In these first few weeks of 2020 I've taken the time to generally refine and balance the behaviour of commuters, as well as add the ability to reload failed stations.
These changes have gone through the beta branch (thanks everyone for your help there!) and they are now are ready to move into the stable branch. I've listed everything at the end of this post but here are some highlights.
Save and reload
The headline feature here is save/reloading or "save scumming" if you will.
If you lose a zone, you now have the option to reload the most recent save - be that manual or an autosave.
Assuming you haven't disabled it, the game now also autosaves when you open the station. Subsequent to that you can manually save (or the game will autosave as usual) at any point. Should the worst happen and you lose the zone, you can just reload to that point. This should help you enjoy the game without fear of losing your work should it all go wrong.
It makes the game a lot more forgiving and more fun in my view, so please give it a go! Of course, should you wish to restart the zone from scratch, you still have that option.
Commuter behaviours
In general, commuter behaviours have been finessed, and the rate of perceiving their environment, both positive and negative has been fine tuned.
Crowding especially has been a focus. This has been a fairly common request to resolve and I am happy to address it. Commuters will now more actively search for clearer space to walk into, are less easily crowded, and are more likely to walk through the station directly without buying anything.
Shopping
Another common request. Commuters in general want to buy less. The products they wish to buy scale better with your current progress, both in terms of tech tree and commuters shifted.
The way commuters sense shops has also been tweaked so that you wont receive a lot of "No Shops" in error (this was a bug).
Finally, you no longer need to build a shop in every area/compartment of your station to avoid "No Shops"/bad shopping range reputation loss. As a result, station design can be more natural and free flowing.
Staff AI
When you deploy staff into the staff room, the game no longer moves their "home" flag there. This means they wont end up waiting there forever. Once they are rested they'll get back to work.
I also added some text to label what staff are doing in the more ambiguous situations such as going for breaks and removed drawing multiple overlapping perception areas.
Thanks for your feedback
We recently hit 300 reviews! That's a major achievement. Many thanks to all of you who have left your thoughts through this first 6 months of development!
Overcrowd is a complex game with lots of moving parts but I think we are making good progress. I feel we've come a long way, and can't wait to take the game further. Please let me know what you think!
Build 220:
(incl. beta 207 - beta 219)
-prevent objects sell cost being negative value
-updated staff ai to detag objects they were acting on when fired/offshift
-added text labels to more staff actions
-Lights don't flicker on when you load a saved game
-Staff perception radius is calculated differently, increasing slightly slower and capping at a smaller value
-When you select staff, it only draws the flag and perceptions radius for the currents slected staff (removes confusing overlapping radius)
-Staff perception radius is now drawn transparent white, not a warm golden hue.
-Final score buttons stacked corrected
-Fixed moving and selling trash compactors
-Staff behaviour. This is most important. When you deploy staff into staff rooms, it does not reset their home flag. They will stay in there until their needs are met (guided by thresholds as before) and then leave and return to flag. This should prevent issues I have head about staff accidentally being deployed into staff room and staying there.
-Tool tip for refuse skill is corrected in staff menu (was showing people)
-Commute of the day correctly sets goals as if a zone 1 station (formerly could complete with just one track)
-New sandbox prompts you to name the sandbox when you create it (thus allowing an autosave when you open station)
-Final score panel draws background behind buttons.
-Final score buttons are vertically stacked. The "reload latest save" options now flashes to draw your attention to the fact you do not need to restart the whole zone.
-added "are you sure" message to retry zone if you fail in campaign.
-max 9 staff
-Renamed Exit button to "Abort" on final score panel
-Max levelled staff do not earn more XP or level (should prevent them getting a level arrow stuck if you max out all attributes)
-Platforms do no draw power unless you configure them. As a note, commuters also do not path to or seek platforms until they are configured. The best way to play is to not configure your platform until you are ready to connect the concourse to it.
-Commuters do not become lost at night
-Balanced commuter shopping needs to be slower to grow at start of a zone
-Emergency trains are not called in the morning
-Negative debt displays correctly
-Pound sign should display correctly across all fonts
-If you fail a campaign and click exit - it asks "Are you sure!". Because you can load you most recent autosave now if you fail! You don't need to start from scratch if you fail a station
-When you first open your station, the game autosaves. Why? So that if you then lose, you will be sure to be able to start from that point, and not be forced to rebuild everything again.
-You can restart from most recent save if you fail a sandbox or commute of the day challenge. So the game is much easier/less obtuse in all game modes now.
-Updated the icons for wheelie bin level 3 and level 2 fuel barrel
-Added tool tips to loading screen. Yup, like any game worth it's salt, we have a box of little tips to help teach you stuff while you wait for your game to load. Let me know any suggestions for tips you want to see there!
-Sandbox options now include the options to set min entrance requirement for a win state (was formerly only in Campaign)
-Final Score Sheet includes a not to let players know you may need to return to a station later to unlock all the tracks.
-repair thresholds move in 1% increments
-moving a lvl 3 power gen does not cause false "cannot build, are blocked" error.
-Aircon lvl 2 is less powerful. These were just so O.P. They probably still are, but keep me posted.
-P.A. code has been refactored to be faster.
-P.A. stops crowded a little less than in build 215
-Bug fixed from 215 that allowed commuter to accumulate speed and thus move like rockets (amusing, but wrong)
-Commuter shopping needs are throttled at the start of a station somewhat. IE you have a little time to build higher level shops before they all come in demanding fried chicken on later zones.
-New platforms default to best train stock. Yes it was annoying when they used the wrong stock wan't it?
-You can now alter carriage number and stock of platforms when a train has been called. Because that was annoying too, amirite?
-When you save a game, the menu closes to end any ambiguity over whether it has saved correctly.
-BALANCE: rep starts at 65% across all zones
-BALANCE: start money gradually rises for later zones
-BALANCE: if an item is over double cost ideal, you lose 2 reputation points.
-BALANCE: commuters react less to vomit and blood inline with difficulty level
-The rate trains fill is now tied to reputation somewhat, like doors.
-STABILITY: in those rare cases that a game crashes during saving, the prior save file will not be deleted, meaning it is more likely you can recover progress/help me with debugging.
-Side screen alerts remain for 1.5 instead of 4 seconds at the top
-signal automaters do not create alerts when you call a train
-megaphones do not chime on use
-ushered commuters create fewer particles
-ushered commuters anger level is reduced less
-fixed possible navigation glitch where commuters on bridges could end up pathing through nearby turnstiles
-PAs far more effective. 50% of commuter in PA range will not enter crowded state (vs formerly only being speed boosted)
-loading staff while sitting are not glitched.
-new staff mill correctly
-fixes staff keeping correct "home" positions on reload, and not occasionally setting them in inaccessible places causing staff to freeze
-updated saving process for spillages (blood/vomit) to prevent rare crash
-extending control room will not add additional door
-fixes nav glitch preventing staff dumping litter they were carrying in bins
-fixes font glitch
-Updated staff nav to plants and bins to use a different waypoint system which should prevent rare cases where they would freeze, unable to find a path to said objects. Do let me know if you notice any issues with this
-Autosave functions in sandbox
-Pound sign added correctly in certain missing fonts
-Campaign load screen includes roll mouse sounds
-certain missing Chinese fonts added. 添加某些缺少的中文字体
-cannot gain xp watering a plant that does not need it
-fixed tool tip hanging on screen when clicking on campaign
-do not call emergency train if no power
-clocks do not create dead cell adjacent
-litter is less likely to distress commuters, scaled by difficulty
-Commuters check for crowded state more often
-Campaign scenarios will not trigger if you do not have requisite tech level to potentially deal with them
-To do list doesn't open if in game menu
-Cannot click HUD for shortcuts to reports if in game menu
-Can reload most recent last save if you fail a zone! A note of caution. This includes auto and manual saves. If your autosave triggers just before your are about to fail, you would have to click restart zone if you cannot rescue your game there. I'll keep this under review.
-Fixed exploit/bug where building a plant at entrance guaranteed excessive rep gain from every commuter entering station, unbalancing rep system
-Overcrowding does more rep loss. It is harder to happen but when it does, it needs to make more impact. This should make it harsh, but fair. (instead of, formerly, unfair but mild)
-Shop needs. In line with yesterdays reasoning, but improved. Shop needs continue to be more common than before, but this is now more properly implemented. You can't really get by ignoring shops now. The needs are common, but conversely, the max number of purchases any one commuter makes is capped at a lower number, ensuring a more reasonable and ongoing throughput.
-Commute of the Day more balanced. Commute of the Day has long been the refuge for masochists alone, such was the difficulty. It was unfair, really. Part of the reason for this was a bug/glitch causes commuters to spawn with Zone 1 levels of behaviour (ie very angry and sick, high flow). This is fixed. The difficulty at the very start of COTD should be more reasonable and just gradually increase over time.
-Hover tips on start menu are fixed.
-Fixed hard crash caused by unlocking tech while still in build mode (thanks for filing this!)
-Chinese font ranges reworked.
-Overcrowding is LESS LIKELY. Quite a few people asking about this. The threshold for crowding is now reduced. They need to be standing in bigger bunches to feel crowded.
-Commuters will "mill" into open space more. So, when walking to a space, they will search further afield, and look for cells with fewer commuters in, reducing the likelihood of commuters bunching up and further reducing the likelihood of unnecessary crowding.
-Commuters have a 50% chance to walk more directly between shops (without a "mill* cycle, ie wandering off somewhere, first). This will increase throughput a fair amount. You will notice more commuter pathways between shops.
-Commuters can now correctly shop at the same shop twice if they needed 2 things there.
-Commuters will not erroneously say "NO SHOP" when a shop exists for that product. This a bug fix but I'll put it up here as relevant. Commuters were saying this even when standing next to the shop they needed. Annoying, right? Fixed.
-"NO SHOP" reputation penalty, aka the "bad shopping experience" has been changed beyond this. This is fairly critical. While the above bug made this hard to grok, you actually had to build multiple shops in every "contained area" of the station to prevent "NO SHOP" penalties. This no longer applies. If you have a shop for a product, you will never get a rep penalty for it, even if there is, say, a turnstile in the way. This should make the shop system fare more manageable and probably fairer. You can now just have one shopping district and not be penalised.
-However this change also makes the game "easier". Thus the rate of NO SHOP (governed by an internal need index for the product) is now slightly higher. If you don't have a shop commuters want, you will know about it and lose rep more. Did you know you could see what your commuters want in a bar chart? I bet you didn't. Use the reports and check your commuters needs! Or just click on the HUD at the top of the screen where it shows SHIFTED as a shortcut to that.
-Commuters feel more tired. It seems benches could be all but ignored up to now. I've increased tiredness so this is not so.
-The increased risk or tiredness and shopping are also intended to slightly balance the likely increased easiness of the game now Overcrowding is less a thing.
-Fixed very slightly jittering options menus
-Added entirely new Chinese translation. 添加了全新的中文翻译
-Fixed moving a powergen level 3 left a "dead" cell you could not build/sculpt
-Wheelie bins have no movement rep cost
-Indicators save and load correctly