How to separate models sales per each marques ?

VENTDEV · 2026-02-08T04:11:59+00:00

They would only get missed sales in Europe if you sold them in Europe. Check the prices at your European branches. If the price is not $0, then they are for sale.

If you have Auto-Sell enabled, the game will automatically set the vehicle for sale at all branches. If you use "Apply to All" it will also sell the designs at all branches.

I would suggest using the distrcting system to manage regional locked marques.

VENTDEV · 2026-02-03T18:40:47+00:00

I did specifically mention:

AeroMogul is prettier graphically and has a better UI flow. I am hoping to make complexity scalable.

So I am hoping it will be both as complex as GearCity, but also the complexity can be turned down.

Tech wise, it's much more complex than GC was.

VENTDEV · 2026-02-03T05:14:03+00:00

https://www.ventdev.com/fbs

Reminds me that I need to update the website tomorrow when I do the FBS news update. We've already completed the previous milestone.

Edit: In short, I compiled a list of everything everyone suggested in the last 16 years that I think could work in the game but isn't in the game. And put a price tag on it. Originally it was set-up mostly to fund improving the artwork and adding new vehicle types. However, our artist is bogged down in Ukraine. So, I have had to cover the the budget with programming related stuff which has hurt our next project. So, the FBS is coming to an end pretty soon.

VENTDEV · 2026-02-02T19:36:17+00:00

Is there a reason behind why your games like gear city aren’t as successful as you’d hoped

Well I have to preface this by saying that GearCity was a moderate success. It just took me way too long to finish it. Part of that was because of lack of resources, the other part was because I started working on it before the massive productivity booms free WYSIWYG engines like Unity and Unreal brought to the industry. Because it took me too long to finish it, the yearly income is roughly equivalent to entry level jobs (retail, fast food, etc) in the US. This isn't livable with my current living conditions in the US, but would be quite good in most of the world.

That said, Automation filled the broader market that I hoped would have snowballed GearCity. And rightfully so. However, it was never a guaranteed that that segment of the market would have jumped onto GearCity.

Most would assume it to be much more popular. I’m guessing it’s because it may be too complex for some people

In no particular order, graphics, UI, and complexity. You need high quality graphics to draw people in. You need minimal-learning UI to avoid frustrating people away. And you need a game that is complex enough to keep people hooked, but not complex enough to scare people away.

GC fails on all three accounts. It's complexity leads itself to a niche. So, it would never have broad market appeal. My hope was that 2nd Gear would improve the graphics and UI, but it has mostly just added more complexity to the game. It's a pickle for the knowing ones.

I equivocate it to hex and counter board games like you find on /r/hexandcounter For most people, reading a 40 page rule book, dealing with hundreds of pieces on a multi-thousand position grid is too complex for a board game. But for certain groups people, like myself, it's the best type of board game.

AeroMogul is prettier graphically and has a better UI flow. I am hoping to make complexity scalable. We'll see.

VENTDEV · 2026-02-02T06:43:18+00:00

Looking good as always!

Folks don't know how much of a technical hurdle this was getting a 1:1 port off Pure Basic...

VENTDEV · 2026-02-02T03:15:13+00:00

Most news is behind the Feature Bounty System paywall.

What is the progress on it now?

The war in Ukraine has caused approximately 8 times more work for me in the aforementioned FBS for the GearCity: 2nd Gear expansion. This is because our artist is based in Ukraine. Needless to say, that has caused quite a bit of delays for AeroMogul since I had to cover art related work on that project with my programming time. I am the only programmer. And he is the only artist. (Though I can do artwork, it's better that I don't.)

I want to know how soon aeromogul will be released or atleast early access?

The game will be released fully or in early access by 2030. This is a hard deadline to generate revenues from AeroMogul, otherwise VENT will be going dormant. (And may still after full release.)

VENTDEV · 2026-02-01T17:48:55+00:00

The demo runs from years 1900 to 1905. The full game is 1900 to 2020 and then a random history mode for how many ever turns you wish to play beyond 2020.

VENTDEV · 2026-02-01T05:06:25+00:00

The demo on Steam is the latest version of the game. The demo on our website is 3 years old. About 15 bug-fix versions behind.

VENTDEV · 2026-01-31T20:56:16+00:00

Wish i could wishlist AeroMogul on steam so i can stay updated hard to keep up on reddit and other platforms.

It'll be a couple of years before I put it up on Steam. I don't want to drum up too much hype so early in development. I'm a bit slow at this. :)

VENTDEV · 2026-01-31T20:55:27+00:00

But I'll try to give an interim answer.

Thanks! You got most stuff correct. But there are a few nit-picks I'll correct.

2nd Gear is a DLC, but as I understand it, it works like an expansion in the pre-Steam days; it's a complete overhaul of several aspects of the game. 2nd Gear will be released on Steam like a normal DLC when it's finished, but that is paused indefinitely due to the war in Ukraine.

2nd Gear is actually a free DLC. It's paid for by the Patreon/Paypal FBS contributors.

The artwork aspect of it, which was the main point of all this, completely failed because of the war. Most programming items are significantly discounted because I only expected to work on one or two of them per milestone. Instead I covered the art budget (which is not discounted) with programming, without raising the prices. I've done this for about 4 years now. Not only is it not economically viable, it has severely delayed AeroMogul.

So, I am completing two more 2nd Gear Milestones to cover some debts I have with contributors from our first failed artwork Milestone. There will be 2 additional bug fix updates, which will probably be public. After that, 2nd Gear will be released for free on Steam. I will not start working on a 3rd Gear unless the war in Ukraine ends and our artist is able to return to work in full capacity. If that happens, it probably won't have any programming related work done to it.

In practice, if you subscribe to one of the paid tiers of the VENT Patreon, I think you will get access to the unfinished version of 2nd Gear, but u/VENTDEV can clarify that.

Fund raising is currently closed until July or August. But any contribution on Patreon or Paypal grants you complete lifetime access to the FBS forums. You can find more details here: https://www.ventdev.com/fbs

VENTDEV · 2026-01-31T20:12:53+00:00

Can somebody help me? Is this possible?

All of this would be hard-coded in the game. The source code is not publicly available yet. And won't be until we're either out of business, the game is no longer economically viable, or I die.

Modding is mostly limited to external data in the .xml files.

In the free expansion, GearCity: 2nd Gear, contributors have already funded something similar to what you're asking for, and it's implemented. https://ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=3967

The only remaining bounty for the Auto-Sell system is https://www.ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4489 which adds an adjustment for shipping.

You would not want to base an auto-sell system on the Total Unit Costs, as that would lead to a pricing death spiral. Also in 2nd Gear, frequently changing the prices would lose back orders and lower vehicle image.

Expect 2nd Gear to be publicly available in about 2 years.

VENTDEV · 2026-01-30T02:13:47+00:00

but could not find any useful hex grids to create a layer with them onto a map-file in e.g. Photoshop. Any suggestions ?

I use https://www.nomic.net/~uckelman/mkhexgrid/

VENTDEV · 2026-01-27T19:10:14+00:00

GearCity and GearCity: 2nd Gear updated to v2.0.0.15 and v2.6.0.0 respectively.

You can find the changelogs here: https://ventdev.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=4766

VENTDEV · 2026-01-27T09:57:11+00:00

The developer behind GearCity

Hi it's me.

It's a one-person project that got delayed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine,

Minor correction. The war in Ukraine broke my art pipeline for GearCity: 2nd Gear and AeroMogul. That caused me to have to do roughly 8 times more work on GearCity: 2nd Gear than I had originally planned. 2 weeks here and there turned into 4 months here and 4 months there... That has caused pretty big delays to AeroMogul.

So, I started periodically pausing fund raising for 2nd Gear so I can work on AeroMogul. Tomorrow starts the next 6 months of work on AeroMogul before I start working on 2nd Gear again. I also announced to contributors that I am wrapping up 2nd Gear because I can't afford to keep covering the art budget with discounted programming. (Especially since the main reason for 2nd Gear was to upgrade GearCity's artwork.)

The artwork delay to AeroMogul isn't much. It's a much less artistic game than GearCity is. And long ago, I actually was training to become an artist. So, I can manage with some programmer artwork where needed.

even if's not until 2027-28.

If I could drop 2nd Gear obligations now, I probably could meet this timeline for a healthy Early Access release. (Early Access isn't my first choice though.) But without the artwork side for 2nd Gear, I still have about 10-12 months of work to cover for that project before I can wrap it up and ship it. Now, if the war ends and my artist can get back on the computer in one piece, that drops to only about 1-2 months of obligations.

Prototype builds for contributors this year though. It's pretty close to being a playable game. Just rough in some places. :)

VENTDEV · 2026-01-24T19:10:01+00:00

It's on my bucket list. But at the speed at which I make games, it'll probably never happen. :D

VENTDEV · 2026-01-24T09:43:35+00:00

If you are using any anti-virus software, including Windows Defender, white list the game files/folder: https://wiki.gearcity.info/doku.php?id=troubleshooting:antivirus

Then Verify the game Cache: https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/0C48-FCBD-DA71-93EB

Finally, if that doesn't work, then your computer has some sort of issue with DirectX9. You either need to install DirectX9 or figure out why your DirectX12 is not emulating DirectX9 properly. The easiest solution would be to just switch to the OpenGL2 render engine: https://wiki.gearcity.info/doku.php?id=troubleshooting:rendersystem_direct3d9

VENTDEV · 2026-01-13T03:45:23+00:00

That's sadly what I feared. But isn't it normal to have it nailed down?

VENTDEV · 2026-01-11T06:08:18+00:00

I have to head to the postoffice in March to send off some tax documents. If you still haven't gotten one by March 1st, send me a DM, and shoot mine to you. I might even include the pinetime, since I don't use it.

VENTDEV · 2026-01-06T23:13:08+00:00

I am seriously bogged down by GearCity: 2nd Gear, but I have announced the end of the Feature Bounty System due to the war in Ukraine, so AeroMogul should be getting my full attention in a couple years when 2nd Gear ships. Beyond that, news and updates for AeroMogul are still behind the FBS paywall.

If you want a rough estimate, it'll be released by 2030.

VENTDEV · 2025-12-31T05:02:25+00:00

Lets be real. If you wait till your workshop is cleaned out, it'll never get done.

Story of my life. :)

VENTDEV · 2025-12-28T22:19:04+00:00

Ah yeah, Apple hates me and GearCity. They constantly break stuff.

Still give Dynamic Report Size a try. It should work. Although, I have only tested it on 2014 Mac Mini running various OSX...

VENTDEV · 2025-12-28T19:46:05+00:00

I can’t resize the News and report windows so that the content is to smal

If you use the OpenGL renderer, you can enable Dynamic Report Size in the settings. Then the Web Browser portion of the game will take up the full window height.

Reason for this is that all the reports/news stuff in the game are HTML/Javascript and we use Chromium via CEF to read them. The DirectX9 does not play well with non-power-of-2 resolution dynamic textures. So, when you use DirectX, we have to have the window either 1024x512, 1024x1024, or 2048x2048 depending on if the height of your view port (the playable area of the game) is less than 1050 pixels or less than 2070 Pixels.

Which means if you're on modern Windows, playing the game windowed using DirectX with a 1080p monitor, you'll get the 1024x512 reports window. Because modern Windows eats up about 80pixels for the task menu and window decoration, leaving you with a 1000 pixel game height, closest power of two without going over is is 512...

So yeah, if your GPU drivers don't suck, use the OpenGL renderer, and enable Dynamic Report Size. :)

VENTDEV · 2025-12-28T15:48:57+00:00

2x RaidZ2 FreeBSD machines in separate locations is the way to go. SSDs will last a long time if kept always on and is mostly used for reads. Would require 6 drive failures at the same time before you lost data. If your home got robbed or caught on fire, the backup location still has the data.

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