Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game News

We're continuing to polish up this big update getting closer to release. Here we've added one of the last missing dependencies to the new engine designer calculations which now takes into account the effects of fuel cooling various surfaces inside the combustion chamber and with that a lower chance to pre-ignite the air-fuel mixture. From our ongoing testing of reference engines (comparing IRL engines to them recreated in the game) it does look like we're now really close!

[h3]LCV4.2.30 Changes & Improvements[/h3]

• Implemented AFR dependent combustion chamber cooling effects on octane use / knock
  
• Tweaked carb flows and manifold / header resonance curves
  
• Fixed bug in engine friction calculations
  
• Fixed several issues with cloning a trim or variant in sandbox causing the techpool to reset or break
  
• Fixed hard-crash when clicking delete key before a fixture is placed
  
• Fixed lua error when exporting cars from campaign
  
• Fixed some duplicate piping on MFI Inline Throttle Per Cylinder
  
• Fixed scaled-up text fixtures from appearing low-resolution at times
  
• Improved native resolution animatic export times by an order of magnitude
  
• Added random name generation for engine families
  
• Removed some clattering sounds from V6 exhaust sound
  
• Fixed duplicate nuts on air filters

From here we plan to continue our bug fixing and general polishing until it is ready to put this out on the default branch. It has been a loooong time coming.

Cheers!

A quick fix for the exporter sound issues, as well a few other things - have a look!

[h3]LCV4.2.29 Hotfix[/h3]

• Fixed exporter sound issues
  
• Added unbalanced warning to engines that die at or below idle, previously showing wrong warning
  
• Partially rolled back company value changes but fixed several bugs with the old logic
  
• Fixed changing model bodies in sandbox not updating all trims of that model
  
• Fixed graph loading spinners never closing when an engine fails to produce zero power
  
• Fixed lua error when switching engine position and drive type becomes unavailable
  
• Fixed $0 cash 100x difficulty exploit on new campaigns that have factories
  
• Fixed "Pause Trim Orders" button not working when a trim was in production
  
• Temporarily disabled AI tuning turbo engines & mentioned this on the AI tune button

More coming!
Cheers

The first hotfix for the week, taking care of a lot of little and large issues (missing exporter sounds!) and comes with a lot of updates to the exporter too.

Now possible: copy all fixtures from one car to the other, then scale and move them as a whole.

[h3]Version 4.2.28 Hotfix[/h3]

• Added advance trim settings to allow moving all fixtures or scaling all fixture relative positions to fit different bodies. Allows to copy fixtures between different cars and make them fit.
  
• Added tutorial screen to pause menu & added more video links
  
• Adjusted credit score calculation for loan repayment costs instead of total value
  
• Fixed drive type list allowing selection of drive types that the engine is too large for
  
• Improved AI engine tuning
  
• Fixed colour picker hex text box not culling trailing and leading white spaces
  
• Fixed suspension textboxes acting incorrectly with imperial measurements
  
• Fixed swaybar stiffness text box

[h3]Version 4.2.28 Exporter Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed BeamNG exporter not exporting with sounds after the first export in a session
  
• Implemented clutch LSDs
  
• Implemented reciprocating ball steering
  
• Fixed typo in the front solid axle suspension brake power slider title
  
• Added support for custom gauge light materials
  
• Removed old aerodynamics model
  
• Added camera offset sliders
  
• Added support for digital race screens

Lots more to do this week.
Cheers!

A patch for the weekend with two revised systems to explore! The new much more fleshed out steering options will have you make tough compromises, while the early clutched diff will give you that much needed early expensive limited slip diff.

[h3]LCV4.2.27 Improvements & Fixes[/h3]

• Revamped steering with more fleshed out and impactful options
  
• Added clutched type differential and tweaked stats of all diffs
  
• Fixed FMOD crash if exporting a car multiple times in a session
  
• Fixed exporter "Failed to delete or write to zip." error for cars with a lot of fixtures
  
• Fixed engine AI tune in campaign being broken
  
• Resorted paint material list & added a button to expand and collapse the list into a longer mode
  
• Fixed sandbox techpool controls not clearing values for disabled items
  
• Removed reliability penalty for engines combining carbs and turbos

A lot more coming next week! So long, enjoy.
Cheers!

In this patch we have a few big changes for you that will allow you to more accurately replicate IRL engines in the new engine designer. First and foremost there is the new sandbox techpool feature that lets you edit how much R&D your "sandbox company" has been doing. Certainly allows you to see more reasonable engineering time numbers when using expected quality levels of around +2 to +5.

Click the little techpool button in the lower right, then adjust your car's tech pool.

We've also added the octane requirement stat to the timing map tooltip. That shows what octane requirement you have at that spot in engine operation before your engineers pulled out timing for you (or not). That will probably help some players understand what's going on with octane.

Also we would like to highlight two recent videos, tutorials that will help you navigate the new engine designer, with some example engine builds.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]










Lots of little tweaks and fixes too, check it out!

[h3]General Improvements & Fixes[/h3]

• Added "Copy Fixture Transform" and "Paste Fixture Transform" buttons to fixture UI
  
• Added octane info (octane before timing adjustment) to timing map tooltip
  
• Added text fields to suspension tuning UI to allow typing values
  
• Fixed changing trim bodies not correctly changing seat rows
  
• Fixed photo scenes not loading and saving multi-car presets properly
  
• Fixed wrong unit in measurement selection for mass flow
  
• Fixed game freeze when exporting cars after doing an AI tune or AI turbo tune
  
• Fixed Flip To Opposite Side fixture button not correctly mirroring 3D rotation in Z axis
  
• Fixed the balancing mass slider sometimes not updating its tooltip

[h3]Gameplay Changes[/h3]

• Added a way to change techpool in sandbox
  
• Implemented new exhaust flow backpressure effects with mufflers and cats
  
• Added 10th gear option to Adv. Automatic and more gears to Dual Clutch transmissions
  
• Extended spring and damper stiffness ranges from 10 max to 20 max
  
• Changed boost limit go in 0.05 steps & reduced minimum boost to 0.05 Bar
  
• Increased overall torque made by engines by 3% (backpressure gonna steal a little of that)
  
• Tweaked exhaust flow rate vs. size progression, giving 50% more flow per area now
  
• Tweaked fuel map slider progression for fuel maps, allowing super-lean maps
  
• Revised manifold / header resonance curves, decreased gap between Std. Mid and Perf. Mid
  
• Buffed Std. Low and Std. Mid manifold flows
  
• Buffed several carb flow ratings
  
• Nerfed direct injection slightly

[h3]BeamNG Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed race sway bars being adaptive instead of the stock ones on front MacPherson suspension
  
• Weight in front of the car and presence of power steering now affect steering ratio
  
• Readjusted engine inertia values
  
• CVTs are now available on all cars
  
• Sequential transmissions are now available on all cars
  
• Added a way to export cars pre-configured for racing (sequential transmission, assists off). Add "!race!" anywhere in the car's description to enable
  
• Readjusted wheel and wheel hub stiffness to fix instability issues
  
• Most car parts now have unique internal names
  
• Replaced steering ratio multiplier slider with steering wheel lock angle slider
  
• Fixed camera positions always being set in front of the windshield
  
• Fixed turbo pressure not being set
  
• Fixed sequential transmissions not having whine multipliers
  

Engine calculations are getting really close to accurate already, but there are a few more things to do. Especially with some AFR dependencies and knock. Then there's also the need for a proper emissions system... still lots to do and lots to come.

Cheers!