A February Update: It's time for coal, but slightly delayed

Dear Community,

last month we gave you a sneak-peek into the next update that introduces new gameplay mechanics and improvements, including coal firing.

Initially, we announced that this update will approximately release by the end of February. However, we made the decision to delay it by just a little bit and now plan to release it on March 10, 2023.

Why? Well, work and polishing simply took us longer than expected. This means that our QA team will begin testing the update next week and, in addition to that, we want to keep some buffer to fix potential issues they find.

[h3]Let's coal coal, baby![/h3]

While this might be disappointing, we want to use the opportunity to share more details about the update with you! For example, some of you speculated in the recent weeks about what happened with the silhouettes of engines and cars we shared last year. A few people in the community guessed it correctly: Some of them are part of this update! :)

(Note: Not all of the silhouettes. They will come later. Hehe.)

Just to clarify: The new locomotives we introduce are all fired by coal. Existing engines will continue to be powered by the mighty magic of wood.

The use of coal will not be a trivial aesthetic make-over, instead it requires a whole new workflow. That's why we are introducing coaling towers which you can place all over the map – at best in strategically important areas.

The coaling towers must be filled with coal via the coal hopper, so make sure to build some very nice lines from the coal mine to your desired coaling towers! The coaling towers have a chute attached to them which you have to use to load the tender of the brand-new engines with coal. From there, you can shovel (yes, SHOVEL!) the coal into the engines' firebox.

Pro tip: Using coal will prove to be much more efficient than firewood and will therefore come with the benefit of not having to refill your tender as often. More focus on deliveries, less on fueling...

Of course, the new update will include much more than that! We won't spoil the full list of included new locomotives, cars, and towers (yes, there are more) – but we are quite sure you'll like them! :) No worries, you can also expect fixes and improvements as usual.

[h3]Steam Spring Sale 2023![/h3]

To celebrate the new update, we will put Railroads Online on sale from March 10 to March 23.

However, from March 10 to 16, you can expect a bigger discount (cool new update, yay!). With the start of the Steam Spring Sale which runs until March 23, the discount will be slightly reduced. The earlier you join, the more you save :)

And that's it for today! We'll share more details about the update once it releases. For now, have a good time in the valley and never stop shaping the world of Railroads Online ❤

Your Railroads Online Team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1696810/Railroads_Online/