News
20/12/2022 v0.42.0
Gold Member Pack V & Head-to-head revisions!

The fifth Gold Member(+) Pack is here! Made up of vehicles owned by the community plus a bonus for those that have been busy wishing for an elusive vehicle to appear!

  • 1994 Suzaka Vitality 1.6 JX:
    One of the forerunners of the fashionable SUV, it was a big seller and further cemented the manufacturers reputation for decent cheap off-roaders!
  • 2000 VoltPogen Parkour 1.4 Match:
    A short-lived refresh of the existing car kept it fresh for the millennium!
  • 2000 BWL C30Xd Touring:
    Whilst not available in the UK, the combination of a refined diesel engine, all-wheel-drive and estate body shell ensured that this car ticked many boxes!
  • 1993 Nesson Pioneer 3.0 2WD XE:
    Whilst this particular variant does without the 4WD, it retains the ruggedness and coupled with the rarer manual gearbox, makes it a bit cheaper with a touch less weight!
  • 2000 Fawn Transpose 2.4 TDCi Ice Cream Van:
    (Festive Bonus!) Following many letters to the jolly red suited man, I am pleased to announce the release of a brand-new Ice Cream Van to the game! Available from the main dealer.

As usual the above vehicles may be available new or second hand in the classifieds, as appropriate, from time to time! All players can access these vehicles. A big thank you to those that have contributed towards getting these in-game!

Head-to-head Revisions!

The head-to-head races have been re-worked, making them more consistent and hopefully easier for newer players to get to grips with.

Instead of HARD being a class above and easy being a class below, the difficulties are now within a tighter range based on the present vehicle, effectively meaning that there is no penalty of being "mid-class". Whilst the changes may look minor, a lot of work went into this and it is far more flexible than it was before. Consequently, there may be further tweaks to this in future!

The Other Things

Unfortunately, I had other things planned which I wasn't able to fit in due to life events and issues with the Discord Server. I am still planning on releasing most of these, but they will now be re-scheduled into the new year.

Development Roadmap & Sustainability Metrics Updated!

Both the development roadmap and sustainability metrics page have now been updated. The second funding goal is still someway off being met and the target date remains at the end of this month / year.

The sustainability metrics are set to match the April 2023 National UK Living Wage.

End of Year Members Update!

Coming very soon! A review of the last year and some idea as to what is coming up in the new year!

I plan to pause development over the Christmas period but will be keeping an eye on things as usual. Otherwise, thank you and happy holidays!

With the Job Centre offering the ability to do much more in the game, there has never been a better time to join! Every penny makes a difference and it only costs from as little as £1.99 a month! (If paid yearly)

Don't miss out on the full experience!

Other noteworthy changes since v0.40.6:
  • Moved primary email provider following some issues with the old one
  • Cancelled ko-fi members should now renewed automatically on re-joining
  • Automated brand-new Ko-fi membership processing
  • Member automation now runs at several points during the day
  • Created more email infrastructure

29/11/2022
Email Issues!

There have been some issues sending emails to live, hotmail, outlook, aol, yahoo and possibly other email hosts. I have now switched email providers which should hopefully fix the issue, with the older provider now a backup.

This affected registrations, activations and password reset functionality. So if you have tried those recently, and failed to get the relevant email, please try again and apologies for the inconvenience!


18/11/2022 v0.40.6
Members Choice Pack XIII & more!
  • 1986 BWL NC:
    Built for racing in the German touring car series, as well as rallying, the first generation set a high bar for subsequent models to follow. It really was a fine driving machine.
  • 1989 Suzaka Swerve GTi:
    Offers a lot of performance and fun for not a lot of money. Don't expect much refinement though.
  • 1997 Rheanol Sport Spider:
    Somewhat overshadowed by the launch of a British rival, the Spider was built for racing and driver enjoyment. Available in the UK with a windscreen as standard - nice.
  • 1998 Shrewd 2City Pure:
    Confusing traffic wardens everywhere with its ability to park perpendicularly, it was a smart choice for those living in the city.
  • 1970 Prosher Typ 941/6:
    (Bonus Ball) A joint venture between two German manufacturers, it offered mid-engine fun and unique looks for those wanting something a little different.

As usual the above vehicles may be available new or second hand in the classifieds, as appropriate, from time to time! All players can access these vehicles. A big thank you to those that have contributed towards getting these in-game!

The next poll will finish on the 20th November 2022 at midnight GMT. Please finalise your votes before then!

Note: Suzaka Nippy has been renamed to the Suzaka Swerve following community feedback - thank you!

Updated Funding Goal

The second funding goal, which missed the end of June deadline, has now been revised to the end of December 2022. It needs to hit this consistently by this date for the game to remain my sole focus.

Following the UK autumn statement, the goals will soon be moving in-line with the National Living Wage from April 2023 and it is important that I hit the second goal consistently by this date for childcare purposes. If I don't hit the current goal by end of December, whilst I will continue to work on the game as a primary focus, I will reduce my working hours on the project in order to explore other options for boosting my income for this date.

This wouldn't be out of choice, but out of necessity. I will continue to work hard into making the game a successful and sustainable prospect and I hope as many people as possible will join me on that journey!

I, of course, remain incredibly thankful for the amazing support I have received to date - thank you!!!

Usability and bug fixes!

Various long standing bugs and usability issues have been rectified:

  • Viewing classified ads now takes user back to previously viewed page
  • Fixed new cars image attributions getting stuck where no attribution was found
  • Fixed incorrect aspiration showing when viewing another players vehicle in the classifieds
  • Performance part purchase messages are now more context sensitive
  • Fixed infinite next and previous page buttons when viewing players
  • Added temporary jobs to list of things you can't do when your vehicle is advertised
  • Fixed a bug when trying to remove a vote when no votes exist for that player
  • Fixed a bug when trying to vote for an option that doesn't exist

Want to nominate a car for inclusion in the game? Get membership and vote in a variety of polls including the members car pack and wishlist! Every penny makes a difference and it only costs from as little as £1.99 a month! (If paid yearly)

Don't miss out on the full experience!

Other noteworthy changes since v0.40.0:
  • Minor re-factoring of head to head races
  • Re-factored adding and removing votes for existing options
  • Fixed some broken HTML in classifieds
  • Fixed some bugs when viewing page numbers that don't exist
  • Added further clarification to contact and bug report forms that replies are via email
  • Added a note to membership FAQ about switching membership part way through
  • Improvements to Ko-fi & Patreon membership processing
  • Updated sustainability metrics & development roadmap

02/11/2022 v0.40.0
New U class, S class changes & more!

By popular demand, I am pleased to present the first new car class to the game since, I believe, the inception of the class system! Welcome to the U(ltimate) class where you will find the hottest super cars, such as road going versions of GT race cars and similar! This also includes a number of improvements to the higher performance classes in the game:

  • S class is now capped, so S class isn't dominated by a single car!
  • The new U class is also capped, to help avoid the same issue and ensure there is a variety of cars at the upper end. There is also a new "regular" event for this!
  • There is a new special, no limits, class - UX. This is basically the unlimited class and will feature the fastest and most unconstrained cars in the game. There is also a new "special" event for this!
  • B to S class regular events now have payouts down to position 12 in races.
  • Increased maximum drivers in S class regular event from 18 to 24 in-line with other races.

Please Note:

Due to the changes in the class system, the best times have now changed once more and so the previous best times will be archived and a new period has begun. Sorry for any inconvenience!

New Members Perk for Gold tier and above!

Gold members and above now get an increase in the maximum game time cap! Busy day? Simply forgot to login? You won't have to worry quite as much about potentially losing out on game time due to the cap:

  • Gold Members: Slight increase to 110 hours from 100
  • Platinum Members: Increase to 130 hours from 100
  • Diamond Members: Significant increase to 150 hours from 100!

And more perks will be on the way in future!

With the Job Centre offering the ability to do much more in the game, there has never been a better time to join! Every penny makes a difference and it only costs from as little as £1.99 a month! (If paid yearly)

Don't miss out on the full experience!

Other noteworthy changes since v0.39.0:
  • Fixed the HTML on some pages, where content was being loaded out of order
  • Removed an extraneous header image which was being loaded but not used
  • Significant back-end improvements & re-factoring to support future game time changes and the implementation of the flexible game time caps above
  • Further improvements to automated and manual membership processing
  • Improvements to Patreon membership renewal processing following introduction of annual memberships
  • Minor platform upgrades, some to support future work

13/10/2022 v0.39.0
Members Choice Pack XII & Other Changes!

Slightly later than planned due to the joy that is COVID, but it's here - finally! Members Choice Pack XII:

  • 1983 FTP Polonaise 1500:
    Proudly sold new for the same price of a second hand car, you got a lot of space and a car that was surprisingly good to have a crash in.
  • 1992 Autosan AS10 Matzaspeed:
    Want an Italian super car but don't have a garage? Buy this and park it in your shed - it's probably small enough!
  • 1980 Verdhent Cobette 2.3 HRS:
    Another excellent by-product of rallying, it truly was Plastic Fantastic!
  • 1973 Demoon Kirsch 1.0 A10 Saloon:
    As the British auto-industry faltered, the Japanese were quick to act and released this. A car that paved the way for future generations and a greater market share.
  • 1984 VoltPogen Goal 1.6 GTD Hatchback:
    (Bonus Ball) Hanging on the coat-tails of the GTi, the GTD gave some sporty pretension that became the norm decades later.

As usual the above vehicles may be available new or second hand in the classifieds, as appropriate, from time to time! All players can access these vehicles. A big thank you to those that have contributed towards getting these in-game!

Best Time Fixes!

The best times facility has now finally been re-built, with best times separated between different periods! This basically means that there are now two sets of best times, one for before the class re-balance and one for post class re-balance. If you don't have a time in the post class re-balance leader boards yet then this might be because that prior to these changes, you didn't beat your pre class re-balance time. Going forwards this should not be an issue and you will only be competing against post class re-balance times.

  • Hopefully fixed a bug where best times would incorrectly overwrite each other
  • Fixed issues with formatting of best lap times
  • Updated player name formatting for best times
  • Various UI and re-factoring improvements to best times
Repair Cost & "Restoration flipping" Balancing Improvements

The first set of changes for addressing the current balance issues regarding repairing and re-selling cars for large profits have now been released. As has now been the case for many months, it has been possible to buy, repair and re-sell most vehicles for unrealistically large profit margins. This first set of changes goes some way to addressing the worst offenders, but there will be more work to come on this.

Whilst I do want to support this mechanic, at present it is hugely un-balanced and results in classifieds full of very overpriced old motors that were repaired for unrealistically low amounts. I understand the motivations of wanting to make more money in-game and I will work to improve this going forwards, however this was and still is, fundamentally not working as intended and spoils the enjoyment of finding classified bargains!

On a basic level, the repair cost is now partially linked to the re-sell cost to aid in the balancing at least until other changes can be made.

Differing vehicle years no longer affect repair costs: A bug crept in which meant different vehicles years would change the repair costs. This was never intended, is confusing and has been fixed.

Member Wish list & more member benefits

Thank you very much to those that have participated in the Members Wish list Poll in the Members Discussion forum. Please note that the above changes were planned ahead of that poll. I am planning at present to work on the new S & U class changes and I did intend to release a new member perk as part of the above changes (increase in game time cap) but unfortunately I came down with COVID which pretty much wrecked my plans. I will hopefully release this perk as part of the next bigger release.

If you are a member and haven't yet participated in the above poll, or would like to make any changes to your votes, then I'd recommend getting your say by taking part :)

With the Job Centre offering the ability to do much more in the game, there has never been a better time to join! Every penny makes a difference and it only costs from as little as £1.99 a month! (If paid yearly)

Don't miss out on the full experience!

Other noteworthy changes since v0.38.21:
  • Changed branding on public transport bus image
  • Altered another car model name based on feedback
  • Updated development roadmap and sustainability pages
  • Increased session timeout
  • Can now compile and version control game assets which will aid future modernisation work
  • Other misc. backend changes

23/09/2022 v0.38.21
Gold Member Pack IV out now!
  • '89 Chevalier Beret 2.8 GTV:
    The smaller sibling to it's V8 counterparts, it provided a stylish and compact body, decent performance and a low price tag.
  • '99 Fawn Outline 2.5 UVT:
    Crossing the pond from Europe to the US, it provided a competitive package and a lot of fun if you could overlook it being smaller than previous offerings in the US.
  • '00 Photen Setra 1.8 GTi:
    Combining Japanese engineering, Malaysian assembly and a splash of British handling excellence resulted in this, a proper old-school hot hatch which unfortunately went mostly under the radar.
  • '96 Verdhent Astrum 1.6 Duo: During the 90s and 00s you would be hard pressed to go a few streets in the UK without seeing one of these.

As usual the above vehicles may be available new or second hand in the classifieds, as appropriate, from time to time! All players can access these vehicles. A big thank you to those that have contributed towards getting these in-game!

With the Job Centre offering the ability to do much more in the game, there has never been a better time to join! Every penny makes a difference and it only costs from as little as £1.99 a month! (if paid yearly)

Don't miss out on the full experience!

Other noteworthy changes since v0.38.16:
  • Corrected naming and stats tweaks to Telbat Sandal Locust and Verdhent Carlson 3.6 Locust
  • Public news page is now by year
  • Improvements to mobile menu, allowing better use of space
  • Fixed an issue with Ko-fi shop purchases
  • Further improvements to membership renewal automation

16/09/2022 v0.38.16
Annual Memberships now available!

As promised in the last news update, and as per the title, annual memberships are now available!!!

More detail can be found on the updated membership page but in summary:

  • For new members or members switching tiers, annual membership provides the following bonus: You get 12 months for the price of 10! (or approximately in the case of Patreon). For the game, it provides some much needed financial security and is a fantastic vote of confidence!
  • It can be bought from either Ko-fi or Patreon with some subtle differences:
    • Ko-fi: As before it works out cheaper than Patreon however for the foreseeable it will not auto-renew and is bought effectively as a one-off from the games Ko-fi shop!. Note that Ko-fi monthly memberships will continue to renew as normal, the above only effects annual memberships!
    • Patreon: Unfortunately, the max discount is capped at 16%, rather than 20% as I offer with Ko-fi. As usual Patreon charges taxes as the money is paid to me through them. It does auto re-new however, so it does provide uninterrupted membership!
  • As usual new members are activated manually which may take up to 24 hours, but it is usually much quicker!
New membership tier graphics!

If you check out the updated membership page, Ko-fi or Patreon then you can see the new member tier graphics for Gold tier and above! Hopefully you will agree that they are far more interesting than the old ones which were basically a fairly lazy "palette swap"!

New & existing members now get more votes!

Following the membership price changes, all member tiers now get more votes! So, if you had previously used up all your votes, and you haven't already, you should now have some more to play with!

Next Member Update!

This is currently planned for Tuesday so keep your eyes peeled on your email inbox / Membership Discussion forum!

Photos on Garage and Vehicle Selection!

If you've logged in over the past couple of weeks, then you will have likely noticed that the vehicle photos now also appear when viewing your garage or selecting a vehicle for racing or doing jobs! This makes finding the right vehicle far easier! It also looks pretty...

Block Player Challenges!

Ridiculous challenges getting you down? Feeling anti-social or just can't be bothered? You can now block player challenges via the in-game Account -> Your Preferences section!

Yet another major platform upgrade

Yet another large upgrade was rolled out for the game, which thankfully seems to have gone very smoothly! This further sets up the game for more exciting changes in the future, even if the update was otherwise uneventful to the wider player base!

With the Job Centre offering the ability to do much more in the game, there has never been a better time to join! Every penny makes a difference and it only costs from as little as £1.99 a month! (if paid yearly)

Don't miss out on the full experience!

Other noteworthy changes since v0.38.3:

It's been a while since I've posted the changelog so I wanted to share some of what's been going on behind the scenes!

  • Some light re-factoring of player preferences
  • Tweaks to in-game membership ads
  • Various updates to membership & FAQ pages including price changes & annual membership inclusion
  • Ko-fi membership renewals are now mostly automated!
  • Some fixes to Patreon member payment processing
  • Vehicle selection is now more performant than it was
  • Partial re-factor of Hall of fame pages
  • Updated player name formatting on race result page
  • Various other re-factoring and behind the scenes improvements

02/09/2022
Membership Pricing Changes

Further to the member update I gave to members back in early August and almost a year on since the last Price increase in the game, which only affected the standard membership tier, I am today announcing the following changes to membership pricing.

Please note: These prices are for new members; however, it will also affect existing members if they switch tiers.

New Pricing as of approx. 7th September

Note: All pricing is subject to change and these amounts are for rolling monthly memberships and again these prices are for new memberships, or members that switch tiers after this date. Existing members will keep their current prices providing their membership is kept up to date.

  • Standard Membership: £2.49 a month (Helps keep the game running as-is)
  • Gold Membership: £4.49 a month (Helps fund game development)
  • Platinum Membership: £6.99 a month (Further helps fund game development)
  • Diamond Membership: £11.99 a month (Makes a significant difference funding game development)
Proposed Yearly Pricing

Save money per month and pay yearly which also helps the longer term financial stability of the game at this crucial time.

Note: This likely won’t be available on 7th September but is planned in the near future!

To reflect the saving in payment processing fees and for showing commitment to the game in the medium / longer term each tier is currently planned to offer a 20% discount for yearly membership. This means that you effectively get at least two months membership free if you go for annual membership based on the updated pricing.

Note: All pricing is subject to change.

  • Standard Membership: £23.90 a year (equivalent to approx. £1.99 a month)
  • Gold Membership: £43.10 a year (equivalent to approx. £3.59 a month, a tiny increase on current prices per month)
  • Platinum Membership: £67.10 a year (equivalent to approx. £5.59 a month, fractionally cheaper than the current price per month)
  • Diamond Membership: £115.10 a year (equivalent to approx. £9.59 a month, fractionally cheaper than the current price per month)
More Member Benefits & Increased Member Value

As well as my plan to scale up and grow the game I intend to really start ramping up the member benefits with the following potential benefits (subject to change):

Note: That there will be differences per member tier in many cases.

  • Increase max game time cap
  • Member Joining Bonuses
  • Daily Rewards
  • Passive Income Multipliers: e.g. more money / time
  • Vehicle Availability Notifications
  • Introduction of Vacation mode (to limit benefits of inactivity), with extra allowances for members
  • Member Only Vehicle Dealer, for easier access to newer vehicles introduced to the game
  • Race Clubs
  • Extra Vehicle Storage options (archival storage)
  • Member tool upgrades for part install / removal time savings
  • Race Entry Discount
  • Temporary Job Bonuses e.g. Tips etc...

Other Potential New Features:

  • Members Club, tying into a proposed ‘Diner’ in-game social hub.
  • Referral Benefits (For sharing and spreading the game with friends / family)
  • Increased challenge sending limits

As usual many other feature and content improvements are planned, see the in-game Development Roadmap for that!

Why now?
  • The game needs to grow and to do so I need the funding to invest more time and money into the game. I plan for the game to be available on app stores which take a bigger cut of income, so these prices are designed with some of that in mind.
  • The economy in the UK, as well as elsewhere in the world, is experiencing large rates of inflation (currently 10% and possibly 20% in the near future). What does this mean? The money I do get does not go as far.
  • Further to the above, my costs are increasing due to the poor value of the British Pound and I strongly suspect advertising costs are rising at least in-line with inflation due to my advertising performance drastically reducing in effectiveness since April.
  • Back in June the game didn’t meet the second funding goal and financially it has been a struggle - even without worldwide events. This puts me in a weaker position to “weather the storm” and so whilst I hope to keep the barrier to membership as low as possible, I can only hold the prices for so long without higher member numbers and worldwide events hopefully settling down - fingers crossed! Check out the in-game Sustainability page if you’d like to see where the game currently stands in terms of funding!

I have been thinking a lot about the future of the game in the past couple of months and this forms a necessary part in trying to secure that. Price increases are never something I enjoy doing but I hope you appreciate the transparency I have given above into the reasons why.

As usual a big thank you to current and past members and if you’d like to secure the current pricing ahead of the changes then I’d recommend you to sign-up well in advance of the 7th of September!

Many thanks and keep safe!

Andrew


24/08/2022 v0.38.3
Members Choice Pack XI & Naming Tweaks!

Vehicles inspired by those chosen by members from the 11th poll will shortly begin appearing in-game for all players!

  • 1990 Alfretti A64 2.0i Turbo:
    An Italian twist on a shared platform, providing sharp but elegant looks.
  • 1997 Prosher Typ 91 3.2 GT1 Slipperversion:
    For those that want a race car off the track as well as on it.
  • 1966 Fawn 40LM 4.7 Road Car:
    When you can't get what you want with money, build it yourself and beat them at their own game.
  • 1963 Fawn Courmayeur 1.6 Locust:
    Take a family car, add a sprinkle of racing pedigree and this is what you get.
  • 1998 Hamda Centra 1.6 Series-R:
    (Bonus Ball) The genesis of a series of race inspired hatchbacks from Japan.

A special thanks to those that contributed towards getting the above vehicles in-game!

A note on the Bamby: Unfortunately despite it making it through the poll I determined it wasn't feasible to add it to the game at this time. The Bamby is twice as slow as the current slowest vehicle in-game and I believe it could lead to some abnormalities, especially when damaged. For the time being any vehicles that are closer to a tricycle rather than a car will unfortunately not be accepted into the game.

Apologies for any disappointment, it is certainly a cute looking thing!

Naming Improvements!

As mentioned in the last news post, the first of the naming improvements have now been made:

  • A large number of manufacturer, model and some trim names have been further updated
  • New Non-member classified adverts now have black and white pictures instead of just being text only

A massive thank you to the community which inspired a significant number of these new names! There will likely be many more changes in the future, so keep those suggestions coming in the in-game Development Forum!

Members Choice Pack XII Poll Finishing soon!

This poll is will finish on the 28th August 2022 at midnight GMT. The results will likely be announced on the day after.

If you would like to help nominate a vehicle and are not already, then please consider becoming a member!

Platform Upgrades!

There have been some substantial upgrades for the games technology stack in the last month to ensure the platform is fit for purpose in the future. There are still some more changes to come on this, but once in place it will open the door for future game improvement opportunities and efficiency gains all being well!

With the Job Centre offering the ability to do much more in the game, there has never been a better time to join! Every penny makes a difference and during Beta it only costs as little as £1.49 a month!

Don't miss out on the full experience!

Other noteworthy changes since v0.36.5:
  • Fixed some emphasised links mistakenly appearing in white
  • Fixed vehicle import script following naming changes
  • Fixed main dealer back button broken when viewing model
  • Updated public site images
  • Manufacturer location name is now dynamic rather than being something I must manually enter
  • Re-named all vehicles, including making changes to vehicle names across the games code base
  • Fixed Hall Of Fame not updating post platform upgrades
  • Fixed a bug relating to the used car dealerships
  • Improved logging for quick-sold vehicles
  • Corrected some backend data types
  • Updated own car submissions page
  • Ko-fi renewals are now semi-automated
  • Slight tweaks to banner ads
  • Updated development roadmap and sustainability metrics
  • Removed Plausible analytics

14/08/2022
An Update on vehicle names

Following on from the last news post and members update, I just wanted to give an update in how I hope to ease the transition of the vehicle names:

  • I intend to revisit the vehicle names, taking on-board community suggestions to make further improvements. The names were not intended to be final and it was never going to be possible to get nearly 400 vehicles right first time. I do however still intend to still keep manufacturer names appearing in the same order alphabetically.
  • I will change the default non-member adverts to black and white picture adverts to ensure that players adverts are not adversely affected by the naming change.
  • I will look into the possibility of allowing players to name their vehicles, this was always going to be on the cards in a more general sense but I will need ensure that people do not abuse this facility if added.

In terms of time scale, I'd hope to get some these changes in-game in the next couple of weeks all being well.

Understandably the reaction from the community on the name changes was mixed, sometimes humourous and in many cases impassioned. As someone who has loved cars pretty much my entire life I can well understand this and it wasn't a decision I took lightly.

The sudden nature of these changes unfortunately was something I couldn't avoid once the decision was reluctantly made. As many people hopefully recognise, I am very transparent in my development and this an unusual exception. I whole heartedly apologise for this and I wish it could have been avoided.

Apart from the vehicle names, the game is exactly the same and the direction of the game has not changed.

As the game grows and hopefully becomes more sustainable financially then there will be further options to pursue to try and revert some of these changes but for now I need to mitigate risk on the games future as it grows and gains more exposure.

As always, thank you to members and donors for your support! If you are not and you would like to support this project in addition to gaining further insight into the game, please find more details on the Membership page!

With the Job Centre offering the ability to do much more in the game, there has never been a better time to join! Every penny makes a difference and during Beta it only costs as little as £1.49 a month!

Don't miss out on the full experience!


12/08/2022 v0.38.1
In-game vehicles have been renamed!

Please do not adjust your set!

Members have access to a post outlining the reasons for this and people are welcome to make suggestions on the forums, please put them on the in-game development forum!

Apologies for the change which I felt was necessary and thank you for your understanding!

Andrew

Also a big thank you to everyone that applied to be a moderator, it was a tough choice with far more applications than I expected. Say hello to the first batch of moderators:

  • AdmiralObvious
  • Chodzilla
  • ProfessorP3PP3R
  • Riley
  • StygiantheDrake (Pathfinderman)

Thank you!

As always, thank you to members and donors for your support! If you are not and you would like to support this project in addition to gaining further insight into the game, please find more details on the Membership page!

With the Job Centre offering the ability to do much more in the game, there has never been a better time to join! Every penny makes a difference and during Beta it only costs as little as £1.49 a month!

Don't miss out on the full experience!


15/07/2022 v0.36.5
Members Choice Pack X & Discord Moderators!

The vehicles chosen by members from the 10th poll will shortly begin appearing in-game for all players!

  • 1990 Ford Transit 2.5 D 80 Popular Ice Cream Van:
    Mind that child! So they would say. With such demand for more ice creams in-game, this van is sure to be hot property.
  • 1999 Fiat Marea 2.4 JTD 130 HLX Weekend:
    Now virtually extinct in the UK, the Marea and it's close siblings the Brava and the Bravo didn't quite have the impact Fiat hoped for despite generally being seen as a competent effort.
  • 2000 Ariel Atom 1.8:
    “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
  • 1967 Rover P5B 3½ Litre:
    The B stands for Buick, namely the 3.5 litre V8 thumping under the bonnet. The P5B exudes solidity with no better testament than the British government buying the last batch to serve them for more than a decade after they ceased production.
  • 1980 Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen 240 GD SWB:
    (Bonus Ball) Back before rappers got hold of them, the G Wagen was a utilitarian work horse and competed with the Land Rover Defender with it's off road ruggedness.
Bonus Gold Member Car!
  • 1967 Volkswagen Beetle 1500:
    1967 brought in a slightly larger engine for the Beetle, with the increase in displacement providing better torque that was sure to be welcomed by North American buyers when cruising on the highway.

Note that as with all vehicles in game, this vehicle is available to all players.

A special thanks to those that contributed towards getting the above vehicles in-game!

Discord Moderator Applications are now open!

If you are a member and would like to be considered for the role of moderator on the MotorNation.net Discord server then please apply by clicking the following link!

MotorNation Discord Application

Applications are open until the 30th July 2022.

Thank you! With your help we can make the Discord server a better and more welcoming place for everyone.

Members Choice Pack XI Poll Finishing soon!

This poll is will finish on the 17th July 2022 at midnight GMT. The results will likely be announced on the day after.

If you would like to help nominate a vehicle and are not already, then please consider becoming a member!

With the Job Centre offering the ability to do much more in the game, there has never been a better time to join! Every penny makes a difference and during Beta it only costs as little as £1.49 a month!

Don't miss out on the full experience!

Other noteworthy changes since v0.36.0:
  • Returned Bedford ice cream van rarity back to where it was now that there is another ICV in-game
  • Slight increase in rarity of Ford Pinto
  • Fixed a bug where if a player didn't have enough time for a single race, they would get their original time back
  • Fixed zero quantity player upgrades after selling
  • Now possible to remove zero quantity player upgrades
  • The button for selling player upgrades has now been flipped to the right for consistency
  • Added yet another image licence variant
  • Updated development roadmap
  • Updated sustainability metrics
  • Platform upgrades

05/07/2022 v0.36.0
Class Re-balance now live!

Today marks the first release of the revised class performance system which is designed to better represent a vehicles performance than the older system. A lot of work has gone into this, however it is also quite possible that further tweaks will be required once players have had chance to try it out for themselves.

Should further tweaks be needed, then can be made far more quickly than would have been possible in the past thanks to the underlying work which was undertaken. This is also part of the reason why the re-balance has taken so long to deliver - I wanted to get it right and make subsequent changes less onerous.

If you are disqualified due to the class system change, then you should get your race entry fee and time refunded to you automatically.

Best Times

You may have noticed that the current best times system in-game has a number of issues. These basically occurred when the game was re-written. Post re-balance I aim to fix these issues and the previous best times will either be wiped, archived or will gradually disappear once I have decided on the best approach!

Bonus Gold Member Car & Community Contributions

In addition to the class re-balance, I am pleased to present a new 'Gold Member' car submission, namely a 1994 Ford Mustang 5.0 GT Convertible! I have also included a number of photos submitted by members of the community for some of the existing vehicles in-game!

A special thanks to those that contributed towards this!

Goal Funding Update & New Sustainability Metric

Unfortunately, the game did not hit its second funding goal despite the game continuing to grow. There are still many avenues for me to explore but I believe I should also take this opportunity to invest in the game going forwards to help it scale in terms of player counts, administration effort, community, advertising, the technology stack and so on...

This will allow the game to have more space to grow so that I can focus on other key areas such as creating a mobile app, ramping up the marketing and of course adding features. This all is part of the overall goal of trying to make the project sustainable for the longer term.

To aid in the transparency of this goal, there is a now a simpler, combined, sustainability metric added to the sustainability page which shows at a glance how much of my time is actually being funded at a National Minimum wage level. The general idea being that this figure should aim to be at least 100% for the game to be sustainable in the longer term.

As always, thank you to members and donors for your support! If you are not and you would like to support this project in addition to gaining further insight into the game, please find more details on the Membership page!

With the new Job Centre offering the ability to do much more in the game, there has never been a better time to join! Every penny makes a difference right now and during Beta it only costs as little as £1.49 a month!

Don't miss out on the full experience!

Other noteworthy changes since v0.35.0:
  • Added new vehicle to the waiting own vehicle submissions
  • Fixed the handling stats for the Bond Bug
  • Added more generic timings to the development roadmap
  • Updated development roadmap & sustainability metrics
  • Platform upgrades

17/06/2022 v0.35.0
Lower Class Drag Racing!

By popular request I am pleased to not only add two new drag racing events (E and C class) but also to give them their very own section within the Single Race Event section. There will be more to come in future but I wanted to get this out sooner rather than later!

Class Re-balance

As per the last member update, the class re-balance is currently underway and I have created tools to assist with this. I have benchmarked 4500+ vehicles across every track in the game to get baseline figures to measure the current accuracy of the class system ahead of the tweaks and improvements I will carry out.

If you'd like to know more then please consider becoming a member and reading the last member update!

Forum Improvements

On top of the on-going work on the class re-balance, I have been making some improvements to the forums. Primarily I've been re-factoring the code to ready it for further changes and I have also now re-instated the previous forum moderation functionality which was partially broken post game re-write.

This will form part of the moderator recruitment which will take place in the not too distant future.

As always, thank you to members and donors for your support! If you are not and you would like to support this project in addition to gaining further insight into the game, please find more details on the Membership page!

With the new Job Centre offering the ability to do much more in the game, there has never been a better time to join! Every penny makes a difference right now and during Beta it only costs as little as £1.49 a month!

Don't miss out on the full experience!

Other noteworthy changes since v0.34.6:
  • Moderators role is now shown in forums
  • Destroying a player now also removes any ban records
  • Fixed various bugs relating to forum bans
  • Hitting the login page when already logged in now redirects to the game news page
  • Added app variable to record when the class system was last changed
  • Should now give disqualification refunds when class model changed after race entry
  • Decreased rarity of Ice Cream Van and added place-holder attributions
  • Re-factoring improvements relating to vehicle performance class calculations
  • Can now benchmark all vehicles or just stock vehicles
  • Additional car class related functions including purely numeric classes for easier ordering
  • Slight optimisation improvements made to the race engine
  • Re-factoring and quality improvements relating to tracks
  • Car sub class should now always be numeric
  • Can now bulk process Patreon Membership renewals
  • Updated development roadmap
  • Updated sustainability metrics
  • Platform upgrades

06/06/2022
Members Choice Pack X - Poll Results!

The following vehicles have been chosen by members to appear as part of the next Members Choice vehicle pack!

  • 1986-90 Ford Transit Ice Cream Van
  • 1999-00 Fiat Marea Weekend (Estate) 2.4 JTD
  • 2000 Ariel Atom 1.8
  • 1967-73 Rover P5B 3½ Litre Saloon

And the bonus ball results...

The following vehicles are recognised as being nominated on at least three unsuccessful occasions and one of these was randomly selected to be added as part of this car pack:

  • 1986 Ford Escort RS Turbo
  • 1989 Isuzu Piazza XE
  • 1980 Mercedes Benz G-Class 240D
  • 1990-1992 Ford Fiesta 1.6 RS Turbo
  • 1984 Volkswagen Golf 1.6 GTD Hatchback
  • 1989 Subaru XT Turbo
  • 1982 Talbot Tagora SX / GLS
  • 1989 Trabant 601s
  • 1997-2000 Toyota Prius 1.5 Saloon

And finally the bonus ball result is:

1980 Mercedes-Benz G-Class 240D

A special thanks to everyone that participated in this poll!

The next poll will go live shortly and will be found in the General section of the forums!

As always, thank you to members and donors for your support! If you are not and you would like to support this project in addition to gaining further insight into the game, please find more details on the Membership page!

With the new Job Centre offering the ability to do much more in the game, there has never been a better time to join! Every penny makes a difference right now and during Beta it only costs as little as £1.49 a month!

Don't miss out on the full experience!


30/05/2022 v0.34.6
Members Choice Pack IX Release!

The vehicles chosen by members from the 9th poll will shortly begin appearing in-game!

  • 1971 Ford Pinto:
    Designed to provide a US domestic alternative to fuel efficient Japanese imports, the Pinto was one of the early US subcompacts designed to stem the tide. Unfortunately a questionable safety record ensures that the notoriety of the Pinto will likely never be forgotten.
  • 1993 Mazda RX-7:
    Mazda persisted to push the benefits of the Wankel rotary engine well past the point many other manufacturers gave up. An elegant body, unique engine and superb handling ensures a that the 'FD' RX-7 will live on as a JDM legend. Just ensure you have the brave pills on stand-by.
  • 2000 Honda Accord Type R:
    Live out your super touring dreams by revving the engine hard and pushing the well balanced front-wheel drive chassis to it's limits. Just remember that whilst rubbing is racing, it's less appropriate on the outside lane of the M25.
  • 1985-89 Citroën C15 1.8D Van:
    With nearly two decades of production under it's belt, it's fair to say that if you visited Europe around the millennium then you will have seen one of these ubiquitous vans.
  • 1994 Jaguar XJ220S TWR:
    (Bonus Ball) TWR created a stripped out GT version of the XJ220 called the XJ220-C. They also made a small number of road going versions. Perfect for buying a pint of milk in record time.
  • 1997 Lotus Elise GT1:
    (Community Bonus) Lotus' answer to the question few probably thought to ask. What do you get if you cross an Elise with an Espirt V8? This. A hardcore version of the Elise designed for GT racing, taking the Elise and shoving a V8 into it. Unfortunately Lotus read the rules with a magnifying glass and only produced one of these road going weapons.

A special thanks to those that contributed towards the above vehicles!

As always, thank you to members and donors for your support! If you are not and you would like to support this project in addition to gaining further insight into the game, please find more details on the Membership page!

With the new Job Centre offering the ability to do much more in the game, there has never been a better time to join! Every penny makes a difference right now and during Beta it only costs as little as £1.49 a month!

Don't miss out on the full experience!

Other noteworthy changes since v0.34.2:
  • Some small data corrections made to the existing Jaguar XJ220
  • Added a new rarity type based on the number of vehicles built
  • Limited cars are now less likely to appear, rather than appearing first ahead of other very rare vehicles
  • Corrected Citroen to use the correct characters
  • Updated own car submission list
  • Updated development roadmap & sustainability metrics
  • Login form now auto-logs out any previous session
  • Improved handling of broken cars in head to head races
  • Put in a fix for a player page error
  • Fixed a bug when an invalid car id is passed
  • Added new Game Time focussed advert aimed at free players, promoting the Job Centre member benefits
  • Fixed news post failing to mention former member property limit
  • Added script to re-calculate player car vehicle classes
  • Further preparation work for class re-balance
  • Platform Upgrades
  • Various backend improvements
  • Various code quality fixes

20/05/2022 v0.34.2
New Races: Motorway cruisers to B road blasters

It's been a fair while now, but whilst work on the class re-balancing is underway, I didn't want this to hold back new content any longer so say hello to three new special events!

  • Repmobile Lead-Off
    Grab your shaver and suitcase, cram your boot full of overpriced merchandise and beat the competition in this race to show that your middling car is fractionally better than your competition!
  • Executive Tourers
    Prove yourself better than your sub-ordinates! Show off your sunroof and fake wood! Set the cruise to above the speed limit and flash anyone less important out of the way! Think outside the box and demonstrate your executive cruisers credentials!
  • 90s Hot Hatch Challenge!
    As the 90s drew on, the hot hatch grew more powerful but also became more grown up and as a consequence, heavier. Prove that your fancy new car is the fastest in the car park.
Performance Changes & Disqualification Refunds
Performance Changes

As touched on in the last news post, the RS200 and Cappuccino stats have been updated, making them faster as standard. This means that their class has shifted and as a consequence players may find themselves disqualified from any races that they may have previously entered with them.

Automatic Refunds

Since such changes are of no-fault of the player, and to allow me greater flexibility to carry out such changes, I have implemented a new refund system. This means that in the above scenario the system will automatically refund the player both their entry fee and game time should they be disqualified in these circumstances.

I envisage that this system will also be useful as part of the class system re-balance changes.

Disqualifications

Players whose vehicle will be disqualified are now highlighted when viewing an upcoming race event. They will appear the same regardless as to whether or not they will qualify for refund.

Bonus

As a bonus as part of these changes and following community contributions I've also been able to add another replacement photo for the Cappuccino from a Gold Members former car! Many thanks for this!

Further Repair Shop Tweaks

Since the last news post there have been a number of changes and balance tweaks to the repair shop, including:

  • Repair all time now reduces if damage is below 10 or 1% thresholds
  • Now shows damage to 1 decimal place which may aid vehicle condition restriction diagnosis
  • Repair buttons for 1 and 10% are now properly disabled when the car isn't that damaged
  • Fixed vehicle image attributions not appearing on repair confirmation page

A special thanks to anyone that contributed towards the above changes!

As always, thank you to members and donors for your support! If you are not and you would like to support this project in addition to gaining further insight into the game, please find more details on the Membership page!

With the new Job Centre offering the ability to do much more in the game, there has never been a better time to join! Every penny makes a difference right now and during Beta it only costs as little as £1.49 a month!

Don't miss out on the full experience!

Other noteworthy changes since v0.33.0:
  • Former members are now limited to two vehicle slots as was always the intention
  • Now record when a vehicles stats were last updated
  • Now record race entry date and time
  • Can now get computer opponents by category type
  • Default vehicle category is now 'General'
  • Some re-factoring of single race events pages
  • Updated player name formatting on single race view
  • Improvements to vehicle import process
  • Special race order is now actually taken into consideration
  • Some fixes to multiple account detection and minor improvements
  • Further work towards automating Patreon renewals
  • Fixed a bug where game messages could be duplicated in the new system
  • Fixed theoretically possible 0 mpg
  • Added the ability to stack messages
  • Game announcements no longer override other game messages
  • Fixed an occasional bug with the job system
  • Updated sustainability metrics and development roadmap
  • Removed updated flag from Job Centre
  • Various backend improvements
  • Platform Upgrades

06/05/2022 v0.33.0
3,000 Player Update!

I'm pleased to report that my little game now has well in-excess of 3,000 valid registered players! It actually hit this around the 22nd of April and unlike when I reported that the game hit 2,000 players, this is excluding the multiple accounts that have since been locked. This means that this number is more accurate to the number of people that have at least tried the game.

This update mainly focuses on the games balance, with a small content bonus.

Single Race Events - Condition Requirements

As a first step towards the vehicle class re-balance, there are now condition limits in-force for all single race events. This requires all areas of vehicle damage to be at or below 80% damage.

This has been implemented to give some degree of realism to the races (e.g. you don't want vehicles dropping oil or having bits of bodywork falling off during races!) and to stop some vehicles dominating every class quite as easily.

This should only affect a minority of players, typically those with the so called 'meta' cars but should improve the game overall.

Repair Shop Changes

It has not escaped my attention that the repair shop needs work. At present there is far too much 'restoration-flipping' going on with vehicles being repaired and sold on for profit. As a mechanic this is fun, except it should only apply in the minority of cases which is not the case currently.

It also distorts the market, is not realistic and makes normally cheap cars unaffordable for newer players so this will have to change.

As the first step to balancing this, and to fix somewhat of an omission, it will now take some time to repair vehicles. The time and cost reflect that of taking a vehicle to a garage, discussing work, booking it in and so on. So the time taken is relatively small but previously the only time taken was the drive to and from the repair shop.

Do-it-yourself (DIY) repairs is something else I'd like to implement in future, which would take far more time once implemented.

This is a fairly light touch effort to balance this out and is something I will be focussing more effort on in future but is a lower priority than the class re-balance.

Mini Gold Member Pack!
  • 1993-97 Peugeot 306 1.4 XR: Pininfarina styling coupled with retained Peugeot handling prowess ensured a competent car even with the cooking-pot 1.4 engine as is the case here.

The silver version of the Suzuki Cappuccino has now also been replaced by one owned by a member of the community!

Thank you to the community for contributing these!

As usual these cars will be available in the main dealers or classifieds to all players.

Member Update!

I'm hoping to send out a member update later today which will cover:

  • Game Status and goal progress, in addition to that divulged above.
  • My business strategy for Q2 2022 including the development roadmap update.

As always, thank you to members and donors for your support! If you are not and you would like to support this project in addition to gaining further insight into the game, please find more details on the Membership page!

With the new Job Centre offering the ability to do much more in the game, there has never been a better time to join! Every penny makes a difference right now and during Beta it only costs as little as £1.49 a month!

Don't miss out on the full experience!

Other noteworthy changes since v0.32.4:
  • Mobile view no longer rounds balance below £1000
  • Additional checks to help prevent a player from joining the same race twice
  • Updated game sustainability metrics & development roadmap
  • Moved repair shop buttons to right hand side to match other pages
  • Various re-factoring and efficiency improvements made to the repair shop
  • Improved error handling on race result page
  • Made some improvements for NPC player car purchases in the hope to avoid a rare error
  • Added test to try and simulate duplicate race join issue
  • Began automating Patreon renewals
  • Backend re-factoring of some single race event code
  • Added more repair shop tests
  • Tidied up some unused database tables

28/04/2022 v0.32.4
Members Choice Pack VIII!

The vehicles chosen by members from the 8th poll will shortly begin appearing in-game!

  • 1965-67 Sunbeam Tiger: Carroll Shelby once again shoe horned a moderately sized V8 into a tiny British sports car, not quite a Cobra but a lot more affordable!
  • 1973-74 Triumph Spitfire 1.3 Mark IV: A glamorous body hiding a small engine. Lively handling ensures that despite the modest performance it still puts a smile on your face when you are not 'tinkering' with it.
  • 1997-98 Daihatsu Move +: Rumoured to do more than 20mph, however with most owners being hard of hearing, red lining it in first gear whilst they slowly let out the clutch, it is hard to know for sure.
  • 1988-90 Ford Sierra 2.9i Ghia 4x4 Estate: XR4i performance without the whale-tail.
  • 1993-00 Toyota Previa 2.4i GX: (Bonus Ball) You don't have to be a Johnson to drive one, but it helps. Have up to eight people on-board giving plenty of room for the kids. A mid-engine rear wheel drive layout shows clear passion by the engineers, rare on an MPV.

The tenth poll is now open and members can vote via the forums!

Bonus

Courtesy of Quotex, a wider variety of colours and photos of the RS200, the MotorNation meta car of choice, are now available! (thank you!) There is a further performance update waiting for this car also but this will have to wait until other improvements are made in hopefully the near future, otherwise people may get disqualified from races due to no fault of their own.

There is a similar issue with the Suzuki Cappuccino and other cars that need the performance updating.

Other News

Following my Easter break and catching up on this vehicle pack I will now beginning to tackle the class re-balancing. I have also been planning my work going forwards and I will likely send out an update to Members in the next week or two!

As always, thank you to members and donors for your support! If you are not and you would like to support this project in addition to gaining further insight into the game, please find more details on the Membership page!

With the new Job Centre offering the ability to do much more in the game, there has never been a better time to join! Every penny makes a difference right now and during Beta it only costs as little as £1.49 a month!

Don't miss out on the full experience!

Other noteworthy changes since v0.32.0:
  • Removed blur for classified ads as it causes problems in Safari and was only a minor effect
  • Added a note to say that quitting your passive job is not permanent
  • Platform upgrades
  • Added additional image licence type

08/04/2022 v0.32.0
Back to the Future!

With some changes to vehicle lightening (now called Weight Reduction!) and the games clocks going back to GMT / UTC time the game has figuratively gone back in time. Again. By the time this news post goes live, the clock will have likely caught up to where it was before, but here are some reasons for why this has been done:

Clock Change

The game no longer follows Europe/London time and instead follows UTC / GMT without the complication of DST / BST.

Why the change?

In what was an oversight at an early stage of the game's re-build I set the game to follow UK time which in hindsight was a mistake. The game should always run on a consistent clock. Whilst it makes sense for UK players to see BST reflected times, it doesn't make sense for the game to run on this and will complicate catering for other time zones in the nearer future.

What will be the effects of this?
  • For now, the game clock will shift back by an hour for all players including those from the UK.
  • You will effectively lose an hours passive income / game time regeneration, in a similar way to what happened back in October 2021 when the time went from BST back to GMT (the UK is wonderful like this). When the clocks changed to BST, players will have gained an additional hour - so effectively it will just be reverting that.
What's in it for me?
  • More consistency with game times e.g. no losing or gaining an hour of passive income / game time due to clock changes caused by daylight savings time.
  • In future I will allow players to specify their own time zone. Trying to implement this with the UK GMT / BST would be messy and unnecessarily complicated.
  • It will help keep the race times consistent rather than moving about throughout the year.
When Lightening Strikes

By popular request the first Lightening upgrade is now removable, however it is now also the first consumable upgrade. This means that once it's installed, if you un-install it then you don't get the upgrade back again.

The second and third stages of lightening will remain permanent once installed.

Also; Lightening has been renamed to Weight Reduction to make it less onerous to spell and to avoid terrible puns like those in this news item...

And yes, the DeLorean is in the game already :)

Job Centre Improvements!

Members can now not only reduce their hours, but also quit their (passive) day job in-game completely!

This means that if you quit your job, you will have an additional 90 hours game time available per real day to play with compared to working at MotorBurger five days a week! However, you will also lose your day job passive income and won't be able to do overtime. As before though the system is flexible so that you can work anywhere from 0 to 5 days per game week!

Preview Of Members Car Pack Poll Standings

Whilst the newer format members polls have the results hidden, it has been a popular request to get somewhat of a sneak preview as to how it is going. Therefore as a compromise, I will reveal the top 10 vehicles in the poll at present, but not the number of votes.

If a vehicle you want is unlikely to make it into the top four, then this will give you chance to prioritise your votes rather than spreading them out, if you so wish.

The current top 10 nominations as of 11:50GMT on 8th April are:

  1. 1985-1989 Citroën C15 1.8D Van
  2. 1971 Ford Pinto
  3. 1992 2000 Mazda RX7 FD.
  4. 2000 Ariel Atom 1.8
  5. 1974-1978 Renault 4 GTL
  6. 1998-2000 Honda Accord Type R (CH1)
  7. 2000 Toyota Prius
  8. 1990 Nissan Figaro 1.0 turbo
  9. 1985 Citroën BX 4TC
  10. 1985-1991 Ford Transit Ice Cream Van

This poll is due to close on 24th April 2022.

Please note that due to the Easter holidays I am aiming to deliver the vehicles from the last poll by the 29th April - so the week after this poll is due to close. Apologies for any inconvenience!

Quality of Life Improvements

Check out the changelog for a slew of quality of life improvements to the game!

Multiple Account Detection - First Phase Complete!

As per the games rules, only one account is allowed per person. I have implemented a system to detect breaches of this rule as it does actively harm the game in many different ways. If you want to create a new account, then please stop using your previous one.

This will be something that will periodically ran to detect and lock such accounts. If you find your account locked, then the system will give you the opportunity to choose which account you would like to use going forwards.

Thank you for your understanding!

As always, thank you to members and donors for your support! If you are not and you would like to support this project in addition to gaining further insight into the game, please find more details on the Membership page!

With the new Job Centre offering the ability to do much more in the game, there has never been a better time to join! Every penny makes a difference right now and during Beta it only costs as little as £1.49 a month!

Don't miss out on the full experience!

Other noteworthy changes since v0.30.11:
  • Implemented the concept of consumable vehicle upgrades
  • Advanced vehicle stats now shows 3 more stats where available
  • Improvements to the single race display on smaller screens
  • Further tweaks to classified image filter
  • Job Centre: Fixed validation bug for setting working pattern
  • Job Centre: Textual description now updates when number of working hours are changed
  • Set minimum car value to one pound
  • Fixed an issue with character encoding
  • Increased number of computer generated classified ads by 20% following improvements to generation 'intelligence'
  • Added an even clearer note that only one account is allowed per player on the registration page
  • Improvements to game map display to better cater for different device screen sizes
  • Added two new site screenshots
  • Updated map and bargain cars screenshot
  • Updated some of the site screenshot descriptions
  • Moved some of the Patreon blurb to the membership page
  • Slight tweaks to home page content
  • Re-ordered classifieds tabs to match index
  • Added very basic confirmation boxes for car purchase screens
  • Added very basic confirmation to property downsize button
  • Added very basic upgrade property confirmation box
  • Updated 'Own Car Submission' page
  • Platform upgrades
  • Minor tweaks to classifieds index to improve display on small desktop view
  • Minor tweaks to classifieds index to improve display on mobile
  • Updated development roadmap and sustainability metrics inc. new colour scheme
  • Updated help page so that it points to the updated state of the nation post
  • Updated car roster count on home page
  • Minor visual tweaks to performance parts shop
  • Performance parts now warns if no upgrades were selected
  • Slightly re-factored so part size message is now a dedicated message in the performance parts shop
  • Added additional error capture and log output for performance part purchases

11/03/2022 v0.30.11
Members Choice Pack VII!

Hot on the heels of the Gold Member Pack III is the vehicles chosen, by members, from the earlier Members Choice Poll! Featuring:

  • 1970 Plymouth 'Cuda 5.6 AAR: Built to race in the Trans-Am Series and available in some of the most outrageous colours likely ever used on a standard road car!
  • 1984 Saab 900 2.0 Turbo 16: Show your individuality in the work car park, don some sunglasses and pretend you are Top Gun, whilst leaving your dentist surgery.
  • 1991 Audi 80 2.0E: A valiant effort by Audi ensured that the revised Audi 80 looked distinctly less like a bar of soap compared to its predecessor.
  • 1962 Austin FX4 2.2 Black Cab: Taxi! Selling in the millions and that's just the toys alone, the epitome of the Black Cab - the Austin FX 4 - adorned the streets of London for decades.
  • 1990 Daihatsu Charade 1.0 GTti: (Bonus Ball) The 1.0 three-cylinder turbo’d pocket rocket was very ahead of its time, paving the way for a glut of turbo powered 1.0 cars of all sizes in the 2010s onwards.

As usual the above vehicles may be available new or second hand in the classifieds from time to time! And a massive thank you to those that have contributed towards the above vehicles!

As always, thank you to members and donors for your support! If you are not and you would like to support this project in addition to gaining further insight into the game, please find more details on the Membership page!

With the new Job Centre offering the ability to do much more in the game, there has never been a better time to join! Every penny makes a difference right now and during Beta it only costs as little as £1.49 a month!

Don't miss out on the full experience!

Other noteworthy changes since v0.30.8:
  • Added vehicle sub type for hackney carriage
  • Now shows (theoretical) text for acceleration when a vehicle can't reach 60mph
  • Increased number of generated classified adverts

08/03/2022 v0.30.8
Gold Member Pack III!

Slightly later than intended, but it is here! The next Gold Member Vehicle Pack! Featuring:

  • 2000 Rover 25 1.4 impression S: Rovers vain attempt to refresh the Rover 200 a third time started to wear a little thin with this one, but don't worry - it's not like they'd try again!
  • 1988 Chevrolet S-10 2.5 Pick-up: Probably not your first choice for out-running an articulated Lorry full of liquid nitrogen, but you can try!
  • 1993 Hyundai Sonata 2.0 16V GLS: A brave attempt to provide a cheaper alternative to executive motoring.
  • 1978 Citroen GS 1.2 Club C-matic: Unusual in all the right, and French, ways.

And as a bonus, bonus:

The existing 1990 Ford Fiesta Bonus has been corrected to being a Popular, and the Bonus is now a Bonus Bonus. Glad to have straightened that one out!

As usual the above vehicles may be available new or second hand in the classifieds from time to time! And a big thank you to those that have contributed towards the above vehicles!

Next Members Choice Pack

I'll be starting to implement the vehicles chosen from the previous poll fairly imminently and the current poll will be drawing to a close on the 13th of March so there is not long to get your votes in!

First funding goal met!

It might have been a couple of days late, but thanks to the generosity shown by members, the first funding goal was met! The second one has now been set for the end of June 2022! At the time of writing, we are already 54% of the way there towards that goal!

With the new Job Centre offering the ability to do much more in the game, there has never been a better time to join! Every penny makes a difference right now and during Beta it only costs as little as £1.49 a month!

As always, thank you to members and donors for your support! If you are not and you would like to support this project in addition to gaining further insight into the game, please find more details on the Membership page!

For this game to be sustainable, it needs your support. I will be able to deliver bigger and better features as well as more content! Every little make a difference and during Beta it only costs as little as £1.49 a month!

Don't miss out on the full experience!

Those joining and maintaining their membership during Beta will also benefit from a permanent discount going forwards as a thank you for supporting the game at this early stage.

Other noteworthy changes since v0.30.0:
  • Updated sustainability metrics and dev roadmap
  • Increased number of generated classified vehicle adverts
  • Fixed MPG going below 1 and generating infinite fuel - if only this was real-life...
  • Updated public transport image and added attributions
  • Can now get out of your vehicle
  • Minor tweaks to getting in and out of vehicles
  • Removed state of the nation announcement boxes
  • Updated sustainability page and banner ad - first goal met!!!
  • Switched it to now point to the second goal!

24/02/2022 v0.30.0
Job Centre Update & Map Expansion!
Map Expansion!
Map Expansion & the new Job Centre!
Hello Job Seekers!

Whilst usually seen as a sign of hard times in the UK, I hope that the in-game Job Centre will be somewhat more enjoyable!

The main perk of the new Job Centre is for members, allowing players to customise their permanent passive job. What does this mean? You can trade off some passive income for an increased regeneration of game time.

The effect of which means you can get onwards of 60% more gameplay per day if you choose to reduce your working pattern to just one day a week! If you log in often or simply have more to do each day, then this is a fantastic new addition!

Not a member? It also provides a handy way to jump into the classified temporary jobs and give an overview of just how much money and game time you get working the standard five day week.

Map Expansion!

As the title graphic shows, the map has been expanded to allow more features and areas to be added to the game. The map will continue to be a central part of the game and consequently more real estate was needed to fit it all in!

Those with a keen eye may also notice some other subtle updates; with downtown being renamed to City Centre and Race Centre being renamed Race HQ. The former is to keep more in-touch with the British theme of the game and the latter because a) it sounds more catchy b) it avoids the name conflicting with the newly named City Centre

Less than 4 days left to hit the first funding goal!

The recent influx of new members has been fantastic to see and with the new Job Centre offering the ability to do much more in the game, there has never been a better time to join! Every penny makes a difference right now and during Beta it only costs as little as £1.49 a month!

Don't miss out on the full experience!

At the time of writing, we are approximately 82% of the way there! Note that the mechanism for calculating this has shifted since the last news item where it was more like 76% using the same calculation method. The difference is that I've separated out business expenses from the goals to keep things simpler!

Check out the Sustainability page via the Support section in-game when logged in for more details!

As always, thank you to members and donors for your support! If you are not and you would like to support this project in addition to gaining further insight into the game, please find more details on the Membership page!

For this game to be sustainable, it needs your support. I will be able to deliver bigger and better features as well as more content! Every little make a difference and during Beta it only costs as little as £1.49 a month! Those joining and maintaining their membership during Beta will also benefit from a permanent discount going forwards as a thank you for supporting the game at this early stage.

Other noteworthy changes since v0.29.19:
  • Added NEW label to highlight new features
  • Added buttons to development roadmap and sustainability pages from membership page when in-game
  • Added membership button to development roadmap for non-members
  • Updated development roadmap and sustainability pages
  • Re-worded button to membership page from sustainability page
  • Added percentages to sustainability goals
  • Updated sustainability page to be clearer and so expenses are more clearly separated from take home pay goals
  • New players now start with £1k and 100hr game time
  • Improvements to job acceptance
  • Logging efficiency improvements
  • Various re-factoring and other misc. code improvements
  • Platform upgrades

14/02/2022 v0.29.19
Bonus Ball Result & Tweaks!

Following the last member car pack poll, the bonus ball has been chosen! Out of the three qualifying vehicles I'm pleased to announce that the bonus ball vehicle is the:

1988 Daihatsu Charade GTti!

The 1.0 three-cylinder turbo’d pocket rocket sounds very ahead of its time, paving its way for a glut of turbo powered 1.0 cars of all sizes in the 2010s onwards.

This will be delivered as part of the next members choice car pack!

Minor Tweaks!

Following player feedback the following tweaks have been made:

  • Relaxed American Muscle Race door restrictions (now four doors or less)
  • Removed body style restrictions from wedding jobs
Help me reach the first Funding Goal!

The first funding goal for the game is due at the end of the month (see the Sustainability page on the Support section when logged in for details). At the moment, whilst I am very pleased with the progress that has been made and the generosity shown by Members to date, it is unlikely it will be hit despite being somewhat close.

It would be fantastic if more members could join and get the game as close to the target as possible by the end of the month! Every penny makes a difference right now and during Beta it only costs as little as £1.49 a month!

At the time of writing we are approximately 80% of the way there! There are also a lot of exciting new member features on the horizon!

Latest Member Update!

I released a substantial member update on friday featuring details about plans to expand the in-game map and a number of upcoming in-game features. If you are a member then you should have received an update via Ko-fi or Patreon, but if you aren't yet a member and are interested then now might be a good time to join!

As always, thank you to members and donors for your support! If you are not and you would like to support this project in addition to gaining further insight into the game, please find more details on the Membership page!

For this game to be sustainable, it needs your support. I will be able to deliver bigger and better features as well as more content! Every little make a difference and during Beta it only costs as little as £1.49 a month! Those joining and maintaining their membership during Beta will also benefit from a permanent discount going forwards as a thank you for supporting the game at this early stage.

Other noteworthy changes since v0.29.7:
  • Added minimum duration for Own Car Submission to membership and own submission page
  • Added waiting Gold Member Car Submissions
  • Locked players now display with a strike-through
  • Various logging improvements
  • Re-worked the player names on the player challenge accept page
  • Significant progress made on multiple account detection
  • Various backend improvements
  • Updated game sustainability & development roadmap

31/01/2022 v0.29.7
Members Choice Pack VI & More!

The first non-member update of 2022, but there's been plenty going on in the background! If you'd like to be the first to know then please consider signing up for membership! It really would make a difference, no matter how small your financial contribution!

Help me hit the first funding goal by the end of Feb! If you'd like to see the progress, you can do so via the Sustainability page via the Support section in-game!

But without further ado:

Members Choice Pack VI!
  • 1999 Fiat Multipla JTD & 16v Comes with airbags, but not a paper bag as standard.
  • 1990 Lexus LS400 The original Japanese Mercedes.
  • 1965 AC Shelby Cobra Take a petite British sports car and shove in a massive V8. The car that will put hair on your chest.
  • 1989 Peugeot 405 Mi16 Providing GTi performance for the whole family.
  • 1988 Toyota MR2 The original hairdressers car of choice, until everyone else wanted a go.
  • The Bonus Ball - 2000 Vauxhall Astravan Envoy For when you want a van, but you don't want a van.

A massive thank you to Quotex and other members of the community for assisting with this pack!

The next Members Choice Poll will start tomorrow in the forums but with the following differences:

  • The votes of others will be hidden until they are released at the end. This is to encourage people vote for what they want rather than what they think will win.
  • Packs will typically consist of 4 vehicles as they used to be, with a possible 'bonus ball' vehicle for those that have been nominated on at least three occasions. Those that qualify will be flagged when the poll winners are announced and the 'bonus ball' will be randomly selected! Usual vote stipulations apply.
  • Polls will be every six weeks approximately, rather than once a month to allow more time to focus on the development of the game, to get other content in, more time to do data corrections and to provide better tools for contributions for the longer term.
Development Roadmap Updated!

Now updated for 2022, check it out via the Support page when logged in!

The Game Continues to Grow!

The game hit 2000 players just after Christmas and is well onto its way of hitting 2,500 activated players!

New Account Page, Image Attributions and Player Preferences!

Image attributions are now largely complete and as part of this work it necessitated the introduction of player preferences and a re-structuring of the in-game Account area! This will open the door to new preferences for players to set later down the road e.g. time zones for non-UK based players!

As always, thank you to members and donors for your support! If you are not and you would like to support this project in addition to gaining further insight into the game, please find more details on the Membership page!

For this game to be sustainable, it needs your support. I will be able to deliver bigger and better features as well as more content! Every little make a difference and during Beta it only costs as little as £1.49 a month! Those joining and maintaining their membership during Beta will also benefit from a permanent discount going forwards as a thank you for supporting the game at this early stage.

Other noteworthy changes since v0.28.0:
  • Added new Member poll type, with hidden vote totals until the end
  • Fixed inflation not affecting car values as much as it should've pre-1970
  • Fixed player challenge results not appearing when a challenge is accepted
  • Various re-factoring and backend improvements
  • Tweaks to header images following tweaks in winter versions
  • Changed player challenge screen so accept is at right and buttons are colour coded
  • Fixed a broken opponent car check for player challenges
  • Fixed multiple image attributions not being stored
  • Added alternative membership advert
  • Fixed current email address not appearing on account page
  • Updated sustainability graph goals following an increase in ad spend
  • Added discord role perks to the membership page
  • Player challenge exploit with invalid values fix
  • Fixed cancellation links on member FAQ being in wrong place!

News From Other Years

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Copyright © 2024 Andrew Taylor
In memory of Grandad
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