Derail Valley News

Hi everyone, we have some exciting changes today!



We reworked the way Derail Valley is being loaded, preventing issues such as falling through terrain at game start. It now shows a loading screen with progress percentage, completing all loading before you actually start playing. VR players: note that the loading screen will only appear on the monitor, not in the headset.





You can now buy a watch in shops, letting you measure time, using either its stopwatch or timer functionality. This is useful when chasing your job time bonus! When used as a timer, the watch will ring when it counts down to zero, even if it’s in the inventory.

In VR the watch is placed a bit inconveniently high in the store, but note that in due time we will rework the shop layout.





- Parked trains no longer slide on slopes
- Potentially made game playable on undefined controllers (e.g. Pimax with Vive)

Our focus is now on hazmat jobs and related improvements!



Build #72 - April 19, 2019:

System:

- Reworked game loading
\ Now shows loading progress (screen only)
\ Fixes player falling through terrain when starting game
\ Smoother experience after game loads in

Items:

- Added pocket watch
\ Can be bought in shops
\ VR controls: Button - start/pause, Knob - set time
\ NonVR controls: LMB - start/pause, Scroll - set time
\ To use as stopwatch, start at zero time
\ To use as timer, start at set time
\ Alarm goes off when timer runs out
\ Works while in inventory too
\ Gets its status saved during play
- Save-game can now track item-specific states

Trains:

- Trains no longer slide when parked on a grade
- Increased coupler strength 50%

Controls:

- Potentially fixed undefined device controllers not working (e.g. Pimax with Vive wands)
- Fixed walk/run speeds in nonVR being increased in a recent build

Misc:

- Added pages about derailing and item storage to DV Guide
- Fixed crash when using teleport console commands while being on a vehicle
- Halved job validator cooldown

Hey all! Quick update this time.

As some you noticed, as of update #70 sometimes you'd not be able to go through tunnels. This build should fix that. Have fun!



World:

- Attempted fix for not being able to go through tunnels

Hi everyone,

We have several notable fixes today!





All of it. Trees, as well as rocks, will no longer appear on tracks. Moreover, we’ve been able to gain quite a visual improvement too. With the new approach the gravel texture previously painted next to tracks to remove vegetation is no longer necessary. This brought a lot more track-side texture variety, and allowed us to bring vegetation closer to the tracks, making all environments feel more authentic.



In the future, once aged tracks are implemented, this will also allow us to make abandoned tracks somewhat more overgrown than others.



One of the most obvious issues with the game was that, when transitioning to a new area vegetation would blink for a few frames. This made hangs a lot more noticeable than they really are. As of this build vegetation will no longer blink.



We know that shovel in VR is often wonky. Until it’s reworked, there’s now a temporary setting in Misc submenu, that lets you interact with coal in a way that doesn’t involve physics. This means that lags or losing tracking will no longer launch your coal into orbit.



Despite simulating train brake you’ve all experienced cars buckling and sometimes causing derailments in turns when braking. All the cars shared the same braking power, however their mass differed. Being heavier, some cars would push against the light ones as they had a harder time stopping.

Now, car brakes are automatically adjusted for car and cargo mass, ensuring that the entire train brakes with mostly the same force.



Many of you wrote to us about bugs with jobs stuck in inventory and loader levers not working. Both of those issues are now fixed.



World:

- Removed vegetation and rocks from tracks
\ Removed need for gravel texture next to tracks (more natural track-side)
\ Allowed bringing vegetation closer to tracks
- Fixed vegetation flickering at terrain loading
- Fixed terrain bump at lake loop

Jobs:

- Fixed non interactable levers on load/refill machine (introduced recently)
- Fixed being unable to take out job booklets from inventory (introduced recently)

Steam locomotive:

- Added non-physical shovel option for VR, making coal stick to the shovel
\ Can be found in settings, under the Misc submenu
\ Can be switched on and off during gameplay

Cars:

- Brake strength now automatically adjusts for car mass (no more buckling)

Hi everyone,

Today's a quick one. Last night's fixes caused some errors in the steam locomotive making it unusable. This build fixes it. Enjoy!



Steam locomotive:

- Fixed coal not being accepted into the firebox (introduced in last build)

Shunting remote:

- Made buttons easier to press in NonVR

Console:

- Player.GiveWallet command now forces wallet into inventory (or L&F if no room)

Hi everyone,

Earlier today we hotfixed a tutorial bug some of you were experiencing, introduced in last night’s update. In addition to that hotfix, we’re now also adding a few more features:



We added basic support for key remapping. It can be done either by editing keybindings.ini file located at Derail Valley\DerailValley_Data\SaveGameData or using console command “bind”, supporting multiple bindings per action. See changelog below for more details on how to remap keys.



Bought too many items? Not to worry, as now you can permanently delete them from every spawning again by throwing them away into yellow dumpsters. In addition, all previously “essential” items can now be purchased in shops, apart from wallet, the true essential item.



Some of you didn’t have enough information to deduct how to pair the remote. Now when you buy it you will also receive a short manual explaining just that and a few of its other details.

Apart from that we made a few more improvements to the game. See the full changelog below for more details:



Build #68 - April 4, 2019:

Items:

- Fix broken tutorial due to item falling through ground (introduced last build)
- Added Item Dumpster
\ Dumpsters can be used to permanently delete your items
\ They can be found next to each lost and found shed
\ Purchase-able items tossed into the dumpster will be deleted if player moves 200m away
\ Job booklets tossed into the dumpster will be deleted immediately (same as trash bin)
- All previously “essential” items can now be bought in shops (except wallet)
- Player.GiveEssentialItems became Player.GiveWallet
\ Backup command in case there was a bug with the save-game that deleted the wallet
- Optimized world map, no longer calculating player position if 5m+ away from player

Shunting remote:

- Added shunter remote booklet manual
\ Buying the remote will now also issue the manual
- Fixed LED bars showing fully empty when there’s still slight control input

Controls:

- Editing keybindings using text editor:
\ Start game at least once to generate keybindings.ini file
\ Edit the file in text editor to remap keystroke(s)
\ The file is located at Derail Valley\DerailValley_Data\SaveGameData\
\ Supports multiple keys to be assigned to one action
\ The changes will apply at next game start
- Editing keybindings in-game using console commands:
\ “showbinds” to see all current key bindings for reference
\ “bind” followed by action and keystroke(s) (e.g. “bind moveForward W UpArrow“) to remap
\ Automatically updates keybindings.ini file
- Added steam whistle key control (default: num+)

World:

- Fixed floating L&F sheds at Sawmill and City SW

Shunter:

- Fixed levers jumping into place after a moment when entering the shunter