User Tools

Site Tools


gamemanual:gui_top_bottom_menus

GearCity has several states we call “Rooms” with different functions and GUI systems. However, a common element in all “Rooms” are the top and bottom bars.

The top bar contains access to features that are available in every room. It also has buttons to access the features specific for that “Room.”

The bottom bar appears when a game is loaded, and it contains information about your company.

Let's look at each bar.


Top Bars

You can find the top bar in all nine interactive states or “Rooms” in the game. These bars contain buttons to launch the main GUI elements for their room. The top bars also share buttons needed for most rooms. When you load a save game, nearly every top bar will have an Office and a Reports button. And every top bar includes a button to open the Help Menu.

We'll go through each room and tell you what button does what.




The Main Menu is the first room you enter when you start the game. Click for more information on the Main Menu.

The Main Menu doesn't have much of a top bar. That's because you can find buttons for GUI features in the bottom right of the screen. But it does have a few things up top. Let's cover them.

  1. This is the current version of the game you are using. If you wish to contact support, it's always good to let us know which build you're playing. We have several old builds, and the game is currently available in both 32 and 64-bit x86. You can switch builds using Steam. And since the game is DRM-free and self-contained, you can backup your folder at any time if you wish to play older versions. This line also lets you know which mod you have loaded. You may load only one mod at a time, and you must have it selected before starting the game. See Manual Mod Loading or Using Steamworkshop
  2. This bubble text is to remind users that we have video tutorials in the Help Menu. Even with this text appearing here, many folks still don't know there are video tutorials in the help menu. Hopefully, you do after reading this.
  3. The Help button opens the Help Menu which contains many different methods of teaching yourself how to play.




Stand Alone Car Designer

The Stand-Alone Car Designer is accessible via the Main Menu. This room allows you to design car bodies with no limitations. You can also save your creations to use within the game.

  1. The Help button opens the Help Menu which contains many different methods of teaching yourself how to play.




New Game HQ Selection

When you start a new game, you'll find yourself in the New Game HQ Selection room. There isn't much in this room because you're only here once a game, and it's mainly to view and select a city.

  1. The Help button opens the Help Menu which contains many different methods of teaching yourself how to play.




Office

The Office is the main hub of the game. From this room, you can access every other room in the game. And in some cases, you can do major tasks found in the other rooms from the Office.

There are buttons in the top menu for every clickable object in the Office. Using these buttons allows you to open more than one window at a time, unlike clicking objects in the Office artwork.

  1. The clock button opens up the End Turn window. This window allows you to skip multiple turns at once.
  2. The paper button pulls up the reports window. This button will only open one report window. If you need a second window, click the “Second Window” button in the reports window.
  3. The computer button opens the Mega Menu. The Mega Menu allows you to do many routine tasks from a single window rather than going to multiple rooms to do them.
  4. The envelope button opens the Memo system.
  5. The telephone button opens the Phone Menu. You can use the Phone Menu to access HR, Lobbying, and Contracting systems.
  6. The magazine button opens up the GearCity Monthly Magazine.
  7. The quarter note button brings up the Music and Sound Window. This window allows you to adjust the sound volumes, disable specific songs, etc.
  8. The newspaper button opens the GearCity News newspaper.
  9. The door button pulls up the Door Menu. The door menu allows you to access the Research and Development, Showroom, and Racing rooms.
  10. The safe button brings you to the Financial room.
  11. The globe button takes you to the World Map room.
  12. The gear button opens the In-Game settings and is the same as clicking the filing cabinet in the office. Be sure to hit apply to save any changes to settings.
  13. The Help button opens the Help Menu which contains many different methods of teaching yourself how to play.




Research and Development (RnD)

The Research and Development (RnD) room is the go-to place to design, modify, and manage components, vehicles. The Top Bar buttons are descriptive in this room. And they are the only means to access the various features of RnD because the rest of the room contains the 3d car designer.

  1. Use the Design button to create new components or vehicles. Clicking the button opens the Design Menu, and from the Design Menu, you can select what you're interested in designing.
  2. Use the Modify button to access the design modification systems. These systems allow you to improve, discontinue, redesign, and make trims of vehicles and components. Clicking the Modify button will open the Modify Menu. From there, select which type of component you wish to access.
  3. Use the Outsource button to access the Licensing, Outsourcing, and Platform Sharing systems. Clicking the button will open a menu allowing you to select which type of component you wish to Outsource.
  4. Use this button to access the Contracting system. Clicking the button will open the Contracting Menu, and from there, you can select what you're interested in bidding on. You can open the Contracting system while designing components and vehicles.
  5. Use this button to access the View system. The view system allows you to view the ratings and specs of your components and vehicles.
  6. The Research button opens the Research Team Budget window.
  7. The Reports button opens the Reports Window.
  8. The Office button will return you back to the Office room.
  9. The Help button opens the Help Menu which contains many different methods of teaching yourself how to play.




World Map

The World Map is your go-to room for factory and branch management. The Office's Mega Menus contains some of the World Map's features, but branch and factory construction is exclusive to the World Map.

You access most elements of the World Map via the cities or territories on the map. Therefore, the Top Bar only contains systems not accessible from the map.

  1. The Districting system allows you to manage multiple cities or territories as if they're one. You use this button to access that system.
  2. This button puts the World Map into Mapping mode. In Mapping mode, you can have the world map display different data about the city or territories through the color of those objects on the map.
  3. The Contracts button opens the Contract Management window. This window allows you to manage contracted component production, order more outsourced units, and terminate contracts. All features found here are also in the Office Mega Menu.
  4. The Reports button opens the Reports Window.
  5. The Office button will return you back to the Office room.
  6. The Help button opens the Help Menu which contains many different methods of teaching yourself how to play.




Financing

The Financial room is where you access banking, investing, and debt systems for the game.

  1. The Banking button opens the Banking system window. There you will find information about the global interest rates, your current debts, and the debt financing systems for lines of credit, loans, and bonds.
  2. The Broker button opens the Stock Broker window. While the Stock Broker window focuses on the stock system, you'll also find many other Company Organization features in this window.
  3. The Reports button opens the Reports Window.
  4. The Menu button opens the Save Game menu and has the same effect as hitting the Escape key.
  5. The Office button will return you back to the Office room.
  6. The Help button opens the Help Menu which contains many different methods of teaching yourself how to play.




Racing

The Racing room is where you go to manage your race teams and to view their results. The artwork in this room is not interactive, so you have to use the Top Bar to access the room's features.

  1. The Setup button opens the Racing Setup Window. There you will adjust which racing series you'll invest effort into. You can adjust budgets, designs, and team focus from this window.
  2. This button opens the window that displays the results for the current year for a selected racing series.
  3. The Championships button opens the window that displays all the past Champions and historical wins and points totals for a racing series.
  4. The Reports button opens the Reports Window.
  5. The Menu button opens the Save Game menu and has the same effect as hitting the Escape key.
  6. The Office button will return you back to the Office room.
  7. The Help button opens the Help Menu which contains many different methods of teaching yourself how to play.




Showroom

The Showroom is where you go to view the historical records of the vehicles your company has built. It also contains a few other helpful features that allow you to compare your designs to other companies. You can only access the Showroom's features via Top Bar since the main artwork for this room is used to display past vehicle designs.

  1. The Vehicles button opens your vehicle design history. This system displays all the past designs you made, their sales figures, and other neat information about your designs.
  2. The Components button opens up the Components history report. This report lists all the components your company made, what you used them in, and how many of them you produced.
  3. The Timeline button opens a report with a chronological history of your company's designs and actions.
  4. You can use the Model Compare system to compare the specs and ratings of two different models in one window.
  5. The Marque Catalog allows you to view the ratings and specs of all vehicles made by a specific company in one window.
  6. The Reports button opens the Reports Window.
  7. The Menu button opens the Save Game menu and has the same effect as hitting the Escape key.
  8. The Office button will return you back to the Office room.
  9. The Help button opens the Help Menu which contains many different methods of teaching yourself how to play.




Bottom Bars

The bottom bar appears in every room after you load or start a save game. The information presented in the bottom bar is the same for every room. But the information in the bar depends on the pixel width of the game's window.

The game has three different size bars depending on the width of the game windows. For Large, Medium, and Small requirements are above 1600 pixels, above 1230 pixels, and less than 1200 pixels, respectively. The largest bar contains all the content, and the smaller bars omit some information from them. The following pictures are of the largest bars, and we'll tell you what information is not in the smaller bars.




Main Bar

This bar is the common bar you'll find at the bottom of the screen. It contains the most basic information you need to know about your company. It also contains the buttons that take you to the other bottom bars.

  1. This value is the current game turn, represented as a month and year.
  2. The Dollar Symbol button takes you to the Funding Bar.
  3. The line graph button takes you to the Stock Information Bar.
  4. The bank button opens the Debt Information Bar.
  5. The bill button opens the Expenses Bar.
  6. The name of your company is here.
  7. This value is the amount of liquid capital your company has, not including stocks.
  8. Cash Flow is the number of funds going in and out of your company, last turn.
  9. If you see this, it means the game is warning you! Click it to get the warning message!




Funding Bar

The Funding bar displays information about your money and how much is flowing in and out of your company.

  1. This value is the current game turn, represented as a month and year.
  2. Click this button to return to the Main Bar.
  3. This value is the amount of liquid cash your company has.
  4. This number is the amount of cash and assets (stocks) you can quickly convert into cash.
  5. Cash Flow is the number of funds going in and out of your company, last turn.
  6. The amount of taxes you paid. Remember, you only pay taxes every quarter (3rd, 6th, 9th, and 12th month).
  7. Any cash that sits in the bank generates interest. This value is the amount of money you made from your idle cash.
  8. This is your revenue for last month.
  9. These are your last month's expenses.




Stock Information Bar

The Stock Information Bar displays information about your company's stock.

  1. This value is the current game turn, represented as a month and year.
  2. Click this button to return to the Main Bar.
  3. This is your company's current share price.
  4. This value is the market cap of the company. Market cap is the full value of the company. It is calculated by multiplying the share price by the number of shares outstanding.
  5. EPS stands for Earnings Per Share. This number is how much money the company is making for every share of stock outstanding.
  6. PE stands for Price-to-Earnings. You use this metric to determine if a share is overpriced based on its earnings.
  7. This number is your quarterly dividend payout per share.




Debt Information Bar

The Debt Information Bar displays your financial debt situation.

  1. This value is the current game turn, represented as a month and year.
  2. Click this button to return to the Main Bar.
  3. Bonds Issued is the total amount of bonds you owe.
  4. Loan Balance is the total amount of money you owe in bank loans.
  5. This is the total amount of money you can access with your revolving line of credit.
  6. Bond Payment is the amount of money you paid in coupons and matured bonds last turn.
  7. Loan Payment shows the amount of money you paid in interest and principal on your bank loans.
  8. Credit Balance is the amount of money you currently owe on your revolving line of credit.




Expenses Bar

The Expenses Bar displays an estimation of your next turn expenses to help you plan for what's coming.

  1. This value is the current game turn, represented as a month and year.
  2. Click this button to return to the Main Bar.
  3. Expenses Estimated makes an estimation of your total expenses for the next turn. Please note that this is an estimation, and the final value might be drastically different based on circumstance.
  4. Paid One Time displays the total one-time expenses you made since the start of this turn. These one-time expenses are actions that you take in the game where money is withdrawn immediately.
  5. The Estimated Taxes number is what the game expects you'll pay in taxes for your next tax payment. Please note, this is an estimation, and the final value might be drastically different.
gamemanual/gui_top_bottom_menus.txt · Last modified: 2022/02/15 18:00 by 127.0.0.1