Big Ambitions EA 0.8: Optimization #3
Greetings, business moguls!
We've got some major quality-of-life updates coming your way, including some highly requested features!
So let's take a look at all the upgrades!
Box Consolidation
This was a big one! Until now, none of your employees knew how to combine boxes, which was a big problem when your shelves were full of mostly empty boxes! Well, we taught them how to fix this!
If you're already experiencing this problem in a save, we've got you! When you first load into your current savegame, it should automatically merge the partial boxes together for each store / warehouse.
Next, when you ship goods from your warehouse, it will start with the partial boxes and ship those first, making sure it doesn't leave multiple partial boxes behind.
Then, logistics deliveries and wholesale deliveries will start by filling up the display shelves. Once those are full, they will fill any partial boxes, and finally, if there any items left over, they will be stored in new boxes!
Oh, and while we were at it, we realized using a whole box for one mousepad was silly, so now you can pack multiple of the same small products into one box!
Character Generator
You know what's better than only two character heads and two shirts to choose from?
A LOT MORE OPTIONS! We agree, so we present to you the brand new character creator!
With beards and mustaches, several more hair options, more clothing, and customization of each facial feature, our artists have completely redone the character creating experience! It's time for you to look like you...or whoever you want to look like!
Auto-scheduler and Schedule UI Revamp
"Wow, HR did a great job setting up my company's schedule!!" That has probably not been your reaction to the auto-schedule feature in previous versions of the game.
Well, that's about to change! The auto-scheduler now checks employee demands and splits the shifts a lot better to keep them happy. You can even choose to only autofill one day instead of the whole schedule!
And if you want to manually control things, the scheduler UI is much more powerful now. You can copy/paste specific days and rename workstations to quickly search and find things. Plus, the new employee search filters make it much easier to find the exact employees you're looking for!
Placement and Attachment Updates
As the game has gotten more complex, we've realized we needed a whole new placement system.
Some of these big changes in EA 0.8 include:
- General improvements to placing objects on the floors
- A full rewrite on how you can place items on and under desks and tables
- You can now grab and pack display shelves with items in them instead of needing to unpack them first!
- And most exciting, you can rapidly place items directly from the delivery spot or hand truck! Much less clicking now!
Interior Wall Hider
Speaking of placing things, don't you hate when you're trying to put things on the floor, and the walls keep blocking your view? Now you can toggle between walls up, walls down, or an exterior "cut out" mode!
Keep an eye on your store better than ever!
Notification Consolidation
How many times have you missed the IRS notification because it was buried under a wall of other alerts? We fixed that too!
If you receive several notifications of the same type, they will be grouped together:
Instead of seeing 10 individual pop-ups, you'll see "10 Employees messaged you"
This will make the red alerts like the IRS more noticeable!
Additionally, if your Logistics Manager is unable to deliver product to any of its stores, you will get 1 message from that manager, with a summary of anything that was not delivered!
Turn Signals, Dirt and Car Washes
Our vehicles got a few visual updates as well!
Lots of players have requested turn signals and have noted that the reverse lights don't always work, so we fixed those! The angry drivers in the city will still ignore your signals and cut you off, but at least you can be polite!
While you're driving around the city, you'll start to notice the car getting dirty. Don't worry, you can wash it next time you're at the repair shop, or just wait until it rains and let nature help you out!
Plus, the Missam Villian vehicle has been upgraded
- The old model has a lot of issues, so we upgraded it
- It has been replaced with the new vehicle the Lytte L6
- The new vehicle can be found at Manhattan Luxury Vehicles
- If you previously owned the Villain, it has been automatically upgraded to the Lytte!
New Items and Accessories
Job Board
Headhunters and recruiters are great, but what happened to the old-fashion walk-in?
Now you can buy a Job Board and place it in your store to attract some employees. They might not be the highest-skilled workers, but it's the easiest way to recruit!
Be sure to keep an eye on the Employees > Recruits page when these employees pop up!
Umbrellas
We added rain, but forgot to give you an umbrella! Well we fixed that in 0.8! You can carry an umbrella and equip it in the rain to stay dry and avoid any negative happiness from being wet!
In fact - you can now sell umbrellas in your gift shops too! Be sure to pick up a Product Panel and start selling them!
Wearable Headphones and Earbuds
Next, we've heard the requests - you want to wear headphones to listen to your music station whenever you want. Well, now you can! You can equip a pair of headphones or earbuds to your character!
Usable Items
Next up - "I bought this outfit, now what?" Well, you should put it in your wardrobe!
- Both the current Wardrobe and the new Wall-Mounted Wardrobe can now hold clothes
- The new Fruit Bowl can hold your fruit (Apples, Bananas and Pears)
- Your Decorative Bookshelf can now be loaded with books (grab a book from the shelf to read it)
- The new Jewelry Case can protect your Jewelry
- Use the new Umbrella Stand to hold your umbrellas
- Your Headphone or Earbud Stands can hold headphones and earbuds
- Plus, place your gifts and flowers around the house!
Quality of Life / Bugs
This update was filled with many little tweaks and fixes, in addition to everything listed above. Here are some more things to look out for!
General Code Optimization
We did a lot of work with more optimization, especially when it comes to massive lists.
Deliveries, inventory, employees, businesses, store layouts - pretty much anywhere with a massive list or number of items - have all been optimized and refactored to make the game run smoother!
Launching the game has been optimized, which should hopefully help some computers that were struggling to launch!
Quality of Life
- Optimized the time-skip blur effect to avoid GPU spikes
- Add permanent taxi spot to the hospital
- You can now make multiple deliveries from each furniture store per day!
- Gym Customers now use the showers
- Added more information to employee complaints
- Added ability to cancel blueprint orders
- Replaced phone message alert with a less abrasive sound
- Added "Unlock All Contacts" option for custom games
- Income Updates
- Fixed inconsistent income behavior, so all midnight expenses are charged to the current day instead of some being charged to the next day
- Adjusted negative interest to be calculated before your Sunday income is added to avoid it being adding to the negative interest fee
- To avoid more confusion, we changed the end-of-day pop-up to now show how much your bank account changed at midnight. You can still see your store's profitability in the EconoView page, though!
- Note: If you already have a savegame going, the first day or two might appear to have double charges or no charges due to these changes, but it should all appear properly after that!
- New Options
- SFX Audio Volume Slider
- Competitor Store Music Volume Slider
- Enable / Disable Seasonal decorations
- Gamma / Brightness
- New Map Filters
- Map now has a search filter
- "Enable/Disable All" Toggle
- "Rented By You" Toggle
- "Hide Closed businesses" Toggle
Bugs
- A large number of UI and text fixes and clarifications
- UMC Desert Wheels weren't all aligned properly
- Lux Concept was missing the Pinecone Light
- Removed random bag from Ika Coffee Shop floor
- Ika no longer sells the Pinecone Light
- Fixed hole in map near roundabout
- Fixed light poles/trashcans on sidewalk to avoid players getting stuck when parking
- Fixed Delivery Drivers show "0 hours" assigned
- Fixed issue with blueprints with illegal characters causing problems
- Fixed Freight Truck bounces around when entering warehouse
- Fixed issue where you can name your business an empty space
- Fixed building at 8 9th St didn't have an accessible entrance
- Fixed issue with gym shower having an incorrect collider if placed near a door
- Fixed if you adjust the pullup bar in Interior Designer mode, it doesn't update the height alert
- Shrunk collider size of Small Sign with Text
- Fixed many exteriors were showing the wrong floor when the building hider was active
- Fixed / updated many textures
- Fixed lighting inside buildings
- Fixed US General Trucks wasn't randomizing interior vehicle colors
- Fixed several issues where players could get stuck in an activity with no UI
- Removed theft and security warnings from businesses that don't have theft
- Fixed issue if you leave the casino after resting on a chair and start navigating prior to reaching the ticket booth, no UI appears
- Fixed if you type a randomly large number for starting money in a custom game, you wouldn't get the full $2 billion
- Fixed some issues where time wouldn't pause properly
- Fixed issue where you couldn't adjust the logistics deliveries if you were delivering all the items to another warehouse immediately after receiving them
- Fixed Coat Check not being listed as a required item and not showing up in the insights panel
- Fixed if a business closes at midnight, it said "closing at 12pm"
- Fixed sometimes El Gato would turn into an electronics store
- Fixed current employees not being unassigned after installing a blueprint
- Fixed at 0% gas, you can still move slowly
- Fixed you can hear ambient sounds while previewing buildings
- Fixed if you open the map while exiting a building, the map glitched
- Fixed you could use gym equipment at the same time as AI, if you click at the right moment
- Fixed if you rest and skip time on the casino, it can overshoot the exit time
- Fixed in some cases after exiting the casino, the UI would not reappear properly
- Fixed the first time you switch radio tracks, the title doesn't change properly
- Fixed a few VoogleMap Icons that were incorrectly placed
- Fixed Coat Check (Right) doesn't use the new customer queue system
- Fixed if you call the Tow Truck while paused, it still transports you without needing to unpause
- Improved gym trainer "cheering" distance
- Fixed if you drive inside the gas station repair section, it can deactivate the UI
- Fixed can place items through your vehicle in the warehouse
- Fixed issues with freight trucks getting stuck on lights in underground parking
- Fixed issues with exterior building signs not appearing
- Fixed issues where rivals pricing wars were resetting after 1 day
- Fixed several collider issues including the stairs near the roundabout, the plants near the giant globe, some spots in the scooter part and more!
- Fixed issues where customers could get stuck in hairdresser queues
- Fixed some animation glitches while characters were walking
- Fixed a couple building's door locations to better align with their addresses
- Fixed issues with vehicles crashing into scaffolding in a couple intersections
- Fixed autopark sometimes makes vehicles shake and bounce around
- Added a warning if you try to use a computer when you're not in your home
- Fixed an issue if you switch items that a display shelf is selling.
- Fixed issue when trying to invest when you have $0
- Fixed issue where your blueprint list wouldn't refresh properly after creating a new blueprint, causing some installations to fail until you restarted the game
- Fixed issue near 4 Pier where you could fall through the railing. No more diving into the pier - the water is dirty!
- Fixed some wall collider issues in a room of the L1 residential building
- Fixed hand truck spawner and delivery spot were partially in the wall in the L1 residential building
- Fixed the Casino boat volume was not connected to the "Competitor Store Volume" slider
- Fixed issue if the store closed as a customer first walked in, they would "return" items they had never grabbed
We hope you enjoy all these new features and updates!
And as you expand your business empire, our team will be busy expanding Big Ambitions for our next MASSIVE update, 0.9!
~Hovgaard Games, and the Big Ambitions Team