Well folks, this is it. Our exit from Early Access and into version 1.0.
We call it this because we want to convey that this isn't the end, that more updates and content will come of which I'll detail below. But without further ado, here's what the update brings:
Features
- The Imperium, a huge property that used to be a nightclub before 'the incident', no longer will you be scratching for space in the Hound and Hare, this marks a significant milestone in our ability to make purchasable properties and future versions will now be easier for us to make.
- Background Sim, a huge effort in optimization. When you leave a property, the game will now covert all objects into pure mathematical calculations. This means you can now own as many properties as we can deliver with no impact to performance.
- Inverted bar corners, a long requested piece of furniture which will allow you to snake your bar in any direction you so please.
- Posh bar pieces, now there are 3 tiers of bars with the last one giving a + rep for having.
- Golden rep reward, if a customer finds more than 4 things they like about your bar, it's condensed into 1 golden +rep that doubles the reward.
- Steam achievements, enjoy showing off your successes in Pub Sim, now we've got it working you can expect more in the future.
- New Save System, our old system was very prone to corruption when the game got updated, the new system saves and checks many more aspects of the game to hopefully make sure changes are properly integrated.
- Snapping Grid, this allow you do quickly and accurately place objects, no longer will you be stuck measuring the specific height of lights.
- Animated progress bar, not requested at all but I personally felt that 1.0 is a benchmark where we make sure there is no part of the game that looks 'good enough' but rather has had effort poured into it. The old bar was a remnant of the first prototype so I hope you enjoy the new one.
Bug Fixes
- Chandelier has been optimized
- Level 999999999 won't appear for brand new players
- Initial game view ruined the broken Pub surprise, camera is now fixed
- Improved interaction box for cash register
- Repairing front text now says 'repair' instead of 'expand property'
- Keybind switching is fixed
- Jukebox didn't always show the music available
- Game no longer gets pitch-black at night
- All drinks are now on the price sheet
- Barkeepers will stop undercharging customers
- Customers will move away a lot faster now if a barkeeper refuses their order
- Liquor is now charged correctly (you always made a loss if you charged less than 300%)
- Barkeepers will stop freezing players if they use your beertap at the same time
- Fixed text overlapping problems
- Money sound is now affected by volume sliders
- Players can only stand from crouching if nothing is above them, this caused big problems before
Tweaks
- Added more descriptions for the misc crates
- Fixing the Pub front makes all the doors faster and without the creakiness
- Tip jars now accumulate money rather than giving it automatically
- Added a confirmation to starting your first shift to prevent early mistakes
- Added subtle tutorial for dealing with change
- Customers will no longer ask for a similar product if you don't have one
- Added -3 for dirty windows so players are more aware they can wash them
- We've split up the licenses so you don't need to purchase everything at the same time
- Also added 'recommended capital' for each license
- Added more staff management options
- Added warning for quitting the game when it hasn't saved
- Made the player hitbox smaller
- Vastly optimized the customer and staff AI
- Liquid amounts in wine and Liquor is now more easily seen
- Loan payback is now 0.5% of the current amount instead of the initial amount
- Added 'Final Orders' so you don't need to wait for ages at 00:00 while the liquor drinkers spend another couple of hours there
- Added map markers to help lost souls find their way home
- Made Whiskey Bottles a little smaller since they overlapped everything
- Plant collision box has been severely reduced
The future
For this release we had the help of our fantastic testers:
Knightowl, KristyDiggs and Thamalo.
Who helped purely because they wanted to see Pub Sim become the best game it could be, to them myself and Valentin are incredibly grateful.
But specifically for this patch we also hired a team of professional testers to make sure this comes out as smooth as possible. If you do find any problems then please let us know and we'll work to fix it straight away.
Lastly, we did a community vote to what comes next so I'd like to present the results and plan in this order:
Today - 1.0 launch
Summer - Cooking snacks and soft drinks.
Autumn - Bathrooms, overdrinking and barfights
Winter - Fruit Machines, dodgy games and Casinos
Again thankyou to everything for supporting this game, we love to work on it and it's only because of you that we can continue to do so. We sincerely hope you enjoy this for a long time to come.