Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 163: Uncharted Territory

Confessions of an Automationeer, Part 163: Uncharted Territory

Shortly after the release of the latest open beta build of Automation (4.3), I started trying it out for myself. The first thing I noticed was the presence of a few new or revised body sets, some of which replaced existing ones which dated back to the Kee builds of several years prior. Others were introduced as mods for earlier UE4 builds, but were omitted from 4.2. The result is more variety not just in terms of body choices, but also in engine and trim options, as we shall soon see.

Above and below: My first four test mule builds after the release of the latest open beta build of Automation - a mid-engined 12-cylinder supercar, a V8-powered pony car, a six-cylinder sports coupe, and a small four-cylinder roadster.

First and foremost, the engine designer has been overhauled in 4.3; there are many more options for block and bottom end (crank, conrod, and piston) materials than before, and each one has its own pros and cons. Aluminum and aluminum/silicon blocks come in both light and heavy varieties (the former offering better cooling and emissions at the expense of smoothness, noise, and power density, while the opposite is true of the latter); in addition, there is also an option for a billet aluminum block, which costs more than any other block material, but provides superior attributes in all other key aspects compared to other alloy block types. However, in general, aluminum/silicon blocks tend to yield a lower safe power limit than an equivalent aluminum or cast-iron block.

Above: The revamped engine family options screen showing the new block material options. Below: In later trim years, depending on the techpool allocation for the exhaust system, you may combine a 3-way catalytic converter with a precat (which reduces emissions even further), unless you fit long or racing headers (neither of which are compatible with a precat).

Among the many bottom end options introduced in 4.3, there are heavy variants of most crank, piston, and conrod types; these can withstand more torque but fewer RPMs, whereas light variants of some of these part types can endure higher RPMs, but are less resistant to high torque loads. As such, you'll need to choose your bottom end parts more carefully than before depending on the application. Also, if a catalytic converter is fitted, then the emissions optimization level can be adjusted; the higher the level, the more likely it is to meet future emissions standards, but at the cost of low-end torque and throttle response, especially with more aggressive optimization settings. On top of that, in later years, it is possible to combine a three-way catalytic converter with a precat, thereby reducing emissions even further with minimal loss of output (although this part type is incompatible with racing or long headers). Finally, when building a 90-degree V8 engine, there is now a button to replace the cross-plane crank with a flat-plane one, or vice versa.

Above An example of a late-'80s/early-'90s engine, with the emissions test charts shown on the fuel system tab. Below: A list of all available bottom end parts shown for the variant year and techpool allocation for the same engine. This engine is a 90-degree V8; as such, the button for switching to flat-plane cranks (or cross-plane ones if the flat-plane one is already selected) is not ghosted.

Trim options are now much more varied as well. To start off, in the drivetrain/transmission tab, it is now possible to adjust the ratio for first gear, in addition to top speed, gear spread, and speed limiter values, and there is now an option to adjust every gear ratio individually - the latter option, though more difficult and complex to use, provides greater control over a car's gearing, and fine-tuning each individual gear can yield better results when done right. In addition, there is now a racing version of the clutched LSD (which sacrifices comfort for sportiness, at a greater price), and the geared LSD has been renamed the helical LSD due to the two having the same internal structure. However, the automatic locker has been removed due to the fact that the implementation of on-demand and advanced AWD (as explained below) has rendered it redundant.

Above: The new gearing screen now not only shows gearing suitability for drivability and sportiness, but also allows you to switch between basic and advanced modes; the latter, which is shown here, gives you complete control over individual gear ratio adjustments, as well as the final drive ratio. Moreover, there are now more transmission, drivetrain, and differential types available. Below: The 4.3 update now includes test track data, emissions testing, detailed stats, cruise efficiency, drag, and traction test charts, the last of which is shown here; however, all of them are viewable from most sections of the trim options menu, and you can select the one you want to see by clicking on the corresponding button.

Also, depending on trim year, there can now be up to four AWD systems to choose from: viscous, helical, on-demand, and advanced. Each of these offers better stats than the last, in addition to wider torque distribution ranges (although on-demand systems won't allow you to adjust the torque split manually, instead offering automatic torque distribution), but at an increasingly higher cost. Finally, sequential gearboxes (which offer faster shift times and hence greater sportiness, and the expense of higher cost and reduced drivability) and continuously variable transmissions have been properly implemented for the first time ever - the former are best suited to racing and high-performance applications, and the latter has an infinite spread of ratios at the expense of a lower torque limit, making it ideal for cheaper, less powerful cars.

With the 4.3 update, the interior tab now includes a racing interior option; this reduces prestige, comfort, and production efficiency even further compared to a sports or basic interior, but is the lightest option available, making it best suited for dedicated race cars, especially with the weight optimization slider set to its lightest setting. Moreover, toe angle (i.e. the angle of the car's tires/wheels when viewed from above) can now be adjusted in the suspension tuning tab. Automation measures toe angles in terms of toe in (i.e. how much the front of the wheel faces inwards); hence, a negative toe-in angle (in which the front of the wheel faces outwards) represents toe-out. In general, the greater the toe-in angle, the greater the stability. Also, if the front wheels toe in and the rear wheels toe out, the car will have a tendency to oversteer, and if the front wheels toe out and the rear wheels toe in, there will be a tendency to understeer. However, increasing toe-in at both axles on mid- and rear-engined cars is generally advisable, since it's particularly effective at countering their innate oversteering tendencies - up to a point, since excessive toe-in will induce too much understeer.

Above: Viewing the emissions test data from the interior options section of the trim menu, which now includes the option of a racing interior. Below: The updated suspension settings screen in 4.3, now showing toe-in angles (which can finally be adjusted for the first time ever).

Within the overview tab, the fuel economy section of the detailed stats screen has been redesigned to accommodate an emissions chart. This can be used to determine whether or not your car is compatible with current and future emissions standards for a given market; there is also a separate table showing the maximum pollutant levels for each set of standards. A red cell in the emissions standards table indicates that the car will not meet a specified set of standards in that market; a green cell, on the other hand, shows that it will pass those standards. In general, emissions standards are measured according to WES (Worldwide Emissions Standard) ratings; the higher the number, the cleaner the engine will be, and WES standards will become more stringent in later years, with different regions having different timelines for introduction of new standards. However, with these changes in place, overhead-valve and/or extremely high-revving normally aspirated engines will be disadvantaged, since they are less likely to be compatible with newer emissions standards.

The fuel economy section of the detailed stats tab in 4.3, now with an emissions level and standards compatibility chart as standard.

Another change for 4.3 is that the performance data is now shown in the overview tab instead of the test track tab. Speaking of which, that tab has also been extensively revised; in addition to the new Ellisbury Speedway test track set (which includes four layouts: Tri-Oval, Grand Prix, GT, and Junior), the test track map now covers almost the entire screen, with telemetry at the bottom, and it is now possible to zoom in or out on the map, as well as lock the camera to the car's current position. In addition, weight distribution calculations have been revised so that engines are now mounted farther forward than previously. This makes mid- and rear-engined cars less prone to terminally oversteer, but gives front-engined cars a less favorable weight distribution, even with the weight shifted as far back as possible (although the new toe angle adjustment feature can help compensate for this). Regardless, you won't need as much tire stagger (the difference between front and rear tire widths) as before.

The result of a test session (in the form of a standing-start time trial) on the new test track tab, with a full-screen track map - the track shown here is a custom community creation, rather than one of the stock tracks (of which the various layouts of Ellisbury Raceway are among them).

New to the summary tab is a Poster button, which allows you to create an image showing your car from multiple different angles, as well as its vital stats and engine dyno sheet. From here, you can choose from a multitude of fonts, font colors, background images, and lighting settings. Clicking on the Export button will create a poster with the specified settings. Although there are still a few bugs (which will hopefully be fixed in the near future), it's still generally functional, and is one of the best ways to show off your build (and its stats) in a single picture file.

The new poster menu allows you to create a picture file (usually in .png format, although others are available) summarizing the vital stats of your build, along with its engine. 

Sandbox tech pool has also been overhauled for 4.3. In addition to an option for negative tech pool, the game will also show the cost of setting the tech pool to the current settings - not just for the tech pool itself, but also the cost of researching it (referred to as lab costs) as well as the combined cost of both. This makes it easier to keep track of overall tech pool costs. In particular, this could be useful for challenges whose tech pool budgets are calculated in this manner. Moreover, I have found that from a default setting of +5 on all areas (for both the engine and trim), setting the turbo techpool to 0 on any car powered by a naturally aspirated engine frees up plenty of room in the techpool budget for additional points that can be spent elsewhere - a boon if your build doesn't rely on forced induction.

An example techpool allocation showing the techpool and lab costs, as well as the combined cost of both.

Remember those new body sets I mentioned previously? Well, there are quite a few of them - but not all of them are completely new to the game. Some of them are derived from mods for earlier versions, and others are replacements for body sets that were introduced in the original Kee version of the game, only to disappear altogether or be neglected after the transition to UE4. In fact, the Ice Cream body set (which unlocks in 1989) is the only one that's truly new. There is no longer any doubt, however, that I have found every new or revised body set in 4.3 to be very pleasant to work with. In particular, the '87 Boat and '89 Ice Cream body sets are very versatile, with lots of morphing zones that have a wide range, allowing you to make all manner of shapes, from boxy to curvy or even wedge-shaped, not to mention anything in between - I have found the latter in particular to lend itself well to rear-engined configurations, especially in terms of aesthetics.

The '89 Ice Cream body sets are completely new to the game for 4.3; all the other new body sets are revamps of existing ones from earlier versions, but are a huge improvement on their predecessors.

On top of that, the recently released third patch for the 4.3 open beta has added a further dose of realism to the game. In addition to maximum stroke determining the amount of space required for an engine, there are now power/traction graphs that show the amount of traction each axle has in specific conditions and situations. Also, gear ratio values now provide bonuses or penalties to drivability, sportiness, and reliability depending on how they are set. Of all the changes introduced in this patch, these are the most significant. The fourth open beta patch is more minor in scope by comparison, in preparation for the upcoming fifth patch. However, as of now, the torque limits (especially in earlier eras) are so low that any turbocharged engine (even if it has a low specific output) will incur a reliability penalty (especially with more powerful engines) - so much so that it should be rectified in a future patch, but in the meantime, I'll mostly stick with normally aspirated engines for most of my builds.

In short, I have so much confidence in the 4.3 build that I have already begun hosting and entering forum challenges based on it - I'll talk about this in the next few posts in this series. Overall, the Ellisbury Update has changed Automation for the better, and since it's almost Thanksgiving, I am eterally grateful. In the meantime, happy Automationeering, and have fun!