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[Bug Report] Data Overflow Issue

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 03:19:56 -0400

Hello,

I encountered a game-breaking issue while playing. When the game date reaches January 1992, the game data seems to break.

It appears to be a numerical overflow, although I am not sure exactly which specific variable caused it. Everything was working correctly in December 1991, but as soon as the month changes, the values become abnormal. Please refer to the attached screenshot to see the specific error.

This issue is also causing incorrect calculations for vehicle unit costs and creates problems with the auto-marketing system.

I have attached my save file and the screenshot to this post for your investigation.

Thanks!

QQ20260806-091229.png (Size: 224.11 KB / Downloads: 6)

2.6.0.1 AI safety ratings seems very high after 60 years of simulation

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 12:03:45 -0400

Hi,

The safety ratings on some cars seem unusually high. I am not sure it's normal. Their car is also a lot cheaper.
The highest i can reach is around 350 but they get 1500. I can't upload my save because it's too big apparently.

Thank you

Screenshot 2026-08-03 115159.png (Size: 1.01 MB / Downloads: 8)

FBS Fundraising Resumes!

Sat, 01 Aug 2026 17:10:52 -0400

Greetings everyone!

We have resumed fund raising for the Feature Bounty Milestone #7! If you're subscribed to Patreon, monthly billing started last week. The Paypal should open sometime next week.

Our fund raising goals for this milestone is $2500. I will also be contributing $500 of the $1000 owed from the failed artwork bounties in Milestone #2. Bringing us to $3000 for the next milestone. Any extra amount will roll over to the next milestone's funds, as I suspect we're only going to leave Milestone #8 open for 1-2 months, and whatever amount we raise is the amount we'll work with before wrapping up GearCity: 2nd Gear.

I'll have the websites, voting points, and the FBS monthly newsletter written up sometime between the 3rd and the 5th. And I will resume working on GearCity and GearCity: 2nd Gear as soon as Amazon gets me my replacement hard drives...

Quarterly Report Taxes appear one quarter behind, causing incorrect Net Income

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 18:38:31 -0400

Hi Eric,

I believe the Taxes field in the Quarterly Report is using the previous quarter's tax payment instead of the tax for the quarter being reported.

This is a new game in 1952. Production began in January.

Q1 / March 1952
The Monthly Summary for March shows:
Total Taxes: $893,799

However, the Q1 Quarterly Report (three months ended 3/1952) shows:
Taxes: 0.000 million

Q2 / June 1952
The Monthly Summary for June shows:
Total Taxes: $2,881,435

However, the Q2 Quarterly Report (three months ended 6/1952) shows:
Taxes: 0.894 million

This corresponds almost exactly to the $893,799 tax paid in March, i.e. the Q1 tax, rather than the current Q2 tax.

The other Q2 figures in the upper section appear to use the correct April-June period:
Vehicle Sales:
April: $3,029,232
May: $3,616,044
June: $3,616,044
Total = $10,261,320, displayed correctly as Sales = 10.261 million.

The Q2 pre-tax expenses also reconcile with the monthly reports after excluding the June tax payment, and the resulting Operating Profit is approximately $8.231 million, matching the Quarterly Report.

However, Net Income is then calculated using the old Q1 tax:
$8.231M - $0.894M = approximately $7.337M
which is exactly what the Quarterly Report displays.

If the current Q2 tax payment of $2,881,435 were used instead, Q2 Net Income would be approximately $5.349M.
The tax calculation itself appears to be working correctly in the Monthly Summary. My HQ tax rate appears to be 35%, and both quarterly tax payments reconcile closely with the underlying quarterly profits. The issue seems to be specifically which tax value the Quarterly Report retrieves.

Environment:
Game version: v2.0.0.15 (Steam)
Windows: Win11
Windows regional format: Hungarian (Hungary)
Game language: English

  Q2_.jpg (Size: 489.08 KB / Downloads: 1)

  Q1.jpg (Size: 509.76 KB / Downloads: 1)

  M6.jpg (Size: 560.26 KB / Downloads: 2)

  M3.jpg (Size: 560.66 KB / Downloads: 2)

Quarterly vehicle table includes four months instead of three

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 18:25:21 -0400

Hi Eric,

I believe I found a date range issue in the vehicle table at the bottom of the Quarterly Report.
I started a new game and production of my first and only vehicle began in January 1952. The Q1 report looked correct, but the Q2 report revealed that the vehicle table appears to include March through June, i.e. four months, instead of only April through June.

My monthly figures are:

March 1952
Produced: 223
Sold: 363
Vehicle Sales: $2,465,496

April 1952
Produced: 446
Sold: 446
Vehicle Sales: $3,029,232

May 1952
Produced: 557
Sold: 557
Vehicle Sales: $3,616,044

June 1952
Produced: 557
Sold: 557
Vehicle Sales: $3,616,044

For Q2 (three months, April-June), I would therefore expect:

Produced: 1,560
Sold: 1,560
Income: $10,261,320

However, the Q2 Quarterly Report vehicle table shows:

Produced: 1,783
Sold: 1,923
Income: $12,726,816

These displayed values match March + April + May + June exactly:

Produced:
223 + 446 + 557 + 557 = 1,783
Sold:
363 + 446 + 557 + 557 = 1,923
Income:
$2,465,496 + $3,029,232 + $3,616,044 + $3,616,044 = $12,726,816

Interestingly, the upper part of the same Q2 Quarterly Report uses the correct April-June period. Its Sales value is 10.261 million, corresponding to:
$3,029,232 + $3,616,044 + $3,616,044 = $10,261,320

So this appears to affect specifically the vehicle table's date range.

Q1 did not make the problem obvious because vehicle production only started in January 1952, so including one month before the quarter would add no vehicle activity there.

Environment:
Game version: v2.0.0.15 (Steam)
Windows: Win11
Windows regional format: Hungarian (Hungary)
Game language: English

Q2.jpg (Size: 494.59 KB / Downloads: 1)

Vehicle Type Skill

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 23:58:08 -0400

We now have skill levels in various fuel, gearbox, and chassis types, to a fairly fine-grained level. My company could heavily specialize in 3-cylinder vehicles, for example.

But we don't have any specialization in vehicle types. There's a general vehicle research skill, and more hidden, there are safely, luxury, and coachwork marque skills, but there isn't an ability to specialize in vans or phaetons and be really good at them.

This suggestion is to add that.

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The intended outcome would be that certain companies would focus on certain vehicle types, and you might have Ford, Chevy, and Dodge be really good at pickups, while Honda and Toyota are really good at sedans.

This would also create an incentive to acquire marques that are good at areas you aren't good in, to make your overall company skilled across a wider set of vehicle types.

The AI would benefit from having some awareness of this, and focusing on types it has some skill at. Because skills develop with experience, that would in turn encourage further AI specialization, and make those AIs attractive acquisition targets (or perhaps dominant independent companies in certain areas).

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See my full list of suggestions at https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4839

Mandatory/Prohibited Types for AI Companies

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 23:52:37 -0400

This is another immersion suggestion - make it possible for maps to mark AI companies as always having particular vehicles in their lineup, or never building them.

This would allow us to require Jeep to make SUVs, for example, truck manufacturers to make vans, Ford to make pickups, and Lamborghini to make sports cars.

It would also allow us to say that Jeep doesn't make sports cars, for example.

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Taken to the extreme, this could result in a lot of manufacturers focusing on a few types of cars, like sports cars historically.

I'm not saying a good scenario design is to have lots of companies doing that. But it would be nice to be able to have stronger focuses, and "always keep an SUV in the lineup" would result in that.

Note that my next thread will complement this, by adding vehicle type skills as an option.

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See my full list of cohesive suggestions at https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4839

Company Restrictions - Fuel Type

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 23:47:50 -0400

This is primarily a role-playing enhancement: Allowing AI lists for maps to specify that a company will only build vehicles with a particular fuel type, or will make at least x% of their vehicles be of a certain type.

The goal is that if Tesla is a company, they will only build electric cars. Same with earlier electric car manufacturers as well as steam car manufacturers.

There might be a minimum percent option, which could be 1.0 for all EV/steam/etc., but 0.2 for a company that should dabble in an area but be willing to pursue the mass market as well. Perhaps that is a way to encourage truck manufacturers to make more diesels, for example.

See https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4839 for my overall list of immersion/late game suggestions.

Allow Wholly Owned Subsidiaries To Share Branches

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 23:44:07 -0400

The macro-level goal of this is to make it more viable to create autonomous (or semi-autonomous) subsidiaries without tanking your sales, and while letting them be a potentially viable concern. Thus making it easier to play as a large, many-model late game auto empire, focusing on managing a subset while your subsidiaries manage the rest.

See my high-level thoughts on improvements to make the late game less cumbersome at https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4839

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Currently, if you spin off a marque, you can give them some of your branches, but then you don't have those branches, and with the branch limit (which I prefer for reducing map-spanning blob companies early game), it isn't realistic for a parent brand to create a Saturn sub-brand with significant reach without also losing a lot of their core sales.

So the thought is that if a parent marque has branches in a city, then sub-marque spin-offs could be allowed to share that branch and sell there (setting their own prices). Likely at the cost of scaling overhead, perhaps +20% branch maintenance for the first one, +40% for the second, +60% for the third, to make it so that having 30 marques sharing branches would not be viable - there would be an incentive for discontinuing marques past a certain point. Currently, aside from that (non-spun-off) sub-marques can become a bit much to manage and make vehicles for, I don't think there's any incentive to discontinue them.

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To be clear, this means if I am GM, and I created a wholly owned subsidiary named Saturn, then Saturn could create their own vehicles, and put them for sale at my branches, at the cost of that maintenance overhead. Versus if they are my own, non-subsidiary marque, they also could, but as the player I'd have to manage everything about Saturn.

The maintenance scaling perhaps should apply per active marque in general, whether a wholly owned subsidiary or a non-subsidiary marque, but then the AI would need to have some awareness of it so they didn't go bankrupt due to having 53 marques. That is a secondary idea to reduce marque spam.

Auto-Production System Improvement

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 21:51:25 -0400

The current auto production system only references last month's sales, which can easily cause inventory to spiral out of control when demand fluctuates. Here is a suggestion for improving the automatic production system:
Take the average of the actual deliveries from the previous three months, denoted as A.
The player can set a target inventory coverage in months, C (for example, C = 0.5 means the system will try to keep inventory at around half a month's worth of sales).
At the beginning of each month, read the current inventory, denoted as B.
The formula for this month's planned production P is:
P = A + (C × A − B)
Then constrain P to be between 0 and the maximum production capacity.
In this way, when inventory exceeds the target, production is automatically reduced; when inventory is insufficient, production is automatically increased. This avoids both inventory buildup and stockouts without needing to know the current month's orders in advance.

Top 50 All-Time Sub-Category Headers

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 14:20:05 -0400

Minor bug, left over from back around 2.2 or 2.3 when numerical IDs were introduced.

If you go to the Top 50 All-Time sales and then select a sub-category, it says e.g. "1081 All-Time Sales Until 1956" rather than "Landaulet All-Time Sales Until 1956".

Spotted when I was checking sales charts after making quite possibly my first-ever profitable Landaulet. The market for those tends to be minuscule!

2nd Gear Research Price Lock and No Research Points

Thu, 11 Jun 2026 06:28:32 -0400

Hey all,

Lock feature at component research is not working like it does with research department. And some of the components needs to be built in order to generate component design skills. Like for example im at 2003 never done a wankel engine and never funded it but its 7.73 however series-hybrid is only 5.74 which i did that once. Same with the phev and dual phev i've been funding them but it wont increase until an engine built.

Thanks

2nd Gear Electric II and any upgrades after it are not unlocking

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 12:19:59 -0400

Hey all,

Im at 1998 with 322,75 engine, 31,4 Electric layout, 29,90 electric cylinder and 31,41 electric 1 fuel research points but fuel 2 and subsequent upgrades are not unlocking. Is it changed with second gear or is this a bug? Here is my save game file, which is above 1 gb: drive

The 1911 Engine Design Cost Cliff (1st/2nd Gear)

Sat, 09 May 2026 00:31:45 -0400

I just got back from the CFO's office, and the news isn't good. Our straight-8 design costs have skyrocketed...

How to reproduce:

- Start a 2nd Gear game in the year 1910, base city map (or any other). Go to design an Inline 2 engine. Note the rough cost. Switch to Inline 4. The cost is marginally higher. Switch to Inline 8. The cost is marginally higher.
- Start a 2nd Gear game in the year 1911, base city map (or any other). Go to design an Inline 2 engine. It's quite a bit more expensive than 1910, but it's supposed to go up over time, right? Switch to an Inline 4. The cost roughly doubles over the Inline 2. Switch to Inline 8. The cost roughly doubles over Inline 4.

Expectation: Costs go up over time
Not expected: Increasing cylinders goes from a slight difference in cost to a proportional-to-cylinder-count cost in one year

Is this intentional? It might be the pre-1911 years that are the aberration; I see that the 1911 behavior applies in 1995 as well. Checked 1st Gear as well as 2nd Gear; the behavior appears to be the same.

Maybe I never noticed it before because it's my first game being a pure engine-design firm, rather than a vehicle-selling company, and with enough vehicle sales that impact of the increase in engine design costs become, if not a rounding error, low. But when engine design costs are my primary expense, the sudden change is hard not to notice!

2nd Gear Map: Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic

Thu, 07 May 2026 21:19:30 -0400

Two years ago, I released my Great Lakes map, a 2nd Gear exclusive.

Today, an expansion to that is being released - Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic. Like its predecessor, it is for 2nd Gear only, primarily because I prefer playing it to porting it to 1st Gear.

Download it here! Extract it to your /media/maps folder, so that the extracted folder is named "Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic", and it has two sub-folders, "scripts" and "MapArt". The name of the folder within the maps folder must be Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic! This should be the case by default with most decompression programs, but it is worth checking to make sure it didn't create a nested folder with the date of release. Otherwise Gear City won't be able to load it up in-game.

The map:

Additions

Compared to the Great Lakes map, it adds six states: New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, and Kentucky.

This takes the city count from 90 to 120, and the 1900 population from 34 million to 43.4 million - a significant increase in the potential customer base. If playing with the "Limit New Branches" option (recommended), this also takes the branch-per-year limit from 3 to 4.

There is also a boost to the number of companies, which go from 104 to 114. Competition may now be quite as harsh per capita, but the early game remains an ultra-violent nightmare!

Cities by state/province:

- Illinois: 7
- Indiana: 11
- Michigan: 13
- Minnesota: 4
- New York: 7
- Ohio: 11
- Ontario: 12
- Pennsylvania: 12
- Wisconsin: 13
- New Jersey: 4
- Delaware: 2
- Maryland: 4
- West Virginia: 6
- Virginia: 9

Recommended Settings

It is strongly recommended to play on Normal difficulty, with optional Hard settings. This is because sales have been "flattened" to be closer to historical figures, with the result that compared to what you are used to on the Base Cities map, the early years can be an ultra-violent nightmare! You may well go bankrupt on your first attempt, so don't be afraid to tweak the starting cash to give yourself more of a cushion.

It is my belief that the new production setting has increased the difficulty of the game, especially early on, adding even more reason than when the Great Lakes map was new to give yourself some extra buffer.

Beyond that, each company's starting funds reflect its founding year and longevity, increasing or decreasing its likelihood of long-term survival. To keep these funds as intended, it is strongly recommended to move the AI starting funds slider all the way to the left. This prevents the game from auto-adjusting (read: increasing) the starting funds each company receives. With the default settings, too few companies will go bankrupt.

Disable Founding New AI Companies is also cautiously recommended; without it, new, non-historical companies are generated to keep the minimum at about 35 companies, which is too little consolidation. But with it, you may wind up with one or two companies by the 2010s. Hopefully you are one of them.

Otherwise, it is up to you. I like to play with the benefits system enabled, the option to be fired, limited branches, and the import tax, settings that are defaulted on at hard difficulty, but need to be turned on manually with the Normal difficulty preset.

GNP

Where available, historical province/state and city-level GNP data has been used. Where this data was not available, data has been interpolated from the most geographically and chronologically close data available. In general, this means that the GNP data is more rich the later in the timeline you are playing.

In terms of infrastructure and manufacturing, generally larger cities are more developed.

Infrastructure Development

Thanks to FBS bounty #191, infrastructure now develops at a separate pace from general industrial growth. Historical information has been added on the development of interstate highways, and you'll now notice a major boost to infrastructure as the interstates are developed, starting in the 1950 to 1960 timeframe.

As this information has not yet been integrated for the King's Highway and other provincial highways, Ontario still follows the gradual system of development that the U.S. followed in the initial release of this map.

Have fun!

There may or may not be future updates; maps take time, and so does playing them. It took two years since my last map, so don't expect frequent updates. I'm considering adding a few foreign automakers in the second half of the 20th century to spice up the level of mid-to-late-game competition, maybe as a second AI file option so you could have only domestic, or have Honda, Toyota, BMW, etc. invade the shores later on.

It's also possible that I'll do another map expansion at some point - New England being the most likely candidate, perhaps with Quebec. In theory, the map could expand to the whole Lower 48 and Canada someday... but have fun playing this one first.