So this is way past due but I am very happy to finally announce a big update for Automation. Most of the work has been under the hood, but you will notice a few differences:
Unlimited Contacts
No longer are you limited to 1 Normally Open and 1 Normally Closed. Drag as many as you need! As a short-cut hold down the control button with your mouse over a contact on the ladder to quickly make a copy.
Know What You're Programming
A new splash screen has been created for when a level loads. This has a Machine Design button to take you to the different elements that make up the machine. A second button will take you to the Level Complete goals (note that some of the levels are still missing the level complete, but at least you will know what to expect.)
Manually Deleting Boxes
There is now a new option in the Level Menu (the Gears icon in top/right) that lets you manually delete "product" that may have gotten stuck. By "product" I mean like a box that is jammed or you want to remove. You can hold down Shift to remove multiple boxes. Note that this is not a proper machine reset to get everything back in it's original position - I know this will be helpful for programming so you don't have to keep re-loading the level but it is not quite ready. There is a fancy new mouse icon that shows fire when you delete a box tho.
Bug Fixes
There have been a lot of improvements to stability, the work will never stop but I am really really really happy at where it has gotten to. I am still noticing some flakey-ness with the One Shot turning on a Timer, but I think it has improved from where it was. A major memory error has also been corrected which I'd like to thank the gurus over at The Game Creators forum for helping get to the bottom of.
Other stuff
Program Installation Location - this is going to change to accommodate users that have installed Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game which uses the same install path. This has not yet happened and I will make an announcement when it does. As a heads up if you happen to re-install in the future the saved game location will have changed because of this.
Also in Other Stuff - you can now press Control + Enter as a shortcut for the Code / Run switch.
Oh and one more thing - a new level where you sort boxes by colour and fill out order requests. Random Number generators can be a pain so feel free to hold down R for Red, G for Green, or B for Blue if you are running low on a colour.
Happy Automating!