Hello Railroaders!

We wanted to give you an update on where things stand with the MoW Update. The beginning of this year has been particularly productive, and while we are happy with the state of the game, there is still more to do before it is ready for an experimental release. In this post we’ll give you a clear view of where we are and what’s left to do. Thank you for your patience – we know that it has been a long wait!

Here’s some of what we’re currently working on:

• Testing and refining Maintenance of Way

• New wages system for Auto Engineer crews and MoW work crews

• Redesigned save system that groups saves by railroad — no more autosaves cluttering up your Load Game screen!

• A new car styles system, including making it possible to define multiple colors for cars that are designed for it. Previously, when a car arrived at interchange it would have an independently selected random color and reporting mark. Now, the color will be informed by the reporting mark. Modders will be able to define these styles, too.

• Updating some of our older building models, and adding a few new ones.

• Adding an on-line ballast and concrete source/customer as an additional source for your MoW material needs.

• Modding documentation. In parallel with MoW, modding of rolling stock has been a big focus. We’ve been working on documentation of the Definition and Components system that is the foundation of rolling stock in the game, as well as for Relay, our embedded scripting language.

• Railroader Asset Development Kit: A Unity project to help with building asset packs.

Here’s what we haven’t started yet but plan to finish before we release an experimental build:

• Add an on-line industry providing railroad ties

• Improve visibility into the state of MoW related aspects like material requirements, materials on hand, and materials on order

• Get sound for the crossing bell

• A video to introduce the concepts behind MoW

This will be a big release for us. It includes a number of foundational changes, which we see as important for the future of Railroader, but there are also numerous new things that we think really enrich the game. (The release notes have 60+ items.) The foundational work has taken time to get right and while there is a lot more we want to do, we need to draw the line somewhere.

That’s a quick look at what we’ve been up to. Thank you for your support. This release cycle has been a challenging one but we're happy to be able to share that we can see a clear path to that experimental release!