All our recent patch notes seem to contain a variant of A big update is coming, but we aren’t quite there yet…, so it is with relief that I can tell you this particular butterfly is ready to emerge from its chrysalis, with quality of life fixes in tow.

Create routes directly on the map

No more need to memorise town names! When editing a route, buttons will appear directly on the map to add a town to the end of the route. The old UI remains to fine tune the route, but for the most part you won’t need to use it.

Town screen overhaul

The town screen is an interesting problem for a designer. Iron Roads’ minimalist aesthetic is a core part of its identity, but for the game to have depth, players need information on how their network is performing. The town screen had become a dumping ground for us to add in this detail, and the screen had become crowded over time.

The most important question the town screen can answer is why is my town is not growing? because the answer to that is also the answer to what should I do next?. To simplify this, we’ve added a new issues display up top of the town screen to summarise growth problems. This saves you from reading the growth numbers scattered across this screen like tea leaves. All the information we had previously is still there on the new screen, but has now been collected together in an infographic for clarity.

New map generator

Maps in sandbox used a very small subset of the available landscape tiles, and as a result they were aesthetically lacking. The new generator uses the WFC algorithm to fill shorelines with a wide range of tiles and patterns.

Mini town badges

There has been a lot of feedback that town badges are too large, and cover critical map space. We’ve added a smaller variant of the town badge with just the name that shows at low zoom levels. It will automatically swap back to the previous badge as you zoom in.

Automatic collection of growth rewards

When a town grows, the game rewards you with resources. Previously it was necessary to click to collect this reward. The intention was to ensure players understood where the funds were coming from, but collecting rewards became irritating busy work. The reward indicator still shows in the updated version, but closes automatically, animating the reward into place.

Growth cap (challenge only for now)

It has been pointed out to us that rather than connecting all towns together, the best strategy for success in Iron Roads is to connect only a few towns. Small clusters of connected towns are easier to manage, and grow more quickly. We think it is unfortunate when a transportation game encourages you not to transport. To solve this, we have added a feature where town growth is contingent on a minimum number of other towns it is connected to. This should naturally encourage fully connecting your towns.

For now this is only in the monthly challenge (from september onwards), but if it goes well, we will enable it in other modes.

What is next?

Although numerous, these fixes have not been our primary focus. The majority of our efforts have been directed at unifying the content of Iron Roads in a single game mode. Currently you can play Iron Roads in scenario, freeplay, challenge and sandbox modes. This proliferation of modes has split our focus, and makes the game confusing, so we are looking to merge that functionality and create fewer, better modes.

Testing should start soon(ish), but there are likely a few big update is coming, but we aren’t quite there yet… patch notes before we are ready to release!

Bugfixes

We've fixed:

• A bug with the cargo chooser that could cause issues with custom loadouts

• A crash that could occur after removing a stop from a service

• A bug where clicking the arrivals table could jump to random screens

• A display bug that occurs when jumping to the graphs from the top bar

• A bug with the layout of contracts

• A bug where the speed reported in the train screen can exceed the train's maximum speed