Release Notes


v0.4.6.28 - March 1, 2012



UPDATE


We had a user-visible-heavy(er) update last month so it's only natural we went back to backend-heavy(ness), of course. So, March brings little in terms of visible updates. The simulator got some adjustments pertaining to highrises and we fixed some minor bugs.


On the other hand, we spent significant time this last month planning. Among a zillion things we need to work on the priority right now is cleanup, refactoring, and a new save file format. The new format will allow much quicker save file amendments while always maintaining backwards compatibility. Expect the new format live sometime this summer.


Also, and this is still un-dated, we'll soon have a blog. Updates will be rare to begin with. We still prefer to spend more time on the game right now instead of public relations. The primary topic will likely be details on what is taking us so long and why so many "under-the-hood" updates.


CHROME MALWARE FALSE POSITIVE: We noticed this download may be flagged FALSELY as malware by Chrome (and only Chrome). We assure you, having access to the entire source code and never having had this happen before, it is perfectly safe. We are working to fix this mess. Sorry.


WARNING: Our new installer is much more reliable but also more aggressive in its cleanup. The new installer will delete everything in the install directory of the previous Synekism installation and similarly for the current installation upon uninstall. You should not have anything in this directory but if you do please kindly relocate it.


NEW FEATURES


City:

  • massaged building sizes so that high density buildings take up more of the lot

Simulator:

  • more adjustments to highrises to reduce the frequency of super-skyscrapers

BUGS


Fixed:

  • App Path registry key was misplaced.
    Correct path is: HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/App Paths/Synekism.exe
    Wrong path was: HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/App Paths/
    If you care enough, please remove the old key manually.
    (more details under http://wiki.synekism.com/wiki/Installation#Registry)
  • if you hovered over a building with the bulldozer tool active and the building upgraded, then the old building would not be replaced and would remain in the red state forever (until next city load)
  • sometimes buildings would overflow the lot area

Known:

  • for large lots the dozer may permanently select a building until the tool is deactivated or something else selected
  • roads may not build properly (only the endpoints) when using angle lock mode (sometimes)
  • zoning along more than one, non-aligned, road segments does not work
  • on some machines, the game will just refuse to work even if they meet the minimum specs (we are working on this one)
  • as we increased slightly our load times (to be fixed soon) Windows might claim that Synekism froze during loading of large cities but please, disregard, and let the game load in peace

INSTALLATION


System Requirements:

  • Windows XP/Vista/7
  • 2 GHz single-core or 1 GHz multi-core processor
  • 1 GB of system memory
  • 100 MB of hard disk space*
  • Support for DirectX 9.0c, Shader Model 2 and 128 MB of graphics memory
  • Access to an administrative account

* Does not include space requirements of DirectX End-User Runtimes and the Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable which may be anywhere from 20kb to 500 MB depending on what has already been installed.


What we install:

  • Synekism v0.4.6.28
  • DirectX Redistributable
  • Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable
  • GPU-Z.0.5.6.exe (to check DirectX support - removed after installation is finished/aborted)

LICENSE


Copyright (c) Idimoris 2012


ALL FURTHER REFRENCES OF THE "SOFTWARE" WILL REFER TO SYNEKISM.


Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (Synekism) the right to use the Software. The Software is furnished to do so and is subject to the following conditions:


User may not distribute the Software.


User may not modify, translate, or make derivative works of the Software.


User may not sub-license, rent, lease or provide service bureau services such as Freeware leases or rentals with any portion of the Software.


THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.