In celebrating the 2^8 (256th) day of the year, we are releasing the next free content update for Rail Route just now! And by a big coincidence, it's also the Day of the Programmer. So, happy dispatching and celebration!
Update 8
We initially did not plan for a September update, but we changed our minds :).
Advanced sensors
And to improve the feel of a Programmer as a Dispatcher, we've included some new configuration options for the arrival and routing sensors. If you check Rail Route's suggestion site, there are some suggestions regarding sensors at the very top.
Advanced Routing Sensor
Routing sensors are used to route trains based on their destination automatically. But when your train network gets more complicated, someone would like to route trains not only by their destination but also the type (Commuters, IC, Freights, etc.) So that's basically what the new Advanced Routing Sensor is doing, and you can unlock it as a System Upgrade.
Once this upgrade is unlocked, you can override your default setting for every train type by selecting the train type from a dropdown box and changing the routing table.
The only thing which is now missing in routing sensors is ability to route a same destination to multiple connections (1-n routing). Please, tell me if you'd be interested in that functionality in the comments!
Advanced Arrival Sensor
When a train is approaching the station, an arrival sensor is at hand to automatically route it to a corresponding platform. It checks the train's desired platform and sends it there. You could also specify the default platform. But some trains don't have any platform assigned, and that's where the sensor was not enough.
With the Advanced Arrival Sensor Upgrade, you can specify which platforms are available for the trains that do not have a platform assigned and are either stopping or passing through the station. Don't forget this handles only the trains having the station in theirs timetables.
To make this "any platform" routing even more useful, you can set a train's stop to Any platform after you unlock via the Platform Adjustments Upgrade.
Stacking of sensors
Once you highly appreciated the signals in the corners in the previous Update, we decided to go more in this direction and allowed the building of both sensors on the same tile (as you can now in the autoblocks).
This also improves the sensor's cooperation. Arrival sensors have a priority and if it triggers, the routing sensor will not do anything. That means you can happily use 'Other To' on it.
Platforms limit
Maybe most of our players do not know, but there was a hard limit of 11 platforms per station within our editor. And we understand that you don't like these limits. So, feel free to build as many platforms as you want. Not more than 1 million; otherwise, the game will crash :)!
New Track Crossings
We added a bunch of new track crossing configurations. For instance, an orthogonal track crossing but many others as well. Check them out:
Construction limitations are something that recently stepped up in priority in our roadmap. We are not happy to see new players struggling with these limitations when they try to express their creative mind when building their desired track network. And we would like to target that even more in the upcoming updates.
We either include even more to current switch options so the limitations are as low as possible, or we will simply allow the construction of tracks in all directions in one tile. That would altogether remove any hassles. Don't forget that the game is a projection into a scheme; one tile is 96 meters wide. So it would not be a 9-direction switch but more of a set of switches. The train would be allowed to continue in less or equal to 45 degrees. With more connections in one place, we would employ some speed penalty for that tile. I'd like to read your opinion on this topic, so be sure to put your thoughts in the comments.
Next?
Maybe, you've read about Menu Redesign we preparing. Let me share you some progress with you!
Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy the Update and stay tuned for future announcements. We have a lot planned for the following months; we are forming a roadmap to 1.0 and it'll be awesome.
Happy Dispatching!
Angel
Full Changelog for Update 8
- NEW: Advanced routing sensor configuration
- NEW: Arrival and Routing sensor can be built at the same place
- NEW: Hot keys (CTRL + L) to switch between English and previously selected language
- NEW: Impossible build message on the platform and the sink.
- NEW: Maps can have unlimited number of platforms
- NEW: More switch variants allowed: ╳ crossing, ┼ crossing, their incomplete variants and variants with one arm bent 45 degrees left / right
- UPDATE: Added touch pen support (experimental)
- UPDATE: Changed animation when rotating signal
- UPDATE: Improved animations when building and bulldozing
- UPDATE: Localizations (de: research, tutorials, ui; en: research, tutorials, ui; es: tutorials; fr: research, tutorials, ui; hu: tutorials; ko: research, ui; no: research, ui; pl: research, tutorials, ui; cs: research, tutorials, ui; ja-JP: tutorials, ui)
- UPDATE: Removed scheduled toggle for arrival sensor and updated sensor tooltips
- UPDATE: Stacked sensor priorities - Arrival Sensor goes first and Routing Sensor acts only if Arrival Sensor did not handle the train
- PERF: Saved game loading optimization and lags removal
- PERF: Various performance optimizations for smooth running on big maps
- FIX: Arrival sensors did not queue up routes
- FIX: Basic tracks update was not unlockable if tutorial was already skipped
- FIX: Boosted contracts upgrade boosted 20x instead of 2x
- FIX: Bulldozing tunnel could freeze in animation
- FIX: Contract with minimum time between stops did not reward full amount
- FIX: Game Board was constructed in one frame, causing lag in loader
- FIX: It was not possible to reject a contract that reused the number of an rejected contract.
- FIX: Keybind name for language toggle was missing in options menu
- FIX: Learn Auto Signal task was getting stuck in some cases
- FIX: Long train did not register passing stop and trains longer then tunnel stopped halfway
- FIX: Pause menu was shown shortly when loading save
- FIX: Resetting arrival sensor settings did not show the updated settings
- FIX: Selecting different station for arrival sensor did not update its configuration
- FIX: Sensor settings did not display correctly
- FIX: Test was failing. Switch is no more in Hidden state when route is highlighted.
- FIX: Unlock popup shine animation started and ended in incorrect position
- FIX: Zoom was so close in rush hour maps on start
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