Iron Roads News

The most visible change in this update is the new load selection system. It is simpler than its predecessors, but it is also more flexible for restricting what cargo and passengers can run on a route.

The other major change is essentially invisible, but we've reworked how the game draws UI screens to be more flexible, and make it easier for us to improve the UI in this and future updates. The new cargo system was our test patient for that new system!

[h3]Load selection system[/h3]



In this update you can choose between 4 top-level options when restricting what a service will carry:

• Load anything Still the default; in this case a service will carry any and all types of passengers and cargo
  
• Load only cargo and Load only passengers These options allow you to restrict a service to carry only cargo or passengers. From feedback we realised that most people who did want to customise loading, wanted one of these two options, so we've made them more easily accessible
  
• Load custom When you choose this you are presented with a full list of cargo types and passenger types, and you can enable/disable them individually for total control
  

We've also edited the information box on the service screen that leads to this UI to clarify what buttons correspond to specific displays

[h3]More minor changes[/h3]

• You now earn rewards when manually upgrading a town so you don’t lose out on non-track rewards when upgrading that way
  
• There was an exploit where you could generate infinite money using the reserve land tool, that is gone!
  
• Today is the last day of April, so the May challenge begins tomorrow!
  

[h3]Up next - new map generator![/h3]

The next update is already well under way - we've been experimenting with the Wave Function Collapse algorithm to improve our map generation. Initial experiments are encouraging, and we hope to have that ready for release quite soon.

Thanks as always for all the feedback!

0.6.2 is live now with a new monthly challenge for April, and a fix for services that call at the same town multiple times in their route. For example in the screenshot shown below, passengers waiting at Trembley for Neptunia should not board until the train calls at Trembley the second time on the way back from Mercy. Previously the passengers would board immediately, and hog seats on the leg to Mercy, but now they wait politely for the train to return before board.



It is a smallish change, but the previous behaviour had made routes where the train called at the same station many times non-viable, and this fixes that!

We'll be working through a number of issues like this, and other UI issues, in the 0.6.x series of updates. Generally we'll push them to the beta branch as we make them, and group/test these into updates from time to time!

I've just pushed an update to the beta branch to improve passenger routing on services that call at the same town multiple times in their route. For example in the screenshot shown passengers at Trembley for Neptunia should not board until the train calls at Trembley the second time on the way back from Mercy. Previously the passengers would board immediately, hog seats on the way to Mercy, and sadly this skewed the game quite strongly towards 2 city routes.



This is fixed on the beta branch now - please let me know if you find any issues with it. We'll be working through a number of issues like this, and other UI issues, in the 0.6.x series of updates. Generally we'll push them to the beta branch as we make them, and group/test these into updates from time to time!

There was a crash if you added carriages to a train just after it had flipped direction. This is fixed now, thanks to those who let us know about it!

[h2]Sandbox[/h2]

The headline feature for this update is sandbox mode. Rather than play on a map we have hand drawn, you get a page of options, and Iron Roads will generate a map with whatever parameters you choose. The scenarios in Iron Roads are quite directed by us, so this is an opportunity for you to remix the game in whatever way you prefer.



We’ll be updating and extending Sandbox mode in future updates, so we’d love to hear how it works out for you!

[h2]Hotkeys[/h2]

One of the greatest usability issues in the initial Early Access release was the lack of hotkeys. We’ve added them now. The list of all hotkeys can be found in the game's pause menu. If you feel that any are missing from this list, please let us know!



[h2]Minor changes[/h2]

We have made a number of more minor changes to fix bugs, clarify the UI, and adjust the balance

• After a lot of feedback that the Horseshoe Isle scenario was surprisingly hard, we’ve worked through it, and rebalanced many aspects
  
• One-way arrows have moved slightly to make two way tracks more readable on diagonals
  
• The space around Daters Rest in the Desert Dew scenario has been increased to allow more growth
  
• The Tithonus was a game breakingly good train, so it is now slower, more expensive and carries fewer passengers
  
• Futura was a little hard to unlock, so we’ve reduced the star unlock requirement of Futura from 5 to 2
  
• The new train screen shows a power icon next to any train that requires power to run
  
• The wording of carriage contracts has changed to describe exactly what needs to be carried
  
• The town status display (map version) shows what the town requires in the case production is stalled
  
• The formula showing what factory towns do is laid out better on the town screen
  
• Journey time tasks now show a jump-to button to connect them to the statistics on the town screen
  
• We’ve fixed a bug where the transport tasks only counted passengers who travelled solely between the listed towns, not passengers where part the journey was via those towns
  
• We fixed an issue with the cargo info screen where it would not close in some circumstances
  
• We fixed an issue where towns would be erroneously considered connected when a tunnel ran under a platform. This caused passengers to be generated when they shouldn’t have been
  
• We removed the errant "Show tutorial contracts for this chain" button that could show up in the research window
  
• Many tooltips and other UI elements have been updated for clarity
  

Thanks so much to all of you who have played the beta branch, and given feedback!