0.2.6 - Reworking the way towns grow

Iron Roads

Lay tracks, buy trains, set their routes. Optimise your network and repeat till dawn. Run your enterprise efficiently while avoiding backlogs, jams, bankruptcy or angry passengers, and you'll be recognised for the unsung train hero you know you are.

Despite the innocuous version number increase, in this update we’ve changed the way towns grow. It is a big change to how the game is balanced, and we’d love to hear thoughts on it. The new system sets a clear target for on-time arrivals, and when the target is met, the town grows. We hope this gives clarity on what needs to be done for a town to grow, and adds an incentive to not keep passengers waiting too long. While doing this we also reworked the town information screens to make them easier to read with large numbers of towns. There is more detail about on this [url=https://www.cowleyforniastudios.com/2024/3/9/townscreen]on our blog.[/url] Other than the growth system work we have: [list] [*] Added images for the scenario chooser [*] Added buttons to the town screens so you can cycle between them [*] Added icons to the town screen to show what cargo is accepted by that stop [*] Split the town screen and route information windows [*] Sped up the mouse wheel on Windows [*] Added icons to the contract window to make it clear when there is money to be collected [*] Fix for mouse with scaled displays under Wayland [*] Smoothed out the volume changes on background notes [*] Fixed an issue where houses would spawn on stations far from a town centre [/list] We’re currently doing a lot of work on the generated scenarios for Endless Mode and Challenge Mode. We hope to have the new map generator out in an update next week.