Rolling Line News

This may very well be the strangest update Rolling Line has ever had...
So first I'll explain the context!

The last week has been a very busy one, since the New Zealand Games Festival has been happening here in Wellington! I've been attending a bunch of events, including a 48hr game jam called the "PB&Jam"



The goal of the game jam was to make a game in 48 hours from scratch, and to do it in person at the event (so this means I took my laptop over to the venue and made the game there).
It's been over 4 years since I've worked on a brand new game project (Rolling Line is a full-time job), so this was a really fun opportunity to make something small and quick from scratch!

I chose to take part in the game jam solo, and I ended up making a colorful little physics platformer called Glowbells!


https://gaugepunkgames.itch.io/glowbells

Now I was thinking... why leave Glowbells as just a standalone game?
Rolling Line is moddable & customizable enough that I could definitely import the assets (and more) from Glowbells into the game.
Well guess what, I ended up importing the entire game!

On PC (not in VR) you can literally play Glowbells inside Rolling Line:



Along with the game itself, you can also make use of a bunch of props from the game:



And best of all, you can let actual Glowbells loose in your map!
These can be placed like normal props, but if you simply drop them they will bounce around just like in the game.



You can even collect them into pens, and make your own Glowbell farms ːsteamhappyː



The NZ Games Festival also included a bunch of meet & greet events, as well as two full days of conferences (called "Play by Play"). So it has been a pretty busy week!



Game developer conferences are always fun, and so inspiring.
This is actually the first ever one held in Australia/New Zealand since the pandemic.



[h2]In other news...[/h2]

After this busy week of game development events, and two weekends in a row spent indoors, I'm going to be embarking on a 4-day tramping trip! (aka: hiking/camping).

I'm going to be walking into the Tararua Ranges and I'll be completely out of cellphone/internet reception for likely the whole time. So please bare with me when it comes to bug reports/questions, since I wont be able to respond until i get home.

For anyone who knows the area, or is interested, my tramping route involves:
Leaving Waikanae -> Staying in Renata Hut -> Climbing up to Mt Aston and turning around, then staying in Elder Hut -> Staying in Kapakapanui Hut -> Walking back out to Waikanae



And that's all for now!

Updates will get more back to normal once I get back, and in the meantime I hope everyone has fun with this rather unconventional update!

This update has a ton of stuff in it, including some very highly requested features!
There's a lot to get through, so I'll go through them one-by-one:

[h2]Room scaling (in all directions)[/h2]

You can now extend the custom room's walls in all directions! Which is perfect if you've ever run in to a situation where you wanted to extend your layout in a direction that is blocked off by the menu corner.

Previously you could only change the width/length/height of the room, but now you can adjust these to negative values to extend the walls in the opposite direction:





[h2]Placeable custom menus [/h2]

You can also now place your own portable menus anywhere in the room!
You're no longer limited to just the single menu in the corner of the room, simply place a new pause menu wherever you like in your layout and you can use it just like the default one.





You can also place compact little time/weather menus as well:



You can also set menus as a "teleport point"
(simply use the "Q" hover option to toggle on/off)

When you press the pause button you will automatically be teleported to the closest menu which has the "teleport to" option enabled! This means you can have multiple menus around your layout that you can teleport to, instead of just the default one in the corner.



[h2]Level crossings[/h2]

Here's something people have been requesting for ages!

You can now control the trigger area for level crossings
(how close a train needs to be to enable the bells and lights)
Much like with skyboxes and switchboards, you can place down "bounds boxes" to show where you want the crossing to detect trains:



Of course you can still leave them automatic (which they are by default) but this new system means you can completely control how level crossings detect trains!



There are 3 options:
- Automatic (how crossings normally worked, using the default trigger area)
- Custom trigger (choose your own trigger area)
- Linked (copy the state of another crossing)

linked crossings will activate/deactivate at the same time as the crossing you link them to. This is perfect for when you want 2-4 crossing signals to all activate at the same time!
Simply set up one of them to detect trains, then make the other ones link back to the original.

There is also an option to "Use lights offset" which will make the flashing lights alternate to the one you are linked to.



[h2]Biome brush improvements [/h2]

The erase function on the Biome Brush is now much more useful!
Biome brushes will now delete anything that matches the items inside it (they no longer need to be placed with the same brush).
This means you can load up a map, put a tree in the brush, then easily erase the trees on the map.



The lag caused by using the brush for a long time has also been improved!
As long as you "Apply edits" often you can continue to use the brush without any extra lag.

There are also now 16 slots (instead of 8)



plus a few other smaller things:

• The "moving help box" setting has been removed and the help box hovers over the selected item by default
  
• Made changes to the wall editing UI
  
• There are now two room tool drawers, instead of just one. And it's more organized
  
• Fixed some mesh issues with the pylon props
  
• Fixed issue where the wire tool would be deleted when using the down action, instead to changing the UI selection
  
• Fixed major issue with the VR keyboard (they keyboard had been broken for ages and somehow managed to not get noticed)
  
• Fixed the transform gizmo breaking after restarting the game (visiting easter egg scenes)
  
• The help text for setting the track gradient to 0 is now more clear (you need to hold ALT and release the left mouse to set the gradient)
  
• Streamliner custom liveries now use the correct default wagon when the livery is not downloaded

And that's all!
Tons of stuff in this update, lots of useful things for map makers!

It's great to finally get these features done, i'm gradually getting through the list of everything I've been meaning to add to the game for ages.

Big things are on the way!

Here's something I've been wanting to add to the game for ages!
Rolling Line has had power poles and pylons for a while, but they were always missing the actual wires.

Well this update finally adds a "wire tool" which lets you connect wires between different points!
You can easily connect power poles and pylons (all wires at once) or freely string up wires between any two points.

You can find the new wire tool in the "Room -> tools" drawer:



You can change a few options (like wire thickness and the slack):



Plus you can change the colors of the wire by painting the tool directly:



Using the tool you can connect all the wires of a power pole/pylon in one go:



Or you can change the snapping mode from "all" to "single" which lets you connect wires to each point individually:
(Press Q and E two switch between snap points)



All of the power pole and pylon props have snap-points for wires!
Plus the two pylon props now have insulators and a few more details:



Plus the power station props have wire snap-points too!



There are also a couple of new single insulator props that you can stick on to anything:



And of course you can add these new snap points to your prop mods too!



Here's an example I've made on the Steam Workshop:

You can find the files for this example mod in the game folder too:
"Rolling Line\Modding\templates\prop mod examples"

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2451075760

In addition to the new wire tool, this update also includes a few other things:

• There is now a launch tag "-nomods" which makes the game load without any mods (which is great for testing whether mods are causing issues without needing to delete them all)
  
• The room tools drawer is cleaned up and has names for each tool
  
• Legacy liveries now show up for updating in the "mods" list instead of the "layouts" list
  
• The original NZ power pole props are now paintable (and a bit taller)
  

And that's all for this update,
It's going to be great seeing actual wires showing up in everyone's layouts, it adds so much more detail and makes pylons look so much cooler!

Enjoy!

Happy Easter!
Despite Rolling Line being out for around 3 years now, this is actually the first Easter update I've ever done for it! (Usually because April Fools is only a few days apart)

Both of my earlier games (Echo Grotto and FrontierVR) have these colorful Easter eggs in them, so it's about time they came to Rolling Line!

There's a wide range of colors and you can find them all in the new "Easter 2021" drawer:



When you crack open these Easter Eggs, you can get all sorts of special items like the classic golden & ghost trains, as well as lots of lesser-known props and even some new interesting stuff added just for these eggs.

You can crack open these eggs by simply pressing E (or right-context action in VR):



You can also throw them to crack them! They'll crack open if they hit any surface hard enough:



But that's not all!
This update also includes a ton of quality-of-life features and fixes.

Most importantly:

[h2]Transform tool edit for track[/h2]

You can now move/rotate/scale track pieces using the transform edit tool! (PC only)
This is perfect for adjusting the height of track, or getting the angle just right.



Now you'll notice that you can actually scale track too...
"Technically" you can, but I dont really officially support it, and scaled track may not behave as you would hope. It's just a fun little feature that it didn't seem necessary to disable.
So you can use it if you like... but it's not perfect.

[h2]Switchboards in QuickMods [/h2]

You can now adjust the switchboard location in quickMods!
Plus you can enable/disable the switchboard entirely.

These options are:
switchboardSpawnOffset 0.004_0_0.002
switchboardSpawnOffsetRotation 0_45_0
spawnSwitchboard false



Switchboards now automatically align better in the cab based on height (which means that taller switchboards will not be cut off by other cab controls).

[h2]Align track to zero[/h2]

You can now hold down ALT (PC only) while placing track to automatically level the gradient to zero.
This will make the next piece of track that you connect perfectly flat.



[h2]Copy-paste turntable colors and details[/h2]

The turntable options UI now has a copy-paste button. This means you can easily copy across turntable styles (colors, chosen details, etc) between different turntables.



[h2]Other features [/h2]

This update also includes:

• There is now a message blocking the "edit all" buttons. You just need to click "enable" to access them. This is because these options are not deigned for large maps, and this helps prevent people from using them without realizing this
  
• Fixed issue with the multi-paint UI disappearing when outside of the view distance
  
• Improved the popup menu location when editing label text
  
• Fixed issue where the props inside a Biome Brush inside a drawer would not delete when changing drawers
  
• Commas (as well as other blocked characters) are now automatically removed from mod.txt files, as well as when copy-pasting text into input boxes
  
• There is now an icon showing a skybox next to the advance editing options
  

And that's all!
Enjoy, and happy Easter!

Massive congratulations to everybody who took part in the Railroad History Jam!
There were tons and tons of great entries, and choosing my favorites was probably the hardest out of every jam/competition so far.
I especially love how many different and creative ways people found to showcase history, whether it was multiple uploads of your layout in different time periods, or one map with segmented dioramas of different points in history, or even historical changes built into the layout directly!

Plus it is so great to see layouts making use of so many liveries, QuickMods and even modded props!
This Jam definitely featured the most modded content of any jam so far.

There were so many great ideas, and I highly recommend going over to the Steam Workshop and having a look at some of the 300+ entries:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/754150/workshop/

It was insanely difficult to try and narrow all these entries down to my favorites.
There are heaps of maps that I wanted to mention but the list was getting far too long, so don't worry if yours isn't included!
I played every single one, and there were far too many awesome ones to list them all.

Anyway, here we go!
(in no particular order)

[h2]The Denver, Mesa & Gunnison Railroad[/h2]
By Dark Derby

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2428746193



[h2]The BC&TM Spurman Creek Branch[/h2]
By Ze Trackmeister

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2426921163



[h2]The Arcadia & Betsy River Railroad[/h2]
(Arcadia + Trestle, Copemish, Henry Crossing)
By Seraph

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2412042115
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2427043039
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2422831466
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2414673926



[h2]BKB Helmstedt[/h2]
By Dinkel Tracks

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2427804824



[h2]The Eagles Nest Tunnel[/h2]
By microcosmologist

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2425261572



[h2]Craigs Jam Railway[/h2]
By The Trainspotter from Tauranga

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2418324009



[h2]The MMC mine[/h2]
By Holden050

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2412220359



[h2]The Rocky Ditch and Harbour East Railroad [/h2]
By waldhausgarten

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2427739400
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2434166558



[h2]Red River Canyon (1950s & 1920s)[/h2]
By Shipwrecked

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2426134659
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2431124412



[h2]David Textile mill (1956 & 2011)[/h2]
By Unga bunga

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2427961750
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2427985065



[h2]The WaterFall Mountain Railroad[/h2]
By dV-cN I

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2411950541



[h2]Time Travel Railway[/h2]
By jevanhlly

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2402964536




[h2]Told you there were lots of them! [/h2]
And here's a few bonus mentions too:



[h2]Castle Rock[/h2]
By ZERO-POINT-O

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2431827738

[h2]Taumarunui on the Main Trunk Line[/h2]
By Matty_Splatty

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2427118089

[h2]Redbone Bayou [/h2]
By Rotarou

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2430145358

[h2]This is my Railroad[/h2]
By collin.morgan2005

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2417589521

[h2]GFS Dioramas[/h2]
By Supershinx

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2428041895

[h2]The SJCE Route[/h2]
By Dr. Methylcyclo

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2426210417

[h2]Seva Island[/h2]
By turnerdeedo

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2426795365

And that's all for now!
There are so, so many more great layouts, so go and have a look for yourself on the Steam Workshop.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/754150/workshop/

Congratulations to everyone who took part, and I hope you all had fun!