Hi everyone,
I hope the end of the week is treating you well. I can't believe the week is almost over already!
Let's dive into this latest demo build update...confirm version 20260624B from the main menu...
Implemented a damper control for the firebox! The damper controls the amount of airflow through the firebox and allows you to 'tune' your fire burn rate and fire temperatures. Once your fire is up to temperature (e.g. 500 degrees or more), you can turn down the damper and immediately reduce coal consumption, and begin to stabilize your fire temperatures, so your fire temps will no longer max out at 800 degrees the entire time, and burn-up all your coal so fast.
The best thing about this, is that you can really dial-in your damper and get the engine running at a steady rate, whilst using significantly less coal! And if you ever need to stop the engine and don't want to burn-up so much coal, just reduce the damper and save coal.
If you turn the damper all the way down to minimum (hold 'Q' key), fire temps will actually start to decrease too, so you can get the fire temps to where you want them to be (lower fire temps will generate less boiler pressure).
For those of you whom are not comfortable using the damper, if you leave it pointing straight upwards (12 o'clock position), the fire box will behave just like before - but I encourage you to experiment with this new control! You should find you'll be burning through less coal (and thus having to order less coal as well!).
Note: when starting a fire from cold, it's best to crank the damper open all the way to get the fire temperatures rising the fastest, but you can start reducing the damper level as the fire gets hotter.
As always, I will continue testing and make any balance changes as needed to coal pricing, etc.
That's all for this one. Thanks again for all your support. I appreciate it very much. Please continue to post demo feedback in this thread as you see fit.
Thanks!