Iron Roads News

Another small update to get some fixes we made during the week out there. We have:

- Fixed a bug that allowed you to extend stations into town tiles, and sometimes crash when doing so
- Fixed some broken art tiles in Tipsy Tavern
- Fixed a crash that would happen if you deleted a station when a train was loading or unloading at that station

Savegames are broken by this update, so if you need a Steam branch to finish an old game, please let us know!

We are streaming as part of the Capitalism and Economy fest. It is pre-recorded so we can't answer questions live, but drop by our forums if there is anything you want to know!

This patch largely consists of bugfixes ahead of the Capitalism and Economy fest on Monday, but we also added a screenshot button to the highscore screen shown at the end of challenges

• Save slots are sorted now, with most recently accessed first
  
• We fixed a few bugs with the continue button that could occur after deleting slots
  
• We fixed a bug that would open the link discord screen when trying to start the Desert Dew challenge
  
• The buttons in the confirm dialogue have been properly aligned
  
• We fixed a bug where bridges and tunnels wouldn't destroy fields or other ornaments
  
• We fixed a bug where track draws wouldn't reliably destroy ornaments like fields
  
• We removed a special case that would stop you from collapsing a service in the trains window when there is only one left
  
• Adding to a new route, or jumping to the route from a train window, now scrolls it into view
  

This update breaks save games, so if you need access to a Steam branch to finish a game from the previous demo, get in touch!

This update adds music into Iron Roads just before 2023 ends.

We're taking a slightly unconventional approach to music and other than the menu screen music, nothing is authored. It is generated by the game, based on a ruleset that responds to your actions and those of your train network. As always, we intend to iterate this concept, and we'd love to hear your thoughts!

This update also reduces the challenge time from 7 in-game days to 5, and fixes a crash that could occasionally happen when booting. We'll be pushing a few more bugfixes early in the new year in preparation for an event, so do let us know if you notice anything that doesn't seem quite right.

We wanted to use this space to thank you all for your support, and we hope you all have a great 2024!

This is a larger update than normal, with a number of substantial changes:

• Thematic update We've made the map more reactive to how you play, with the choices you make affecting the environment and your passengers more, and we've reworked the backstory and mechanics around these
  
• Random map generation We can't be the only ones tired of playing the same scenarios over and over, so we have added a map generator. This will eventually support an Endless mode for free play, but for now it is only enabled in the new challenge mode
  
• Challenge mode This new mode gives you a finite amount of time on a fixed map to transport as many people as possible. There a high score board for the competitive, and you can even link your game with your Discord account to "claim" your score in the #highscores channel on our Discord!
  

There is a lot more about these changes on our blog if you are interested. Next month we will be participating in Steam's Capitalism and Economy Fest, so we'd really appreciate any feedback you may have on how we can polish the build ready for that

Other smaller changes:

• Many UI changes, including a reworked top bar to pack more information in a smaller space!
  
• Many tutorial updates, along with a new section to explain
• non-stop* orders
  
• We've added inertial scroll, removed bridge and tunnel length caps, and added a switch to show/hide completed contracts
  

We've fixed

• A glitch causing town art to disappear and show blank stops
  
• An issue that would prevent saving if you transferred directly from tutorial to Forgotten Valley scenario
  
• A bug where the loading screen would not draw the game if it was booted in the background
  
• An exploit where you could build stations all the way across the map
  

We'll be updating the mobile build in the next few days once we've playtested it properly. Thanks as always to those who have given us feedback that has helped shape this build. Our plan is to update it regularly over the next few weeks with tweaks and bugfixes in the leadup to the Steam fest