen
  
• Fixed issue with recall tooltip reference being mixed up
  
• Fixed filters for Markets being possible to set to no country
  
• Fixed engine testing not updating the flow bench
  
• Fixed FR cars sometimes showing red engine arrows when selecting an engine
  
• Fixed decimal places being shown for sales numbers
  
• Fixed UI not correctly displaying valve float error in some situations
  
• Fixed potential car sales not being summed but averaged for multiple selected regions
  
• Fixed situation with production forecaster breaking and giving NaNs
  
• Fixed MP_CustomPaint_MaterialExample not having material export settings

We'll continue work on this version with release candidates as we go forward. Your feedback and reports are much appreciated.

Cheers!