Rail Route has released version 1.0, which is on sale for the next couple of days here at Steam. I’m probably going to pick it up later today. For me, the most fun part of Factorio is train-scheduling, and that is often how I feel about transport-tycoon games too. This game drills down on just that: you schedule trains, you place sensors and signals, you unlock techs to automate things, you take contracts to earn money, you build rail lines, etc. The game models real-world rail networks, but the game has a very stylized look, like an air-traffic control simulator but with trains.
Has anyone played it? I know @Malkael has been thinking about this game – I learned about it from one of his many excellent posts in the A-Train thread. In any case, I’ll post my first impressions later today.
I’m on the verge of picking it up, but was planning to watch some Squirrel videos from earlier in development and maybe some newer stuff to see what’s changed before committing. There are a lot of comments in the Steam reviews about dodgy UI. But it definitely seems like my sort of thing.
Yeah, the game gets good reviews, but some users do mention that some UI elements are too small and some too big. I’ve been watching the devs’ broadcasts the last few days – there’s one going on now – and I can see some truth to that. I’m hoping there are hotkeys to make things easier. Maybe I’ll ask.
Update: I asked on the Discord, and someone said most actions do have hotkeys associated with them. I’m glad to hear that.
Here are a couple screenshots. In this one, the player reached tier 3 without building any track. It caught my eye because it includes Dartford, and I used to ride the train through Dartford to Sidcup in a byegone era.
Hmm, the tutorialisation just kind of stops just before introducing sensors. There are videos telling you how to build them, but nothing on how to actually use them in a network. Guess I’m going to be watching some more Youtube videos.
I bought it too, and so far I’m enjoying it. I’m also working through the tutorial, but I’m a bit behind you – I just got the Auto-Block, and I’m buying a new platform at Podboda. My new line to Holosevice seems inefficient, and I’m afraid it’s going to cause delays, so I need to figure out how to edit my timetables. But maybe I’ll just go with the flow and see if the tutorial shows me how to do that.
Maybe you can ask your question on the Discord? It seems reasonably active.
That’s a pretty good Let’s Play! Set in a city I know well, to boot. I still haven’t gotten to sensors yet, but it’s good to have his explanation.
So what’s the main gameplay mode here? Beating individual maps? Endless mode? Don’t get me wrong, I see lots of maps I’m itching to try – I’m just curious whether that’s the main focus.
I’m now sorta stuck in the tutorial. I can’t reach tier 2 because my routes are so bad. But I don’t know how to wipe out all my routes and trains and reset things. Can I just cancel all my contracts or something?
Also, is it not possible to build parallel tracks? I mean, I know we can add extra tracks, but they take a ton of room, and sometimes there isn’t space for them. Even in 1850, wasn’t double-tracking routinely a thing?
Okay, I got to tier easily this time. I realized that I wasn’t seeing all of the Contracts UI! The crucial right side of the window, where one can adjust or cancel contracts, could only be reached by a horizontal scroll bar because my UI scale was set too large. Once I adjusted the scale, I suddenly understood how to take control of my contracts. Then I bought the upgrades to allow me to adjust contracts, and I easily straightened out my schedule. A few extra signals and track helped too.
