EA 0.4 - Optimization #1

Happy Holidays! It's time for the EA 0.4.

If you've logged into the game in the last couple of weeks, you should be enjoying the Christmas Spirit already! Let us know if you've enjoyed the Halloween and Christmas decorations, and what other decorations you'd like to see! And be sure to set up a Christmas tree in your apartment or one of your businesses before Christmas Day, just in case Santa comes by!

What's new in EA 0.4

Electronics Store

• Player or AI run shop

• 6 New Products

  • ZanaMan Phone

  • Arty Fish Phone

  • ZanaMan Smart Watch

  • Arty Fish Smart Watch

  • Rhythm By Tre Headphones

  • Noize Boss Earbuds

• New Product Display Table

• Requires High Security

New Items

• Water Cooler

  • Can be used for Employee Demands

• Kabob

  • Sold in Fast Food Restaurants

  • Placed on the Industrial Grill

  • Kabob's Kebobs should now actually serve Kabobs!

• Cigar Shelves

  • Balancing - less inventory and more customers per hour

  • Box of Cigars now holds more

  • Original shelf is now "Large Cigar Shelf"

  • Added "Medium Cigar Shelf" variation

  • Added "Small Cigar Shelf" variation

• Checkout Counter

  • Original counter is now "Checkout Counter Right"

  • Added "Checkout Counter Left" variation

• Executive Desk

  • Original desk is now "Executive Desk Left"

  • Added "Executive Desk Right" variation

• Coat Check

  • Original item is now "Coat Check Left"

  • Added "Coat Check Right" variation

• Preben Sofa With Chaiselong

  • Original item is now "Preben Sofa With Chaiselong Right"

  • Added "Preben Sofa With Chaiselong Left" variation

A few random goodies

• When you load the main menu, you'll hear new Big Ambitions original Theme Music

• Added the Park Tree "X-Ray" effect to trees on the entire map to help visibility while driving

• Added "Building Hider" effect to the bridge to help visibility while driving

• For our 11 supported languages, the game should be between 99%-100% translated!

• Saved Game Compatibility. EA 0.4 will automatically convert saves from your most recently played version, whether that was EA 0.1, EA 0.2, or EA 0.3!

Employee Demands

• Office Employees can now demand a Water Cooler

• Office Employees can now demand more variety of chairs/tables

• Employee Chair / Desk demands are now fulfilled if you have a more expensive item.

  • Meaning, if you give the employees the best desk and chair, their demand for any desk/chair will be satisfied

Cleaners/Cleaning

Up until now, Cleaners have been a bit overpowered - so much that you barely needed any time to clean a very busy building. Also, there times when customers/employees weren't leaving behind as much dirt as they should have been, which also made the cleaner's job too easy!

These have been balanced a bit more, which means, you should be needing cleaners a lot more now. Additionally, if you use the auto-schedule for cleaners, they go back to a more proper schedule that follows their demands!

Vehicle Handling

• Added driving / lane-assist.

  • As long as you're relatively close to the lane, the vehicle will automatically straighten out after you finish manually steering.

• Reworked vehicle handling to make the cheap cars, heavy trucks, and fast sports cars feel more accurate

• Autopark no longer parks your vehicles on top of your other vehicles

• If your vehicle falls through the ground, it will be automatically recovered

• Fixed several parking spots were not allowing legal parking

• Fixed several spots where AI traffic would get stuck

• Fixed mouse-driving so you can make purchases at NY Distro

• Fixed selling car in the street blocks traffic

• Can no longer exit car while paused

• If your car is parked in the car repair shop, you no longer get a ticket

Health Care Negotiation

This whole interaction has been revamped. The negotiator now gives you counter-offers and reacts more appropriately to your own counter-offers.

You can pretty easily save a little money, or you can try to push for a bigger discount - as long as you don't annoy the negotiator and make them call the whole thing off!

New Emoji System

New emoji system accompanies certain events to visual help reinforce what is happening.

For Customer - their reactions now also have an Emoji so you can easily tell whether they are having a good experience.

For Health Care Negotiation - The more you negotiate, the more frustrated the negotiator becomes. You'll be able to monitor this by the emoji attached to each counter offer.

Player Stats - Emojis now pop above the player's head when you are hungry/fed, tired/rested, or happy/unhappy.

Coding Revamp

Office Demand

We rewrote how office demand is calculated. Previously, if demand was 50%, it would take your current capacity and limit it by 50%. If you had 4 lawyers, you could get 2 clients, which didn't make sense, so we changed it! Now demand still is a factor, but it is calculated prior to your building's current capacity, so if you have 4 lawyers, you should be able to get 4 clients per hour, during busy hours.

Obviously, other factors can still lower that number, such as employee skill, pricing, etc.

Customers Behavior

Customer/AI behavior has been heavily rewritten to help make things flow better.

• When you enter the store, customers should already be inside

• Customers return their shopping basket instead of walking out with it

• Customers no longer leave at midnight

• If a cash register closes, the customers will shift to a different cash register, instead of leaving

• Cash Register / Checkout Counter times should much more closely match the simulation (except Fast Food and Coffee Shops)

• Fast Food and Coffee Shop employees now only visit each station one time per customer. If the customer orders 5 burgers, the employee grabs all 5 at once, which helps speed up the flow.

Major Optimization

• Increased FPS (20+ FPS increase in some cases), especially at night and in low performance machines!

• Lowered VRAM Usage over 30% - Under highest settings, VRAM usage went from 6.1 (EA 0.3) to 4.2 (EA 0.4) Gb

• Lowered Memory Usage nearly 10% - Memory usage went from 3.6 (EA 0.3) to 3.2 (EA 0.4)

• Reduced lagging/hanging when exiting the game

• Optimized game loading. Especially massive saves now load significantly faster - Game with over 125 businesses went from 11+ Minutes (EA 0.3) to 47 seconds (EA 0.4)

• Optimized Icons, Textures and 3D assets

• Fixed a couple memory leaks

Bug Fixes / Upgrades

Now for a massive list of fixes. I have grouped some more bugs into a few sections, and then end it with a massive list of random bugs!

Soft-Locks

• Fixed clicking a Cash Register/Checkout Counter while your mouse hovers over an AI employee

• Fixed clicking Interior Design options while your mouse hovers over an AI employee

• Fixed you’re in a checkout line (or getting a hair cut, etc) in a player-owned store when it closes

• Fixed if you click Autopark while the sleeping UI is visible

• Fixed buy Casino Ticket while paused

• Fixed issues with HR Mangers getting Insurance if they were hired by Head Hunter

• Fixed buy your own furniture and break the store

• Fixed trapped in "Void"

Businesses

• Clothing Balancing

  • Wholesale/Import prices have increased

  • Customer flow has decreased.

• Hairdresser

  • Security requirements have been lowered to their proper value

  • "Free" haircut at your store was previously still charging you. It is free now

  • Fixed color issue when resetting Hairdresser Chair

• Truck Garage

  • Added logo to Truck Garage business.

• Nightclub

  • Fixed issue where you still collect "Cover Charges" if you change a Nightclub to another business

  • Fixed issue where customers were trying to buy “coat checks” and “cover charges”

• Blueprints

  • Fixed issue where you could begin an Interior Installation without picking a blueprint

  • Fixed issue if the blueprint was deleted after beginning Interior Installation.

  • Fixed issue where furniture acquired in a blueprint didn't count toward "Bling Bling" achievement

Tutorial/Quests

• Clarified Fast Food Business Quests to avoid confusion

• Removed 75m size restriction from the Fast Food Business Quest.

• Fixed hospital treatment quest doesn't checkmark (until new hour)

• Fixed quest for the player to buy a drinks fridge so it accept the large drinks fridge too

• Fixed Gift Shop “Tutorial Finger” not scrolling with businesses

• Fixed MarketInsider "Tutorial Finger" was pointing to the wrong icon

• Fixed “A Fresh Start” lasting forever if you ignore the tutorial

Movement/Interaction

• Fixed various hard to click/enter buildings

• Fixed various Building Hiders

• Fixed various player/vehicle collider issues

• Fixed issue where you couldn't grab an object if it was right by the door

• Fixed you can right-click while using auto-run now to rotate camera

• Fixed issue where pedestrians run into Candy Canes

• Fixed clicking on the hospital chairs (Insurance / Mr. Ternity) wouldn’t let you sit down

• Fixed issue that allowed a handtruck/scooter into the Gym or on the Casino Boat

• Fixed missing wall grid on C1 wall

• Fixed Pull-Up bar would interfere with objects on the other side of a shared wall

• Fixed Can Put Carpets and Dance Floor On Roof

• Fixed so now you can place an exit Sign above the door in in A1 / A2 / A3 buildings

• Expanded “X-Ray” Tree effect to all trees to help with parking and road visibility

• Removed restriction for home gym equipment that requires workout clothes

• Fixed warehouse doesn't check inside door for vehicles

• Fixed damage from driving into parking garage

• Fixed could drop a mop onto a hand truck

• Fixed could drop a shopping basket onto a hand truck

• Fixed problems when grabbing items from a shelf as a delivery is happening

• Fixed dirty being highlighted when you enter a building

• Fixed teleportation when you click on object and use WASD

• Fixed player gets stuck between door and wall

• Fixed player gets stuck outside the building entrance while inside the building

• Fixed character running into walls at 11 4th St

• Fixed Angled Crates don't angle properly when placed

• Fixed you have no energy but you can still dance

• Fixed teleporting after a Subway ride from Metro Wholesale

• Fixed can't click on cleaning station to return mop

• Fixed AJ Pederson and Son - Can't click on Dome Camera to Purchase

Visual Fixes/Updates

• Fixed a lot of visible seams in the roads

• Improved outdoor lighting/shadow simulation through the day

• Fixed/Improved some item color customization

• Added some new animations and textures

• Added female skirt clothing option

• Fixed issue where Casino employee was wearing multiple characters smashed together.

• Fixed an issue where edges of exterior buildings would flicker when the walls are "hidden"

• Fixed Ika Bohag outline flickering near the entrance

• Fixed sometimes AI vehicle tires were visible in Voogle Maps

• Fixed sometimes "delivery truck" drivers, and pedestrians would be visible in Voogle Maps

• Fixed some lights could pass through walls

• Fixed uniforms don't update if you're In the building

Audio

• Fixed issue where main menu music would continue to play if the game was paused when loading

• Fixed issue where main menu music wouldn’t play when returning to the main menu from the game

• Fixed issue where some SFX wouldn't play while placing objects if the game was paused

• Fixed so pausing the game mutes all other sounds including engine noises and ambiance sounds

• Turned music off while on Scooter

• Fixed music outside the club wasn't impacted by volume settings

• Replaced a few Sound Effects

Quality of Life / Clarification

• Fixed recruiter message that claimed you cancelled your request after trying to recruit

• Quick Link button to "See Candidates" from Recruiter text messages

• Alert on BizPhone Candidates App when new recruits are available

• “Not duplicated” warning has been clarified

• Cleanliness Demand has been clarified

Various Random Bugs

• Fixed you can't put a security panel on one side of the door.

• Fixed Hairdresser and Coat Check stations would make money with no employees

• Fixed issue where you could hire the same employee twice if you pressed a specific button sequence

• Fixed issue if player becomes exhausted while working a register in Interior Design mode

• Fixed an issue where inventory stored in a vehicle inside a warehouse would mess up imports.

• Fixed so customers use Digital Scale based on the scale placement instead of the counter placement

• Fixed issue where the 49 2nd St Warehouse would launch your freight truck out the exit and cause crashes

• Fixed issue where empty POS would try to refill by taking your purchased paper bag of items instead of using the correct box of paper bags.

• Fixed small floating square signs at 18 2nd Ave

• Fixed invisible "Cocktail Neon" Sign Above Neon Circle

• Fixed the map can be opened/closed from the fullMenu with the 'M' button

• Fixed some demands like "mousepad" are checked when the employee is not assigned yet

• Fixed AI customers appear inside buildings when you are outside

• Fixed modern cabinet attachments are backward

• Fixed AI sometimes appearing In the Fountain

• Fixed deliveries to some locations were on the street

• Fixed customers steal if you have no paper bags

• Fixed if your final employee training is less than 10%, the price adjusts to match

• Fixed high queue waiting time at IKA

• Fixed "No Cleaning Shifts" not being fulfilled

• Fixed so buying building and overtaking store now removes them from MarketingInsider app

• Fixed backward placed item against wall makes AI stuck

• Fixed several non-reachable items in IKA Bohag

• Fixed in a custom game with no hunger, you can still get sad from not eating

• Fixed so employees don’t get 4 Demands

• Fixed employee stands on wrong side of counter with glass

• Fixed employee wants no weekends, has no weekends, and is unhappy

• Fixed boxes unpack themselves

• Fixed joining a long customer queue can push you outside

• Fixed can't see car, even though you can see the icon while in a building

Fixed Various UI issues

• Fixed player money UI now shows a rounded down figure to avoid showing more money than the player actually has when rounding up

• Fixed alignment of the 1 on the time machine clock in numbers like 1:00, 11:00, 21:00

• Fixed some spots where Chinese characters weren’t displaying properly

• Fixed if you rename a business, the "temporarily closed" alert stays up now

• Fixed "Manage Cargo" UI match other UI boxes

• Fixed HR Manage skill level wasn't rounded in certain places

• Fixed a few text descriptions

• Updated some Voogle Map Filter colors

• Fixed "Set Destination" button didn't work in the EconoView App

• Fixed Map Icons weren't fully synced to the camera movements

• Fixed issue where hanging signs could show the wrong item

• Fixed issue where sometimes clicking would create two ground-click indicators

• Fixed Scheduling issue where a 0-hour shift would be assigned at midnight

• Fixed display issues when previewing a building

• Removed Text "Click to Watch" on Interactable Items (TVs) in AI Store

• Added a red badge icon on MyEmployees when candidates are available

• Changed color of “Paid” parking to better differentiate from “Illegal” parking

• Fixed situations where outdoors delivery pallet UI was visible indoors

• Fixed business “Minimum 1 Product” now only should checks for primary products

• Fixed setting a waypoint in a parking garage wouldn’t appear above ground

• Fixed after placing an Interior Installation order, they now ask "do you want another?

• Fixed after requesting Health Insurance Manager, they now ask “do you want another?”

• Fixed can't reuse warehouse name if old warehouse was shut down

• Fixed Auto-Fill now confirms you want to use it and overwrite your schedule

• Fixed recruitment message Says "jobdemand_PartTime"

• Fixed clicking and dragging makes UI Pop Up on Mouse-Up

• Fixed clicking message popup alert doesn't clear the message notification

• Fixed gas station repair wasn’t always showing the most up-to-date repair amount

• Fixed if you extend your store hours while working, the UI doesn't update

• Fixed building sign colors don't match what was set

• Fixed if you load into a game holding a mop, the mop UI is partial

• Fixed hotkey for "Do Order (Free)" doesn't work

• Fixed you can’t click on the map while holding a mop

• Fixed Logo/Icons have weird white line artifacts

• Fixed employee schedule list resets to top each time you click a new day

• Fixed BizMan Alerts wrongly persist between businesses

• Changed employee schedule overlay from "Right-Click To Remove" to “Right-Click to Manage”

• Fixed uniform - female shirt shows the wrong thumbnail

• Fixed Uncle Fred text box now goes away if he is paused

• Fixed wholesale delivery contract has no cancel confirmation

• Made next radio station button smaller

• Fixed laggy BizMan > Schedules

• Fixed if you pass out while looking at "Preview Terminal" UI, it stays visible

• Fixed outdoor business sign doesn't match BizMan settings color

• Fixed for "Blueprint by [Unknown]" user names

• Fixed achieved 100% Employee Satisfaction but only 2 of 3 demands are satisfied

• Fixed Paper Bag highlights randomly when leaving building

• Fixed When click-dragging on scheduler, maintain schedule length

• Removed Coat Check Fee from MarketInsider

• Fixed you could open two Ika Flatbed Inventory sheets and accidentally delete everything

• Fixed sometimes the Loading screen doesn't fade out completely

• Fixed sometimes the UI Destination was visible when previewing a building

• Fixed random warning dot when entering/loading building

Known Issues

While most bugs have now been squashed a small number have remained:

• The pop-up overlays are annoying! And a fix is coming for that most likely in the next major update!

• Sometimes you can't click on something (fridge, car, computer), exiting/entering a building should fix it

• Sometimes the audio will cut out. Saving and reloading should fix it

• If you do Uncle Fred tutorial steps out of order, sometimes you have to redo steps

• Sometimes a character gets stuck in a previous animation pose. Saving and reloading should fix it.

• If the uncovered gas station pump is occupied and you use a tow truck on a Freight Truck, it can get stuck

• Sometimes there is lag between tracks when listening to personal MP3s

• When loading a game, often the gas tank will refill for free

• Sometimes a storage shelf will appear empty when it's not. Exiting and re-entering the building should fix it.

• Sometimes the female "uniform" mannequin is missing a head.

A message from Jonas, founder of Hovgaard Games:

Hi everyone! I just wanted to elaborate a bit more on what this update is really about: The future. For our first 3 updates, we focused entirely on adding new content to the game, not considering performance and "technical debt". EA 0.4 is the opposite of that. It's all about optimizing the core of the game, cleaning up, fixing the bugs and preparing for the future. The team is already busy working on all the new content and I promise you, both EA 0.5 and EA 0.6 will add so much new and cool content. You got the best to come. We're only just getting started 😎 - Jonas

From the whole team, we hope you enjoy the update and have a good end to your 2023!

We'll see you in 2024 with EA 0.5's Rivals!

~ Hovgaard Games