Dear railway fans,

Here at Rail Nation, we are always delighted to receive constructive feedback from our players. Only in this way are we able to identify where we can really improve your gaming experience. And those of you who are keeping a cautious eye on any perennial bugs can be sure that we’re taking your feedback on board and including it in the development process as best as we can.

With regard to the upcoming Rail Nation – Steam over Europe, you’ve sent us a huge number of responses in various ways. For instance, on Community Friday you had the opportunity to talk directly to Bruno, our game designer, via the PTR forum. Today we’re taking a look at a few of the most frequently mentioned points.

Interface

The interface of the new version was addressed by most of you, including Fliese, Borgpenguin, Floh, Kevin1804, Duke, Perdita and Tüti. One of the main points of criticism was that the game’s usability has deteriorated. More clicks are needed for certain actions and sometimes functions can no longer be found under a certain menu item. Some important interface elements even disappear when they can’t be used.

• The old mouse-overs you’re all familiar with were added back into the game during the first test round and these have improved the usability quite a bit. In the meantime a number of other things have also changed.
• The player Jalava wrote in the forum that communication is one of the most important aspects of the game. But communicating is made more difficult when the chat is always disappearing or hidden. We agree of course and, in short, we’ve decided to keep the chat permanently on display.
• There was some similar criticism concerning the menu at the bottom edge of the screen. This menu disappears when other menus are opened. To save you clicking around unnecessarily and improve navigation, this menu will also now be permanently shown.
• We are also working on optimising usability, for instance in the case of the engine museum.

Chat and messenger

Readability: Some users have pointed out that a number of texts are difficult to read. The screen layout and text sizes have been adjusted, which should improve readability in the game.

Text functions were mentioned by Xlix and TschuTschu, among others. You requested the old features such as indented paragraphs and copy & paste. Indentations are now possible once more, and pasting texts works too. The copy function will also follow suit shortly.

Overview

Fliese, Svene77 and Jalava commented on the overview. The new interface and the layout of the screens don’t allow users to quickly compare information as they could before. For example, some screens can no longer be opened at the same time. Unfortunately, the new interface will not be returned to how it once was. Having said that, we are working on alternative ways that would allow you to quickly compare information.

Start testing now!

We’re trying to work our way down your wish list as quickly as possible. And by the way, Rail Nation – Steam over Europe can now be played once again on our test server PTR1.