A New Main Menu & Pattern Beta (v5.05)

Update v5.05 brings a massive visual overhaul to the game's interface. While the actual city-building and traffic-routing gameplay inside the levels remains completely untouched, the outer "wrapper" (the menus, settings, and progress tracking) has been entirely replaced.

Because this is such a significant change to the interface, feedback on any unexpected UI quirks or save-loading behavior is highly appreciated! Stuttering camera motion may occur on some machines and this is being investigated.

Here is what is new in v5.05:

🗺️ The Atlas (New Main Menu)

Say goodbye to the legacy gold multi-plane menus. The front-end of the game has been completely overhauled with "The Atlas." Progress is no longer hidden in lists; it is now tracked visually along a glowing road network that traverses cities across a fanciful map. The Settings panel has also been completely rebuilt, alongside a new "Rules of the Road" glossary to make finding game information much easier. These Rules of the Road will become especially helpful when the glossary begins documenting the Pattern game mode.

🧩 Pattern Mode (Early Beta Access)

With the new Atlas menus in place, the doors are finally open for everyone to try Pattern mode! This is an upcoming methodical, turn-based game mode. It is currently very rough.

Please note: This mode is still heavily in development. The mechanics, the visuals, the effects, and onboarding are still being fleshed out, so it will definitely feel confusing! If you would rather not be confused it's probably better to let Pattern rest a while longer as huge changes are on their way.

Current Cap in Pattern: The introductory London level is unlocked, with the ability to progress to New York and Paris. Progress is intentionally blocked after Paris while core features continue to be built out in future updates.

🛻 Classic Mode Adjustments

Toronto Tow Trucks: By popular request, a drop of 20 tow trucks has been added to the Toronto level once a score of 800 is reached. Use them wisely—these are the only tow trucks provided on this map! (thanks for the feedback, glacier)

🛠️ Bug Fixes & Stability

The "Clean Slate" Exploit: Previously, saving and reloading a game when roads were turning red would clear the vehicles and buy extra time. All vehicles and traffic states are now accurately restored when a save file is loaded. (Thanks to Pekoe and iloveyoutubepoop for reporting this exploit!)

Grid Stabilization: The game grid will no longer shrink after it has grown. This fixes the frustrating issue where bulldozing outer-edge neighborhoods caused underlying road segments to become permanently uneditable. Sometimes, prior to this change, parts of the road would go permanently out of view!

Save/Load Fixes: Numerous bug fixes have been implemented to the saving and loading systems to improve overall stability. This has tremendously improved the stability of restoring saved games (saved with v5.05 or later). This represents perhaps the bulk of the effort in v5.05.

UI Polish: Fixed a recurring bug where the in-game progress bar would occasionally lose its styling and render as a plain rectangle. Also fixed other UI where some buttons were squished oddly.

Thanks for playing and I welcome your feedback!