Railroads Online News & Announcements
Dear Community,
We just released the first 2. hotfix on the beta branch for the March Update.
Please make sure to verfiy your game files after downloading the update (Go to your library in Steam, right click on Railroads Online, open Properties, go to Installed files and click on "Verify integrity of game files").
We had to adjust the braking system as a workaround for now to avoid the crashing bug when operating the brakes. Brakes will now react abruptly when set to 100%. This is a temporary workaround and will be changed again.
We were not yet able to fix all the crashing bugs, some fatal errors still might occur. For this reason we will not release this build on the Main branch yet. We keep on working on the fix but most likely we will only be able to release it with the next bigger update.
Following issues have been resolved:
- Fixed an issue with fatal errors when applying handbrakes
- Fixed an issue where clients would get kicked out of the 3rd person driving UI.
- Fixed several coupling issues
- Fixed an issue where the wiki had incorrect description for the logging flat car.
- Fixed an issue where the sander button on the driving UI did not activate the sand animation on locomotives
- Fixed an issue where locomotives had missing parts after buying them
- Fixed an issue where the class 125 had light from its fire appearing outside of the boiler
- Fixed an issue where the roundhouse doors would not automatically open when a loco was near.
- Fixed an issue where the roundhouse was not automatically refueling locomotives.
- Fixed an issue with the Tweetsie rear knuckle (duplicate)
- Fixed an issue where you could still fly after entering the driving UI
- Fixed an issue with the rotary snow plow not working for clients (flanger and buffle only work in first person for client at the moment)
Your Railroads Online Team
Dear Community,
We just released the first hotfix on the beta branch for the March Update.
Please make sure to verfiy your game files after downloading the update (Go to your library in Steam, right click on Railroads Online, open Properties, go to Installed files and click on "Verify integrity of game files").
We also had to change the handling of the switches. Now they will move by only clicking on them (left and right mouse button), not by pulling them anymore.
Following issues have been resolved:
- Fixed an issue with fatal errors for certain interactions
- Fixed and issue where the roundhouse would duplicate wood in the tenders of engines when entering
- Fixed an issue where the logging camp was not auto regenerating logs or cordwood
- Fixed an issue where industries would stop producing goods if a second output was at max. capacity.
If one output is at max. capacity and the other output is not, the industry will create items at a x1 output until at max capacity.
- Fixed an issue with soft locking inside of the buy menu
- Fixed an issue with knuckles vanishing after derailing or rotating out of the pockets
Should stay in place now when derailments occur
- Fixed an issue where the water tank car had no knuckles in automatic coupling mode.
- Fixed an issue where Oahu water tank car can not be deleted
- Fixed an issue when track laying splines would lay at micro decimals
- Fixed an issue that caused cars to recouple after being uncoupled in automatic coupling mode
- Fixed an issue where the Class47 didn’t couple to anything
- Fixed an issue where the camera in driving mode moved around when you drove into a curve
- Fixed an issue where the sandhouse didn’t refill anymore
- Fixed an issue where clients got softlocked in the buy menu and didn’t see anything
- Fixed an issue with the passenger car not being in the buy menu
Your Railroads Online Team
Hello everyone!
It’s time again to make some improvements to the game and to give you new content to play with:
The March Update is out now in the Beta Branch!
This update mainly focuses on the new D&RG Class 47, the new Driving UI, more content additions and quality of life improvements! Let’s get into the details!
A new grade of track laying with theodolites! 🔭
Are you struggling with plotting your routes from time to time? With the new theodolites, this part of the game becomes much more intuitive! Laying the perfect track can be quite challenging as we are always working with different gradients of the ground. Theodolites are a surveying tool which helps you with plotting routes by displaying the grades between one theodolite to another. Different colors indicate the height of the gradient, while you are in the construction mode. The tools start at 0% of a gradient with green and change their color to yellow and then red at a grade higher than 5%. Arrows additionally indicate the grade and direction between the theodolites. To remove them, you can always demolish the theodolites with the demolish tool!
Let’s go flying with the new Flight Option! 🥏
In order to get a better view of things, we have added a Flight Option! This feature allows you to get a more practical option to manage rerail situations and navigate yourself when working on tracks and routes! From now on, you have the ability to rerail your locos and cars from anywhere to everywhere, even on bridges! The free fly mode is activated, as soon as you activate rerailing or track laying. With the Spline Update, we plan to implement even more improvements to track laying!
Replacing the placeholder with the new Driving UI!
In order to create a better fit for the style of the game and to give you a more visually pleasing experience while driving your favorite locomotives, we are finally replacing the placeholder with a new 3rd person Driving UI! Although we see a great improvement in the visuals of this UI, there still might be some changes in future updates. Of course, your feedback also plays an important role in that!
Time to speed things up with the new D&RG Class 47!
The high speed Denver & Rio Grande Class 47 locomotive with its 4-6-0 wheel arrangement was originally built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1883 for passenger traffic on the narrow gauge. As the successor of the Class 45.5 locomotives, the Class 47s were created with larger boilers, cabs and tenders, resolving in a tractive effort of 9,628 lbs to rectify the issues of the Class 45.5 of insufficient streaming capabilities.
In subsequent developments, the Class 47 locomotives were reclassified in 1924 as T-12s, gaining additional weight and tractive effort. The last T-12s were still in use until the mid of the 20th century! The T-12 168 can still be found today in operation in Antonito , Colorado, while the T-12 169 sits on display next to the city hall of Alamosa, C olorado!
With that, we are excited to introduce the Class 47 to the game, perfect for transporting any freight quickly from one place to another! The ten-wheeler also comes with many different customizations with the ability to choose between 9 smokestack options, 8 different headlights and 4 different paint schemes!
The Pine Valley Engine House!
We are finally here to present our first four stall roundhouse: The Pine Valley Engine House! As this has been often requested, we added a roundhouse with four slots for locomotives, equipped with lights that turn on automatically at night! With each slot, there is an inspection pit, where you can take a look under your locomotive! When entering the service pit your locomotive will automatically be replenished with fuel and water. With this bigger sized roundhouse, we have also built a larger turntable to even fit our currently largest locomotive, the D&RG Class 125!
A perfect couple! 💘
Check out the new Automated Coupling feature, which makes the handling of cars and engines much easier! Cars and locos will now couple together automatically when they are being pushed together, leaving the player only needing to open and close the knuckles . This feature is optional and can be turned off in the menu for everyone who prefers manual handling!
Additionally, we have adjusted the system, so that cars and engines will now spawn closer to the player, either on empty track or on the ground. Especially on bigger maps, this adjustment makes everything a bit clearer and easier to work with!
Snow on the tracks? No problem! ❄️
Over the last few months, we have created a massive new snow plow! Originally, it was built by Cooke Locomotive Works in 1890. It is equipped with a rotating blade powered by a steam engine. Scooping snow has never been more powerful in Railroads Online than with the new RGS #2 Rotary Snow Plow! Although it’s huge in size, it is not self-propelled and requires an engine to move.
Additionally, it comes with 4 different paint schemes, 8 different headlights and 2 smokestack options to choose from for your personal customization!
One password for multiplayer!
Up until now, for one multiplayer session you needed to use 2 passwords to secure your server. A bit confusing, we know! That is why we have adjusted the system to only require one password from now on, since that is a lot easier and time saving for everyone and avoids further confusion!
Watch the DevVlog for more insights!
For even more details, historical backgrounds, explanations and further visual insights, you’re welcome to watch the DevVlog from two days ago!
Check out the complete changelog:
With this update, we are adding many different Quality of Life improvements to provide a better playing experience for all of you. Some of these changes are optional and can be changed in the gameplay menu, these options are explained below. Please note that some features are work in progress and will very likely change again in the future. Let's have a look at the changelog for this update:
New content:
- Added D&RGW class 47
- Our first 4-6-0 aka a “Ten wheeler”
- Has 9,628 lbs of tractive effort
- Has 4 paint options
Quality of Life:
- Added Knuckle coupling
- Added an option in the gameplay settings for automatic coupling
- This will add a generic knuckle to everything in the game.
- If turned off the game will default to all link and pin, there is no option to mix and match at this time, this is still a work in progress feature and may become more refined when we get closer to 1.0.
- Right now this was meant for an ease of use option for our players. More things related to knuckles will come later.
- You can push cars into each other and they will couple together automatically
- Right click to open knuckles
- Added sounds for coupling and uncoupling knuckles
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed an issue with industries/props/buildings having inaccurate angles
- Fixed an issue where track laying does not save angels and or curve radius
- Fixed an issue where gold ore from the gold mine would spawn and bounce out of cars
- Fixed an issue where water hoses did not show up at the farming chains when water cars are near the basin
- Fixed an issue when building tracks would show micro decimal changes on the UI
- Fixed an issue where players could not connect to the coal tower
- Fixed an issue where dropping coal at a coal tower would not register to fill the tower
- Fixed an issue where industries would consume inputs to create one item, this applies to everything including the wood depot
- Fixed an issue where sound of Lima whistle was too loud
- Fixed an issue at where Tutorial 1 could not be finished
- Fixed an issue where the sand wasn’t filling correctly
- Fixed an issue where you didn’t see the percentage of e.g. a brake counting up while operating it
- Fixed an issue where the class 125 whistle was too quiet
- Fixed an issue where clients could not see the rear light being lit up on the class 125
- Fixed an issue where the delete tool would not delete certain cars/tenders/locos
- Fixed an issue when having the “P” Menu open while unloading did not update in real time
- Fixed and issue where on Aurora Falls big branches did not have collisions and could not be cut down
- Fixed boiler water temperature
- Previously the water temp was limited at 100°C in the boiler, which is technically incorrect. With the update the water temperature follows the saturated steam curve when pressure builds up. The temperature values are now also shown correctly in °F
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1696810/Railroads_Online/
We hope you enjoy all the new content and adjustments of this update!
Your Railroads Online Team 💜
Hello everyone,
as already mentioned a few days ago, we had a little change of plans concerning the next update. In exchange for the Map Update, which will be postponed by a few weeks, we will release a smaller intermediate update this month:
The March Update is coming on March 25 to the Beta Branch of Railroads Online!
This update will mainly focus on a new locomotive, the new Driving UI, some useful content additions and quality of life improvements! Let’s dive into it!
A new 3rd person Driving UI!
We know, you have all been waiting for this ! We are finally replacing the placeholder with a new Driving UI to better fit the style of the game and to give a visually more pleasing experience while playing! Still, there might be some adjustments to the design in the future. We’ll see 😉
Revolutionizing track laying with Theodolites! 🔭
Laying the perfect track can be quite challenging as we are always working with different gradients of the ground. That is why we are introducing theodolites to the game! This new surveying tool will help you with plotting routes by showing the grades between one theodolite to another. Different colors will symbolize the height of the gradient, going from green for smaller gradients to red for higher gradients.
Let’s pick up the pace with the new D&RG Class 47!
With this update we are introducing the new Denver & Rio Grande Class 47 locomotive! Originally built by Baldwin Locomotive Works for passenger traffic, this high speed locomotive with a 4-6-0 wheel arrangement is perfect for transporting any freight quickly from one place to another!
How do I turn this locomotive around? 🛞
Since it has been often requested by you, we have worked on a bigger engine house that can fit four engines at ones! Check out our first four stall roundhouse, which will come together with a new turntable to even fit our currently largest locomotive, the Class 125!
Even more feature additions and improvements!
Let’s get a better view! To give you a more practical option to navigate yourself during rerailing situations or when working on tracks and routes, we will add a Flight Option for a better perspective on things!
Furthermore, for easier handling of cars and engines, an Automated Coupling feature will be added, which can also be turned off again by players, who like the manual coupling more. In addition to that, locomotives and cars will, from this update on, always be spawning close to the player, either on an empty track or on the ground, as that makes life easier on bigger maps.
There might even be more coming with this update, including content, quality of life improvements and bug fixes 💜 So, stay tuned and watch the DevVlog on March 23 to get all the info in detail!
We hope you are excited for this March Update coming next Monday!
Your Railroads Online Team🚂
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1696810/Railroads_Online/
Let us bloom!🌺
The first buds have already fought their way through the ground and start to bloom, revealing a very special gift for passionate gamers: The Steam Spring Sale is returning, alongside some fantastic deals! Reach for the colorfully fresh discounts!
Even though the Steam Spring Sale officially ends on March 21, we will extend the sale for this game until March 24, 6PM CET, as it's presented at the PAX East this year!
Save 30% on Railroads Online and discover the world of locomotives at a discounted price!🔥
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1696810/Railroads_Online/
The offers extend throughout a broad variety of games from the amazing astragon library! Check out these great discounts:
- Police Simulator - Patrol Officers - 35% off
- Howl - 34% off
- Construction Simulator - 40% off
- Bus Simulator 21 Next Stop - 43% off
- Tram Simulator Urban Transit - 25% off
- ABRISS – build to destroy - 25% off
- Firefighting Simulator – The Squad - 40%
Your Railroads Online Team 🚂
Dear Community,
We just released an update on both the main and the beta branch. It contains important fixes related to the recent release of the Winter Update.
We will continue to work on further improvements, including the "glass floor issue". Should you encounter this problem, please watch this very short video to find out how to resolve it for yourself in the meantime.
Today's update stays at 0.8.0.0.0 but will move up to version number 46883. That said, here are the patchnotes:
- Fixed an issue where invert controls didn't work anymore
- Fixed an issue where coal tower didn't accept coal anymore
- Fixed an issue where loading didn't work correctly when FPS is low
- Fixed some texture issues on the map
- Made loading of grain possible in Gregg Boxcar (accepts 4 loadings)
Your Railroads Online Team
Hello everyone,
it’s been a week now since the release of the Winter Update on the Beta Branch. In the past days our team has worked tirelessly on resolving any major issue that came up in the game! A huge thank you to everyone who reported bugs to our team and helped us to get more information about the issues! Today we have good news:
The Winter Update is now officially released on the Main Branch!
https://youtu.be/aSgW6hnkmNc
What’s changed?
Since the release of the Winter Update on the Beta Branch, we have made some changes to the game in terms of bug-resolving and quality of life improvements.
Let’s have a look at all the changes since the Beta Release, version 0.8.0.0.0, build 46783:
Bug Fixes:
- Bridges now save color types when being placed
- Fixed an issue when you buy engines
- They no longer overhang on the spawn tracks
Quality of life improvements:
- Increased the size of the delete tool
- This returns the delete tool to its former function pre 0.8.0.0.0
Still existing issues
We have worked on an issue that was causing a “Glass Floor Effect” on the maps and had to remove the graphic’s presets Low, Medium and High. This bug only effected the players on the low and medium presets. Should you experience this issue even after the update, you can follow these steps to fix it:
- Set graphics to Overall Quality “Epic” (The only preset left)
- Then select the individual settings
- You will no longer see the glass floor
Watch this short video for a visualized guide: https://youtu.be/WiyAJO2d_nE
We are also currently still working on other reported issues, especially concerning the new UI and hope we can resolve them soon!
By the way: We also updated the "Previous Build Branch" with the content from the Cattle Update plus fairly recent hotfixes. It now contains version 0.7.0.0.0.
A Little Recap
Let’s summarize all the content that has been added to the game with the Winter Update!
We have got the magical new winter map “Aurora Falls” with great snowy mountains, grassy plains, lakes and rivers, waterfalls and even polar lights, you can watch at night! This new map definitely promises great views and is even bigger than the other already existing maps in Railroads Online, so you can fit all the buildings and great builds you always wanted to create.
The Gold Industry has also been a great addition to the game with 5 new buildings, from which you can even enter 2, including our first railway station! With this new industry also comes new rolling stock for transporting the gold! The new D&RG High Side Gondola, DSP&P Mail-Baggage car #110-112, and Side Dump Ore Car go very well with the new locomotive, and all have different customizations to personalize them with.
What else?
Well, we’ve released the currently largest and most powerful locomotive of the game, the Denver & Rio Grande Class 125! Designed by Baldwin, this new engine by far surpasses all other locomotives in terms of strength with a possible tractive effort of 28,000 lbf and revolutionizes the drive on the narrow gauge with a 2-8-2 wheel arrangement, its vauclain compound cylinders and an outside framing for its drive wheels! This earlier version of the most famous narrow gauge locomotives K-27 even comes with a ton of different customizations to choose from, including 5 different paints!
Get more details on the Winter Update!
For more details on the added content, have a look at the posting from last week, when we released the update on the Beta Branch: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1696810/view/4033605438039467374
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1696810/Railroads_Online/
We hope you all enjoy the winter update! See you soon!
Your Railroads Online Team
Dear Community,
We just released the first hotfix for the winter update.
Following issues have been resolved:
- Added player collision for Class125 cylinders
- Fixed unloading bug at Railways Express Agency
- Adjusted Wiki
- Gregg Sugar Cane Flat Car can load seed pallets again
Your Railroads Online Team
Hello gold miners!
We have all waited patiently for this… It is time to grab your mining equipment, locomotives and rolling stock because we have just released the new industry chain, the new community-requested locomotive, and a few other awesome changes for you all to enjoy.
The Winter Update is now officially released on the Beta Branch! 🥳
Let’s go through the snow! ❄️
Ride your first locomotive through the snowy landscape of the new winter map, “Aurora Falls”! Discover the environment with its great white mountains and expansive grassy plains, which offer stunning views while riding your favorite locomotive. You can find lakes, rivers and waterfalls scattered across the entire map and even experience illuminating polar lights at night!
I’m here to sell some gold! 🪙
The Gold Industry consists of 5 buildings. The Gold Mine and the Dredge form the first step in the chain, providing gold ore that can be processed into refined gold at the Stamp Mill. At the Gold Smelter, the refined gold gets cast into gold ingots, which you can sell at the Railway Express Agency for some good money.
Make yourself at home!
Come in and see the beautiful interiors we have created for the Stamp Mill and for the Railway Express Agency, aka our first station ever! ✌️
How will I transport all these ingots?
New rolling stock has been added to the game, designed to meet the transportational needs of the new Gold Industry! This includes our new D&RG High Side Gondola, Side Dump Ore Car and the DSP&P Mail-Baggage car, which complement the new locomotive perfectly. Additionally, they come with different customization options, so that you can make them all your own!
How strong do you want to be? D&RG Class 125 ➔ 😎
Did someone ask for a strong locomotive? Check out the new Denver & Rio Grande Class 125, which is currently the largest and most powerful locomotive in the game! It surpasses the other engines by far in terms of tractive effort by having over 28,000 lbf, while also weighing in at more than 125,000 lbs! It was designed by Baldwin in 1903 and revolutionized narrow-gauge railroading, being an earlier version of the famous narrow-gauge locomotives K-27. It especially stands out with its vauclain compound cylinders, an outside framing for its drive wheels and a 2-8-2 wheel arrangement, which is also the first of its kind in Railroads Online!
Still not convinced?
If you’re into customization, this engine is also a very good choice. The Class 125 comes with 5 different paints, 7 different smokestacks and 10 different headlights to choose from! It is quite expensive though, so you might need to save some bucks.
Ready to step up your game with this loco?
Your quality of life is improving!
We are excited to announce some changes coming to multiplayer this patch. Our partners at BlackSheep have fixed the long running issue that is popcorning! This effect made it look like cars and engines were popping off the rails and it only got worse the larger the server was. We also did some other bugfixes, which you can find listed in the change log at the end of this posting.
To ensure that no potential major issues will occur on the Main Branch, we have decided to release the update on the Beta Branch initially, where you can try everything out and give us your feedback! Until we release the final version to the Main Branch, our team will work on resolving any significant bugs that may arise, based on your feedback.
You can support us in this time by reporting any bugs you can find! Check out our “support-center” on the Railroads Online Discord for details!
We are on the road to delivering a better experience for you as players! That's why we will push more multiplayer fixes as well as fixes for performance issues over the next several months, so stay tuned for that! We are aware also of some current desync and stuttering issues when running trains as a client and we are working on providing a fix.
The complete change log for version 0.8.0.0.0
New Content:
- Added new map Aurora Falls
- Alaska-themed map
- Partially snow covered
- Added sound reverb to map
- Sounds the best in valleys and by mountains
Quality of Life:
- Added new construction UI
- Added a Radial Menu that can be accessed with middle mouse button
- New UI is streamlined and cleaned up from the big box in the upper right corner of the screen
- Removed orange background box around the driving UI (it is still a placeholder and will be replaced with the UI Update)
- More UI changes will arrive soon
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed the popcorning effect that was happening in multiplayer
- Thanks to our partners at BlackSheep we are able to deliver very early fixes to stabilize the game. Over the next months we will slowly add in fixes and performance changes.
- Note: there is some slight desync issues going on still in multiplayer and some stuttering when running trains as clients, we are aware of this and are working hard with BlackSheep to fix the issues
A new devlog has arrived!
You want to see everything in action first and get additional details about the update? Then check out the devlog that was released just yesterday!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1696810/Railroads_Online/
Enjoy the new update! We’re so excited to read your feedback!
Your Railroads Online Team
Dear Players!
Hit the brake for a second, it’s finally time: On February 12, we will release the Winter Update on the Beta Branch of Railroads Online!
Welcome to Aurora Falls!🌌
Look forward to the beautiful new winter map “Aurora Falls”, which forms the heart of this update with its majestic snowy mountains and wide, calming grass plains. Lakes, waterfalls and rivers adorn the vast landscape, in which you might even experience magical polar lights illuminating the night sky.
Did you say Gold?✨
As you can already see in the info graphic above, the new industry in the game is all about shiny gold! Receive gold ore from either the Gold Mine or the Dredge, both of which form the first step in the industry chain. The Stamp Mill is a processing plant which produces gold dust from gold ore and gives out bags of refined gold. The final products, the gold ingots, are cast in the Gold Smelter from the refined gold and can be sold at the Railway Express Agency (yeaaah, we have a station!).
What a nice interior!
For the Railway Express Agency and the Stamp Mill we have not only built an exterior to look at, but a whole interior. These are therefore going to be another two buildings you can check out from the inside!
Let’s not forget about rolling stock!
With the Gold Industry there will also be new rolling stock coming to the game to transport the gold and assist you in all steps of the chain! These include a high-sided gondola, a side dump ore car and a baggage car, coming with different customization options (of course ;) ).
Ready for a game-changing locomotive?🚂
Presenting the new D&RG Class 125! This new engine will not only be the heaviest in the game with more than 125,000 lbs, it will also be the strongest engine, by far surpassing all other locos in terms of tractive effort with over 28,000 lbf!
Do we need to say more?
Additionally, it introduces the new-to-the-game 2-8-2 wheel arrangement and will be customizable with 10 different headlights, 7 smokestacks and 5 unique paints!
The D&RG Class 125 will certainly be the perfect engine to step up your game in terms of motive power! Are you excited yet?
Quality of life improvements
When it comes to the performance of the game, the update will come with the removal of the popcorning effect in multiplayer and some bugfixes to improve the quality of your playing experience.
From this update forward, we will release new updates on the Beta Branch initially, as we have done in the past, in order to prevent any potential major issues on the Main Branch. Until the final release on the Main Branch, our team will work on addressing and resolving any significant bugs that may arise.
We would love you supporting us on that by reporting all the bugs you can find!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1696810
Thanks a lot for your enthusiasm! See you next week!
Your Railroads Online Team
Hello everyone,
and a belated happy new year! We hope that all of you had a wonderful start to 2024 and are looking forward to everything that is ahead of us, as it currently promises to become a truly exciting year – especially for Railroads Online.
Today, we want to look at what’s next for the game, which updates you can already get very excited about, introduce changes to our update strategy, and outline a few more changes in our priorities.
Let’s dive right in!
Coming soon: The Winter Update
We took our time to establish some wonderful winter festivities for the current season – but in the end, we think it was worth the wait!
In February, we will release The Winter Update, introducing a brand-new map that is based on areas in the state of Alaska with both huge snowy mountains and calming grass plains. While the mountains will create a large and magnificent natural border, the rest of the map will feature a bunch of other unique pieces like lakes, waterfalls and rivers. As if the beauty of the snow weren’t enough already, you can also discover polar lights once the sun sets and the world pitches into darkness, creating an unprecedented backdrop for your next ride.
That’s not all, however: A new industry chain awaits you, and it’s just as shiny as this entire update! The Gold Industry Chain will require the attention of all railroaders. No need to rush things, you’ll have plenty of time to get familiar with the material! Enjoy the gold rush but be careful not to catch the gold fever.
BTW, we’re also shipping cargo in a new set of rolling stock and a brand-new locomotive with The Winter Update which can handle the snowy tracks through the mountains with ease. More details will follow very soon!
What’s next?
If you’re following our official Trello Roadmap (which you totally should!), you might have seen a few of
our upcoming updates listed already. These updates will all ship within the next few months and focus on numerous areas where we’ve received a lot of feedback, indicating the need for both general but also quality-of-life improvements. We want to take the opportunity to quickly summarize them in more detail:
- The Map Update: In very close cooperation with our co-development team at Black Sheep Studio, we will overhaul the entire way the 2D map works. It will feature an overhauled HUD, greatly improved readability and visibility, comfort tools like a zoom option, and easy-to-understand icons. In addition, there will finally be a mini map so that you won’t have to open the full map every time you just want to know where you currently are, making life as a rail worker so much easier!
- The UI Update: This update will be released alongside The Map Update as they just fit so well together. The UI artists at Black Sheep are overhauling the entire UI, from the main menu to singular buttons, creating a completely new experience. The UI will appear less technical and more stylized, therefore improving readability and visibility. We’ll share the first footage as soon as possible!
- The Spline Update: The spline system is an ongoing topic that requires additional improvements. We plan to upgrade it, making it easier to create splines and align facilities by enabling them to conveniently snap to splines and rails. Plus, we’ll make the spline system much more understandable: Their placing behavior will be simplified and explained in-game in a more coherent fashion, while also displaying easy-to-grasp error messages and feedback should something not work out. We’re also making re-railing much easier, yay!
We'll reveal even more details about each update the closer we get to them!
Multiplayer Improvements
One of the most frequently mentioned areas in need of improvement is the entire online component, and we’ve heard your feedback about that. Our team and the great people at Black Sheep have put a lot of work into improving it greatly and minimizing pain points as much as possible.
Over the course of all the next updates, starting with The Winter Update, we’ll therefore gradually introduce several multiplayer improvements. Our internal tests are very promising, indicating the elimination of issues like popcorning for example. We also want to generally reduce desync issues and minimize stuttering, but as mentioned, it’s a process that will take some time.
Even more great things are planned!
From new props and buildings, over to new quality-of-life features like an undo button and a greater experience for new players, a lot of other things are planned for this year. We also plan to introduce another new map, new rolling stock, overhauled loading screens, and much, much more. Something that will follow later this year will be the introduction of a Player Rights Management System, allowing for server hosts to have greater control about what other players can do and what they can’t.
That’s not all, however. Our team is working on so many other things in parallel which we can’t reveal quite yet (too early atm!), but the sooner we get there, the more we can finally spill.
Changes to our update release strategy
One last thing: We took your feedback to heart and have decided to change our strategy for releasing updates.
Right now, it appears to be fairly random if we put an update into the beta branch prior to its release or not. Despite extensive testing efforts prior to each and every release, releasing an update to a huge playerbase with different hardware and software environments always comes with risks. Issues could pop up which we couldn’t possibly have anticipated.
Based on all your feedback, we'll make the beta branch now the first destination for every new update. Once an update is released, it will first be available on the public beta branch – and that will start with The Winter Update in February. Once we are sure that the beta build is stable, it will be moved to the default branch.
And that's it for today! Have a good time in the valley and never stop shaping the world of Railroads Online.
Your Railroads Online Team
Celebrate the season! 🎄
Snow covers the ground, hot chocolate has been prepared and our PC shines as bright as a decorated Christmas tree: The Steam Winter Sale is returning, alongside some fantastic deals!
The Steam Winter Sale ends on the 4th of January at 7PM CET.
Save 30% on Railroads Online and enjoy building your tracks now on a discount!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1696810/Railroads_Online/
The offers extend throughout a broad variety of games from the amazing astragon library! Check out these great discounts:
- Firefighting Simulator - The Squad – 40% off
- Construction Simulator – 40% off
- Bus Simulator 21 Next Stop – 40% off
- Police Simulator: Patrol Officers - 35% off
- ABRISS - build to destroy – 25% off
- HOWL – 33% off
Check out the Winter Sale page for more details and a full overview!
Your Railroads Online Team
Dear Community,
Christmas is near but this hotfix, oh, it's already here! Check out the full patch notes below for details.
We are still working on the fix with the mouse issue. Workaround until it is fixed is to unplug other devices like driving wheel, gear shifter, controller, joystick or something similar.
Patch notes for build: 0.7.0.0.0
- Fixed an issue with the cranes not loading cars
- Fixed an issue with the skeleton flats not loading
- Adjusted the gregg cars to have larger hit boxes
- Fixed an issue where Gregg Stake Flat were not accepting raw iron
- Fixed an issue where players were not getting a payout at the refinery
- Fixed an issue with the wheat farm not using water
- Fixed an issue where Ohau Water cars would stack when ordered from the buy menu
- Fixed an issue where Montezuma was not at the correct max speeds
- Fixed an issue where the logging camp had unintentional hit boxes around the log loading side
- Fixed an issue with the coaling towers not accepting coal correctly
- Fixed an issue where you could not attach tracks to the coaling tower
- Fixed an issue where the driving UI would not shut off the sanders
- Fixed some issues with the Wiki
- Added difficulty texts
- Adjusted Montezuma top speed
- Fixed Straw cargo limits
Your Railroads Online Team
Dear Community,
we are sorry to hear that our latest update caused trouble to some of our players and made the game unplayable for them. Although we put a lot of effort into testing the update it seems that the switch to
UE 5.3 causes our game to have problems with certain hardware combinations.
We are currently working on a solution with high priority.
To give the players who are currently affected by this the chance to continue their game, we created the "previousbuild" branch, which features the last main branch build.
To switch to this branch go to your steam settings, open "Betas" and choose the "previousbuild- Railroads Online previous build branch".
Please be aware that new content is not available there.
We will keep you updated about the progress.
Thank you for your understanding.
Your Railroads Online Team
we are sorry to hear that our latest update caused trouble to some of our players and made the game unplayable for them. Although we put a lot of effort into testing the update it seems that the switch to
UE 5.3 causes our game to have problems with certain hardware combinations.
We are currently working on a solution with high priority.
To give the players who are currently affected by this the chance to continue their game, we created the "previousbuild" branch, which features the last main branch build.
To switch to this branch go to your steam settings, open "Betas" and choose the "previousbuild- Railroads Online previous build branch".
Please be aware that new content is not available there.
We will keep you updated about the progress.
Thank you for your understanding.
Your Railroads Online Team
X
Dear Community,
Farmers, grab your straw hats: It is now time to expand our wheat industry. The Cattle Update is now available!
In this update you will find some new and exciting additions to Railroads Online. We will keep this short and sweet so you can get into the patch notes. If you want to have a great overview, we recommend to check out our latest devlog where we go through all new content in much detail:
Say hello to the cattle!
A new industry is here, and it certainly adds another layer of complexity! To make sure you know how it all works, we've prepared a handy little graphic:
Other than that, we fixed a lot of bugs, introduce some new locomotives and cars, provide some cute little decoration, among much more things! Check out the full patch notes below!
One last note, I know you guys were anticipating snow on Pine Valley and parts of Lake Valley. For this year we decided to not add snow. However, you will still get some snow in a future bigger update... stay tuned for that in the coming months!
Patch notes for The Cattle Update
New Content
Added water well
This is used to transport water from the well to the wheat farm and cattle farm
Please note that the water from the water well is a new freight type
Added cattle farm
You take grain, water and straw here to produce cows
Added Meat packing plant
Bring coal and cattle here to produce meat product
Can be sold at the freight depot
Added the new industries to new lake valley maps
If playing on an already built map you will have to place the new industries.
Added Ferries and Cliff House Locomotive
2-4-2 coal burning tank engine
Built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1887
Has 4,311 Pounds of tractive effort
Top speed 30mph
Added water tank car
Built by Central Pacific Railroad in 1875
Holds 12 water from the water well
Has 9 color options
NOTE: water cars do not fill with water towers, please use the water well in order to fill the cars.
Water for tenders is a fuel type and water from a water well is a cargo type. Please use accordingly Added ventilated box car
Built by Virginia & Truckee in 1881
Holds 36 meat
Has 6 colors
Added Oahu Sugar Co Water Tank car
Built by Oahu Sugar Co in 1920
Has 7 colors
Added 2 new paints to the class 48
Added 1 new paint to the Ruby Basin
Added 1 new paint to the Cooke 2-6-0 Coal
Changed the stock car to now hold cattle
Still holds tools
Added New Props
Can be found under decorations
Look for SM_
Updated speeds
Class 70 now goes 23mph
Both Cooke 2-6-0’s go 25mph
Updated Reverser - Added Cut Off Simulation
At 100% reverser you are compromising max speed for max tractive effort
The closer to center you get with the reverser the faster you will go
However when going at max speed with the reverser towards the center you will compromise tractive effort.
In short, full reverser equals max pulling power, anything less than full reverser equals speed.
Bug Fixes
Fixed Fps loss when cutting down trees on Pine Valley
Fixed the lima and the class 48 not having cut outs for water
You can now see water level in the saddle tank and the tender
Fixed an issue where locomotives and cars would be derailed when buying them from the store
Fixed an issue where there was a text under the cooke 2-6-0 Coal
Fixed an issue where the Gregg Stake Flat no longer held raw iron
You can now haul raw iron with the stake flats
Fixed an issue with the collisions at the sawmill
Removed an unintentional wall at the oil refinery
Clients no longer see seed pallets when loading grain into box cars
Fixed an issue where some freight would bounce off of the freight depot and land back in the cars
Host draw distance setting now saves values after closing the menu
Also is now saved after closing the game
Fix volume’s resetting after exiting the game
Praise the sun, you no longer go deaf when starting the game
Fixed rocks in desert
They now have collisions, inspect your rails before operations
Quality of life improvements
Increased the player character running speed
When running with default button Shift, the character runs faster now
Crouch is now not as low as before
The new crouch lowers the character enough that it is possible to see out the front windows of the engines
Adjusted the firebox hit boxes to account for the changes to crouching
Fixed collisions with the wood trestle bridge
Added a new 3rd person driving UI - Functional placeholder
functional placeholder to settle for a good UI LAYOUT
NOT FINAL DESIGN!, the design will get an extra update
You can turn off the driving UI with the default button Y
Added DirectX11 and DirectX12 modes in the graphics settings
Swapping between the two will require a game restart
Cranes and cow ramp now load 3 freight with each loading cycle
This is applied to all industries to help speed up loading process
Added a gameplay setting for WATER and COAL consumption aka rebalance
Off, no consumption
Low, x1 usage
Medium x2 usage (best option)
Hard, x4 usage (For those who want an extreme setting)
Your Railroads Online Team
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1696810/Railroads_Online/
Dear Community,
Farmers, grab your straw hats: It is now time to expand our wheat industry. The Cattle Update is now available!
In this update you will find some new and exciting additions to Railroads Online. We will keep this short and sweet so you can get into the patch notes. If you want to have a great overview, we recommend to check out our latest devlog where we go through all new content in much detail:
Say hello to the cattle!
A new industry is here, and it certainly adds another layer of complexity! To make sure you know how it all works, we've prepared a handy little graphic:
Other than that, we fixed a lot of bugs, introduce some new locomotives and cars, provide some cute little decoration, among much more things! Check out the full patch notes below!
One last note, I know you guys were anticipating snow on Pine Valley and parts of Lake Valley. For this year we decided to not add snow. However, you will still get some snow in a future bigger update... stay tuned for that in the coming months!
Patch notes for The Cattle Update
New Content
- Upgraded the game to now run on Unreal Engine 5.3
- With the addition of 5.3, the variable brake bug has now been resolved.
- Brakes now work as intended from 0%-100%
Bug Fixes
- Fixed brake bug
- Fixed some translation issues
- Let us know if these issues are resolved as we do not speak every language
- Post on steam or discord with any issues
Quality of life improvements
- Tender water level is now shown when looking at the lid of tenders and saddle tanks.
- Wiki displays everything properly in imperial units (unit option setting planned)
- Reduced the player character size
- The smaller player character size allows for the character to not clip through the cabs of the engines
Your Railroads Online Team
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1696810/Railroads_Online/
Dear Community,
we love to see this game come together, especially with the support of your enthusiastic feedback! As we want to provide you with more content now and in the future, we are very happy to announce that new stuff is coming to this game very soon:
The new update will officially be released on December 11th, 2023!
Mysterious industry business
Considering the development of the game you might already be able to assume what will be launching next week. To provide you with an additional hint, we have included some mysterious screenshots.
Any ideas yet? We are eagerly anticipating reading your wild guesses, because for now this is as far as we will go to maintain the excitement leading up to the release! 😈
Oh, and there might just be a new locomotive coming with a wheel-arrangement that hasn’t been in the game yet… 🙈
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1696810/Railroads_Online/
So, with that said, stay tuned for the release on December 11th! We hope you’re thrilled!
Your Railroads Online Team
It's raining leafs, it's raining discounts!🍂
As the leafs are changing colours and start to fall, the annual Steam Autumn Sale is returning, carrying some great offers exclusively for you!
The Steam Autumn Sale ends on the 28th of November at 7PM CET.
Save 30% on Railroads Online and enjoy building your tracks now on a discount!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1696810/Railroads_Online/
The offers extend throughout a broad variety of games from the amazing astragon library! Check out these great discounts:
- Firefighting Simulator - The Squad – 40% off
- Construction Simulator – 35% off
- Bus Simulator 21 Next Stop – 40% off
- ABRISS - build to destroy – 25% off
- Police Simulator: Patrol Officers - 35% off
Check out the Autumn Sale page for more details and a full overview!
Have fun with the sale✨,
Your Railroads Online Team
Dear Community,
We just released another smaller update for the latest hotfix - version number stays the same once again but two additional major issues have been resolved:
- Players that had cut respawned trees (in Pine Valley only) after the update on November 13 got the trees back after hotfix on November 16 and were not able to cut them anymore. They can be cut again, sorry for the double work.
- Fixed weather always set back to Blizzard when entering a save game
Your Railroads Online Team
Dear Community,
We just released an additional smaller update for yesterday's hotfix - version number stays the same, but a very annoying bug has been fixed:
- Tree synchronization for client and host now works as intended
Your Railroads Online Team
Dear Community,
Just in time for our Free Weekend, here's a hotfix that resolves some of the most annoying issues. Another updates are in the works so please keep the reports coming!
Patch notes for build: 0.6.0.0.3
- Fixed an issue causing coachesto disappear (coaches bought before November 13 are back again, if you did not save your game between 13. and 16. november. If you bought coaches between 13. november and this hotfix or if you saved the game in this period, the coaches are gone)
- Trees are back on Pine Valley, they should be removed again for hosts (clients still see them, next fix is in work)
- Fixed some issues with blurry graphics
- Fixed loading lumber to Gregg Sugar cane stake flat is twisted (across instead of lengthwise)
- Fixed Groundwork Ballast I with no rail have sharp ends
- Fixed an invisible wall at coalmine back
- Fixe Freight Depot and Logging Camp cause collision
- Fixed that both Clients and Hosts lose money and game XP when using the respawn button
- Fixed clients opening the buy menu causing the game to crash
- Fixed that Lake Valley world border has shrunken down
- Fixed cactus shiny texture at sunset/sunrise
- Fixed stock car name and numbers not showing correctly
- Fixed some marker lights and head lamps have had their led’s installed back on them
We hope you have a wonderful weekend ahead of you. Happy Railroading! 🚂
Your Railroads Online Team