After almost a year of development the points update has been finished. First of all: a big thanks to everyone who has been testing the update on the beta site. It wouldn't have been possible to create this update without their help.
So what has changed? The initial plan was to just test a points update in the game, and then see how it impacted the game. Gradually as the new update was being worked on other features have been added, all with the aim of improving the playability of the game, decreasing the learning curve and to improve support offered to members. I believe that with this update the game offers players an easier to understand game which will allow them to get started quicker on. There has been a lot that has been changed, and it wouldn't be a good idea to go over it in one news update. So for now I will highlight the changes and come back on individual features later on. On top of all the changes listed below, many bugs have been fixed as well. Most notably the race script will now auto-restart after it has frozen.
Points
First the obvious: there are now 4 points categories: administrative, designer, mechanic and commercial points. Depending on many factors, you get a certain amount of points per hour update. These allow you to take actions on all of those 4 aspects in the game. This also means that there was no more a use for personnel (who you had to assign to deals etc.) in the game, so they have been removed. This should remove a big part of the micro-management in the game, which is something that has come up as annoying in the past.
Development
Before you had to start a project and wait for your personnel to finish the project. Each project now costs designer points. Once you have enough points, the project will be finished. You can still create projects when you don't have enough points, and once you have reached the number of designer points required the project will be finished. The ratings have also been made more transparent, and you can now see exactly how much percent your part is.
As a welcome improvement: you can now also produce parts at the same time as starting a new project.
Producing parts uses mechanic points and work in a similar way as the development projects. Once you have enough points they will be instantly finished and you can go test them on the track right away.
Suppliers
Supplier negotiations have been changed so that they can work with the points system as well. The previous system required you to choose a contract type before negotiations. This could lead to your team being without a contract when a rival team signed the supplier up before you could. This has been changed and you can now progress the negotiations by investing administrative points. You can sign a normal contract at 30%, a partner deal at 70% and a works deal at 100%.
Persons
Negotiating with persons is now based on administrative points. Once negotiations start with a person there's a chance to sign them instantly, but it won't always work. Big tier persons will require so many points that it will take some time before a team can sign them.
Sponsors
Sponsor negotiations work similarly to the person negotiations. The initial points that are required are very high and cool down to a more normal points requirement. There are also more sponsors available now, so there shouldn't be a sponsor shortage any more.
GUI update
During the update I had to change many things in the layout of the game, so I decided that it would be a good time to change the look of the game as well and to make it a more mobile friendly website. This has been accomplished with the new layout I believe. Virtually every page has been re-created, so a lot of effort has gone into this area. This change should make the game much more accessible to people playing from tablets and phones.
If the website looks strange, you should clear your cache and refresh the page.
Admin panel
Last but not least, there has been a lot of development in the admin panel. There was virtually no admin panel in the old game which required me to do every thing myself. Since I'm not a student at school any more with a lot of free time, it got impossible for me to handle everything. I will add admins soon to the game which should mean that the game will get much more organized again. The admin panel allows admins to handle a lot of tasks, and the panel will only improve a lot over the coming weeks as more requirements are added.
That's all for now. I will come back on more individual features later on. The upgraded was tested yesterday, and apart from a few small problems there were no major issues. I will try to fix any problems that there are as soon as possible.
To me this feels like a brand new Pitwall, and I really hope that all of you enjoy this new version!
