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RAILROADS Online News

Steam Summer Sale: Save 20% on Railroads Online!



The annual Steam Summer Sale is here and of course we also prepared some exclusive offers for you! If the sun isn't hot enough for you, make sure to grab yourself a blazing hot discount of 20% on Railroads Online! 🔥

The Steam Summer Sale ends on July 13 at 7:00 PM CEST.

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

Other games from the fantastic astragon lineup are also part of the sale! Check out these fantastic offers:
Check out the Summer Sale page for more details and a full overview!

Your Railroads Online Team

Railroads Online – Beta Update 0.5.8



Dear Community,

today we're shipping an update to the beta branch with the version number 0.5.8. With the update, we've fixed some performance and crash issues, improved control behavior and resolved problems with brakes. In addition, old splines and old switch types will now be converted to their newer versions. Say bye-bye to the past.

A little surprise is also included in today's beta update: New rolling stock! We're introducing some fresh cars manufactured by the Gregg Company, a historic manufacturer of plantation equipment in the Americas. Their more compact size is perfect for combining them with the smaller starter engines like the Porter. Oh and some of them... might have a new secret use soon? Well, let's see.



For more details about today's update, check out the patch notes below.

As always, for feedback, please head over to our dedicated beta forum where you can post bugs and give us suggestions :)

Thank you and have a great weekend!

The Railroads Online Team

[h2]Changelog[/h2]

Cars
  • Added Gregg Sugar Cane Cane Flat
  • Added Gregg Sugar Cane Logging Flat
  • Added Gregg Sugar Cane Stake Flat
  • Added Gregg Sugar Cane Bulkhead Flat
  • Added Gregg Sugar Cane Lowside Gondola
  • Added Gregg Sugar Cane Medium Gondola
  • Added Gregg Sugar Cane Highside Gondola
  • Added EWA Plantation Box Car
  • Added Waualua Agricultural Tank Car
Locomotives & Turntables
  • Fixed an issue that caused EBT hoppers to fall into the ground while re-railing, making it further impossible to re-rail them
  • Fixed a bug that caused the Porter 0-4-2 engine's front number plate to not be golden
  • Fixed a bug that caused the headlight intensity on the Heisler, Cooke 2-6-0 and Eureka to be too dimm
Bridges
  • Fixed a bug that made it impossible to link truss bridges to existing rail that is above the ground
Sounds
  • Fixed a bug that caused geared engines to not have any chuff sounds at low speed
Controls
  • Fixed a bug that made it impossible to re-rail engines and cars properly onto switches
  • Fixed a bug that caused brakes to be 100% applied even if the chosen value was far below (even just a tiny bit more than 0%)
  • Fixed a bug that made entering a locomotive via the F menu very inconsistent
Graphics
  • Adjusted the font color in the construction menu dropdown texts so that they can be read when the background is dark
  • Fixed a bug that caused car lettering to be offset from the car
Crashes
  • Fixed a crash that happened when loading a save game with old splines: When loading a save game that includes old splines, these will be converted into the new spline types. Due to the conversation algorithm some converted splines might differ in terms of radius and length. Old switch types will also be converted into the new switch types.

Railroads Online – Beta Update 0.5.7



Dear Community,

today we're shipping an update to the beta branch with the version number 0.5.7. With the update, we've fixed some misbehavior of controls, resolved a bunch of issues with locomotives, improved turntable behavior, and enabled some older hardware to play the game on Unreal Engine 5.



As the fixes have been quite extensive and complex, two things you should all have in mind will happen when starting the game with the new version number:

  • Please reset your controls: In the last versions, walking forward by pressing W was not possible by default anymore, requiring you to set the key again to the respective function. This was sadly not a trivial fix which means that after installing the update, you have to reset your controls via the option menu to have it all working fully fine.
  • Vehicles spawning in the ground: We had to move the actual pivot point of some cars to fix some other critical problems. Due to that, your locomotives will spawn in the ground when initially launching the game. After re-railing them, their new location should be correctly saved and the next time you launch the game, they should spawn correctly. Sorry for the inconvenience.

In addition, we're shipping some smaller new content the team has been working on for a while. This includes a new headlight variant for the Glenbrook engine, a new steel truss bridge segment and a few sound effects.



In the coming weeks, we'll release a bigger blog post listing our learnings from the update, share a few details on what's happening behind-the-scenes, what we're currently working on, and more! Please look forward to it :)

For more details about today's update, check out the patch notes below.

As always, for feedback, please head over to our dedicated beta forum where you can post bugs and give us suggestions :)

Thank you and have a great weekend!

The Railroads Online Team

[h2]Changelog[/h2]

Locomotives & Turntables
  • Added new headlight variant for Glenbrook engine
  • Added new paint variants for Glenbrook engine
  • Fixed an issue that let the vehicle be launched into the air when entering it as a third-person driver by pressing F
  • Fixed an issue that caused locomotives to bounce while re-railing
  • Fixed an issue that caused cars to fall over to their side when re-railing them in curves
  • Fixed an issue that caused the ET&WNC 2-8-0 to derail when purchased
  • Fixed several issues with the Climax
  • Fixed some number inconsistencies on the Ruby Basin
  • Fixed an issue that caused number strings larger than 2 to not fit on the domes of Glenbrook or Eureka
  • Fixed an issue that caused locomotives to slide off the Turntable I from the client's side
  • Fixed a bunch of other issues with turntables
Bridges
  • Added Steel Truss bridge Segment
Main Menu
  • Added the new key visual to the main menu
Sounds
  • Added sound effect when adding a link and pin into a coupler
  • Added sound effect when moving a brake handwheel on rolling stock
  • Fixed an issue that caused alt-tabbing to cut all audio of the game
Controls
  • Fixed an issue that, when driving in F menu, caused motion blur to appear around wheels despite the motion blur settings being all the way down
  • Fixed an issue that caused walking forward to not be possible by default, instead w behaved as s
Graphics
  • Fixed smoke particles to clip through larger smokestacks
  • Fixed player animations to not be visible by other players
  • Fixed generator exhaust steam to appear on Tweetsie locomotive without generator fitted
  • Boosted render distance of marker lights based on your feedback :)
Miscellaneous
  • Set DX11 as default DirectX version, enabling support for older hardware like the GTX 760 and AMD Radeon R9 200 Series graphic cards that do not support DX12

Railroads Online – Beta Update 0.5.4



Dear Community,

today we're shipping an update to the beta branch with the version number 0.5.4, fixing a few issues that came up with the recently released open beta for the recently released Weather & Sky Update. We're also adding some new quality-of-life features for save games.

For more details, check out the patch notes below.

For feedback, please head over to our dedicated beta forum where you can post bugs and give us suggestions :)

The Railroads Online Team

[h2]Changelog[/h2]

Save Games
  • Fixed custom save game names to only have the name and not the date
  • Added override saves: In the save menu you can now click on an existing save game and either confirm or deny the override
  • Autosave function now saves with AUTOSAVE_"Your session name" and overrides this file instead of generating a new save file every time
Locomotives
  • Fixed an issue causing locomotives to slide off the turntable: We still recommend to drive on a turntable, stop, apply brakes, and rotate the turntable
  • Fixed locomotive wheels without brake shoes lock up when brake is fully applied
  • Decreased wheel friction from 0.005 to 0.001
  • Increased brake friction from 0.10 to 0.15
Gameplay
  • Increased standard water tower refill rate to 1 unit per minute
  • Fixed an issue that caused auto-cranes to restart when cargo stockpile is empty
Controls
  • Fixed an issue causing key bindings for forward, backward, left, and right to reset
  • Removed ressource spawn function that caused freight to be spawned in front of you when pressing 1, 2, 3, et cetera
Graphics
  • Fixed an issue causing rolling stock, buildings, and locomotives to have blurred textures
Sounds
  • Fixed an issue with whistle loop sounds

The Weather & Sky Update: Now available in beta!



Dear Community,

today we're happy to reveal The Weather & Sky Update, upgrading the game to Unreal Engine 5 and introducing a bunch of highly requested features – including an improved save game mechanism, a full day & night cycle and a weather system.

The update is now available in open beta for testing!



[h3]Let's become future-proof[/h3]

With this update, we're upgrading the entirety of Railroads Online from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5 – version 5.0.3, to be exact.

At first glance, you will not notice too many differences. Our switch to UE5 mainly serves as preparation for the further development of the game and to make the game more future-proof in general. This way, we have a new baseline to start working from when it comes to polishing, bugfixing and optimization.

In addition, we are now able to use a bunch of features included in Unreal Engine 5 and take advantage of them to ship features which a lot of you frequently requested! Some of them are even part of this update :)

[h3]Improved Save Game System[/h3]

When evaluating your feedback, it became clear that we really needed to improve the entire system around how save games are being handled. Currently, you have to manually save your game and the automatically generated name can be slightly confusing as you often have to guess which save game does what.

Starting with The Weather & Sky Update, all your save games can be properly named and saved at any time. In addition, newly created save games contain a thumbnail screenshot of your game world from a player's perspective. Older save games will instead display a generic RRO icon as a thumbnail.

When you start a game, you can select any save game from a drop-down menu that is showing both the name and the thumbnail of said save game.

Another thing we're introducing is an autosave functionality which can be customized in the settings. You can set the intervals at which the game is being autosaved to 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, and 60 minutes. However, you can also turn off autosave completely.



[h3]Day & Night Cycle[/h3]

Thanks to the power of Unreal Engine 5, a fully animated day & night cycle is now part of Railroads Online! This cycle contains a sunrise, a sunset, stars, and a beautiful moon. If you're a night owl (like the person writing these lines), you might prefer working at night – and vice versa if you're an early bird who prefers daylight (which the person writing these lines respects).

The length of both day & night can be set individually in minutes, which means that you can choose how long you want your 24 in-game hours to last (the person writing these lines wants the night to stay forever tho).

No worries: You are not forced to follow the cycle, instead you can set the current time of day whenever you want (the person writing these lines will definitely let the night stay forever).



[h3]Welcome to Weather[/h3]

Humidity is rising, barometer's getting low, according to all sources, the valley's the place to go. Okay, these are not quite the correct lyrics, but the message is correct: We're also adding a weather system today!

Wanna have it sunny? Or rather cloudy, overcast, foggy? Do you want to have light rain, rain, thunderstorms, light snow, snow, or even a blizzard? Or do you prefer light sand or a sand storm?

You can now choose between all of these options and set them the way you want to provide the right mood. You can also set the weather transition time when a new weather setting has been chosen!



[h3]What else?[/h3]

The night is dark and full of terrors – which requires at least a shimmer of light to prevail the peace. Your character now carries an oil lamp with them which lights up the surrounding area. We don't want you to get lost in the woods, you know?

The headlights of your locomotives now also cast a cone of light, illuminating the track and the surrounding area. Static oil lamps are also present in the cabs and cabooses, lighting up all interiors.



[h3]Community Poll[/h3]

As we are working on an updated development roadmap, we want to hear your opinion and get a feel for what you think is the most important to you as the players. Which topics should we tackle with higher priority? Which features should we visit rather sooner than later?

Please visit the poll to learn more!



[h3]New Artwork & Locomotive Showcase Trailer[/h3]

Today, we're also updating the official keyart for Railroads Online. Check it out in its full glory:



We also have a new trailer ready, showcasing all locomotives to new players! Time to learn more, heh? :)

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Some final words about the update[/h3]

We hope that you like the things we're adding with this update and we can't wait for the feedback you'll provide during the duration of the open beta. The update will stay in beta for a few weeks so that we can fix and improve things until we can ship it from the beta branch to the public branch :)

For feedback and bug reports, please head over to our dedicated Steam Beta Forum where we collect all issues.

With this update, we're also switching to actual version numbers. The Weather & Sky Update, for example, is now version 0.5.3. Previously, we named the version after the date the update got released which wasn't perfect.

Heads-up: Before you start playing, we highly recommend to make sure your graphics drivers are up-to-date as older drivers can cause issues with Unreal Engine 5, including immediate crashes when launching the game.



[h3]Full Patch Notes[/h3]

And here are the final patch notes:

Unreal Engine
  • Railroads Online is now running on Unreal version 5.0.3, in preparation for the further development and to harness new UE features


Save System
  • Save Games can now be properly named and saved at any time
  • Added Autosave functionality; A timer can be set at which intervals the game is autosaved: OFF, 5min, 10 min, 15min, 30 min, 60 min
  • Save Games now store a thumbnail screenshot of the player's view, old saves show RO icon as screenshot
  • When starting a game, any Save Game can be selected from a drop-down menu showing the thumbnail and the save game name


Day Night Cycle
  • Added a fully animated Day & Night Cycle with sunrise, sunset, stars and moon
  • Added an option to set Day & Night length individually in minutes
  • Added an option to set current time of day
  • Added a toggle for time of day Animation


Weather
  • Added a new weather system, including the following situations: sunny, cloudy, overcast, foggy, light rain, rain, thunderstorm, light snow, snow, blizzard, light sand, sand storm
  • You are now able to set the current weather
  • Added an option to set a weather transition time when a new weather setting is chosen


Player Character
  • Player can toggle an oil lamp with 'L' (rebind in options->controls) that lights up the surrounding area for better navigation during night time


Locomotives
  • Locomotive headlights now cast a cone of light to illuminate the track and the surrounding area
  • Added static oil lamps in cabs and cabooses which illuminate interiors


Your Railroads Online Team

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