The Eastern Euro Comp is complete! There were so many absolutely amazing entires, and here are my personal favourites. As with all the comp events, I played through every single entry and there was so much cool stuff to see. This was a really good event I hope everyone enjoyed it! I highly recommend going on the Steam Workshop and having a look at the entries yourself too.

Firstly, the winner of the best overall map is:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3272855158&searchtext=

The winner of the best fantasy map is:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3279036649&searchtext=

And the winner of the best mini-mode map is:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3279061167&searchtext=

All 3 of the above winners get a game key for Trans-Siberian Railway Simulator, and I'll get in contact asap to give that to you!

But that's not all! There's still some honourable mentions:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3273390775&searchtext=

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3270601915&searchtext=

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3278532413&searchtext=
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3267661823&searchtext=

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3266794754&searchtext=
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3263017375&searchtext=

There are still so many other maps that deserve a shout-out, so I highly recommend having a play of a bunch of maps from the comp yourself too. There were 79 total maps submitted, and thank you so much to everyone who took part!


This update also includes a few features too, and these are:

• You can now rotate bounds boxes! They are no longer locked to 90 degree angles:
  
  
• The bulk move tool can now copy-paste! This works between different save files, so you can copy a group of props in one map, then load a different map and paste it:
  
  
• Fixed issue where wires (both power lines and electrical circuits) did not move correctly when using the bulk move tool.
  
• Fixed snapping issues with bounds boxes when they are scaled quite small.
  
• You can now exit transform edit mode by pressing Escape (as well as pressing F as usual).

And that's everything for this update!
I hope you have fun trying out the Eastern Euro comp maps!

Here's something special people have been wanting for a long time!
You can now copy-paste multiple props & track in one go, and move entire sections of your map around. This can all be done with the new bulk move tool!

I've written a guide on how to use this new tool, and you can find that here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3271187876

Have you ever wanted to shift things around in your layout? Well now you can move, rotate and scale an entire segment of your map (or even the entire map!). This is extremely intensive for your PC though, since it involves enabling editing on large sections of your map all at once.

As well as moving a large section of map around, you can also use this feature to duplicate sections of your map as well! This is perfect for if you have a detailed custom-made building (using lots of smaller props) and you want to create multiple copies of it.


The end date is now extended to the rest of the month, so submissions now close on July 1st.
There's already been a ton of great entires on the Steam Workshop!

For this competition there will be 3 different winners, each of which will get a free game key for Trans-Siberian Railway Simulator.

The categories for each winner are:

Pretty simple! This goes to the best overall map, which includes creativity, detail, design, etc.

This category is especially for a fictional design, whether you want to create your own fantasy railway line or just make a map set somewhere that doesn't exist in the real world.

This is for a map that makes use of the miniature scale player physics, like being able to walk around in detailed streets & buildings, or exploring a world designed to be viewed on-foot in miniature scale.


But of course you can make any kind of map you like! These categories are not limiting factors.

As usual, i'll also be posting a ton of shout-outs to my favourite entries at the end of the event! (not just the winning ones).


In other news, I've also recently uploaded my own example entry for the competition, which is a small map based in the industrial city of Norilsk, and uses circuitry tools to mimic a simple RPG video game dialogue system!

You can find this map here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3266766472

This update adds custom livery support for the newly added VL80 locomotive, as well as a bunch of other minor fixes & features.

The Eastern-European comp is still running until June 25th! And it's amazing to see entries already showing up on the Steam workshop. You can find more info about the competition here:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/754150/view/4143953771616864523

Remember one of the categories you can win is for "Best fictional railway/location" and now that you can make your own liveries for the VL80 you can design your own fictional Eastern-Euro inspired railway line!


Making liveries is easy! All you need is basic image editing software (even MS Paint is fine).
There's a guide here on Steam that explains how to make your own liveries!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1405658466

Just as with all the other liveries, you can find the templates in the "Rolling Line -> Modding -> templates -> livery templates" folder:


You can find other people's shared liveries simply by going to the Steam Workshop and using the “livery type” drop-down list:


This update also includes:

• The VL80 now has a new horn sound, plus a whistle!
  
  
• The shading on the model for the VL80 has been improved a lot
  
• Fixed the horn sound effect point for the VL80
  
• You can now press the left + right bracket buttons to control the front & back pantographs individually. There is also a custom binding for this in the "controls" menu:
  
  
• There is also a new binding to use the alternative horn sound for trains that use it (like the Sprinter and VL80):
  
  
• Fixed a bug where snap points on track would not be updated correctly when placing a group of track on the ground

The livery in the thumbnail is this one made by Skull4786:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3261350018&searchtext=

That's everything for this update!
And I'm excited to see all the things people are working on for the Eastern Euro comp!

It's time for a map competition, a new locomotive, and even a collaboration with another game! (Trans-Siberian Railway Simulator)

Trans-Siberian Railway Simulator is just about to be released, and the developers reached out to me to see if we could make a Steam bundle with both games, and you can find that bundle here:
(The bundle will become available once the game officially launches)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/998400/TransSiberian_Railway_Simulator/

But why stop there! I've always wanted to add some Eastern-European content to the game, so I'm taking this opportunity to run a map making competition themed around it.

This update also adds an incredible community-made mod (the VL80 locomotive) make by Akandr:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2253493285

The mod has been expanded to have all the features of official trains, like headlights, rust & snow effects, cab controls, collision, etc.

You can find these new trains in the "Trains -> Eastern Europe" drawer:


Just like with previous comps & jams in Rolling Line, this is a chance for you to make a map (or mods) with a theme and then share them on the Steam workshop!

The theme here is Eastern Europe, but this is very broad. It encompasses the whole style & feel of this part of the world and isn't specifically limited to just a few countries.
In fact you can even make fictional locations and fantasy railway lines if you want!

To submit a map/mod to the competition, simply upload it to the Steam workshop and tick this option when uploading in-game:

For this competition there will be 3 different winners, each of which will get a free game key for Trans-Siberian Railway Simulator!

The categories for each winner are:

Pretty simple! This goes to the best overall map, which includes creativity, detail, design, etc.

This category is especially for a fictional design, whether you want to create your own fantasy railway line or just make a map set somewhere that doesn't exist in the real world.

This is for a map that makes use of the miniature scale player physics, like being able to walk around in detailed streets & buildings, or exploring a world designed to be viewed on-foot in miniature scale.


But of course you can make any kind of map you like! These categories are not limiting factors.
As usual, i'll also be posting a ton of shout-outs to my favourite entries at the end of the event! (not just the winning ones).

This competition will run for 3 weeks, finishing on June 25th.

If you want to view the entires so far for the competition, you can view the "Eastern Euro Comp" tag on the Steam workshop:

If you're looking for more Eastern-European style content, there are even some more mods on the Steam workshop!
For example:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2260197258
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3242070671
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2253489688
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3030915840
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2187560781

This update also includes:

• Some new cliff face and rock props in the terrain drawers
  
• Fixed the 1.0 classic version of the game (it had a bug related to SteamVR that was affecting some people). For those unaware, you can play a day-one release version of the game (just for nostalgia’s sake) by switching to the "Rolling Line 1x" beta-branch.

There hasn't been an update for a while since I've been putting all my time towards the upcoming Sierra Logging map which I've teased at a few times in previous updates.
I'll be making a full announcement of this map in the future, but in the meantime, here's some more preview screenshots of progress!

Continuing on from the "lumber mill props" added last update, this next update adds some more props and features themed around a western town! This includes new buildings, props, and a new wooden tunnel style.

As you might have seen mentioned previously, all these updates are working towards a big map set in the Sierra mountains and the California logging industry in the early 1940s. This map is going to be Rolling Line's first ever expansion (almost 6 years after the games release). More details will be coming in the future about this expansion, but for now here's some new props added to the game while i've been in the process of making the town of Tuolumne, California!


Firstly, a modular hotel building:

A set of classic street-side shops:

And a church:

Also a bunch of props, including shop-front signs, wood planks, hitching posts, etc:


This tunnel can be added from the popup track-style menu, or using the new painters in the "track tools" drawer. You can make a single-track tunnel or a double-track tunnel (by adding walls to each side on the two lanes of track). There are also snappable tunnel portals for single and double track tunnels:


A few new props added to the "buildings -> mill" drawer, these include a new modular water tower as well as a wooden "sand chute" building:

Other minor fixes/features also include:

• Added snapping to all double-track tunnel portals
  
• Added placement ghost arrow to all tunnel portals
  
• Improved collision on several wooden debris pile props
  
• Moved several props around to clean up drawers, there is no longer the bizarre "props -> warf" drawer, these props have been moved to "vehicles -> boats" and "buildings -> Western"
  
• Added a couple of new church window props

While this is still massively work-in progress, here are a few sneak previews of parts of the map that I have been working on! There will be much more info released about this map in the future.

This update adds a ton of lumber mill themed props, like new modular buildings, moving log chain, smoke stacks, log piles, and more!

You can find all of these new props in the "buildings -> Mill (1 & 2)" drawers:


One of the new moving parts of a lumber mill, the log chain! This is used to pull logs from the log pond into the inside of the mill. There are a few different sizes and style variants.


The other new moving part for a lumber mill is the green chain, this is a conveyor which takes the freshly cut planks out of the mill so they can be sorted into sizes.


Lots of new log props! Including individual logs and big log stacks:

Also various drying stacks of planks:


A new set of modular smoke stack props, as well as some roof details:




The largest part of this update is a set of new modular buildings! These can be used for rail sheds (witch openable doors) or any building made with planks:


A very simple feature that's incredibly useful, there is now a full set of tables that have no sides, so they are just a flat surface. These are excellent for making water effects:


Some props (like the log chain and openable doors) now have an arrow visible when placing them on the ground, to help make it clear which way they are facing:

There are also a few bug fixes:

• level crossings no longer trigger from cars when they are set to "automatic" mode
  
• the "packaged mods" and "packaged assets" options are now visible when uploading a main menu map scene to the Steam Workshop (these were missing before)
  
• Fixed bugs with turntables being included in grouped track. A turntable can no longer be the first item in a group (it can still be included in a group, it just cant be the first piece of track selected)

You're probably wondering why the sudden lumber mill theme?
That's because it's part of the next major map release I'm working on, the "Sierra Logging" expansion!
This map is set in California during the historic logging boom in the Sierra mountains. Specifically the towns of Tuolumne, Jamestown, and the West Side Lumber Company!
There will be lots more info released about this map in the future, but it will involve a ton of new props being added into the game (just like these ones).
I'll be releasing props like these in updates as they are made, instead of waiting till the whole map is finished, since this will be a big project.

These props especially were all made to re-create the Tuolumne mill:

One of the main icons of railways: roundhouses!
Despite turntables being added to the game already, they have always been missing a proper system for creating roundhouse buildings. You can always make them with props, but this is a tedious and difficult process, so this update finally adds a solution!

You can now dynamically add roundhouse buildings to turntables, and their shape and size will automatically be scaled to fit the shape of the turntable. You can customize the style of the roundhouse (like door types, roof types, colors, size, etc) and even add multiple different types of roundhouse buildings to a single turntable.


When pointing at a turntable, use the right-hand popup option to open the menu for editing the turntable options. From here you can access a new menu for editing roundhouses:

You will then see an empty list. You can add multiple different roundhouse buildings to this list, which is useful for when you need more than one size/color of building attached to a single turntable. Click "add new" to create a new roundhouse building.

Editing a roundhouse building will give you a bunch of options, like the style, shape, colors, etc:

The start/end index options are used to control how many exits of the turntable are covered by the roundhouse building. For example, in this screenshot the roundhouse runs from exit 8 to 14:

You can also customize things like the height/length of the roundhouse building, and change the "offset" (the distance which the building is placed in relation to the edge of the turntable):

There are lots of different model styles for the doors, walls and roof (and of course the doors can all be opened!)

There is also now a new drawer (track -> roundhouses) which contains some example turntables with roundhouses already attached.

This update also includes a couple of other small things:

• Fixed a bug relating to the collision on turntables not behaving correctly when some track styles were used.
  
• Added a setting to enable/disable the "train rotation smoothing" effect. This effect makes your view smoothed when driving a train around corners. This setting is in the "pause menu -> gameplay" menu.

Now that the holiday season is done, I'm finally fully back to work on Rolling Line!
To kick things off for the year, here is a simple update that i've been wanting to add to the game for a while: the ability to set your own main menus in-game and share them on the Steam Workshop.

You can select as many different menu scenes as you want, and essentially make a shuffle list of different menus for the game to use each time it loads. These menus are literally just normal save files, which means they can contain everything from moving trains to mods and even custom audio!

By default, the game now also has a ton of built-in menus using the official maps already in the game (and even a few bonus ones).


You can select which main menu scenes to use in the "Pause menu -> gameplay -> main menu options -> select menus" menu.
This list will include all default built-in menus, any menus you've downloaded off the Steam Workshop, and any menus that you have made yourself.


A "main menu scene" is treated just like any other mod (like a train or prop), so you can create your own ones in the Modding Manager from the pause menu:

Set the category to "Main menu scenes", and then click "add new":

From here, you can choose the location where the player spawns and even set the size of the player, so you can make the player larger than they are usually in miniature mode.

When you click "set spawn point" you can walk around the map and see a preview of what the main menu will look like. Simply click the mouse to set the spawn point:

There is also an option to automatically delete all props beyond a chosen distance. This is useful for if you want to make a menu scene using a large map, but dont want to have to load the entire map each time.


You can also upload your custom menu scenes to the workshop!
In the modding manager, simply click on your menu scene and choose "upload" from the popup list:

You can then find other people's main menu scene uploads in the "main menu scene" tag category on the Steam Workshop:


This update also adds the option to change how the game loads on start-up. You can find this setting in the "Pause menu -> gameplay -> main menu options" menu:

When the game starts, you can either load the main menu, automatically resume your last save file, or even load an empty new game map.


Along with the menu features, this update also includes a few fixes:

• Fixed the snow mesh for the Challenger so that it matches the model properly
  
• Fixed bug where loading a save file would sometimes include a fog effect on the loading screen
  
• Blocked the ability to quickSave and quickLoad on the main menu
  
• Fixed a broken mesh for one of the roof prop pieces

This update is just a quick one to kick things off for the year, but now that I'm fully back to work, the much more serious updates can continue.
I've got tons of big plans for this year, so keep an eye out!

In the meantime, I hope you all have fun with these custom menus!

It's time for Christmas! This update adds a bunch of new features (like more advanced signal options), lots of bug fixes, and of course brings back the Christmas coat of paint for the game.

And that also means all of Rolling Line's previous Christmasy features get to resurface!
Some of the previous year's themed updates added things like:







Unfortunately this year I have been very busy over the last month (travelling overseas!) so there won't be a new Christmas themed update this year, but this update does include a bunch of fixes & features, including some highly requested improvements to Signals!


You now have several new options for setting up signals!
You can place custom "bounds boxes" which allow for signals to be triggered by trains that are not on the track directly ahead. This means you can make working diamond crossings where trains will stop to allow for other trains to cross:

You can also now set a different "source track" point for AI trains to detect the signal. This means you can have the signal checking for trains on one track, and have trains respond to it on another track. This is very useful for making sidings, where trains need to wait for the main line to be clear before moving:

In the above example, the signal on the siding is actually checking if the main line is clear, not the track directly ahead of the siding. But the "source track" that the AI train is waiting at is still on the siding.

Meanwhile, the main line signal is just checking the track directly ahead.

This means that when the main line is clear, the train waiting on the main line will get a green signal first, then the siding signal will only turn green once the line ahead is fully clear.

You can access all these new options on the signal edit pop-up menu:


This update adds a few new control bindings, firstly, you can now create a custom binding to toggle AI-auto-switch on the current driving train. This is useful for when you are controlling modded trains which have no buttons inside the cab:

There is also now a new binding to toggle "pause time".
Previously, there was an option to use the pause button to instead pause time (rather than opening the menu) or you could also choose to make the pause button create a spray.

Since this option was quite confusing (people would often accidentally change their pause button to do different things and not understand what had happened) I decided to just remove this setting for PC and instead give the option to bind controls for each of these options individually.

So this means there are now dedicated bindings for "go to pause menu", "pause time" and "place spray" in the controls menu:


There is now a system in place to detect broken joypad input.
tons of people have run into issues where some unintended joypad input has caused the screen to spin and makes it very difficult to disable the joypad afterwards. Usually this is caused by something like a flight-stick being plugged in and unused, or a broken controller.

So basically the game now keeps track of input (only during the main menu stage) to check if identical repeated input is happening, e.g. if a joystick is stuck fully to the left/right and spinning the screen.
If input is frozen on an identical value for more than 4 seconds, it will show this popup:


A bit of an unrelated feature, you can now play the halloween main menu scene as a map included in the "New game -> Mini maps" list:


This update also includes:

• Fixed bug where pressing ESC while editing a text box while inside a 2D menu would cause the text box to get stuck on the screen.
  
• Fixed bug where held bounds-boxes would be disabled when changing items in your inventory.
  
• Fixed errors caused by having an empty save file included in your local saves list.
  
• Fixed issue where signals taken from the drawer would default to having zero as their red range.
  
• Fixed bug where the signal popup menu was not removed when the signal prop is deleted.
  
• Fixed specific crash from loading broken mod files.
  
• Cleaned up the post-processing options in the pause menu and split them into multiple menus.
  
• Fixed bug where the tooltip text for save file lists were not visible in 2D menus.
  
• Fixed issue with fog affecting loading screens in some niche situations.
  
• Fixed bug where pressing ESC during thumbnail capture would cause problems.
  
• There is now an on-screen help message about enabling/disabling track side-snapping (just like the message that shows up when track snapping is disabled).
  
• Fixed bug preventing one of the Weka Pass map easter eggs from working correctly.

I've just spent the last month overseas on a trip to Southeast Asia! (Vietnam, Cambodia & Thailand).
It's the first time I've been overseas since visiting Brazil (4 years ago) which lead to the Paranapiacaba map.
This was an incredible experience, and included some places which would make from some really amazing Rolling Line maps, including places like the ancient temples of Angkor Wat, Thai-Burma "death railway", urban railways in Ho Chi Minh City, and several train trips through rural Thailand. I really hope to make something surrounding these locations in-game, but there will be more news on that in the future.

Here are some highlight photos:

Since I was away overseas for so long, and I'm also quite busy of Christmas, updates will be a bit sparse until after January when I can get back to work properly.
But don't worry, i have HUGE plans for 2024!
After 2023 having some quite experimental updates (like circuitry) I'm going back to the game's roots, focusing on trains, operations, freight and maps. But there will be more information on that in the future.

But to give you a hint... it might involve logging with Shay's in the Sierra mountains ːsteamthumbsupː

In the meantime, have a lovely Christmas and keep an eye out for future updates in 2024!