Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 28: A Holiday Surprise

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 28: A Holiday Surprise

First of all, merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all the Automationeers out there! This holiday period has brought a pleasant surprise to me. Specifically, the latest update to the UE4 version of Automation is now in its open beta phase. While this renders all cars and engines made in prior versions incompatible with the latest build, it also introduces some much-needed extra realism - and a chance to redo any cars from whatever new companies I have which have any sort of lore, however rudimentary. So without further ado, here is a brief rundown on the changes.

An assortment of hints for the car designer introduced in the latest UE4 Automation open beta

The first thing I noticed was that some menus now have a set of hints, which are very useful to say the least. Many users, including myself, have been asking for this feature ever since the UE4 version was released, and to say that they make designing cars much easier is clearly an understatement. In addition, the inclusion of minor warnings (indicated by a blue exclamation mark icon) alongside moderate warnings (which have a yellow icon) and the existing major warnings (with red icons) ensure that any problems with a particular car can be easily pinned down and rectified. They are too many to list individually here, but they all add a sense of realism absent from earlier releases.

Some of the revised trim options introduced in the UE4 open beta

More importantly, though, it is once again possible to adjust fixture and body quality independently, and select the number of seats in each row for purposes of practicality, utility or weight reduction. Driving aids now have their own quality slider, while cars can be equipped with cross-ply or radial tires, the latter becoming available only in more recent model years. On top of that, increasing the top speed makes tires more expensive by increasing their speed rating accordingly. Finally, when tuning a car's suspension, it is possible to test the suspension system with several different combinations of cargo and occupants, although the corresponding functionality has not been added yet.

The competitiveness bug in action.

This build is still some way off from a public release, though, and one of the reasons is that the competitiveness stats in some demographics are severely inflated. For example, the reimagined Morton Kestrel - my first UE4 car design, and now introduced as a 2011 model year vehicle - currently has a competitiveness value of 370.7 in the Fruinian Muscle Premium market at its pre-markup price of $28000, since competitiveness calculations only consider the effects of user-made cars and ignore the pre-built competitors entirely. I expect this issue to be addressed in a future update, by which time the only new chassis material option - light AHS steel - will hopefully receive a full description. Even so, there are many other bugs waiting to be found and fixed, which explains why most forum competitions still use the earlier Kee version for now.

An overview of the reimagined 2011 Kestrel. Previously it was listed as a 2013 model but I changed this in accordance with my planned lore revisions.

In short, despite all the bugs, glitches and crashes that the latest UE4 release is susceptible to, the multitude of additional features, and the extra realism that comes with them, ensures that this build is light-years ahead of its predecessor. Considering that it fixed many of the problems that plagued the first few UE4 builds, this is saying something. In the future, UE4 Automation will evolve even further, building on the developments introduced in the current release - including the presence of a Christmas tree (complete with presents!) and a pair of filled stockings in the car and engine designers, respectively, during the holiday season. Until then, I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!