GearCity 1.18.4 Progress Thread

[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.