Dear Retailers!
It has been some time since the latest newsletter, and the even the world has changed since then.
WIth all of this happening as well as some other stuff, i decided to take a few weeks off, with minimal work on the game to get everything sorted again. This is also why the newsletter hasn't been out for an extended period.
However there has still been work, and lots of new things to tell about :-)
--- V 0.9.4 ---
A few minor updates has been released, mainly focusing on removing bugs, and making a few optimizations.
Primarily there was a bug affecting the bigger stores, where staff preferred filling articles over unpacking, resulting in them not unpacking at large stores where there are always something to fill. This has been changed around, so that they prefer to unpack over adding.
At some point the job / task system will be reworked completele, as it doesn't allow for complete control of your staff which should be possible.
The latest update also added some new articles to the Groceries category, making it possible to sell various cleaning items.
--- Up Next ---
Since then work has revolved around one of the community's greatest requests, the implementation of a "week", and this brings on a whole new set of features. Note that this is still work in progress, and not a part of the official game yet.
--- Staff Planning ---
First of all, it will be possible to plan the entire workweek for all of your staff. This includes individual day schedule, days off, and various roles for the specific day.
--- Opening Hours, and variying customer flows ---
To accompany this it is also now possible to make various opening hours for each day. However this would not add anything if all days are similar. So now there will also be a different amount of customers for each day, with some days busier than others, which affect how much staff you need for a given day as well as when to do your promotions.
The days will also have a varying flow of customers, so at Mondays the rich people might shop late in the morning, and on fridays closer to the evening instead.

The plan is also to add some more statistics to the computer to help you analyse these new things.
--- Updated HUD ---
To do this, the HUD needed to be able to also contain weekdays. And since it... could look better, i decided to give it an overall upgrade.

It also contains some new features.
--- Keybindings ---
There will now be keybindings to control simple things like the speed.
--- Hide UI ---
There will be a button to hide the UI, for those who want to take better screenshots. This can also be toggled with tab.
--- First Person Mode ---
It will be possible to view the game from your characters point of view.
--- Other UI updates ---
In general lot of the menus have been updated to the new look, which is done for two reasons.
1. The old UI looked from it was made in the late 90's (The new isn't perfect but hopefully it looks more modern)
2. Much of it was made from the beginning of the game, where lots of errors and bad practices where used due to our lack of knowledge, so it has also been to upgrade this which allows for much easier changes in the future.
There will probably still be some remnants left of the old UI, but will also be changed.
And at some point the entire Main Menu will receive a likewise overhaul, as this also could be improved a lot.

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So this is what has happened since the last update. The next articles that will enter the game, is various drinks, and after that the electronics will receive some much needed attention.
Until next time, happy sales.[ 2020-04-30 08:01:38 CET ] [ Original post ]