PYT - Factory Buffer

The buffer heard the warehouse got a price list and asked for one too. A smaller one, it insisted.

In plain terms: the same three cost settings as Mega Warehouse 2.4, at about a quarter of the price; left alone, nothing changes.

• New: three settings in the mod setup, before a game loads — Build cost (the game's price, or 2, 3, 5 or 10 times it: the build menu, placing and Grow charge it), Running cost (the game's upkeep, or $10k to $120k a year per 500 of capacity per cargo, replacing it — booked once a game month under Road maintenance) and Extra cost when full (0 to 200%)
• New: the sliders show the prices for a 1,000 buffer storing 4 cargos as you move them; each buffer's window shows its own running cost and a Size / Buy / Min / Max chart for your settings
• Tip: the running cost counts the cargos switched on — switch off what a buffer doesn't store and its bill drops
• Left at Game / Game / 0%, the buffer costs exactly what it did
• Thanks: to JamesJustice, whose idea for Mega Warehouse this is

The buffer was so keen to help that it kept handing out bays nobody had asked for. We've had a word, and given it an off switch.

In plain terms: alternative bays you switch off now stay off, a new switch on each buffer decides whether bays are handed out by themselves, the Upgrade box can slide a buffer, a crash after planning an upgrade is gone, and the station window names the bays properly.

• Fixed: alternative bays came back after you switched them off — the buffer put them back when you opened its window, after an edit and after a load. Now a stop gets every bay only when you add it or make a new line, and the new bays after an Upgrade. Your “don't use” stays as you set it
• New: Auto-assign alternative bays in the buffer's window, one switch per buffer, kept in your save — on: every line stopping there may use every truck bay, new lines and the new bays after an Upgrade too; off: every line keeps its own bay and nothing changes what you set in the line window. The same switch as Mega Warehouse 2.3.3
• New: Move in the Upgrade box — slide the buffer Back, Forward, Left or Right, 10 or 50 m a press. It moves at once, stock and line kept; if its gates leave the road, draw a road to them. Grow then grows it where it stands
• Fixed: a buffer with an upgrade planned (the grey ground) could crash the game on its next rebuild — the Plan step is gone. Grow checks the room itself: the first press shows the price, and if something stands in the way it says what. A plan left in a buffer from an older version is cleared by itself
• Fixed: the station window called every bay “Flatbed” — they're “All Cargo Types”, as they always loaded
• Thanks: to Stephen Spry, whose report on Mega Warehouse found it — the buffer shares the same bay system

Our art department said 'soon'. It turns out 'soon' meant Wednesday.

In plain terms: the yard has real tram rails and overhead wire now, the garage's Buy Vehicles window works again on tram buffers, and every line that stops at a buffer gets all its bays as alternatives by itself.

• New: rails through the whole yard — into the bays, through the shed, round every bend — and, with Electric tram, our own poles (cast iron until 1960, galvanised after) and wire at the game's own height. The road's tram track joins straight onto them at the gates
• New: the way out curves. With 8 or 12 bays the exit lane used to meet the gate at a hard right angle; now it sweeps round in two curves, the wire hung over both
• Fixed: on a buffer with Tram track, the garage's Buy Vehicles list was empty and could restart the interface. The garage is the trucks' depot (buses and trucks); trams come from a tram depot, as in the game
• Fixed: 'every bay as an alternative' never worked — our line-reading call returns nothing in TF3, and we're sorry it took a player to show us. Now it does, with no checking in the background: a line that stops at a buffer gets every other bay the moment you add the stop (from any window), open the buffer's window or finish an Upgrade — and once when a save loads
• 1960: the yard is asphalt with wheel tracks along the lanes, like Mega Warehouse's
• A buffer already placed: open it, Upgrade → Tram track, and it is rebuilt in place with the rails — stock, line and split kept
• Thanks: to jhughes for the trams, and to everyone who told us the alternatives weren't setting

A player asked why our buffer wouldn't let trams in. We had no good answer, so we gave it rails instead.

In plain terms: cargo trams can now use the Factory Buffer, fully working today — pick Tram track in its build settings. Only the decorative rails inside the yard are still to come.

• New: Tram track — None / Tram / Electric tram, in the buffer's build settings. The gates get the game's own tram track (with wires for Electric), and the truck bays take cargo trams too. Trams work fully right now: in, load or unload at a bay, out. Only the decorative rails inside the yard are still to come — until then the trams run on the ground there. Those rails are with our art department (they said ‘soon’, which in art department means ‘soon’)
• A buffer you have already built: open it, Upgrade → Tram track. It is rebuilt in place — stock, line and split kept
• Fixed: with Factory Buffer as your only PYT mod, PYT — Settings (language, the fading PYT button) was missing — it's there now
• Thanks: to jhughes, for asking — questions like that are why this community rocks

Our NEW button bounced like a puppy at the door, shoving every button beside it. It has been rehomed. And clicking the PYT row could pull the rug out from under the game — the rug is now nailed down.

In plain terms: clicking the PYT row no longer crashes the game, the NEWS button is gone, and PYT — Settings no longer stutters on big maps.

• Fixed: on big saves the game could freeze for about a second every 10 seconds, even with no window open — the same fix as PYT - Minimap 1.4.1
• Fixed: clicking the PYT icon or a tile in its row could crash the game — the button was taken away while the game was still handling the click (seen together with the Mod Bar mod)
• Gone: the NEWS button in the PYT row. It bounced and pushed other buttons around, and you told us you didn't want it — we listen
• Tidier: the PYT row shows one settings cog (some setups showed two), and the 'fade until the mouse is over it' setting is always in PYT — Settings
• Smoother: with PYT — Settings open on a big map, its performance meter no longer stalls the game every 10 seconds (it could make the sound flutter) — it reads once when you open it, then every 2 minutes
• Thanks: to QuickNiq for the crash log and honest feedback, and to the Mod Bar players who spoke up

Turns out a buffer with nothing to buffer gave the game an existential crisis. It now always keeps at least one cargo, just to stay sane.

In plain terms: switching off the last cargo in a buffer crashed the game. Fixed — and saves where it happened are repaired.

• Fixed: All off (or the icon) on the last cargo of a buffer crashed the game when the mouse passed over it. The card now says a buffer needs at least one cargo — to stop using one, remove it
• A save made after that happened is repaired by itself: the buffer is rebuilt once with its first cargo back on

The Factory Buffer spent a month watching its big brother get bigger bays, an Off switch and a forklift licence. It has stopped sulking.

In plain terms: a big update — more truck bays you can grow in place, a 1960 look, an Off switch per cargo, and every bay at 2x speed.

• Truck bays 4, 8 or 12 — pick them when you build (Auto follows the store size), or grow a placed buffer in its Upgrade toolbox: Plan marks the ground it needs in grey gravel, you clear it, Grow builds it — stock kept
• A refused upgrade now says what's in the way, instead of just 'Construction Not Possible'
• The 1960 tin shed: from 1960 the office and every store take their 1960 look, rebuilt in place once, stock kept
• Off per cargo: click a cargo's icon in the split to stop storing it — its space goes to the others of its kind. Holding stock? 'Off once shipped out' or 'Destroy'. All off / All on for a whole kind
• Truck bays load and unload at 2x for every kind of cargo, like the game's specialised truck stations — PYT - Mixed Cargo trucks included
• Forklifts in the stores, and office windows with blinds and curtains, lit at night
• PYT — Settings: the PYT button can fade until your mouse is over it, and a Language choice for the PYT windows

Our windows politely asked the PlayStation for a close button. The PlayStation doesn't have one, took offence and walked out — taking your whole interface with it. We've had a word.

• In plain terms: on PS5, the PYT news window no longer crashes the interface. On PC nothing changes
• Thanks: to Maxmadimus, whose Pay Your Tolls report found it

Our PYT icon got a little too excited about its news and wouldn't stop bouncing. We've had a word.

• In plain terms: The PYT icon at the top of the screen no longer pulses. The NEW tile only moves inside the PYT row when you open it, and stops once you've read the news.