First post USA DLC patch

Today we have released a patch which fixes both issues of the recently published USA DLC as well as issues of the new mod system.

Most important, when running the USA DLC game mode, there was a bug which caused towns not to be completely American but mixed (all buildings, European and American, were enabled as a consequence of the bug). Furthermore, we have fixed a problem with the 2-8-2 Mikado Steam locomotive which caused the locomotive not to be available for purchase (as intended after 1898).

Because many players have requested that speed should also be displayable in “mph” instead of “km/h” we have added this feature (along with configurable units for power, weight and force).

In regard to the new mod system, we have fixed a number of issues as well. One issue was that the main menu mod list was not scrollable, which caused problems for players who wanted to activate a large number of mods. Another problem was that the displayed “active mod list” in the load game dialog was not correct (however note that the behavior was correct).

Finally, and probably most important to mention, deprecated mods are now directly recognized in Train Fever. Originally we planned that players use the available mod managers (TFGM and TFMM) to install / convert deprecated mods. However the plan failed because (a) some players install the mods manually and (b) in contrast to our plans one of the two available mod managers (TFMM) was unfortunately not updated yet, but was finally updated today.

Please find the release notes of the latest game update here.

To improve understanding of the new mod system we have set up a page which answers all frequently asked questions about mods here. The page explains how to use mods. At a later point in time we will also publish more information on how to create mods (specification of the new modding system).

Of course, we will update the game (and the USA DLC) also in future. Thanks for your continuing interest in Train Fever and best wishes!

USA DLC officially released

We are excited that today the Train Fever USA DLC was officially released! The DLC is available for free and features a complete American game mode.

Here is the launch trailer:

Equivalent to the original European game mode, the player starts in 1850 and experiences more than 150 years of railroad history. More than 50 realistic American vehicles including trains, buses, streetcars and trucks are included.

To make the American experience complete, landscape and towns are modified as well. Wild West stylized American towns spread in a desert landscape and wait for a transport tycoon to be connected to the world. Also, environment elements like trees, streets and the sky have been adapted.

All vehicles are realistic. Models and textures have been developed by using blueprints and photographs of the original vehicles. As a result, the USA DLC depicts quite a piece of American railroad and transportation history.

The USA DLC has been developed in close collaboration with the modding community. We are excited that modders have contributed more than 15 vehicles. It’s great to see such an active modding community. To further support modding activities, together with the release of the USA DLC modding support was significantly extended. Most important, mods can now be enabled and disabled in-game. Also, there are more modding possibilities now.

Because the modding system has been completely reworked, we highly recommend that all players who have installed mods should clean their game installation. To do so, please first delete the “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Train Fever\res” folder and second run the “Verify” option in the Steam client (Steam Client -> Train Fever -> Properties -> Local Files -> Verify Integrity of Game Cache”).

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USA DLC to be released this Friday

Today we officially announce that the Train Fever USA DLC will be released this Friday, February 27. The DLC will be available for free and features a complete American game mode.

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Equivalent to the original European game mode, the player starts in 1850 and experiences more than 150 years of railroad history. More than 50 realistic American vehicles including trains, buses, streetcars and trucks are included.

To make the American experience complete, landscape and towns are modified as well. Wild West stylized American towns spread in a desert landscape and wait for a transport tycoon to be connected to the world. Also, environment elements like trees, streets and the sky have been adapted.

All vehicles are realistic. Models and textures have been developed by using blueprints and photographs of the original vehicles. As a result, the USA DLC depicts quite a piece of American railroad and transportation history.

screen_00An American wild west style town.

screen_004-4-0 General locomotive crossing a river.

screen_00Metroliner electric multiple unit.

The USA DLC has been developed in close collaboration with the modding community. We are excited that modders have contributed more than 15 vehicles. It’s great to see such an active modding community. To further support these activities, together with the release of the USA DLC modding support is significantly extended.

Another performance and bug fix update

Today we have released build 5112. The build fixes a number of serious issues which came up with the last updates (build 5068 / 5080).

Most important, players reported freezes at the end of each game month. We have identified the problem and it is fixed now. Because since the last update, the game runs faster during the months, on certain systems (parallel) simulation calculations which need to be finished at the end of each month were still in progress and caused these freezes.

In addition, several small fixes and improvements are included in this update. Please find the release notes here.

Finally, let us mention that due to a lot of feedback and criticism related to the street main connection feature, we have decided that it will be possible to disable the feature in a future version. However, when doing so, the game will switch to “sandbox” mode (i.e. achievements cannot be earned in such games). Most likely this will be released together with the USA DLC. Also, we are thinking about other ways to “force” the player to maintain the main connections.

Performance boost, various improvements and additional languages

After a short break over the holiday season our team is back at work, and development runs at full steam! We are happy that today another game update has been released.

The update brings a significant performance boost. Many CPU calculations have been optimized, and the most expensive CPU task (pathfinding for people and goods) has been moved to a separate thread. In other words, Train Fever now exploits today’s multi-core processors. As a result, the game runs more fluently and the number of frames per second is higher, especially when playing with 2x or 4x game speed.

After the last update, many players complained about the newly introduced main connection street feature. The most important problem was that players were not able to remove or change streets even when a reasonable bypass was present. Unfortunately there was a major bug which we now have fixed. Let us apologize for this.

In addition there are various improvements like e.g. correct vehicle door animations (now doors open at the platform side only). Another widely requested feature is the ability to reduce the auto save frequency. We have added that and it’s even possible to disable auto save at all. Also the game has been translated to Spanish and Korean.

Please find the complete release notes here.

Finally let us mention that the development of the USA DLC goes according to our plans. You can expect the DLC to be released in the second part of February. We are excited that many modders are contributing to the DLC, and if you still like to take part please check this page.

Thanks for your continuing interest in Train Fever and best wishes!