Cars disappearing

[Matrix3281]

The cars disappearing from the save files, after update. I exited the game and the car wasn't there.

[Killrob]

A wild guess: did you change the trim year after making the platform?

[Matrix3281]

no. Just exited the game and came back in. No cars were there just the engines

[jztemple]

I've just had this happen as well. I made a couple of 1940 model cars and a variant of each. Then I made a 1955 car and a variant, they both showed up in the main sandbox menu when I would "X" out of the sandbox and then start the sandbox again. I exited the game, then started it again and the 1955 car and it's variant were missing.

Looking further into this, I started the game again and made another 1955 car. And now I'm looking at C:\Users\[my name]\Documents\My Games\Automation\Cars\Models and while the LUA files for both the 1940 cars are there, the LUA for the 1955 one isn't there. I went back to the top level menu and checked the "Models" folder and the LUA for the new car isn't there, but the LUA files for the other two are there. But the 1955 model is available in-game.

And now I've quit the game, restarted it and no 1955 model

So, should I see a LUA file for any model I'm working on, or does it get written at some point in the process?

[jztemple]

Just to put some more info on this, I started the game again and this time made a 2015 car through the full process and there was a LUA file created for it. And just now I started a new car, a 2005, and just after the very first step picking a body I looked and there indeed was a LUA file with the name I gave it in the Models folder.

And then I created another 1955 car, but this time there was no LUA. It was the car body in the top left, the one with fins. However, I created another, same body, and this time there was a LUA file for it. So it's not a reliably reproducible bug.

UPDATE: So, at least I can say this with confidence. If, when a player starts working on a car and there is not a LUA file created for it in the Models folder right away, it's possible to continue editing the car and even exit the sandbox to the main menu, restart the Sandbox and continue working on the car, all without a LUA file being present for it in the Models folder. However, if the player exits the game and then restarts it, the car model will not be there in the Sandbox car selector menu; essentially it is lost.

Therefore, a player can check the Models folder right after starting the creation process for a new car and if the associated LUA file is not in the Models folder, the player should back out of the creation process and restart it and verify that the LUA is there this time.

[bowserchomp]

I've had this problem before. Even made a thread about it, cleverly titled "Dude, where's my car?", but got zero responses. Oh well.

[jztemple]

Since I've started monitoring the "Models" folder I haven't had any issues. If the LUA file isn't created once the body is selected I back out of the Sandbox to the main menu and restart the Sandbox. It seems that there's some combination of picking the year, changing the model name and selecting the body that causes the LUA file to not be written. Since this is Alpha I'm not really bothered by it, I understand how to avoid the problem and I'm sure they'll fix it.