Hi all, I've done a number of updates to Big Pharma over the last week, the majority of which do not affect the base game, instead they are allowing the base game to interface properly with the Marketing and Malpractice expansion releasing early this week (Tuesday, 26th April).

However, one of the tweaks I made to the shared code between the base game and expansion had a knock-on effect and caused a minor bug in the base game, therefore I thought I'd better post some proper patch notes to let you know what's going on.

Patch notes:

• Fixed bug where challenge 'Full Unlock - The Big Five' stopped working
  
• Improved balance of ingredient distributions. There are a few less ingredients in each scenario which will reduce the number of duplicate cures and also force the player to get new location research earlier.
  
• Added 'Reset Progress' button to options menu. This wipes all challenge progress and save games.

If you're curious about the second bullet point, this is a change I've also made in the new expansion and I find it much better from a gameplay perspective. While fixing the bug I decided it was worth pushing this change into the base game too. :)

Tim

Hi all, I've done a number of updates to Big Pharma over the last week, the majority of which do not affect the base game, instead they are allowing the base game to interface properly with the Marketing and Malpractice expansion releasing early this week (Tuesday, 26th April).

However, one of the tweaks I made to the shared code between the base game and expansion had a knock-on effect and caused a minor bug in the base game, therefore I thought I'd better post some proper patch notes to let you know what's going on.

Patch notes:

• Fixed bug where challenge 'Full Unlock - The Big Five' stopped working
  
• Improved balance of ingredient distributions. There are a few less ingredients in each scenario which will reduce the number of duplicate cures and also force the player to get new location research earlier.
  
• Added 'Reset Progress' button to options menu. This wipes all challenge progress and save games.

If you're curious about the second bullet point, this is a change I've also made in the new expansion and I find it much better from a gameplay perspective. While fixing the bug I decided it was worth pushing this change into the base game too. :)

Tim

With it comes a plethora of bug fixes, UI improvements and balance changes, as well as two significant language based features.

Firstly we have noticed, since launch, a budding community of Spanish pharmacists using an unofficial translation created by the community. We're very grateful to all the people involved in the unofficial Spanish translation but we've decided it's time to roll out an official Spanish language version of the game.

As if this wasn't enough, we've also added pan-European font support to the game, including the Cyrillic and Greek alphabets plus every accented version of the letters of the latin alphabet.

The result is that it should now be possible to create unofficial translations for any European language now. I know there has been special demand for this among Russian speakers.

• Added Spanish language option
  
• Added Cyrillic/pan-European character support
  
• Added an extra speed button. 5x speed used to be hidden behind 2x. Now it has its own button.
  
• Added scenario title to objective window
  
• Lowered process time of UV Curer, Sequencer, Sachet Maker and Centrifuge to 2
  
• Analyzer now has a zero process cost and upgrading it increases the speed of analysis
  
• Daily profit calculation is now more even and less prone to fluctuation
  
• Two of the same effect in a single drug now get their strengths added together for cure rating purposes
  
• Fixed a few display issues in German language version
  
• Fixed a few animation glitches

I'm especially interested to see the effects of the balance changes on the game. Reducing the process times of big bulky machines like the Centrifuge and Sequencer should hopefully give them more utility, where previously they got little or no use.

The change to the Analyzer is good too I think. By making the process cost zero, it is now a free way to discard unwanted drugs (such as those created by the Centrifuge) and the increased analysis rate from upgrading should significant gains because it reduces the number of drugs you need to sacrifice to the analyzer - which was always the most expensive part anyway.

Let me know what you think below.

Enjoy!

With it comes a plethora of bug fixes, UI improvements and balance changes, as well as two significant language based features.

Firstly we have noticed, since launch, a budding community of Spanish pharmacists using an unofficial translation created by the community. We're very grateful to all the people involved in the unofficial Spanish translation but we've decided it's time to roll out an official Spanish language version of the game.

As if this wasn't enough, we've also added pan-European font support to the game, including the Cyrillic and Greek alphabets plus every accented version of the letters of the latin alphabet.

The result is that it should now be possible to create unofficial translations for any European language now. I know there has been special demand for this among Russian speakers.

• Added Spanish language option
  
• Added Cyrillic/pan-European character support
  
• Added an extra speed button. 5x speed used to be hidden behind 2x. Now it has its own button.
  
• Added scenario title to objective window
  
• Lowered process time of UV Curer, Sequencer, Sachet Maker and Centrifuge to 2
  
• Analyzer now has a zero process cost and upgrading it increases the speed of analysis
  
• Daily profit calculation is now more even and less prone to fluctuation
  
• Two of the same effect in a single drug now get their strengths added together for cure rating purposes
  
• Fixed a few display issues in German language version
  
• Fixed a few animation glitches

I'm especially interested to see the effects of the balance changes on the game. Reducing the process times of big bulky machines like the Centrifuge and Sequencer should hopefully give them more utility, where previously they got little or no use.

The change to the Analyzer is good too I think. By making the process cost zero, it is now a free way to discard unwanted drugs (such as those created by the Centrifuge) and the increased analysis rate from upgrading should significant gains because it reduces the number of drugs you need to sacrifice to the analyzer - which was always the most expensive part anyway.

Let me know what you think below.

Enjoy!

Hello all, Big Pharma v1.03.00 is now live, with it come a number cool new features included a new type of belt, improved UI and balance/bug fixes.

ːBlueCreamː ːBrownBoxː ːGreenPillː ːPurpleSachetː ːRedSyringeː ːBlueCreamː ːBrownBoxː ːGreenPillː ːPurpleSachetː ːRedSyringeː ːBlueCreamː ːBrownBoxː ːGreenPillː ːPurpleSachetː ːRedSyringeː ːBlueCreamː ːBrownBoxː ːGreenPillː ːPurpleSachetː ːRedSyringeː ːBlueCreamː ːBrownBoxː ːGreenPillː ːPurpleSachetː ːRedSyringeː ːBlueCreamː ːBrownBoxː

In response to requests from users for a way to fine-tune the flow of their production lines, I have now added Fixed Belts. These are accessed from the Auxiliary toolbar and allow you to convert any normal belt (not a T-Belt or Crossroad) into a fixed belt. At the time of creation, you can choose the direction by rotating the tool, but once created, the direction is fixed.

This can be helpful for creating more complicated layouts where the default belt logic is not sufficient. Here are a couple of examples of things you can do with fixed belts:

Fixed belts use #1 Tweet

Fixed belts use #2 Tweet

There is now a new column under the Company Tab which lists the average cure saturation of a product at a glance. This allows you to easily identify under-saturated markets which you can supply additional products into, as well as over-saturated ones which you might want to maneuver your company out of.

Another recent UI improvement is the additional of an indicator on the Cures Tab which shows the starting concentration of a particular cure.

This is nice, because it allows you to plan an entire product route from a single tab so it will hopefully reduce the amount of time spent switching between them. This was added in response to a number of people requesting the feature via the Steam forums.

Another highly requested feature was a machine count on the Research Tab to make it easier to optimise your choice of upgrades.This has now been added!

An important but subtle balance change is that cures which form part of a challenge's objectives now occur in the same position(s) each game.

This removes the advantage that could be gained by restarting a challenge multiple times until you started with the required cure.

As far as I am aware, there is now no reason to restart a challenge looking for favourable conditions. While there are still random elements e.g. starting cure demands, these are all carefully balanced so that the overall difficulty between playthroughs remains constant.

• Added fixed belts
  
• Added cure saturation column to company tab
  
• Added starting concentration indicator to cures tab
  
• Sockets now "suck" by default
  
• Challenge cures position predetermined
  
• Paint now costs $1
  
• Increased refund on equipment sell in Beginner scenario to 90%
  
• Increased effect of plot cost reduction research
  
• Market size increased slightly on Intermediate, Advanced and Room to Maneuver scenarios
  
• Changed some company colors
  
• Fixed 'sticky' issue with delete tool
  
• Stopped loan dialog being dismissed incorrectly on some scenarios
  
• Fixed bug where messages did not slide down
  
• Fixed bugs to do with upgrade accumulator bars

Hello all, Big Pharma v1.03.00 is now live, with it come a number cool new features included a new type of belt, improved UI and balance/bug fixes.

:BlueCream: :BrownBox: :GreenPill: :PurpleSachet: :RedSyringe: :BlueCream: :BrownBox: :GreenPill: :PurpleSachet: :RedSyringe: :BlueCream: :BrownBox: :GreenPill: :PurpleSachet: :RedSyringe: :BlueCream: :BrownBox: :GreenPill: :PurpleSachet: :RedSyringe: :BlueCream: :BrownBox: :GreenPill: :PurpleSachet: :RedSyringe: :BlueCream: :BrownBox:

In response to requests from users for a way to fine-tune the flow of their production lines, I have now added Fixed Belts. These are accessed from the Auxiliary toolbar and allow you to convert any normal belt (not a T-Belt or Crossroad) into a fixed belt. At the time of creation, you can choose the direction by rotating the tool, but once created, the direction is fixed.

This can be helpful for creating more complicated layouts where the default belt logic is not sufficient. Here are a couple of examples of things you can do with fixed belts:

Fixed belts use #1 Tweet

Fixed belts use #2 Tweet

There is now a new column under the Company Tab which lists the average cure saturation of a product at a glance. This allows you to easily identify under-saturated markets which you can supply additional products into, as well as over-saturated ones which you might want to maneuver your company out of.

Another recent UI improvement is the additional of an indicator on the Cures Tab which shows the starting concentration of a particular cure.

This is nice, because it allows you to plan an entire product route from a single tab so it will hopefully reduce the amount of time spent switching between them. This was added in response to a number of people requesting the feature via the Steam forums.

Another highly requested feature was a machine count on the Research Tab to make it easier to optimise your choice of upgrades.This has now been added!

An important but subtle balance change is that cures which form part of a challenge's objectives now occur in the same position(s) each game.

This removes the advantage that could be gained by restarting a challenge multiple times until you started with the required cure.

As far as I am aware, there is now no reason to restart a challenge looking for favourable conditions. While there are still random elements e.g. starting cure demands, these are all carefully balanced so that the overall difficulty between playthroughs remains constant.

• Added fixed belts
  
• Added cure saturation column to company tab
  
• Added starting concentration indicator to cures tab
  
• Sockets now "suck" by default
  
• Challenge cures position predetermined
  
• Paint now costs $1
  
• Increased refund on equipment sell in Beginner scenario to 90%
  
• Increased effect of plot cost reduction research
  
• Market size increased slightly on Intermediate, Advanced and Room to Maneuver scenarios
  
• Changed some company colors
  
• Fixed 'sticky' issue with delete tool
  
• Stopped loan dialog being dismissed incorrectly on some scenarios
  
• Fixed bug where messages did not slide down
  
• Fixed bugs to do with upgrade accumulator bars

Hey all, I've just published the latest Big Pharma video blog.

In this one I continue my go at a Full Unlock scenario. I also talk about another update planned for the end of the month which will include a few new features.

One of these is 'fixed belts' which I talk about during the video while demonstrating some of the use-cases (9:12)

This should answer the discussion topic here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/344850/discussions/0/483366528899144214/

Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/NXRweOQWQ1c