CoS February Devlog - Knuckle Couplers, Draft Gear, and Automatic Airbrakes!
This month, we're excited to show off the operational fun and nuances of working with knuckle couplers and automatic airbrakes, alongside some modernized locomotives and cars. There's some serious fun to be had with the way these systems work and we hope you all enjoy!
Comments (90)
Question: In European brake pipes, closing the angle cock dumps the air behind the angle cock. You'd need to close them at the same time to bottle air. Is it the same in the US?
In the new update currently in beta for railroads online I wanted to ask. Would there be a survey tool that we could use for checking the grade of a proposed track route. (Also you can cut out the first part, up to you lol)
i have a few questions for a future Q&A: 1:Will there be a simulation of flatspots it always bugs me that no train sim (that i know of) has it. 2:will the tracks need maintanance? 3: How is the adhesion calculated just 1 value based on weather and vehicle or is there stuff like leaves on the track or dust accumulations on tunnel exits that gets slick when it rains...? 4: will there be brake failiures like overcharged brakes, self releasing brakes or overheating brakes. 5 Is this game better at communicating the "brake feel" In other games it very hard to confidently brake since the tempomat is basically the only way to judge braking power. i feel like you could give a bit more feedback by applying the g-forces to the camera and maybe slightly changing the fov...
Will there be any demo build released when you get close to release date?
im curious also, building on that. if patrons will get a tiny demo build before the rest, but then again. i dont know, i can only ask
What will the era for equipment be?
I think it's 1869 - 1969
Do ye have any indication on how much power this game will take to run. Will it require a beefy computer or will it run off a pretty ordinary laptop??
I'd imagine it'll have decently high system req's if I had to guess. I'm sure something like a GTX 1070 or equivalent would be sufficient
I know it’s a minor part of the game, but are we going to get to see any diesel locomotive customization any time soon? The game looks fantastic btw, I’m very excited for it.
Two things: is it possible to get a video clip next time of the coupler action? I'm imagining that watching them make the hook from the POV of a switchman, or riding the platform of a caboose would be incredible. I love riding the platform and watching the couplers move around inside each others knuckle, and watching them uncouple.
The other thing is if you can comment on plans or work you've done to make sure CoS will be playable around the world. I'm guessing Steam handles a lot of this, but as someone who travels a LOT for work (and that's where I'd be playing CoS) there's multiple countries with content restrictions that make all kinds of things not work--and I'd hate to be unable to play CoS just because of a content restriction if there's any way around it. I just spent 4 days where the only thing that worked was Youtube, the NGDF and for some odd reason--Bing. So I've given this country content restriction a lot of thought because man did I get bored.
Wow this looks amazing. Question, will the day/night cycle be different depending on the seasons and locations of the maps?
Also, will there be different types of track? Like some cheap but very bad track vs nicely laid expensive track
Longer dev vlogs with more gameplay footage please. This game is gona be amazing. Looks great keep up the good work. :]
When you first start out a new save/world how are you guys going to implement a starting locomotive? Will it be one specific engine like Betsy in RRO, a sum of money that you can use to get one or more locos, or will you have a few options for locomotives?
Beautiful, but is it possible to derail once in a while like in the earlyer Demo Videos? Thought it was a good Note to end a Video on tonnage First and safety last.
It is! Right now the trains resist derailing more than I'd like. The way rolling stock interacts with the track is being revisited and one of the goals is to make them a little less magna-traction-y, haha. - Jake
Are you guys thinking about adding some tank engines?
I'm so excited for this to come out
20:48 To quote the tallest man in Colorado: “Shit, the Grande’s gonna be pissed, don’t tell dad!”
When choosing a map for a new save in CoS, will there be a description or a preview?
That would be nice
I sit here and watch this and say thanks for Keume pissing y'all off enough to get you to build this. Could had been part of RRO, but now it's even better. Love how much fun you can have switching a few cars in a small space with a few cars. Well done.
Q&A question: It's been said on the discord that locomotives won't be locked to specific maps, but will there be other factors that will change from map to map. Ex differences in fuel prices or income due to geographic limitations?
Another great one, can't wait to get my hands on it! And did I spy goats in the stockpens?
25:54 did the side of the boxcar say 'eat shit'?! XD
Wow! Really neat to see all of the air brake nuances, especially with how they've been implemented. Gotta say, I'm excited. Question for the Q&A however: Given the proliferation of devices like the Steam Deck, what would the answer be on trying to make these systems compatible with the game as well? I have several friends who's only way to play games on Steam with me is via the Steam Deck, so needless to say, I'm rather concerned about their ability to play the game. Take care and keep up the astounding work!
Hi, are there any plans to implement a car callout to AI / Player engineer? Especially when running solo but also use full for non voice chat co-op. Solo play: Example, when spotting for an industry and using the numb pad for car counts. Entering 5 will have the AI stop after 5 unless you give a new callout, for Half a car one could do .5 and a bogie .2. Co-op play: If the Brakeman and Engineer are players, have the car callout be a txt popup for the engineer at the top of their screen for example. And for *tut* and giggles when typing 0.5 or 0.25 will give callout for half/quarter mile, with cockatoo sounds playing form the cab ;D ( I don’t remember which of the 2 was the callout for Mark that one time). On another note: You, yes you that is part of Studio 346. I just want to say Great work! What you and the rest of the group have put to together so far is nothing short of amazing! :D Sincerely Bjorn.
that poor flatcar with precision like that you could work for the B&O
I like the crosshair change for once you start to get more familiar with the trains, but the option to have the highlight may be really useful for when you get a new engine and want to see where the different parts are, how they connect, etc. Definitely do not want the highlight permanently though, as once you know where things are, it is just too much visual clutter and can easily get obnoxious. Another great video btw, I love seeing the passion and the small details so much. Also, once the "train game" part is fully finished... when do we get to play with it? ;P
I can see the value of having both highlights with the x or the yellow outline. I like the x better and would like it to be Yellow too. so white till it is pointed then the x turns Yellow. You get use to seeing the white so dot or x might be a overlook event. It could help if the X went to large then back to small pulsing and yellow. Because I am just a toy train player I honestly like the Air Brake and would love to try to learn and master that. NOW for the fun part. after watching you jump and quick move around not giving me the time I need to soak in the areas you were looking at. I got so motion sick I had to go lay down in the bed room and the wife thought I was ready for play time and I had to...you know... while sick and dizzy cause of you so ESD making me do that.
Hey devs, Kenosha productions here and Im wanting to say great job on the game so far, but my question is will there be only one diesel in the game besides the D&SNG diesel that was shown in the trailer? (p.s. its my birthday today circa March 1st)
The two confirmed diesels are the ALCO DL535 and a Davenport 30 tonner.
I'd appreciate it if you guys could host the pre-release on youtube too instead of here. The bitrate I get is truly atrocious when watching full screen on a 1080p monitor.
Personally, I prefer the highlighting instead of the “x” crosshair. Highlighting is far more intuitive and shows that you can move something. The “x” is ridiculous, but having the option to select either/or/both would be a nice feature to have in settings, but I would prefer the highlighting or both, but NOT the “x” alone. Highlighting is much more intuitive and useful. I don’t mind a setting that allows you to turn highlighting off and/or turn the “x” on, but I personally would prefer highlighting.
I'm glad the ture ES&D Boxcars are official now LOL
Just realized we need to have the AB and K Brakes as options. Those are ones I've known about most in my railroad studies!
Everything you saw in the video had K control valves - separate from locomotive brake schedules. We will probably have some cars with AB down the line.
Noticed that the front driver on the locomotive had a tendency to physically shift off of the track on some of the tighter corners. Is this due to the way tracking is accomplished?? Tangentially, will increased friction be simulated around corners? I find you have to open the throttle quite a bit to "drive through" sharper corners on actual equipment but do not believe that has been simulated in any media yet
On the 10-26D that front driver is blind. This is accurately reflected in how it tracks on tight curves :) The effect is a little exaggerated because the curves on the E&P are much tighter than what the prototype 10-26D would have run on. - Jake
Thank you! The crosshair+label is a much nicer way to see what I'm looking at. Or perhaps for accessibility reasons if the highlight remains an option, maybe just highlight the actual handle of said control with the label appearing right next to it. No need to see the entire linkage for the johnson bar underneath the locomotive, for example.
I know it might seem a little far out there, but could we get horses? Not immediately, but like when/if multiplayer comes, cause then you could have a proper train highjacking rp. Fun fact. The first Gif was of a horse, to prove a bet whether all four of a horses hooves lift off the ground during a gallop. (Answer: yes they do.)
I'm torn on this tbh - it would be fun to do things like ride a horse around a map especially in multiplayer - but horses are notoriously difficult to make in games, even with more stylized graphics. I'd feel like you'd be wanting Red Dead 2 level horses to match the high quality of the trains in the game, and that sounds like a massive ask for me. Maybe they could find some way to make it work - But considering that animating people is already going to be a big task I'm sure, I'm sure that if something like horses ever come to the game, it'll be a good ways after release. Cars would be a neat feature that hopefully would be a bit easier for the team, given that it's something mechanical. I think honestly it might be more fun, as you might be pushing them to survive off roading an end up totaling one lol
Will there be a toggle for the crosshairs or the highlight? Like a setting for cross both highlight type of thing also, will there be exploding physics? It would make you binning it with the tank car so much funnier hopefully last question. Will there be a 3rd person view in the train with controls as an example, the railroads online one
I like the idea of a setting / option to enable crosshairs/x or highlighting. Because I prefer highlighting and would like to keep highlighting enabled for visibility / usability sake.
Loving the work, Mark and Studio 346 team. The passion and polish you display on the operations side at this point in development make me excited to see what the final product will be like. I'll finally be able to steam in the off-season! :D So, now that you've got your automatic air brake simulation more or less licked, how long before we see you folks tackle vacuum? ;) :P
why do you bounce when you crouch?
Question for the team, will different time periods have different kinds of upgrades you can have to rolling stock, such as airbrakes or knuckles? Will they cost different amounts depending on the time? Great Job on the game, and thanks in advance!
nice, i hoped for a derailment, but oh well. Can't have it all!
Can’t wait to get my hands on this game. Any chance to see some track building in a dev vlog soon?
Gosh the chuffs sound so much better, fantastic work Mark. They still have a sort of bleeding together feeling at speed, but still, it sounds much improved. I'm also loving the audio work on the brakes and couplers - What I don't love but in a good way is that visceral pain I felt at the cars scraping together, that horrible nails on a chalkboard of "oh gosh, I f***ed up." Really looking forward to seeing more of the gameplay aspects of CoS!
This coming more and more amazing guys. Thanks for this devlogs ✌️and keep up the good work can’t wait to try this in a near future hopefully :)
Another great update guys! Great to see all the "train" elements worked out, but I'm definitely excited to see more of the "game" elements! Some thoughts: Personally I MUCH prefer the crosshair when interacting with controls, but I can see why some people would prefer the highlight So something to consider for gameplay/accessability options perhaps, whether tied to difficulty settings or an individual option? Shift+clicking for the air hoses is a great QoL mechanic! While still having the option to do everything one at a time for uber-realism if you want to Other gameplay mechanics like riding the ladders and the fly-cam are looking great! It wasn't mentioned, but are we able to interact with things (in particular angle cocks and couplers) from the fly-cam? Another thing to potentially have available/locked based on difficulty settings? Loved the flying switch - after all, what good is a train game if I cant do all the sketchy shenanigans that I can't (or shouldn't) do IRL?
I love so much of what is going on. The sound of winfmd on the top of the hill, the ripple of it through the grass, the way you got started on a hill later in the video by backing up and picking up the cars, the fly cam, and the fact that the whistle echo changes based on where you are on the landscape. Only one question today, will we be able to put some ties in the end of the sidings? The track ending just looks...naked. I like that you mentioned Ed RT3 again, still playing it dreaming of COS.
Even in Century of Steam, “Oh kicking? I WANNA DO SOME KICKING!” Seriously, this game does not cease to amaze the inner 5 year old that dreamed of being a steam engineer. Well done and heres to another month
for the controls, i feel like the highlighting should be available as an accessibility option. some people will certainly find the crosshair change too subtle, and having the option to change it would be pretty neat.
Will there be any collaboration with the EBT in terms of modeling their locomotives and or location in-game?
I love this game keep up the good work guys!!!❤️ get some sleep hyce
Now you guys need to start the suspension simulation, I want my rocking side to side motion on the trains!
Is there a damage system? That tank car was moving so fast I was expecting it to flaten the wood box cars or at least tear the rest of the train off the tracks.
Love seeing the No. 5 in its later configuration, reminds me a lot of the Nevada County Narrow Gauge of the same number 😉. So another question from me is will your character have a health meter sort of thing? I was joking with my dad about it and he suggested maybe your character should have less stamina from decades of inhaling coal dust, long hours, job injuries, etc as time passes. Are there any plans to implement player health in the game?
I know a lot of people would dislike it, but I think that for some more reckless actions, such as standing right in front of incoming equipment, or leaping off a trestle, you should probably have to respawn, even if it's not that harsh a penalty, like going right back to the last locomotive cab you were in. A lot of talk has been made about immersion in the game, and being able just stand on a track and eat the pilot of a locomotive, only to get shoved off to the side, would really take me out of the game. I think that having this would encourage players to actually exercise some degree of safety - and if there was actual risk of them getting squashed between two cars, it also would make it more fun, I think feeling like you're playing it risky. The jank doesn't truly manifest if playing it dangerous has no effect.
(repost because they fatfingered the delete button) Thoughts: - Bitrate continues to be low. Maybe 720p, maybe my 4k monitor, but connection should not be a problem (300Mbps down) - Great sound design (air, pins dropping, cars scraping). Chuffs are probably WIP. - I don't like how the crosshair and text describing what you're liking at are so far from each other. - Independents I'd've expected to come before train brakes, I would've thought independent brakes are a simpler system, since it doesn't propagate to connected cars. - Game audio was really loud in this one. Questions: 1. Can you break knuckles? Can you replace them? 2. Can you manually close knuckles? Can they break when you attempt to couple to a closed knuckle? 3. Can you derail from hitting cars too hard? 4. Can you destroy/majorly damage cars when hitting them too hard? 5. Is the brake a click-drag/key hold input, or a click/button press-to-cycle input? 6. Can you pull the pin when the couplers are in tension? 7. Can brakes overheat?
1. Not presently; as stated in another comment, not sure if we want to do this or not at this time. 2. Yes, but see 1. on the part about breaking them. 3. Yes. 4. Not presently. Hard hitches will likely have some mechanical penalty, but that's Mark's domain. 5. Click and drag/key hold. 6. Yes. At this time there is no binding of the pin; not sure how we feel about adding it. As a general rule we want to avoid things that do nothing but get in the way of playing, but I can see why some may want it in an ultra-realistic difficulty mode. 7. Not presently.
Way better without the highlighted levers! Awesome change
Another last minute devlog, that does not spark joy. I say that not because I'm an impatient asshole, but because I worry that you guys are stuck in an endless cycle of crunch because of these monthly devlogs, even after seeming to take steps to get away from that last month. Now granted this is the shortest month of the year and at least one member of the team was pulled away for personal matters, but it still makes me worry. If you guys have to cut back on devlogs, I understand. Ultimately I am not here for monthly devlogs, I am here to support Century of Steam and all of that would be for nothing if the game comes out a crappy mess, or worse doesn't come out at all because the dev team got burnt out over a hellish cycle of crunch caused by these devlogs. Once again I appreciate all of the hard work you guys are doing and wish you all the best of luck.
I wouldn't say it didn't spark joy in me, but yes where here To support SOS❤️ don't over do it guys
Can you add the ability to push car, idk wether or not its realistic but it would fix the issue you had with the flatbed car.
Will wheel slip be simulated???
Yes! :) I have a few tasks between now and the next time I touch that part of the game, but it will be a thing. - Jake
Now THAT'S some ES&D-grade train handling skills there by Mark! If your tank car isn't about to explode from smacking into the rest of your train like that, you ain't doing it right ;)
This looks incredible! Obviously you guys have your own schedule, but I'd love to see a devlog talking about diesel driving- diesel-electric vs diesel-mechanical, etc. Either way, this looks amazing and I can't wait for the game to release.
Wow! I'm blown away with the level of detail on the air brakes. I still remember feeling overwhelmed the 1st time I learned about train brakes, and now most of what you spoke of felt like 2nd nature. I'm still lost on brake stands, but learning ;-) And I had retainers completely wrong ( thanks MSTS :-) ) I really like the change of radical instead of the glow on cab controls, I feel like the glow really pulls you out of the experience.
Amazing as always mark can't wait
Words cannot express how excited I am for this game, but quick question will partial reductions via the angle cocks be a thing? à la derail valley
As always this is way too good, I can't get over the fact that you guys are the first studio to actually model retainers physically. Question, it wasn't shown off here and maybe it wasn't implemented yet but will you be able to pop the train in half by breaking a knuckle? And also can the same thing happen with link and pin if you're too rough with the train?
I'm kinda 50/50 on that - on the one hand it's a cool feature, on the other hand it doesn't really do anything other than get in the way of playing, which goes against our core philosophy. I could see it going either way, but no hard answer at this time. - Jake
I personally like the simplified train running. I'm more interested in supplying the industries and doing the tycoon thing. Keep up the great work. Cant wait to play when it comes out.
As someone who's kicked, dropped, and flew cars by both as an engineer and a conductor, this video really excited me!! The draft gear sim looks amazing, and the airbrakes look great as well. You mentioned there are no consequences for an overcharged train *yet*, so I do hope that will show up soon. On a side note, is the narrow-gauge equipment not run at 90 PSI normally?
It depends on era - many of the roads had smaller locomotives that had smaller pumps and main reservoirs, that operated at lower steam pressures essentially necessitating a lower brake pipe pressure. 70 PSI was probably more common than 90, though some of the roads that ran late did end up running 90 PSI. This 10-26D would struggle at keeping up with filling a 90 PSI brake pipe.
Say what you will about DTG offerings. But thier cab interactions for TSW are really good. Clicking on stuff to do mouse gestures in 3d space is always a pain. Having that little slider pop up when you click on controls is brilliant.
I agree. That's a really neat bit of UI.
It was so cool getting to see the N-C-O boxcar represented, since I helped repatriate one to the N-C-O Historical Society a few months ago. Also, I never really have understood retainers, thanks for the rundown.
Glad to hear your getting closer to the game half. I’m saving money for the game already. And speaking of the game side of things, got a question. How will save files work? Will we be able to have multiple saves? And another thing I just thought of is, how will you be handling proposed locomotives? That’s pretty much all I can think of. I’m blown away as always and am pleasantly surprised by this slightly early post. Love you guys! KEEP DOIN THE THING🚂🚂🚂
I'd definitely appreciate the highlight for what I'm interacting with while in the loco, so maybe you could make it an option an interface/controls menu?
The sounds are absolutely amazing the whole team is doing amazing work, I love seeing the progress
Suggestion on the glow versus reticle. Would it be possible to have that as a toggle or option? Some players might find the glow easier to use, others the cursor reticle. On a related note, perhaps a "highlight" hot key, where by holding this key down the different interactable elements all glow. You could even change the color of the glow based on usage (I.e. Windows are interact able, but also not required to run the train, the throttle and brakes are, so they could glow different colors)
I really like that second idea 🤔 I'll forward it to the team! - Jake
I like the boxcar at 0:53, ES&D! When will you have a beta version available for testing?