Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 57: Open Beta Progress Report

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 57: Open Beta Progress Report

After a long absence, I can finally return to the Automation Lite Campaign V3 Open Beta, and play it just as the developers intended. However, it was not without difficulty. To avoid any possibility of the game crashing just after startup, or when adding, editing, or deleting fixtures, I had to delete nearly every sub-folder in the Plugins directory and clear the cache from the game's launcher. It worked, but even then there were problems. 

For starters, most of the mods were no longer compatible with the most recent open beta build anyway, although some of them thankfully remained due to having been made available by default in time for the LCV3 update. A more pressing issue is that many bodies, some of them mid-engined, now have even smaller engine bays than previously, but strangely, it affects some of them more than others. Thankfully, a few of the other bodies carried over from previous versions have been fixed (in the sense that they have the correct internal dimensions), and some have even become available in different sizes as well and/or are unlocked earlier than previously.

In addition, the revised UIs for the engineering tabs are much more useful and informative, and the size chart in the engine tab finally displays the exact amount of engine bay space used for a particular configuration. Moreover, production unit and engineering time amounts in the sandbox have been adjusted to be more representative of those in the campaign. Finally, the game runs considerably faster, much to the benefit of those with lower-end systems.

By now, you may be wondering what has happened to the Car Shopping Round, given that there has been no news on that front for more than a month. Fortunately, it hasn't been permanently abandoned; it's merely being suspended until after the latest build of Automation receives a public release, by which time many compatibility issues should hopefully be fixed. For now, I am eagerly awaiting the return of CSR with bated breath, and have high hopes for the next round.

There is still quite a way to go before this latest open beta build finally enjoys a public release, so watch this space. In the meantime, happy Automationeering!