Game Redeisgn Ideas

[Mr_Tea_Rexx]

As a Indie Game Developer myself, Its awesome to see what you guys have done and keep at it. That Being Said few ideas to help you with your game, but its up to you.

First of all the game would need to slight redesign for its building mode.
*Top Down Camera building Mode*
A Top Down Camera building Mode similar to Sid Meier's Railroads, that the player can go in and out, while in first/third person mode but does have a limit how far they can go away from they character. Reason Ive mentioned this is due to how large the map is and the extensive time it takes just to laydown the track. other games get away with the first person construction due to them being able to fly around the map. In your game players cant do that. This also would help a player that just wants to control the switches.

*Track Laying Redesign*
Good Idea for this is Immersive Railroads - A Minecraft Mod, Take a Look on how they have done their Track laying and do something similar. atm your track laying is a utter mess and over complicated. Ton it down and simplify it. Have multiple track types, pure fixed straight track (short,Medium,long), A 15, 45, 90 degree curved fixed tracks (short,Medium,long) and the custom track that you already have in game.
Also have the Cement Walls and GroundBeds part of the tracks, Instead of laying them down individually.

*Tracks have snapping*
Allow tracks to snap next to buildings an other tracks

*Camera Modes, Decide what your player mode is*
Its great that your wanting to have a 3rd and 1st person camera mode for the player running around but personally i would stick to the 1st person camera and only have the 3rd person camera when controlling the Locomotives.

*3rd person Locomotive Camera*
The controls for this Zooming in and out should be controlled by the mouse scroll-wheels
while only going into the 3rd person when pressing V

*Train Manager*
when purchasing a train, or cars this should be managed in a train manager good example is Sid Meier's Railroads when adding locomotives and cars and then it gets added to the line. when the player also detaches any cars it gets removed from the manager and when reattached its re-added to the manager on that train.
This also can be used to re add the entire train after a derailment as the single method in game is not ideal when having long trains and this feature should be allow on the server and not just the host.

*Switch Interaction*
I would keep this simple and just have it on line-trace left click to change the switch. The line-trace + Click hold and drag is a bit of a pain and sometimes has issues.

*Procedural Maps*
Have Procedural Maps that are terrain based only, give a option in the top-down construction mode to allow the player to place where the smelter, lumber mill etc are located on the map, they cant be placed next to each other.

*Small Towns*
Have npcs that appear in the carriages when coming into a small town station.
Doesn't need to be fancy you could just have idle NPCs that disappear and appear in the carriages similar to the logs.

*Dedicated Hosted Servers/Rented out Servers*
Give the community the ability to rent out servers so people can join.
Tho this would mean those servers would need to appear in the Find Server List

*UI Overhaul needed*
Atm the UI is extremely rough (which is understandable being in early access), when doing the deigns make sure to simplify it less is good, more is complicated.

*Automated Factory Depots*
Please for the love of god give us the option to have the factory Cranes automated
having to load 30 log cars is a nightmare.

Apart from that game has a lot of potential, keep at it and you will have a great game on your hands.

[VirMortalis]

Why as no one actually suggested that they just add signal boxes to the game, pay an upkeep to the signal box.

When you are wanting to make a journey you open up the signaller command and it will show you the current track layout on the world map, each set of points will be clickable with a red dot.

When you set a route the line colour will change to an highlighted route so you can see where your train will be pathed going forward.

When the route is set press accept and the line would be ready for you to just drive the train from point A to point B.

Longer distances would require multiple signal boxes and for complex small zones like marshalling yards etc.

If you are playing with friends have signalling system which will run on the Absolute block method in which to keep to the time period.

1 train in 1 block section at a single time and as you progress and they allow for modern era stock (if) introduce an addon for Track Circuit Block which would run the signals via the passage of trains

[gombicek]

Probably because at the time portrayed there was no such thing IRL. I like that it keeps oldschool with no signalling system in place.

But the OP suggestions are spot on. It is pretty much what I thought when I started playing.

[Mr_Tea_Rexx]

thing is the switches have signals on them, but they said in a live stream that their will be mod support so if the community wants to add standard gauge, signals and other trains they can. atm their focused on narrow gauge and that time history era, would be nice tho

[Dkz1181]

Never mind signal boxes, you just need a custom build switch frame that you can stick next to junctions so once you have changed the switch you can change the signals to give an advanced heads up that the route is clear or blocked

[rwhitehead]

I like the suggestions relating to the track building, such as snapping to loading/passenger platforms for proper alignment. Prefab rail segments are not very realistic for general track laying, except in cases like crossings, bridge segments, etc. Not every curve is a defined radius. I do wish that when starting a segment of rail, that we could adjust elevation on the start point.
As far as signalling goes, for the sake of realism, the signalling/semaphores should be aligned to the era in which one plays. Of course, that would mean allowing players to define that era that they would want to play in, which would require era based locos, rolling stock, etc.
I understand the developers intent to make this simulation as real as possible, which is the main reason that it is up to the individual to perform all tasks involved. It makes for a rather tedious, but fully immersive game. Gotta love these open world building games!

[Grumps]

Also;
I'd like to see the Wood Stations underlie the track (line through centre) so you can unload 1 side and pick up the other, would be far more serviceable.
Shorter switch sections and Y switches as well as the standard straight.
Track bed (soil type) vary in width using mouse wheel to create larger areas for yards etc.
The delete function should highlight the section of rail or bed it is addressing, would save a lot of mistakes.
Third person camera when driving aligned to engine direction with option for free cam, right click?. Likewise scroll wheel for distance/height.
The re-spawn function of G menu should allow selection of any of the fixtures not just the Depot. This would ease the burden on server hosts and make single play more enjoyable.
So far a very enjoyable game.

[Lord Of the Lungle]

I'd like to see laying extended tracks instead of one piece at a time. Like how satisfactory is setup for laying it's tracks.

[Taris]

I would also like to add that it might be a good idea to align sizing of the prefabs to a baseline grid. For example, take the size of the X-crossing and use it as a base for the grid. That way it would be easy to swap, let's say 3 X-crossings for 1 Y switch in length. Also if you lay down two lanes with one "X-crossing" of empty space (like: |+|), laying down two Y switches opposed to each other would seamlessly connect the lanes and create a lane switch.

It's the small things like these that make using the prefabs somewhat uncomfortable and inconsistent.