Big Update Feedback (B151208+)

[strop]

I just noticed the safety tool tips are all the same for each level!

Also sadly I'm going to have to agree that the track times are all just a little too fast now. My Huayra beaters (all of them) may indeed be lighter with as much power, but comprehensively spank it off the Airfield track. I'm easily getting times of 1:09 on road tyres. But I'm not entirely sure it's just a matter of cornering grip (though it does seem to be, say, 5% too high maybe)... because at the same time I'm not entirely sure that the times are fast enough on Green Hell!!!

[BrockWalls]

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Lua Error:
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tolua++ dbcall failed!: [string "--SANDBOX_DATA\CCarCalculator_IO.lua..."]:442: attempt to concatenate field 'UID' (a nil value)

You can CTRL+C on this to report it.
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OK
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Still getting this stubborn (as in, it's been around for about a year) bug after playing the game for about 20 or 30 minutes. Once this starts coming up, I've got to pretty much restart the game, since selecting anything causes it to pop up.

[Killrob]

tolua++ dbcall failed!: [string "--SANDBOX_DATA\CCarCalculator_IO.lua..."]:442: attempt to concatenate field 'UID' (a nil value)
Still getting this stubborn (as in, it's been around for about a year) bug after playing the game for about 20 or 30 minutes. Once this starts coming up, I've got to pretty much restart the game, since selecting anything causes it to pop up.

We just looked into this and this really should not even be possible (well, obviously it is).

442 is generating the filename for a Trim: Model 1 - Trim 1 - UIDNumber
Somehow your copy of Automation made a Trim without a UID or has made a corrupted file save without a UID.
Both the AddTrim and CloneTrim functions make UIDs by default, automatically created trims also have a UID and don't just "lose" it either.

Also, this doesn't seem to happen to everyone or even a majority of people as we haven't seen more reports of it.
Without more clues we can't even begin to look where this is coming from so if this comes up so regularly for you you could try to record it (video) so that we see all actions before the crash occurs.
In case you haven't tried in a long time, a fresh install with all Automation folders cleaned out would be recommend, too. If it happens after a specific time then it could also be system related. Getting a DXDiag and the gamelog.txt form you would help (how to do that is in the support forum) if you sent it to contact@camshaftsoftware.com linking to your message here.

[BrockWalls]

442 is generating the filename for a Trim: Model 1 - Trim 1 - UIDNumber
Somehow your copy of Automation made a Trim without a UID or has made a corrupted file save without a UID.
Both the AddTrim and CloneTrim functions make UIDs by default, automatically created trims also have a UID and don't just "lose" it either.

Also, this doesn't seem to happen to everyone or even a majority of people as we haven't seen more reports of it.
Without more clues we can't even begin to look where this is coming from so if this comes up so regularly for you you could try to record it (video) so that we see all actions before the crash occurs.
In case you haven't tried in a long time, a fresh install with all Automation folders cleaned out would be recommend, too. If it happens after a specific time then it could also be system related. Getting a DXDiag and the gamelog.txt form you would help (how to do that is in the support forum) if you sent it to contact@camshaftsoftware.com linking to your message here.

Weird. It happens in other situations too, but with a different UID. It sounds almost like it could be from a botched install of an old modpack from before the game was on Steam, so I'll try a totally new install.

I'm gonna try to get it to happen later tonight, so I can get the DXDiag and the gamelog.txt form, and then a video if the fresh install doesn't work.

[strop]

Another issue I've noticed: is it just me or are rear-mounted ventilation fixtures (grille and vent) adding to the cooling on front-engined cars? I'm fairly sure that this is happening but not supposed to be happening!

[07CobaltGirl]

Another issue I've noticed: is it just me or are rear-mounted ventilation fixtures (grille and vent) adding to the cooling on front-engined cars? I'm fairly sure that this is happening but not supposed to be happening!

I can confirm this IS happening. I was building my GTP entry and had a grille on the back for looks, and couldn't figure out why I suddenly had an extra 128KJ in cooling. I went back and clicked the vent and discovered it had exactly 128KJ cooling, on the back of a Front Engine vehicle.

[Madrias]

Another issue I've noticed: is it just me or are rear-mounted ventilation fixtures (grille and vent) adding to the cooling on front-engined cars? I'm fairly sure that this is happening but not supposed to be happening!

Noticed it too, while building a few car designs. I tend to use vents as decoration on the back of cars, and was finding that I had an unusual amount of extra cooling than the few vents I had up front.

[strop]

EDITED POST: Another thing I've noticed, which is kind of a carry over from posts of ages past, is the behaviour of cornering and track calculation changes largely on the relative change of drivability. This leads to some unusual interpretations, for example:

1) A lightweight naturally aspirated fun car with a sportiness and drivability of both 40, doing the downhill Haruna Touge. Taking off traction control or ABS makes it slightly slower down the hill. Taking off power steering makes the car slightly lighter, but also penalises its drivability to about 37.6, thus still making it slower down the hill.

2) An ultra-specialised top speed 500km/h prototype with 2200hp and a torque curve more extreme than Nicki Minaj's rear end. Has a drivability of 0, no matter which way you look at it. Taking the driving aids off does nothing to this car's time (except taking out the power steering makes the car a bit faster), despite the fact in reality, it's pretty much like a modern jet fighter that will almost guaranteed fall out of the sky/drive straight through the barriers and explode on impact if you turn the TSC and stability control off

This is something that's been around for a while... and indicates that a) the simulated driver is demonstrating the theoretical maximum the car is capable of (if using the full BROBOT system, of course, I'm quite sure the latter car would pretty much commit serious errors on every single corner) b) it still doesn't differentiate between the different factors that lead to a particular drivability score.

So, two questions: 1) Is it possible to take different factors from the drivability score and integrate those into the calculations, such that, for example, having a massive penalty to torque curve, which is why my car 2 has 0 drivability in the first place, would mean taking the traction control off has a much bigger impact on either the drivability value or track time, or to draw a parallel, having a really crappy dynamic response and turning the stability control off, and 2) is it possible to simulate multiple tiers of drivers ranging from average civilian to The Stig to Robot?

[Killrob]

The problem in case 2 is that the car is not drivable. Zero means zero. If you make it 80% less drivable from there it is still not drivable, zero. Automation is breaking apart a bit for cars like this and I don't think it makes sense for us to invest time into "unrealistic cars that break on the test track" considering that the test track itself is a bonus, not a core part of the game. We should probably make a zero drivability car unable to start on the test track at all to "solve" the issue

[strop]

That's true, good points all around.

I can add in this case that the actual drivability of my car 2) in the example with the driving aids on is actually 0.5. It's when I turn the driving aids off that it becomes 0, so, technically, what you're suggesting would work quite nicely: it is impossible to drive such a car with the driving aids off. I am happy enough to say that that car can only be driven by the most skilled of all drivers (as that was the intention).

Exploring the idea of the regions and the ability of one's potential clients to drive the car- I note that 'driving culture' and 'driver skill' are characteristics of each region. I apologise if I missed this in the dev updates (or throughout the beta testing process), but I never figured out if they'd been implemented in the market calculations as yet. On that note, I take it that a car with 0 drivability probably wouldn't be viable to sell at all haha.

[SuomimaaFIN]

Awesome!

[Zabhawkin]

I managed to break comfort by having a throttle response on the engine greater than 100.

[Killrob]

Ohh nice catch we'll hard limit it to 100 then, doesn't make much sense to have it above 100

[Zabhawkin]

You mean we can't have an engine that anticipates what you will do? :p