Last few months have been an absolute nightmare, so let me start by apologizing for the lack of updates and then rant a bit about the current changes in what is the largest update so far.
Warning: This update will definitely break old saves and deleting old save folder is strongly recommended.
FINISHING PASSENGER UPDATE
Last finishing touches on passenger update with passenger Comfort Level and multi-cargo passenger vehicles.
When I was working on the Amrtrak update I became fascinated with how US handles long-distance passenger trains and wanted to incorporate it into the gameplay somehow. It’s finally here as a passenger Comfort Level – each passenger vehicle has a certain level of comfort, which increases passenger delivery time and thus making long-distance transport more viable. With 0 comfort being default delivery time and 100 being 2x delivery time.
US passenger railcars now come in multiple options with different capacity and comfort level. Some railcars, like cafés and diners have limited capacity, but provide a comfort level bonus to the entire train.
Coach – High capacity, normal comfort level.
Sleeper – Low capacity, very high comfort level.
Cafe/Lounge – Medium capacity, moderate comfort level bonus.
Diner – No capacity, high comfort level bonus.
This allows you to combine different railcar types based on distance, with coaches and cafés for short-distance travel and sleepers + diners for long distances.
Other part of the passenger changes is passenger vehicles capable of carrying multiple cargo types. First one is split passenger/baggage cars. Second one is local passenger vehicles, like city buses or commuter railcars, with seated and standing passenger capacities. Only local passengers can be transported as standing passengers and provide no comfort.
BRIDGES AND INTERSECTIONS
Both rail and road bridges are now splines, instead of tiles. This removes a lot of the restrictions of straight tile bridges and allows you to create any custom curved bridges you desire. Bridge type selection was also changed as a separate window that appears after bridge is placed, with available types based on current bridge specifics. Pretty much the same as any other transport game.
Road system was changed to allow all kinds of intersections, not just 90° crossroads. Roads cannot overlap more than 2 road segments and cannot overlap 1x1 street tiles (because those need to create crossroads).
Although there is currently no limit to how many roads can be connected to the same point, technically there can only be 3 roads connections – left, right and center. Additional roads will simply not count as a valid connected road.
Rail placement and collision was also reworked, so junctions no longer block placement of a new track.
RAIL STATION CHANGES
Railway station layout was changed, with all station types now sharing the same size and layout, to allow for easy editing of existing railway stations. Now you can easily change size, add or remove tracks or change station type. All can be done from the station window under the Edit Layout option.
New railway station type - Loading yard was also added. This station is designed to handle various break-bulk cargo that would be handled by crane or doesn’t fit in other station types. Currently it handles metals, wood, lumber, sugar beets and scrap. It also comes with different visual options, also selectable from the layout options.
This station type is also first to test setup for visible cargo waiting in station. It is using the most basic setup I could think of, so I want to see if or how much it affects performance before it will be expanded to other stations and cargo types.
Passenger railway station visuals were also heavily redesigned.
RAILWAY PATHTRACING
Now to the most exhausting part of the update. Railway pathtracing was completely re-done from the ground up, with new pathtracing algorithm itself, new way to store and access data at runtime, better way to check valid paths, change tracks, the whole thing.
The result is immensely faster and better optimized pathtracing that works surprisingly well even on super large rail networks.
It is still work in progress and there are definitely things that can be improved. But if everything works, this system should be implemented into road pathtracing as well, which would be fantastic and it is a much needed step towards large-scale maps.
Trains simulation model was also changed slightly. For all the train nerds out there, it is now running on a needlessly accurate 1992 Davis model, with more accurate coefficients adjusted dynamically based on railcar load. The result is slightly less power usage for empty freight trains, slightly more power usage for full freight trains, and much less power usage for streamlined passenger trains.
Tldr: Freight trains should be slightly slower, passenger trains a lot faster.
FIXES AND NEW VEHICLES
- Fixed car pathtracing issue with road stops with multiple stops.
- Fixed several issues with rail signal behavior.
- Fixed few smaller issues with road placement and collisions.
And a bunch of smaller stuff I have honestly lost track of.
A bunch of new US buses were added. 1 local and 5 intercity in total.
New modern passenger trains.
- SC-44 ‚Charge‘ locomotive
- Venture passenger cars
New fictional futuristic passenger cars
- Explorer passenger cars (replacing Viewliner line)
- Solaris passenger cars (replacing Superliner line)
That is it for this update. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go scream into a pillow for a few days.
