GearCity 1.16 Progress

[Eric.B]

It's time to work on the 16th major version since Open Beta launch. 16 is one of my lucky numbers... So maybe we'll sell a million copies when it's launched or something! (Although I'm more likely to be sued or something ~,~)

For 1.16 I plan on finishing the Linux port, an integrated text tutorial system, and a revised racing system. As well as minor suggestions, bug fixes, and performance tweaks I can do between minor versions.

As always:

+ means it has been added to the latest default branch.
- means it has not been added to latest default branch.

1.16 Changelog:
----------------------------------------------
+Fixed "Resize Factory" incorrect cost bug.
+Fill Research Staff now works on research teams.
+Fixed engine transverse. (Length and width now flip.)
+Fixed bug in fuel mileage testing and performance testing that resulted in worse stats due to mathematical error when all other siders were zeroed out.
+Fixed text errors on Replace Model tool.
+Lowered Monthly factory costs more.
+Fixed Office Crash in the 90s
+Idle Factories Autotool
+Idle Branches and Marketing Autotool
+Ported 1.15.0.1 To Linux. Unified the code base so there is no longer a need to "Port"
-Linux Build
+Fixed crash conditions in Assisted designer due to low skills.
+Fixed bug causing missing component options due to low skills
+Confirmations for deleting save games, modifying a component, and ending production of anything.
+Fixed factory construction complete memo to show City.
+Factory Resize notification in World Map.
+Branch Resize allowed only once per year.
+Factory/Branch retool notification on World Map if 0% wear.
+Fixed world map "save as" bug.
+Possible fix to "Save As" crashing bug. (Will need testing.)
+Cycle through branches and factories on world map using "," and "." hot keys when branch or factory windows are open.
+Fixed game loading screen timestamp format
+Possible crash fixes in RnD department when designing cars
+Tweaked auto production code.
+Adjusted Autoproduction and AI production amounts.
+Fixed crash in showroom when no vehicle is selected.
+Integrated Tutorial System Framework.
+HR department no longer shows unfunded research teams.
+Lobbying no longer has an immediate effect on benefits.
+Hiring in HR now longer has random employee amounts when hiring less than average wages.
+Switched position of maximum supported engine width and length as requested.
+Fixed mega menu shipping priority bug. Mega Menu shipping now defaults to "Normal"
+Are you sure function added to vehicle end production.
+New Game Settings- Removing all wars
+New Game Settings- Removing all economic fluctuations.
+New Game Settings- Start with no Factories or Branches
+New Game Settings- Start with a Loan.
+New Game Settings- Start with custom amount of money.
+Added monthly costs to factory build screen.
+Added factory completion time to mega menu.
+Tweaked player/ai effects on cities, adjusted growth rates to be closer to normal rates.
+Tweaked factory costs just a little bit more.
+Adjusted AI to take advantage of new factory system. So they don't bankrupt as quickly.
+Possible fix to the report list not displaying lines.
+Fixed "chassis is too wide for body" when loading a vehicle body.
+Adjusted vehicle length/width to match chassis wheelbase.
+Basic Introduction Tutorial
+AI Improvements
+UI performance improvements in office.
+Next/Previous Memo Buttons
+Research teams amounts are monthly and comma separated
+Adjusted vehicle weights, luxury and safety ratings have an even greater impact now.
+View Parts Active check box defaults as checked
+Adjusted IPO share price
+Load Body style only shows loadable vehicles.
+Components and Vehicles will now be marked as designed on the closest whole year from which it finishes researching.
+Shipping Distances fixed.
+Adjust Auto Wage
+Fixed more bugs where reports were being cut off from being displayed.
+Added Local Inventories to the Sales and Production Report by City.
+Added a Simple Monthly Summary report.
+Minimum Racing budget
+Racing Budget lock
+Team Overview System
+Racing Driver Quality Focus
+Racing Crew Quality Focus
+Racing Develop or Win Focus
+Racing Focus on team growth
+Racing Focus on smaller teams or larger teams
+Fixed a bug which causes no AI to be loaded when selecting "Random 50" or "Random 100" AIs...
+Added Marque selection to Racing.
+Reduced Factory Wear
+Adjusted Racing Results.
+Applied some patch fixes to DDS codec.
+Fixed Sales bug with vehicles a model year newer.
+Image ratings effected only by components/vehicles of a marque
+Tweaked rating numbers for racing
+Submarques now process their own marque information.
+Redesigned Prestige and Labor Skill reports.
+Increased racing costs
+View Racing Competition
+Fixed Panama Independence news paper crash.
+Fixed weight issue in late game years with high safety.
+Fixed Research Team fundings display bug.
+Fixed vehicle length bug
+Adjusted auto-production shipping distance
+Possibly fixed incorrect starting funds bug.
+Filter vehicles by Type and Base Model on World Map Branch Distribution
+Filter Vehicles on World Map Production window.
+Factories monthly costs are now based on used production lines.
+Added 13 new Vehicle Models.
+Added 156 additional racing series, bringing us to 186 series.
+Fixed engine sized limits.
+Fixed bug allowing you to start a series without selecting components if you started a different series before.
+Fixed header duplication for selected engines if you have no engines.
+Added Team Ratings under the Adjust Team button.
+Fixed view championship years bug.
+Sorted Racing series alphabetically.
+Added season has not started/no champions yet reminders to view current results and champions respectively.
+Added new Racing Series Memo, Folded Series memo, and You won the championship memo!
+Added 5 additional songs.

[Eric.B]

Yesterday I didn't get much programming done thanks to isolated thunderstorms knocking out my power for a few hours. Which is why this thread wasn't made yesterday, but I did make a homemade atlatl. Now to hunt a woolly mammoth... Anyhoo I did get a good amount of minor bugs done this morning. I've started merging GearCity Linux build 1.12 with GC 1.15, I'm doing library changes now, tonight I'll knock out a few more minor bugs and suggestions, then merge the main game Sunday and Monday. Hopefully by the end of Monday I will have a unified codebase that compiles on all 4 major OS's.

-Fill Research Staff now works on research teams.
-Fixed engine transverse. (Length and width now flip.)
-Fixed bug in fuel mileage testing and performance testing that resulted in worse stats due to mathematical error when all other siders were zeroed out.
-Fixed text errors on Replace Model tool.
-Lowered Monthly factory costs more.
-Fixed Office Crash in the 90s

[Eric.B]

Added some autotools tonight that were requested. They'll probably become obsolete when fleet and military contracting come into play. (Which is either going to start in 1.16 or 1.17) Anyhoo, done programming for tonight.

-Idle Factories Autotool
-Idle Branches and Marketing Autotool

[Eric.B]

1.15.0.1 has been merged with the 1.12 Linux port code. We now have a unified codebase, making it much easier for me to work on both OSs at the same time.

I've begun going through the Linux build, looking for things that causes crashes. For example decal DDS files are DTX5 instead of A8R8G8B8 DDSs... Some drivers don't take kindly to DTX5s :\ Gotta beat MrX_ua sometime...

[Eric.B]

GearCity on Linux now works. Fixed 3 or 4 pieces of art that possibly crash video drivers. I still have to work on loading code, charts, and sound.

I will probably do some stress tests to see if i can crash the system and get more fixes in the game.

[Eric.B]

Unified code now compiles on windows.
-Fixed crash conditions in Assisted designer due to low skills.
-Fixed bug causing missing component options due to low skills

[Eric.B]

-Confirmations for deleting save games, modifying a component, and ending production of anything.
-Fixed factory construction complete memo to show City.

I'll now go back to working on the linux port, washing dishes, and cooking for the next 4.5 hours before switching back to minor suggestions.

My goal is to cut the suggestions forums in half by 1.16... So tally ho! or something...

[Eric.B]

-Factory Resize notification in World Map.
-Branch Resize allowed only once per year.
-Factory/Branch retool notification on World Map if 0% wear.

[Eric.B]

-Fixed world map "save as" bug.
-Possible fix to "Save As" crashing bug. (Will need testing.)

[Eric.B]

-Cycle through branches and factories on world map using "," and "." hot keys when branch or factory windows are open.
-Fixed game loading screen timestamp format
-Possible crash fixes in RnD department when designing cars
-Tweaked auto production code.

[Eric.B]

Was going to release 1.15.1 about 5 hours ago, but I ran into a bug with the Auto Production code that was producing more units than the factory could actually produce. This of course took a while to fix... :\ Thus causing 1.15.1 to be late, anyhoo it's uploading now. So one quick play through and I'll push it live to default branch.

-Adjusted Autoproduction and AI production amounts.

[Eric.B]

1.15.1 is live! Enjoy!

[Eric.B]

The linux port is almost finished. I'll be releasing an OpenBeta build of it sometime in the next 2 weeks.

Since I still have a little bit more work to do on the Linux build, 1.15.2 will continue being bug fixes and minor suggestions. As I pointed out else where I want to cut our suggestion forums in half by 1.16 release. I might not be able to do it, but I want to at least put a good dent in it.

Stable build will be updated to 1.15.0.1 next week. So if you are stable build please finish your games ASAP, so you don't QQ when you have to start over. You could also disable autoupdates if this is not an option.

[Eric.B]

-Fixed crash in showroom when no vehicle is selected.

[Eric.B]

So no updates in 24hours, we can't have that! Looks like I haven't been doing anything when in fact I've worked 15 hours today!

I fixed file loading and saving settings on the Linux build. Only charting, sound, and bugs left to do.

Also started on the Tutorial System! The system is fairly simple, popups occur pointing to various functions of the game and then tells you about them. Clicking the popups takes you to the next popup. So on and so forth. Eventually I'll be able to put audio dubs behind this so there is not as much reading.

Most of the Main Menu is finished. The tutorial artwork still needs some work else I'd post a screenshot.

I will work on the Tutorial System again tomorrow. Jump to Linux Sunday and Monday, then switch to bugs and suggestions Tuesday-Friday for hopefully a Friday patch.

-Integrated Tutorial System Framework.

[Eric.B]

Well I have spent another full day on the tutorial system. I have finished the Main Menu stuff however there are a few issues when interacting with other GUI elements. Which means I spent the entire day debugging and pretty much go no where with it.

I'll work on the Linux port Sunday, and debate on if I want to rewrite the tutorial system again on Monday....

[Eric.B]

So Monday I spent the morning working on the Tutorial Framework. And the good news is I think it's working now. Least I hope. I took the evening off to sleep.

This morning I:
-HR department no longer shows unfunded research teams.
-Lobbying no longer has an immediate effect on benefits.
-Hiring in HR now longer has random employee amounts when hiring less than average wages.
-Switched position of maximum supported engine width and length as requested.
-Fixed mega menu shipping priority bug. Mega Menu shipping now defaults to "Normal"
-Are you sure function added to vehicle end production.


Currently I'm working on fixing up the scroll button sliders Somewhat. Compiling Gnuplot for Linux build and then I'll work on "Advance" game settings. Which should clear up a few suggestion tickets and make the game more enjoyable for some until we get military contracting and randomization into the game.

[Eric.B]

So since the last update I've done a few things that requires simulations, which sadly takes up a little bit of time on my archaic equipment. Anyhoo here is what I've done:

-Added monthly costs to factory build screen.
-Added factory completion time to mega menu.
-Tweaked player/ai effects on cities, adjusted growth rates to be closer to normal rates.
-Tweaked factory costs just a little bit more.
-Adjusted AI to take advantage of new factory system. So they don't bankrupt as quickly.
-Possible fix to the report list not displaying lines.
-Fixed "chassis is too wide for body" when loading a vehicle body.


I will probably take the rest of the evening off, haven't been feeling too well lately. Tomorrow morning I'll do a playthrough, make sure everything is good and then submit a 1.15.2 patch.

[Eric.B]

And whoa, I missed an update on here:

Last night and this morning I worked on the "Advance New Game Settings" window.
You can now customize your game by:
-Removing all wars
-Removing all economic fluctuations.
-Start with no Factories or Branches
-Start with a Loan.
-Start with custom amount of money.


This system will be expanded in the future to allow random history, scenarios, and many other things. But I believe this will cover the basic requests of many recently. so Enjoy.

I really need a night off!

[Tridon]

Game costumisation <3

Will we be treated to a patch this weekend?