Alpha 10.8.3 fixes further issues with mod loading. Alpha 10.8.2 fixes some issues with mod loading.
You can now upload and download code mods in the Steam Workshop!
First off: Do not download code mods if you don't want to ruin your PC, but also don't want to verify the safety of the mod.
Here are some quick Q&As to explain what this change means:
What is a data mod?
As you most likely haven't noticed, because I literally just changed it, mods in the workshop are no longer called "Mods" but "Data mods". Everyone who has a "Mod" on the workshop should re-upload it to gain access to this new exclusive title. A data mod is basically a mod that doesn't change how the game works, but gives the game more content to work with, which is what mods on the workshop have done so far.
What's the difference between code mods and data mods?
Code mods are written using a programming language and actively change how the game works, add new mechanics on top of it or they pretend to be mods while they quietly mine bitcoin in the background.
Aren't there already code mods on the workshop?
The way code mods work in Software Inc. can pose a serious threat to your computer, since they have the same access to your files and internet that the game has, but have the advantage of not being developed by me. Because of this, I had decided not to allow code mods on the workshop. Clever modders got around it by uploading their programs as text files, which is obviously not an ideal situation.
If code mods are so insecure, why are you allowing them now?
This latest update includes a way to load mods that are still in text format and actively tries to shut off parts of the mod that would access your internet or files. Please note that the mods can still be very dangerous. I will try my best to moderate code mods on the workshop, but feel free to study the files, find and flag any malicious code yourself. The game will prompt you to read the code directly in the game before it loads any new or updated code mod.
Slanted roofs are finally in! I hope this makes up for the slightly misleading roofs in the town map screenshots I released, leading up to alpha 10.
Slanted roofs are currently purely cosmetic. I'll try to figure out some way to utilize them in a future update, but for now, they are free in-game.
I made some big changes to the DLL modding system, which will break all current DLL mods. See changes at the end of this post.
This marks the end of alpha 10. I'm keeping Alpha 10.7 in testing for a short while, to make sure there aren't any major issues.
Alpha 10.7.2 fixes
Fixed employee working hours in calendar window going 1 hour too long
Fixed modded furniture with lights stopped working
Alpha 10.7.1 changes
Added slanted roofs
New Autumn track by Sinnott Soundworks
Added 2 new startup maps, a garage and a skyscraper
Basements are now separated for blueprints and cloning
Doubled starting cash on easy mode
Changing team arrival and leave times will now take immediate effect
Whether project management makes a product in-house will now depend on base product
UX changes
Build menu category list now uses thumbnails instead of checkboxes and text
Added calendar window when date is clicked to see employee and staff working hours
Ability to manage staff room assignment from staff window
Pressing the focus button (space by default) now cycles between all selected objects
Ability to highlight unsupported rooms if cloning or blueprint creation fails
Fixes
Fixed room grouping bugging out when re-grouping rooms
Fixed bug regarding how door blockage is checked for doors to upper floor parking. Doors going nowhere or in basement will now show as blocked
Various other fixes
Modding changes
DLL modding
ModMeta is now an Abstract Class rather than an Interface and the FloorMod has been updated to show examples
DLL mods will now be queried to save and load data from save files
Changed WindowManager interface to avoid misuse of active window lists that would cause crash (Use OnlyHide, StartHidden, Shown and OnClose to control lifecycle)
Game assembly now includes xml documentation to help develop dll mods in Visual Studio (Only some of the codebase have been commented so far, mostly UI stuff)
Improved logged message when an error occurs loading a dll mod
XML modding
Deprecated mesh and snappoint Parent tag in furniture mods and added Parent ATTRIBUTE to all tags that searches everything in the furniture with a name(Use ComponentName tag to name Meshes and InteractionPoints, Name tag for Transforms)
Multiple and custom lights for modded furniture using the LampScript's Lights variable(will automatically find all light components in a furniture if not manually set, at the expense of performance)
Modded furniture can now optionally have the IsIconic variable set to an array of category names, if it should be used as a thumbnail for custom categories
This patch contains fixes for every bug reported in-game since the official release of alpha 10.
Development update
I've taken some much needed time off since alpha 10 released, which is why I've been mostly quiet on social media. I plan on releasing another Alpha 10 update introducing slanted roofs, after which I'll move on to Alpha 11.
The planned features, as they are listed on Trello now, will not change at this point. I will most likely still randomly add features not on Trello, like the previously added multi-floor parking, outdoor areas and upcoming slanted roofs, but I'm aiming for beta at this point, which means a complete freeze on new gameplay changing features (not including what's on Trello). I don't expect to reach beta within at least one year. Once in beta, development will focus on bugs, balancing, steam integration, localization and adding content.
Patch notes for alpha 10.6.9
Fixed a bug that would allow a product to get sales with any price, if it was the sole release on an OS with active users
Fixed game freezing due to HR hiring more than 300 employees in one go and optimized team compatibility calculation a bit
Fixed deleting rooms under unowned roads when buying plot and added a warning
Fixed being able to see and control product under development by going to product details from design document window
Fixed tutorial arrows when UI is scaled
Fixed money, reputation and market recognition dropdown panels not closing in build mode
Fixed game breaking when filtering columns in product detail window
Fixed default custom material for modded furniture having full emission/glow (use _EmissionColor)
Fixed some issues with AC and central heating not updating when being moved or not having correct Type
Fixed marketing deal not showing progress due to wrong value scaling
Fixed debug spawning guests breaking game(will also fix bugged saves)
Clarified error message when trying to change price of a free product
Alpha 10 is now stable enough for an official release. I might still have some changes that are big enough to warrant an update or two for Alpha 10. I want to cram as many features in as possible before moving on to Alpha 11, since the bulk of features planned for Alpha 11 will render Alpha 10 saves completely incompatible, as usual.
If you are not done with your Alpha 9 save file and want to continue playing Alpha 9, you can switch to the "old" branch by right clicking the game in Steam and going to properties and then betas.
I recommend going through the tutorials, as they have been updated to reflect changes in gameplay and new additions. A lot of strategies and play styles from Alpha 9 will not work in Alpha 10, since hiring and employee skills have been overhauled.
Alpha 10 highlights
Ability to lease rooms
Ability to relocate company
New plot system
Added map editor, town map, map generation string, rain and thunder
Multi-floor parking
Ability to mod room material textures
Overhauled hiring mechanic and employee skill system
Overhauled employee satisfaction mechanic and added customizable employee benefits
Ability to assign multiple roles per employee
Ability to control subsidiary releases and assign tasks
5 new tracks from Sinnott Soundworks
Added ability to change the price of a product
Removed scenarios and added ability to take out loans in new game screen
Overhauled temperature mechanics to instantly reflect changes instead of simulating in realtime
Software sales are now calculated per OS market, so software released for different OSs are no longer in direct competition
Plus massive amounts of bug fixes, QOL improvements and optimizations
Finally, I want to stress that Software Inc. is still in alpha, which means major features are still in development, so the gameplay might feel unbalanced at times, which is only exacerbated by the fact that nothing in Software Inc. is scripted. Sometimes the market lines up in a way that makes the game very easy, kind of like how Software Inc. became this (relatively) big success, considering I'm just one person who hasn't released any other games before. I've tried my best to balance the market, but I've also tried to keep it to a minimum, as the effort is basically wasted in the long run.
Changes since last patch
Rebalanced marketing deal and hosting deal reputation effect and made companies cancel deals with bad player performance
Made computer-auto-assign more likely to assign employees to computers in rooms that fit their role, if assigned
IT support would sometimes not unreserve a PC, making it unavailable for use by employees for a random amount of time
Fixed not saving employees' current retirement fund sum (Was still deducted from company monthly, so this was purely cosmetic)
Fixed tutorial bugging out when going from Welcome to Leasing tutorial
Optimizations
Switched to PA Particle Field system for snow and rain
Alpha 10.6.6 changes (2018-07-31)
Added interaction point indicator when placing furniture
You can now rotate snapping furniture using keyboard, instead of just click dragging
Fixes
Fixed furniture placed on high shelves not being selectable
Doorways that are blocked weren't ignored by pathfinding system, causing employees and staff to give up instead of trying alternative routes when pathfinding to a room
Couldn't translate software features in product detail window
Loosing reputation on marketing deals
Going to build mode, pressing esc, and esc again shows non build mode windows in build mode
Various other fixes
Optimizations
Glass door stickman rendering
Alpha 10.6.5 changes (2018-07-17)
New summer track from Sinnott Soundworks
Remember team selection in hiring window
Use hearts instead of a smiley face for market recognition
Clarified outdoor furniture error message to include "fenced areas"
Ability to copy multiple lines of commands at once in the console
Fixes
Fixed HR not hiring anyone because a few people on the team were dragging compatibility down below minimum standards
Taking over a project from project management doesn't update next release date on task
Starting a support or marketing task on a product released using project management will now take over active task instead of doing nothing
Alpha 10.6.4 changes (2018-07-11)
Overhauled distribution deal bidding mechanic
Balanced digital distribution cost
Greatly increased accuracy of ISP cost calculation
Ability to see bandwidth percentage for each distribution client in the distribution window
Balanced hosting deal income
Added keyboard shortcut to button tooltips and keyboard bindings for toggling team labels and wire mode
Split physical and digital distribution tutorials and updated digital distribution tutorial with fixes and going over the new bidding mechanic
Job satisfaction can now affect chance to call in sick
Fixes
Fixed game sometimes bugging out in distribution window due to how the physical copies sold value was retrieved
Fixed localization of specializations on new pie chart legends
Checking furniture collision on replace did not account for rotation correctly and would allow furniture to overlap and stick through walls after being replaced
Tutorials shouldn't auto skip after first tutorial message if skip condition was met before the message was shown
Alpha 10.6.3 fixes (2018-07-06)
Fixed not being able to expand work items because buttons would pop up
Fixed game bugging out if opening info window on a project that has dependencies in beta
Alpha 10.6.2 changes (2018-07-06)
Ability to use software that is in beta for product needs (Allows you to develop games for game engines in beta)
Press ctrl to autocomplete a room when building up against previous rooms
New build track from Sinnott Soundworks
Count employee sick days and show in employee window, complaint window and wage window
Count complaints and resignations handled by HR and show in HR management window
Specialization degrade should change based on difficulty
Instead of hiring very low compatibility employees, low skilled leaders in HR will now just take longer to find applicants that are less compatible on average
Add product detail button in distribution window and total copies sold column
Filter furniture assign window by teams/roles assigned to room and include role with name
Added legends directly on piecharts
Specialization pie chart in design document is now separated by art and code (This is a temporary fix, as the design document will be overhauled in Alpha 11)
Project info window now includes specialization chart
Shift + click a label in a chart legend to only show that stat (helpful for quickly isolating one item in a company's cashflow chart)
Renamed "units sold" to "Net units sold" to clarify that refunds have been deducted from the total
Lowered leader skill gain from HR
Added AI company specialization to company detail window
Fixes
Fixed bug caused by one or more mods setting software as an OS dependency without that software actually depending on an OS. Mods with this issue will be disabled and mods will now be incompatible if they cause this issue together
Employee complaint demands were calculated incorrectly
HR will now reject complaints if the employee has already demanded too much
HR should not educate employees that are about to retire
Fixed some license key/pc combinations resetting license key every time offline version launched
Fixed race condition during new game load that could cause game to not finish pre-simulation, causing general instability, and missing companies and products
Fixed some issues with furniture mod error logging and added base furniture name case insensivity
Added fix in cases where rooms grouped for rent would be recursive, causing an out of memory crash when loading a rentable building
Budget is now set automatically when accepting marketing deals
Rare race condition when checking furniture availability could cause game error when loading game or placing furniture
Fixed game bugging out if employees are fired while interacting with them in the role management window
Added custom string formatter to avoid game bugging out if localization uses the wrong number of arguments in a string
Fixed plot panel being in the wrong place for larger GUI scales
Various other fixes
I've done some "behind the scenes" design work on Alpha 11, and I've ironed out most issues I had with how the new feature system should work. I'm fast tracking alpha 10, so I can move on to alpha 11. I don't expect more than a hotfix or two before I officially release alpha 10. Note that this does not mean I'm throwing out all the feedback you have provided for alpha 10, it just means I'm putting off working on it, until I get the new feature system in place, as that will heavily impact gameplay.
Changes
Added new plural/singular localization XML nodes, which contain both the translation itself in singular and plural form, plus the subject as a postfix in lowercase in a single XML tag
Added ability to compare localization UI files from Console by writing e.g. "COMPARE_LOCALIZATION French English"
New winter track from Sinnott Soundworks
Added ability to change the price of a product
Changed how price affects sales when price is below market average
The AI will now try to port software to new operating systems and also kindly ask any dependent software developers as well, e.g. game engines for games. This should decrease the chance of the player gaining a lot of money purely by the virtue of being first on an OS
Ability to see and change multiple teams' work assignments in the team window
Added warning popup when two employees dislike each other to help identify the exact employees
Compatibility is now shown for each team when changing teams for one employee
Specialization chart no longer counts specializations below the minimum team spec level when calculating average for a team, which makes it easier to see the effect of raising minimum spec level on software quality
Added price warning and ability to change price before release if a product is priced way over market average, as this was causing some unintended 0 sale products
Increased amount of game dev companies to fill out void in categories (only affects new games)
Rebalanced stress levels to make stressed employee way less stressed and lazy employees a little more stressed
Rebalanced personalities traits so all extremes are possible and average personality combination has medium trait values
Employees will now automatically prefer to use computers which boost roles they are assigned to (note that it is still first come first served, so someone less suited for a PC might call dibs before a better suited employee does, you can reverse this by assigning manually)
Half follower loss rate if release date has been announced
Improved computer auto assignment
Furniture tooltips should go away once action has been carried out by player
Grouping rooms for rent that are already grouped in the map editor will now ungroup them all
Work item filters are now saved
Proper tutorial for new team window options
Rebalanced print deal payouts
Added warning when subsidiary is running out of money
Improved company cashflow chart color, order and highlighting
Fixes
All active print deals would get cancelled every time a company went bankrupt
Toggling all in the multi select window would untoggle everything that had been filtered by the current search
Products which had a million dollar price tag could end up generating sales if no other product had been released in the same category for at least 5 years
Sometimes AI companies would avoid releasing software in a specific category because another company was planning to do it in several years
Lazy employees left too early on average
Stove quality state had no bearing on cooking
Trees visible underground on load
Made furniture ownership checks more robust to avoid them switching around on load (won't fix previous saves)
Fixed employees walking in and out of the elevator when reaching their floor for no reason
Made employees more likely to pick parking spots that are closer in height to where they want to go
Fixed instances of employees walking through cars and backtracking when going from parking space to room on upper floors
Moved chair repair point closer to avoid it getting blocked by stuff behind the chair
Changed "Not qualified for assigned tasks" to "Not qualified for active tasks" to clarify that it does not apply to finished assigned tasks
The multi floor parking lot update is finished and this update is mostly focused on bugs, balancing and UI updates, hence the move to alpha 10.5.
I'm planning on doing another balancing pass in the next patch, but please keep in mind that balancing is not a priority currently. I'm trying to make sure the game is playable, but as game mechanics change often, keeping the game well balanced during alpha is not feasible. I will focus a lot more on balancing and the learning curve when Software Inc. reaches beta, until then you might experience suddenly getting rich, because the AI didn't make sensible choices or gaining fans is too easy, etc.
I only have a couple of "bigger" features I want to add in Alpha 10, so I expect to make it to alpha 10.6 or 10.7, before I move on to Alpha 11.
Changes
Added cloud shadows
Made trees jiggle in the wind
Removed max cap on how much specialization level an employee can gain by working
Specializations will now decrease for employees each month, but less as they age, so they start specializing as they get older depending on what they work on most often/have been educated in
Business reputation now also positively affects average base skill for each wage bracket when looking for applicants
Specialization charts comprising multiple employees will no longer count employees not assigned to the role shown
Added warning when changing role of someone controlled by HR
Added multi select functionality to the Your Releases window
Turned up yellow color in data overlay mode, as it was making it hard to discern temperature
Boosted employee skill gain from working a tiny bit
Put consumer reach in product detail window
Fixes
Industrial fans aren't cooling correctly and servers aren't giving off noticeable heat
Employees gain both code and art skill in alpha phase even if project doesn't use that skill
Undoing server deletion doesn't register and recreate server connections + other undo initialization issues
Guests should be removed from game if time is skipped
Per month column in distribution window did not account for print jobs inactive due to hitting maximum
Scrollbar in hire window specialization chart was cropping art bars
Print and server deals stuck around after buying out company bugging out game
"Find owner" in product detail window not scrolling company list correctly in some cases
Fixed employees getting stuck on ground floor ramp
Employees set as artists and programmers would work slower on a project that only had either code or art work to be done
PC addon boosts were applied based on role instead of work done in alpha phase
Fixed save games breaking if a server furniture mod failed to load
Alpha 10.4.5 fixes another bug regarding clashing object IDs when undoing
Had some fun stomping around with a microphone to create footstep sound effects in 10.4.4.
Alpha 10.4.4 changes
Added footstep SFX, which can be changed in modded floor materials by adding FloorType tag with value set to either Wood, Ceramic, Carpet(default) or Concrete
Increased game world SFX volume
Fixes
Fixed issue with clashing object IDs after relocating company or starting in rent office causing potentially unpredictable behavior when loading the save file later on
Hiring window bug when no team is selected
Tables were not getting regrouped for meetings, canteen and lounge after undoing
Bug when deleting tables used by employees while eating if the delete prompt is disabled
Employees would miscount available chairs for a table group due to the new chair repair action
The position leaders would use to socialize with employees at their PC would sometimes become unavailable by being JUST inside a cubicle wall
Pathfinding would generate buggy paths when employees are walking directly from a room to a ground level parking space
Added error if contracts in a mod has categories defined
Employees would zigzag going between rooms and roads from certain angles
Various other fixes
Optimizations
Turned interaction name from string to enum to reduce string comparisons. Makes it harder to mod AI, but not currently relevant
I had a brainfart in the last update and added sidewalk pathfinding as a separate system from the normal pathfinding, but it turns out I could just unify these two systems, which means you can now build rooms with doors up against elevated roads, and employees will use that door to get off parking lots, if it makes sense to do so. This will allow you to connect buildings directly to elevated parking lots or add elevators to get from a parking lot to the ground.
Alpha 10.4.3 changes
Employees can now move directly between rooms and elevated roads
Ability to use arrow, home, end and ctrl+a keys in lists if last clicked thing was a list item
Fixes
Game would bug when undoing road changes above a second story ramp
Fixed employees choosing very suboptimal paths outside in some cases
Optimizations
Optimized room graph generation
Alpha 10.4.2 fixes games with assigned parking spaces not wanting to load.
This update comes with a new, completely unplanned, multi-floor road building system. The road building system has been arbitrarily limited to 3 floors for performance reasons and since a small parking lot can now hold 3 times as many cars, which should be plenty considering the game wasn't balanced towards having thousands of employees on the premises. Note that road pricing has also been updated, keeping the standard roads and parking on the ground at 5000 in-game standard rate currency.
You cannot build below roads and, as before, you have to build 2 floors above the road to avoid clipping cars. However, you can now build roads and rooms over roads you don't own, to connect plots in city and town maps.
Changes
Multi floor parking
It is now allowed to build rooms and roads over ground level roads on plot you don't own, for connecting plots in city and town map
Added error messages to blueprint building and room cloning
Added warning if cook doesn't have access to serving trays
Leader room role assignment takes priority over anything else, meaning leaders won't prioritize rooms assigned to one of their other roles
Turned car noise distance down and increased the low pass + low volume effect to shield off noises outside the current room
Fixes
Minimum specialization cap was not saved
Keep track of employees' retirement plan deposits so it figures in the termination report as a payout
Fixed long standing bug where cars would slowly arrive later and later until the road was changed
Fixed cars spawning on top of each other
Maintenance will now fix chairs while in use
Clicking a notification would make the camera keep panning to the target position when trying to drag the screen
Room role assignment was applied incorrectly when prioritizing which room to go to, so employees would not always prefer rooms with their role assignment
Room role assignment rules were accidentally applied to staff making them more likely to work in role assigned rooms(not including IT, maintenance and cleaning staff)
Updated vending machine, central heating, fridge and 90s PC models
Fixes
Fixed auto graphic settings option not working due to target framerate being 60 fps by default
Submeshes in imported furniture is now merged so they have selection outlines
Added missing error handling to hour input fields
Fixed employees getting their classes and vacation cut short by relocating
Furniture animation speed always 1 (fridge)
Various other fixes
This release features a completely overhauled temperature system:
Room temperatures now instantly reflect temperature changes, instead of simulating temperatures in realtime
Water and electricity costs now depend on how much your heating and cooling elements are actually needed, e.g. a radiator will not use water or degrade in quality during warm summer days
Tundra and desert temperatures have been re-balanced
Each heating/cooling element now have much clearer area and power stats that control how much they can heat/cool.
Rooms have an insulation stat controlled by adjacent rooms and windows (can be viewed from the data overlay).
Changes
Overhauled temperature mechanics
Ability to set individual employee benefits
Ability to set minimum specialization skill on a team before an employee is allowed to work with it in code and art
The role column in the employee window now uses sprites instead of text to show assigned roles
Seasoned devs will now have more specialized education rather than none at all
Added christmas bonus benefit
Ability to control HR specializations for new hires
Added target framerate option for non Vsync mode
Added thermometer to UI indicating outside temperature
Cleaned up team window
Rooms should always show area, and multiple selected rooms should show aggregated area
Fixes
Fixed HR preferred age label not updating
Lowered hype effect on sales to avoid sudden hype causing random sales drops
Select furniture types in rooms would keep some previously selected objects
Buildings from workshop not loading on systems with case sensitive paths
Removed printing alerts for traded products to avoid spam after company takeover
Fix plot near bus stop in leased mode, so employees don't walk into a building from the bus (this fix is not retroactive)
Rooms over a road cause unsupported message when placing blueprints or cloning rooms
Retroactively fixed some furniture mods breaking saves
Game would bug when pressing enter after searching in multi selection window like furniture assignment
Improved car pathing logic and cornering speeds
Developed a tool to batch spell check XML files and spell checked all XML files
Optimizations
Added character LOD and added a unified low poly shadow caster. This will most likely only impact very low spec systems. If you're having performance issues on a newer system and your GPU is stressed, disable "More shadows"
Known issues
Auto graphic settings option no longer works, due to the new framerate target option. You can get around it by temporarily disabling VSync and setting the framerate target to -1 before running the tests. Will be fixed in next patch.
Updated vending machine, central heating, fridge and 90s PC models
Fixes
Fixed auto graphic settings option not working due to target framerate being 60 fps by default
Submeshes in imported furniture is now merged so they have selection outlines
Added missing error handling to hour input fields
Fixed employees getting their classes and vacation cut short by relocating
Furniture animation speed always 1 (fridge)
Various other fixes
This release features a completely overhauled temperature system:
Room temperatures now instantly reflect temperature changes, instead of simulating temperatures in realtime
Water and electricity costs now depend on how much your heating and cooling elements are actually needed, e.g. a radiator will not use water or degrade in quality during warm summer days
Tundra and desert temperatures have been re-balanced
Each heating/cooling element now have much clearer area and power stats that control how much they can heat/cool.
Rooms have an insulation stat controlled by adjacent rooms and windows (can be viewed from the data overlay).
Changes
Overhauled temperature mechanics
Ability to set individual employee benefits
Ability to set minimum specialization skill on a team before an employee is allowed to work with it in code and art
The role column in the employee window now uses sprites instead of text to show assigned roles
Seasoned devs will now have more specialized education rather than none at all
Added christmas bonus benefit
Ability to control HR specializations for new hires
Added target framerate option for non Vsync mode
Added thermometer to UI indicating outside temperature
Cleaned up team window
Rooms should always show area, and multiple selected rooms should show aggregated area
Fixes
Fixed HR preferred age label not updating
Lowered hype effect on sales to avoid sudden hype causing random sales drops
Select furniture types in rooms would keep some previously selected objects
Buildings from workshop not loading on systems with case sensitive paths
Removed printing alerts for traded products to avoid spam after company takeover
Fix plot near bus stop in leased mode, so employees don't walk into a building from the bus (this fix is not retroactive)
Rooms over a road cause unsupported message when placing blueprints or cloning rooms
Retroactively fixed some furniture mods breaking saves
Game would bug when pressing enter after searching in multi selection window like furniture assignment
Improved car pathing logic and cornering speeds
Developed a tool to batch spell check XML files and spell checked all XML files
Optimizations
Added character LOD and added a unified low poly shadow caster. This will most likely only impact very low spec systems. If you're having performance issues on a newer system and your GPU is stressed, disable "More shadows"
Known issues
Auto graphic settings option no longer works, due to the new framerate target option. You can get around it by temporarily disabling VSync and setting the framerate target to -1 before running the tests. Will be fixed in next patch.