Hello developer(s), of Gear City.

My name is Jason, and I want to start by saying congratulations on reaching the “final release candidate” stage of development for Gear City. I’ve been following this game since ~2017 (as I was looking for alternatives to the “indefinitely hiatused” game Cars Incorporated by Duck Huntgames) and finally bought the game back in 2020 and I’ve loved it ever since. 😊 Sadly, I was too busy to offer any QoL/Feature suggestions prior to the “Feature/QoL Complete” version that was 1.25.0.0; though after watching and playing a few heavily contracted/modded save series recently, in preparation for a YouTube series I plan to make by the full release of the game, I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s a few QoL I think the game should have by then.
As a (fledgling) indie game developer and programmer myself, I understand time/resources on adding anything new by this point would further delay the game, and I’ve seen for the past year you’ve been stating your reluctance to do so. Despite this, I think we’re all aware that, “First Release Impressions” can “Make or Break” a game, like CyberPunk for example, but given the scale/quality you’ve put into this game I can happily say it won’t be disastrous nor negative at all. 😉 I will say that there could potentially be major improvements from the “less micro-management inclined” players at least as well as helping more invested players like myself greatly. So I did my best to select the 5 biggest QoL changes I could think of that would involve the least amount of coding, effort, and time involved to implement by release or even in “post-launch update(s)” afterwards.
I am making HUGE assumptions with core mechanics/code of the game engine in the following changes.
1. I assume the “UI” and it’s code is shared/inherited between all windows and buttons. I will admit after playing the game for over 500+ hours now, that some windows and menus do seem to be separate entities code wise as some elements that are similar to each other seem to function differently, most notably pages/scroll windows and component /vehicle/marque filter(s) seem to sometime share functions while others add/remove them depending on which menu it is.
2. I also assume that all UI “button” length/width is “hard coded” as changing the UI scale option doesn’t seem to change their length/width nor text font size, but just the “scale” that they’re rendered in. So, it is inferred that the dimensions of all buttons cannot be increased/reduced to fill/save space in windows aside from adding/removing them.
3. Lastly, I assume that UI “elements” and “functions” can not be “modded” by 3rd parties/players. This is fairly common in most games as UI code is usually intergraded so deeply in the game engine coding that any modification would drastically change all functionality of it. So I assume there’s no way I nor anyone else besides the developer(s) to add these. Though if it is moddable I will personally offer to implement these changes and more later on myself.
So listed below are the 5 Biggest QoL changes I came up with:
Note: When coming up with these changes I set the game to run at 1024x768 Windowed (normally set to 2560x1440) with maximum quality graphic options enabled except “Compositor, “+5 UI Scale”, and “Dynamic Reports Size” while playing in a “[WIP] tbjack's grill decals and historic player logos” and “XylonDesignCars” modded save in 1961 on “Ultra-Nightmare Difficulty” on version “2.0.0.0 RC2” 64-Bit.

1. Change Auto\QuickSave naming to “CompanyName-Auto/QuickSave”
Problem and Cause(s):
Fundamentally the biggest change in this list, but also the most important change I can think of out of all the possible QoL changes I can currently imagine.
Simply put this would actually make the “Save on Exit” option in the settings usable in EVERY use case, as ever since I first played the Gear City Demo back in late 2019, I immediately found out that unless you specifically use the “Save As” command, set a specific save name, and save at least once there, BEFORE enabling the “Save on Exit” option /using “QuickSave” then it WILL automatically overwrite you current/last saved name file WITHOUT warning. This has single handedly ENDED successful and long running saves of mine multiple times, and now I always play with this disabled despite the fact that I know it would of also saved a few save runs where I forgot to save when exiting the game, though the loses outweigh the savings for me.
Potential Solution(s) and Code Example(s):
So the simplest solution I could think of to fix this is to simply force the Auto/QuickSave name to “CompanyName-AutoSave” as that would involve the least amount of code change and variables needed to accomplish this, assuming that the “Save”, “Save As”, and “Auto/QuickSave” all share the same code base.
I had considered using and abbreviation of the company name or using the existing/prior save name and simply appending “SaveName-Auto/Quick”, but the former would involve additional code for getting the First letters/Word in the company name and that didn’t quite seem worth it and the latter could double the amount of saves and space used on the drive inadvertently.
The simplest solution in my opinion is to use the “Company Name” as the save name variable as it’s unlikely the player would share the same name across multiple saves, and even if so, the fact that only one save game can be loaded/saved at a time reduces the potential for “save loss/confusion” as well as reduce the number of additional saves to just 2 per company name.
I also almost combined the auto and QuickSave functions to just saving as “CompanyName-AutoSave” for both, but I decided it’s better to have them separate as in some cases a QuickSave can be newer/better than an autosave and vice versa.
Therefore the code would go as follows:
Quicksave: Get company name and add “-QuickSave” to the end, then create the file.
AutoSave/Save on Exit: Get company name and add “-AutoSave” to the end, then create the file.
Since both code requirements are so similar, the code should be shared which will reduce the amount needed to implement.
Example(s) and Effect(s):
For example, if I had a save I just loaded or previously saved as “EMC-1960” with a Company Name of “Electro Motor Co”, worked on it awhile then decided to either QuickSave before making a major change or I had to quickly attend to something and forget to manually save prior to exiting the game then the game should leave “EMC-1961” unchanged, and have two additional saves called “Electro Motor Co-QuickSave” and “Electro Motor Co-AutoSave”.



2. Add “Auto Resume Simulation” Option to “End Turn” Window
Problem and Cause(s):
As someone who plays exclusively on “Ultra-Nightmare Difficulty”, I’ve run into many situations where I want to simply simulate an entire year or more “uninterrupted” by pop-ups, but due to the vast amounts of contract renewals, union/pay raise request, strikes, and major events like wars, pop-ups occur almost every month. Naturally this renders the “Months to Simulate” feature of this window effectively useless past just 1 month, as in this situation as it will almost always get interrupted each month and the player will have to go back, select it again, then retry till the months they actually wanted to simulate completes.
Potential Solution(s) and Code Example(s):
The simplest way I could think of resolving this would simply be adding an additional check box option for “Auto Resume Simulation” which saves the number of months previously entered, then automatically forces the game to resume simulating turns AFTER the player has manually attended to any pop-ups that would still interrupt the simulation, like Contract Renewals and Worker/Union raise request. The ONLY time it should PERMANENTLY stop BEFORE completely simulating those additional months is for “High Priority Memos/Urgent Action Pop-ups” like Stock Availability Notices, Bankrupt Company Purchases, Union/Strike Warnings, and Major Conflict/War decisions.
The “default sized” window for the “End Turn” is also small enough to be enlarged to fit this option while still fitting within the “ultra-minimum” supported resolution for this game which is 1024x768 with “+5 UI Scale” enabled, effectively making the game render at “972.8x729.6” resolution, due to the enlarged windows taking up the most space they can while still being entirely viewable.
The game also seems to have a robust system for checking if the player has answered to events/pop-ups, most notably the “Wait a Second” option in “Urgent Action” pop-ups, so adding an additional check to that system or most likely the “End Turn” system at the very end should be “relatively simple”.
While there could be an additional window for the “End Turn”, that would appear directly after the last “Urgent Action” pop-up is dealt with, to ask the player whether they would want to resume the simulation or return the office now to address additional items, which would be another good improvement, I don’t think it’s truly necessary as most urgent events would naturally cause the player to want to spend that same month adjusting to the changes and most likely manually progressing at a slower simulation rate till “things will be fine without me again”, which most notably happens during the World Wars and the Great Depression if those are enabled to occur on the map.
I would also vouch for an automated system to handle the pop-ups themselves, but due to the massive code addition, testing, and time requirements to implement that, I don’t think that it would probably be worth it till Gear City’s “EoL” (End-of-Life) update(s) or “Gear City 2”.


Therefore, the code would go as follows:
[At Game Load: SET MonthsToSimulate=0] //This resets any prior saved values.
<Player sets “Months to Simulate” and enables “Auto Resume Simulation” option.>
SET “MonthsSimulated” to 0, then CALL “End Turn”.
WHILE “MonthsToSimulate > 0” && “EVENT != TRUE”.
If TRUE, then SET “MonthsToSimulate -=1” AND then CALL “End Turn” again.
If FALSE, then break to EVENT code.
{EVENT CODE} //Assumes all events can call the code for “Wait A Second” checks.
IF “EVENT != URGENT” then <Player deals with pop-ups> then after the last pop-up is closed, automatically CALL “End Turn” again and continue prior loop till “MonthsToSimulate == 0” then end loop and break to OFFICE menu.
If ELSE, then automatically disable the “Auto Resume Simulation” option, break from the loop, and break to OFFICE menu.
<Player deals with URGENT pop-ups then manually repeats “End Turn” process till “Auto Resume Simulation” option is re-enabled.>
Example(s) and Effect(s):
If I set “Months to Simulate” to 17 months, then enable “Auto Resume Simulation”, and after 8 months the simulation is interrupted by a “Non-Urgent” popup like “Renew Contracts” or the “Memos” window when set to “Medium (or Lower)” then the following should happen:
Since 8 months have passed the code should have already subtracted that from the “Months to Simulate”, setting it to 9 months as it’s new value. Therefore that value should be saved and any even trigger code necessary for those windows should operate as normally till they finish, then the game should check after the event(s) to see if the “Auto Resume Simulation” option was enabled and if so it should automatically “EndTurn” again with “MonthsToSimulate already set to 9 months and continue normally till it either is finished simulating the remaining months, or stop completely before then if an “Urgent Event” occurs.

3. Reduce ALL “Company Resumes /Purchased Component” contract notification to “Medium” in “Memos” Window when “Auto Production” is Enabled
Problem and Cause(s):
Pretty self-explanatory, but after playing the game as long as I have, there’s basically no reason the “Company Resumes /Purchased Component” memos should be “High Priority”, especially when the “Company Resumes /Purchased Vehicle” based memos are only Medium despite in my opinion being even mor crucial. This is one of the main problems from my prior EoL suggestion which would further reduce that from occurring at all.
Potential Solution(s) and Code Example(s):
Given the amount of testing I’ve done, it’s apparent that as longs as the player is capable of managing their production lines profitably OR that “Auto Production” is enabled which already successful accounts for contract/outsourcing production with exceptional results, the only solution needed is to reduce the priority.
Example(s) and Effect(s):
The ONE single exception I can think of it needing to be a “High Priority” is when the player has ALL management automation disabled, though aside from “Hard Core” players and “Ironman Runs” the likelihood of this affecting the player is slim to none as long as the player can already stay profitable with these contracts. The only way I can assume it would hurt the player to not be notified is if an AI makes a HUGE contract for high material cost parts that either the player can’t manage to uphold or stifles their profits till expenses, but even the contract management menus and monthly reports would easily let the player fix/see this.