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RAILGRADE News

Update #7: New & Free DLC Campaign!

[h2]Thank you for playing Railgrade![/h2][p]We've been working on Railgrade now for 6 years! Oh how time has moved on. I wish it was at least half as fast :)[/p][p]Now, we made Railgrade to be played, and thanks to you all: it got played! So thank you for giving our little train game purpose.[/p][p]As thank you we've put together a little surprise![/p][p][/p][h2]A New & Free DLC Campaign![/h2][p]Update 7 brings with it a bunch of new buildings, industries, and even trains! Yet one thing players have been asking for has been new missions! I do not think you'd believe me, and I almost do not, how many players DM'd me asking for DLC. In past updates we added a bunch of optional side missions, but we felt limited in just expanding the main campaign. We needed more: we needed a new campaign![/p][p]So please get excited for a new Railgrade Campaign: Rapid Repo Rescue![/p][p]In Rapid Repo Rescue you take on a new planet. This one's got a problem: a court ordered repossession ! You see, years ago when the colony ship first landed: they landed on the wrong planet! This planet has a different owner! An evil corporation at that! So now you need to rush to rebuild a resourceful planet to recharge the space launcher and rescue everyone before that corporation takes possession![/p][p]Did I mention the corporation has an evil scheme to trap any workers you leave behind to a life of low wages and high company-store-inflation? You better rescue everyone! And quick![/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Who made it[/h2][p]If you've been following the Workshop map making community you've likely played his maps already: Mortiz! He's one of our community's elite map makers. He took time out of his busy university schedule to craft this brand new campaign. Of course we paid him, cash, but I want to thank him for putting in his time & care beyond the paycheck.[/p][p]We also received a bunch of help from players on our Discord! A hardcore group of players helped Mortiz by play testing early versions of his maps. They spent a bunch of time testing and giving feedback. Plus, and I am quite thankful: no one leaked the surprise! [/p][p]They proved skilled at both Railgrade and at keeping secrets![/p][p][/p][h2]What's Inside[/h2][p]You'll find the Rapid Repo Rescue campaign on the main menu under the "Bonus Campaign" choice. There you'll find a full menu allow you to play each map as you unlock it. Including an overview of each mission's score, and a total campaign rank.[/p][p]The full campaign rank takes the sum total of your best play times, and the sum total of every map's par time, and treats the entire campaign like a combined mission time. This means you can catch up by playing faster on some maps to compensate for slower times on others.[/p][p]And like all missions: you can enable modifiers to tune the difficulty to your choice.[/p][p][/p][p]The 11 missions should take about 9 hours to complete. We gave Mortiz access to every yet-unused asset in the game. This meant new trains, new industry, and new resources.[/p][p][/p][p]My personal favourite is the new Natural Gas & Hydrogen set of energy production chains. Complete with a new Gas Powerplant as you see below, plus Offshore Gas Wells! If you scroll to the top of this page you can even spy the on-shore Gas Well Industry.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Signoff[/h2][p]When we started working on Railgrade I wanted to keep supporting it far beyond release. In prior jobs I felt we had stop working on games too soon. I am thankful for Whiskerwood we've found a publisher in Hooded Horse which values long term support for games and writes their contracts to make that happen. [/p][p]That is why we made this bonus campaign and are releasing it for free. I think Railgrade is special, and I am thankful to everyone who supported us over the years when our rent depended on it. I hope this campaign can give new and old players more of the unique fun Railgrade can give :)[/p][p][/p][p]Thank you again for playing Railgrade![/p][p]Daniel Dressler[/p][p]Lead Programmer on Railgrade[/p][p][/p][h3]PS:[/h3][p]We've released 2 hot patches these past 3 days. The first fixed an ordering issue in the DLC campaign. The second patch adds the new industry and trains to the research tree in sandbox. You can also now use the new industry chains to power research itself. :)[/p][p][/p][p][/p]

Please Nominate RAILGRADE for the Labour of Love Awards!

Hello Administrators!

I come to you hat-in hand to ask you to nominate our passion project for the Steam Awards!

We're working on something special for RAILGRADE fans. Granted it is still a secret project only a handful of trusted players have been able to playtest, but please be rest assured that it is fun and it is more of the RAILGRADE players enjoyed.

RAILGRADE brings to the train management genre a unique challenging and yet rewarding experience. With actual end goals and accomplishments you can feel proud for achieving. We want to give players more of that.

If that sounds like the RAILGRADE you enjoyed, please cast your vote for the Labour of Love Steam Nomination to RAILGRADE!

Daniel
Lead Programmer on RAILGRADE

PS: Due to a nonmaterial tax dispute over tea when you nominate RAILGRADE the award will be labeled as "Labor", do not worry it is the correct nomination.

Update #6 Patch #2 + Whiskerwood!

Hello Everyone,

Based on discussions with players after our last update it became clear new players were missing the modifiers.

Ages back in Update 1 we implemented the modifiers feature. This allows players to disable train ghosting, disable the timer, and even give themselves unlimited money.

New Update 6 Patch #2, these modifiers can be toggled from the new mission menu.



Introducing our new game Whiskerwood!

Now before the full changelog I'd like to take a moment of your time and call attention to an important annoucement: we're making a second game!

Introducing Whiskerwood! The vertical survival city builder of Cat & Mouse stakes. Please consider wishlisting it!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2489330/Whiskerwood/

Changelog
v6.2.60.1 Update #6 Hotpatch #2 Gameplay
  • Show modifiers on mission start screen
  • Improve shadow details and quality
  • Move Grey Assembly to T4 in industry select menu


Bugs
  • Fix crash in invalid train paths
  • Fix track buildable through Nuclear powerplant cooling towers
  • Fix crash in uranium mine placements
  • Fix export button and folder button not working map export view
  • Fix warehouses not respecting capacity upgrades after save/load
  • Fix compute launcher using luxury assembler key in map editor unlocks
  • Fix warehouse placement crashing map editor
  • Fix warehouse unlock not controllable from map editor unlock settings
  • Fix mojibake in credits
  • Fix mouse clicks not unlocking secrets on overworld


New Challenge Maps & Future Update Development Report!

Credit for header screenshot goes to pouletch who grew a sandbox city to 150,000 poulation!

Hello Administrators!

My name is Daniel, the lead programmer on Railgrade. I want to give everyone a short update on what we’ve got planned for Update 7, and take the chance to highlight some of the many custom workshop maps by our community.

Our focus on Update 7 is to improve the initial player experience. Railgrade has a number of in-world settings which we presented as modifiers, or in-game mods. These let players set the difficlty and realism to match their preference. For example the no-timer mode transforms the entire experience from a real time strategy game to a classic build-at-your-pace train game. The no-ghosting modifier elimiates the controversal ghosting mechanic, which is where trains can pass through each other at the cost of speed.

Shortly after last update, and under discussion with the community, we improved Railgrade’s short description. Namely now we talk about Railgrade as a real time strategy game, which I hope communicates the skill progression and intensity aspect of playing Railgrade. In contrast in Update 7 I want to make the modifiers panel front-and-center so that players always know they can opt-out of the intense skill focus using the no-timer mode.

We are also working on expanding the industrial chains. Coming in Update 7 are new chains and a molecule! That's hydrocarbon chains and hydrogen molecules! Keep reading until the end to see a sneak peek of those.

From players who’ve exhausted the 60+ campaign missions and Sandbox we been getting requests for paid DLC. To be honest, instead of making yet another product, I’d prefer to highlight the great efforts of our community. Last update I highlighted several, and now I’d like to show off these 3. 2 of which are challenge maps by Gardlt, the ranking Railgrade speed run champ, where he pushes the limits on Railgrade’s mechanics:


[h2]Expensive Paperclips [/h2]
By Gardlt

The high cost of labor has forced extensive unemployment. These disgruntled folks have come up with a scheme to extort you.

Can you still meet the punishing quota that Nakatani Chemicals demands?
  • High labor costs: each Workhouse costs 16¥/min
  • Extortion: represented by Import docks
  • 128 x 128 scenic map
  • Lean industrially, focused on economics and railroading
  • All engines available



[h2]A decade of progress at 40 below[/h2]
By Gardlt

Take charge of a frozen city and make it prosper. You will need to rely heavily on imports. There are rumors of a hot spring in the area. Help the scientists who are building mechanical deer that don't get frostbite while exploring the area.
  • There are 10 industrial zones. Grow the city to get more access.
  • Management focus. Estimated first-try playtime 3-5 hours.
  • Recommended to play my map "1st Class Transport" before this.
  • Elevated track is not allowed. (enables zone division).



[h2]Isolated Industries [/h2]
By boss_yaakov

Paranoid of infiltrators, your city's rulers decided it was best to lock industry away on cliffs.

The worst part is, your trains are outdated and only run on steam!

NOTE: Warehouses are currently disabled for this map, until the core devs fix a bug with it. For now, you will need to be very strategic about how you export resources.


Update #6 Patch #1: Fixes + New Workshop Maps

Hello Everyone,

Since we released Update #6 we've had a ton of players both new and returning. I want to thank everyone who has played Update #6 and give a special thanks to those patient players who reported issues so we could fix them.

[h2]Update #6 Patch #1 ChangeLog[/h2]
This patch #1 to Update #6 fixes the following issues players reported:
Gameplay
Add upgrade tech for Uranium Mines and Centrifuges
Add 4 more upgrade levels for warehouses

Bugs
Fix pipes and lakes missing from campaign maps
Fix balance of micro and double docks
Fix main menu background music not respecting music volume
Fix missing localizations for new strings
Fix crash when placing warehouse in map editor
Fix demand/supply lines not rendering on long tracks
Fix uranium mines multiplying on deletion
Fix trains stuck on turnaround

[h2]Workshop Missions Highlights[/h2]
Since Update #6 the community mission designers have been on a hot streak! This week along has brought a ton of high quality new maps to the workshop. Please check it all out here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1355090/workshop/

Starting with today's announcement I want to start highlighting workshop maps. These maps are not the only quality missions, but just a selection of what I think Railgrade players will enjoying playing.

A 5 Mission Mini-Campaign by momomomomomomo
"Welcome to my RG mini-campaign! You'll step into the shoes of employees at Japan's National Monster Defense Agency (NMDA)." Link to mission 1: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3222836782

Industrial Prankster by Snek
Snek has been an active member of the Railgrade discord and developed this story driven challlenge map with feedback from other mission designers on the discord. The mission represents what I hope to see a lot more of: missions with story, challenge, and campaign-like design. Link: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3219796239

Nuclear mayhem by Tram-Train
Tram-Train is another active member of the discord and his work in progress Nuclear Mayhem is another campaign-like stand alone story mission. I want to thank him for pushing the mission design community further and giving feedback to other designers. Link
: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3220117106

PS: Credit to 102_Ruby on the Railgrade Discord for this update's cover photo. He really pushed the limits on Railgrade's city growth!