Hi everyone!
Thank you all again for playing the game and leaving feedback. At this point I believe we have a clear plan for several months. We will share progress as always, detailing what we are working on.
Our plan now is to have an update on September 25th focusing on the main pain points that people are experiencing. These are:
Performance
Hub managers
Company buyout and competition
Mass edit options
Performance
The main thing that people find frustrating and we aim to fix first is performance. I got many problematic saves to test performance on and the core issue was always the same. Few cities that are far bigger than the rest take too long to update, and other threads are stuck waiting for that update to finish. This is due to the amount of vehicles and indirect passengers. At some point it seems that there is a hub created that can connect to almost every city within the 6 stops limit, which makes passengers search for a path for too long, especially when the path solution can be 1000 iterations later.
The first step is to optimize the path search algorithm further. This is live in the bugfix update. For me at least, the performance is improved 3x times for the problematic saves. But the problem is postponed instead of fixed entirely.
The second step will be to change how our multithreading job system works. Currently we have 2 separate thread job groups in the update loop to prevent information dependency. First, we update all cities with vehicles inside and fireworks, then we update vehicles, AI and managers. This system cannot reach 100% CPU utilization, limiting possible performance. In the worst cases, where there is a single bottleneck city, people are reporting CPU usage as low as 20%, with the game struggling for performance. A solution here will require too many changes and testing for a bugfix update.
Hub Managers
Hub managers need more tools to control them and specify what they can and cannot do. For example, specifying a budget, vehicle types, and if they can buy roads or rails. We will also add further refinements on how they make decisions.
Company Shares
Company buyout is not satisfying and is too cheap. We are planning to add a company shares system that will allow you to buy it out bit by bit, maybe adding some control options once you have most shares. This should also help with being bought out, making it not instant with a chance to buy back your shares.
Moreover, there needs to be some sort of screen once a company or a hub is bought by force, allowing players to decide on what to do with it.
Mass Edit Options
This is about upgrading, buying or selling multiple vehicles in a route or a hub. Easier management of multiple hubs and their managers is also on the to-do list.
Mid and Late Game
Lastly, I wanted to mention the late game. We are aware of the late-game complaint that there is not much to do. We will work on a solution in the coming updates, allowing the player to transition to some sort of macromanagement if they wish to.