Rolling Line News

It's time for a map competition, a new locomotive, and even a collaboration with another game! (Trans-Siberian Railway Simulator)

Trans-Siberian Railway Simulator is just about to be released, and the developers reached out to me to see if we could make a Steam bundle with both games, and you can find that bundle here:
(The bundle will become available once the game officially launches)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/998400/TransSiberian_Railway_Simulator/

But why stop there! I've always wanted to add some Eastern-European content to the game, so I'm taking this opportunity to run a map making competition themed around it.

This update also adds an incredible community-made mod (the VL80 locomotive) make by Akandr:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2253493285

The mod has been expanded to have all the features of official trains, like headlights, rust & snow effects, cab controls, collision, etc.





You can find these new trains in the "Trains -> Eastern Europe" drawer:



[h2]About the competition[/h2]

Just like with previous comps & jams in Rolling Line, this is a chance for you to make a map (or mods) with a theme and then share them on the Steam workshop!

The theme here is Eastern Europe, but this is very broad. It encompasses the whole style & feel of this part of the world and isn't specifically limited to just a few countries.
In fact you can even make fictional locations and fantasy railway lines if you want!

To submit a map/mod to the competition, simply upload it to the Steam workshop and tick this option when uploading in-game:



For this competition there will be 3 different winners, each of which will get a free game key for Trans-Siberian Railway Simulator!

The categories for each winner are:

[h2]Best overall map[/h2]
Pretty simple! This goes to the best overall map, which includes creativity, detail, design, etc.

[h2]Best fictional railway/location[/h2]
This category is especially for a fictional design, whether you want to create your own fantasy railway line or just make a map set somewhere that doesn't exist in the real world.

[h2]Best use of miniature scale mode[/h2]
This is for a map that makes use of the miniature scale player physics, like being able to walk around in detailed streets & buildings, or exploring a world designed to be viewed on-foot in miniature scale.


But of course you can make any kind of map you like! These categories are not limiting factors.
As usual, i'll also be posting a ton of shout-outs to my favourite entries at the end of the event! (not just the winning ones).

This competition will run for 3 weeks, finishing on June 25th.

If you want to view the entires so far for the competition, you can view the "Eastern Euro Comp" tag on the Steam workshop:



If you're looking for more Eastern-European style content, there are even some more mods on the Steam workshop!
For example:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2260197258
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3242070671
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2253489688
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3030915840
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2187560781

[h2]Other additions in this update[/h2]
This update also includes:

• Some new cliff face and rock props in the terrain drawers
  
• Fixed the 1.0 classic version of the game (it had a bug related to SteamVR that was affecting some people). For those unaware, you can play a day-one release version of the game (just for nostalgia’s sake) by switching to the "Rolling Line 1x" beta-branch.
  

[h2]Progress on the Sierra Logging map[/h2]
There hasn't been an update for a while since I've been putting all my time towards the upcoming Sierra Logging map which I've teased at a few times in previous updates.
I'll be making a full announcement of this map in the future, but in the meantime, here's some more preview screenshots of progress!

Continuing on from the "lumber mill props" added last update, this next update adds some more props and features themed around a western town! This includes new buildings, props, and a new wooden tunnel style.

As you might have seen mentioned previously, all these updates are working towards a big map set in the Sierra mountains and the California logging industry in the early 1940s. This map is going to be Rolling Line's first ever expansion (almost 6 years after the games release). More details will be coming in the future about this expansion, but for now here's some new props added to the game while i've been in the process of making the town of Tuolumne, California!

[h2]Old western buildings [/h2]

Firstly, a modular hotel building:



A set of classic street-side shops:



And a church:



Also a bunch of props, including shop-front signs, wood planks, hitching posts, etc:



[h2]New wooden tunnel style[/h2]

This tunnel can be added from the popup track-style menu, or using the new painters in the "track tools" drawer. You can make a single-track tunnel or a double-track tunnel (by adding walls to each side on the two lanes of track). There are also snappable tunnel portals for single and double track tunnels:



[h2]More mill props[/h2]

A few new props added to the "buildings -> mill" drawer, these include a new modular water tower as well as a wooden "sand chute" building:



Other minor fixes/features also include:

• Added snapping to all double-track tunnel portals
  
• Added placement ghost arrow to all tunnel portals
  
• Improved collision on several wooden debris pile props
  
• Moved several props around to clean up drawers, there is no longer the bizarre "props -> warf" drawer, these props have been moved to "vehicles -> boats" and "buildings -> Western"
  
• Added a couple of new church window props
  

[h2]Sierra logging layout preview! [/h2]

While this is still massively work-in progress, here are a few sneak previews of parts of the map that I have been working on! There will be much more info released about this map in the future.

This update adds a ton of lumber mill themed props, like new modular buildings, moving log chain, smoke stacks, log piles, and more!

You can find all of these new props in the "buildings -> Mill (1 & 2)" drawers:



[h2]Log chain[/h2]

One of the new moving parts of a lumber mill, the log chain! This is used to pull logs from the log pond into the inside of the mill. There are a few different sizes and style variants.



[h2]Green chain[/h2]

The other new moving part for a lumber mill is the green chain, this is a conveyor which takes the freshly cut planks out of the mill so they can be sorted into sizes.



[h2]Log piles[/h2]

Lots of new log props! Including individual logs and big log stacks:



Also various drying stacks of planks:



[h2]Smoke stacks[/h2]

A new set of modular smoke stack props, as well as some roof details:



[h2]Sawdust burner[/h2]



[h2]Reeds[/h2]



[h2]Modular rail sheds/mill buildings[/h2]

The largest part of this update is a set of new modular buildings! These can be used for rail sheds (witch openable doors) or any building made with planks:



[h2]Flat tables (water)[/h2]

A very simple feature that's incredibly useful, there is now a full set of tables that have no sides, so they are just a flat surface. These are excellent for making water effects:



[h2]Other features[/h2]

Some props (like the log chain and openable doors) now have an arrow visible when placing them on the ground, to help make it clear which way they are facing:



There are also a few bug fixes:

• level crossings no longer trigger from cars when they are set to "automatic" mode
  
• the "packaged mods" and "packaged assets" options are now visible when uploading a main menu map scene to the Steam Workshop (these were missing before)
  
• Fixed bugs with turntables being included in grouped track. A turntable can no longer be the first item in a group (it can still be included in a group, it just cant be the first piece of track selected)
  

You're probably wondering why the sudden lumber mill theme?
That's because it's part of the next major map release I'm working on, the "Sierra Logging" expansion!
This map is set in California during the historic logging boom in the Sierra mountains. Specifically the towns of Tuolumne, Jamestown, and the West Side Lumber Company!
There will be lots more info released about this map in the future, but it will involve a ton of new props being added into the game (just like these ones).
I'll be releasing props like these in updates as they are made, instead of waiting till the whole map is finished, since this will be a big project.

These props especially were all made to re-create the Tuolumne mill:

One of the main icons of railways: roundhouses!
Despite turntables being added to the game already, they have always been missing a proper system for creating roundhouse buildings. You can always make them with props, but this is a tedious and difficult process, so this update finally adds a solution!

You can now dynamically add roundhouse buildings to turntables, and their shape and size will automatically be scaled to fit the shape of the turntable. You can customize the style of the roundhouse (like door types, roof types, colors, size, etc) and even add multiple different types of roundhouse buildings to a single turntable.

[h2]Adding a roundhouse to a turntable[/h2]

When pointing at a turntable, use the right-hand popup option to open the menu for editing the turntable options. From here you can access a new menu for editing roundhouses:



You will then see an empty list. You can add multiple different roundhouse buildings to this list, which is useful for when you need more than one size/color of building attached to a single turntable. Click "add new" to create a new roundhouse building.



Editing a roundhouse building will give you a bunch of options, like the style, shape, colors, etc:



The start/end index options are used to control how many exits of the turntable are covered by the roundhouse building. For example, in this screenshot the roundhouse runs from exit 8 to 14:



You can also customize things like the height/length of the roundhouse building, and change the "offset" (the distance which the building is placed in relation to the edge of the turntable):





There are lots of different model styles for the doors, walls and roof (and of course the doors can all be opened!)



There is also now a new drawer (track -> roundhouses) which contains some example turntables with roundhouses already attached.



This update also includes a couple of other small things:

• Fixed a bug relating to the collision on turntables not behaving correctly when some track styles were used.
  
• Added a setting to enable/disable the "train rotation smoothing" effect. This effect makes your view smoothed when driving a train around corners. This setting is in the "pause menu -> gameplay" menu.
  

Now that the holiday season is done, I'm finally fully back to work on Rolling Line!
To kick things off for the year, here is a simple update that i've been wanting to add to the game for a while: the ability to set your own main menus in-game and share them on the Steam Workshop.

You can select as many different menu scenes as you want, and essentially make a shuffle list of different menus for the game to use each time it loads. These menus are literally just normal save files, which means they can contain everything from moving trains to mods and even custom audio!

By default, the game now also has a ton of built-in menus using the official maps already in the game (and even a few bonus ones).

[h2]Choosing menus[/h2]

You can select which main menu scenes to use in the "Pause menu -> gameplay -> main menu options -> select menus" menu.
This list will include all default built-in menus, any menus you've downloaded off the Steam Workshop, and any menus that you have made yourself.



[h2]Making your own custom menus[/h2]

A "main menu scene" is treated just like any other mod (like a train or prop), so you can create your own ones in the Modding Manager from the pause menu:



Set the category to "Main menu scenes", and then click "add new":



From here, you can choose the location where the player spawns and even set the size of the player, so you can make the player larger than they are usually in miniature mode.



When you click "set spawn point" you can walk around the map and see a preview of what the main menu will look like. Simply click the mouse to set the spawn point:



There is also an option to automatically delete all props beyond a chosen distance. This is useful for if you want to make a menu scene using a large map, but dont want to have to load the entire map each time.



[h2]Sharing on the Steam Workshop[/h2]

You can also upload your custom menu scenes to the workshop!
In the modding manager, simply click on your menu scene and choose "upload" from the popup list:



You can then find other people's main menu scene uploads in the "main menu scene" tag category on the Steam Workshop:



[h2]Other menu features[/h2]

This update also adds the option to change how the game loads on start-up. You can find this setting in the "Pause menu -> gameplay -> main menu options" menu:



When the game starts, you can either load the main menu, automatically resume your last save file, or even load an empty new game map.

[h2]Other fixes[/h2]

Along with the menu features, this update also includes a few fixes:

• Fixed the snow mesh for the Challenger so that it matches the model properly
  
• Fixed bug where loading a save file would sometimes include a fog effect on the loading screen
  
• Blocked the ability to quickSave and quickLoad on the main menu
  
• Fixed a broken mesh for one of the roof prop pieces
  

This update is just a quick one to kick things off for the year, but now that I'm fully back to work, the much more serious updates can continue.
I've got tons of big plans for this year, so keep an eye out!

In the meantime, I hope you all have fun with these custom menus!