Happy December Conductors!
We have been hard at work since the successful completion of our Kickstarter in October! Our intention has always been to update Crystal Rail's free demo so you can see the fruits of our labor, and we have now released the first post-kickstarter demo update!
The highlight of this update is the long awaited Reputation Rework!
Those who have played Crystal Rail's Royale mode and Journey Story know that after you make deliveries, the profit from those deliveries is multiplied by your reputation! This means that a high reputation is essential to a successful train.
However, for many months, players on our discord have been proving that this mechanic is unbalanced. Because reputation multiplied your entire capital, it was often, if not always, advantageous to focus completely on reputation at the expense of anything else. By endgame, many players wouldn't make deliveries at all, simply relying on reputation to carry them to victory. We like the way reputation and capital interact, but we want Crystal Rail to rework a variety of playstyles, and we spent a long while considering how we could ensure there would be many rewarding and different paths to victory.
A special thanks to Youtuber SeriousTrivia, whose thoughtful playthrough of our beta earlier in the year planted the seeds of the solution we have spent many months implementing; the new Daily Capital System!
When you go into Royale or Journey mode now, you may notice a new resource during the Daytime - your Daily Income, right under your Capital.
Daily income represents all the capital you gain each day. After your last stop, THIS number is now multiplied by your reputation, NOT YOUR ENTIRE CAPITAL.
What this means is that reputation is still integral to the game; multiplying your daily gains is very powerful. However, you cannot stop making deliveries late game, as your reputation will then have nothing to multiply.
The change is subtle but the effects are profound. Reception in our playtesting has been very positive, and we look forward to your thoughts on it!
There are many other little changes in store, so please give them a look, and as always, feel free to leave your feedback in our discord!
Reputation Rework Patchnotes:
In Royale and Story-Journeys, Reputation now only multiplies your daily capital, not your entire capital
Certain Events Reworked to accommodate for new daily-capital system
Huia power is reworked; now gives flat bonuses for changing train cars instead of multiplying by consecutive turns
After your first playthrough of Royale, the starting government is now RANDOM
Rerolling the next revolution now costs 4 foresight, and the cost increases each time you reroll
Adjusted favor restoration for Consortium - now increases exponentially with base cost dependent on turn
Adjusted favor restoration for Directorate - base exchange rate now dependent on turn
Encumbrance now punishes being over the weight limit exponentially more the more weight your train has
Warrah conductor can now be recruited at Dhole Hill at night; provides 1 contraband per day and starts from Warrah's Grotto
New animations for Daytime delivery start and end
Faster Load Times/Lower RAM usage
All aboard,
The CR Team