Ho-ho-ho, dear Tinkerers & Tycoons!

Phew. 2020, what a crazy year. But we have been lucky. Despite all circumstances, we have been able to make lots of progress in the development of Good Company and tick off big tasks on our roadmap during the past months.

We have also made some unplanned improvements to the gameplay based on our community's awesome feedback. And it was well worth it! We thank each and everyone for their amazing support.

Today, it's our pleasure to share with you Good Company's last step for this year: The Winter Update is available and we hope this special content is as much fun to play as it was creating it.

New Freeplay Map "Timber Town"
The fourth freeplay map is now available to expand your business endeavors on. Enjoy a huge winter-themed area containing over 40 idyllic buildings surrounding a tranquil park. Fancy a walk at the lake? Be our guests.

New decoration suiting the season
With this update, there are 11 new decoration items available for you. Use them to spread some coziness in your company. We hope placing a neat snowman in the yard or a glowing chimney inside gives you (and your employees) a good feeling!
These items don't need to be unlocked. Just switch to the construction menu and choose the decoration category.

Regardless of how and if you celebrate the festive season, we hope that everyone will have calm and joyful days, with at least the closest of your loved ones around you!

All the best - and stay safe!
Your Chasing Carrots


Join the community:
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Steam

Additional Information:
Microsite | Wiki

Greetings Tinkerers & Tycoons!

We hope this issue of Good To Know finds you in good health and mood. A challenging year draws to a close and despite all circumstances, we are happy that Good Company's journey through Early Access so far has been a great one – thanks to your amazing support!

Today, we want to share with you a review of the new features and content that has been added to Good Company since the last big update v0.8. And of course, we will also provide some insights as to what we are currently working on.


With the "Develop your Company" update, we have implemented three new systems to expand the gameplay beyond the production aspects.



By accomplishing Company Goals, players are able to earn Success Points, which can be spent in the Business Development Tree to unlock new workplaces, machines, or Company Policies. Up to three policies are applicable to each Work Zone in order to improve its efficiency in various ways. These new systems allow for individual approaches for players to shape their vision of a good company and they add a lot more depth to the game.

Also, we have introduced more content, like several new machines, a third (and huge) Autumn Freeplay Map, as well as the dangerously cute Toy Robot product type.

During the weeks following Good Company v0.8, we have released four consecutive updates improving logistics functionalities and providing lots of bug fixes. Let's agree, it has been a busy time. But with your feedback and support, we have been able to take the game on to a new level!


While a part of our team was working on the most recent updates and patches, other Carrots have already started focusing on new tasks for Good Company.



At the moment, our Artists are putting a lot of love and details into the new Winter Freeplay Map - which will be even bigger than the ones before. Aside from that, they are creating neat holiday decorations, which players can use to hone the festive season in Good Company if they feel like it.

But let's not forget to mention important technical developments. We are overhauling the tutorial, adding various forms of guidance to those levels in order to introduce new players to Good Company as smoothly as possible. And if you are following us on our social channels, you may already be aware of future improvements for the Courier System to make it more flexible and intuitive.


Among all the highly valued support and feedback we receive from you, three recent marathon streams on Twitch caught our attention. German streamer sonnyzocktan was testing Good Company in an almost 3 hours long session and seemed to have had quite some fun. Koocur from Poland has been diving into the game for over 4 hours, building his multi-facility factory. And Hungarian content creator Gige topped it all off in his 6,5 hours adventure playing the campaign, with thousands of viewers.

*phew!* You've all been busy! We appreciate all the time you've put into playing Good Company and for the feedback and entertainment, this has given us! If you are planning a stream playing Good Company or you come across one that you like, don't hesitate to let us know. It's a lot of fun and very helpful for our development to watch such content and to get insights!

Well, so far, so good. We hope you have enjoyed this overview. And as always, be sure to get in touch whenever you have questions or input for us.

We wish you a safe and calm passage towards the end of the year!

All the best,
Your Chasing Carrots

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Additional Information:
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Greetings Tinkerers & Tycoons,

Thanks to your helpful reports, we have identified a rare bug in Good Company that corrupted save files – and loading them would lead to a crash. This hotfix resolves the issue and allows for loading previously corrupted files again.

Please let us know if you are still encountering problems with loading/saving.

All the best,

Your Chasing Carrots

Greetings, Tinkerers & Tycoons!

Following your helpful input and bug reports, we have put together a new patch. Good Company v0.8.4 addresses various issues with logistics and introduces a change in how autosaves are organized in Freeplay Mode. Please find all details below and be sure to share your feedback. Thank you!

All the best,
Your Chasing Carrots

Join the community:
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Enjoying the game? Help an indie developer by leaving a review:
Steam

Additional Information:
Microsite | Wiki
_________________________________________________________


Improvements

• Added the possibility to manually add Item Rules to every inventory and to force the Logistics to use that Item as a Sink or Source in the automatic logistics system.
  • Example: If you store and consume Circuit Boards in/from one inventory, logistics will not pick them up, even if the items are required elsewhere in this Work Zone. Once Circuit Boards are set to Source, logistics has access to them.

• Changed the way autosaves are done: a Freeplay game will now be automatically saved into the oldest of 9 generic autosave files (called autosave1 - 9). The load dialogue is also sorted by the time a game was saved, so that you can just load the autosave on top and be sure to continue where you left off in your latest session.
  
• Improved the UI of Automatic Retrievers: you can now set the exact number in a text field
  
• Automatic Storage segments will now only put items into inventory slots that are reserved for that item

Bug Fixes

• No more indestructible 1 tile long Conveyor Belts: they can now be removed as expected.
  
• Automatic Retrievers won’t start with an empty pull anymore and they won’t pick up more than what they are set to (which led to them sometimes destroying items)
  
• When creating a new Work Zone over an existing conveyor belt, the zone won’t be extended beyond the confinements of the building anymore
  
• Item Rules synchronization via Conveyor Belts: multiple parallel synchronizations to the same inventory won’t interfere with each other anymore
  
• Automatic Logistics will handle automatic machines connected to Conveyor Belts better now
  
• Better warning handling: Warnings on Courier Routes / Pallets and the “Logistics employee needed in zone” warning should now respect more edge cases and not show up without reason
  
• Battery Assembly Machine won’t put its battery parts all over the place anymore

Hooray, Tinkerers & Tycoons!

Another patch has been rolled out your way. Usually, big Good Company updates like v0.8 change lots of systems, and we're hard at work smoothing out edges. Your bug reports and feedback are very helpful, as always, so we won't get tired of thanking you all for your awesome support! Please find below the most recent changes and fixes - and don't hesitate to get in touch with us and your community fellows.

All the best,
Your Chasing Carrots

Join the community:
Reddit | Discord | Twitter

Enjoying the game? Help an indie developer by leaving a review:
Steam

Additional Information:
Microsite | Wiki

____________________________________________________________________


Bug Fixes

• When loading a savegame from v0.8.1 in v0.8.2, the Logistics workers would stop working. We’ve now implemented a function that fixes this problem on the next load of the savegame.
  
• Starting a conveyor belt will now correctly cost 1 belt part and canceling that will give back that 1 belt part as before. No more exploits here.
  
• A production AI that can’t put down their currently produced item won’t stay in this state when the player switches their produced item to something else.
  
• Fixed a start-up problem where the game wouldn’t get to the main menu because of an error in creating the keybindings.json file.

Good News Tinkerers & Tycoons!

We have fixed some further issues that were crashing the game or making it unable to load. We have also made some improvements to the conveyors belts. The game should now be more stable for you and behave as expected.

Thanks to the community helping us improve the game every day by reporting problems and delivering us the necessary data to exterminate all these nasty bugs!

Besides our recent fixes, we are also looking into an option that will allow you to set manual item rules on every inventory. This will allow for greater control when using the automatic logistics system. The automatic system can be limited at certain points and can only do so much ‘guess-work’. To avoid forcing players to switch over to the complete manual mode for every small adjustment they want to make, we are keen to add this feature as soon as we are able. Stay tuned!

All the best,
Your Chasing Carrots

Join the community:
Reddit | Discord | Twitter

Enjoying the game? Help an indie developer by leaving a review:
Steam

Additional Information:
Microsite | Wiki

_________________________________________________________


‣ Bug Fixes

• In some challenges and campaign levels couriers delivering to pallets could cause the game to crash. This will not happen anymore.
  
• We fixed an issue where removing conveyor belts could dupe entities, causing invalid entries in the save game and corrupting the save game.
  
• Reworked the synchronization of items & item settings through conveyor belt setups.
  
• Input/Output settings of conveyor belts are now always respected. But please be aware, there can be only one input/output per material on each conveyor belt chain.
  
• As described above, to be able to add multiple access points we will add a feature to add manual items rules.
  
• Rollerbands will now be properly recognized as an output from a conveyor belt chain.
  
• Rollerbands are not meant to be input points for materials, if they are in the middle of a chain add the input on the conveyor belt start, directly after the rollerband.
  
• The automatic system will no longer use rollerbands as interim storage for materials.

Hello Tinkerers & Tycoons!

We hope you enjoyed Halloween and the latest big 0.8 update. As you can imagine, working on such a large update can have unfortunate knock-on effects and we appreciate your patience as we work through the niggles and bugs that are being reported. Rest assured, we’ll be putting out smaller updates as fast as we can to fix things for you.

Some good news, we already have fixes ready to go! Please see below for an overview of what we’ve fixed and also known issues we are working on. Normally we would have waited and bundled all fixes into a bigger package, but because the fixed bugs blocked the progression of the game we decided to deliver more frequent updates.

Many thanks for your continued support. If you would like to help us further, please leave us feedback in the forums, Reddit, or on our Discord. And if you're enjoying the game consider leaving us a positive review.

All the best,
Your Chasing Carrots

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/goodcompany/
Discord: https://discord.gg/goodcompany

_________________________________________________________
Patch Notes v0.8.1

‣ Bug Fixes

• Challenges could not be completed as scores could not be sent. This is fixed now.
  
• Unfortunately, already completed challenges can’t be processed anymore, only if you have a save from before the deadlines/finish conditions the result can be sent.
  
• In level 7 the first milestone was fixed and can now be completed
  
• Loading a Freeplay won’t any longer reset the construction cost reduction buff gained through the “Company Growth” company goals.
  
• Fixing a few mistakes in texts

Directly after the update last week we also fixed 2 issues blocking the progress of levels 4+6. If you encountered issues there before, the levels should work now.


‣ Known Issues (currently working on it)

• It happens that sometimes conveyor ends and roller bands are not valid sources of materials for employees, even so, the belt actively transports materials.
  
• Freeplay saves can’t be loaded anymore and result in crashes on load -> check if you have an earlier version of the save game, it may still work.
  
• When using couriers to send required modules/products to pallets in challenges, the game crashes upon completion of a task.

Aside from the known issues we got reports of item rules being stuck on storage when loading a save game. Please make sure you are on the latest version of the game and load the save game again. This issue was fixed with the release version of the game on the 28th. When you switch a zone to manual now, all rules should be deleted.

Hello Tinkerers & Tycoons,

With the Spooky Season ahead, we have great news for you! While you won't be able to design vampire bots or hire zombies in Good Company v0.8, the big "Develop Your Company" update is brimming with new content, features, and improvements!

Besides refining existing features to continuously make Good Company more accessible and fun, we have also added more depth to the gameplay through new ways to engage with the game - Company Goals, Business Development, and Policies.

As always, the community helped us beta-test and the feedback is very positive so far. In fact, lots of changes we have introduced since Good Company v0.7 have been an amazing community effort over the past months and we are very grateful for your steady and constructive support!

We think Good Company v0.8 "Develop Your Company" is another important step on our journey through Early Access, and we hope you have lots of fun with it. Here is an overview of the new features and content since the last big update:



If there's anything you'd like to let us know, just hop over to the Steam Forums, our Official Discord, to Reddit, or write to http://mailto:support@chasing-carrots.com. We're there for you :)

All the best – stay safe and sound!
Your Chasing Carrots

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Good Company v0.8 – Changelog

Access the Company Goals panel by pressing F9 and find a variety of Company Goals available for you to take on. Accomplish up to 3 goals at a time before the deadline hits and earn Success Points and unlock Passive Effects, such as Increased Assembly Speed.

The BizDev Tree, as we call it, opens with F10 and gives you access to a wide range of development nodes, which cover specific aspects of your production. Unlock these nodes by spending Discovery Points, Research Data and/or money to gain access to better equipment and Policies.

Another step for deeper gameplay is the addition of Policies. Once unlocked, you can assign up to
3 Policies per Work Zone, in order to change its work performance. For instance, you can increase Crafting Speed or Research Speed. However, advantages can come with disadvantages.

In three cute model variations, we are introducing the Toy Robot which joins Good Company's early products, Pocket Computer and Game Device.

To match the season, please welcome "Golden Acres", the third and new Freeplay Map. With 3,464 m² and 17 buildings, there is more colorful space for your business to thrive in – not including the henhouse, that is.

We have started implementing an Ambiance Sound System for Good Company. By controlling various sound layers, it will be reflecting the acoustic atmosphere based on the camera view, inside and outside your production facilities. Basic outdoor and indoor layers for the Freeplay Maps are already active.

• Display a preview of the market parameter changes for the next phase by hovering over the progress button.
  
• Markets can now be discovered via the Market Tree by spending Discovery Points.
  
• Market balancing has been improved in order to match recent gameplay changes.

• We have changed the Milestones to improve the progress flow.
  
• New equipment will be unlocked in the Business Development tree from now on.
  
• The Noise Modifier option in the Freeplay settings has been removed for now.
  
• The Freeplay system balancing got updated to take into account new features.

• The game's main panels, such as Markets Overview or Blueprint Designer, are now displayed in 'full-screen' view.
  
• Success Points, Research Data, and Discovery Points are now displayed right next to your Account Balance.

• We have redesigned parts of the GUI for improved usability.
  
• You can now use a random name generator for your designs.
  
• The process workflow for designing a product has been improved.
  
• We have added more QoL updates to the Blueprint Designer.

• Statistics now include company-wide passive effects as well as those resulting from Policies.
  
• In addition, figures in Company Statistics are now more accurate.

• We have removed Tier requirements for Research Projects.
  
• There is now a research queue available to process several projects more easily.
  
• Research Projects have been split into distinct categories and are now vertically browsable.
  
• You can now display tooltips containing module information when hovering over a Research Project.

• We have removed automatically adding Item Rules on Courier Pallets. Your feedback helped us realize that the automatic approach did more harm than good. Adding Item Rules on pallets works manually now: you have full control over what gets placed on a pallet, while the rest of the logistics still gets connected automatically.
  
• Automatic Logistics is now compatible with machines and Conveyor Belt setups. An example: Previously, Automated Logistics would directly try to take items from a machine, even though the machine was connected to a Conveyor Belt. Now Automatic Logistics will 'follow' the Conveyor Belt setup to its end and take the items from there.

• Conveyor Belts can now also start or end in a curve segment.
  
• The start/end direction will automatically snap to a tile when there is a respective pushing or receiving entity.
  
• It is also possible to build Conveyor Belts that are just one tile long. This is especially useful for those tight machine setups you keep amazing us with.

• Spooky Halloween-themed décor items will unlock on the first game session after the update.
  
• Use these to decorate your company for the season (be sure to send us a screenshot)!

Hello Tinkerers & Tycoons,

Since Good Company's last big update in summer, v0.7 "Work Smart", we have continuously improved the game in regards to accessibility, while also expanding the gameplay. Your emails, posts, and let's plays greatly contributed to this progression and we'd like to thank you all!

During the past week, we have been intensely polishing Good Company v0.8, and today we are very excited to announce the upcoming Beta Test to our community! Don't miss the opportunity to check out new features and improvements coming with our big autumn update "Develop Your Company" and keep on supporting our Early Access.

As usual, you need to switch your game version to the branch "_latest_beta". We highly recommend you check out our post about General Update Information. Furthermore, please find some details about how to report issues and bugs here.

To give you an overview of what's new and what's better in your Good Company, check out the changelog. We're already super-curious as to what you think. Let us know via the Steam Forums, our Official Discord, on Reddit, or write to http://mailto:support@chasing-carrots.com

Thank you for being on board and stay safe!

All the best,
Your Chasing Carrots

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Access the Company Goals panel by pressing F9 and find a variety of Company Goals available for you to take on. Accomplish up to 3 goals at a time before the deadline hits and earn Success Points and unlock Passive Effects, such as Increased Assembly Speed.

The BizDev Tree, as we call it, opens with F10 and gives you access to a wide range of development nodes, which cover specific aspects of your production. Unlock these nodes by spending Discovery Points and Research Data to gain access to better equipment and Policies.

Another step for deeper gameplay is the addition of Policies. Once unlocked, you can assign up to 3 Policies per Work Zone, in order to change its work performance. For instance, you can increase Crafting Speed or Research Speed. However, advantages can come with disadvantages.

In three cute model variations, we are introducing the Toy Robot which joins Good Company's early products, Pocket Computer and Game Device.

To match the season, please welcome "Golden Acres", the third and new Freeplay Map. With 3,464 m² and 17 buildings, there is more colorful space for your business to thrive in – not including the henhouse, that is.

We have started implementing an Ambiance Sound System for Good Company. By controlling various sound layers, it will be reflecting the acoustic atmosphere based on the camera view, inside and outside your production facilities. Basic outdoor and indoor layers for the Freeplay Maps are already active.

• Display a preview of the market parameter changes for the next phase by hovering over the progress button.
  
• Markets can now be discovered via the Market Tree by spending Discovery Points.
  
• Market balancing has been improved in order to match recent gameplay changes.

• We have changed the Milestones to improve the progress flow.
  
• New equipment will be unlocked in the Business Development tree from now on.
  
• The Noise Modifier option in the Freeplay settings has been removed for now.
  
• The Freeplay system balancing got updated to take into account new features.

• The game's main panels, such as Markets Overview or Blueprint Designer, are now displayed in 'full-screen' view.
  
• Success Points, Research Data, and Discovery Points are now displayed right next to your Account Balance.

• We have redesigned parts of the GUI for improved usability.
  
• You can now use a random name generator for your designs.
  
• The process workflow for designing a product has been improved.
  
• We have added more QoL updates to the Blueprint Designer.

• Statistics now include company-wide passive effects as well as those resulting from Policies.
  
• In addition, figures in Company Statistics are now more accurate.

• We have removed Tier requirements for Research Projects.
  
• There is now a research queue available to process several projects more easily.
  
• Research Projects have been split into distinct categories and are now vertically browsable.
  
• You can now display tooltips containing module information when hovering over a Research Project.

• We have removed automatically adding Item Rules on Courier Pallets. Your feedback helped us realize that the automatic approach did more harm than good. Adding Item Rules on pallets works manually now: you have full control over what gets placed on a pallet, while the rest of the logistics still gets connected automatically.
  
• Automatic Logistics is now compatible with machines and Conveyor Belt setups. An example: Previously, Automated Logistics would directly try to take items from a machine, even though the machine was connected to a Conveyor Belt. Now Automatic Logistics will 'follow' the Conveyor Belt setup to its end and take the items from there.

• Conveyor Belts can now also start or end in a curve segment.
  
• The start/end direction will automatically snap to a tile when there is a respective pushing or receiving entity.
  
• It is also possible to build Conveyor Belts that are just one tile long. This is especially useful for those tight machine setups you keep amazing us with.

Greetings, Tinkerers & Tycoons!

We hope you have been enjoying Summer's last sunny days. It's getting colder, but that's no reason to be sad. Autumn offers the perfect backdrop for immersive sessions while trying out everything Good Company v0.8 is about to bring you in a few weeks! Today we'd like to share some good to know pointers about the next big update with you - regarding new content, as well as from an organizational perspective.

As always, if you have any questions or suggestions, don't hesitate to contact us! In the meantime, please keep up your awesome support!

All the best,
Your Chasing Carrots

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In our previous Good To Know, we already outlined a few powerful improvements for Good Company, such as Company Goals, the Business Development Tree, or the new Freeplay Map. Today, we're happy to shed more light about what you can look forward to in v0.8.


Policy Effects



Until now, players have mostly been challenged with setting up production and logistics to function as efficiently as possible in a given environment. That's a first step, but we want to offer more and deeper choices to develop your beloved company. So, here we are: Policies are coming, and they can be applied to your work zones.

You can apply up to three Policies to a work zone, which affect the speed the following actions are carried out with: Crafting, assembly, research, analysis, walking, and picking up items. Policies do not require any upkeep and you can exchange them at any time. However, most combinations will result in conflicts. For instance: if you want to produce plastic modules faster, crafting other modules will take longer. Starting with 15 unique Policies, you can try to figure out the best combinations for your play style and adjust your setups accordingly.

Most Policies can be unlocked by spending Success Points on the Business Development Tree.


Business Development Tree



As outlined last time, this panel gives you access to new equipment or other means of improvement for your company - provided you have earned sufficient Success Points to invest. Unlock new means of production, including powerful machines or new approaches to boost your research. This way, you can better shape your company's orientation to your liking, making it more diversified or rather specialized.

Besides the Business Development Tree, we are also going to introduce the new Market Tree. It uses the same node-based system, but instead of unlocking equipment and Policies, it offers several ways to progress through different markets.

To unlock markets you need Discovery Points which can be earned by progressing through market phases, researching modules, or completing milestones.


New Product



The Toy Robot will join the ranks of simple early-game products, amongst the Pocket Computer and the Game Device. It will feature three fancy designs, so you have enough variety to please children all over the world.

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Early on, we have thought a lot about the product range we'd like to see in Good Company. Originally, we planned to also include rather ordinary products, like vending machines. But soon, we realized, that this would blow up the scope of the game a lot. So, a focus on IT and robotic products was way more promising and fun. It's awesome to see new products being added to the game, making the world of Good Company richer. The Toy Robots are so cool!" – Dominik, Project Lead

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Some months ago, we've published a post containing various information to consider when Good Company makes a major version switch – like it will be from v0.7.x to v0.8.

You can find the post here, along with links to translations for all game languages. However, we figured a short summary can't hurt.

Early Access
With your input, we're aiming to constantly improve your playing experience during Early Access. Still, implementing new systems, assets, and balancing to Good Company always bears the risk of unexpected problems or changes in gameplay, which are not appreciated by everybody. It's a fluent process, and we rely on your feedback about what works and what doesn't. So please stay in touch and send us your input, bug reports, and let's plays via:

Steam Forums
https://discord.gg/goodcompany
https://www.reddit.com/r/goodcompany/
support@chasing-carrots.com

Save Games
The bigger the changes introduced by an update are, the more likely it is that save games created in earlier versions are rendered incompatible. Our aim is always to keep this to an absolute minimum. Please be aware, however, that October's 0.8.0 update will affect save games. However, your profile data, progression and unlocked decorations will remain unaffected.

For players who want to continue playing their save game on the older version, see below. We've got you covered!

Game Versions
On Steam and GOG you have the option to switch between game versions using branches. There's a branch for each major version, e.g. v0.7, v0.8, as well as the test branch for a current beta. Save games on older versions will still work on their respective branches.

Public Beta Test
Once we have activated the beta version, everyone owning Good Company is welcome to switch to the test branch. Please note that you might encounter unwanted effects, such as missing game content or translations, bugs or performance issues, and save game incompatibility, as mentioned. We are closely monitoring beta feedback, so don't hesitate to share yours and help us work towards an update's final version.

We don't have an ETA for Good Company v0.8 yet, but we are confident that beta tests can start in 1-2 weeks.

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Random Image:


All Policy icons.