I think I’ve noticed an issue where my factory is importing components for features that are not enabled on any of my car models.
Two components in particular stand out to me, the stop/start powertrain and touchscreen interface. I’ve only just researched these two items and do not have any models with either of those features equipped. In the efficiency menu it shows that I consume 29 stop-start powertrains per hour, and 59 touchscreens. There may also be others, but these stand out as they are expensive components. I also only produce 25 cars/hr, so even if they all had these features equipped it’d still be too many.
I’m experiencing this bug too.
I was running a fairly streamlined production line producing basic and mid-range sedans and compact cars with few features. I unlocked slots as they became available through research, but didn’t add the features to the cars unless required to do so by competitor uptake.
I noticed that despite record sales I was losing money hand over fist, that’s when I saw that even as basic cars were going through the stations the resources disappearing off the pad were all the expensive features such as leather interiors, cruise controls, and car alarms.
I rushed to disable all the slots except the 4 features added to the mid-range sedans, but I’m noticing the components of those 4 features are being used for every car that goes through the station, yet not showing up as features on the cars, or adding to the sticker price.
I’m losing less money now per car, but it’s still taking a toll on my bottom line.
Otherwise the game is working well, I’m pretty new to it and I’m thoroughly enjoying the concepts and gameplay!
Thanks
Hi, I’ve just experienced this myself. Ive been suspecting that it happened for some time now but never really looked into it until I’ve started fitting large battery packs which are 4000+$ apiece.
I’m playing the “tight budget” scenario in which you have to sell a certain amount of luxury cars. To achieve that I have a single fully developed production line except for the “fit axles” stage to keep it running at 6m43s/car and avoid headaches solving bottlenecks and supply shortages. That production line is running in a straight line across the whole factory and is supplied by a single conveyor which is great for keeping an eye on the flow of materials.
That single line is producing only budget cars with common options fitted just to cover research and running costs. I then started researching some common and exclusive options until I could build a luxury model with a 150% maximum markup. Then I’ve upgraded the slots and saw new materials coming in which was ok at first, but then it kept going on and on despite the fact that not a single luxury car had come out of the “fit axles” slot yet (only one in fifteen cars produced is a luxury one). That was mostly leather, servos and sensors at that time.
I then researched the electric powertrain and fitted it. Keeping an eye on that stage of the production, everything went as it should. I went on, researched and fitted large battery packs and that went completely wrong. The “fit fuel tank” slot immediately started stockpiling 5 battery packs and each time a car went through the slot, it consumed every battery pack in the stockpile, which was burning away more than the sale cost of the budget car for every single car.
So it seems only some slots or options are broken in this way, or that it happens on one slot or the other in certain circumstances. For now I suspect there’s an issue with leather seats and I’m definitely sure there is one with large battery packs. I may look a bit further into this as my current line is perfect for troubleshooting these problems.
[EDIT] : I love that game, I’ve been low on sleep for the last 10 days, thanks cliffski and keep up the good work ! I love the video devblog too. It’s not as fun as Prison Architect’s (best video devblog ever) but it does help a lot creating a bond between you and us.
So I gave it a thorough look in my current game (savefile attached) and here’s what I came with :
On the 17 options currently unlocked (fast-forward to unlock the Large Batterypack), 8 of them don’t behave correctly, in which case the slot will consume optional parts for every car that doesn’t need them if the parts are available in the stockpile. More precisely it will consume the right amount of normal parts plus all the current stock of optional parts in the stockpile.
For example at the “fit lights” slot upgraded with autosteer headlights, if the stockpile holds 12 lights and 4 directional lights, for each car that doesn’t need the option it will consume 4 lights and the 4 directional lights. Now if the stockpile is 4 lights and 12 directional lights (as it is right at the start of the savegame), it will wipe the whole stockpile. A car that has the option fitted will behave normally. If the optional parts are not in the stockpile due to shortage and the current car doesn’t need them fitted, the slot will proceed and behave correctly (except for “fit fuel tank” which will require a large battery pack to be fitted on a car that doesn’t need one).
If I activate the autosteer headlights feature on my budget model, the next budget car will consume 4 directional lights and wipe the remaining stock of normal lights.
It seems to happen as soon as the slot is upgraded whether or not the option is activated on any car model.
Of the options tested in that game, these 9 are working fine :
In-Car Music
Premium Music
Heater
Climate Control
Automatic Wipers
Power Steering
Tire Pressure Sensors
Electric Powertrain
Panoramic Sunroof
These are showing the faulty behaviour :
Leather Interior
Autosteer Headlights
Anti-Lock Brakes
Electric Windows
Central Locking / Car Alarm / Keyless Entry (didn’t try them separately)
Large Batterypack (once unlocked)
I’ll post again here if I have something new on the subject.
Note : The game was started on 1.46 and all the testing done on 1.46 as well. savegames.zip (181 KB)
So after continuing playing and keeping an eye on this here are a few thoughts :
Maybe the disappearing parts are part of the refunding process. The slot decides a bit too soon that as it is producing a featureless car it doesn’t need the more expensive parts and frees up the stockpile. The issue is that as soon as that car leaves the slot, it orders these parts again because there are other cars needing those upstream.
If these parts are indeed refunded, it’s not made clear as we have no hint of that process happening. There’s nothing that says anywhere : “You’ve been refunded that certain amount”. As such we don’t even know for sure if a refund has taken place unless you’re on a very slow line with not much happening and you can see your cash balance going up at that very moment. I know refunding is supposed to be part of the game because I watch the devblog, but I’ve never witnessed it for sure.
From where I sit the only thing I can see is that my imports and consumption of these very expensive parts is skyrocketing. It also puts additional stress on the supply lines, and I suspect it burns cash as well.
In the game that I’ve shared, I worked around the issue by building a dedicated line for budget cars, only upgrading the few slots that needed it and kept my fully upgraded line for luxury cars, which I would run only for short periods of time and let it sit idle most of the time (the new pause slot button helps a lot for that). Before that I was just keeping afloat but with the new line I immediately started making profit again despite having almost twice the workforce for the same job.
This leads me to believe that if this is part of the refunding process, then maybe it is broken in a way that it doesn’t refund anything. If not then the slots are just behaving wrong, burning parts on the wrong cars.
This also makes me wish we could keep track of the refunding process because right now we don’t know if it’s happening and when.
Thanks for reading this, I hope I’m not making it longer than it should.
That’s great news, after seeing the last devblog I was wondering if I should help in trying to reproduce the bug, because it happens to me quite often.