Just wanted to note that I have not dumbed down gameplay in this update, the changes to the alpha phase are mostly superficial.
Alpha 9.8.2 fixes
- Searching when filtering column would break game
- Bug in how patents were transferred from subsidiary
I've been considering whether to skip alpha 9 completely and move straight on to alpha 10, as the feedback has been kind of mixed and I don't want to give a bad impression for first-time players. I've decided to stay with alpha 9 and do one last overhaul of the alpha phase by making code and art progress easier to read using a small generic number, rather than the "lines of code" metric, and putting an estimate of the final value in the design document window.
I want to stress that having a progress bar no longer makes any sense, as the underlying quality of a product can no longer be condensed into a single number without being very misleading, and it would ultimately make the game more confusing.
Changes
- Switched to code/art units and added estimate in design document (all current contracts will fail)
- Made alpha phase endless, where code quality will very slowly decrease when being over developed
- Added ability to filter lists by column values
- Add the (Any) indication to leader role labels
- Disable confirmation dialogs option
- Task type filter now shows everything when all toggles are off, which they are by default
- Running out of company names will no longer result in an error but will be logged
- Ability to instantly release products using modded software from console
- Add in-dev OS dependency warning
Fixes
- Newspaper will not mention lack of potential sales for new companies, since it's relative
- In-house products should not count towards sequel bonus
- Failed steam workshop mods will now show real name in bug report and a list of mods that failed to load are given in the options window
- Mod loading code wouldn't note software type name in error message when failing to parse XML
- Various other fixes