Good morning, Version 1.23.3 has been released to Testing Build. If you would like to try out Testing build, but don’t know how, you can find directions here: http://ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=2594&pid=6237#pid6237 . You can return to Default build at any time. So what’s new? Our sub-contractor finished writing the new translation website/program. If you want to help out the translations, you can do so here: http://translator.ventdev.com . If you do not receive an email confirmation or want to add a new language to the game, let me know on here. In conjunction with this, I cleaned up the English localization. This resulted in 15,000 fewer words in the game and 1200 less entities. Translators can eliminate another 20,000 words by not translating “fluff” text such as car reviews. The sub-contractor for the tutorial audio also finished her work. We now have approximately 20 minutes worth of tutorial narration in the game (for people who hate reading). Unfortunately, we lost access to the recording space (which was on the lower end of the quality scale anyway). So there are one or two minor errors in narration. But it’s good enough for government work. (And better than me doing it.) There is no real killer-feature in v1.23.3. Most of the changes to the core game were bug fixes and balancing adjustments. Some notable things include six new types of lawsuits that can damage your company. Monopoly lawsuits if your company becomes too big. A system to save your slider positions for future use (does not save sub-component selection however). And a limit to the number of branches you can build per year on Hard and Ultra modes (this can be disabled in advance game settings). What’s next? V1.23.4 looks to have mostly minor bugfixes, a couple of exploit fixes, and some balancing. You can view the roadmap here: https://bitbucket.org/EricBJones/gearcity/issues?page=1&milestone=1.23.4 . The major new game play feature will be import taxes (tariffs). This will be a pseudo-system. I will not be implementing a historical accurate tariffs into the game due to data and research limitations. Instead it will be a formula that spits out the tariffs between your HQ and branches. (Ideally, it would be between factory and branch, but there are too many GUI limitations in the game to feed players those rates.) This will be an optional gameplay mechanic. Other than that, there will be considerable amount of effort put into cleaning up minor GUI issues and finishing the maps. I may not be able to get all the maps completed, but I will have Base City Map finished and a considerable amount of work put into Base Territory map. Change Log:

v1.23.3

-GamePlay: 5-10% improvements to turn time due to optimizations. -GamePlay: Replaced "Driveability" rating with a "Handling". Placed Gearbox effects on Driveability rating into luxury ratings. Boosted remaining specs and sliders effects on the Handling rating. -GamePlay: Consolidation will now automatically create a new marques with your former company name and logo. For example if Foo merged with Bar you will now have FooBar, Foo, and Bar marques. -GamePlay: You can now save component and vehicle slider positions to a file for use in other save games. This only does sliders and not sub-component selection. -GUI: Fixed unpopular fuel type confirmation not clearing out advanced engine designer windows. -Bugfix: Fixed crash when using view prototype system in early game years due to 0hp engines. -Bugfix: Fixed issue with overtime (past 2020) gameplay values not resetting when returning to main menu. -Bugfix: Reserved units not being calculated properly in the Average Transpiration costs for districts. -Tutorials: Audio for all 44 Main Tutorial windows have been added. (Still a little post-processing work to be done, but still better than my "saliva" filled voice :D ) -Tutorials: Auto Tutorial Audio Play Checkbox fully implemented. -Tutorials: Tutorial Audio volume dynamically adjusted with sound effects volume slider. -Tutorials: Tutorial "Continue" button stops tutorial audio. -Tutorials: Disabled Stand Alone Car Designer when Main Tutorial is enabled. -Tutorials: Background Music is paused when Tutorial Audio is playing -Tutorials: Fixed World Map Cities not being selectable when world map Main Tutorial is running. -Tutorials: Fixed several missing glow effects and tutorial text issues. -Tutorials: Added more tutorial checkpoints to the game so if the player stops in the middle of the tutorial, they can resume more closely to where they were. -Tutorials: Fixed End Turn repeating some parts of the tutorial audio over and over again. -Translations: Preliminary testing of the user side of the new translation system has been completed. Export and user functions have also been implemented. Hopefully the full system will be out by next weekend. -Gameplay: Renamed Monthly Revenues, Expenses, and Profit Chart to Monthly Revenues, Expenses, and Cash Flow. Added Taxes to this chart and included interest income into income. -Gameplay: Towing calculations have been adjusted to minimize hitting the minimum tow weights. -Gameplay: Reduced engine power ratings quarter decline values. -Gameplay: Adjusted the player/ai influence on smaller city growth. Separate bonus values are now used for economic and population growths -Gameplay: If manufacturer employment in a city is close to a city's population, the city will have an automatic boost in population. -Gameplay: Increased factory idle costs by 10% of full production costs. -Gameplay: Branch costs have been increased on hard and ultra hard difficulties base on the population and income of cities. This can be toggled in the new game options. -Gameplay: Limited the number of branches that can be built per year on Hard and Ultra modes. Only 3% + 1 cities or territories can be built on if this option is enabled. This can be toggled in the new game options. -Gameplay: Monopoly lawsuits if your company gains over 75% market share for an extended period of time. This may cause fines or your marques be stripped away. Above 90% market share has stiffer fines and the possibility to completely break up your company into multiple companies. This can be toggled in the new game options. -Gameplay: Increased the effect of costs that sub-components have on components. -Gameplay: Decreased the costs effect of some sliders. -Gameplay: Some adjustments to component pricing. This may need some more testing however. -Bugfix: Fixed hitbox bugs in 2010 winter office and 2010 safe. (Might not be the correct years.) -Translations: All single quotes ( ' ) are now escaped in the database side. No more need to double the single quotes in the localization/translation files. Some more testing may be required in case I missed places. -Gameplay: Six additional lawsuits against your company have been added. -Engine: In game chat has been moved to Quakenet due to incompatible upgrades to Esper Net's web client. We will eventually host our own ircd (and upgrade our browser) at some point. -Gameplay: Lobbying protests have been added to the game. -Gameplay: Some minor adjustments to slider effects on torque and rpm. -Gameplay: Various rates and inflation are now capped when playing with random history enabled. -Gameplay: Mass production discounts only have a static effect instead of an accumulative effect on production costs. -Gameplay: Mass production discounts now takes into account the factory lines amount settings for the map. -Bugfix: Fixed Monthly Sales Amount Achievement Memo firing every time it is reached. -Gameplay: Estimated lost sales random values are now calculated at the end of the turn instead of every time a factory line is selected. -Bugfix: Fixed a couple of New Marque Spin off Exploits. -GUI: List pages for view competition in Branch Distribution Windows. -Translations: Hitting Alt-T in the main menu will now display word ID numbers before text. Do this before starting a new game and also before loading a game started with this feature enabled. -Translations: Approximately 15,000 duplicate or unneeded words removed from the game text. This is a 15% reduction in non-news related text. 18% reduction in the number of entities needed to be translated. -Gameplay: Inherit Branch Shipping Distances now works for districts locks and district selections. -Gameplay: Reduced Brake Specific Fuel Consumption for engines. After a certain amount of fuel economy (based on the fuel type's fuel rating) it becomes exponentially harder to increase fuel economy. -Gameplay: Switched "hp to weight ratio" to "torque to weight ratio" in the vehicle fuel consumption calculations. (Still working on the balance for this one.) -Bugfix: Fixed bug in AI gearboxes that could cause high fuel economy in finished vehicles. -Gameplay: Reduced small volume contract per unit payment amounts. -Maps and Mods: Finished National Independence news articles for Base City Map. -Maps and Mods: Added major historical news events between 1900 to 1993 to Base City Map. -Artwork: Premades for 40s, 50s, and 60s added.

Hotfix #1

-Gameplay: Reduced the quality of AI branches to prevent them from going bankrupt due to higher branch costs. Some more adjustments will be made in v1.23.4. -Maps and Mods:Added major historical news events between 1993 to 2001 to Base City Map.

Hotfix #2

-Bugfix: Fixed issue with player fuel consumption.

Hotfix #3

-Bugfix: Fixed Rare Autoproduction bug that could drop material costs to $0. -Bugfix: Fixed French Africa City crash if player started a game in 1950 and clicked a city before their 1960s independence. -Gameplay: Minor weight reduction for engines. -Maps and Mods: Added major newspaper events up to 2010 for Base City Map.