Train Fever
Less traffic jams, a new bus and... waypoints!
Those who like complete control over a line's route can now add waypoints between stations. You can use existing signals as waypoints or build custom ones (also available in the signals menu). This functionality can also be employed to force a line to use a particular platform at a station.
Then, we've made some improvements regarding the traffic simulation. You might have observed the situation where a crossing is used by only a single car at a time. This was one cause for traffic jams and shouldn't happen anymore. Nevertheless, if you find one of your cities entirely stuck, you may free it from cars by upgrading some of the streets. This will send a lot of people and cars home.
Finally, a new bus (MAN SL 192) has been added to fill the gap between the Mercededs-Benz O 6600 (1951) and the Berkhof Duvedec (1989).
Please find the complete release notes here.
A note for modders: you can now add custom signals and waypoints (so that they appear in the menu) by including the appropriate metadata in the model file. See the existing files for reference.
Stability patch released
The patch brings improvements and resolves several issues and crashes. In addition to fixes for crashes which can occur (very rarely) on any system, stability on Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite, Intel graphics cards and AMD Radeon 3xxx/4xxx has been improved.
Also, Lua scripts are now handled in a more robust and user friendly way. As a consequence, modders can modify the game more comfortable, and people who have installed mods get better error messages if anything went wrong with a specific mod.
Please find the complete release notes here.
We know this is not a patch that brings new features, and we understand that many of you are waiting for that. However, we feel responsible that everyone who meets the minimal system requirements can play the game without issues. This is why we had to spend some time to develop this patch.
In the next days and weeks, we focus on developing new features as already announced earlier. For those who still experience issues, please send us an email (http://www.train-fever.com/about/). However, please first make sure the issues are not related to mods, your computer meets the minimal system requirements and that the latest drivers are installed.
We look forward to further developing the game!
Performance boost and a large list of improvements
Most important, the update (build 4519) brings the long awaited performance boost. Navigation, rendering, simulation and line manager performance have been significantly improved. The game now runs more fluently and big lags are history. However, note that the first view still needs some processing time, but as soon as a region has been explored the game runs fast.
In addition to that, there is a large list of improvements and bug fixes. For instance, railway signals are now animated, the main menu shows a progress bar when loading a save game, and buildings now show detailed facades consistently when zoomed in. As always, many improvements have been motivated by community requests.
Please find the complete release notes here.
You may wonder what we do next. Still there is a large to-do list. One top priority issue is way points or at least line track selection at stations. Also, track construction should be more convenient. In addition there is a list of details like e.g. make cars waiting at railroad crossings. There will also be more performance optimization (especially for very large scenes) and finally, we also want to implement the widely requested vehicle auto replacement feature.
You can be sure that we continue to listen to the community and improve the game, and we are confident to present a next game update soon.
Thanks for your continuing interest in Train Fever!
Track upgrade tool, robustness improvements and Dutch translation
The update brings the long awaited high-speed track upgrade tool. Thus, standard tracks can now be converted to high speed tracks with a tool similar to track electrification.
In addition to the Dutch translation, the update contains several robustness improvements. Most important, save games are more reliable now.
In particular, a bug which caused corrupt save games on Mac OS X 10.7 and 10.8 was fixed. Also, textures and crash dumps are now handled in a better way and therefore, the game runs more stable.
Please find the complete release notes here.
Based on the discussions on Steam and on the website forums, still a large list of improvements is currently work in progress. One very important task is performance optimization which will most likely be included in the next game update.
Also let us mention that McAfee anti virus finally white listed Train Fever! Thanks to all players who reported the issue to McAfee as well. Still we don’t understand why McAfee needed almost four weeks for this step ;) anyway the issue is now solved.
Save game compression, freight waggon fill level display and more languages
First and most important, we have implemented save game compression. As a consequence, save games are about three times smaller now. This was one of the top community requests.
Second, freight train waggons now display the amount of freight loaded. In other words, the fill level of open freight waggons (coal, iron ore) is now visualized.
Third, we have translated the game into additional languages. The game can now also be played in French, Japanese and Chinese.
Please find the complete release notes here.
As a next step, we focus on performance improvements. We are aware that some players experience performance problems especially with medium and large maps. We are confident that we can deliver a major performance update soon.
Thanks for your continuing interest in Train Fever! You can be sure that more patches, improvements and also some new features will be released in the next weeks.
Stability patch released
Please note that development has recently not been running at full steam as part of the team is at Tokyo Game Show. However, you can be assured that the updates will keep coming.
The release notes can be found here.
Train Fever now available for Mac and Linux
Existing Windows players can install the game on Mac and Linux systems as well. New players always buy the game for all platforms.
We are excited that Train Fever is now available for all major platforms. In the next days, we focus on improving the game as announced in the “Post release plans” update.
A first major stability patch
We found out that the game was not playable due to crashes for about 1-2% of all customers, even with up-to-date graphics card drivers. With this first major stability patch we hope to bring this percentage down. However, please note that the patch will not bring this percentage to zero, so we kindly ask you for patience even if the patch does not help for your specific system. You can be sure that we do all possible efforts also in the next days.
Please find the release notes of the patch here.
Still we would like to emphasize that you should update the graphics card driver as soon as you experience a crash. For that, please use one of the following links (don’t use Windows auto update etc.):
AMD graphics cards
NVIDIA graphics cards
INTEL graphics cards
Also we would like to remind you to be patient especially during the first launch of the game. Due to texture compression and similar tasks the first launch can take several minutes. Just wait and don’t kill the game.
In the next days, we’ll continue to work on the announced improvements (“Post release plans”).
Thanks for your interest in Train Fever and best wishes,
Basil Weber
Urban Games
Post release plans
Let us say a big thank you to everyone who bought the game. You can be sure that we care about you and your input also in the future.
We are excited that there are a lot of discussions about Train Fever in the Community-Hub. Of course, there are also critical votes which we take very serious. This project was based on community feedback since the very beginning (crowdfunding) and it’s absolutely sure that we will carefully listen to the community also in the future.
This said, it should be clear that there will be serious updates for the game in the next weeks. You may wonder how our plans for the next days look like. Let us give a short summary:
- Improve performance
- Reduce size of save game files
- Optimize support for people who cannot start the game
- Various small visual polish and UI improvements
- Provide Mac and Linux versions
Official release notes for every update will be published. A first small patch will already be published later today.
Thanks again for your interest in the game and for your feedback!
Best wishes,
Basil Weber
Urban Games