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Captain’s diary #49: Update 3 Release Date Change and New Content!

Hey everyone! Captain Filip is back again! Update 3 is getting closer and closer so we have prepared another post for you to reveal more information. We also had to reschedule our launch. So let’s go!

Launch date

I know we promised you that Update 3 is launching on 20th of May. It turned out that day was already busy with launches so, with a heavy heart, we had to move our launch date to 14th of May. We apologize to anyone who expected the update to come out 6 days later.

With that out of the way, let’s discuss the new content! In the previous post we managed to cover a decent portion of the space program and hinted at new production chains but this time I would like to dive deeper into it and also cover other changes we made.

Today we'll showcase Aluminum production, train crossings, new assembler models, settlement services, new and updated maps, increased vehicle limits and bricks removal!

Jump over to our blog for the full post as we have lots of videos to show off new content!

Captain’s diary #48: End-game, space program, launch date & more

Hey everyone! Captain Filip here to talk more about our upcoming Update 3. This time you will learn about the new content, pricing changes and also the launch date for Update 3! So let’s dig in!

Space Station

In Update 3, we will be adding a space station. It is going to be very simple and driven through the UI (similarly to the world map). The main purpose of the station is to give those rockets you launch a meaningful purpose and to motivate you to scale your industry even further.

We had been holding off on space program content because we wanted to do something immersive and detailed. But we realized that such high expectations from our side were only limiting how your island’s industry could scale even now. The more we thought about it, the more we felt that even a simple space program was really missing.

The main reason we’re keeping it simple is that we're developing this in parallel with already massive projects, such as trains and the UI overhaul, which are all coming together in Update 3. But another reason is that we want to test the waters and see where our next steps should go.

The new space station coming in Update 3

Similar to nuclear reactors, we did some research on the ISS to understand the mind-blowing complexity of a project like that. We tried to integrate mechanics inspired by real-world space stations, and, of course, we didn’t leave out any mechanics that could send your station into a death spiral because we can’t have only positive reviews (that would certainly look suspicious!).

The space station requires regular deliveries of maintenance parts. It also needs a crew, which must be rotated periodically to limit their radiation exposure. Regular deliveries of crew supplies, including food, water, and medicine, are essential. The station can be upgraded, and upgrades are practically unlimited. Running it doesn’t cost Unity; it’s only about how many rockets you can send fast enough to keep it functional. So it’s entirely up to you how far you want to push your island’s space program.

Space station parts are also made out of chemical fuel because fun fact: if the ISS wasn’t reboosted every couple of weeks, it would eventually burn up in the atmosphere.

The launch pad will be able to load products onto rockets and dispatch them automatically. Products get supplied via ports.

So, what do you get out of running a space station besides some extra anxiety? First, prestige, which comes in the form of extra Unity. The second bonus is space research efficiency, making research cheaper which is an important factor, but we’ll cover that later. But the most important reward is space research points, a commodity required in your research labs to perform the most advanced research projects. And finally, it also provides a satisfying display of rockets launching regularly, desperately trying to keep the station from completely disintegrating in orbit. :)

The space station will, of course, introduce new products and recipes, but I’ll cover that in a future blog post.

We are looking forward to enabling even greater scaling by giving the space program a real purpose.

Infinite research

We know that after hundreds of hours of gameplay, reaching the endgame can feel like hitting a cliff where everything is done, and there are no more goals to push towards. Adding more and more end-game content is nice, but it only delays that cliff; it doesn’t resolve it entirely.

Because of this, we’ve decided to introduce incremental end-game research nodes that will allow you to push your island even further with powerful bonuses. These can range from increased housing density and higher crop yields to more significant perks like an increased vehicle limit or better fuel efficiency. However, these nodes will become increasingly expensive, requiring a well-established and large-scale operation to progress. This is where the research efficiency bonus from the space station (mentioned earlier) will be particularly beneficial.

A detail of an incremental research node in the new UI.

Many of these end-game research nodes will require scaled-up and operational space station.

Additionally, we will be rebalancing the research to make progression a bit more demanding in terms of resources. Until now, research has been relatively easy to power through and sometimes new content was being unlocked so quickly that players couldn’t even keep up. This adjustment will ensure a more engaging and rewarding research experience. The goal is not to make it drag on for too long but to motivate players to scale up their production even more.

Asteroids

The new space program brought an interesting opportunity. What if the very late end-game wasn’t just about contracts, but you could keep your mining fleet in action forever?

In Update 3, you’ll be able to perform controlled asteroid drops onto your island to gain more mineable resources. Once you reach the end-game, you can launch space probes to search for asteroids. When you find one you like, you can attach boosters to it and bring it to your island. This means you can “refill” your island’s mines as much as you want.

Once you find an asteroid you like, you can bring it into orbit by attaching boosters to it.

However, this won’t be free. In addition to the regular resource costs and the need to launch probes and boosters into orbit using rockets. You’ll need plutonium for the space probes (for Radioisotope thermoelectric generator) and, later, enriched uranium for the asteroid boosters (Ion Thrusters). So yes, FBR is about to go into overdrive!

An asteroid is on its way toward Earth.

Hopefully, the braking boosters won’t malfunction during asteroid descent so you don’t end up like the dinosaurs. We understand that technology like this is pretty far-fetched, but it allows us to experiment with end-game mining and its economy.

Captain, we might have miscalculated the final asteroid landing position...

We’ve also improved vehicle pathfinding, making it 40% faster, allowing us to increase vehicle limits in hopes of making mining even more scalable.

With that, we’ll also be nerfing recycling. Recycling was originally very generous, designed for times when we had smaller maps and nothing but contracts. But with all the progress, it now feels overpowered. Currently, you can reach 90% efficiency, but we’ll be reducing that to 75%, with the last 5% being hard to reach unless you have a larger population.

Our new illustration, which appears while an asteroid is descending toward your island.

Offices & focuses

Currently, the optimal way to progress through the game is to keep your population as small as possible, and that’s not great. We’re not saying you should be forced to scale your population, but we want to give you incentives to do so, especially for those who want to grow their population without just being punished for it.

This is where a new mechanic comes into play. You’ll be able to build Office buildings to activate Focuses. Focuses work similarly to edicts in the Captain’s Office, but instead of costing Unity, they require a dedicated workforce to maintain. Offices come in three tiers, allowing you to allocate anywhere from a few hundred to tens of thousands of workers. Once staffed, offices generate Focus Points, which can be assigned to Focuses that provide various bonuses.

The new offices come in three tiers, allowing you to scale how many workers you “spend” in your focuses.

The main goal of these bonuses is to help you scale your population up. They might increase research efficiency, provide more Unity, reduce consumption, or boost yields. Focuses only work if an office is staffed and running, so you can think of them as a more scalable version of edicts. Offices also require Office Supplies to operate, which consist of Electronics II, Paper, and Household Goods. Offices also return recyclables.

Recipe for office supplies production. Exact quantities are not yet balanced.

Focus Points can also be increased by providing offices with computing power. Additionally, a repeatable research option will allow you to further boost Focus Points generation.

Office buildings share a central UI where you can apply focus points. Note that all values shown are provisional and will still be subject to balancing. There will also be more focuses available.

Another key addition is that you will receive a research efficiency bonus based on your population size. The idea behind this is simple: the more people you have, the higher the chance that someone smart emerges :) This also serves as a reward for players who choose to grow their islands.

Also if you have a specific wish for interesting focuses or infinite researches let us know in the comments or via discord.

New production chains

We are also introducing new production chains, including Aluminum and Titanium, along with their corresponding ores. Bauxite will be available through the world map, contracts, and asteroids, while Titanium will be obtainable only from contracts and asteroids. Since these are end-game materials, their processing will be a bit more involved. But don’t worry as we’ll cover those details in a future blog post.

There will be also more products necessary to facilitate the space program. One of those is Electronics IV.

The new diamond reactor (HPHT) produces synthetic diamonds from graphite. Diamonds are input for Electronics IV, which is required in advanced stages of the space program.

Update 3 launch date and pricing

Without further ado, we’re excited to announce that Update 3 will be launching on May 20, 2025!

We know many of you have been eagerly awaiting news, and we truly appreciate your patience. After Update 2, we dedicated a month to fixing bugs and making improvements, and since then, we’ve been going full throttle to bring you something truly special.

This update is massive. It includes 1.5 DLCs worth of content plus a complete UI overhaul, making it feel almost like Captain of Industry 2. Many teams wouldn’t even attempt a full rewrite of core infrastructure, whether it was the terrain system in Update 2 or the UI in Update 3, mid-project. But for us, making COI the best it can be is something we are proud to strive for. As a small indie team, we’re working tirelessly to make that happen, and we can’t wait for you to experience it in May!

Update 3 will be fully compatible with your current saves. Ensuring this wasn’t easy, but we put in the extra effort because we know how much time and dedication many of you have invested in your factories. We want you to be able to continue right where you left off while enjoying all the new features.

[h2]Price Change[/h2]
We will also be increasing the price of the game from $29.99 to $34.99 (with a similar percentage increase for other currencies). This price change will take effect one month before Update 3 launches, as otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to offer a discount during the Update 3 launch.

We’re adjusting the price due to rising development costs and because we continue to add substantial content to the game. Update 3 brings trains, a space program, offices, new production chains, a complete UI overhaul, and more - like I said, it’s 1.5 DLCs worth of free content. And this is not our last update.

In past updates, we’ve made massive efforts to improve performance, allowing for more scalability (check our past blog posts for details). In Update 2, we introduced the map editor for community-made maps and revamped our terrain system to support larger maps. For Update 3, we’re rewriting the tree rendering pipeline to allow for even bigger maps and we’ll keep pushing the boundaries to expand map sizes further.

On top of that, past updates have added a ton of new content, including custom terrain surfaces, transport lifts, hydrogen vehicles, several tiers of nuclear reactors with advanced processing chains, ore sorting, and more. We’re also continuously improving graphics to enhance the overall experience.

We are also continuously improving graphics. In Update 3, you can look forward to new robotic assembler models (Robotic I on the left, Robotic II on the right).

Trains - More than just cool clips

We haven’t been overly verbose about what’s happening with trains, mostly just showing final clips of them in action. But I want to assure you that this has been a massive effort. We’ve had to handle fuel, maintenance, difficulty settings, track pillars, collapses, recovery, train construction, truck crossings, and tooling for rail placement, high-performance pathfinding, etc. Beyond just making trains work, we’re also trying to innovate with signal-free train networks and batched train loading, as you could have seen in our previous posts.

One key advantage of trains over conveyor belts or pipes is their ability to form an interconnected network rather than just point-to-point connections. When a new station is added to the network, it automatically gains access to all other connected stations. Additionally, a single rail can transport multiple types of products, making trains an incredibly flexible and efficient logistics solution. Besides that, in Update 3, belts and pipes will now require maintenance. We have also adjusted how long belts consume power, increasing their power demand slightly since they were previously heavily discounted. On top of that, we’ll be rebalancing certain production chains, and with the addition of new end-game content, this will lead to more cargo in transit. We are also working on increasing map sizes and introducing a new map specifically designed to take full advantage of trains.

That’s everything I have for you this time. If you have any questions or comments, we'd love to hear from you on our Discord, Reddit, or you can bug Marek on his regular Saturday's stream. :) See you in our next post!

Captain's Diary #47: Batched train loading and departure rules

Ahoy, everyone, and welcome to our first diary post of 2025. I’m Captain Marek and I am here to share the latest updates on our upcoming train feature. This time, we’re diving into the nuts and bolts (or should I say the wagons and modules) of train stations, loading/unloading, and train refueling. Just like our last post on train routing and signaling, this one is packed with innovation, so grab your conductor’s hat, and let’s get rolling!

This post contains lots of embedded videos showcasing our train stations, so head over to our website to read it: Captain's Diary #47: Batched train loading and departure rules

Captain’s diary #46: Innovation in train signaling

Ahoy! I am Captain Marek and I’m thrilled to introduce a game-changing feature in the upcoming Update 3 – a brand-new, innovative train traffic system! This system is designed to handle even complex rail networks effortlessly, all without requiring you to build explicit signals. Simply lay down your tracks, and the trains will run smoothly without any hiccups or delays.

This post contains lots of embedded videos showcasing our new system, so head over to our website to read it: Captain's Diary #46: Innovation in train signaling



[h2]Dev live stream[/h2]
Tomorrow, on October 13th, I'll be live-streaming the new Signal-Free system on YouTube and Twitch! Come by to see it in action!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Ada Lovelace Day[/h2]
Finally, we are also celebrating the Ada Lovelace Day to commemorate the first programmer in the world along with other games that are not only fun to play, but can teach you to think like a true engineer and feel like a tech wizard! If that sounds like your niche, head over to the event page, you can get some great discounts too!

Captain’s diary #45: Train tracks

Ahoy, everyone. Captain Marek here with more information about trains—our most anticipated feature coming in Update 3. This time, I will tell you all about the train track, design, and history. I also have some train concept art waiting for your feedback.

A quick announcement before we begin: This week is the Sim Festival on Steam, and we are celebrating all things simulation, so if you are on the market for more simulation games, definitely check it out!

Trains concept art

We are collaborating with a designer on concept art for our train models. Our goal is to make our trains look like they were created by engineers who have seen trains before but didn't have access to any blueprints—in essence, reinventing them from scratch. This approach ensures that our trains have a unique look and don't resemble any existing models too closely.

Here are four concepts for a diesel train. One design is smaller and more modest, while the other is more "chonky." We are considering offering two of T1 diesel locomotives. The bigger one could be a powerful hill-climber with a lower maximum speed, perfect for tackling steep grades. They are all 10 meters long.



Second is a design for our modern steam engine. We are still not sure whether steam trains will be an option at the end, but we are trying to see how that would look so here are two variants. The first is more rounded which is a classic for steam engines, the second one is more rectangular.



Let us know which one you like and why. And if you have some examples of real-world locomotives that we should take some inspiration from, share them too!

Train track design

Design work for trains, especially train tracks, dates back to 2022, when we first started exploring the idea of trains in the game. This work was then put on a back burner because we had more important things to work on, but this year, we're developing it further.

[h2]Discrete vs. continuous[/h2]
In the early prototype, we were already considering a key aspect of train track building: Do we want discrete or continuous train tracks? By “continuous,” I mean tracks that can be freely constructed using curves and are not limited by the grid. Discrete tracks would be individual, pre-defined, grid-aligned pieces.

Discrete (left) vs. continuous (right) train track example

We’ve been playing and studying many games with continuous track building. I enjoyed making nice and smooth train tracks, which allowed for any direction and turning radius and offered great freedom in designing railways.

However, I also remember times when creating intricate train track crossings with continuous rails was fiddly and frustrating due to imprecise collision detection and bad snapping. For example, building a segment from A to B was impossible, but the same segment from B to A was suddenly okay.

The advantage of discrete tracks is that they provide precise and repeatable construction rules, making it easier to design complex tracks consistently, especially when the palace is tight, and each tile matters.

Captain of Industry is a grid-based game, and continuous elements often clash with other grid-based mechanics, such as collision detection, copy/pasting, and blueprints. While implementing continuous tracks is technically possible, we decided to go with discrete pieces.

[h2]Simple vs. complex pieces[/h2]
Discrete track pieces have to be predefined, and they will ultimately determine what is possible to build. The question is, should we have fewer simpler pieces and allow their combinations to form more complex crossings, or provide a reasonable set of crossings and not allow tracks to cross?

Complexity-wise, having a set of predefined track pieces that cannot cross each other would be much better. It would allow us to make the tracks as regular entities and have existing game systems handle things like construction, collision detection, collapse, etc. Even our 3D artist was excited about the option of being able to model each switch and crossing manually to make them look more realistic (I guess he is still trying to increase his work security as if that’s even possible) so we investigated this option.

Our 3D artist referred to this picture when pitching how beautiful our crossings would look if they could be modeled manually. In case you didn’t know, these are called railroad diamonds, and you can learn all about them in this video.

So, we started designing different kinds of track pieces and intersections, which went quite well. Every track piece is represented by a curve that must start and end at a grid point, and its end direction must be a multiple of 45°. This would give us an 8-way rail network. We also prepared a similar set for double-track crossings.

The initial set of discrete train track pieces for 8-way travel. The black line is the center curve that needs to start and end on a grid point. Track ties and rails are omitted for simplicity.

An extended track set of double-track crossings.

Note that we can use 90° rotation and flip (reflection) to get all the other orientations that are not shown here.

Next we wanted to consider adding a less tight radius. And then there was a UI issue of how to let players select the correct piece.

And as if this was not enough, we were actually thinking of supporting more than 8 cardinal directions. Having the train network only able to do 45° increments felt too restrictive and not visually satisfying. So we did some prototypes and it turned out that a ratio x:y of 1:2 and 2:1 (27°) is possible and it would allow the track to be laid in 16 directions.

A prototype of half-circles using 16-directional pieces.

And this was the final nail in the coffin for non-overlapping track pieces. It would be completely infeasible to enumerate all the previously designed crossings now with respect to the 27° tracks.

[h2]Single but overlapping train tracks (the winner)[/h2]
So, we scrapped all these prototypes and went back to the drawing board to design a minimal set of pieces that could be used to build all the previously designed intersections and more. Fortunately, it didn’t take too long to arrive at this set:

A minimal set of train track pieces (initial version). Using this set and allowing for 90° rotation and flip, it is possible to build in all 16 cardinal directions, and all previously shown crossings can be composed of these.

Seeing such a small set of tracks was so satisfying compared to the previous sea of pieces, despite being on the hook for custom collision detection to allow their overlap.

This set of tracks was really powerful. The new 16-th of a turn allows for things like shift-by-two-tiles without any additional pieces, and adding a straight piece allows for shifting by any number of tiles. The only special piece needed is shift-by-one-tile.

An example of shift-by-two-tiles being composed by two 27° turns.

[h2]Designing turns on a discrete grid[/h2]
Having 16 directions is fantastic, but it presents a problem regarding turns. Remember, every piece needs to start and end on a grid point. Now, let's think about turns.

Pop quiz: If you draw a circle on a rectangular grid with a radius of, say, 14, how many integer coordinates (grid points) will the circle intersect exactly? Hint: It's going to be at least 4, right? At 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270°, where the point is precisely 14 units from the center. Are there any more? Maybe at 45°? Nope. There are no more exact intersections. The x and y coordinates of a point at 45° will be r * sin(45°), which will never be an integer.

This means that snapping a circle to 8 grid points at 45° increments along its perimeter will result in distortion. Even worse, if we snap a circle to 16 grid points, it will become what we call a “potato” shape. How much of a potato shape you get depends on the radius. Some radii are lucky, resulting in relatively little potato-ation. But some are unlucky, where the perfect circle happens to go right in between grid points, resulting in a true potato.

An example of snapping a circle to 8 and 16 points around its perimeter to the integer grid. Notice that for a radius of 14 units, the distortion is not as bad as for a radius of 18.

From the above diagram, you can see that more grid-aligned subdivisions result in greater distortion. We are still considering offering both 45° and 27° segments to provide a choice between flexibility and smoothness, depending on the player's preference. We might even add 90° turns for completely distortion-free turnarounds. Would you want to use them?

Comparison of 8 (left) vs. 16 (right) subdivisions of a circle. The 16-way is noticeably more potato-shaped but offers twice as many connection points for potential forks.

We examined all even radii from 14 to 30 to determine which worked best when divided into 16 grid-aligned segments. About half of the tested radii were acceptable, but we aimed to limit the available radius options to 2 or 3 to reduce the number of unique train track pieces. Ultimately, we selected 14, 22, and 30 tiles. This decision was made in conjunction with slope constraints, so keep reading to learn more.

[h2]Grade[/h2]
Grade (slope) was important when designing the train train pieces. Dynamic terrain and work with elevation are two of the great features of Captain of Industry, so we need tracks to traverse different heights. As explained in the previous Captain’s diary #44, we decided to go with the steepest slope of 1:8 (12.5% grade), which is on the steeper side but works well in the game. We also decided to include less steep grade options of 1:16 (6%) and 1:24 (3%) to increase depth in the railway design and mechanics (some trains might be too weak to climb steep grades). There were other reasons for these grade options that will be more apparent after you read about grade-turns, but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves.

Slope on straight track pieces is relatively simple, we need 3 types. First is a “ramp start” piece that changes the slope from flat to the 12% grade. Second is the “ramp” piece that just continues this slope. And the third piece is the “ramp end” that starts on a grade and ends flat.

One trick that we use is that the ramp-start and ramp-end pieces increase elevation by only 0.5 tile, while the ramp piece has a delta height of 1 tile. This seemingly arbitrary rule has two benefits. First, the ramp start/end pieces can be only half as long since they don’t need to go as high, saving space. Second, this eliminates a fourth piece that would start and end flat but change elevation by one tile. We can now compose this piece from ramp start and ramp end.

Example of how ramps ending at half-tile heights make ramp start/end pieces shorter and eliminates the up-by-one-tile piece.

To hit the target grade of 1:8, the ramp piece has to be 8 tiles long, which is easy for the 0° piece, but the 27° and 45° straights have to be approximated. The 45° piece length is √2=1.41 and the closest we can get to 8 is by doing 6 * √2 = 8.49. The 27° piece has a length of √5=2.24 and the closest we can get to 8 is by doing 4 * √5 = 8.94. This means that the diagonal ramp pieces’ grade is not exactly constant 12.5%, but it fluctuates a little. Fortunately, this is not too noticeable.

[h2]Curved slopes[/h2]
And finally, the endgame boss of the train tracks discretization, the curved slopes. As we established in the previous chapter, sloped pieces need to have a length of 8 (or close to it) in order to conform to the standard slope of 12.5%, but the radius dictates the length of turn pieces, and not every radius is suitable due to the “potato-shape” issue.

Our tightest radius in the game is 14 tiles since train and wagon models would start intersecting in corners and it would look too unrealistic to have tighter turns. If we do some quick math, a circle of radius 14 has a circumference of 88. If we want to have 16 subdivisions, that’s 88/16 = 5.5. Well, that’s nowhere near 8, 5.5 distance would result in a grade of 18%. To make matters even worse, our 16 subdivisions are actually not even; they are 27° and 18°, not twice 22.5°, so sloped curves at the 16 subdivisions are a no-go, regardless of radius.

But wait, there's still hope! Let’s consider the 8-way circle subdivision resulting in 45° segments. They are all the same length, and it’s 88/8 = 11. Bummer, that’s also not near 8, but maybe we could make this work since it would be beneficial to have sloped curves. To make a turn of length 11 conform to the 12.5% grade, we need to start at that grade exactly, and then make it slightly less steep, but end right at the 12.5% again. This makes the ramp turn a little “wavy” but turns out it’s not that bad, so we went with it.

Example of 14-tile radius ramp turn that is slightly uneven due to the segment being too long for its slope. Don’t mind the floating track, it’s work-in-progress.

There is actually a way to eliminate the arc length issue. We could simply match the grade to the arc length. For example, our segment is 11 tiles long; we could make it a grade of 1:11 (9%), resulting in a perfectly smooth ramp-turn. The disadvantage of this approach is that it would no longer be possible to connect other pieces to it as it has a unique slope. For example, you could not attach a piece with a different radius. We considered having unique grades to remove slight waviness but ultimately decided against it and to keep a standardized set of grades to maximize track piece compatibility.

And now, after all these explanations, I am finally ready to fully explain why we chose turn radii of 14, 22, and 30 tiles. 14 is the minimum that still kind of works with slopes, but see what happens for the next one. The arc length of a 45° segment with radius of 22 tiles is 138 / 8 = 17, which is pretty much two times 8! This means that the ramp turn of 22 tiles will climb two tiles up at the grade of 12.5%. Even better, it will climb one tile at the half-slope of 6%.

We can do similar math for the radius of 30 tiles and the 45° segment has length of 23.5, which is three-times the standard grade! We can do a ramp turn that climbs three tiles up at the standard grade or one tile up at third-grade. And this is not a coincidence. Now you can fully appreciate why we have slopes of 1:8, 1:16, and 1:24 with radii of 14, 22, and 30 tiles.

Here is a handy table that summarizes the curved slopes support:




Radius 14

Radius 22

Radius 30



45° segment length

11 tiles

17 tiles

23.5 tiles



Supports grade 12.5% (1:8)

yes (+1 height)

yes (+2 height)

yes (+3 height)



Supports grade 6% (1:16)


yes (+1 height)




Supports grade 3% (1:24)



yes (+1 height)



List of track pieces

Finally, let’s enumerate all the unique train track pieces that we currently have (subject to change).
  • [3] three straights, at 0°, 27°, and 45°
  • [3] 45° turns, one for each supported radius of 14, 22, and 30 tiles
  • [2 * 3] 27°/18° turns, one for each supported radius of 14, 22, and 30 tiles
  • [3 * 3 * 3] ramp-start, ramp-continue, and ramp-end for all three grades for all three directions
  • [2 * 5] 45° ramp turns (enumerated in a table above), we need two variants of each, one from ramp up and one for ramp down
  • [4] shift by 1 tile, one for 0° and 45°, and two kinds for the 27°/18°


If you sum it up, this results in 35 unique pieces! And don’t forget that all pieces can be rotated by 90° and flipped, resulting in even higher numbers.

All track flat track pieces laid out in a pattern we internally call the “sun”. Note that this does not include straight and curved ramps.

Rail construction tool

Many players were asking us how train tracks would be constructed. We are working on an automated tool that works similarly to the conveyor/pipe construction tool by searching for the best path to the cursor. This diary is getting a little too long, so we will tell you more about this tool in one of the future entries.

An example of an automated track laying tool snapping to an existing rail.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we’ve developed a grid-based train track system that supports 16 cardinal directions, three curve radii, and three grades. The tracks can be freely connected to form complex intersections and train networks. If you’d like to learn even more about the topic of trains in Captain of Industry, you can watch our live-stream recording where I go into more detail. All discussed chapters are time-stamped for easier navigation.



We'd love to hear from you on our Discord if you have any questions or feedback about this topic. I am also streaming (nearly) every week on Saturdays at 10:30 PDT on YouTube and Twitch, so you can also reach out with questions there.

Next time, we will talk about how we handle signaling (train traffic rules); we are actually working on signal-free train routing, so stay tuned!

Captain Marek out.

PS: Captain Marek will be in Tokyo around the 14th of August, conducting research on high-speed trains. If you want to hang out and talk trains (or anything else), shoot me a DM on Discord!