DECKELEVEN'S BLOG

Here you can find out what we have been up to. Feel free to leave a comment or give your feedback!

New tool: Electrifying Existing Tracks

With update 3.0.5, you can now build an overhead wire over existing tracks (no need to tear down everything).

Select the Building Power Line tool from the main menu, select the Electrify Existing Tracks tool from the left option menu, then drag over existing un-electrified tracks.

Also, if you ever need to create very long tracks or bridges, with version 3.0.5, you can now build tracks and bridges in map mode:

You can build tracks and bridges in map mode

Plus:

  • Improved tutorials for the Electric Dreams campaign
  • The Send Bug Report function is now working for Android11+
  • No more crash when resuming mission 10 after a meltdown (saving again is required)
  • And various other fixes and improvements

We are now working on an improved sandbox system for version 3.1… more on that later.

46 thoughts on “New tool: Electrifying Existing Tracks

  1. Thank you very much. The video tutorial got pop-up earlier when im in youtube and I watch it already. Great update

  2. Well done, thanks for the long area building, now the high-speed track for mission 12 of electric campaign can easier be realised to be optimized to the max

    But on Mission 10 after meltdown, and resuming the mission a green hook is placed at target no. 1. As the city needs more energy than the coal plant delivers it is still not possible to finish the mission, so it might occur that question might come on how to solve the mission after meltdown ๐Ÿ˜‰

    thanks for the electrifying function, I have just made a clean sweep of greenwashing to rebuild all in electric

    1. Damn! This nuclear meltdown mission is also tough on the developer ๐Ÿ˜€
      I’ll see what I can do for the next update.

      1. @Chris L. How many times did you start over? I’m on my ?00th. I just got through making a prioritized list of objectives and hope to beat the count down.
        Wow! What a challenging game. Sure want to get Mission 10 down so I can see Mission’s 11 challengs

  3. *comment moderated*
    DeckEleven: Please keep the conversation civil. Being rude, calling people names or using coarse language will get you banned.

    1. The save is automatic when you change app or quit the mission. There is also an periodic save that can be enable or disable from the main menu (gear cog icon)

    1. Hi. Not great to be honest. Apple is not supporting open and cross-platforms 3D graphics API. OpenGL has been deprecated in iOS 12 and later, in favor of Metal, a proprietary and closed API.
      In addition, developing for iOS requires Apple hardware which we don’t have.
      As a result, porting to iOS would require a major engine rewrite, and thousands of euros of investment.
      I don’t say it’s impossible, but unfortunately it will not be done in an immediate future.

    1. No sorry, tunnels are not in the plan for the time being. I’m currently working on the improved sandboxes.

        1. Yes it is. I meant it’s not in the short term plan. After the sandbox rework, I’ll see what’s next.

    1. Tap on the geothermal plant to open the building view, then tap on the bottom right menu icon. You have a destroy option.
      This works for all objects (trains, stations, substations, power plants…)

  4. Deckeleven, please tell me how to pass power supply to city in mission 8 electric gasoline in electric dreams because there is water between lands please help me

    1. You can cross water with power line only if the distance is short. Just find a proper spot on the shore.
      Also upgrade to version 3.0.7, the tycoon character gives better tips regarding power and electrification

  5. Deckeleven, in future can you please add more rails like monorails, suspension rails, subway rails, trams, etc. in the game ?

  6. I have a little suggestion.

    In trying to electrify the world, at e.g. Mission 7 of Oil aboard, there is no need of fuel, if all runs electric, and at the end I will get stuck, or I build a enormous amount of stocks to get the diesel out of the oil refinery. A Fossil-fuel-power-plant could deal the problem.

    1. Damn, just seen the oil power plant exists, but as a fixed building, so forget my mention above.

      Focus on the sandbox, I can’t wait it to come

      1. Wait, how? I recheck the mission 7 in oil aboard and there’s no diesel power plant there. What version are you now?

        1. not in this mission though. the diesel Power plant is in Mission 8 of electric dream.
          And having it researchable would make this mission a childs play, as you would’t need to pass the river with the electricity.

          now back to suggestions for the great programmer:
          In the final mission the stop-clock resets when leaving and resuming the mission.
          E.g. in mission 6 of the Coal-story, the average mission aims, aren’t resetted, so if you try to increase it by changed building of track you don’t know how good you are compared with the own highscore unless you make it better. Maybe it would be possible to show a best/current mark.?

          for the fans of stats maybe the information of the current mass of a train.? if you chase different trains up a hill it’s quite difficult to determine why some trains stop while others climb up easy

          unless I found it, is there a point in the final mission, where I can connect the car factory with the nuclear plant with electric wires. Purpose is my wish for one complete unified electric net from Scrapyard to Zalem ๐Ÿ˜‰

          1. It’s true that in some missions, stats are not kept after resume. This is usually when these stats are short lived and recomputed quickly after resume.
            I have in the todo list a plan to improve replayability, by adding difficulty levels or secondary goals. Score boards are also a good idea ๐Ÿ˜‰ I’ll add them too to the list.
            I also plan to add better stats at some point, not just the mass, but also power, or even a graph of tractive effort vs speed. It’s not top priority, but it’s something I’d really like to add.

          2. It’s not possible to create a single grid in this mission. Fragmented grids are part of the challenge for the final mission.

  7. Congratulations on your tirelessly effort in Electric Dreams, and updates.

    But please bring back area bulldozing in map view. I miss bulldozing the entire map at once.

    1. I totally agree if I have amassed 3.5 million and things just are not right bulldozing the full.map is easy way to start over. Is a pain the the (donkey) to switch back and forth between the dozens just to move a little on the map to switch back… please and thank you. Love the game having trouble with the meltdown lvl. Can I keep going and finish the level if the reactor goes kaboom?

  8. Many electric dream missions about saving the environment. What if there is an additional replanting of trees that were lost due to construction. This is very serious so please attention to make the earth greener.

    And my little hope there is a choice of rivers in the sandbox.

  9. Nuclear level was awesome, such a challenge! Got it on my third try. But stuck on the last level 12. There seems to be no places or ways to build tracks from the top of the Mesa to the lower areas. I really can’t even start the mission.

  10. Deckeleven, what do you think about “2 stations” in one city? It’ll be good for heavy traffic volume of passenger/freight. Like this one: a city has a heavy volume of passenger, mail and any freight materials. And it has a volume of let say 30-40. And it since some of the terrain/map aren’t able to build long platform and double terminus that will cause long queue, I was thinking that there should be a seperated stations for passengers/mails and for the freight goods/materials around the radius of a said city even if they use huge station to cater heavy volume

    1. It would probably unbalance the current gameplay a lot, and requires a total rework of the research progression and all the missions difficulty balance.
      In the todo list, I have a project to add difficulty levels to adapt to different gameplay styles.
      For instance, in easier mode, you could build a many stations as you want for a city.
      In tougher mode, it won’t be possible for trains to turn around a station, and you’ll need a turn track, or a turntable station.
      It’s a long term project though…

      1. My suggestion are focuses only in sandbox mode. I dont know in mission mode. Turntable station is great. But i can’t imagine how it works, unless train uncouple its railcars to turn around๐Ÿ˜…

        1. indeed a turntable Station would be nice to look at, but I think it’s not to difficult building a turn track๐Ÿ˜‰

          Now a little suggestion, I don’t know where the error is, but the 1. solution is how I would like to have it, no. 2 is the way it disturbes me.

          1. When I want to pass at a full huge station, I can build a rail by doubling existing rails.

          2. At a huge traction substation the doubling of the existing rail is blocked๐Ÿ˜”

          1. Substations with an electric gantry cannot be “doubled”. The gantry pillar would be in the middle of the track.

        2. I found an awesome turn track by doing a double existing track four times in the same place then switch to single track mode and connect the main line to the outside most copy. Easy peasy. There must be at least three copies between the staton track and the one you are connecting to.

  11. First, congratulations on the Electric Dreams module. I finally completed level 12 before yesterday after more than a week on it. I almost gave up a couple of times as my financial situation was spiralling downward but managed to recover and continue. I managed to get the passenger train run in less than 75sec in the first full run. The first run was aborted as I had missed a short section that wasn’t electrified!
    As a curious note, I did all the Electric Dreams missions without ever using any diesel trains!

    Now I’m enjoying a sandbox mission with the Electric Dreams prize and playing with oil-powered trains again and here I came up with something. Would it be possible to have an option to convert fuel depots to their equivalent electric substation without having to delete the depot and connecting lines and rebuilding everything? Just a thought.
    I would also like to give my support to the option already proposed elsewhere of being able to send a train to the depot at will and not only when deleteing lines.

    Thanks for the great game and I’m looking forward to those improvements in the sandbox area.

    1. Congratulations for beating the game ๐Ÿ˜‰
      I’ll add your idea about converting fuel depots to the todo list. I’m not sure it will be possible though, because the two buildings have different tolerances.

  12. The reply you gave to Octa, regarding stats for traction etc, is similar to a suggestion I sent recently from the game (I also mentioned that one of the trains doesn’t refuel in the Hub Stations Railopedia topic). The idea was, basically, to have some kind of info that would help with inclines as well as a tool that would display the incline of a section of track, allowing players to make intelligent guesses rather than trial and error. I’m looking forward to the sandbox improvements and I have succumbed and bought Electric Dreams way before finishing Oil Aboard or even the original steam levels. The only real problem is that it’s far too engrossing! It’s really hard not to end up playing for hours. Tweaking, tidying up or improving the network (that’s gone badly wrong once or twice! If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! So bad I had to start over. Mind you reading here made me realize frequent restarts aren’t that uncommon. I thought it was just me ๐Ÿ™‚).

    1. Hi again ๐Ÿ™‚
      The thing is this kind of tool could only show static data (maximum mass and power of the train, length and grade of an incline, …). So, it cannot help the player guess if his railroad will work, because knowing if climbing a slope is possible is not a static problem, but a dynamic problem: it also involves the train speed and dynamic mass. For example, a train with an initial speed can climb a particular slope easy-peasy, but with half the initial speed, it will get stuck in the middle.
      That’s why designing the railroads for a climb is more important than the grade of the slope itself (making sure train have enough speeding length, making sure that traffic jams are not possible before or during a climb, making sure train won’t get stop at signals before climbing, and so on…)
      You can read this post for more details on the physics involved:
      http://www.deckeleven.com/post-never-asked-questions-about-train-physics

    2. Besides, there is already a tool! ๐Ÿ˜‰
      you can use the map contour lines as a visual tool to evaluate a slope grade. If the lines are close together, the slope is steep. If the lines are distant, the slope is gentle.

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