Hello everyone!
It's with immense pleasure that I announce a major update for Fortune Avenue. Since many of you are playing Fortune Avenue, I've received lots of feedback, a big thanks to Mark (he'll know who he is) for his high-quality emails that have greatly contributed to improving Fortune Avenue!
v0.44.0 adds content, stabilizes the game, fixes some minor issues and above all makes the game even more chaotic and unpredictable!
Bug Fixes
First and foremost, sometimes when you opened the options during gameplay, it would crash Fortune Avenue. I'm sorry for this bug, and thanks for reporting it. Thanks to you, I was able to fix it and now accessing the options is no longer an issue!
Another small problem concerned an animation. Indeed, when a player pays another player, cards can change the recipient of the payment, but the animation didn't take the cards into account - this has been fixed.
Let's talk about online play now, since the next fixes relate to synchronization bugs. It was impossible to cancel a festival, which led to desynchronization - the issue is fixed. When a player lost or abandoned the game, depending on how the stars aligned, all their hotels might not be properly removed. Or worse, the game could get stuck. No way to advance the game. So I fixed the first problem and added a safeguard that forces the game to progress if it gets stuck. Sometimes, when a network issue occurs, the game can roll back, but visually it didn't show. For example, a player who had actually lost would find themselves back at their previous position alive and well, but with a tombstone avatar. This rollback is necessary to get things back on track, but visually it didn't match the board data. So from now on, player statuses update dynamically based on their state.
A final fix concerns other players' names and avatars not loading properly. It was minor, but needed fixing.
Camera and Interface
The camera... did you know you can configure the camera? Well now you do! You can make it completely static, but to do that, the options need to be understandable. A player pointed out that some naming was ambiguous, so I made adjustments, and now it's better according to your feedback!
Let's talk about some annoying things now. When you need to pay rent and don't have enough money, a panel appears asking you to sell your properties. Previously you had to click on the hotel to select it, now you can click on the small panel above it. It's not much, but it's a game-changer!
Speaking of game-changers, in-game tooltips. Some were hard to read, so I redesigned their layout and it's better now. It's readable and above all, easy on the eyes!
Other Changes
Controller support has been overhauled. Some of you reported a very annoying problem. Playing Fortune Avenue with a controller connected made mouse use impossible. Or, connecting a controller to a Steam Deck made it vibrate constantly... I was able to reproduce all these issues, and they should be fixed! Sorry for these bugs...
Let's talk a bit about optimization. When making Fortune Avenue, I had in mind making it run on very low-end configurations. PCs with barely 8GB of RAM and integrated graphics. Yes in 2025, 8GB of RAM is low. Anyway, I worked on texture compression so the game runs better, more stable even on small configurations. While I still can't get the game running on a TI-89 (for those who get the reference), this new version greatly improves performance!
New Rules
4 new rules make their debut. And these are rules that will shake up your games for sure! First, the most dangerous rules. They're linked to each other, so you must choose between adding a bankruptcy space to the wheel of fortune and adding a victory space to the wheel of fortune! Quite the dilemma! In one case, when you spin the wheel of fortune, if you land on the bankruptcy space you immediately lose the game. And in the other, if you land on the victory space you instantly win the game! Don't worry, I made some adjustments so this impossible choice only appears late in the game.
The third rule you can vote for is also a bit nasty. It changes the helicopter's behavior. The rule is called: "Eat the Rich". You've guessed it, the helicopter starts chasing players who have more than 1 million dollars instead of chasing the poorest. I tested it, and it's genuinely funny.
The fourth rule is more situational, as it brings all monopolies back into play. It's simple and effective for turning a game around!
New Cards
2 new anarchy cards have been added. The first allows triggering a new vote immediately. I think it's cool and it breaks the game's rhythm! The second lets you choose a player who will skip their next turn. Fortune Avenue gets a bit meaner with this kind of card, and I like it.
There are also 2 new chance cards added. The first lets you play again immediately. And that's cool, while the second card lets you reset the tax counter to 0. You know, when you land on taxes the first time you pay 30,000, then 60,000 the second time, 90,000 the third time etc., well that gets reset to 0, and you'll only pay 30,000.
One important thing to know is that Fortune Avenue only gives cards that impact the game. So if your tax counter is at 0, you won't get the card that resets the tax counter. I did this because it keeps the game dynamic. Having a card that changes nothing makes you lose a turn and inevitably slows down the game and creates frustration.
An ELO System
From now on, and only for online games, Fortune Avenue will calculate your ELO. It's displayed on the main screen and at the end of the game if you play online. Otherwise, nothing is shown. Adding an ELO system was quite complex, and after many tests, it's proven successful, the calculations work properly.
What about when you play against bots? Bots always have the same ELO, and it never changes, so you can't cheat to get infinite ELO - you'll be limited by the bots' ELO.
For now, ELO is calculated but doesn't affect matchmaking yet since there aren't enough players. But everything's ready and I just need to flip a switch to enable ELO-based matchmaking. We just need more players!
There you have it, that was a huge chunk! I'm very proud of the work accomplished, I thank you tremendously for leaving reviews on Steam, it helps get more players! For those wondering, there are already over 1,200 of you who have played Fortune Avenue, and I thank you!
The next update will focus on customization - dice, tombstones, but also adding new cards and new rules. By the way, if you have ideas or suggestions, please comment - I'd be delighted to read them and add them to the game!
Thanks everyone
Xavier aka Binogure
Changelog
New Rules
- If this rule is adopted, a victory space is added to the wheel of fortune. The player who spins the wheel and lands on this space instantly wins the game
- If this rule is adopted, a bankruptcy space is added to the wheel of fortune. The player who spins the wheel and lands on this space immediately goes bankrupt.
- If this rule is adopted, the helicopter begins chasing the richest player if they have more than 1 million dollars
- If this rule is adopted, all monopolies come back into play
New Cards
- An anarchy card allows you to instantly trigger a new vote
- An anarchy card lets you choose which player will skip their next turn
- A chance card lets you take another turn immediately
- A chance card resets the number of times you've landed on the taxes space to zero.
Controller
- When a controller is connected, it's impossible to play with the mouse (fixed)
- Controller detection is not always reliable (fixed)
Optimization
- Texture compression for VRAM. We've reduced VRAM usage from 500 MB down to 250 MB.
Ranking System
- A new ranking system has been implemented. Each player starts with 1000 points. After each game, based on the number of players, if the player wins or loses the game their points are adjusted. This is the implementation of an ELO system.
Interface
- Renamed camera management options
- When selling properties, you can now click on the properties panel
- Translation adjustments for better understanding
- Added a tooltip on the button that allows you to hide or show a panel
- Added a button to show/hide rules currently being voted on.
- Some text was not visible in Czech
- When you hover over player names, you can see their latency.
- Tooltips have been redesigned to be more readable
Fixes
- Opening the options panel while playing could crash the game (fixed)
- When a card changes the recipient of a payment, the game shows the wrong recipient (fixed)
- When a player leaves the game, it could cause desynchronization, and hotels could reappear (fixed)
- When canceling a festival, it wasn't canceled for everyone (fixed)
- When a player is desynchronized, the game will properly resynchronize them
- In the lobby, sometimes the game didn't properly load other players' names or avatars