Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game News

Getting close to wrapping it all up for LCV4.1, here is another patch with various fixes and significant improvements to stability, the exporter, and usability.

Note: This update is posted to the openbeta branch first and merged with default once it is confirmed not causing any new bigger issues.

[h2]LCV4.1.15 Improvements & Fixes[/h2]

• Major overhaul of BeamNG tires (thanks to Corey from BeamNG)! Cars now more stable, better steering feedback, easier to drive at limit of grip, and more accurate to what you built in Automation.
  
• Added a new photoscene, Sky Mirror
  
• Implemented FFB steering weight of BeamNG cars adjusts with power steering choices.
  
• Improved competitor car AI to be more varied, adding reasonable randomization
  
• Added 3 buttons to allow separate loading of camera, car, and world settings in photoscenes
  
• Slightly changed chunks/pak files in attempt to fix a skeletal mesh startup crash
  
• Fixed a common crash reported on BugSplat, potentially connected to Alt-Tabbing
  
• Fixed AI generated cars to exclude convertibles for non-convertible demographics
  
• Fixed lights resetting their status to be lit in the car designer when reloading the car
  
• Fixed competitor price information in market screen's competitiveness mode tooltips
  
• Fixed "Engine Factory Designer" tooltip showing up everywhere in the engine factory setup
  
• Fixed fixture snapping angle being stuck at 15 degrees
  
• Fixed a crash in demographics calculations
  
• Fixed a memory leak that eventually could lead to a crash

Cheers!

With the last patch showing that our stability fixes seem to have worked, we wanted to get a few more little things cleared up.

[h2]LCV4.1.14 Improvements & Fixes[/h2]

• Fixture gizmo advanced settings allow for the gizmo to be offset to the side
  
• Rebalanced the brightness of the fixture light reflectors
  
• Fixed BeamNG Exporter cars pulling to one side at speed, made further toe tweaks
  
• Fixed issue with changing car price, causing a mismatch in preorder numbers and sales oscillations
  
• Fixed automatic sandbox database backups not working
  
• Fixed Japanese not working in game when selected as UI language
  
• Fixed (removed) logic from lights that gave them functionality based on where on the car they are
  
• Fixed various small tooltip issues
  
• Fixed trim deposit fraction textbox not functioning in campaign
  
• Fixed fluorescent green factory utilization bar on models where shift count < target shifts
  

Just a few more items on the list for LCV4.1. It looks like at the end of the week we'll be able to post a final patch before moving into the longer LCV4.2 dev cycle, the Turbo Revamp!

Cheers!

Big juicy patch coming at you before the weekend with lots of performance optimizations, tweaks, fixes, and BeamNG Exporter löve!

Note: This update has been posted to the openbeta branch and will be merged with the public default branch as soon as it has shown not to have any major new flaws.

[h2]LCV4.1.13b Improvements & Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed (potentially) game freezing issue while handling fixtures
  
• Fixed incorrectly sized mid/rear chassis pieces and wrongly placed firewalls

[h2]LCV4.1.13 Improvements & Fixes[/h2]

• Added transparent as an option to all fixture materials
  
• Added earned interest to the yearly financial summary and to the finances page
  
• Added display for market average car prestige and reliability in the markets panel
  
• Added a few new spawn points to the desert photoscene: Middle of Nowhere, and Out Back
  
• Massively improved campaign month tick performance (500%+ faster)
  
• Improved and fixed the country taste UI
  
• Changed market mode Affordability to show simple absolute affordability as its value
  
• Tweaked tutorial scenario B1 and B4 starting engines
  
• Tweaked several engine designer tutorial scenarios' balance
  
• Tweaked chassis front morphs to reduce the chance of wheel arches clipping
  
• Fixed excessive Lua garbage collector, improving general framerates
  
• Fixed 3D transform widget being opened over everything for some people
  
• Fixed 3D transform widget not updating icon state on 2D/3D switch
  
• Fixed transform mode of fixture UI not being forced back into local selecting 2D on a 3D fixture
  
• Fixed campaign market screen competitiveness mode to use correct selected regions
  
• Fixed ESC menu and its button in the top right not working in sandbox
  
• Fixed campaigns score multiplier having a doubled up effect from the cash slider
  
• Fixed new campaigns breaking when set to $0 company value
  
• Fixed V16 block description not showing up
  
• Fixed various issues with BeamNG lights and materials
  
• Fixed wrinkle paint not exporting colour
  
• Fixed campaign car designer UI allowing a player to export an unfinished car
  
• Fixed the carpark markings in the 10's design room photoscene
  
• Fixed plastic so it can be made black
  
• Fixed drivability brake fade and sportiness brake fade being the same
  
• Fixed bankruptcy loans not displaying correctly in finances UI
  
• Fixed hub R&D panel tooltips to be more convenient, showing category and part name

[h2]LCV4.1.13 BeamNG Exporter Improvements[/h2]

• Implemented dynamic toe values in exporter, adjustable in BeamNG
  
• Tweaks to suspension geometry in exported cars
  
• Fixed inconsistent toe and toe-in bumpsteer under compression, improves stability of cars
  
• Improved handling with rear torsion beam
  
• Adjusted automatic transmission shift logic, downshift timing vs load vs engine characteristics
  
• Limited maximum tire stiffness to prevent tires exploding on some cars
  
• Lowered default tyre pressures a little
  
• Made steel wheel materials shinier

We're getting close to the finish with LCV4.1, still a few issues on our ToDo list we want to check off before moving on though. Let us know of any issues you're still having with this version of the game!

Cheers

The first patch of the new year addresses several big and many small remaining issues with the LCV4.1.
Check out the changelog below. Note: This is posted on the openbeta, not the default branch. We will merge it once it has shown to not cause any new big issues.

[h2]LCV4.1.12 Improvements & Fixes[/h2]

• Added WIP fixture light controls to car designer
  
• Improved main menu loading times
  
• Made challenges (scenarios) available again. Fixes & rebalance coming soon.
  
• Changing car pricing with existing preorders will affect preorder numbers
  
• Fixed cross-car fixture merging after having several cars in the photo scene
  
• Fixed preorder runaway issue
  
• Fixed wrinkle paint not being possible to cut out
  
• Fixed labor cost multiplier not visually changing labor cost of the cars in UI
  
• Fixed morphing cars not resulting in the recalculation and updating of the UI
  
• Fixed various issues / missing dependencies in the campaign score multiplier calculation
  
• Fixed company reputation & prestige damage not applying to your current ratings
  
• Fixed bodies displaying in incorrect year groups on body unlock UI in campaign
  
• Fixed exploits of preorder system, you now pay back deposits of unfilled preorders
  
• Fixed market volatility not affecting campaign score multiplier
  
• Fixed shift+drag creating a locked fixture in the same place
  
• Fixed a bug relating to region unlocking
  
• Fixed launcher not being DPI setting aware, showing wrong text scale
  
• Fixed titles of boxes describing cloning or selecting an existing engine showing wrong strings
  
• Fixed model year not visually updateding when it got changed between a hold - revert
  
• Fixed useless X buttons being shown in start menu car & engine managers
  
• Fixed 50sMaffcSaloonLarge_2dr being released in 1950 instead of 1955

We still have a few issues on our list we need to get to before moving on, so expect another patch in the coming week and then some more info on what is to come from there.

Cheers!

The current openbeta version LCV4.1.11 seems to be in pretty good shape by now. All the cool new features added in the first release to openbeta, and in the 11 patches since November 12th, definitely outweigh the quirks left in this current version.

Holiday wishes from the Automation-Beam Championships (and Nev)

The recent smaller patches also saw some significant improvements to the BeamNG Exporter, making exported cars drive more naturally and better than ever before, with major improvements to car stability at speed, too. That should be plenty of reason alone to get this one merged with the default branch at this point.

Our plans are pretty straightforward and remain as previously mentioned: after a short holiday we’ll be back early January and work on a few more patches to polish up and fix issues in LCV4.1. After that, once again, we will jump into a longer development cycle for the next major milestone update, which will be the LCV4.2. This milestone will bring the turbo revamp and a massive round of improvements to the engine and car designer game mechanics and their balancing.

The early-January patches will come to the openbeta branch first, so if you want to stay updated early, then just remain in the openbeta branch, otherwise this will be a good time to switch over and opt out of the beta. Do so by right-clicking your game in the Steam Library, Properties, Betas, and select the branch you want to change to.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! (come on 2021, at least try ;)
Cheers!