https://www.ventdev.com/forums/ Thu, 30 Apr 2026 05:55:49 +0000 MyBB https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4710 Thu, 04 Sep 2025 18:28:58 -0400 Eric.B]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4710 Price: $75

Description: When an event stops automatic end turns, this bounty would retain the remaining months in the clock UI.

Requirements: None

Required By: None

Concerns: None

Eric's Opinion: I would like to make the end turn key resume too, but I think we should retain that functionality as it is.

Links: Recommendation: https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4690]]> Price: $75

Description: When an event stops automatic end turns, this bounty would retain the remaining months in the clock UI.

Requirements: None

Required By: None

Concerns: None

Eric's Opinion: I would like to make the end turn key resume too, but I think we should retain that functionality as it is.

Links: Recommendation: https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4690]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4611 Wed, 02 Oct 2024 14:00:14 -0400 Eric.B]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4611 Price: $700

Description: This bounty would add Accounting Profits to the bottom panel. This will be either a new tab or a toggle option to replace cashflow.

Requirements: None

Required By: None

Concerns: This change might confuse some people unfamiliar with accounting profits since cashflow is king in most games.

Eric's Opinion: Users have requested several times over the years to improve the game's numbers and reports to proper accounting standards. This should be doable, though it may require some database tweaking.

Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]> Price: $700

Description: This bounty would add Accounting Profits to the bottom panel. This will be either a new tab or a toggle option to replace cashflow.

Requirements: None

Required By: None

Concerns: This change might confuse some people unfamiliar with accounting profits since cashflow is king in most games.

Eric's Opinion: Users have requested several times over the years to improve the game's numbers and reports to proper accounting standards. This should be doable, though it may require some database tweaking.

Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4565 Sun, 05 May 2024 05:18:19 -0400 Eric.B]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4565 Price: $100

Description: When enough AI companies die, the game will generate new companies to take their place. This is to prevent the game world from becoming completely barron. This bounty will make this feature an optional new game setting.

Requirements: None

Required By: None

Concerns: There will need to be some tweaking to achievements like the monopoly one.

Eric's Opinion: This probably should have been a feature from the get-go.

Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]> Price: $100

Description: When enough AI companies die, the game will generate new companies to take their place. This is to prevent the game world from becoming completely barron. This bounty will make this feature an optional new game setting.

Requirements: None

Required By: None

Concerns: There will need to be some tweaking to achievements like the monopoly one.

Eric's Opinion: This probably should have been a feature from the get-go.

Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4501 Fri, 08 Dec 2023 00:08:54 -0500 Eric.B]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4501 Price: $180

Description: This bounty adds the development pace slider to the Assisted Chassis, Engine, Gearbox, and Vehicle designers.

Requirements: None

Required By: None

Concerns: This bounty adds more options to the Assisted Designer and increases the size of the Assisted Designer's window.

Eric's Opinion: This bounty will add a fourth slider to the Assisted Designer, which I really don't want to do. However, players are disadvantaged if they don't have access to this slider. Those who want to use it would have to click through 3 more buttons to access it, and they're locked out of the rest of the assisted designer. So, a case can be made for it. I'm charging $45 per designer.

Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]> Price: $180

Description: This bounty adds the development pace slider to the Assisted Chassis, Engine, Gearbox, and Vehicle designers.

Requirements: None

Required By: None

Concerns: This bounty adds more options to the Assisted Designer and increases the size of the Assisted Designer's window.

Eric's Opinion: This bounty will add a fourth slider to the Assisted Designer, which I really don't want to do. However, players are disadvantaged if they don't have access to this slider. Those who want to use it would have to click through 3 more buttons to access it, and they're locked out of the rest of the assisted designer. So, a case can be made for it. I'm charging $45 per designer.

Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4491 Thu, 07 Dec 2023 14:47:23 -0500 Eric.B]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4491 Price: $20

Description: When Auto-Financing is unlocked, we should send a memo to the player letting them know they can now use the system.

Requirements: None

Required By: None

Concerns: This bounty will cause a tiny performance hit when checking if the player has unlocked the ability to do this every month. But it's insignificant.

Eric's Opinion: I probably should have included this for free, but somehow, it made it to my FBS bounty list. So, I think it's a good candidate for a leftover funds bounty. It'll likely get done if someone throws a single vote or two at it.

Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]> Price: $20

Description: When Auto-Financing is unlocked, we should send a memo to the player letting them know they can now use the system.

Requirements: None

Required By: None

Concerns: This bounty will cause a tiny performance hit when checking if the player has unlocked the ability to do this every month. But it's insignificant.

Eric's Opinion: I probably should have included this for free, but somehow, it made it to my FBS bounty list. So, I think it's a good candidate for a leftover funds bounty. It'll likely get done if someone throws a single vote or two at it.

Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4482 Wed, 06 Dec 2023 22:01:10 -0500 Eric.B]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4482 Price: $200

Description: In GearCity, we use a lot of hashmaps. These improve the performance of the game over what we used to have. However, GearCity is using the first iteration of STL's hashmaps. There is a faster way.

After moving to C++17, we'll have the opportunity to replace the STL hashmaps with The Parallel Hashmap. I used these in AeroMogul and saw a significant performance gain. I can't say what the exact performance implications would be in GearCity, but I suspect at least a 5 to 10% improvement in turn times.

Requirements: #314

Required By: None

Concerns: None

Eric's Opinion: The performance improvements in AeroMogul were so significant that I added bounties #313 and #314 to get this and Bounty #316 into the system.

Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!

Benchmarks: https://martin.ankerl.com/2022/08/27/has...ults-table See "std::unordered_map | std::hash" for what we have. And "gtl::flat_hash_map | std::hash" for what we'd replace to.]]> Price: $200

Description: In GearCity, we use a lot of hashmaps. These improve the performance of the game over what we used to have. However, GearCity is using the first iteration of STL's hashmaps. There is a faster way.

After moving to C++17, we'll have the opportunity to replace the STL hashmaps with The Parallel Hashmap. I used these in AeroMogul and saw a significant performance gain. I can't say what the exact performance implications would be in GearCity, but I suspect at least a 5 to 10% improvement in turn times.

Requirements: #314

Required By: None

Concerns: None

Eric's Opinion: The performance improvements in AeroMogul were so significant that I added bounties #313 and #314 to get this and Bounty #316 into the system.

Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!

Benchmarks: https://martin.ankerl.com/2022/08/27/has...ults-table See "std::unordered_map | std::hash" for what we have. And "gtl::flat_hash_map | std::hash" for what we'd replace to.]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4481 Wed, 06 Dec 2023 21:31:34 -0500 Eric.B]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4481 Price: $500

Description: GearCity 32-bit build uses C++03. The 64-bit build is on C++13. We need to upgrade the game engine and build infrastructure to C++17. This upgrade will allow us to include future modern libraries to improve game performance. Ideally, the community funds this bounty at the same time as Bounty #148.

Requirements: #313

Required By: #315, #316

Concerns: Amusingly enough, I might not have enough hard drive space to create another complete set of Virtual Machines!

Eric's Opinion: One of the things I don't want to do is reset all the build infrastructure for the game to change to an updated language. But it must be done if fund some performance improvements in the future. I will also have to update the infrastructure with Bounty #148, so it would be a good time to pair both bounties.

Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]> Price: $500

Description: GearCity 32-bit build uses C++03. The 64-bit build is on C++13. We need to upgrade the game engine and build infrastructure to C++17. This upgrade will allow us to include future modern libraries to improve game performance. Ideally, the community funds this bounty at the same time as Bounty #148.

Requirements: #313

Required By: #315, #316

Concerns: Amusingly enough, I might not have enough hard drive space to create another complete set of Virtual Machines!

Eric's Opinion: One of the things I don't want to do is reset all the build infrastructure for the game to change to an updated language. But it must be done if fund some performance improvements in the future. I will also have to update the infrastructure with Bounty #148, so it would be a good time to pair both bounties.

Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4480 Wed, 06 Dec 2023 20:36:22 -0500 Eric.B]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4480 Price: $200

Description: GearCity Classic (1st Gear) runs on 32-bit and 64-bit Windows XP through 11, Linux, and OS X.

Currently, GearCity: 2nd Gear runs on 64-bit Windows 7 through 11, Linux, and OS X. There are plans to port the game to 32-bit based on polling I did that showed a good percentage of you plan on playing the game on 32-bit systems. Although realistically, according to Steam, only 0.02% played GearCity Classic on a 32-bit system year to date. The 32-bit ports will come when "2nd Gear" is finished and we begin work on "3rd Gear."

This bounty removes XP, Visita, and 32-bit OSX support. These operating systems can not compile using modern versions of C++ that we'll need for future bounties.


Requirements: None

Required By: #314

Concerns: Dropping support for operating systems makes me sad.

Eric's Opinion: I love to support older operating systems. However, some plans I have for improving GearCity performance would require libraries that require C++17. The latest we can get on XP is C++15. Vista does have C++17 support, but I don't own a copy of it, and I don't plan on going out of my way to find a legit copy. Apple removed 32-bit binary support from OS X 4 years ago. The last 32-bit OS X OS is 14 years old. I'm not even sure GearCity classic works on a 32-bit OS X machine.

I would love to drop 32-bit Windows and Linux support, thus reducing my build requirements considerably. But it is still possible to build and support future plans for the game on these Architecture/OS combos. CEF (Chromium) may force my hand on this anyway.

Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]> Price: $200

Description: GearCity Classic (1st Gear) runs on 32-bit and 64-bit Windows XP through 11, Linux, and OS X.

Currently, GearCity: 2nd Gear runs on 64-bit Windows 7 through 11, Linux, and OS X. There are plans to port the game to 32-bit based on polling I did that showed a good percentage of you plan on playing the game on 32-bit systems. Although realistically, according to Steam, only 0.02% played GearCity Classic on a 32-bit system year to date. The 32-bit ports will come when "2nd Gear" is finished and we begin work on "3rd Gear."

This bounty removes XP, Visita, and 32-bit OSX support. These operating systems can not compile using modern versions of C++ that we'll need for future bounties.


Requirements: None

Required By: #314

Concerns: Dropping support for operating systems makes me sad.

Eric's Opinion: I love to support older operating systems. However, some plans I have for improving GearCity performance would require libraries that require C++17. The latest we can get on XP is C++15. Vista does have C++17 support, but I don't own a copy of it, and I don't plan on going out of my way to find a legit copy. Apple removed 32-bit binary support from OS X 4 years ago. The last 32-bit OS X OS is 14 years old. I'm not even sure GearCity classic works on a 32-bit OS X machine.

I would love to drop 32-bit Windows and Linux support, thus reducing my build requirements considerably. But it is still possible to build and support future plans for the game on these Architecture/OS combos. CEF (Chromium) may force my hand on this anyway.

Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4479 Wed, 06 Dec 2023 17:03:35 -0500 Eric.B]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4479 Price: $100

Description: By default, modern SQLite is in multithreaded mode by default. This wasn't the case when I stated. In multithreaded mode, SQLite calls mutex which degrades the performance of the database. Since GearCity is currently single-threaded, this bounty would rebuild SQLite in single-threaded mode. This should have a slight increase in turn-time performance. Additionally, I will upgrade the library to the latest version, which should increase performance too.

This bounty will become obsolete if we implement more complex multithreaded setups for the game.

Requirements: None

Required By: None

Concerns: If we implement advanced multi-threaded setups or multiplayer, this bounty becomes obsolete, as we'll need some thread safety. However, we will still get the benefits of upgrading the SQLite library.

Eric's Opinion: I've periodically upgraded the SQLite library over the years, as it's one of our major performance bottlenecks in the game. I'm not sure how much performance we get out of this bounty. It could be 0.1%, or it could be a 5% performance boost. It's a gamble.

Some cheaper threading options are coming in the FBS. These shouldn't affect this bounty. But full-blown multithreading plans, multiplayer, and so forth would cause this bounty to be mostly obsolete. I also plan on updating the SQLite library with other bounties as well. This bounty is a roll of the dice to take seconds off your turn times.

Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]> Price: $100

Description: By default, modern SQLite is in multithreaded mode by default. This wasn't the case when I stated. In multithreaded mode, SQLite calls mutex which degrades the performance of the database. Since GearCity is currently single-threaded, this bounty would rebuild SQLite in single-threaded mode. This should have a slight increase in turn-time performance. Additionally, I will upgrade the library to the latest version, which should increase performance too.

This bounty will become obsolete if we implement more complex multithreaded setups for the game.

Requirements: None

Required By: None

Concerns: If we implement advanced multi-threaded setups or multiplayer, this bounty becomes obsolete, as we'll need some thread safety. However, we will still get the benefits of upgrading the SQLite library.

Eric's Opinion: I've periodically upgraded the SQLite library over the years, as it's one of our major performance bottlenecks in the game. I'm not sure how much performance we get out of this bounty. It could be 0.1%, or it could be a 5% performance boost. It's a gamble.

Some cheaper threading options are coming in the FBS. These shouldn't affect this bounty. But full-blown multithreading plans, multiplayer, and so forth would cause this bounty to be mostly obsolete. I also plan on updating the SQLite library with other bounties as well. This bounty is a roll of the dice to take seconds off your turn times.

Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4355 Tue, 19 Jul 2022 18:33:51 -0400 Eric.B]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4355 Price: $50

Description: This bounty adds a yearly and all time production columns to the Company Directory Report.

Requirements: None

Required By: None

Concerns: Might not be enough width in this report.

Eric's Opinion: A few years have requested this feature over the years.

Links:  It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]> Price: $50

Description: This bounty adds a yearly and all time production columns to the Company Directory Report.

Requirements: None

Required By: None

Concerns: Might not be enough width in this report.

Eric's Opinion: A few years have requested this feature over the years.

Links:  It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4326 Thu, 07 Jul 2022 11:39:18 -0400 Eric.B]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4326 Price: $500

Description: Currently, engine smoothness is determined mainly by the cylinder and the engine layout sub-components. This can lead to some inaccuracies. For example, V6s are almost as smooth as I5s.

This bounty would remove the smoothness variable from the cylinder sub-component. We'll replace it with a cylinder entry for each layout type that contains the smoothness rating of that combination of layout and cylinder.

Requirements: None

Required By: None

Concerns: This bounty will require some heavy modification of the mod tools.

Eric's Opinion: This bounty would give me more fine-grain control over sub-components and the smoothness rating. It would also open the door to other possible ratings for combinations of sub-components, rather than having everything supply static variables no matter the combination you use them in.

Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]> Price: $500

Description: Currently, engine smoothness is determined mainly by the cylinder and the engine layout sub-components. This can lead to some inaccuracies. For example, V6s are almost as smooth as I5s.

This bounty would remove the smoothness variable from the cylinder sub-component. We'll replace it with a cylinder entry for each layout type that contains the smoothness rating of that combination of layout and cylinder.

Requirements: None

Required By: None

Concerns: This bounty will require some heavy modification of the mod tools.

Eric's Opinion: This bounty would give me more fine-grain control over sub-components and the smoothness rating. It would also open the door to other possible ratings for combinations of sub-components, rather than having everything supply static variables no matter the combination you use them in.

Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4067 Fri, 06 May 2022 15:07:11 -0400 Eric.B]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4067 Price: $100

Description: The scroll bars in the game use float values (decimal numbers). However, moving a slider increments values by 1 in some parts of the game. Some of the calculations use the raw float value of the slider. When the two issues are combined, it causes an exploit where the player can adjust a slider to get a different result but not flip the incremental value by 1.

You can see this exploit in the loans and bonds system, where the terms are integers, and the interest rates change even when the term value doesn't.

Requirements: None

Required By: None

Concerns: This bounty is a lot of work, and I am undercharging for it.

Eric's Opinion: This is a moderately sized exploit with the game. It is fixed in some heavily used places, but not all places. This bounty should fix it for all sliders in the game. I have discounted this bounty to get it funded and fixed.

Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]> Price: $100

Description: The scroll bars in the game use float values (decimal numbers). However, moving a slider increments values by 1 in some parts of the game. Some of the calculations use the raw float value of the slider. When the two issues are combined, it causes an exploit where the player can adjust a slider to get a different result but not flip the incremental value by 1.

You can see this exploit in the loans and bonds system, where the terms are integers, and the interest rates change even when the term value doesn't.

Requirements: None

Required By: None

Concerns: This bounty is a lot of work, and I am undercharging for it.

Eric's Opinion: This is a moderately sized exploit with the game. It is fixed in some heavily used places, but not all places. This bounty should fix it for all sliders in the game. I have discounted this bounty to get it funded and fixed.

Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=3975 Wed, 20 Apr 2022 11:46:08 -0400 Eric.B]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=3975 Price: $150

Description: Currently, several city ratings are tied together with a single growth rating. This bounty would make each rating have an independent growth rating.

Requirements: None

Required By: None

Concerns: None

Eric's Opinion: This bounty should have been done to begin with. It is a discounted bounty considering the amount of work it will involve.


Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]> Price: $150

Description: Currently, several city ratings are tied together with a single growth rating. This bounty would make each rating have an independent growth rating.

Requirements: None

Required By: None

Concerns: None

Eric's Opinion: This bounty should have been done to begin with. It is a discounted bounty considering the amount of work it will involve.


Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=3967 Tue, 19 Apr 2022 14:05:46 -0400 Eric.B]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=3967 Price: $200

Description: This bounty adds a panel to the Mega Menu Auto Tools that allows you to adjust the auto-sell margin above Unit Costs, similar to the Auto-wage system. We'll allow you to select a specific marque so that marques may have different margin values.

Requirements: None

Required By: #322

Concerns: Showing the marque's current margin might not lead to pretty UI.

Eric's Opinion: We've gotten a lot of complaints about the Auto-sell's system's default margin values. This bounty fixes that by allowing the player to set it themselves.

Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]> Price: $200

Description: This bounty adds a panel to the Mega Menu Auto Tools that allows you to adjust the auto-sell margin above Unit Costs, similar to the Auto-wage system. We'll allow you to select a specific marque so that marques may have different margin values.

Requirements: None

Required By: #322

Concerns: Showing the marque's current margin might not lead to pretty UI.

Eric's Opinion: We've gotten a lot of complaints about the Auto-sell's system's default margin values. This bounty fixes that by allowing the player to set it themselves.

Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=3963 Tue, 19 Apr 2022 12:28:36 -0400 Eric.B]]> https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=3963 Price: $100

Description: This bounty generates random starting values for cities and territories.


Requirements: None

Required By: #180

Concerns: Instead of going full random, we'll probably make random base values for the nations. And then randomize from that base for the cities of the nation. That should limit the wackiness.

Eric's Opinion: Makes random history mode even more random. Probably a good change for players looking for more of a challenge.

Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]> Price: $100

Description: This bounty generates random starting values for cities and territories.


Requirements: None

Required By: #180

Concerns: Instead of going full random, we'll probably make random base values for the nations. And then randomize from that base for the cities of the nation. That should limit the wackiness.

Eric's Opinion: Makes random history mode even more random. Probably a good change for players looking for more of a challenge.

Links: It doesn't happen unless you contribute!]]>