Update 0.3.3 — R&D Pipeline Rework, Living Race Sim, and a UI That Finally Scales

0.3.3 is a large depth-and-polish pass focused on a reworked R&D pipeline, a more believable in-race simulation, a richer PFS Mail inbox, a UI that finally scales and scrolls, and a new in-game Bug Report app. Here’s everything that changed.

The Undercut — reworked R&D Development screen, Repair tab with beige table framing and condition gauges

R&D & Car Development — The Headline

The R&D app is the centrepiece of this release.

  • Improving a fitted part now upgrades its design. Manufacture a new copy and it keeps the performance you paid for — parts no longer come out at base spec. Existing saves self-heal on load.
  • Smarter trait fixes. Fixing one trait no longer wipes your knowledge of the other traits on the part, and the remediated design keeps the part’s real head-room (no free head-room reset). Solved problems also stop lingering in the “Fix a problem” list.
  • Reworked screens across the board. Projects, Inventory, Repair and Improve all got a cleaner pass: beige table framing, three-zone Perf/Reliability gauges, a bigger car preview, dedicated Work-Order glyphs, and the redundant top-right “Workload” bar removed.
  • Design (year N) now uses a continuous project-size slider instead of fixed tiers, with Improve-style perf/expected columns. Tabs were reordered to Inventory · Production · Improve · Design N · Design N+1 · Projects, and Production merged its panels into themed popups.
  • Next-season (N+1) planning overhauled. Every part is now designable (not just regulated ones), the N+1 planner uses the same slider flow, and N+1 projects draw from the shared R&D pool. Finished N+1 designs are now marked complete — they free their pool allocation and send a “part ready for next season” email instead of sitting at 100% forever.
  • Supplier engines no longer re-spec every season — only when a regulation forces it — so a good engine carries over.
  • Returning to the desktop after a race now opens R&D on the Repair tab.

In-Race Simulation — More Believable

  • Dynamic malfunction system. Transient mechanical and tyre problems can now appear mid-race — not just terminal DNFs — each with its own event, team-radio call and replay marker.
  • Spin epidemic fixed + driver-vigilance overhaul. Races no longer descend into a pile of spins; mistakes and crashes are rebalanced to feel earned, and minor lock-ups and wheelspins no longer spam the commentary box.

PFS Mail & Inbox — Richer, Clearer

  • Rich email cards. “New design ready”, “Part delivered”, “Driver Development Report”, “Calendar: Round N” and trait-redesign emails now show proper spec / part / driver / circuit cards — with before→after comparisons and a jump-to button — instead of plain text.
  • New “Important” folder + red ”!” flag on action-required mail, mirrored on the home-hub inbox.
  • No more duplicate “something feels off” trait-suspicion emails.

Interface & UX — It Finally Scales

  • UI Scale + unit settings. Settings → Display adds a UI-scale control plus speed (km/h ↔ mph) and temperature units.
  • Everything scales and scrolls now. Career apps scroll vertically when content overflows (the scrollbar only appears when needed), all Win95 scrollbars gained up/down arrow buttons, and the home hub no longer scrolls at 100%.
  • Drivers app rebuilt in markup so it scales at every UI size: click anywhere on a row to select, taller rows, a Browse tab restyled like the World Data rankings with a per-row magnifier, sortable columns, name abbreviation and a full-height list. (Also fixed a freeze/OOM when opening Browse, and the magnifier vanishing while scrolling.)
  • End-of-season “Next Season” button + confirmation popup. The advance button stays visible at season end (relabelled “Next Season”) and now asks for confirmation before the irreversible off-season transition.
  • Tutorials revamped — a detailed per-tab R&D walkthrough, a title-bar ”?” on every app that has a tutorial, and steps that point at the live element instead of a text wall.
  • Pre-season flow. Auto-skip is now opt-in (off by default), stages auto-advance once every contract slot is signed, and Email is available again during pre-season.
  • Race Calendar shows break weekends again with bigger rows; Regulations now arrive as a single severity-based bundle at the first break weekend.
  • Smaller fixes: the team-radio popup no longer bleeds outside its box; the free-practice Focus picker no longer spoils suspected traits; trait tooltips spell out the quality level (Good / Very Good / Perfect); Infrastructure and R&D +/- buttons no longer jump 2–3 steps per click; overlapping inline buttons in a cell are fixed; and the PFS loading screen is back for Quick Race, the live race and free practice.

Audio

  • Engine sound is fixed — the per-slider volume scale was off and got a real fix on top of the earlier attempt.

Bug Report

  • New in-game Bug Report app in the Win95 sidebar — with its own life-ring icon and wired to a production endpoint — so you can report issues without leaving the game.

Try It

The demo is updated with everything above. If R&D felt fiddly or a race spun out of control before, this is the build to come back to.

Play the Demo · Wishlist the Full Game · Join the Discord

— Staz