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Hello everybody,
I stumbled upon an article with some interesting declarations of “Urban Games” (the developers) about the coming features they are working on. I just sum up in short version what can be found in the original article (see below):
The first priorities are
- get the game playable on as much as different hardware possible. A few patches have been released already.
- get the LINUX and MAC version ready (done last week)
- get the majority of bugs out of the game and speed it up (eg with better parallellization)
- a better “getting started” guide
Further they summed up a coupled of features which are high on their todo list:
- waypoints
- better landscape textures
- cars stop at rail cossings
- being able to lay road over rail
- more and harder achievements
- more surrounding sounds to live up the world
- traffic lights
- longer industry chains
For (a little) further information I refere to the article (see link below). It’ a little sad that such interesting information is not mentioned on this official website/forum, but one has to stumble by chance upon it somewhere on the very vast internet. But I’m a very happy anticipator! 😉
source:
http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/train-fever/artikel/train_fever,51449,3078239.html
So for us to be able to select the path ourselves and which station track the train should stop at is not interesting for the?
If you have cities A B C Â and
trains from A -> B uses the track that C should have used and
trains from C -> B have to use the track that A should have used.
Since the game picks shortest path first and then pick them in order, what you did was created line A-B first and it ended up wrong and then you did C-B. Since the game pick the track in order you delete the lines and create C-B first and then A-B. So you have a small degree of control.
It is irritating as hell though.
You have to run the game and complete building everything. THen you send everything to the depot and clear a who region from all train traffic. And then you delete all lines.
THen you drink coffee for sharpness and pour in a little vodka for mental stability and calmness. Then when you feel right you put on the thinking cap, hold the toung right in your mouth and carefully start creating the routes again checking these yellow and blue and green and cyan lines carefully. And after you done tho whole region you hopfully have tricked the game into picking the right station track.
Having paths like this is not bad since this is how it works IRL. There is a time table, and a chosen path for the train, the passengers expect train 1010 going from A to B to be ontime and always arrive at platform 10 same time every day around the year. It is out on the line though the signalling system is mostly used to separate trains but also if necessary can lead them onto some spare track if there is a traffic jam, or if the first train is a slow low priority train and a fast high speed train is coming from behind, then there is a need to get off the main line and let the other train pass.
There is so much that is missing.
But I a feeling they will have a long way to go to implement signals properly. I saw some evidence how the game works 2 days ago. I had a new double track with switches but hadn’t put out all signals yet. There were two trains on the line on collision course. Even if there were no signal the other train understood it courd not proceed. And then I though Aha!
Signals, are used to affect which tracks are to be used. The path that the line takes. BUT, no train ever watch these signals.
What the game does while you are creating the line is looking at the path only after the path has been or as it is being created. And then it detects the switches and after it has found those the game places it’s own …. well you can not call them signals …. it is just “collition avoidance code”.
This is why people one the forum have said that on the exit of stations there are invisible signals. But there NO signals in the game. The game do not look at signals while the trains run, cause the game don’t need them, it has its own collition avoidance code.
Cause if it were not like this then the trains should just contine through the switch if there is no signal RIGHT? There is no red signal that means go ahead and drive….. but no the train has a sixth sense another train is coming.
So basically it seems the trains a re running the same path following code as trams and lorries etc.
A: A create the exact route
B: now just follow this path and stop for other veicles and stop at stations and other passenger / cargo stops.
So I have a feeling this design is very deep down in the game. A line can only have one route and can not use alternative routes.
I think I am sarting to geth a feeever……
I want my money back if they don’t implement proper signalling. How can train games evolve backwards?
signalling is working properly. they’ve just implemented a pathfinding logic that also works in some cases without signals, because not everybody knows what signals do and you would not want thousands of casual players complain about their trains running into each other because they don’t know how to place signals correctly.
signalling in train fever is actually evolved from previous games in such a way, that in train fever signals work prototypically. but they are just signals, they don’t have an influence on the train’s pathfinding because thats not something that signals do. pathfinding will be much improved very soon with the introduction of waypoints.
maybe they will improve pathfinding one day so that you can also specify alternative waypoints in order to allow trains to switch to a clear track.
Often I read that “realism” is a important part of the dev’s. So in my opinion it would be nice if the positions of factories are based on the hight map. For example, that a Oil-Refinery is not positioned at the top of a mountain.
Also I would be happy if the numbers of factories compared to mines are better balanced.
I’m sorry about my awful english 😉
Yep.. regarding better parallellization of the huge program calculations, the developers have also announced that they are working on dividing these calculations over several CPU cores. And that it is for the developers already clear that they shall create more Train Fever developments. For the future (but not earlier then 14 months after now) it is very probable that the next better Train Fever version shall be developed. More information from the developers regarding their further developments shall be announced in the next month.
Add platforms is also very important feature, which is not listed. I hope that this wonderful team of developers will add this feature too.
Adding platforms, track crossings or double slips, and track upgrade possibility to high speed track are features that were not mentioned in the article. I assume they are not on the current and immediate todo-list of the developers. I guess we’ll have to be patient… 😉
They already talking about Train Fever 2 in the article, I prefer just a DLC for the extra functionality
I hate DLC’s. Give them 2x a half and carry twice the price… same as early access. behavior (I’m happy not in train fever)
According to POV, some features (besides those that the devs have mentioned) should be implemented before any DLC is planned.
These are
station upgrade
track upgrade
platform choice
option to disable snap to road
I appreciate that the developers have listed some of the most demanded features into their roadmap. But still there are some more like to above, that are required to make it a perfect game.
I can imagine, that they want to re-write a lot of code to make a number of feature possible, that may take in the current code too much effort to change. But that is just my guessing. Call them eager and motivated, because they seem to want to go on with this game, and bring it to another level. It personally like to see this version One bugged out, fleshed out and packed with stuff, so we can have a ball! THEN let them take a year or two to make the uber-version of the same, that I will probably buy again.
Totally agree with @yeol
A bug free and polished game will be a welcome to the users, after which I am willing to wait for a year for another version. But for now, i am desperately waiting for a patch (I check everyday), Â that will add some missing features in the game.
I’m all for them addressing some of the larger shortfalls of Train Fever by aiming towards a sequel rather than attempting to patch it into the existing game. Train Fever is fantastic as it is, but it could very obviously benefit from some deep core changes in the game design, and that’s not really possible on an existing game. Working on a sequel that takes the original game as a base to build upon would mean they could potentially make far more headroom quicker than if they try to tweak the existing code.
What would really make this a great direction to take would be if they offered that sequel to those who bought the original game at a reduced price – expansion-pack prices – around the €12-15 mark. That would reward fans for buying into their earlier, less polished work, while still freeing them up to make the more sweeping changes it sounds like they’d like to make.
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