0.2 Update Now Available

0.2 Update should now be available to Patreon subscribers through the usual https://minskworks.itch.io/patreon-access-for-honcho link.
The focus of this update was to finally transition over to the free-roam design I'd been targeting. I've reworked a lot of core systems here to allow driving between regions and fully exploring the world at your leisure. With two new regions, vending machines, new trucks and world changes, there's a lot to see!

Trailer

Higher Resolution Here

Features

• 2 New Batako Type Trucks

  • 4x 3 leaf suspensions means not only a bumpy ride, but also a max carry capacity of 80kg

  • Built in GPE Engine

  • No fuel tanks, only GPE built in 6.5ltr capacity

  • Wooden trailer

  • No doors, windscreen, open to the elements

  • Minimalist dash with no fuel dial, only a fuel light

  • Tractor wheels, not a lot of grip

• New Front-End UI Design

  • Load Capacity now correctly displayed on auction UI

  • Number of Gears now updated on the auction UI

  • Vehicle production year now correctly displayed on the auction sheet

  • New Load screen preview, showing Keiko, your truck, driver's licence and company logo

• Licence plate generation

  • Generation follows real-world rules for the Showa-era

• New in-game UI elements

  • Keiko now has a purse to show how much money she has on her

  • Keiko now has a watch to show the current time

  • Various other elements updated with the new UI design

  • ATM UI is now Diegetic

• World Economy

  • The world of Honcho now has an economy with static and dynamic events.

  • Static events determine which areas of the world have a base desire, and base production of certain goods

    • This determines the base for things like stock and customer desires

  • Dynamic events can occur daily for each area

    • This determines price and demand fluctiation depending on the event

• More Keiko customisation

  • Two new costumes Uniform Blue and Uniform Creme

  • Earings

  • Hair styles and hats

  • Sunglasses!

• 2 New Regions

  • Added new region Mizunuma

    • Added new route for Mizunuma

  • Added new region Yamanashi

    • Added new route for Yamanashi

  • Freely drive between them all!

• Headlights

• Indicators

• Rear Lights

Changes

• Rebalanced the single gear transmission to work better with the Daizo GX 360 engine.

  • Gear 1 ration, previously 3.912, changed to 2.75

  • Reverse, previously 3.583, changed to 2.5

  • Final previously 5.63, changed to 3.5

  • These changes will mean the revs max out later, whilst also providing a top speed of about 40km/h with 22" wheels

• Baseball bat in the garage can now be used to smash your truck

• Nerfed Kusahiro so they are far more likely to be heavily rusted and damaged

  • Kusahiro paint always faded

  • Kusahiro high chance to contain no fuel, oil or other liquids

  • If Kusahiro has a fluid present in a component, it is now much lower in volume

• Made the yellow Daizo paint variant more appealing

• Tab UI info in the toolbag now shows info for the area the player is in

• World Generation changes

  • World gen always spawns areas with at least two tunnels

  • tunnels connect to nearby towns, allowing players to freely traverse the world

• Interest is now applied to all loans

  • Each loan or failed payment adds an interest rate, and payment date

  • Interest is applied daily

  • Failure to pay by the due date will result in the player experiencing the fist of the free market...

  • Money banked into the ATM account will now gain daily interest

• Sleep Changes

  • When Keiko sleeps she now creates snot bubbles

  • Change max sleep to 12 hours. Don't be lazy!

• Map changes to make getting the truck out of the roadside water areas easier

• Happy Mart Changes

  • More organised spawning routine for trade goods

  • Trade goods now have a price tag on the shelf

  • Markets now save their stock, and replenish it daily

  • Market stock count and stock price determined by economical events

  • Added a "SALE" sticker to help show economic event conditions

  • Increased the capacity of the shopping basket from 12 - 24

  • Happy Mart Clerk will now box your purchases in the appropriate sized box

    • if more than 50 items are purchased at once, they will box the remaining items in an additional box

  • This change also fixes an issue with purchasing more than 12 drinks not being boxed correctly

  • When holding a box or crate, players can now hold the interact input to "hoover up" items. This should help save excessive clicking

  • Item Carriers now have a nice whoosh sound when adding items

• Added Mr Tofu! for players who don't want to play as a yucky girl. Just set Keiko's name to tofu and observe the masculinity.

• "Stats" UI (Wallet, watch) now only shows up when opening the tool bag, and interacting with stores

• Added a sparkle effect to letters the player can read

• New "LookAt" methodology that should make forced looking at scenarios much smoother

  • i.e. locking onto a bolt, talking with NPCs, etc should no longer "jolt" the camera

• Fixed the delivery newspaper art

• Can now consume caffiene goods to give Keiko energy

• Keiko will now passout if her energy drops too low

  • Passing out causes keiko to fall asleep for 6 hours, regardless of where she is

  • During this state, keiko energy recover is reduced to 5% per hour (beds provides 12.5%)

  • If this occurs while driving, you're in for a bad time

• Added a Sleep Mask to Keiko's tool bag. Allows Keiko to sleep in the truck at a reduced energy recover rate of 5% per hour (Bed provides a recovery rate of 12.5% per hour)

• Player map should now show the correct area name upon opening

  • Travelling between towns will display the name of the map as [PreviousTown] - [NextTown]

• Certain parts can now no longer be compatible with others

  • This rule only applies to trailer and trailer doors right now as they can differ in size.

• Tutorials are now only shown to the player once per save file

• Added a whiteboard to the player house to show what's being worked on

• Updated the Jobs and Holdings UI to the new UI visuals

  • Business tab is still on the old UI, as it's a fair bit more complex

• Weather conditions now based on area climate. Climates include:

  • Temperate; clearer skies and lower chance of rain

  • Humid; more likely to be overcast with higher chance of rain

  • Cool; more likely to be foggy and overcast with average rain

    • Note, I'd like to return to this feature to flesh it out more. Perhaps introducing a clearer precipitation factor for jobs.

• Loose spawn piles now only spawn trade goods and vending machines (they no longer spawn repair parts or vehicle components)

• Repair parts must be found on abandoned trucks, or purchased from the second hand store

• Components must be found on Kusahiro, or purchased from the second hand store

• Loot spawn piles now weigh 80% towards the produced good of the region for trade goods

• Nights are now darker

Fixes

• Fixed a couple of instances where the camera could become tilted if working on the car at an angle

• Speedometer should now be more accurate

• Fix nut access for Batako_Wheel_02

• Fixed issue where truck would continuously backfire if it took large damage to the engine while at max RPM

• Fixed issue with DamageVehicleComponentsRandom() damaging all components, rather than just 1 selected at random

• DamageVehicleComponentsRandom() now only damages external parts (wheels, frame, lights)

• Fixed some LOD issues with riverbanks at Wadashima

• Fixed issue with automatic transmission shift up time being too high, leading the pristine condition transmission not shifting up in gear

• LOD Optimisations for various trade goods, paint cans, fuel cans, oil and tools

• LOD Optimisation for player home

• Fixed issue where player would loose 5 energy upon loading into the game

• Fixed player location for oil pour into Engine 2

• Fixed issue where tape wouldn't stop GPE fuel tank from leaking

• Fixed issue where UI details remained on screen after using repair bench

• Added rule for truck auctions to force vehicles to generate with at least 1 fuel tank if the engine doesn't have a built in fuel tank

  • This is important for Batako trucks specifically, which do not come with a fuel tank as they use the GPE engine which has a built in tank.

  • Though it's possible for some Batako trucks to generate with different engines.

• Fixed kusahiro spawn position near dead-ends

• Fixed lighting issue on rain, droplet splash and rain puddles

• Fixed lighting on rain effect on vehicle door windows

• Should have fixed the black trees that occur during twilight hours

• Fixed mesh issues on exhaust pipe ends

• Fixed mesh issues on GPE Engine

Caveats

This is the first implementation of the vending machines, so it's fairly rudimentary with lots of issues. Goods aren't vended from them unless you're in the area. You have to manually collect all income and manually stock them. This is still intended as a late-game activity, so it'll take a while to get fully developed.

Still no Truck Auction in the game world, so the truck you start with is the truck you're stuck with.

There are two radios in the game files, but the royalty-free music we're using as placeholder with them is almost certainly AI generated, so they're restricted from spawning. The radios will be made available once we're able to source actual music from an actual artist with an actual soul.

Truck auction generation is still Easy, Medium, Hard and Wildcards 1 through 3. This feature will be reworked on the next big update, likely replaced with an option to start with a rundown Batako that you can choose to either build yourself ala My Summer Car, or that comes ready to drive. This will lower the initial starting debt to be more manageable, and reinforce the meta chase of building your dream super truck. It remains unchanged now though, as Car Auctions still aren't present in the game world.

All Keiko's new customisation is available from the start. This will change in future updates. Players will need to unlock each customisable element, but will also be able to change their look from the player garage. To line up to the sukeban themes, outfits designed for fashion over practicability will have less pockets to hold stuff.

Loose spawn piles on route is still a design feature I think sucks. There's currently no other way to obtain vending machines, though, so it's staying until I can flesh out a better "scavenge" system for them.

I'm still using the free asset for NPCs (as seen in Yandere Simulator). He will be replaced eventually, I'm having to do the character art myself though so it's taking time.

You also cannot remove the license plates, as there isn't yet a solution for replacing them.

Music

As stated above, the radio is ready to go but needs a human artist. Do you make City-pop or Jazz-fusion style music? Maybe you don't make that type of music, but feel it'd be a great fit for a game set during late Showa period Japan? Please reach out! ラーメンたべたい - Akiko Yano is a key inspiration here.

Thank you all for your patience and support on this. Glad I could get it out before christmas, and with time to allow for fixes and feedback. Will require a new save, so be sure to click on that New Game button!

Greg