Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 55: New Year's Resolutions

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 55: New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year to all my fellow Automationeers! Here, I will share my New Year's resolutions as an Automationeer. They are as follows:

• Host another CSR round. Having hosted a CSR round once for each of the past three years, I know what it's like to take the reins of this wonderful recurring competition. It's challenging, for sure, but getting it right makes it very rewarding indeed. To have any chance of hosting a CSR, one must either win the previous round or explicitly state that they are ready to host the next round if none of the users finishing ahead of him/her are able to. I have never achieved the former as yet, but it could happen this year - or it might not. Which is why my next resolution is more realistic.
• Try out the latest Content Update for the UE4 version. After what seems like an eternity, the UE4 release will receive lots of new content (fixtures, car bodies, etc.); some of it will be ported over from the earlier Kee Engine version, while the rest will be completely new. This will give me a prime opportunity to...
• Improve my car exterior design skills in Automation. There's a whole forum thread dedicated to Automation car design, and even though it only covers the 90s, the 2000s and the 2010s (so far), it's still very useful when creating designs from these . Anyone - including you and me - can visit it here if they need advice: http://discourse.automationgame.com/t/tips-and-tricks-to-automation-car-design/24960
• Enjoy the benefits of any bugfixes that result from updates. By this, I mean that the bugfixes will make certain car bodies easier to work with. Specifically, most mid-engined bodies cannot accommodate very large engines for their size due to a bug in how engine bay size calculations are handled. Hopefully this will be fixed in short order, along with several others.
• Improve my engineering skills in Automation. This is the area of the game where I am strongest, but I still feel like there is room for improvement. Knowing which engineering (which covers the chassis and engine tabs) and trim choices work best for the demographic(s) and market(s) you're aiming for is the key to developing a highly competitive car in Automation, especially in the campaign mode, where you take control of a whole car company over several decades.

There are other things I would like to accomplish as an Automationeer in 2019, but the five items I have listed above are the most important of all. In the meantime, stay tuned to see whether or not I keep any (or all) of these New Year's Resolutions - I promise you it will be an exciting journey.