Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game News

The first patch is here already and there are a ton of fixes in this one, including several major ones. That includes fixes for stability, performance, and usability issues, as well as plain old bugfixes.

Regarding the major crash bug fix, we believe that if this works, that is the end of the now infamous garbage collection bug which has been haunting us for several big updates now. Fingers crossed! Submit your bugsplats.

[h3]LCV4.1.1 Fixes & Improvements[/h3]

• Fixed (potentially) crash bug responsible for ~80% of reported crashes
  
• Repackaged game files for quicker updating process
  
• Fixed wrong sized mid engine chassis, and wrong type rear engine chassis art
  
• Fixed head material not visually changing
  
• Fixed clicking a car in photomode changing its position and rotation
  
• Fixed middle-click camera relocation stopping to work
  
• Fixed some cars flipping underground in photo scene
  
• Fixed fixture slot materials not changing when the material changes
  
• Adapated car paint slots to be selectable with the new fixture painting system
  
• Optimized reflections / texture / shadows performance in new photoscenes
  
• Tweaked demographic coloring in market screen "company bubble" mode
  
• Fixed game score display not updating until you reload the save
  
• Fixed the wagon body desire of Family Utility demographics not displaying correctly
  
• Fixed issue where the wing angle would reset when it should not
  
• Fixed visual issues with Partial Carbon Fiber panel option
  
• Wheel blur now correctly blurs only to one direction radially
  
• Fixed wheel and directional blur costing performance even when their strength is set to 0
  
• Fixed double-clicking models in car manager list view not opening them unless they have trims
  
• Double-clicking paints on fixtures now applies them and returns to viewing the fixture slots.
  
• Added new light materials to the 'panel' list of material options. This is as a temporary (!) workaround for lights not working yet. Use as such and be aware this is temporary.
  
• Fixed an issue where mirroring for fixtures close to the centerline wouldn't work
  
• Fixed snap to center-line not working for 3D fixtures
  
• Fixed an issue where the cutout of a 3D fixture wouldn't mirror
  
• Fixed old car drag gizmo showing up randomly
  
• Added key bindings to tooltip of 3D transform widget (Move/Scale/Rotate)
  
• Made fixture translation and rotation sensitivity adjustable
  
• Made fixture scale no longer affect rotation sensitivity

We still have a ToDo list of epic proportions, but let us know how it goes.
Cheers!

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!

It has been two months since the release of the LCV4.0 milestone and its emergence from open beta. This means we’ve had plenty of time to dig into that big list of features that is planned for the upcoming LCV4.1 milestone. In case you are wondering about other coming milestones, check out this video.

The Clarion Vianta in old London town with transparent windows.

Here just highlight a few of the upcoming features of that version:

[h2]Campaign[/h2]

• Completely new sales model, dealerships, and marketing mechanics
  
• A whole bunch of improvements to the campaign hub and other UI
  
• Ability to add factories to existing productions without facelifting
  
• Quicker campaign start and adjustable engineering times

[h2]Sandbox, Art, BeamNG[/h2]

• Visual engine customization
  
• Big rework of chassis and suspensions
  
• 3D Fixtures, movable and adjustable without being limited to the car
  
• Adjustable transparency for car windows
  
• Several new awesome photo scenes and photo scene UI
  
• Car and engine tagging and organizing in sandbox
  
• Added depth to choice of convertible types
  
• Custom definitions of what lights on the car do, export to BeamNG

There is a lot more to it than that though, and as always we have been showing off the progress towards the next milestone on our YouTube channel. If you haven’t already, check out these videos to see what awaits you in this next big update and how the implementation of the new features is coming along.

[h3]LCV4.1 Planned Features Overview Video (June 18th)[/h3]
https://youtu.be/gs2PX7ea2N0
[h3]Progress Update 1 (July 9th)[/h3]
https://youtu.be/wb76mrDAuFU
[h3]Progress Update 2 (August 12th)[/h3]
https://youtu.be/fvoTBD4WvY4
We are aiming for a first open beta of the LCV4.1 around mid to late September at this point.
Cheers!

Quite a bit delayed, but finally the Lite Campaign V4.0 is here, releasing into openbeta. A new, more stable game engine version, much more fleshed out factories, tons of polish, UI improvements, and lots of fixes await you in this big update. Have a look at the summarized change log below.

The LTS Mercury, designed by Ezdmn.

After a pretty long openbeta phase and 17 patches to that branch, this version has now been merged with the "stable" or "default" version of the game and everyone has it. If you have been part of the openbeta you can choose to opt out now (which won't change anything about the game in that case) by right-clicking the game in your library - select properties - betas - then choose to opt out.

Due to the major game engine update to UE4.24, mods will have to be updated by their creators to be compatible with the new game engine version. Updated modding tools are already available.

[h2]Main LCV4.0 Features & Fixes[/h2]

• Update to a new game engine version, UE4.24
  
• Added finances page in campaign hub, and pie charts. Yum!
  
• Fleshed out factories, add-ons & functionality
  
• Implemented factory building and tooling degradation
  
• Car and engine build quality, recalls event system with multiple choice
  
• QA, worker wages and experience affecting build quality
  
• Lots of UI and quality of life improvements
  

[h2]General LCV4.0 Features & Fixes[/h2]

• Improved load times by up to 5x (!)
  
• Improved campaign hub calendar UI and functionality
  
• Improved FPS in car / engine designers and project UI
  
• Improved car and engine preview thumbnails, option in settings menu
  
• Improved UI animations and prettier, more consistent looks
  
• Added pause menu to sandbox and campaign (ESC)
  
• Added launcher option to select / deselect all mods
  
• Added various car bodies
  
• Overhauled factory tooling costs depending on chassis type, material, and panels
  
• Fixed a lot of campaign functionality and made it more reliable
  
• Fixed various issues with photoscenes, their controls and settings
  
• Fixed issue with fixture undo / redo stacks
  
• Fixed various issues with morphing and fixture placement
  
• Fixed issue with some small engines stalling in BeamNG.drive
  
• Tons of little fixes and polish
  

Cheers!

[h2]Update Patch B200130 & B200131 & B100203[/h2]
We just released a new patch that should be the final one for LCV3.7. We're now switching over to the new game engine version in our dev build and finish implementing the remaining features for the LCV4.0. This build is now on the default public branch! :) Here is the full changelog of the recent patches:

[h3]B200203 Fixes & Improvements[/h3]

• Made engine friction progression for exports non-linear to fix many engine lock-up issues
  
• Fixed sandbox top bar year-change prompts to only open once

[h3]B200131 Fixes & Improvements[/h3]

• Made car section of photo manager collapsable when no car is selected
  
• Added button to replicate hitting Tab when no vehicle is selected in photoscene
  
• Improved engine fit widgets to better work with new engine bay size calculations
  
• Improved engine bay clearance warnings to be more specific
  
• Fixed empty white warehouse not loading in photo mode
  
• Fixed screenshots not saving and 4k screenshot taking crashing the game
  
• Fixed engine headers not glowing with high power output

[h3]B200130 Fixes & Improvements[/h3]

• Improved engine bay size and fitting calculations
  
• Improved state tooltips on trim and variants in campaign project managers
  
• Improved engine friciton and inertia for BeamNG exports
  
• Added ability to disable blur & transparency for improved performance on potatoes
  
• Added option to ignore / enable design warning flasher items
  
• Added demographic description to markets demographic tooltips
  
• Added ability to open .car export folder when exporting .car files, file selected
  
• Added mechanic of checking how close an engine is to the engine bay walls
  
• Added display of hand-made / limited production flags in text form for item lists
  
• Removed mid transverse AWD as it doesn't make sense
  
• Limited lastest campaign starting year to 2019 instead of 2020
  
• Fixed gearboxes and drivetrain items not exporting to beam
  
• Fixed engine bay size widget being visible when collapsed through UI
  
• Fixed intake tooltip's service cost being coloured backwards
  
• Fixed engine project manager's markets button for opening markets screen
  
• Fixed engine description widget not correctly loading data in some locations
  
• Fixed light truck monocoques being able to have mid and rear engines
  
• Fixed the bypass valve option also bypassing catalytic converters
  
• Fixed turbos not glowing on one side of V engines
  
• Fixed turbos overheating for BeamNG exports
  
• Fixed FWD transmission mesh actually being the AWD mesh
  
• Fixed some material slots on Taillight_10 not being editable

[h2]Original Post, Patch B200117[/h2]

Happy new decade! :) We just released a new patch for Lite Campaign V3.7 that addresses an assortment of bugs and adds a few pieces of content. You can find the patch log below. At this point we're on track for the first LCV4.0 release coming into open beta in early February.

Note for AMD GPU users: The recent driver incompatibility issues with versions 19.12.2, 19.12.3, and 20.1.1 have been resolved with version 20.1.2, update to the latest optional drivers and any startup issues linked to that should disappear.

A little bubble car brought to you by nacho.

[h2]Development Outlook 2020+[/h2]
In a recent video we show our development outlook for 2020 and beyond. You can check it out here:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
The summary of our timeline is as follows:

[h3]Lite Campaign V4[/h3]LC V4.0 Factory Improvements (Coming in February)
LC V4.1 New Sales Model
LC V4.2 Turbo Revamp

[h3]Lite Campaign V5[/h3]LC V5.0 Superchargers & Engineers
LC V5.1 Improved Competitors
LC V5.2 Prototyping & Limited Production

[h3]Grand Campaign V1[/h3]GC V1.0 Multiplayer & Big Map

Our FAQ covers most of the common questions regarding what will be in those updates and in Automation 1.0 in general, have a look!

[h2]B200117 Changelog[/h2]

• Added factory screen dedicated to selection of what to produce in it
  
• Added factory side and addon requirements to engine bottom end item tooltips
  
• Improved factory size and addon requirement tooltips for item lists
  
• Made sales decrease linearly with lower than 100 competitiveness instead of quadratically
  
• Improved synergies / familiarity between safety packages (requires new save)
  
• Improved synergies / familiarity between engine configs (requires new save)
  
• Body mophing fixtures are now mirrored by default
  
• Four new car bodies have been added
  
• Game launcher now detects if required Media Feature Pack is installed
  
• Fixed demographics scores being weird when switching cars in sandbox
  
• Fixed Inline 5, Boxer 4 & 6 engines giving magic octane requirement reductions
  
• Fixed engine bay issues with generated cars
  
• Fixed blank vehicle name text box in the BeamNG exporter screen
  
• Fixed 5V valvetrain being selectable or listed before it should be available
  
• Fixed tooltip for comparison to top competitors being worded wrong
  
• Fixed tooltip for rear suspension type having compactness go the wrong way
  
• Fixed 71 melting body to not do that anymore
  
• Fixed issue where changing engine year would unexpectedly jump to 2012
  
• Fixed changing year in sandbox not always being saved properly
  

Exciting times lie ahead for Automation players! Thank you for your continued support.
Cheers!