Experimental v.0.6
A long time has passed since the last blog post, but fear not, I have been working on new features all this time. My goal with this blog post is to introduce most of what is new and invite you all to try these features out in the experimental branch. v.0.6 is still in development and there are probably quite some bugs that need to be fixed, but just to be safe turn on autosave and make it every 5 minutes to not lose any meaningful progress.
To enable the experimental branch go to Sweet Transit Properties -> Betas and select experimental in Beta Participation.
Before we dig in I just wanted to mention:
- All old saves will be unplayable for the most part. You can load and fix them, but with all of these new features it will not be easy or fast to do.
- There are old tutorials, but they are outdated and only partly working. This will be the main feature I will be working on.
- The Paris preset is outdated.
- Please join the discord server to share your progress, solutions and frustrations. This will help tremendously in polishing v.0.6 before pushing it live.
- Enable advisor in settings at least for the start of the game.
Roads
Let's start with Roads! Roads now will be global same as with rails. They will be required by all structures such as stations to be used by workers and have goods transferred. If you wish you can connect everything with roads even if that is not the most efficient way to go.
Work
With global roads, workers will only go to local workplaces in range. In v.0.5 workers could go to any workplace connected to a settlement no matter the distance. Now workplaces connected to any part of the settlement get workers automatically from any residence in that settlement. You can have multiple settlements sharing workers, industries around residences and mix everything up as you desire. Furthermore, workers will start to get tired if working in settlement workplaces and will require replacing. If workplaces are out of range then stations will be needed to transport them. This will allow settlement to have "tram" systems to balance workforce.
Stations
I am sad to say, but stations will be able to connect to any number of workplaces in the road range. This hits the most people who love stations connecting to a single thing. This change is required to allow workers' management in settlement. If there is a sawmill, coal mine and water tower in range then the station will allow trains to swap workers with those workplaces. Stations can be seen as a workplace finder.
Workers
Workers got more intelligent too. Now swap workers action will balance the workforce between multiple stations. You can populate and mix workers from all settlements everywhere on the map. Once they are tired they will hop through trains until they can get back home no matter how long the trip will take.
Travelers
Travelers got this brain addition as well, once they know where they want to go they can take as many trains as needed to their destination. Stations that are not connected to anything can act as hubs for workers or travelers. Furthermore, travelers' system is reworked completely to allow much more predictable income and travelers generation.
General Storage
Stations will no longer teleport goods from trains to connected structures. Because stations will have their own general storage that will be able to take any type of good. Capacity will depend on station type and size. This allows to have stations that mimic classification/shunting yards with trains unloading and loading from it. General storage will self-balance, but you will be able to specify how many different types of goods to reserve space for.
Local Goods
The next big change is that goods will be localized to structures now. This means that instead of settlement in general houses goods, but structures themselves. Goods will have to be transferred by workers from one structure to another. Sawmill to station, fishing dock to storage to market and so on. This brings logistics to a whole new level with even more interesting settlement designs.
Courier
For goods transferring you will need couriers that will transfer goods from one storage to another. Storage is anything that contains goods. Courier also provide more control in what to transfer and how much to take. They will be required for the Warehouse or settlements.
Residences
Residences will take goods from storage in range instead of the settlement goods storage that does not exist anymore. By default, market will be preferred due to its superior range, but taking goods directly from potato farms or fishing docks is possible.
Warehouse
Warehouse build block range will be removed allowing settlements near it. This will change the start of the game quite a bit to accommodate new mechanics because now even the warehouse will require workers. Players will either transfer goods from stations with couriers or have production facilities transfer goods to the Warehouse through roads. Also, you will be able to build multiple warehouses now with separate storages, but only one Warehouse can be active at a time. This is mainly for easier relocation or having backup storage in case everything goes wrong.
Trading
Warehouses will allow the exchange of goods for money. This functionality can be found in the tooltip and is only available once you are producing goods that you wish to trade.
Rails
Rails can be built on roads as well with some limitations. You can have trains that are going through the settlement and handling goods in the middle of it. This will probably be a must for bigger settlements that need a lot of goods transferred inside them. I definitely use this system a lot to transfer fish from the docks deeper into the village. However, this blocks people's movement when the train is passing, which is not good for goods that are transferred by road.
Train Stop
With the ability to build rails on roads compactly inside settlements a new compact station needed to be created named "Train Stop". While this station does not store a lot of goods it is perfect to transfer workers inside settlements or to other stations.
TT10 and TT20
New smaller trains are also included in v.0.6 that go hand in hand with train stops. They are basically more compact DMU10 siblings.
Honorable Mentions
There are other minor features that I have been working on. For example, now you can remove mountains for a reasonably high price and carve new paths in mountainous regions. A copy-paste tool to copy instructions for carriers using Shift mouse clicks as other games do. Improved tooltips for workers to also show where they are from. Routes UI path visualization taking into account requirement signals. And multiple other smaller UI and balance improvements with bug fixes.
This will be the biggest gameplay change build with features that I wanted to add for a long time. Join the experimental branch and provide feedback to help Sweet Transit become more enjoyable! Big changes usually mean some big problems, but I believe we can fix anything if we know what needs fixing.
