The Testing Build for GearCity has been updated to 1.18.1. If you are not on the Testing Build you will not notice any changes to your game. If you wish to switch to Testing but do not know how, please see my tutorial: http://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2594&pid=6237#pid6237
Please note, Testing build is just that. Testing. There may be more bugs than normal, however typically I fix more bugs than I make! :)
So what did we do?
1.18.1 implements the first phase of the new Districting system. This system allows you to manage multiple factories and branches as if they're one single factory or branch. We have premade districts based on countries and continents. As well a system that will allow you to create custom districts. (Including a drag selection tool to select multiple cities at once.) Currently this system is only available in the world map. I do believe district factories and branches are finished feature wise, however I would still like your feedback before I implement District Marketing and port the system to the Mega Menu. Check out the feedback thread here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/285110/discussions/0/530646715641797319/
We've also moved shipping distances from production lines to branch distribution. This gives you the player better control over the shipping distances per vehicle at a location. While this may make a little more micromanaging we have implemented a few things to help this out. Shipping distances can now be set branch wide and all new vehicles will inherit that distance. You can also lock individual shipping distances if you wish to make minor adjustments while using branch shipping as a whole. The new district system has also been integrated into shipping. You can now limit vehicle shipping from a specific district. The specific district settings will override shipping distances and only pull vehicles from the set district. Also with the District System as a whole, you can manage multiple branches's shipping districts and distances as if they're one. As you can tell by the text, lots of options.
There has been some minor cosmetic changes to World Map GUI, more is coming as we progress through 1.19.
Dealerships have become much more important. I've revised the dealership system to increase individual population pools (not shared with competition.) I've also increase the growth rates and maximum amounts. So when building branches, you may want to maximize that Dealership Relations slider so that your dealer networks grow stronger! :)
I think that covers most of the large stuff, complete change log is below.
I got to play test the game for the last 2 days. The new district system in my biased opinion is awesome. It does however show some issues we're having with turn performance (since very large companies are much easier to manage now.)
So 1.18.2 will be a slight deviation. I am going to work on bugs, minor features, and optimizations that have been submitted to me in the last few months. My list has been building up. This should only be 2-3weeks worth of work. With 1.18.3 I'll move back to finishing what I have left of the district system and feedback you folks have given me on the system. At that point I will probably update everyone before moving on to other features I have slated for 1.19.
(On a side note, Mac OSX port is almost finished, 99% sure it'll be good to go for 1.19!!! May have an open beta for it sometime in the next month or so.)
That sums it up. Enjoy!
Change Log
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-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 GUI
-Added 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.