It's been a while coming, but the beta test for the upcoming Ellisbury Update is just around the corner.
We've been hard at work developing new emissions testing and fuel economy drive cycles, based on real-world tests, a complete revamp of our drivetrain systems, and much more... all of which we touch on in our latest Dev Update video, which weighs in at a pretty hefty 53 minutes long!
Emissions and Fuel Economy Drive Cycles
Real-world fuel economy drive cycles are complicated; this is the US EPA's city drive cycle.
We keep the complexity of the real-world test, but make it easy to understand.
With the full fuel map we added back in LCV4.2, this has given us the ability to use more realistic fuel economy calculations for your Automation cars. More importantly, we can now actually calculate your car's true emissions values too, just like a real car's values would be measured, instead of the (almost completely) meaningless value we had been using for tailpipe emissions until now.
A lot of research and work have gone into the emissions calculations, and it will have some pretty profound implications on gameplay, especially in Campaign Mode. Getting something like a really highly-tuned supercar engine to pass emissions, for example - especially taking into account the prodigious emissions those engines produce when they are cold - is going to be quite an achievement!
Engine Dyno Revamp
Our engine dyno now more closely matches a real one, in appearance and behaviour!
With the Ellisbury Update, we are also completely re-doing the engine dyno tab. With the new fuel economy and emissions calculations, we can now give real feedback on engine performance at any RPM and throttle setting, which will be of immense value for tuning your engine. You will get instant feedback on your engine's performance, airflow and fuel flow values, emissions concentrations, and more, all with more control from the player.
Campaign Mode Sankey Charts
The sales model has been opened up for all to see.
Campaign Mode players will be getting a powerful new visualisation tool, to view exactly what is going on within a particular sales demographic; the Sankey chart. With this chart, you will be able to see exactly how many cars your competitors are selling in whatever combination of markets you wish to inspect, and what's more, you will be able to see how strongly your competitor's entries in that demographic are, even going as far as to see what their car's stats are. After all, real-world car companies don't operate in an information vacuum, why should you?
Poster Mode
A whole new way to share your creations.
We have often asked ourselves, "how can we help our players showcase their creations better and more effectively?" That has resulted in many new tools over the years, and the new Poster Tool is the latest. Nearly totally user-customizable and moddable on top, with the ability to design and upload many of your own custom elements, the Poster Tool allows you to create a tidy, informative and attractive posters to showcase your cars, complete with statistics.
Test Track changes, and a preview of the upcoming Track Editor
In the Ellisbury Update, we are revamping our Test Track tool, to allow for a much more interactive and immersive experience as your cars go around the track. Gone is the old red sprite, in with a new sprite, based on a top-down shot of your car as it is. Additionally, the new test track screen is a lot tidier and easier to read, and helps bring you in closer to the action, as your car makes its way around the track.
Though it won't be in the Ellisbury Update, we are comfortable showing you all the new Track Editor tool we are making! With this new tool, creating a new test track for Automation will take only a matter of minutes to create the spline, as opposed to the old method of painstakingly coding in LUA, or with a fussy and frustrating visual tool. Simply draw the optimal line spline around the track, then add the track mask, and you've got yourself a new track! You'll also note from the screenshot here, that there's a full weather simulation built into the track editor, so each track will have even more character and personality than before.
And finally...
Do you want to work for Camshaft Software?
If you want to make some money making 2D track art for us, let us know!
With all of these new tools to make new tracks, we are putting out a call to anyone with appropriate skills and who is interested in making a lasting mark on Automation, to participate in our Art Test!
The ideal candidate should be creative and will take great care with the finer details of their work, is able to plan and manage their time effectively and is a strong communicator, fluent in English. Experience with Adobe Photoshop is a must, and experience with Illustrator will be beneficial. If this sounds like you, you can download the Art Test package here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vkmhukrd_Wly8L47WDUIc5ulxfNC28It/view?usp=share_link
Good luck to all of those interested!
So, What Next?
The beginning of the openbeta test of the Ellisbury Update is in 2-3 weeks. We are tentatively looking at 4-6 weeks duration for that, and we will be making an announcement when the open beta phase starts, so stay tuned!
That should be all for now,
Cheers!
