While I’m still at writing on the forums, I’d like to send you my actual impressions about the car designer. There is only one thing I don’t like in it : I just can’t figure out how I have lived without it ! 
Seriously, I had some things to ask and I’ll try to remember them all :
- The Engine manual bench has some results differing with the auto : the needle is sometimes off with the numbers seen on the dyno. Is this a bug or am I having strabismus ?
- Is there a way to duplicate a fixture ? I’m having difficulties having to items the same size.
- Could there be an option to change the item sub-class ? Example : the round taillights. Could we have an option so if we made a mistake and want the red instead of the orange one, we could easily switch over to the good one while keeping its size and position ? As it’s the same 3d model, it’s not as if we would have placing issues like “too much bigger for it to stay here”.
I actually had this while changing a grille for its chromed version.
- How does the headlights “dig” in the body ? I was wondering that while seeing grilles and vents through the lights glass.
- Are bottom air extractors (Le Mans style ?), side mirrors (M3 ?) and side vents (Testarossa ?) planned ?
- Is it technically possible to make empty headlights so we could place lightbulbs ourselves ? Just wondering.
- While designing a 1987 engine, I saw on the following forum a limit in the engine designer :
automationgame.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=2329&hilit=ferrari+f40
As far as I understood, the turbo exhaust manifold is limiting the power output so we can’t reach the F40 engine. Is a better manifold planned even if it’s rarely used ? I know it would be a pain to make it, but I wanted to know if we could someday make a real 80’s supercar like this one.
- Are more body colors coming someday ? Is it actually possible to make RGB sliders ? Maybe even a “shininess” slider for custom matte paint ?
- I noticed a bug in the “Lips” sub-classes : when clicking on the return arrow, we can’t get to the main class, we have a blank menu instead.
Well, I guess it’s enough for now… 
Thank you very much for reading my novel topic.
Automation FTW !
1)Not sure, which results are we talking, the power gauge?
2)Not yet, but thinking about it
3)That will be the point of having ones sharing a family, so you can have different models with different headlight internals, trim around grilles etc. So you will be able to change yes.
4) It stamps a transparent hole in the paint texture of the car then does a whole bunch of raycasting voodoo to work out how to bend, it sadly can’t do this to anything else like grilles etc.
5)Bottom air extractors? Side mirrors will be fixed per body, side vents should be possible
6)Hells no! The insides of the headlights are a complicated setup to allow them to deform properly (they’re skinned to some bones)
7) Yup, better manifolds are coming
8) Yup
9) Fix on the way.
Thank you for your answer.
- It was a little bit of everything if I remember it correctly. I saw it on the Power/Torque and maybe the RPM one. I suppose it’s normal if the redline is a bit off.
- So we will have a shorcut/button to easily copy over the selected fixture ? Great !
- I was thinking about a button which opens the subclass menu so we can easily swap textures on the selected fixture. Example : select !!v-shaped grille on car body, click on button to have the sub-menu, click on the corresponding chrome version and it instantly get replaced with chrome one.
- Thanks. That explains the odd white thingies around fixtures. Yeah, this happens sometimes.
- Cool ! For air extractors, I meant this kind of bumper fixtures :
No < spoiler > in this forum ? Didn’t even know it.
- I know and was just wondering.
- Just great !
- So that means more colors ? What about the sliders option ? Actually do-able as an optional menu ?
- Guess I’ll be waiting for this update. Badges, bodies and spoilers, yum yum yum…
Oh, I forgot !
I’m playing and I remember, when used on the trunk, the Automation logo is flipped. Is a fix coming, or maybe the flipping option will be enabled just like other fixtures ?
Already on the list for a fix
So it’s somewhat 20 days later, and I’m still wondering about numbers 1, 3, 5 and 8
Besides that, here come two new technical questions :
10) About the pop-up lights, could there be a “hood lights” category ? As I understand it, fixtures are shaped into the body, either vertically (bonnets…) or horizontally (exhausts…). Maybe we could copy over existing lights, but as vertically stamped fixtures ? That way, we could merge both for angled lights not possible before ?
11) About the car logos, I know the can’t be a flat custom one, but maybe when having a transparent png or maybe vector, it could be extended so that it now has enough stiffness. I’m thinking of something like 3d text : it’s plain 2d, but it has automatically added depth while converting into 3d.
EDIT :
12) When you click on a fixture category, the button is “tucked in”. Waybe it could stay like this but without the reddish light so we could know which category is shown ?
13) How is it going with the 5-valve/cyl and VVL issue ? I heard that it was possible IRL and that it’s due to a bug. That was quite a while ago so how is it going ? Any progress ?
Here comes number fourteen !
14) I’m thinking about how a car sounds different between the hood and the rear. Will this be implemented in-game ? Will the final car change the engine sound a bit ? Because it still almost sounds the same between two L4s, whatever the specs.
Sounds are being worked on! Check the forums! 
Oh, thanks.
Ahem, I may be a little annoying, but… did anyone get my previous posts ? I had no reply for 1, 3, 5, 8 and 10 to 13. Did I say something weird ? 
Most of those questions in the 2nd post don’t have sure answers yet as we’re still working on them. Also I forgot to answer this thread, sorry! 
No problem at all. Thank you very much for not telling me “We don’t like you so we won’t answer.” !
I’m almost watching everyday for updates or forum posts. It is cool that we’re a community small enough so we know each other and are able to read almost every post in a single day, and at the same time big enough so that there is new posts every day.
Your post is telling me how much you listen to the community. Anyone could ask anything, you’d still answer him, even if it’s of no use.
Let’s hope for the game to meet a huge success, it deserves it and so do you !
Thanks! We do our best to keep in contact and answer whatever questions we can
On the other hand, without the community this game would be nothing, right ?
So it is quite reasonable to listen to your players and thats exactly what the Automation crew does!
I really like this approach!
don’t want to make a new thread, so here goes -
if for instance i have made a coupe and i want to make it into a convertible, do i have to manually place all of the fixtures or will it be possible for automatic placement?
If we find a solution to “copy over” the fixtures, then yes, that will be possible. We have had that in mind from the start, but no guarantee we’ll be able to make it work - we’d definitely want it to work that way though
Well then, as a body works with deformable zones, maybe we could just supress the fixtures in this zone ? For example, just the fixtures in the rear while modifying it.
Or maybe make a warning for the fixtures which will be erased ? Or maybe automatically move them to the nearest working spot ? It already stops the fixture at the border if we get past it while moving one, maybe it could work ?
And while I’m at it, could multiple fixtures be selected at the same time ? For example, reshape two grilles together ? It would really be more convenient. Maybe also a shortcut like on Adobe products like Illustrator, in which we can maintain a key so we can move a shape horizontally or vertically. That would really be useful for designing two headlights in a row.
And will there finally be a button to change the fixture style like discussed before ? How would the “copy” option work ? Maybe we could select multiple fixtures and have a sub-menu so we can choose within the list. That way we could copy every single fixture before erasing it, reshaping the body, and paste them all if it works.
I don’t think I asked it, but :
15) Could there be an option to fade out the music during engine tests ? I like the music, but I also like to hear the engine over it. 
The music will definitely be fading in the proper implementation of the music, yes. It doesn’t make sense having it fight an angry V12
