Movement on the Roadmap this month sees several items being removed including Dynamic Billboards, two route releases and the first batches of the preservation updates being released (London Bakerloo Line, Schnellfahrstrecke Köln-Aachen, Main-Spessart Bahn, East Coastway, Hauptstrecke Munchen-Augsburg & Tees Valley Line). We are reviewing these releases and will update further if needed.

New on the roadmap we have “German Route” - a new route we aren’t quite ready to share additional information on at this stage, but we will keep you updated as development progresses.

Horseshoe Curve, developed by Skyhook Games, will bring one of America’s most legendary and dramatic railroad landmarks to life – so, we checked in with the team to discuss areas they have been focusing on with their development.
Since January, Skyhook have really worked hard on the feedback provided by our internal reviews, QA reports, and beta groups.

They have demonstrated a strong desire to ensure Horseshoe Curve is a great route, enjoyed by all. Over the last few months, the team has completely reworked the physics and brake implementation of the ES44AC locomotive, as well as given the audio further tweaks and improvements. On the GP38-2 front, the gameplay side has seen an expansion of available services and tasks in the timetable for players to experience. This includes switching around Juniata and grain runs to and from Cresson interlocking.

With the extra time, more details have been put into key locations along the route, as well as adjustments to improve performance across all hardware platforms. All in we have seen over 100 additional updates that have gone above and beyond our feedback after Christmas.

Here are some screenshots to whet your appetites!

If you are looking forward to getting your hands on this route, we can confirm that Pre-order will be available later today, so keep an eye on our News channels for more information. If you’re keen for a first look, Railfan TV will be showing off the route this Thursday (7th April) with our friends at Skyhook.

The community are already familiar with TSG and the and the amazing work that went into creating the DB G6 Diesel Shunter, we are now thrilled to start sharing information about the upcoming DB BR 420 Electric Multiple Unit. We spoke to Maik Goltz and asked how development is progressing.

The areas of focus at the moment are getting the 3D art looking good and to a high quality while technical development is also ongoing with SimuGraph.

We plan to implement some interesting and unique features for this unit such as individually opening passenger windows, needing to pick up the Reserver key from a shelf before inserting it, or that the cab door cannot be accessed unless the driver's seat is stowed away. We hope this will add an extra layer of enjoyment for the community.

We are also pleased to share that the audio has come from original recordings thanks to the assistance of a real driver.

We hope you like what you see – and we'll check back in with Maik and the team later down the line!

In our previous Roadmap we promised we would update the community on our sound team's progress with Xbox audio improvements.

The approach we had been taking to improve the sounds has proven to be unworkable. We are now looking at new avenues to improve the sounds.

This doesn’t mean we have halted our efforts, and we remain aware of the severity of this issue, and how it impacts our players.

We are currently looking to change the structure of the sound team so that we can ensure the right people are on the task. This does, however, mean that we currently cannot put a release date on the project. We appreciate this is disappointing, but we will update when we have more news.

We understand the community is anxious to know how we are progressing with the 64GB limit that many PS5 users encounter. The DLC fix work is continuing. Since our last update there are no milestones to report but our engineer continues to make progress. We have identified some parts of the work that a second engineer can assist on, and tasked an additional person to support. We’re doing everything we can to bring this in as quickly as possible – and as soon as we have a potential release window, we’ll ensure you are kept up to date.

Whilst we are unable to provide a comprehensive list of issues we’re currently working on, we wanted to list some high-priority issues we’re investigating – this is by no means a comprehensive list.

If an issue you’re experiencing is not listed here, it does not mean it has not been logged and/or being investigated. We prioritise issues based on severity of issue, amount of players likely to be impacted, and complexity of issue – so, a graphical issue may be deprioritised when placed against an issue which directly impacts gameplay (such as a signalling or performance issue, for instance), and these are in general more complex to identify, solve, test, and release. If an issue involves investigating the dispatcher, for instance, tests need to happen on multiple routes to ensure any changes made don’t cause more issues. We will discuss this in more detail in tonight’s Roadmap Stream tonight from 19:00UTC on Twitch or YouTube.

If you are having an issue, please let us know, providing as much information as you can, via our Technical Reports forum, or via a Support Ticket, so we’re able to gather as much information as we can about it.

Please include: * Route/loco issue is being experienced on * Location on the route issue is experienced on * Weather/time of service * Any actions you have completed before the issue occurs (buttons pressed, controls activated, etc.)

Thank you in advance.

In this month’s Development Deep Dive, we spoke to Adam about the Mastery rewards and the Preservation Crew's involvement with the unique scenery tiles you can unlock by completing challenges.

Mastery is a system provided by the Dovetail Live platform offering additional challenges for the player to complete on their favourite routes which in turn provide rewards and achievements for doing so.

Mastery generally has two tiers of challenges - Completing the Tier One challenge grants access to a unique set of decals for use in the Livery Designer.

Completing the Tier Two challenge adds a special scene to the route itself. This can be anything from a nearby street parade or music festival, to escaped animals and hot air balloons.

Proposals all stem from our initial direction, that is to - celebrate the railway or its surroundings.

We do this by researching everything from the history of the area, popular culture references and right down to local features such as whether it's a coastal, mountainous, desert or urban setting and any events that get held in the vicinity. In the case of the Scottish Commuter route, we uncovered stories of UFO sightings and the discussion of a possible future space port in the region.

While the proposal process isn't limited, we remain focused that this is a simulation game and thus any short list ideas must be bound by the realms of reality (and what can be achieved). We take all the proposals and work through their appropriateness by asking various questions such as: What is the link to the route and how obvious is it? (i.e., will it make sense) What's the scale of the proposal (large or small, single, or multiple placement) and of course how much resource will it take to develop. The final idea is usually one that the team gravitates towards having passed all previous scrutiny.

There's no real constant when it comes to these projects. It all depends on the proposal and what it entails. The air display and fireworks seen here required bending some existing tech used elsewhere which then needed time to test and refine as part of the implementation.

While other scenes may simply involve modelling and dressing (such as the bear stalking the campsite).

So far, the Preservation team has completed Mastery scenes for nine routes (not all have been released yet) with a further 3 currently in development.

We started with routes in the Preserved Collection, but over time the main team liked what they saw and began involving us. Our most recent work being the old baggage car under Grand Central Terminal complete with a rat enjoying a slice of pizza. The former being a nod to the famous but incorrect story of an abandoned Presidential rail car in the Park Avenue tunnel while the latter pays tribute to the viral New York subway video of a rat running away with a slice of pizza.

Each project brings unique enjoyment so it's hard to single out one favourite. From signal boxes to movie premieres, rats to rail cars, historic ships to space ships, so long as everyone keeps enjoying them, we'll enjoy providing them. It was certainly fun adding the scurrying rats for the Harlem line though!

These are forthcoming add-ons that are being developed by Dovetail Games. Where details are still being finalised for a release we are including the ID code for it when possible. This will give you a good idea of what to expect. To see what these ID codes mean you can refer to this post

These are forthcoming add-ons that are being developed by teams outside Dovetail Games. Where details are still being finalised for a release, we are including the ID code for it when possible. This will give you a good idea of what to expect. To see what these ID codes mean you can refer to this post

Core features are larger projects. These may be significant new pieces of functionality or changes that will affect players on one or several different platforms. Often requiring more time in development this list may move more slowly than others.

Projects that players will notice but don’t fall into one of the other categories.

Projects that are being tackled by the Preservation Crew. Many of these upgrades will simply be adding the latest game functionality to an older route. The additions or changes in the “upgrade” will include some or all of the following: station departure boards, animated crossings, platform climb-up functionality, improved track rendering, Rush Hour passenger density and appearance, support for RailDriver, contact signaller functionality, minor fixes to scenery, minor fixes to audio, minor fixes to gameplay, minor fixes to menu items, Livery Designer compatibility and Scenario Planner expansion.

Items that have been removed from the Roadmap. This is either because they have been completed, their status having changed or the project having been suspended.

Please join us tonight on Twitch or YouTube (Tuesday 5th April), where we’ll discuss the above (and more!) with Matt, Nat, JD, and Adam from 19:00 UTC.