- Minor bugs fixed
- Optimization of lights phase 30 - difficult
- The updates will be constant throughout the life of Key: Maze of Illusions and only in exceptional cases (such as major updates), they will happen without notice and at any time of the day, we apologize for any possible inconvenience, but we are working to improve the game more and more.

Update #4 is a combination of things we have planned for the update #4 itself as well as the previously planned update #5. Due to the delay in update #4, these updates have been combined into one.
The focus of update #4 remains what is was: performance optimizations, saves games and loading times, random crashes and fixes for achievements.

One of the reasons the update #4 took longer than we anticipated was a major rework and clean-up of large potions of the game not only to improve overall performance, but also to allow us to create and introduce more new content into the game more easily. While that might sound like much, it has been of major importance to us considering the large amount of future content we plan for the game.

- Loading times for game start and loading saved games have been vastly improved. The game now loads less data on various stages of the process and handles it differently.

- All vehicles have been optimized and require less resources now, meaning they now eat up less performance than they did before. This becomes very noticeable in later stages of the game when there is a lot more traffic on your gas station. These optimizations affect both the CPU and GPU performance.

- Lighting and Shadows had an optimization pass resulting in improved performance especially inside the gas station building.

- First thorough pass of GPU usage, Render optimizations as well as Scalability settings. On lower settings you should now see more difference in quality and bigger savings in GPU usage, VRAM usage as well as regular RAM. Visual quality of textures, vehicles, characters, and shadows of course will be more affected at lower settings. Specifically draw distance makes a large impact on the visuals of skeletal meshes (cars, customers) based on a distance, so tweak accordingly to find what is best for visual / performance gains for your specific hardware.

- The overall memory footprint of the game has seen some nice improvements while we are it at.


- AI Pathing has seen some optimization to make especially vehicle AI be a bit smarter now when attempting to drive. This should lead to less traffic pileups and better navigation to their destination and especially exit points. So more situations related to traffic should be solvable on their own, or with minor help of the broom rather than needing to call the UFO.

- AI priority queue has been changed which should allow for cars to come to Fuel / Garage more consistently.

- While working on loading times we also had a close look into issues with saved games reported by some players and made various improvements to how the game handles the save process and improved it.


- Various random crashes have been caught and fixed. Especially the random crashes resulting from Employees being stuck in loops related to their cleaning and garage repair tasks should now be a thing of the past.

- We caught various instances responsible for random crashes in later stages of the game and fixed them. We would like to thank all those players who sent us their save game folders along with detailed reports what they were doing and when. It would have not been possible to catch these things without their help.


- As part of the crash fix, employees when they manage to clean the whole gas station during the cleaning task, should no longer go home and rest. Instead they will wait at last the position of cleaning for more mess to happen. They should only stop cleaning / return to their camper once their energy runs out.


- Applied a fix to Trash Drop rates, as it turned out customers were really nice and never dropped trash on the floor any more at some point due to a rounding error in our drop chance calculation when we last adjusted it to be lower.

- Fixed an issue where at Popularity Level 10, the amount of cars arriving was wrongly set to Level 1 Popularity.

- Fixed an issue where Rudy was not saving properly. The old saves can't be retroactively fixed by this, but any new saves or even on old saves games should apply the fix. For example if you picked up sand and saved, Rudy would remember that it had Sand, but would on load have lowered the front 'blade', and no sand could be picked up because it was considered full, so you'd need to unload it first before being able to use it. This will still be the case if you load an old save with this situation, however if you drop off the sand, pick up another batch, and save again, that misbehaviour should be fixed in all future saves from that point on.


As you are likely aware, we have been struggling with fixing achievements for a few updates now.
While we managed to fix them in the game itself, tons of players still reported issues with achievements. We have spent a lot of time analyzing those reports and working directly with players on discord to track down the issues. As it tuned out, while we missed just a few things in the game previously, the vast majority of issues stemmed from handling the achievements, connection issues or achievement frequencies. Some of these things we could fixed, some were simply beyond our sphere on influence.

We have thus decided to revamp the Achievement System and added it to the game itself rather than being purely reliant on Steam. This means that while you're in-game, you will now see a new Achievement Section in the escape / pause menu where you can also track your achievement progress.

The system now works locally, meaning as you unlock achievements these are saved locally first and then sends them to Steam for verification. You can find the file holding your achievement data in your Saved/SaveGames folder under AchievementProfileX.sav, where X is your user ID from Steam.

When loading an older save game it will try to retroactively grant the achievements based on quest progress and stats (the stats are saved in GSS_Stats_X.sav file). So first time you broom, pick up trash, fuel a car, serve a customer, get a tip, buy or steal an indoor decoration, paint a wall, etc. it should read your stats and apply any missing achievements.

In a future patch we will likely expand on the functionality of the Achievement Section with options resetting them locally, resending them to Steam in case of connections errors or unpredicted issues. Achievements should now also pop on screen in-game in addition to the Steam notification, which might be of importance to players who disable the Steam overlay to squeeze more performance out of their games.

As an added side bonus of this whole endeavour, it will also allow us to add more achivements to the game in future updates, related to new content or expanding the existing stat based achievements, even beyond the 100 achievement limit from Steam.
Another added bonus for those who just love to do achievements over and over again, if at any point you feel like it, you can reset your local achievements to experience the rush of earning them again, by deleting the AchievementProfileX.sav file in your Saved/SaveGames/ folder :P

Achievements - Known Issue
During public testing we have discovered an issue where for few players the GSS_Stats_X.sav file was corrupted and they were unable to earn any stats and thus the achievements related to the stats.
We will attempt to implement a fix for this on our side in the future patch, but as it requires a lot more work and testing, we didn't want to postpone the update even further.
There is however a workaround. If you see that you're not getting achievements in-game for any stat related achievements as outlined above, you are safe to delete the specific GSS_Stats_X.sav file and they should become earnable as we will regenerate the file later.
Just make sure the game isn't running when you delete the file.


While we working on update #4, many community members reached out to us offering to translate the game into their language. We are so grateful for that!
With update #4, the game now supports:

• Croatian
  
• Hungarian
  
• Portugese
  
• Serbian
  
• Vietnamese

If you notice any issues with these languages, please report it on our Discord in the translation section.


With update #4 now deployed, part of the team will continue on more improvements, some more optimizations and further bug fixing. Among the improvements will be many requests from the community for gameplay QoL features and adjustments.
Another part of the team switched back to prepare the Car Wash content update for release, now that the vehicle optimizations planned for update #5 have been included into this update which in turn were required for the Car Wash.

Greetings Shipbreakers,

While the star of the show is certainly the new Atlas-class of starship to salvage, there are a huge variety of other improvements and changes to get excited about, such as an overhaul of the Ship Catalog screen, and improvements to the elemental systems found in ships.




A true workhorse line of ships, the Atlas-Class is purpose-built for a variety of industrial roles, and has been in service across the colonies for decades. We’ve designed this class to bridge the difficulty and complexity gap between Mackerels and Javelins. The Atlas greatly improves the variety of ships early in the game, bringing a few new challenges of its own to Players, such as a two-floor layout, which challenges Shipbreakers to think as much vertically as horizontally. As well, their manufacturer Starleap Heavy Industries outfits them with its proprietary Quasar Thrusters, which are so massive that Shipbreakers have to crawl inside them to access the fuel system and to separate the thruster shell. Take note that accessing the interior via the thruster nozzle will cause the fuel lines to become unstable, so act quickly to reach the fuel flush switch at the back!

• Shipbreakers will unlock the first model of Atlas, the Scout, at Rank 4.
  With an incredible top-speed, high maneuverability, and enough interior space for living quarters or small cargo, the Scout is popular with government patrols, search and rescue, private security, asteroid prospecting or small-scale research. Shipbreakers should be aware of high amounts of electrical hazards, in addition to the two Quasar Thrusters that give this ship it’s oomph.
  
  
• At Rank 6, Shipbreakers gain access to the Nomad, a long-haul cargo ship.
  With ample interior cargo space, and a modular exterior cargo rack, the Nomad and it’s three Quasar Thrusters move cargo quickly! In interplanetary terms, that can still be a heck of a long time, and so the Nomad is also outfitted with a fully-equipped sleeper cabin; a hauler’s home-away-from-home.
  
  
• Rank 8 brings the final Atlas ship model: the Roustabout tug.
  Quad Quasar Thrusters make this the most powerful model in the Atlas line, and an essential vehicle for everything from asteroid felling and station construction, to demolition and towing salvage. This many thrusters requires a lot of power and fuel, so beware of the Roustabout’s large amount of fuel and electrical hazards.

Each Atlas model also has a variety of new Data Drives that Shipbreakers can collect and decrypt to further expand on the world outside Morrigan Station.


Every Shipbreakers knows that one of the first things you do each day is visit the Ship Catalog to see what salvage is on offer. In 0.7.0, this interface has been revamped, with a focus on simplicity and clarity, as well as to improve the variety of ships available. The most important information related to claiming a ship has been brought front-and-center, and extraneous information has been minimized or removed. In addition, all ship classes are always represented, guaranteeing that you’ll have access to the newest ships as they become available. Lastly, the LYNX Marketing Department has seen fit to rebrand this interface as the Job Board.



As we continue to try and create interesting and dynamic challenges in ships, and mitigate run-away catastrophic meltdowns that wipe a ship’s value thanks to a tiny accident, we’ve made some changes to the behaviour of elemental objects.

Here are the major changes:

• Fuel Pipes no longer explode when damaged or cut. Instead, when hit by the cutter beam, touched by fire or zapped with electricity, the fuel inside the pipe ignites, which then begins to spread down the pipe network. This gives Players time to find a way to neutralize the fire or flush the fuel entirely, before the flames reach the Fuel Tank (which will explode!).
  
• A fix to how impacts are calculated means that objects like Fuel Tanks and Terminals no longer die immediately when taking impact damage. You will now be far more likely to see leaking Fuel or Coolant tanks, or sparking Terminals.
  
• Coolant no longer affects the exterior Nanocarbon Hull or Structural Beams of a ship. Many ships still have exterior Aluminum panels that can be frozen and shattered, but the threat of coolant is now much more focused on the valuable interior components of a ship.

We’ll be monitoring these changes to see how they affect the gameplay for everyone, and will continue to tweak elemental behaviors to try and create the most interesting and dynamic experience possible.

Alongside the exciting features of this update, we’ve also continued the usual bug fixing and stabilizing of the game, crushing 120+ issues.

We’re looking forward to seeing everyone’s reaction to the new ships, and to see the kinds of strategies you all develop to salvage them! We’re positive that some innovative Shipbreakers are going to find a variety of creative ways to salvage the Quasar Thrusters.

As usual, let us know what you think! Join us in our Discord to share your thoughts and feedback.

Cheers,

The Shipbreaker Dev Team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1132030/Trash_Sailors/

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• Discord
  
• Facebook
  
• Twitter
  
• Instagram
  
• Official Website

Check out the early access packs available for the Israeli ground forces CBT that starts in the next major update after “Winged Lions”!

In the “Winged Lions” update we launched the aviation CBT for Israel. In the next major update we will start the closed beta testing of the Israeli armored forces! Each Early Access Pack guarantees early access to the beta testing, and until it starts you will be able to master your crews in all vehicle slots. Early Access Pack vehicles will have 3 free respawns in Arcade and Realistic battles in War Thunder.
The M-51 will be a premium rank IV tank and one of the first representatives of a separate tech tree of the Israeli armored vehicles. The M-51 hull was borrowed from the American Sherman tank, so at rank IV the tank lacks armor protection, but the M-51 is able to withstand the hits from automatic guns of ground vehicles, aircraft cannons and is relatively well protected from the explosions of small and medium bombs.

The key advantage of this tank is a French-made 105mm cannon with powerful HEAT shells that are used on the French AMX-30 tanks. Composite or ERA protection are very rare for armored vehicles of this range, therefore the M-51 shape-charge rounds are able to pierce the armor of almost any tank, but due to the focused action of the shell, it requires careful aiming at the enemy's critical modules - ammo racks, engine, gun breech, or crew.
The Merkava Mk.2D will be a rank VI Premium tank in the ground vehicles research tree for Israel. The vehicle retains all the advantages of its predecessor, the Mk.2B - a laser rangefinder, a thermal imager in the gunner's sight, laser warning and effective anti-tank ammunition.

The main difference in the new tank is the improved protection of the turret’s sides and the hull’s front upper glacis. The sides of the turret are reinforced with modules of combined armor that are intended for additional protection of the turret from shape-charged weapons. Additional protective modules are also installed on the upper frontal part of the hull, increasing the protection for the driver. In game, the enhanced HEAT protection of the tank will become especially relevant for countering ATGM carriers, as well as helicopters, while effective HEAT and APFSDS shells will allow the new Merkava Mk.2D to easily destroy almost any enemy vehicle in battles.

Here's December, Chirstmas, gifts under the tree and so on! So, for you, we decided to make a Content update with Christmas designs!

Architect of the Week - Christmas Gift

To make it special, we decided to give a gift to the player who will won the Architect of the Week Challenge!

In order to take part in this challenge, you need to:

• Join our discord here: Discord community
  
• Post your project in our specific channel " #your-creations"

This competition will last until Friday, January 7th 2022.

Be creative, surprise us, and take care of you.
Happy Holidays ♥




3 Xmas Designs (only available in Sandbox Mode)

• Fix visible flat roofs with Chiens-Assis in District 69, 52 and 26
  
• Fix Vehicles going through Blocks in District 58

The last few weeks we've spent a lot of time making new levels and redesigning already existing rooms. One of these updated levels is an elevator shaft, of which a blockout can be seen below. In this level the elevator will not only be relevant for transport, but also to solve the puzzle itself. Note that this level is still a work-in-progress and that the art style will still be refined and updated over the next few weeks.



Furthermore, we'd like to give an update on some of the tutorial levels that we already showed in the last announcement. They've been updated with new assets and we've been experimenting with some new lighting settings. Below you can see two examples. They still need some tweaking, but let us know what you think.



Finally, the emergency storage room (level 1 in the demo of Invertigo) has also being redesigned. While we're still in the progress of blocking out this level, we can already give you a preview of its new layout.

Welcome, everyone! The second Simutrans Steam Screenshot Contest (in short, "SSSC") is about to begin! The first SSSC was celebrated a year ago, and it is now time to celebrate another one to end this year with joy. This time the scope will not be as wide as the first one, and the SSSC will be focused around pak192.comic (to compensate for the lack of participation in this category in the first SSSC). Hopefully this will increase competition as there is only one category! Let the best win!

Terms are pretty similar to the first SSSC, and the winners will be also displayed on the Steam Store Page!

Participation
1 - There's only one category: pak192.comic. If you have never played pak192.comic before, you can get it from the in-game pakset downloader, the Steam Store, or directly from their GitHub repository.
2 - You can submit as many screenshots as you want.
3 - You need to include title for every screenshot. Screenshots without title will not be eligible!
4 - You have until Januay 15st (inclusive) to submit your screenshots!

Theme and guidelines
1 - The theme this year is... Vehicles! pak192.comic team put a lot of love into their vehicles recently, specially rail vehicles. Show us how they run around your networks!
2 - To keep screenshots clean, try to disable city/station names and avoid showing title bars, overcrowded menus, etc.
3 - There are no limits to screenshot size, but recommended size is 1920x1080 as this is the most common resolution.

Remember that you can submit screenshots that do not fit the theme or guidelines just for the sake of showing others your work, but theme and guidelines will be used to select the winners!

Prizes
1 - For the first winner : The screenshot will be displayed on the main Simutrans store page.
2 - For the second winner: The screenshot will be used as the header for the Pak192.comic DLC.
3 - For the third winner: The screenshot will be used as the background of the Pak192.comic store page.
4 - For winners 1-10: The screenshot will be displayed on the Pak192.comic store page page.

Voting
Voting will be done on a wiki survey (I will post a new announcement when the time comes). Everyone (participants and non-participants) can vote, but you can only vote one time.
If two or more screenshots have the same votes, our benevolent dictator will benevolently select a winner, taking into account theme and guidelines.

Submission
You can submit your screenshot through the following platforms (don't forget to include title):

• Steam: submitting your screenshots to the "Screenshots" section of the community Hub
  
• The International Simutrans Forum: Posting your screenshots to this thread.
  
• Reddit: Submitting your screenshots to /r/simutrans/

hi all - the game is released! Thank you all to those who provided feedback and encouragement, its really appreciated.

Although the test will be finishing soon, I will still appreciate any testing of the current version which is the same as the live one - just to make sure I havent broken anything in the last second. Also have a look to see if you are in the credits, if Ive missed you, let me know and I will add you.

Recently, we have received many messages from you guys asking about the release date of the game [H-Isekai Loves]. And we are very happy about it.

Sadly, the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted all of us, so we had to pause game development because of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as some health issues. And now we're going back to game development and trying to speed things up.

Although our team is only 2 members, we will try to do our best. Hopefully we can launch this game in January 2022.

Once again, thank you very much for your interest in our game. We wish you a lot of health.

Best regards,
Gblood team