Dear Community,

it's finally here: Welcome to The Coal & Power Update, now available for download!

We are moving ahead at full steam (ha!), introducing brand-new mechanics, new locomotives, new facility buildings, new freight cars... plus bug fixes and improvements.




As mentioned previously, we are introducing a bunch of brand-new locomotives which are fully powered by coal. Note: Existing engines will continue to be powered by the mighty magic of wood.

During our brainstorming sessions, we came up with a lot of engines that could make their way into the game. Of course, your feedback played a valuable part in that process, ultimately leading to the selection of fan favorites.

With The Coal & Power Update, the following locomotives will join Railroads Online:

• Cooke 2-6-0
  
• ET&WNC 280
  
• Mason Bogie Tenmile
  
• Ruby Basin 2-8-0T

They will not come alone, however: New freight cars are also making their way into the game. Say hello to the Dump car, the Stock car, the Skeleton car, and the Coffin tank car!




The new locomotives – we just want to repeat ourselves here – will all be powered by coal... hence leading to the name of this update. Must be a total surprise, right? Right? Right...? Right.

We explained the new mechanics with the last blogpost but here's a reminder how things work: We're adding a new facility building, the coaling tower, that is essential for the workflow. As is the case with other facility buildings, you can place the coaling towers wherever they suit your needs.

What does a coaling tower need? You won't believe it: Coal! The coaling towers are empty once you place them, meaning that you have to create a supply line from the coal mines to the coaling towers to fill them up by using the coal hoppers. Use the attached chute to put some fresh coal into the tender of your engines and shovel them right into the firebox!

If you are burning through too much firewood, good news: Using coal is much more efficient.


That's not all, though: You'll receive a new engine shed. The Kanaskat water tower. The 1870s water tower. AND EVEN A NEW 3-WAY STUB SWITCH! Put your hands up in the air to celebrate 🙌




To hype up the new update, we will put Railroads Online on sale from March 10 to March 23.

From March 10 to 16, so a few days before the actual Spring Sale starts, you can save 20% when purchasing the game – and there has never been a better time to do so. With the start of the Steam Spring Sale which runs until March 23, the discount will be reduced to 10%. The early bird catches the worm!

And here are the final patch notes:

New Content

• Added new fuel type and firing mechanic coal
  
• Added new facility building: Coaling tower
  
• Added new facility building: Engine shed
  
• Added new facility building: Kanaskat water tower
  
• Added new facility building: 1870s water tower
  
• Added new switch: 3-way stub switch
  
• Added new locomotive: Cooke 2-6-0
  
• Added new locomotive: ET&WNC 280
  
• Added new locomotive: Mason Bogie Tenmile
  
• Added new locomotive: Ruby Basin 2-8-0T
  
• Added new freight car: Coffin tank car
  
• Added new freight car: Stock car
  
• Added new freight car: Dump car
  
• Added new freight car: Skeleton log car

Gameplay

• Fixed collisions for sand house
  
• Fixed collisions for firewood depot
  
• Fixed collisions for freight depot
  
• Fixed collisions for coal mine building
  
• Fixed a but that caused the crane to restart after being deactivated
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the box car to not be auto-loaded with tool boxes at the iron works when placed on a rail without groundwork
  
• Updated radius accuracy for spline curves in circle-mode (Special thanks to FakeNeo)
  
• Updated morse code
  
• Fixed incorrectly loaded link meshes

Locomotives

• Fixed incorrect Eureka whistle animation
  
• Fixed incorrect Eureka regulator outline
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the Eureka open cab windows to flicker at certain angles
  
• Fixed locomotive doors hanging in the air
  
• Fixed couplers of shay locomotive
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the Tank car brake wheel texture to be scrambled when changing the paint style
  
• Fixed a bug that caused long strings of characters to exceed the shape of the locomotive
  
• Fixed a bug where the Mosca drawbar won't decouple from glenbrook tender
  
• Fixed a bug where the Class 70 wood load mesh overhangs tender
  
• Fixed a bug where the Class 70 tender marker light doesn't connect with tank body
  
• Fixed a bug where the Class 70 headlight shelf & bracket are oversmoothed
  
• Fixed the Class 70 tender tank lid
  
• Fixed a bug where caboose and waycar did not carry any firewood
  
• Fixed a bug where trucks would twitch during travel
  
• Fixed a bug causing the cylinder drain lever to not play animation on client

UI

• Updated Railroads Online logo in the menu (it's the new one, yay!)
  
• New backgrounds for main menu
  
• Fixed a bug where the mouse cursor disappears from the construction menu after ingame main menu is opened and closed
  
• Fixed a bug where the languages portuguese and simplified chinese can not be assigned
  
• Fixed a bug where the rolling stock is not deselected after rerail menu is closed via opening the construction menu
  
• Fixed the tutorial description of buttons
  
• Fixed a bug where the tender configuration will not refresh when changing to a different locomotive in the buy menu
  
• Fixed rerail UI overlapping with interaction UI
  
• Fixed lack of tooltips to train controls
  
• Fixed a bug where the map is overlapping with locomotive buy menu
  
• Fixed a bug where the Montezuma is listed as tier 2
  
• Fixed incorrect client rotation in purchase menu

Graphics

• Updated season to spring
  
• Fixed flickering water fall water mesh
  
• Fixed a bug where the vehicles can be entered from any distance in 3rd person view

Crashes

• Fixed a crash to desktop after changing texture settings

Your Railroads Online Team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1696810/Railroads_Online/

Enter into the Endless Possibility!
Hello, Admirals.

To celebrate the official global launch of Uncharted Waters Origin, we have prepared a time-limited Hot Time event!
Log in to the game at specific times during the event period to receive Hot Time rewards through your in-game mailbox.

We hope you can enjoy even more fantastic voyages with the special rewards that are available with this Hot Time event.

Please see below for more details.


1. Event Period

1st Period: Mar. 11 (Sat) – Mar. 12 (Sun) (UTC+9)
2nd Period: Mar. 17 (Fri) – Mar. 19 (Sun) (UTC+9)
3rd Period: Mar. 24 (Fri) – Mar. 26 (Sun) (UTC+9)

2. Move to Events
EN : https://uwo.floor.line.games/us/bbsCmn/detail/1678441838737017334
JP : https://uwo.floor.line.games/jp/bbsCmn/detail/1678441753028004264
TW : https://uwo.floor.line.games/tw/bbsCmn/detail/1678441890569009858

※ To Note

: You must be logged into the game during the times outlined above to receive the reward mail.
: Please note that you cannot receive rewards from expired mail.
: Sent reward mail will be deleted within 24 hours, so please make sure you collect your rewards before then.

We hope you enjoy abundant adventures with these special thank you gifts!
Thank you.

Greetings, Super Soldiers!

It’s already the middle of March :)
We think Super Soldiers are curious about the progress of the [March Developer's Note],
so we are sharing the progress of the update!

We would like to share with you the crafting system and other additional things that you are curious about.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Crafting System
- We are working on it for an update in the 3rd week of March.
Please understand that we can not apply it quickly due to balance issues.

2. Season Ranking initialization
- As you know, Season Ranking will be initialized along with the Crafting system update.
Play Super People2 with a new system and new ranking!

3. Battle Pass
- Battle Pass Season 1 has ended.
The next season of Battle Pass will be more improved than the previous one.
It takes some time to prepare, however, it will come back with more satisfying and improved rewards.
(We will inform you of the detailed schedule after March.)

4. Balance
- We will continuously adjust the balance of class and weapon.
We are also checking Super Soldiers' opinions and feedback.
We are trying to find the best way for your great playing experience,
so please give us a lot of your opinions and feedback.
(For the details, please check our update note.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For your information, the schedule of the update can be adjusted depending on the stability.
If there are any changes, We will let you know as soon as possible.

We will try to meet your expectations!

Thank you.

Hi everyone!
It’s here! A chance to complete your collection of powerful, meaningful stories has just arrived. Thanks to an outstanding bundle you can now buy all the titles from 11 bit studios and save 90% on their price. The bundle is available now until March 23, so make sure you don’t miss the opportunity!

Check out the Grand Collection here:
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/31059/

While the bundle is available, we’ve planned a number of surprises for you. We’re starting off with Frostpunk Free Weekend lasting until March 13! If you have some friends who should definitely give this game a try, make sure to let them know:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/323190

Additionally, on our social media channels we’ll be running giveaways with awesome prizes!
Check out the full calendar:




Make sure to follow us to participate!
🐦Twitter
💬Discord
📸Instagram
📺YouTube
📘Facebook

Take care,
11 bit studios

Our goal with Conqueror's Blade is to create a world in which you can fulfil your dreams of conquering lands and achieving victory in battle. To this end, we've created vast areas, walls that zigzag the land, and battles where thousands of soldiers charge, clash, fire arrows, and let loose with artillery fire.
Huge maps, plentiful characters, items, and special effects require an astonishing amount of calculation in the game’s backend. Over the three years since we launched, we've continued to implement new content, units, and bigger maps, as well as a series of graphical improvements. All of these put a strain on both software and hardware alike.

The interfaces for Units, Heroes, and maps are all connected to highly complex systems. All of this working at once during the heat of battle puts a heavy strain on the CPU. To improve FPS, we've done plenty of work to enable as many algorithms as possible to process in parallel and get as much as possible out of multi-core CPUs. This combined has led to the game utilising much of the CPU and straining the GPU's rendering capabilities. Add to that the sheer amount of high-quality textures that need to be processed, meaning that most players have little GPU memory to spare. On the other hand, as the game interface, combat, and scene effects are improved, GPUs face higher demands during rendering. Games that use a large number of high-resolution textures also increase the demand for video memory. These factors lead to games requiring more GPU computing resources and video memory during operation. Therefore, in future game development, we will pay more attention to optimising the GPU to ensure smooth gameplay experiences.

Furthermore, huge scenes and massive numbers of characters add significant pressure on memory usage. Often times we have to increase our memory consumption in favour of processing performance. However, we admit there are shortcomings in our current management strategy for algorithm optimisation with this being one of our key targets.

As we continue to create and add new content, we also receive more feedback regarding frame drops, lag, and performance issues. We know full well how important performance is. Even so, in the end, we must try to find the sweet spot where performance and graphics meet.

Let’s go into more detail on what we've done to improve performance and share our plans for the future.
Every action of every Unit, be that moving, attacking or using skills, occupy system resources based on the quality of its special effects. When special effects are displayed, how much it strains the systems depends on how many particles it includes. Therefore, the number of particles is the most intuitive way to measure the performance impact of special effects. We will reduce the original overly high number of special effect particles to a reasonable range without compromising the overall game experience, thereby improving game performance.
Many players are experiencing frame drops when the Zykalian Militia throw their explosive canisters which is a result of their skill's special effect using too many particles.

To improve performance across the board while still ensuring good visual effects, we have with the Eternal Season reduced the number of particles of many skills' effects, including explosions. This has directly improved performance. The following are before and after particle counts for some skills.

• Silahdars' Decapitate - now 410 particles (was 1,200)
• Silahdars' Deathstrike - now 890 particles (was 1,120)
• Grayhair Garrison's Last Stand - now 420 particles (was 1,120)
• Shenji Grenadiers' Throw Grenades - now 210 particles (was 580)
• Zykalian Militia - now 118 particles (was 310)
• Grapeshot Cannon (Rare) - now 2,700 particles (was 6,400)
• Berserkers' Frenzy state - now 370 particles (was 1,050)
• Special effect of units affected by the Glaive's God of Battles - now 240 (was 410)

The vast number of objects on each map adds to the immersion and affects strategic choices too. Every wall, obstacle, and piece of vegetation breathes life into the map. Naturally, plentiful objects and large concentrations of Units are demanding, which has resulted in low frame rates during many battles.

To remedy this, we've made improvements to the management of dynamic object performance for areas that are often home to large battles, greatly reducing rendering delay. This will lead to a much more stable FPS in these circumstances.
We've already made performance improvements to many areas of the game which has led to a slight overall increase in FPS. Naturally, certain problematic areas still exist and many of these exist at key points, something that affects the gameplay experience adversely.

We are currently performing large tests in an effort to do more targeted optimisations, and we're planning on doing the following:

• Optimise the underlying interface algorithms to avoid complex ones reducing performance and worsening memory usage. Some of these include the mini-map, skill bars, and Unit info.
• Rendering fidelity affects how things appear in-game, and in most cases, the rendering of different layers does not have to be on the same fidelity level. For example, while battling on the walls of A at Wall Fort, you don't need to have the perfect view of the base flag as that would lower performance. The current rendering fidelity does not cover all situations, however, so we will be adding more rendering layers based on the distance to objects on the map. For example, we can give objects 100m away a rendering fidelity of 1, objects 50m away a fidelity of 2, objects 10m away a fidelity of 3, and objects 5m away a fidelity of 4. This will reduce rendering calculations and therefore GPU usage.
• Re-create the code of cloth and physics simulations to optimise the performance of many smaller modules such as hair, spear tassels, robe hems, capes, etc.
• Continue to reduce the number of special effect particles to better balance graphics and performance.
• Create a better distribution of texture quality to find a balance between that and performance to further reduce memory usage.
• Improve graphics settings by adding more options and configurations, while also better recognising hardware to improve the default settings.

Each one of the aforementioned improvements is complex and will take a long time to complete. As we continue to add more content, we also add more unknown variables to the equation. Even so, we're happy to share and discuss these issues with you all. We've been battling these issues and receiving these questions for a long time and we want to show our answer with actions and concrete results. We know that battling performance issues will take time, but even so, we will continue to improve one issue at a time. We're in this for the long haul!

We also want to invite you all to work on this with us. We're thinking of testing the results of our optimisations via open, alpha, and beta tests. We'll reveal more about how these will work soon! We’ll also be adding info on how things are going with our performance optimisations in future Development Blogs, too.

We are pleased to announce that we have just published "Chronicles of Forgotten Tears"!

Dive into this fantasy world populated by humans, elves, dwarves, orcs and many other magical creatures, where wizards from their towers plot to overthrow kingdoms and arch-clerics march to flush out evil in every corner of the lands of Vaegoth.

Stay tuned for more news by following our Steam page.

Hi everyone!
It’s here! A chance to complete your collection of powerful, meaningful stories has just arrived. Thanks to an outstanding bundle you can now buy all the titles from 11 bit studios and save 90% on their price. The bundle is available now until March 23, so make sure you don’t miss the opportunity!

Check out the Grand Collection here:
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/31059/

While the bundle is available, we’ve planned a number of surprises for you. We’re starting off with Frostpunk Free Weekend lasting until March 13! If you have some friends who should definitely give this game a try, make sure to let them know:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/323190

Additionally, on our social media channels we’ll be running giveaways with awesome prizes!
Check out the full calendar:




Make sure to follow us to participate!
🐦Twitter
💬Discord
📸Instagram
📺YouTube
📘Facebook

Take care,
11 bit studios

■ Game
Added 2 new friendly games
New Event Game: 2 Special Armor Attacks

■ Tank
Reduces tank's base HP by 10
- Bakon(600->590), Keras(600->590), IceStorm(690->680)
Muki Weapon Renewal

■ Map
Added 4 maps for friendly matches

■ Shop
1 Card Pack of new Avatars
2 New Green Jewels: Green DS

■ UI
New Title System: Customizing Tank Spawn Effects (Next Update)
Satellite-related icons in the weapon selector

■ Fixed some bugs

Hi everyone!
It’s here! A chance to complete your collection of powerful, meaningful stories has just arrived. Thanks to an outstanding bundle you can now buy all the titles from 11 bit studios and save 90% on their price. The bundle is available now until March 23, so make sure you don’t miss the opportunity!

Check out the Grand Collection here:
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/31059/

While the bundle is available, we’ve planned a number of surprises for you. We’re starting off with Frostpunk Free Weekend lasting until March 13! If you have some friends who should definitely give this game a try, make sure to let them know:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/323190

Additionally, on our social media channels we’ll be running giveaways with awesome prizes!
Check out the full calendar:




Make sure to follow us to participate!
🐦Twitter
💬Discord
📸Instagram
📺YouTube
📘Facebook

Take care,
11 bit studios