GearCity 1.18.4 Progress Thread

[Eric.B]

Alright, we've got a bunch of little bugs to fix. Then one major feature to add. (Districting/Grouping system!) Some GUI to pretty up. Then back to little bugs and features!

No ETA on this, but I'm hoping it should go faster than 1.18. There are 50% less tickets in this version than in 1.18 (120 vs 68)


1.18.4 Change Log
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+Fixed negative population bug in world map legend
+Fixed crash bug when trying to view unselected components.
+Added a restart production feature for components that you have ended production of.
+Pop up Notification if you try to end production of something that is being used in fleet contracts
+Obsolete vehicle types now fade out after their death dates so that you can sell through units.
+Added a few missing ratings to view vehicle window. Luxury, Manufacturer Requirements, Torque (Metric), Power (Metric), and Vehicle Image.
+Fixed issue with image/prestige ratings that allowed you to go below 0 and above 100.
+Fixed reversed exponential weight effect on design costs.
+Fixed bug in Licensing system text filter where if you erased an SAE measurement it would put in zero metric units. Switch PS measurement to kW.
+Fixed bug where body types did not report in Body Style Report on their first year of introduction.
+Added dummy message to the Vehicle Demand Report if you do not have a vehicle for sale.
+Fixed bug in memo systems that cuts off text if using the arrow keys or the open button.
+Flipped a number of width and length GUIs to standardized length x width format.
+Fixed broken image system
+Fixed crash involving mega menu and having no branches
+Fixed crash after selecting a vehicle body style from dropdown box then hitting return to design panel, then selecting view ratings.
+Added missing Help buttons in the Assisted Vehicle Designer.
+Adjust fuel ratings effect on vehicle reviews
+Increased number of contracts
+Fixed AI vehicle licenses bug causing extremely low unit costs
+Fixed Engine Fitting bug when changing the chassis in the Assisted Vehicle Designer
+Added Action Memos for worn Factories and Branches
+Adjusted racing budget effect on results, boosted vehicle specs results.
+Fixed bug in the awards system that rewarded out of production vehicles
+Fixed bug in the awards system that gave rewarded extremely old vehicles
+Fixed memo's date bugs.
+Fixed highlighting bug that causes the memos to highlight without any important news.
+Added 75 message limit on memo list.
+Memo Delete will now automatically select the next memo.
+Fixed improper Nm values for Gearbox Maximum Input Torque at some locations.
+Fixed bug causing high engine smoothness ratings, thus creating high luxury and dependability ratings for AI and player vehicles.
+Adjusted suggested vehicle sales price to use the total estimated costs analysis
+Changes a few panels into windows so they can not be overlapped by other windows when opening.
+Reversed manufacturing requirement stars in modification window.
+Improved autoproduction first turn production
+Improved autoproduction assessment. (This means that the AI and the player should not have months where they sell out of vehicles because autoproduction does not restart production. Also autoproduction should more tightly control inventories.)
+Moved hardcoded '$' symbols to the localization file (So their placement can be changed in translations, and possibly in the future, modded to other currencies.)
+Increased design time with exponential slider penalty.
+Fixed multiple repeat major events to cities during total war. (Destruction in Brussels during WW1 will only happen once for example.)
+Removed red color from construction costs on the world map
+Added zoom to car designer.
+Fixed research time bug when modifying a new model year.
+Fixed research time bug when making a new trim.
+Adjusted cost decay valves to reduce lower unit costs decay rates.
+Production Unoptimized memo will only fire once per turn.
+Fixed Chassis weight unit costs bug
+Fixed Specific Vehicle Type Rating decline bug.
+Fixed a bug in ratings change display in RnD when there is no gains.
+Fixed bug in image system that caused it to be increaslingly difficult to raise image ratings.
+Fixed bug in "Save As" text box that allowed you to put unsupported characters into the names thus breaking the saves.
+AI now fires branch and marketing workers in cities that are at war.
+Reduced Recall failure effects on Image ratings.
+Fixed roughly 15 textures that could cause video card drivers to crash over time.
+Removed 16-bit color options
+Removed 800 x 640 and smaller resolutions
+Fixed broken video settings crash when switching from OpenGL to DirectX
+Factory Production Lines list now automatically sorts by Lines used, Local Reserves, then Global Reserves.
+Added vehicle quality information and rate change to the production lines window (This will allow you to see the effects settings a production line to quality has.)
+Added a warning message for worn, war, and low moral effect on production output. This message will show your effected output due to these factors.
+Adjusted production output to allow 1 vehicle per month.
+You can now directly type in how many vehicles you want to produce, the game will adjust the sliders for you.
+Fixed Dublin WW2 bug.
+Fixed bug in base vehicle type filters in factory production window.
+Moved Factory Shipping Distance to Branch Distribution.
+District Factory View (Allows you to view all factories info in a selected district)
+District Factory Build (Builds a Factory in every selected city in the district that does not have a factory)
+District Factory Recondition (retool) (Retools every factory in the selected district.)
+District Factory Upgrading (Upgrade all factories in selected District)
+District Factory Resizing (Resize all factories in selected District)
+District Factory Closing (Close all factories in selected District)
+District Production (Manage production lines, quality sliders, for all factories selected in the district.)
+Branch View Redesigned
+Minor changes to Branch Build/Redesigned
+Removed retool slider from Branch Retool.
+Minor changes to Branch Close
+Branch view automatically comes up when selecting a branch
+Branch build automatically comes up when selecting a city without a branch
+Maximum Dealerships increased.
+Dealership franchises rates increased.
+Optimized dealership calculations
+Dealerships now effect buying population pool for individual vehicles.
+Merged Avaliable and Selected Vehicle Branch Lists
+Removed Priority system from game
+Expanded Competition list in distro GUI
+Redesigned buttons and layout in distro GUIAdded shipping slider to branch distro
+Added shipping lock system to prevent changes to locked shipping distances
+Added a "Unit Manufacturing Costs" to side panel, showing the cost of a unit without including corporate expenses.
+Reworded the corporate expense side panel amount in distro, since it was confusing some people.
+Added estimated units in shipping range
+Factories now highlight orange when setting shipping distance.
+Shipping Distance panel now shows how many vehicles are being produced and reserved inside shipping radius
+Added shipping distance, shipping lock, and district lock to distro side panel
+Ported all distro changes to Mega Menu
+Added a branch shipping distance system. This changes the shipping distance for ALL vehicles at a branch unless they are shipping distance locked.
+District Branch View
+District Branch Build
+District Branch Redesign
+District Branch Retool
+District Branch Close
+District Branch Distribution.
+District Branch Shipping.
+Ship from District system.
+Create your own custom districts
+Multicity selection tool for creating districts. (click and drag)
+Deleting custom districts
+Editing custom districts.
+Fixed crash in vehicle licensing
+Fixed Vehicle Image Decline while being researched
+Nurfed Specific vehicle rating effect on vehicle image over time.
+Fixed 1900-1930 wage growth for Magadan and Norilsk, Russia
+Fixed Estimated Shipping Demand in District and City specific factory production view. (Not sure about speediness of this calculation however.)
+Optimized a number of End Turn Formulas
+Updated SQLite, roughly 10-25% performance boost depending on hardware.
+End production now disregards all licensed components.
+Fixed manual production amount input on district map.
+Fixed division by zero crash in magazine.
+Fixed Instant vehicle design bug
+Fixed Research Team Moral Decrease when not funded bug
+Fixed Gearbox addons not appearing until year after Memo is sent bug.
+Put a limit on component modification (10 Major Mods max)
+Decreased component modification costs.
+Removed HR Admin Employee Count slider/textbox. (Admin Employees are unchangeable now)
+Fixed Racing Report Headline bug
+View Components 'Used In' table now scrollable.
+Research Team Moral now increases when over paying employees.
+Fixed bug losing reserves in some conditions by ending vehicle.
+Fixed division by zero crash in magazine.
+Fixed Instant vehicle design bug
+Fixed Research Team Moral Decrease when not funded bug
+Fixed Gearbox addons not appearing until year after Memo is sent bug.
+Put a limit on component modification (10 Major Mods max)
+Decreased component modification costs.
+Removed HR Admin Employee Count slider/textbox. (Admin Employees are unchangeable now)
+Fixed Racing Report Headline bug
+View Components 'Used In' table now scrollable.
+Research Team Moral now increases when over paying employees.
+Fixed Unicode File Delete in windows (Currently working on issues in the Linux Build)
+Reduced Skill Requirements for a number of technologies. Also increase a few others.
+Increased the rate of Skill Requirement decay significantly. You should be able to get common tech much more reasonably.
+I head renamed to OHV, since it's a much more common name. Starting date lowered, however skill requirement increase should have it coming out around historical time frame (1930s)
+Show how many production lines you are/have allocated above production line slider.
+End Production from Mega Menu (This overrides contracting checks, so be careful!)
+Memo now fires when design skills requirements and year requirements are met for new technologies.
+Contracts now show up in "Used In" table for Engines and Vehicles in the View Window.
+Fixed Contract Penalty Bug.
+Fixed Duplicate Contracts listed in sales book
+Fixed Incorrect Months Remaining dates in Contract Sales book.
+Fixed bug in amount of needed contract units when less than the normal monthly amount is needed.
+Added Memo for when contracts are finished.
+Fixed bug in New Trim Marque Dropdown list. Show now show all your marques.
+Added some cautionary division by zero checks and initialization of variables. (May cause some bugs, may fix some bugs. We'll see!)
+Fixed Licensed out memo bug that did not show the licensed out price.
+Awards are now given for all vehicles companies who have branches in a region. In the future I will limit it to only vehicles sold in said region.
+Vehicle Quality is now twice as important when calculating buyer's rating.
+Vehicle Quality decreases the margin penalty when you try to charge extremely high margins on a vehicle.
+Vehicle Quality now directly effects super high end vehicle sales numbers.
+Tweaked vehicle's sales price effect and increased buyer's rating importance over sale price for higher "wealth" type vehicles such as luxury or supercars.
+Top Speed now directly effects buying population. If you're selling 0mph/0kph vehicles you will get 0 sales!
+Lowered the expected Top Speed for buying population.
+Lowered sales price/unit costs effect on year end awards to a maximum of 20%.
+Fixed "Fire" effect on union strikes
+Made firing during strikes lower all department moral by 20%
+Lost contracts now notify you who won and how much better their bid was quantified by a percentage.
+Top speed added to view vehicle in RnD, Vehicle Image given stars, rearranged a few listings.
+Merged memos that often repeat into one memo. Removed Profits/Loss/Interest memos.
+Fixed death year bug in engine cylinders, fuel types, induction systems, and value types.
+Fixed bug in Fiscal-Stock Report that broke the reports system if you did not own any stocks.
+Tweaked tutorials to show shipping distance in branch instead of factory system.
+Fixed a couple of bugs in branch level shipping distance
+Fixed bug with new vehicles not inheriting branch level shipping distance
+Fixed number of bugs in branch level shipping distance for districts.
+Fixed Linux Unicode file save loading crash
+Fixed Belgium per capita growth rates between 1930 and 1980
+Added 6 Hood scoops
+Added 14 Rear Wings, Fins, and Lips
+Added 12 Front Bumpers
+Added 12 Rear Bumpers
+Vehicles and components can not have duplicate names now. (For vehicles this is Year Make Model Trim names.)
+Awards are now limited to vehicles being sold in the region.
+Fixed Gearbox redesign unable to select gears bug.
+Fixed Redesign component name bug.
+Fixed Idle Branches not firing employees.
+Possible fix to "district" button crash after seeing selection boxes around cities during previous turns.
+Fixed Estimated Shipping Distance Demand for Districts bug that was caused by counting branches multiple times in the district.
+Few more optimizations to squeeze a little more performance out of turn times.
+Autoproduction takes over branch shipping distance system. Removed GUI options when Autoproduction is enabled.
+Fixed bug in very poor counties that allow them to have $0 labor.
+Fixed bug where some image ratings may go over 100 due to awards/events.
+Adjusted war effect on infrastructure. (Until I get more events such as the Marshal Plan implemented. (Coming after I implement Mod Tools))
+Adjusted Manufacture Growth rates of 1980 and beyond.
+World Map Filter for Infrastructure.
+Fixed Negative Specific Ratings bugs on high end vehicles.
+Fixed 0 units bug in District Factory Estimated Units in Shipping Distance bug when using district lock.
+Fixed bug in Marketing Skills rating. Should now go up much much more easily. (And down much less.)
+District Marketing
+View District Completion.
+Fixed bug in district factory production speed sliders
+Fixed high wealth index vehicle sales bug
+Mega Menu District Production
+Fixed Clone District Branch ID duplication bug
+Fixed Clone District Delete Marketing bug
+Mega Menu District Distribution
+Mega Menu View District Info
+Mega Menu District Marketing
+Fixed AI 0 performance bug
+Fixed Engine Modify/Clone sliders bug
+Fixed Vehicle new trim/model year slider bug
+Fixed Autowage amount slider. It will show what level you have it set at.
+Fixed Marketing Budget and Labor costs bug in View Branches
+Fixed sales bug due to AI building cars with 0 top speed. (We'll fix that soon as well)
+Moved RnD Random Value to generate every sixth turn instead of at entering RnD time.
+Increased marketing direct effect on buyer population for specific vehicles.
+Fixed bug in contract denied loss amount.
+Fixed modify chassis unit cost display bug
+Fixed modify engine price bug and values bug
+Fixed crash when designing a vehicle but then trying to save the body style for future use.

[Eric.B]

-Fixed negative population bug in world map legend
-Fixed crash bug when trying to view unselected components.
-Added a restart production feature for components that you have ended production of.

[Eric.B]

-Pop up Notification if you try to end production of something that is being used in fleet contracts
-Obsolete vehicle types now fade out after their death dates so that you can sell through units.
-Added a few missing ratings to view vehicle window. Luxury, Manufacturer Requirements, Torque (Metric), Power (Metric), and Vehicle Image.
-Fixed issue with image/prestige ratings that allowed you to go below 0 and above 100.
-Fixed reversed exponential weight effect on design costs.
-Fixed bug in Licensing system text filter where if you erased an SAE measurement it would put in zero metric units. Switch PS measurement to kW.


I'll probably knock out 2 or 3 more tonight and then get a hotfix out first thing in the morning.

[Eric.B]

-Fixed bug where body types did not report in Body Style Report on their first year of introduction.
-Added dummy message to the Vehicle Demand Report if you do not have a vehicle for sale.
-Fixed bug in memo systems that cuts off text if using the arrow keys or the open button.
-Flipped a number of width and length GUIs to standardized length x width format.


Still have a few more minor bugs/features to fix before moving on to 1.19 features. I'm going to release a hot patch sometime in the next 12 hours.

[Eric.B]

Hotfix released.

[Eric.B]

Uploaded another hotpatch fixing a number of crashing bugs that I could duplicate, back to working on hotpatch #2 ETA is Friday.

-Fixed broken image system
-Fixed crash involving mega menu and having no branches
-Fixed crash after selecting a vehicle body style from dropdown box then hitting return to design panel, then selecting view ratings.

[Eric.B]

Knocked out a few more bugs and mini-features today for our next hotfix. I still have a few more things I want to take care of before I release it though.

-Added missing Help buttons in the Assisted Vehicle Designer.
-Adjust fuel ratings effect on vehicle reviews
-Increased number of contracts
-Fixed AI vehicle licenses bug causing extremely low unit costs
-Fixed Engine Fitting bug when changing the chassis in the Assisted Vehicle Designer
-Added Action Memos for worn Factories and Branches
-Adjusted racing budget effect on results, boosted vehicle specs results.
-Fixed bug in the awards system that rewarded out of production vehicles
-Fixed bug in the awards system that gave rewarded extremely old vehicles
-Fixed memo's date bugs.
-Fixed highlighting bug that causes the memos to highlight without any important news.
-Added 75 message limit on memo list.
-Memo Delete will now automatically select the next memo.

[Eric.B]

Hotpatch #2 released.

-Fixed improper Nm values for Gearbox Maximum Input Torque at some locations.

[Eric.B]

More minor fixes and features, more to come.

-Fixed bug causing high engine smoothness ratings, thus creating high luxury and dependability ratings for AI and player vehicles.
-Adjusted suggested vehicle sales price to use the total estimated costs analysis
-Changes a few panels into windows so they can not be overlapped by other windows when opening.
-Reversed manufacturing requirement stars in modification window.
-Improved autoproduction first turn production
-Improved autoproduction assessment. (This means that the AI and the player should not have months where they sell out of vehicles because autoproduction does not restart production. Also autoproduction should more tightly control inventories.)

[Frankschtaldt]

-Adjusted suggested vehicle sales price to use the total estimated costs analysis

Including freight? If so, it's be good if the sell everywhere button (and sell in region) put car up for sale at each branches recommended price +- an entered figure.

[Eric.B]

-Adjusted suggested vehicle sales price to use the total estimated costs analysis

Including freight? If so, it's be good if the sell everywhere button (and sell in region) put car up for sale at each branches recommended price +- an entered figure.

It's based off that "Total estimated break even cost" thingy on the right hand site of the distribution windows. Also fixed a bug in that as well... But yes, that would include an estimated freight costs + 50% margin.

If it recommends more than 300% over unit costs it defaults back to the static recommended 115% over unit costs.


I'm not sure if the estimations are good enough for the sell everywhere system. I think it's best to wait and see how well grouping/districting system works at managing large companies before jumping into that.

[Eric.B]

Been a while since I updated the progress. So what have I done since the last update?

-Moved hardcoded '$' symbols to the localization file (So their placement can be changed in translations, and possibly in the future, modded to other currencies.)
-Increased design time with exponential slider penalty.
-Fixed multiple repeat major events to cities during total war. (Destruction in Brussels during WW1 will only happen once for example.)
-Removed red color from construction costs on the world map
-Added zoom to car designer.
-Fixed research time bug when modifying a new model year.
-Fixed research time bug when making a new trim.
-Adjusted cost decay valves to reduce lower unit costs decay rates.
-Production Unoptimized memo will only fire once per turn.
-Fixed Chassis weight unit costs bug
-Fixed Specific Vehicle Type Rating decline bug.

I probably fixed more bugs than this, I just didn't make tickets for the submitted bugs over the last week, so I lost track of what I have fixed and haven't. The last ~2 days or so I have spent on the Mac OS X port. Currently the port is around 80% completed. I'll probably put out a demo at the same time I update the open beta version of the game.

[Eric.B]

Here's what I've knocked out:
-Fixed a bug in ratings change display in RnD when there is no gains.
-Fixed bug in image system that caused it to be increaslingly difficult to raise image ratings.
-Fixed bug in "Save As" text box that allowed you to put unsupported characters into the names thus breaking the saves.
-AI now fires branch and marketing workers in cities that are at war.
-Reduced Recall failure effects on Image ratings.
-Fixed roughly 15 textures that could cause video card drivers to crash over time.

OS X port progress is going fairly rapidly, the game almost starts.

I have went ahead and released Hotpatch #3, Sadly, I will be not be programming this weekend (Friday-Monday.) However I should still be available for limited amount of tech support throughout that time period. So if you have any problems or issues, please don't hesitate to contact me, it just might take a little longer than normal.


On a final note, I do believe this will be the last hotfix for the 1.18 series. I will be moving on to save game breaking features next week unless major bugs are ran into with this update. So Enjoy!

[Eric.B]

Been a while since I updated the progress thread. Mostly because I'm working on redesigns of existing features and implementing some new ones that are not finished. I hate reporting on unfinished stuff...

So what have I been working on?
First off I implemented a new menu on the World Map named "Districts." This feature is going to allow you to select and manage multiple factories and branches at the same time.

In the District Menu you have two drop down boxes. One with Premade districts filled with countries and continents. The other drop down will have your custom made districts.

Currently only the Premade districts are finished.

Selecting a district from either of the two drop downs selects all of the cities inside the district. A District Information window is then presented with an average of all the information you find in the Cities Information window. You're also given additional information such as a list of your branches and factories inside the District.

Which leads me to managing your factories and branches inside the district.

Since I plan on doing major overhauls to many of the systems on the World Map, I have stopped at this point and switched to redesigning some of the mechanics and GUI for Factories, Branches, and Marketing.

I have completed a redesign of the View Factory Details panel and have made this the default panel when opening the factory window. I've also done some minor changes to the scrapping system. Next I will work down the list of Factory window options, Once I finish the redesign of the Factory Mechanics and GUI, I will then Implement the new systems into the the District system and move on to Branches.


I also knocked out a couple of bugs
-Fixed Engine size limit bug in racing.
-Adjusted cost declines to yearly instead of quarterly.


Anyhoo so far I find the district system pretty cool. Hopefully the changes I have in mind will roll over into this system well. It should really improve long term, large company, game play.

[Frankschtaldt]

Interesting, will it be possible to manage these districts from the mega menu or only in the world map?

[Eric.B]

Interesting, will it be possible to manage these districts from the mega menu or only in the world map?

Both, when everything is finished.

1.18.1 will probably be world map only. As I get feedback and finalize it, i'll port it over to the megamenu.

[Frankschtaldt]

Cool!

[Eric.B]

Finally finished with the factory fixes. Quite a bit has changed, but it remains mostly the same. (Make sense?)

When you click "Factory" in a city with no factory, you will be presented with the Build Factory panel with nothing else.

While the factory is building, you will see the design time panel and nothing else.

You now have the ability to cancel building a factory. You will get some funds back.

When you click the "Factory" button in a city with a factory you will be presented with the "View Details" panel. Closing other panels in the factory window will automatically take you to the "View Details" Panel.

Scrap system has been overhauled and more information is now displayed in the "View Details" Panel. Vehicles without inventory are not shown on the list.

Quick Details panel has been removed.

Retool system has been renamed to Recondition. We have removed the slider, retooling is now set at 100% all the time.

There is a new Factory Upgrade system. This system allows you to do a minor, medium, or maximum upgrade to your factory. The system clearly shows you the amount of production lines you gain, as well as the costs. This is faster than resizing the factory. However, costs and time increase linearly each time you use it. Eventually it'll be cheaper and faster to redesign the factory.

Factory Resize has been renamed to Redesign. We now show your old factory production lines, new factory lines after redesign, and difference between the two. The difference is color coded based on if you are increasing or decreasing the lines. We also give a big warning if you are downsizing the factory. There has also been a little adjustment to costs and construction time for redesigns.

Closing a factory now gives you a some funds. We also put cost savings in the text.

Factory construction, redesign, and upgrades construction costs are now monthly. We have also included redesign and upgrades to the Research and Construction Report as well fixed a few bugs in that.


I still have two or three more things to check out. But I should be starting on revising the Production/Shipping code here soon (sometime tonight.) After that, I will port these changes over to the District system so you can do this for groups of cities at the same time. Then I'll move to Branches.



Also note, the official servers for the forums, website, and my email had a hard drive crash. The site is going to be slow while the RAID rebuilds it self. I may not be able to respond to emails until this issue is resolved. Thanks and sorry.


-Expanded Factory View Details
-Removed Quick Details
-Bug fixes and list removals from Scrap Vehicles
-Retool system renamed to Recondition
-Removed retool sliders
-Factory Upgrade System
-Resize renamed to Redesign
-Production line comparison when redesigning
-Adjusted costs and construction time for redesigned factories
-Closing factory gives some revenues.
-Factory Construction, redesign, and upgrades costs are now monthly
-Fixed to Research and Construction report.

[Frankschtaldt]

That sounds like a bunch of great usability upgrades!

There is a new Factory Upgrade system. This system allows you to do a minor, medium, or maximum upgrade to your factory. The system clearly shows you the amount of production lines you gain, as well as the costs. This is faster than resizing the factory. However, costs and time increase linearly each time you use it. Eventually it'll be cheaper and faster to redesign the factory.

I especially like this one!
Will doing a proper redesign reset the increase to the upgrade cost?

[Eric.B]

That sounds like a bunch of great usability upgrades!

There is a new Factory Upgrade system. This system allows you to do a minor, medium, or maximum upgrade to your factory. The system clearly shows you the amount of production lines you gain, as well as the costs. This is faster than resizing the factory. However, costs and time increase linearly each time you use it. Eventually it'll be cheaper and faster to redesign the factory.

I especially like this one!
Will doing a proper redesign reset the increase to the upgrade cost?

Yes.