Release [B151208+] Bug Reports

[Killrob]

- Polymer panels still seem to be missing.

That should be missing, aluminium panels and fiberglass have a new mechanic to them, their production technique becomes more automated over the years, so your new "polymer" is fiberglass in modern days, SMC one would call it.

[JimMondaix]

- Polymer panels still seem to be missing.

That should be missing, aluminium panels and fiberglass have a new mechanic to them, their production technique becomes more automated over the years, so your new "polymer" is fiberglass in modern days, SMC one would call it.

But aren't there cars that come with plastic body panels, and not fiberglass, aluminum, or SMC?

[Killrob]

• Aluminium is available in 1940 - is this Hand Made Alu? Yes, the production technique evolves over the years, check for the "No Mass Production" type of flag.
• Still seeing the engine-placement oddity with year. On the attached car*, if I go to the model tab and go back to 1961 or earlier, the engine placement switches from Front Longitudinal to Rear Longitudinal and the rear suspension switches from Solid Axle Leaf to Double Wishbone (as a side effect of the engine placement switch, presumably). Unfortunately, that is not really fixable in a reasonable amount of time, so we decided to leave that problem in until we switch to Unreal, that is the case for most of these "year changes selection" issues
• If you forget to select a drivetrain (durrr...) and attempt to move on to the Engine tab from the Trim Fixtures tab, there's no indication of why it won't. Good point... heard that several times :s
• Safety unlock anomalies (1960 and 1994) not yet fixed. Because they are intended thinking of the research part of the game already, we don't want to many things unlocking the same year.

- Polymer panels still seem to be missing.

That should be missing, aluminium panels and fiberglass have a new mechanic to them, their production technique becomes more automated over the years, so your new "polymer" is fiberglass in modern days, SMC one would call it.

But aren't there cars that come with plastic body panels, and not fiberglass, aluminum, or SMC?

Yes! but very few. SMC is also very similar to plastic in density and its inherent problems (big temperature expansion coefficient), so we took them out in favor of something far more common: mixed alu and steel.

Small annoyances:
1. The UI doesn't work well when things unlock "below" another thing in later years. The UI will now say "V6", but I'm still looking at a V8 engine model.
2. First and Second Muffler engineering time stack even if they're the same type of muffler. (If this is intended, then dual exhaust should double muffler engineering times, which it does not currently)

1) Yes, unfortunately not something we can easily fix, that will have to stay in until we redo the UI with Unreal.
2) Not intended, but very minor in the whole scheme of things (also you can argue that you still have to do the calcs for the gas at higher density but lower temperature). Mufflers will be gone with the engine designer revamp, so we don't care too much about this for now.

Quick question: is changing wheel offset supposed to no longer affect car weight?

That is still supposed to be in, we'll check.

-The description for push-rod suspensions is missing. Don't know if its a bug or wasn't written yet.
-Don't know if this is a bug or intended, but engine blocks use the same amount of production units (but not material costs) regardless of how big or small they are.

The missing string will be put in shortly, thanks for pointing that out!
The second issue you mention is intended, your machinery just costs more to offset that fact.

[TrackpadUser]

But aren't there cars that come with plastic body panels, and not fiberglass, aluminum, or SMC?

The most common cars that people mention when talking about plastic body panels, namely the Saturn cars and the Corvette, both have GFRP panels made with the SMC process.

[Packbat]

Thanks for the responses, Killrob! I'll have to go through and find what years the various "No Mass Production" tabs go away for the Feature Unlock Dates data.

Making sure that there aren't too many unlocks in any one year sounds like a good idea - definitely not something I was thinking about when I was trying to create the list of all unlock years - but I want to be clear just in case: the safety unlock anomalies I'm talking about are:

1. The last year of Advanced 50s Safety is 1959, but Advanced 60s Safety is not available until 1961, so in 1960 there are no Advanced Safety options.
2. The last year of Standard 80s Safety is 1994, but the first year of Standard 90s Safety is 1994, so in 1994 there are two Standard Safety options.

I like the idea of shifting safety options around more (at one point, I had delusions of going through the history of auto safety standards in the US to make reference lists of what safety options became mandated in what years - I would laugh so hard if Basic 80s Safety was those automatic-retracting seat belts that the US made noises about mandating for cars without airbags), but the current system of "new Basic replaces old Basic" doesn't hold in those two specific years.

[Packbat]

Minor thing I noticed while updating the feature unlock list: Aluminium doesn't say "No Mass Production" in 1940. (It does in 1941.)

[Trifler]

- Polymer panels still seem to be missing.

That should be missing, aluminium panels and fiberglass have a new mechanic to them, their production technique becomes more automated over the years, so your new "polymer" is fiberglass in modern days, SMC one would call it.

I just tested this, but in 2015 Fiberglass still says "Limited Production" which sounds like it'll be hard to mass produce it. Also, it uses lots of Production Units, whereas the old Polymer didn't. Mostly I would rather not lose the most effective panel type for economy cars. The rebalanced Fiberglass and Aluminum don't appear to fit that role.

[Madrias]

Was the removal of 8-speed sequentials intentional? I mean, as glad as I am to have 9-speed automatic slush-boxes in 2015, I was rather fond of my 8-speed sequential for anything requiring both drivability and sportiness.

[Trifler]

- Noticed the 1940 small car (2.05m/80.7") still has the bug preventing it from using any engine (even I4 50 mm Bore/50 mm Stroke) with a 4x4 (front engine selected) drive type. The other two 1940 car bodies seem to work fine with 4x4.

[Packbat]

I just tested this, but in 2015 Fiberglass still says "Limited Production" which sounds like it'll be hard to mass produce it. Also, it uses lots of Production Units, whereas the old Polymer didn't. Mostly I would rather not lose the most effective panel type for economy cars. The rebalanced Fiberglass and Aluminum don't appear to fit that role.

In real life, I'm pretty sure economy cars are still mostly steel. Fibre Glass/Polymer being "Limited Production" probably explains why.

[Trifler]

I just tested this, but in 2015 Fiberglass still says "Limited Production" which sounds like it'll be hard to mass produce it. Also, it uses lots of Production Units, whereas the old Polymer didn't. Mostly I would rather not lose the most effective panel type for economy cars. The rebalanced Fiberglass and Aluminum don't appear to fit that role.

In real life, I'm pretty sure economy cars are still mostly steel. Fibre Glass/Polymer being "Limited Production" probably explains why.

Saturns have been mentioned several times. They were inexpensive cars and produced in fairly large numbers. Admittedly they're the only ones I know of, but it means others could if they chose to. The ability to brush off impacts that would dent metals was a nice feature. I also liked having an option that had a prestige penalty applied to it in exchange for being light and not expensive. Right now, Aluminum appears the closest to the old Polymer, but it adds prestige.

Was the old Polymer overpowered? Probably, but the current options don't really allow for Saturn-like cars. They emphasize high-end cars. Just using steel for almost everything is rather boring. Maybe if Fiberglass shifted its emphasis on Production Units over to tooling instead, then it would be better. At least then it would be a fixed cost.

Also, I did some web searching, and according to this article http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?do ... ayout=blog, Corvettes used Fiberglass, but the Saturns used higher concentration of plastic and fewer fibers. The article states they used a blend of polycarbonate and ABS (Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene). The result was a panel that bent like a Rubbermaid trash can, rather than cracking like traditional Fiberglass. In the end they stopped primarily because they didn't like the wider gaps that were necessary in the door frames and hood. I also just called the service center at a car dealer and talked to a guy who said he has experience working on Saturns. He said if you touch the panels on a Saturn, it doesn't feel the same as traditional Fiberglass at all. He said that even if both are a fiber composite, he wouldn't call it Fiberglass simply because they're not the same.

[thecarlover]

I just tested this, but in 2015 Fiberglass still says "Limited Production" which sounds like it'll be hard to mass produce it. Also, it uses lots of Production Units, whereas the old Polymer didn't. Mostly I would rather not lose the most effective panel type for economy cars. The rebalanced Fiberglass and Aluminum don't appear to fit that role.

In real life, I'm pretty sure economy cars are still mostly steel. Fibre Glass/Polymer being "Limited Production" probably explains why.

Saturns have been mentioned several times. They were inexpensive cars and produced in fairly large numbers. Admittedly they're the only ones I know of, but it means others could if they chose to. The ability to brush off impacts that would dent metals was a nice feature. I also liked having an option that had a prestige penalty applied to it in exchange for being light and not expensive. Right now, Aluminum appears the closest to the old Polymer, but it adds prestige.

Was the old Polymer overpowered? Probably, but the current options don't really allow for Saturn-like cars. They emphasize high-end cars. Just using steel for almost everything is rather boring. Maybe if Fiberglass shifted its emphasis on Production Units over to tooling instead, then it would be better. At least then it would be a fixed cost.

Also, I did some web searching, and according to this article http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?do ... ayout=blog, Corvettes used Fiberglass, but the Saturns used higher concentration of plastic and fewer fibers. The article states they used a blend of polycarbonate and ABS (Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene). The result was a panel that bent like a Rubbermaid trash can, rather than cracking like traditional Fiberglass. In the end they stopped primarily because they didn't like the wider gaps that were necessary in the door frames and hood. I also just called the service center at a car dealer and talked to a guy who said he has experience working on Saturns. He said if you touch the panels on a Saturn, it doesn't feel the same as traditional Fiberglass at all. He said that even if both are a fiber composite, he wouldn't call it Fiberglass simply because they're not the same.

Based on that article, polymer panels could be cheap and lightweight, but have slightly higher production units than steel, and less prestige from those panel gaps that are mentioned.

[KLinardo]

---------------------------
Lua Error:
---------------------------
Step() failed!: [string "--client\functional\TrimDesignerWindow.lua..."]:3790: [string "--SANDBOX_DATA\CCarCalculator_TestTrack.lua..."]:178: attempt to perform arithmetic on field 'TopSpeed' (a nil value)

You can CTRL+C on this to report it.
---------------------------
Retry Cancel
---------------------------

And the V12 5 Valve setup on the intake side is a little off...

The attachment F1X V12 - 7L-a2340e85-9630-11e5-b8fd-9cd21ee789d4-7.png is no longer available

[Killrob]

Step() failed!: [string "--client\functional\TrimDesignerWindow.lua..."]:3790: [string "--SANDBOX_DATA\CCarCalculator_TestTrack.lua..."]:178: attempt to perform arithmetic on field 'TopSpeed' (a nil value)

The lua error alone doesn't help us much. How did you get it? Can you upload the car that produces this problem? Thanks!

[KLinardo]

I got it while testing on the Tulsa Drag Strip. I'm not home right now, but I can upload it later. It's a challenge built car so I don't want to upload it to this thread. Is a PM ok?