Jul 11, 2024
Railroader - imtzo
There's a lot in this update, so grab an oil can and let's walk the train while I tell you about it.
We are continuing to build and refine Wear & Tear in Railroader by adding two new features - oiling and hotboxes - and adjusting how repair tracks work. There're also two big new quality of life features - the context menu and notices - as well as some exciting enhancements for switches: manual unlocking CTC switches, and switch throw "audits" for multiplayer.
That journal box looks like it needs a bit more oil. Get that one real quick.
While hotboxes are still a concern in railroading, in the days of friction bearings (i.e., the days of Railroader) they were a much bigger deal. "Hotbox" refers to the axle bearing overheating, usually due to inadequate lubrication. That's where oiling comes in.
Our goal with bearing oiling was to add a simple preventative maintenance interaction with a "fun" consequence -- hotboxes. Cars and steam engines (but not diesels) have a bearing oil level which can be checked by hovering the mouse over the trucks or drivers.
Filling the oil is as simple as holding left mouse on the truck or drivers while the oiled percentage rises. You'll want to check the oil level on cars arriving at the interchange!
As the oil level drops below 50%, wear starts to rise, as does the risk of a hotbox (on cars only). You can spot a hotbox by the smoke, as well as the tooltip. If a hotbox occurs, you'll want to add oil and keep the speed below 15mph to avoid further damage. Hotboxes are repaired by taking the car to any repair track.
We understand that this may sound like a lot to worry about - don't despair!
We've adjusted the rate at which equipment on the road takes wear to better incentivize regular maintenance while not being too punishing if you don't put your engines in the shed every night.
For general use you should expect condition to fall from 100% to 90% in the first 200 miles, but it will take over 3,000 miles before you reach 50%. This is with the default settings - you can adjust this and the overhaul mileage (which is now 2,500 by default) in Settings.
We've also reworked how repair tracks operate. Now, the shop automatically "hires" repair crews depending on how much equipment is present, and all equipment is repaired simultaneously. You can also set repair shop speed if you need them to work faster. We expect this to help especially busy railroads handle the repair work. Just make sure you have enough funds on hand to pay the wages due at midnight!
We've added a context menu for equipment! Clicking on equipment with right mouse (RMB, or using the `Z` key if you have "Right Mouse Toggles" mouse look enabled) shows a radial menu for quick access to toggling the handbrake, bleeding the brakes, showing the inspector, and selecting/deselecting.
We can't wait for you to try it out. It's immediately become a feature we wonder how we ever played the game without!
Sometimes there's a lot going on and it's easy to miss or forget about an important message like an AI engineer running low on water. That's where the new Notices feature comes in: notices appear in the upper right corner and stay until you dismiss them, or they are canceled.
Notices currently appear for AI engineer fuel/water levels, stop signals, fusees, and player connection changes. We plan to expand this feature in the future, so let us know what you'd like to see!
If you're doing some switching around a CTC interlocking it can be cumbersome to clear the interlocking and contact the dispsatcher for every throw. Now, crews can unlock and lock CTC switches using the switch's context menu (and verbal permission from the dispatcher, of course).
By unlocking a CTC switch the crew can throw it as needed and lock it again once they're done with their work, returning it to dispatcher control. Unlocked switches make the interlocking show occupied on the CTC panel.
Also: we have put a lot of effort into resolving bugs related to unlocking sections of the CTC system. We hope you notice the improvement, and thank you for your patience with these issues. Please continue reporting any issues you see!
There's a lot more in this update - the full release notes are below - but we have one more feature we want to cover specifically.
We've heard from some multiplayer players that they've had trouble with crews throwing switches they shouldn't. We're considering introducing enhanced access controls to help with this in the future, but for the time being we have enhanced switches to record an "audit trail" of the last three throws.
To see the audit for a switch, hold Shift while hovering over the switch and the tooltip will expand to show the available audit data.
We hope this helps you educate crews and promote safety on your railroads!
We are continuing to build and refine Wear & Tear in Railroader by adding two new features - oiling and hotboxes - and adjusting how repair tracks work. There're also two big new quality of life features - the context menu and notices - as well as some exciting enhancements for switches: manual unlocking CTC switches, and switch throw "audits" for multiplayer.
That journal box looks like it needs a bit more oil. Get that one real quick.
Oiling & Hotboxes
While hotboxes are still a concern in railroading, in the days of friction bearings (i.e., the days of Railroader) they were a much bigger deal. "Hotbox" refers to the axle bearing overheating, usually due to inadequate lubrication. That's where oiling comes in.
Our goal with bearing oiling was to add a simple preventative maintenance interaction with a "fun" consequence -- hotboxes. Cars and steam engines (but not diesels) have a bearing oil level which can be checked by hovering the mouse over the trucks or drivers.
Filling the oil is as simple as holding left mouse on the truck or drivers while the oiled percentage rises. You'll want to check the oil level on cars arriving at the interchange!
As the oil level drops below 50%, wear starts to rise, as does the risk of a hotbox (on cars only). You can spot a hotbox by the smoke, as well as the tooltip. If a hotbox occurs, you'll want to add oil and keep the speed below 15mph to avoid further damage. Hotboxes are repaired by taking the car to any repair track.
We understand that this may sound like a lot to worry about - don't despair!
- Cars in good condition only consume about 0.5% of their oil in a mile.
- AI Engineers, when stopped, will gradually walk the train and oil any cars below 75% oil level.
- AI Engineers periodically check the train for hotboxes and automatically reduce speed.
- You can always turn off oiling and hotboxes in the Settings for your game.
Additional Changes to Wear & Repair
We've adjusted the rate at which equipment on the road takes wear to better incentivize regular maintenance while not being too punishing if you don't put your engines in the shed every night.
For general use you should expect condition to fall from 100% to 90% in the first 200 miles, but it will take over 3,000 miles before you reach 50%. This is with the default settings - you can adjust this and the overhaul mileage (which is now 2,500 by default) in Settings.
We've also reworked how repair tracks operate. Now, the shop automatically "hires" repair crews depending on how much equipment is present, and all equipment is repaired simultaneously. You can also set repair shop speed if you need them to work faster. We expect this to help especially busy railroads handle the repair work. Just make sure you have enough funds on hand to pay the wages due at midnight!
Context Menu
We've added a context menu for equipment! Clicking on equipment with right mouse (RMB, or using the `Z` key if you have "Right Mouse Toggles" mouse look enabled) shows a radial menu for quick access to toggling the handbrake, bleeding the brakes, showing the inspector, and selecting/deselecting.
We can't wait for you to try it out. It's immediately become a feature we wonder how we ever played the game without!
Notices
Sometimes there's a lot going on and it's easy to miss or forget about an important message like an AI engineer running low on water. That's where the new Notices feature comes in: notices appear in the upper right corner and stay until you dismiss them, or they are canceled.
Notices currently appear for AI engineer fuel/water levels, stop signals, fusees, and player connection changes. We plan to expand this feature in the future, so let us know what you'd like to see!
CTC Switch Unlocking
If you're doing some switching around a CTC interlocking it can be cumbersome to clear the interlocking and contact the dispsatcher for every throw. Now, crews can unlock and lock CTC switches using the switch's context menu (and verbal permission from the dispatcher, of course).
By unlocking a CTC switch the crew can throw it as needed and lock it again once they're done with their work, returning it to dispatcher control. Unlocked switches make the interlocking show occupied on the CTC panel.
Also: we have put a lot of effort into resolving bugs related to unlocking sections of the CTC system. We hope you notice the improvement, and thank you for your patience with these issues. Please continue reporting any issues you see!
Switch Audits
There's a lot more in this update - the full release notes are below - but we have one more feature we want to cover specifically.
We've heard from some multiplayer players that they've had trouble with crews throwing switches they shouldn't. We're considering introducing enhanced access controls to help with this in the future, but for the time being we have enhanced switches to record an "audit trail" of the last three throws.
To see the audit for a switch, hold Shift while hovering over the switch and the tooltip will expand to show the available audit data.
We hope this helps you educate crews and promote safety on your railroads!
Full Release Notes
- Wear & Tear Iteration
- Added Hotboxes & Bearing Oiling! Steam engines, tenders, freight and passenger equipment now have an oil level. Hover over the trucks (wheels) to check the level via tooltip, and click-and-hold to fill. Equipment with < 50% oil runs the risk of hotbox, which requires moving at < 15 mph to avoid additional damage. AI crews will periodically check for hotboxes and reduce speed upon detection. AI crews will also gradually oil the train when stopped. Full details are available in the Employee Timetable (F1 in game).
- Hotboxes & Oiling can be disabled in Settings, but you must save and re-open the save file for the change to take effect.
- Revised equipment wear from general use to incentivize daily service but not drop dramatically until condition approaches 50%. On default settings equipment will drop to 90% in the first 200 miles, but not reach 50% for more than 3500 miles.
- Repair facilities are no longer limited by number of shop crew. Instead, crew is brought on as needed and all present equipment is repaired simultaneously. Repair is limited by money to pay wages at midnight (if inadequate, no repairs will be performed the following day) and repair parts on hand. Wages are only paid for repair work performed.
- Repair speed can be set to increase wages in exchange for faster repairs.
- Repair times are non-linear, depending on the condition of the equipment. It will take longer to repair from 50% to 60% than it will take to repair from 90% to 100%.
- One overhaul is sufficient to return equipment to full condition.
- Added overhaul information to the Equipment panel. Revised presentation to show service miles until overhaul.
- Added Hotboxes & Bearing Oiling! Steam engines, tenders, freight and passenger equipment now have an oil level. Hover over the trucks (wheels) to check the level via tooltip, and click-and-hold to fill. Equipment with < 50% oil runs the risk of hotbox, which requires moving at < 15 mph to avoid additional damage. AI crews will periodically check for hotboxes and reduce speed upon detection. AI crews will also gradually oil the train when stopped. Full details are available in the Employee Timetable (F1 in game).
- Added context menu to cars for quick access to handbrake and bleed. Right click on car to access. The menu can also be opened with `Z` (right click context menu is not available for players who have enabled "Right Mouse Toggles" mouse look).
- CTC switches may now be unlocked for local control using the aforementioned context menu on the switch motor. Unlocking a CTC switch sets the interlocking block occupied until it is locked again.
- Improved representation of switches on the map, particularly at crossovers.
- Added clickety-clack sounds for steam engines. (RR-469)
- Adjusted selection of cars delivered to the interchange to be based on a normal distribution, better preferring cars that are appropriate to the power present on your railroad.
- Switches now record recent throws. Hold Shift while hovering over a switch stand to see who recently threw a switch.
- Added notices in the upper right corner to make important events more visible. AI engineers will post notices when they have stopped for some reason; player connect/disconnect will also appear here. We plan to expand this feature in the future.
- Added ability to set train crew from Employees panel.
- Added ability to rename train crews.
- Added "East Whittier Interchange" map label; interchange labels now appear only when enabled. (RR-500)
- Added tooltips to signal heads.
- Updated A-26 engine.
- Updated car tooltip: Moved handbrake indicator to its own line, changed to use icon in place of "Destination" and "Spotted".
- Changed Alarka Jct Water Column milestone destination track to match other Alarka Jct Site tracks. This will require existing cars spotted at the prior location to be moved. (RR-498)
- Changed milestone button text to use "Start" when ordering cars and "Purchase" for milestones without cars.
- Changed AI to whistle more rapidly when moving a short distance.
- Improved restoring player position on connect or load when player was riding on top of a car.
- Mines now spot cars with air connected, end anglecocks open, and brake cylinders bled.
- Improved map switch button culling vs UI scaling setting. (RR-455)
- Improved display of small quantities of weight-measured loads. (RR-505)
- Audio is now muted when pausing the game in single player.
- Expanded range of sound preference sliders to 200%.
- Fixed CTC not initializing correctly when purchased, which could cause signals at the extent of the system to not be settable. (RR-233)
- Fixed phantom switch stand throw sounds.
- Fixed Dillsboro Diesel Stand enabled by default in Sandbox mode.
- Fixed AI announcing that it is stopping for a signal or fusee when it just stopped for a couple in yard mode.
- Fixed AI setting headlight to forward when stopping.
- Fixed AI not starting with reverser at 100%.
- Fixed console text field being selected when hitting W in certain cases. (RR-461)
- Fixed map icon for triple-headed Bryson entry signals. (RR-489)
- Fixed unable to sell car that is already waybilled to buy repair parts or fuel. Any previously set sell destinations have been lost and will need to be re-applied! (RR-504)
- Fixed "Copy to Coupled" of auto waybills applying waybills to cars which shouldn't be waybilled to those destinations. (RR-488)
- Fixed case where player would be dropped from car they were riding when camera is elsewhere. (RR-501)
- Fixed paying down loan resulting in negative loan payments in certain circumstances. Interest owed is no longer cleared by paying remaining loan amount and is due on the regular schedule. (RR-496)
- Fixed cars sent away for loading still having their handbrake set upon return. (RR-510)
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