Dear players,

With 2022 now underway, we’re officially celebrating 9 years of Rail Nation! Happy birthday to us!

We want to thank you, the community, for everything you’ve done over the best part of a decade. You’ve forged friendships, made memories and pushed us to create the best version of Rail Nation. And for that, we’re forever grateful. Your feedback, opinions and constructive criticism have helped guide our plans for Rail Nation’s future and what a bright future it will be! So, from the entire Rail Nation Team:

Thank you.

Now then, we can’t have a birthday without a celebration, can we!?

To thank the community, we want to officially invite you all to our biggest live stream event so far! On 27^th January from 6:00 pm until 7:30 pm (CET), your Community Communications Manager “DippyNikki” will be joined by several special guests to help celebrate and reward the Rail Nation community!

You can watch the live stream via our YouTube channel and stay informed about our events by joining our Discord server. During the live stream, we will also announce our first ever Community Conductor of the year, who will be receiving the 2021 trophy to keep forever. What’s more, we will also reveal the 2022 trophy, which will surely inspire some of you to start your Community Conductor “career.”

There will also be a special event for you to win some goodies, unlock bonus codes and earn the first Community Conductor title of 2022! Special bonus codes will be awarded to the top five participants in the event, who will have the honour of selecting their favourite server to receive some exclusive bonus codes! Don’t think you can make it to the top five spots? Don’t worry, the community will also unlock more bonus codes for the entire community with every 100 viewers that join the stream!

Save the date in your calendar, RSVP to the invitation and don’t miss your chance to play for your server during our next live stream. Click here to subscribe and get notified when we go live!

See you there!

Your Rail Nation Team

Dear community,

The Winter Event is returning to bring you an interesting challenge and, of course, lots of little rewards!

You don’t know what the Winter Event is? You can read more about it HERE, and it will also be explained in the game.

The Winter Event will be active between 10th and 21st December. You can find a complete list of all participating game worlds HERE.

Please note that Masters 4 game worlds are also excluded from the Winter Event.

You can now check your diamonds and ranking in the new diamond ranking page in the lobby:

Please note: Last year, we had a Winter Event Bundle in the shop, which sold a small amount of winter resources. But this year, the bundle will no longer be part of the event.

Fancy a little more adventure?

To make the best of this year’s Winter Event, join us on Discord between 16th and 18th December for a super-fun mini-event: Frosty’s Winter Wonderland. We know you had a lot of fun with Lucy’s Souvenir Shop and you requested to have the mini-games back. We listened to you and we’ve prepared a surprise for you to play and chat with other members of the community. Join the Discord server now!

Enjoy a hot drink and keep yourselves warm!

Your Rail Nation Team

Dear players,

In June 2021, we announced that we would stop all content development and product care to focus instead on mobile development. Understandably, this has caused frustration within the Rail Nation community, with many people wanting answers due to the lack of information shared or the feeling of being kept in the dark. For that, we sincerely apologise and will do our utmost to keep you updated more often, starting with this communication.

This post aims to give you, the players, more transparency as to why it’s taking so long, why we need to focus on mobile and, more importantly, when you can expect to see the new app for Rail Nation.

Why is it taking so long?

Firstly, the way we originally developed the Rail Nation app was perfect for its time, but now it is very outdated according to current industry standards. Consequently, the service providers we use, such as Google and the Apple Store, will soon stop providing support for the technology, as these providers are switching to app bundles. This means the app needs to be completely re-coded to support a new app client. Our current client is based on old Flash code, and to be compliant with the new app bundle technology, we need to move to HAXE Mobile.

Secondly, there is a strain on time and resources. Right now, we only have one full-time dedicated member of the Rail Nation team responsible for re-coding the entire game. However, we do have approximately three non-mobile developers supporting where possible. When they are not collaborating with the mobile team, the three non-mobile developers continuously work on quality assurance, server maintenance and scenario roll-out. At the beginning of the year, we had three dedicated mobile developers supporting the mobile app. However, over the course of the year, we have seen this number reduced to one. When you consider the added factor that hiring developers with the skills to work on HAXE Mobile has proven to be near impossible, you can get an impression of why everything is taking such a long time. As the situation currently stands, we are dependent on this one developer not only to work on this re-coding, but also to continue to maintain the current mobile app with all the fixes and updates we need to implement.

Finally, Google and their upcoming restrictions have caused us significant delays. Google wants to redesign how they host their apps on the Google Play Store. Unfortunately for us, the client that Rail Nation currently uses will no longer be compatible with Google’s planned redesign. This gives us a far shorter time frame to take care of the updates Rail Nation needs, hence our earlier statement on needing to shift resources to get this done on time.

Even though we’ve outlined the main reasons for the delays, we can confidently say that development is currently on schedule, and we are making significant progress. Nevertheless, Rail Nation must adapt and evolve to more modern technologies and processes. We will continue to work on this to give you, the players, the best experience possible.

With this transparency on the situation, we hope we have provided the much-needed clarity and understanding that you, the players, wanted. Now let’s move on to why we need to focus on mobile development in the first place.

Why do we need to focus on mobile development?

Simply put, our technology is getting too old, and Rail Nation needs to adapt. In the third quarter of 2022, Google and Android will no longer continue to support what we currently have. So, there is a limited time frame to get this done; otherwise, Rail Nation cannot continue to be updated.

We’re fully aware of the long list of bugs that need to be resolved. However, due to the reasons mentioned above, we’re working on a very tight deadline and need to be as efficient as possible to ensure the update is as successful as it can be.

To be very clear: once mobile development is complete and we’ve successfully updated Rail Nation, there will still be bugs, even though many have been fixed. The most important thing right now is to give Rail Nation the necessary update to ensure we can continue updating the game, fixing bugs and bringing out new content for the future for you all to enjoy. Soon after its release, we intend to have a bug-fixing phase and a series of updates.

Why are you still releasing content (career engine upgrades and new workers)?

Simply put: it’s because those updates were achievable without impacting mobile development. We have one mobile developer, but our other developers were still available to support the creation of minor content updates. To give you some context, the new “Entry of Legends” worker update was initially planned to be a more significant, more developer-intensive, new map/scenario. However, due to the mobile development, we needed to reduce it to something a lot simpler and easier to implement. We also have a long list of new features and content plans, which are all on hold because of the impacts on mobile development.

It’s similar to the career engine upgrades; the development effort was minor and had no impact on mobile development.

Provided the impact on mobile development is slight or negligible, we can still work on small content updates and bug fixes (which we continue to do). But the majority of content and bug fixes that both we and the players want require significant developer input, which would delay the completion of mobile development.

Even with the focus on mobile development, it’s important for us to continue bringing new content to the game on a small scale, to keep the game challenging and enjoyable for you, the players. This is also why we run our focus groups and surveys – to make sure that whatever small updates we planned were appealing to the players.

When can you expect the new app?

You can expect the beta app for the Google Play Store at the beginning of the first quarter of 2022. Joining the beta will require participants to sign up via a survey, which will be sent out towards the end of 2021 or the beginning of 2022. There are no limits on participation, so we would encourage as many of you on Android to sign up as possible. The more people who participate, the more we can fine-tune and polish Rail Nation to be the best it possibly can be. We’re focusing on the Android player base first as it is the largest, and the Google beta services are currently more efficient to use. The decision regarding an iOS beta is still to be made and will also depend on the results of the Android beta app.

The beta will run for approximately three months for compatibility testing and to ensure it works on as many devices as possible. Once the beta is live, mobile development would be advanced enough to shift focus to product care, bug fixes, UX, onboarding and server support etc.

Thanks to the beta testing feature Google provides, you’ll be able to opt-in and out of the beta whenever you like. Essentially, you can log in and play as you usually would without having to commit your account to playing only on the beta app. However, there will be an option in the beta to “opt out” and return to the non-beta version of the app.  So, for example, if you report an issue, you could opt out of the beta and continue to play outside until it’s fixed and then opt back in again.

So long as no significant setbacks are identified in the beta phase, the plan is for full release within the first quarter of 2022.  The released version will be the base form of the app, which will be functional and playable depending on the beta updates we implement. However, we intend to roll out a patch soon after release for any issues identified in the beta that require additional work. Overall, the new app will be an improvement on the previous one. We still expect some old issues to be present, which we intend to resolve as part of our product care updates. Of course, as with anything like this, new bugs may exist, and we will be working hard to identify them and fix them as and when they come up.

We know this is a lot to digest, but we hope this overview and transparency on the matter has given you all some much-needed clarity. We appreciate your continued patience and will update you as soon as we can tell you more.

Your Rail Nation Team

The time has finally come. The most significant event in Rail Nation history is coming back and better than ever. We’ve got some exciting changes, new achievements and much more! So, are you ready to prove yourself? The race is on! We’ve got all the details you need, so let’s get started.

What is Rail Nation Masters?

For all you newer players to the Rail Nation universe, Rail Nation Masters is one of the biggest, most competitive events, held annually, where you’ll register to play in tournaments against players from all around the world in a battle for fame, prestige, and prizes. It’s in these events that you’ll prove your skills to their fullest and be crowned as one of the best Rail Nation players in the world! These events are called:

• Rising Stars
• Allstars

Allstars: For the 2 star+ ranked players, Rail Nation Allstars is split into qualification rounds, with a grand final qualification held in January 2022. Here, the maximum number of participants is 3500, first-come, first-serve.

Rising Stars: For the –0-1 star Rail Nation players, Rising Stars is a single game round and has a maximum number of 2500 participants, also on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Clash! Is back! Whether or not you take part in Allstars or Rising Stars, everyone can play Clash! If you’re new to it, Clash! is a mini-game that’s played in the Lobby. In Clash! you face two opponents on a triangular map. You must navigate from industry to industry, collect goods and destroy your rivals’ routes. Whoever’s the first to collect ten goods successfully will win!

Please note: You can only register for one of these events, Allstars or Rising Stars.

The better you are at Rail Nation, the higher up the ranking you’ll climb! If you’re new, though, don’t worry about not being able to enter Allstars; Rising Stars is just as competitive and a place where you’ll use every ounce of your strategic skill! Should you participate in Allstars or Rising Stars, you’ll also receive unique avatar items for free!

Gold transfer to Masters servers is not possible, however gold can be transferred away from Masters servers after the servers end. This includes transferring gold to the finals server on All Stars. For more information, please click HERE

Due to the highly competitive nature of both these events, you need to be quick to register before spaces go! Now that’s cleared up, let’s talk about what’s new in Masters 4.

Rewards

We can’t talk about one of the most competitive Rail Nation events of the year without discussing the rewards! Below you’ll find a table outlining what prizes you can win during Rising Stars, Allstars, and Clash!

This isn’t all the rewards, though...

We’ve got something extra special for Rail Nation players this year. Read on to find out!

What’s new in Masters 4?

This year, we’ve made some exciting changes and additions to Masters 4; these are:

More achievements! The requirement to earn achievements has also been adjusted. You can see the full changes HERE

Trainspotter avatars! The first-place winners from Allstars, Rising stars, and Clash! will be guaranteed a unique trainspotter avatar! The Rail Nation team will then pick two participants from each league at random for a total of nine new trainspotter avatars to be added to Rail Nation.

Note: The trainspotters will use their in-game username only, not their real name. Winners will be given a photo submission guideline outlining what is deemed acceptable as a trainspotter photo. The photos need to be submitted within two weeks; otherwise, we will pick a new winner.

Unique community event! You heard us! We’ve got a special community event currently planned for 20th December. Join us for Christmas Clash! Community vs the Rail Nation staff. You better bring your A-game; we won’t be holding back!

Now you know what’s new, let’s get to those all-important dates!

Important dates and times

• Pre-registration for Allstars: 9th December, 2 pm CET.
• Pre-registration for Rising Stars: 12th December, 2 pm CET.
• Allstars server begins: 10th December, 2 pm CET.
• Rising Stars server begins: 13th December, 2 pm CET.
• Clash! 16^th December, 2pm CET

Whether you’re a hardcore veteran or new to Rail Nation, Masters 4 has something for everyone. Anyone looking for a challenge will be in their element here – whether on Rising Stars, Allstars, or Clash!

Good luck!

Your Rail Nation Team

Dear players,

Get ready. New legends and a legendary locomotive are about to enter Rail Nation!

As Sir Isaac Newton famously said: “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” Soon, you’ll be able to stand alongside the giants, as nine of the greatest iconic pioneers in their respective fields will join Rail Nation! Take your association to new heights with Neil Armstrong, go the distance with Emil Zatopek or deliver greatness with Henry Ford; the choice is yours. These unique legends will arrive with three different effects! If that wasn’t enough, we’ve also got a brand-new production series you’ll be able to unlock for free!

Read on for dates and more details.

New workers 

Here are your nine new workers:

1st Effect: 50% higher rewards for competitions

• Era 1-2: Pierre de Coubertin

• Era 3-4: Emil Zatopek

• Era 5-6: Niki Lauda

2nd Effect: 100% faster acceleration

• Era 1-2: Isaac Newton

• Era 3-4: Konstantin Ziolkowski

• Era 5-6: Neil Armstrong

3rd Effect: +50% prestige for deliveries to industries and warehouses/harbours

• Era 1-2: Henry Ford

• Era 3-4: Oskar Schindler

• Era 5-6: Yves Rocher

We’re excited to see how your association will use these nine new legends and their bonuses!

New production series 

It’s time for a new legendary locomotive to enter Rail Nation. This magnificent engine was completed in 1848 by Henschel & Son. With an output of around 250 hp, it was vastly superior to other locomotives of the time. So, without further ado, here’s your latest production series for the Raven.

• Era: 1
• In-game train: Raven
• Real name: Dragon
• Country of origin: Germany

You’ll be able to unlock this production series for free! You just need to log in between 25th November and 6th December 2021 to add this train to your collection.

Update release 

Below you can find the important dates for when this update goes live. They are as follows:

• First server update: 16th November 2021
• Last server update: 25th November 2021
• The update will be applied to currently active servers once they restart

Community event  

Between 9^th and 16^th November, we’ll be hosting a series of “Legend Quizzes” on our Discord server!

 The Legend Quizzes will be available in English, German, Russian, Polish, Czech and French.

For more details, be sure to join the relevant regional channels on the Discord server. You can join the Discord server by clicking HERE 

We look forward to hearing your feedback on the new workers and seeing you in the quizzes.

Your Rail Nation Team

Update out 21/10/2021

Dear players,

As you may have noticed, we recently added several new upgrades to the career engine. This was just the first step of a bigger plan. Now we want to make sure that all of you can progress smoothly in your career and get your hands on some of the upgrades you may still be missing.

Many of you who have been with us for a long time have already maxed out a lot of achievements, but so far, there’s not a single player who has collected them all. We noticed that the remaining achievements are often almost impossible to obtain, either because they are incredibly challenging or require you to play in a way or in a scenario you do not particularly enjoy.

We, therefore, went through all the existing achievements, selected 24 of them and added 5 additional ranks to each. We made sure that our selection has a nice and balanced variety. Many of them are still hard to achieve, but depending on your playstyle, there is sure to be something for everyone – even for that one player who managed to collect over 100,000 medals.

You can find the complete list of updated achievements HERE.

Please keep in mind that the requirements for rank 11-15 of these achievements are, in many cases, much harder than for the previous 10 ranks, and the steps between those ranks are far greater. This is because these ranks are mainly relevant to players who have been with us for a long time. As we mentioned, many of you have already achieved impressive progress in some categories.
At the same time, we want to make sure that the new ranks are not immediately maxed out, so we set the requirements high enough to avoid that. Nevertheless, you might notice that you have already fulfilled the requirements for some (but not all) of the new ranks. We did this intentionally and set many requirements for the ranks 11-13 (and 14, in rare cases) to values that some of you have already achieved; where this is true, you will get those achievements immediately!

Enjoy the free career points; you deserve them!

Dear players,

Holidays. We know first-hand how stressful they can be. Endless amounts of planning, research and time are involved even before you begin your trip, never mind the potential last-minute cancellations!

Well, what if we told you we’d taken care of all that for you? All the tension and uncertainty – gone. What if we’ve got the perfect, stress-free, relaxing train journey waiting just for you, all possible from the comfort of home? No pressure, no cancellations, it’s safe, and we’ll even guarantee it takes place.

We’ve got just that for you. So what are you waiting for? Grab your comfiest clothes; your relaxing Origin Journey is about to begin.

What is Origin Journey?

For those who might be experiencing Origin Journey for the first time, let give you an overview of some of the exclusive features and sights you’ll experience on your trip.

The entire scenario is themed around the location of Rail Nation’s creation, the German-speaking “DACH” region.

Taking place on the Classic map, you’ll be treated to beautiful views of 50 landmarks and 50 cities from around Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

You’ll also experience some of the local culture with 11 new goods (replacing some Classic goods) and new product chains. While you enjoy the culture, you’ll also have the opportunity to meet some of the locals with new workers, related to the new goods.

The upcoming version of Origin Journey has the additional perk of being x2 speed, which means you can experience and explore the fabulous sights of the DACH region more quickly, though it also means you need to work faster in a smaller timeframe. 1 week per era + endgame to be exact. To help you make the most out of your whirlwind tour of the Origin Journey game world, you’ll also have access to a very useful tool. The daily power bonus will grant you access to unique 24-hour bonuses to help boost your experience for a short time. Don’t like the bonus you got? Don’t stress, you can simply re-roll for a small amount of Gold. Beware though, the more you re-roll, the more Gold it will cost.

Origin Journey x2 will only be one round, so make sure you don’t miss your chance to grab a seat and start experiencing the journey.

Server starts

Please ensure you are ready to embark on your trip across the Origin Journey game worlds by checking the departure boards below for your chosen region:

Don’t miss your departure time, mark the date in your calendar, and plan your relaxing trip now!

Want to make the most out of your journey? Why not take a tour?

Join our wonderful conductor tour guide, Lucy from the 6^th until the 16^th for a virtual sightseeing tour brought to you via our Twitter account . During the tour, Lucy will be dropping hints and leaving souvenirs from the Origin Journey game worlds across 10 locations for you to find and screenshot.

Each day she’ll visit a new location and leave a new souvenir which you’ll need to collect (via screenshot) and submit as part of a Gleam giveaway . Every time you name the souvenir location and screenshot it, you’ll be entered into the giveaway. So the more times you enter, the more likely you are to win!

Don’t have access to Twitter? Don’t worry, you can still enjoy the tour by joining our Discord server and looking at the #Social-Media channel.

All submissions made before 16^th October by 14:00 (CEST) will then be entered into a draw to win one of the following prizes:

Prizes

1^st – Rail Nation duck, mug, pin set and T-shirt + in-game goodies: 500 Gold, 10 lottery tickets, 10 engine vouchers, 10 track vouchers, 10 waggon vouchers, 10 instant building upgrade vouchers

2^nd – In-game goodies bundle: 300 Gold, 10 lottery tickets, 10 engine vouchers, 10 waggon vouchers

3^rd – In-game goodies bundle: 200 Gold, 10 lottery tickets, 5 engine vouchers, 5 waggon vouchers

BONUS: Once 500 participants submit answers via the Gleam link, a community-wide bonus code will be unlocked!

Rules:

1. By taking part in this Gleam giveaway, you give your consent that your personal information (such as name, shipping details and shirt size) may be collected and used for the sole purpose of shipping rewards if you are selected as a 1^st-place winner.
2. By taking part in this Gleam giveaway, you give your consent that you may be contacted by the Rail Nation team.
3. Answers can be submitted in any of the following languages: English, Dutch, German, French, Russian, Spanish, Czech, Italian, Polish. You may only make a submission in one region; multiple region submissions will result in disqualification.
4. Only two daily entries (screenshot and text) are allowed per person.
5. The screenshot should be no bigger than 150 MB.

Useful links

Twitter

Gleam

Discord

Frequent pre-journey checks

Where and how do I transfer my Gold? – Any Gold from the previous Origin Journey round will automatically be available to transfer to the new Origin Journey x2 game worlds of the same region. For more information please read the article: “How to transfer Gold in Rail Nation.”

What game world region should I play on? – If there’s a game world for your specific region (i.e. DE or RU etc.), you should join one of those game worlds. If not, you should join the international game world

Will there be any bonus codes? – Yes, if 500 people participate in the community event, a global bonus code will be unlocked and who knows, perhaps there may even be more! 😊 Keep an eye on our communication platforms for more details (Discord, Facebook, and Twitter).

Dear players,

Get your official Rail Nation merchandise NOW!

Go full steam ahead into our gear store and view our wide range of goods and premium products. Experience our timeless and elegantly designed T-shirts, sure to fit (almost) any occasion – providing you with excellent comfort using sustainable materials. The sleek mouse pad and notebook are just a click away, ensuring precision and fine note-taking especially when the endgame starts. After all, you need to make your calculations somewhere!

Proudly show your achievements and wear our collectable pins, ideal for future train journeys and more. Go quackers for our amazingly cute Rail Nation-themed duck who’s just waiting to be given a new home. The duck even comes with an excellent conductor whistle, great for announcing train departures or the beginning of a new server! Finally, turn your shelf into a statement piece with the iconic acrylic career engine that’s sure to be an interesting conversation starter in your home.

We’re thrilled with our incredible product range and we hope you are too! Whether you’re a newcomer or a veteran player, we’re sure to have something perfect for you. Visit the store, discover our collection, and bring Rail Nation into your home today.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts, feedback, and suggestions. For now, though…

Enjoy the gear store!

Your Rail Nation Team

FAQs: Questions about the Gear Store

Question: Regarding the recent changes to VAT/customs duties for orders from outside the EU, is the store located in the EU and will I have to pay VAT/customs duties?
Answer: VAT is charged when placing the order. If the goods are exported, the customs duties specified in the country of delivery will be subsequently charged.

Question: My parcel hasn’t arrived. What should I do?
Answer: Please get in touch with our Customer Service, and they will obtain information to help solve the problem.

Question: Which payment methods are available?
Answer: You can choose between the following payment methods: credit card, Amazon Pay, PayPal, American Express and advance invoice.

Question: Are gift cards available, or can I purchase and send an item to a friend?
Answer: Currently, no gift cards are available.

Question: What should I do if there is an issue with an item I ordered?
Answer: Please get in touch with our Customer Service, and they will obtain information to help solve the problem.

Question: What is the returns policy?
Answer: You can promptly return your items within 14 days after receiving your goods under the conditions stated in our terms and conditions (including the cancellation policy). You bear the costs of returns.

Question: What is the expected delivery time after an item has been ordered? How soon will it be shipped?
Answer: In Germany, delivery takes between 2-3 business days (Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays in Germany) after receiving payment.

If you order several items in one order for which different delivery times apply, we will send the goods in one shipment unless we have agreed otherwise with you.  In this case, the longest delivery time in your order will apply to the shipment of all the goods.

Shipping to EU countries occurs within 3-7 business days.

Question: Is it possible to modify my order after the payment is made?

Answer: Once the payment is made, there is no option to modify your order. If changes are necessary, please contact Customer Service to cancel your order and place a new one.

Question: Are there additional costs for the delivery once shipped?
Answer: If the package cannot be delivered because the information was incorrect, the reshipment will be charged again. If you want to return something, you pay the cost of the return transport.

Question: How are the delivery costs calculated?
Answer: Delivery costs are charged per country zone. For further information, please take a look here: (shipping link).

Question: Why won’t my payment screen load? [aka player did not enable pop ups]
Answer: Please clear your browser cache and cookies to load the screen correctly. If this does not help, our Customer Service team will be happy to assist you.

Question: What are the delivery times for each continent?
Answer: For detailed requests, please get in touch with our Customer Service team.

Dear players,

We are pleased to confirm that the second round of Platform X: Titans of Economy will go ahead, with game worlds starting again between 18^th and 20^th August.

Important changes

After a thorough review, we have reluctantly decided to remove the “Gold for the shopping centre” feature. It became apparent that this feature needs to be rebalanced and does not work correctly in combination with the other features. This means that in Round 2, the shopping centre will be reverted to the standard “Upgrade for currency” mechanic, so it can no longer be upgraded for Gold and will no longer provide bonus Gold.

The Gold earned from the shopping centre in Round 1 will remain, and players are free to transfer it according to the normal Gold transfer process.

What’s more, as second rounds often host fewer players, the players will not experience the Platform X environment as fully intended. So, to make the game more enjoyable, we will be reducing the number of servers in Round 2 from six to three. As a result, the server start package and pre-registration will not be available during the endgame on any Platform X servers.
The remaining servers will be as follows:

COMM-401 “Rosen” – International
DE-401 “Schrödinger” – German
RU-401 “Хокинг” – Russian

If you played Round 1 on a server that will not be restarting in Round 2, we recommend that you join “Schrödinger” for DE players or the “Rosen” international server.

Features

The features available in the next Platform X: Titans of Economy – Round 2:

1. Players can now collaborate right from the beginning of a game world, as associations start with 25 member slots. There is now a new fourth worker slot (which requires the headquarters at level 4), and only the headquarters at level four are necessary to unlock workers. Plus, the prestige and investment levels have been adjusted to support levelling up.
2. Trains are now faster because the tile length has been reduced. This means that it may be worthwhile travelling greater distances to avoid high waiting times closer to home. Tractive force has been reduced for all trains, excluding the Pollux and the career engine, to counter the higher speed. This means both engines are even more useful.
3. The bonus for some workers has been increased. You can find the complete list of workers here.
4. The auction for workers will be held more frequently: every 60 minutes instead of 120 minutes.
5. Home cities now award players 50,000 prestige for winning the end game (this was previously 10,000). This includes 45,000 prestige for the win and 5,000 prestige for the city connection.
6. We have increased the licence bonus (10% to 20%) and the maximum workload for industries (300% to 500%). This makes licences more useful, increases waiting times in extreme situations like the endgame, and gives industries an opportunity to grow much faster.
7. The number of licences available in the auction at the same time has been doubled so that more players can have licences and experience the improved bonuses.
8. The bank limit has been increased for the low levels, making it easier for new players to do things.
9. We’ve reduced the stock limits after a city levels up, from 33% to 0%. This is so players earn more money after levelling up, and it provides more of a challenge to level up a city.
10. The prestige received for participating in competitions has been increased by 50%, making competitions significantly more important for your overall ranking.

Gold transfers

As mentioned above, all Gold earned in Round 1 of Platform X: Titans of Economy will be yours to keep and transfer according to the Gold transfer process.

For those servers that do not continue onto Round 2, they will be treated as a “single-round event”. This means your Round 1 Gold will be uploaded and available to transfer to any other server of the same region. For example, players from DE-402 can transfer the Gold to DE-401. In the case of COM servers, you can transfer your Gold to the international COMM-401 server.

You don’t need to transfer your Gold to another event server and could instead transfer it to any game world, whatever option you prefer.

Remember, the Gold will need a few days before it’s available to transfer, so make sure you plan your Gold transfer in advance.

For more details, make sure you read the whole process here.

Server starts

The Round 2 servers will start as follows:

18th August: COMM-401 “Rosen” – International
19th August: DE-401 “Schrödinger” – German
20th August: RU-401 “Хокинг” – Russian

We can’t wait to see what the next round of Platform X: Titans of Economy has in store!

See you on the other side of the portal,

Your Rail Nation Team

Summer is here at last.

The once dormant greenish trees are now swaying in the distance as a cool breeze passes through your home, refreshing you in the early morning. You peer outside your window, excited. Another beautiful day full of opportunities and choices.

Whether you took a vacation outside or a staycation inside, it did not matter as long as you followed the usual safety procedures. Then, with a final deep breath of fresh air, you move from the window to your train-themed calendar, circling another date in red pen.

Your exciting trip was about to begin.

Dear players,

We are delighted to announce Rail Nation – Trip Across The Nations; the new exciting event packed full of in-game rewards earned by working together as a community. So, where will you be going?

How it works

From July 23rd, 14:00 CEST to August 13th, 14:00 CEST, you will see a milestone map with various iconic tourist destinations. Each landmark represents a community region and will be unlocked once each community has completed the required tasks to unlock it by the deadline provided. This will happen once a week, for 3 weeks. To find your tasks, head to your regional Discord or forum to get started.

To complete the tasks and get the rewards, you will need to work together with your region to progress and meet the various milestones. Once a region has completed their tasks, the milestone map will be updated. If all regional communities complete their tasks before the deadline, the rewards will be unlocked for everyone! Further details about the timings, deadlines for task completion, and rewards are below.

During this event, outstanding recognition will be given to one player who has contributed the most and will become the Community Conductor for July. As this is a community event, players can compete and support multiple regions if they want to!

Rewards

Here’s what you’ll be able to earn as a community each week for three weeks should all regional tasks be completed!

Week 1: Bonus code unlocks – Deadline – July 30^th

• 24 hours Plus Account
• 3 track vouchers
• 3 lottery tickets

Week 2: Bonus code unlocks – Deadline – August 6^th

• 48 hours Plus Account
• 3 engine vouchers
• 3 lottery tickets
• 1 bonus engine upgrade

Week 3: Bonus code unlocks – Deadline August 13^th

• 72 hours Plus Account
• 5 lottery tickets
• 3 engine vouchers
• 3 wagon vouchers
• 1 bonus engine upgrade

Send us your postcards!

Back in 2017, we asked you to send us your postcards from all over the world, and received an unbelievable amount of them, resulting in one of our favorite videos being created (Rail Nation – Postcards). So, with all the travelling that can happen in certain countries worldwide, we’re bringing it back, but with a slight twist. As always, please make sure that if you are travelling during this time, you take care.

Can’t travel or would simply prefer a staycation? No problem! You can either send us a postcard from where you live or design a digital postcard of your own using the template provided! (click here for the template). If you decide to design your own postcard, be sure to email it to rnpostcards@railnation.de before the date of the August stream (still to be announced).

During the upcoming August live stream, Bruno, our Game Designer, will be selecting his top 5 postcards! His number 1 choice will become the Community Conductor for August! Postcards that have not been chosen during the stream will be made into another one of our lovely video showcases. Players wishing to mail their postcards should send them to the below address.

Bruno – Game Designer
Bright Future GmbH
Gustav-Heinemann-Ufer 56
50968 Köln
Deutschland

We hope you enjoy the event. We look forward to seeing your postcards, and more importantly, seeing where your travels take you during this time.

Have a safe onward journey!

Your Rail Nation Team

Platform X, a place where you could be sure of a fresh, invigorating journey every time you visited the vibrant station and travelled beyond the portal. You noticed eager train enthusiasts boarding the carriages, looking forward to new experiences, new challenges, and creating many unforgettable memories. All were excited to learn what their new environment entailed and what possibilities would await them this time. The anticipation of the unknown always caused a stir of activity which you could feel throughout the platform.

“We’ve made it with plenty of time to spare,” said Sophie, looking back at James, gesturing towards the train waiting for departure.

“Looks like our strategic travel planning paid off,” James said excitedly, stroking his beard as he continued. “I’m thrilled to find out what’s beyond the platform this time.”

Sophie smiled at James and replied: “I hear it’s a unique place, full of economic opportunities. It does say Titans of Economy on our ticket, so we must be in for a treat.”

Both found their seats with relative ease, eagerly awaiting the train to roll away from the platform and into the portal. “Looks like we’re finally ready to depart!” James said, looking out of the carriage window. Muffled calls from the dispatcher confirmed that the driver had the track, all passenger doors were closed, and the train was ready to leave through the portal.

There was a serene stillness in the carriage – all were waiting in anticipation until the roaring engine could be heard and, at that point, excited conversations filled the air. As the train entered the portal, Sophie and James felt exhilarated, bursting with curiosity to know what lies beyond Platform X. One flash of light later and they had arrived at their new destination.

A new challenge had begun. 

“Welcome to Platform X: Titans of Economy,” the train driver announced in a pleasant voice over the intercom. “Things are quite different around here. Building expansions now cost Gold, trains will run faster, and you’ll be able to cooperate in your associations right away as they start with 25 member slots.”

Sophie and James grinned at each other, taking in the breathtaking sights as the train driver continued. “You all have the opportunity to step up to the challenge and become the next Adam Smith or Cornelius Vanderbilt. With that said, please ensure you have all of your belongings before leaving the train. We wish you a pleasant onward journey and the best of luck with your new challenge.”

Welcome to Platform X: Titans of Economy.

Incredible, yet challenging new features!

Take a look at what features are available in the next Platform X: Titans of Economy:

1. Players can now collaborate right from the beginning of a game world, as associations now start with 25 member slots. There is now a new 4th worker slot (for which you need headquarters at level 4) and, only 4 levels of the headquarters are necessary to unlock workers. Plus, the prestige and investment levels have been adjusted to support levelling up.
2. Trains are now faster as the tile length has been reduced. This means that travelling greater distances to avoid high waiting times closer to home might be worthwhile now. Tractive force has been reduced for all trains, excluding the Pollux and the career engine, to counter the higher speed, meaning both engines are even more useful.
3. The station shopping mall now costs Gold to upgrade, but you now earn Gold from it.
4. The bonus for some workers has been increased; you can find the complete list of workers here.
5. The auction for workers will be held more frequently, every 60 minutes instead of 120 minutes.
6. Home cities now award you 50,000 prestige for winning the end game (this was previously 10,000). This includes 45,000 prestige for the win and 5,000 prestige for the city connection.
7. We have increased the licence bonus (10% to 20%) and the maximum workload for industries (300% to 500%). This makes licences more useful, increases waiting times in extreme situations like the endgame, and gives the industries an opportunity to grow a lot faster.
8. The number of licences available in the auction at the same time has been doubled so that more players can have licences and experience the improved bonuses.
9. The bank limit has been increased for the low levels, making it easier for new players to do things.
10. We’ve reduced the stock limits after a city levels up, from 33% to 0%. This is so players earn more money after levelling up, and it provides more of a challenge to level a city.
11. The prestige received for participating in competitions has been increased by 50%, making competitions significantly more important for your overall ranking.

We can’t wait to invite you through the portal and into a world of new and exciting challenges waiting to be explored!

You can access the latest features in Platform X game worlds from 16th June 2021 at 14:00 CEST. See below for details on when your regional game worlds will start:

Titans of Economy: Community Crossword

As part of the Platform X: Titans of Economy event, we’ll also be hosting a community competition.
Complete the crossword provided and test your knowledge of all the upcoming features from Platform X: Titans of Economy.

Details:

Start: 17th June 2021 14:00 CEST
End: 17th July 2021 14:00 CEST

Prizes:

1^st – 250 Gold + 15 lottery tickets – First to correctly submit the completed crossword

2^nd – 150 Gold + 10 lottery tickets – Selected at random

3^rd – 50 Gold + 5 lottery tickets – Selected at random

Submit your completed crosswords via the forum or Discord before the closing date.

We hope you’re just as excited as we are about Platform X: Titans of Economy, and we can’t wait to hear your feedback on the new features.

Will you take the trip to the other side of the portal and be the next Titan of Economy?

See you there!

Dear players,

In April 1829, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) announced an engine design contest known as the Rainhill Trials. Engineers from across the land were tasked with creating an engine to travel the 1.6 kilometers of track. Five locomotives entered, and one successfully completed the trial. That engine became the famous George Stephenson’s cargo and passenger steam train, known as “The Rocket”. It was from this engine design that most commercial locomotives were then founded.

This momentous event helped shape the world of train engines that we experience today, and we have taken inspiration from it. So, in recognition of the incredible design of the Stephenson’s Rocket, we will be hosting the “Rail Nation: Design an Engine Contest”!

Rail Nation: Design an Engine Contest – Details

Date: 20th April 2021, 14:00 CEST – 20th May 2021, 14:00 CEST

Task: One blank template of the selected Era 1 engine will be available in JPG and PSD files for the community to download. The community is tasked with decorating and redesigning one of the available engines, for the 21^st century.

Contestants can use any method to decorate these engines:

• Digital methods – MS Paint, Photoshop etc.
• Traditional methods – painting, colouring with pens etc.
• 3D modelling
• Figure painting

Anything that sparks your creativity!

Submissions: You may submit your design by posting your image onto the Rail Nation forums or Discord before the competition end date.

Winners and their selection: Three winners will be selected, globally and not per region. The Community Management Team will choose the three best designs from all participants, and the community will then vote on their order (1st, 2nd and 3rd).

Prizes:

Everyone who participates will receive a bonus code for 5 lottery tickets!

1^st place: 1 bonus engine (current or previous era’s bonus engine of the player’s choosing, excluding the Primus), 300 Gold and 20 lottery tickets

2^nd place: 250 Gold and 15 lottery tickets

3^rd place: 150 Gold and 10 lottery tickets

Rules:

• The designs submitted must be your own and not the creation of anyone else, except for family members (children etc.).
• The community rules of conduct still apply to all images submitted to this contest, so please ensure you do not submit any images that break those rules.

Don’t forget; all participants will receive a bonus code for five lottery tickets. So, don’t miss out!

Put on your engineer cap and reinvent these engines as the 21^st-century Rocket!

Hello Players,

With so much excitement already happening this year, a birthday celebration, a new video engine and our official Discord launch; we now want to bring you even more to be excited about! The Fast Forward scenario is returning with a new, thrilling feature!

The Daily Power Bonus

The Fast Forward scenario will have a unique Daily Power Bonus feature being debuted to player who play in the scenario. This feature is currently only available in Fast Forward, so don’t miss your chance to try it out.

What is the daily power bonus?

Everyday at 14:00 GMT+1 players can obtain a personal 24 hour bonus for 49 gold by selecting one of 14 cards. There are 14 potential bonuses you could obtain ranging from trains boosts to the amazing new bonus engine: The Magnus which is a special 24hour engine! 

All of the bonuses are quite powerful and a cost effective way of improving your gameplay, though some are more beneficial that others depending on what the point of the game you obtain them.
Don’t like the bonus you picked? no problem, for 5 gold you can reroll for the first time. But be warned, every time you reroll the cost to reroll will double! so choose your timing wisely and don’t overdo it!

Here is the full list of possible bonuses you could draw:

Activating your power bonus

Once you obtain a bonus, you have 72 hours to activate it, otherwise it will expire. Also. you cannot pick a new bonus until you’ve activated the bonus you previously obtained. However, if you time it correctly you can technically have 2 bonuses active for the same 24 hours! If you don’t want to have 2 running at the same time, there’s no requirement to do that. You can activate your bonuses whenever you like, the double bonus is just a useful mechanic available to players who want to take advantage of it.
If you activate your previous day’s power bonus just before the start of the next in game day (14:00 GMT +1) that bonus will be active for 24hrs AND you can pick a new bonus for the new game day and activate that too, so that you have 2 bonuses at the same time! If you choose to do this with 2 of the same bonuses, that bonus will simply be extended to 48 hours.

If you want to try out the Power Bonus, join our Fast Forward game worlds, where the feature is being showcased for its debut to players. In future, this feature may also be brought to more game worlds. So don’t miss your opportunity to be one of the first to try it! Join the Fast Forward game servers from the 23/01/2021

Fast Forward Festival: Community Event

Starting on the 01/03/2021 there will be a community event on the Rail Nation Forums and Discord, to celebrate the return of Fast Forward.

The Fast Forward Festival will feature 6 prize suitcases full of in-game goodies, hidden in a 12 x 12 grid. From 01/03 till the 05/03 you have one chance to pick a tile on the grid to guess where the suitcases are hidden. If you guess the correct tile, you win the prizes. Some suitcases can be won multiple times by players. However, the tiles are won on a first come, first served basis, so don’t miss out and start guessing now! You can also select 3 extra tiles by playing in the Fast Forward scenario and submitting a full screen, screenshot, to confirm it. 

The prize suitcases and how many times they can be won are as follows:

1x Tycoon – 200 gold, 5 lottery tickets, 5 train coupons
2x Fortune – 50 gold, 3 days Plus Account
3x Train – 5 Rail coupons, 5 train coupons
4x Lottery – 5 lottery tickets
5x Building – 3 reduction prices of buildings
5x Mystery – randomly given item (5 lottery tickets, 3 days plus account, 50 gold.)

As an extra prize, the player who guesses the most correct prize tiles, will win the March Community Conductor title and have their name engraved on the Community Conductor Trophy. For more details on the Community Conductor Trophy, take a look at the forum post.

If you want to take part in the Fast Forward Festival Community event, you can join via the Forum or the Discord

What is Fast Forward?

The fast forward scenario is essentially similar to the classic game, but x4 speed! As the game is x4 speed, the game rounds last 24 days instead of the standard 90 and the gameplay is a lot more action packed as you need to adapt to the constantly changing environment and fast progression of the game loop.

Using all the same gameplay mechanics, tools and features you’re already familiar with in classic, do you have what its takes to make quicker decisions with faster trains, under higher demands?

When do the servers start and what servers can you play on?

The Fast Forward scenario servers start from the 23/02/2021 on the servers listed below:

Dear Players,

The Rail Nation Discord is now live and ready for you to connect with the community!

Join now and start your conversation

Click here to join

To celebrate the launch of our official Rail Nation Discord, we are giving away in-game goodies to lucky Rail Nation community members, every week for the next 4 weeks!

Goodies include:

Lottery tickets
Train vouchers
Rail voucher

and much more…..

To take part in the giveaway and grab your opportunity to win, simply join the official Rail Nation Discord here, then watch the #giveaway channel for when the giveaways will start and how you can win.

Giveaways will be running every week from 22/02/2021 until 22/03/2021.

So join the Discord now to make sure you don’t miss out!

Dear players,

We are happy to announce that we will soon be launching the official Rail Nation Discord! It will be publicly available on the 15th of February and the invite link will be posted on the forums, Facebook, on the blog and via an in-game message. So there’s plenty of ways for you to join us and start your conversations!

What will the discord be used for?

We want to have a better connection with you, the players. We want to hear your voices, suggestions and idea. We also want to communicate better with you, provide updates, show you our plans and provide the details of our work on Rail Nation.
But that’s not all, we have so much planned for 2021 that we can’t wait to share with you. Giveaways, new media content, community events and awards! All of this will be part of the Discord and we don’t want you to miss out!

What can I expect from the Discord?

• The Forums – Firstly, lets make it very clear. Discord will not replace the forums. We will continue to link our activities on the forums too and provided there’s a demand for the forums, we have no intention of removing them. So if you don’t feel comfortable with joining the Discord, you don’t need to. You can still find the majority of what we’re going to offer, on the forums too.
  However, on occasion, some features and content will be exclusive to the Discord such as some giveaways, voice channels and community activities.
• Languages – As with most newly formed Discords, our focus will be on communicating in English. Our announcements, updates and events will be in English, along with any communications we make to the community. However, we completely acknowledge that some of our most dedicated players do not speak English as their first language and this might be difficult for them. We want those players to know, we’re thinking of you and already have plans to adapt the Discord to the community’s needs as and when we required. So provided there’s enough demand for a certain region to have additional support, we can adapt the Discord to accommodate. This could mean that in time there will be regional channels dedicated to those players who speak a specific language.
  The community management team will keep an eye on this situation and implement the changes if needed.
• Support– The discord will be hosted by community management and other members of the Rail Nation support team. However, when it comes to supporting you with your queries, there will be a number of feature available in the Discord. There will be an FAQ, known bug list, changelogs and a help channel, all are intended to give you access to information to help resolve your issues. Yet it’s very important that we continue to ensure all non-resolvable issue continue to be reported by using the ticket system. The community managers and support team will be on hand periodically to offer support and guide you to the relevant information, but if they aren’t available or your issue can’t be resolved, please raise a ticket.
• Community promotion– There will be a number of channels dedicated to promoting the efforts of the incredibly knowledgeable, creative and expressive members of the community. Here you can showcase your streams, ideas, tutorials, video content and anything you think the community will love. We’ll be keeping an eye on what you have to offer and if we see anything that is a big help to the players, we’ll help promote it. We also intend to give you a better platform to voice your suggestions for Rail Nation. There will be a channel dedicate to your suggestions and from there we can potentially take your ideas to the Rail Nation team. However, please remember that not all of your suggestions will be responded to or taken to the Rail Nation team. We’ll adapt this process over time to better manage your suggestions, depending on how many and how often we receive them.

The future of Rail Nation communications

In future, how, when and where we communicate with you is going to be improved. Our goal is to be more regular with our communications and provide details to you in a more, understandable format and across multiple platforms. In order to do this, we have a lot of exciting plans for new media that we look forward to sharing with you. Once we are ready to give more details on these plans, we’ll let you all know on the forum and Discord.
We also want to improve our communication to new players and those looking for guidance on how to play the game. We hope that the continuing community discussion in the Discord will naturally put new players in contact with some of our most experienced players who could offer some tips, but we also have plans of our own to help with this topic. Again, once we have more information on this, we’ll make sure to keep you informed.
Finally, the Discord has been created for you, the Rail Nation community. It’s main us should be as a tool for you all to become better connected to fellow players who love the game just as much as you. It’s down to you all to help shape the Discord to what you need it to be by using it, engaging with each other and letting the community managers know what you want adding or changing.

The Discord will be live very soon and we are all looking forward to getting better connected and sharing all the plans we have for the future!

See you there,

DippyNikki – Community Communication Manager

Dear Players,

What an exciting update to Rail Nation! We’re giving you a new bonus engine — its name: Pollux. It can be obtained in the most unique way, compared to any of the other bonus engines thus far.

The Video Engine

In order to reward active players, we included a completely new free bonus cargo engine in the videos: The Pollux . With more than 90 upgrades to make the Pollux grow from a rail trolley to a true force of the tracks.

You unlock the Pollux by watching a bonus video (i.e. the second video you get after watching a video) and you can win further upgrades every day, also by watching bonus videos.
On 1x speed servers, you will get the upgrade within the first 14 bonus videos you are watching and on 2x speed servers, you will be able to win 2 upgrades  in your first 14 bonus videos.

The same logic applies to any higher game speeds: The higher the speed of the game world, the more upgrades you can win per day.  On x4 speed servers you can get 4 upgrades per day within the first 16 bonus videos. You do not always have to watch all the videos to get the upgrade, you can win it in ONE of those bonus videos. So if you are incredibly lucky, it could even be the first.

Video Watch Limit

We know many players already watch videos for an extra advantage in game for free. As we introduce the incredible Pollux, we need to make sure that we keep video watching fair for all, whilst discouraging unhealthy behaviour like watching several hundreds or even more than a thousand videos per day. So we have will introduce is a limit on how many videos you can watch per day. This limit is 56 videos per day and we’ve come to this conclusion as we wanted a limit that doesn’t actually limit most players. Only a small majority of  active video viewers watch that many videos per day currently, so most of you can watch as many videos as you watched before.
Since we know that some of you like to watch more videos on higher game speeds, we multiplied this limit with the game speed for 2x and 4x speed game worlds. You won’t need that many videos to get the Pollux upgrade, but you can watch more videos there if you want to.
We also made sure that if you are in an association with a lot of other video viewers, you should still have a chance to watch enough videos without reaching that limit.

Both the introduction of the Pollux and the new video wat limit, will be live after 11.02.2021 on all DE and RU restarting gameworlds and after 18.02.2021 on all restarting gameworlds.

Improvements and bug fixes

This update also includes several improvements and bug fixes that apply immediately to all game worlds, including those currently running. Several smaller issues have been resolved, such as:

• Researcher is now displayed in the station building laboratory.
• Boost icon in the train list is now displayed in the same size as the other icons.
• Reactivating trains from the museum works again.
• Bonus code contents are displayed correctly again.
• Trains with schedules containing delivery and pickup are no longer displayed in the train list without a schedule.
• Reworked icons for money, prestige, shop, ranking and all icons that are combined with one of these icons

You can view the full changelog, including all the balancing changes, here

We hope that you enjoy the new video engine and look forward to hearing your feedback!

Dear players,

You probably remember the XXL update in September, when we fixed around 300 bugs. When we announced this update, we also mentioned that our next focus would be the browser version’s performance, i.e. speed and loading times.

We’re happy to report that this work from the Rail Nation team has paid off greatly. We were able to implement some valuable improvements in the form of optimisations to various parts of the game. While some game functions only received small improvements, we could drastically reduce loading times for others, making your experience playing Rail Nation that much smoother. On average, our measurements show that the general performance of the game has improved by 24%!

For instance, we were able to reduce the average loading time for the association window by 45% and the loading time for the “buy train” screen by 40%, which is far better compared to previous loading times.

This is a great step in the right direction, and we’ll be curious to know your thoughts and feedback once these performance updates arrive. As always, the roll-out is divided into several stages: Rollout plan

After completing this update, the next technical milestone is the mobile version of Rail Nation. We’ll let you know more about that once development has progressed further.

Take care and stay healthy.

Your Rail Nation Team

We need you!
Following the bugs, we have now moved on to tackling the performance issues. What does that mean? We want a smooth game experience with windows that open quickly and also achieve a decent speed when scrolling and moving on the map. We have therefore developed a number of changes and improvements that are waiting for you to put to the test. To get as many comparative measurements as possible, we are hoping for broad support on one of our public test servers. And because we don’t want you to come away empty-handed, we’ve devised a little PTR event for you all.

• If you haven’t already done so, register on the PTR server HERE
• When the event starts on 10 November 2020, log into PTR1 Speedy (WARNING: the OLD version WITHOUT the improvements will be found here).
• After the first half of the second day, an update will be added that contains the changes and improvements, allowing you to marvel at the new performance on the second half of the second day and on the third day.
• For us, it’s important that you play on the server in the way you normally do as well as open plenty of windows.
• If you reach 3500 prestige in the three days and complete the survey at the end of it, you can pick up 500 Gold, which you can collect on a live server of your choice.

We look forward to your support. Now crank open those windows in Rail Nation!

Your Rail Nation QA Team

Dear players,

A new dimension awaits! Platform X is a portal to alternative worlds, where new rules apply, old habits are called into question and innovative strategies must be devised.
Brand-new features and alternative balancing offer a completely new Rail Nation experience which requires players to develop new styles of play. Small changes with a huge impact!

Perfect for those of you who fancy something new or different, as well as for curious, adventurous and innovative strategists!

We call the first dimension that the Platform X portal will take you to:

Working Class Heroes

In this first episode of Platform X, hard work is rewarded for industries and everyone else. Supporting industries and tirelessly working together to develop cities pay off!

What does this mean specifically? Here’s an overview of the features:

Prestige for deliveries to industries

• All players who have supplied required goods to an industry will receive prestige as soon as the industry levels up.

City prestige for level-ups

• City prestige is no longer awarded daily, but only when the city reaches a new level.
• The prestige is distributed for all goods, no matter if the good is replaced or not.

New method of calculating active players

• The competition between cities gets more intense thanks to the improved method of calculating active players.
• Only players who actually supply a city will count as active players and influence city consumption.

Modified endgame

• For all megacities, the quantity of goods to be supplied in the endgame is now based on the megacity with the highest city level!

What’s more, there’s another new achievement that awards valuable career points, allowing players to continue to upgrade their career engine. Secure the special Platform X achievement by achieving at least 20,000 prestige in this episode!

Unlike other event scenarios, the first episode of Platform X will run not just for one round, but two. The first round starts at the end of October and the second round shortly after the end of the first in December. This way, you can optimise your strategies based on the experience you gather in the first round or take part in just one of the two rounds if the dates don’t quite suit you.
Here’s an overview of the new game worlds:

Curious?

HERE you can ask questions about the best strategies for the first episode of Platform X, prove in the community event that you have what it takes for this adventure and earn bonus Gold for Platform X – Working Class Heroes!

We’re really excited and hope you feel the same!
Your Rail Nation Team

Dear players,

The time has come! The most extensive bug-fixing update in the history of Rail Nation is approaching.

After we successfully switched Rail Nation to HTML5 a few months ago, securing the long-term future of the game, it is now time to make improvements and set higher standards.
The long-awaited, giant update full of bug fixes is finally here! All the work over the last few weeks and months has paid off.

More than 300 bug fixes are contained in this update!

What’s more, they are accompanied by a number of improvements such as higher performance, the revised chat feature and significantly smoother map scrolling. There are simply too many items to list them all here, but this graphic gives a good overview:

You can find the full changelog HERE and you’ll soon be able to see all the changes in the game for yourself. The release dates for the update are as follows:

• 15th September: DE-1, DE-107, DE-201, RU-2, RU-103, RU-204
• 17th September: DE & RU game worlds (excluding game worlds that are paused or in the endgame)
• 23rd + 24th September: All remaining game worlds

We are really looking forward to this update and would like to once again thank all the players who have helped us – either by tirelessly reporting bugs or diligently testing on the PTR.
But we’re not stopping after this update! Following this strong focus on bug fixes, we want to spend some time concentrating on implementing extra performance improvements. This includes things like speed and loading times when opening windows in the game, for example.

To celebrate the release of the biggest update in the history of Rail Nation, we’ve also prepared a little present for you all:

Using the bonus code* “XXL-UPDATE”, you can now secure a free Plus Account for 3 days.

Have fun!

Your Rail Nation Team

* Once per account. Valid from 14th September until 31st October. Only for browsers and Android. Apple excluded.

FAQs

Wouldn’t it have been better not to have waited for this long and to have improved the game in several smaller updates?

That’s normally the approach we take, but in this case a number of more extensive steps were necessary in the background to enable this high number of bug fixes in the first place.

I’ve just played for the first time since the update and the loading times are longer than before. Shouldn’t the performance actually be better?

Don’t worry; that’s normal. After an update, data stored in the browser (in the cache) becomes outdated. This means that the browser has to reload the cache and this can result in much longer loading times when performing certain actions in the game for the first time since the update. Unfortunately, this can diminish the first impression, but that takes care of itself after spending a little while playing the game.
By the way, that’s not only the case for this update but generally for all Rail Nation updates. The cache is automatically reloaded. You don’t need to clear it manually.

I’ve found a bug. Will this also be fixed at some point?

No worries, this isn’t our last update. Technical quality continues to be important to us. Please report the bug with all the key details in the forum and we’ll handle it!

You mentioned further performance improvements. When can we expect them?

It’s difficult to say right now, but it certainly won’t take as long as this update took to develop. We are already tracking down a number of ways to implement improvements. If there’s any interesting information about this before the actual update, you’ll find it in the forum.

I count fewer than 300 entries in the changelog. I thought the update contains more than 300 bug fixes?

To provide a better overview, we have summarised a number of smaller bug fixes in certain bullet points, which may encompass up to 40 individual bugs.

The biggest competition of the year

The time has come – round three of Masters is starting! Play in this tournament against players from all around the world in a battle for victory, prestige and prizes! Show off your skills – as a lone wolf or with your association. Rewards including achievements, Gold, glory and more await.

Like last year, there will again be two separate tournaments: Allstars for experienced players with 2 or more stars, and Rising Stars for everyone else who doesn’t want to miss out on the fierce competition.

Here’s a quick look at the key facts:

• Rising Stars is a single game world with a limit of 3500 players. The round starts on 31st August.
• Allstars is split up into a qualification round, starting on 28th August, and the final from 23rd October.
• The qualification round for Allstars encompasses 3 game worlds, each with up to 2500 players. A fourth or fifth game world will be opened if necessary.
• The best 2500 players in the Allstars qualification game worlds will progress to the final, i. e. the best 833 players from each of the 3 game worlds (2500 divided by the number of open game worlds).
• What’s more, the members of the 10 BEST associations per Allstars game world will qualify.
• All game worlds are played in the Classic scenario at double speed.
• Registration for the game world is open 24 hours before the round starts.
• The game worlds are international,  so all languages are available and allowed.

Valuable prizes, including up to 10,000 Gold and unique achievements, await the winners in the individual player and association rankings.

All the details, terms of participation, information on the prizes up for grabs, FAQs, an explanation of the qualification round, dates and much more can be found on the relevant information page in the Lobby.

Clash! is back!

Clash! is also making a return with Masters. Whether or not you take part in the Masters game worlds, everyone can play Clash! In case you’re new to it: Clash! is a mini game that takes place in the Lobby. In Clash! you face two opponents on a triangular map. Navigate from industry to industry, collect goods and destroy your rivals’ routes. Whoever is the first to successfully collect 10 goods wins. The exact rules can be found in Clash! Moreover, you can familiarise yourself with the gameplay during the training phase at the start. The training phase begins on 27th August.
In contrast to last year, you can also win Gold in Clash! this year!

Community event: The hunt for prestige!

Whether you play Allstars or Rising Stars – after the endgame there is only one winner in the individual ranking. But like in Rail Nation generally, there is more than just this one objective in Masters. This year, we also want to reward those of you who aren’t deterred by the tough competition and still give your best.
So, there’s an extra challenge for this year’s round of Masters to achieve certain prestige goals. Both for the Allstars final and for Rising Stars, there are 3 objectives in each game world with different levels of difficulty and rewards.

In the Allstars final, at least the following prestige objectives need to be reached in the individual ranking:

• Intermediate: 300,000 prestige
• Difficult: 400,000 prestige
• Hardcore: 500,000 prestige

Since many less-experienced players play on the Rising Stars game world, the minimum objectives are slightly lower:

• Intermediate: 200,000 prestige
• Difficult: 300,000 prestige
• Hardcore: 400,000 prestige

On both game worlds, you can win the following rewards:

• Intermediate: Community Hero Achievement (Bronze)
• Difficult: Community Hero Achievement (Silver)
• Hardcore: Community Hero Achievement (Gold) + 20 days of Plus account (freely transferable to any game world)

None of these objectives are trivial, and they all call for a certain amount of activity and strategy. But they are also targets that players have often achieved … even without buying Gold or excessively using the video feature!

Whether you decide to take on this challenge is of course up to you. For us, it was important that those of you who try your best in Masters receive a nice additional reward and have objectives besides the individual player victory.

Have fun on your hunt for prestige! We can’t wait to see your success on the Masters game worlds!

No matter if you’re a hardcore veteran or a newbie, Masters 3 offers something for everyone. And anyone who’s looking for a challenge will be in their element here – whether on the game worlds, in Clash! or in pursuit of the prestige objectives.

Good luck!

Your Rail Nation Team

Dear players,

With many global events and sporting competitions being cancelled this year, we were thinking about how we can jump in to provide a contact-free event for everyone. Our answer is:

the Rail Nation Summer Games!

The Summer Games start on 7^th July and if you play Rail Nation, you are already a participant! Well, at least passively. If you actually want to win, you probably have to do a bit more than that.
Until 28^th July, you can compete in five different disciplines against all other players on your game world. These disciplines are:

Sprinting
Achieve the highest profit from a single transport.

Running
Achieve the highest hourly profit with trains.

Marathon
Accumulate as many transports as possible. In this case, a transport with a X-slot engine counts as X transports.

Jack of all trades
Succeed in the most competitions. Succeeding doesn’t necessarily mean you have to take first place. It just means that you have to complete the competition task in time as often as possible. City competitions are not included.

Teamwork
Help your association to acquire a worker successfully as often as possible.

The prize
In every category and every game world, the top three will win a prize:

1. Rank: Community Hero Achievement (Gold)
2. Rank: Community Hero Achievement (Silver)
3. Rank: Community Hero Achievement (Bronze

The rules

• You can participate on any game world and on as many game worlds as you want. However, you can only pick up a prize on one server. If you are eligible for prizes on multiple servers, you will receive it on the server where you are eligible for the highest number of prizes (no matter which ones). On the other game worlds, you will be ignored in the ranking.
• You can win in multiple disciplines on one game world.
• If your game world restarts between 7^th – 28^th July, only the second round counts for this event, not the previous one.
• You do not have to register for this event.
• The Summer Games end on 28^th July at 14:00 UTC+2. Your final result in the event will be measured at that time. Due to technical reasons, a delay of a few seconds or minutes cannot be completely ruled out.
• If your game world was already running before the Summer Games started, whatever you achieve until then IS INCLUDED in your final result. So, for example, if you already won competitions on that game world, they will contribute to your total number of won competitions at the end of the Summer Games.

Your Rail Nation Team

Dear players,

We’d like to update you on our plans for Rail Nation over the coming months. If you’re in a hurry, here’s a quick summary of the main points:

• On 7th July, the Rail Nation Summer Games are starting – a community event on all game worlds.
• A new round of Fast Forward is starting directly afterwards on 29th and 31st July.
• Shortly after the end of the Fast Forward game worlds, Masters is starting the third round on 28th August. The Clash! tournament will also be taking place again at the same time.
• Our focus in development is on the technical quality of the game.
• This means that other major projects will be put on hold for the time being, including the new scenario “Orient Express”. For the time being, we want to limit ourselves to game content which involves less development.

Changes are always possible, but it was important for us to give you an overview now, so you can plan which events you’d like to participate in. In-depth information and final details on each of the events will follow in future blog posts.

Rail Nation Summer Games

Since the ultimate sporting event in Tokyo has now been postponed until next year, we are launching our own interpretation on all game worlds – naturally with disciplines adapted to Rail Nation. We will reveal more information about that in this blog on 6th July.

Fast Forward 3

Following the amazing popularity of the last two rounds, we have been looking for a suitable time to offer you a third round of high-paced fun with Fast Forward this summer. We have finally decided on 29th and 31st July. More details will be released in the blog.

Masters 3 and Clash!

The biggest tournament of the year is likewise entering its third round, straight after Fast Forward ends. This year, we will again offer the Rising Star game world for less experienced players as well as the Allstar game worlds (including qualification round) for pros. Like last year, Clash! will take place at the same time as an alternative tournament.

Technical quality and game content

Even more important than these events is the technical quality of the game. Some of these improvements have already been implemented in the background. For instance, we regularly had problems with load balancers on our game servers at the start of this year and were able to fix these issues a few months ago. The new shop is also one of the new technical changes we have introduced. Here, outdated technology often caused problems and limited us in development. That chapter is now closed. What’s more, we have expanded our team of developers and created the new role of Technical Director, who will help us to organise the game’s technical development.

Development is currently focused on a major update for HTML5, which fixes a range of bugs and will simplify development in the future.
The technical quality of the game provides the foundation for everything else that we do in Rail Nation. That’s why we have put major projects like Orient Express on hold for now to concentrate on what matters most at present: game quality. But we also understand that many players want more variety. For this reason, we will not neglect this aspect entirely and will continue to offer you events. On the one hand, this means popular events like Masters, Fast Forward and Origin Journey. On the other hand, there will be new ideas that allow us to make little adjustments to event game worlds that significantly change the gameplay. We’ll say more about that in the future.

Until the next blog post,

Your Rail Nation Team

Dear players,

The idea behind the American dream is all about putting in the hard work to move forward on the road to success, often competing with others who are doing the same.

Having revamped our USA scenario and introducing the new name “American Dream”, we thought of a special challenge to allow you to live the American dream in Rail Nation. Of course, trying to win alone, with your city or with your association are valid ways to do that, but we wanted to add another challenge where you can make it to the top and receive a truly unique reward!

In short, the challenge is to win as many competitions as possible. If you win, you will not only receive a small amount of Gold, but also get a brand-new production series:

the legendary “Big Boy”, probably the most famous American steam engine! This will be the only way to receive this unique production series for free! This production series can NOT be bought for 75 Gold or using a voucher! Don’t miss your chance!

But the American Dream scenario is not just about competing alone, it’s also about standing united against the opposing faction and leading your side to victory.

This is why we added two special rules to this challenge.

1. East vs. West

In total, 20 players per American Dream game world can win the prize. However, it matters which side you play on. East or West? If you end up on the losing side, you have to be among the top five in the challenge ranking of your side to get the prize. If you play for the winning side, it’s enough to be among the top 15.

2. Sharing is caring

Even when competing with everyone else, you can still assist your friends. When you register for the American Dream Challenge, you can name up to five of your friends who, if you end up winning the challenge, will get the prize as well if they play on the same server! Do you want to enter a pact with your friends and name each other? Or do you prefer to coordinate with your friends and make sure you name as many people as possible to receive the Big Boy? Your choice! Either way, if you end up winning, your friends (or maybe a random stranger?) will surely appreciate that you named them.

Does that sound interesting? So, here’s what you need to do and consider:

• If you want to participate in the American Dream Challenge, register HERE.
• Registrations for the challenge will be closed on the 3^rd July 2020.
• The prize is the “Big Boy” production series and 150 Gold.
• Only complete and valid registrations will be considered.
• The goal of the challenge is to win as many competitions as possible. You will only compete against players who also registered for the event. Non-registered players are not considered for the top 15 or top five and cannot win the prize.
• If you play on the winning side, you have to be among the top 15 on your side. If your side ends up losing, you have to be among the top five on your side.
• You have to win at least one competition to qualify for the prize.
• You can only register for the challenge once and only participate on one server.
• You can name up to five other players when registering for the event. If you are among the winners of the challenge of your server, they will also get the prize if they play on the same server.
• The prize will be awarded to your account within 30 days after your game world has finished.
• Please make sure to spell your name and those of your friends correctly. Only registrations with correctly spelled and existing usernames can be considered.

May the best, and their friends, win!

Your Rail Nation Team

Dear players,

To celebrate the renaming of the USA scenario to “American Dream”, as well as its redesign, we have prepared a special community event for you all. You can win our new “Community Hero” achievement in silver as well as one of our new and exclusive Rail Nation – American Dream t-shirts. It just takes a little intuition and savvy.

Help Adam make it big in the USA and live the American dream!

You can find more information HERE.

And that’s not all! Next week, when the first servers in the new design start, there’ll be another event here on the blog where you can win exclusive prizes. Watch this space!

Your Rail Nation Team

The USA scenario will soon be Rail Nation – American Dream. New name, new design, familiar game play!
Become a successful manager in the land of endless opportunity in Rail Nation – American Dream and support one of two duelling factions in the huge battle between East and West! A hundred and fifty trains from all around the world await you, including 30 realistic American models. This scenario is all about delivering goods, without any passenger transports. Discover 50 authentic cities and write your own success story!

What awaits you on the new servers?

More trophies!

 If you earn 50,000 prestige on one of the American Dream servers, you will receive the new “American Tycoon” achievement.

Endgame enhancements

A number of minor balancing adjustments have been made to create more excitement in the endgame. This includes the faction points a megacity receives when it wins the endgame; they have been increased from 2,000 to 5,000 points. What’s more, players who belong to the winning faction will pick up 20,000 prestige rather than 10,000. The general prestige rewards for each conquered city have been reduced from 100 % to 50 %.

What else can you look forward to?

Take part in the two community events and win fantastic prizes, like the exclusive “Big Boy” production series or unique T-shirts in the new Rail Nation – American Dream style!
More information will follow in the next blog update.

Server starts

When does Rail Nation – American Dream start? Check out here:

We’re here for you. While the world out there is standing still, we want to continue to provide entertainment and distraction for these perhaps boring times stuck at home, with little to no contact with others.

In the last few weeks, we received a lot of positive feedback about our Fast Forward game worlds at 4x speed. Originally, we didn’t want to restart them right away. But because of your fantastic feedback and the current situation, we’re going to start a second round of Fast Forward on 11th April – our #stayhome game worlds.

For those among you who have not yet played Fast Forward, you now have the chance to experience this 4x speed event. If you’re already participating in the first round, this could be your chance to optimise your tactics.

Of course, we won’t let you start empty-handed. Using the voucher code FAST-FORWARD-2 , you can get a free package worth €10 on every Fast Forward game world. The package contains:

• 100 Gold
• 10 days’ Plus Account
• 1 x bonus engine upgrade voucher
• 10 x mechanic vouchers
• 10 x boost vouchers

• Only valid on Fast Forward 2 game worlds
• Valid until the 30th April
• Only usable once per player
• Only for browser and Android, not available on Apple devices

For those of you who like to play competitively, we have a special challenge this time: The top 10 players on each server of the second round of Fast Forward will receive the gold version of our brand new “Community Hero” achievement and the server winner will even receive the platinum version.

Since the second round of Fast Forward was not planned and is a spontaneous response to the coronavirus pandemic, we sadly cannot activate pre-registration. We still hope the second round of Fast Forward will bring you joy in these extraordinary times.

You can check when the servers start here:

FAQs

Why are some game worlds missing this time?

That’s because some of the game worlds had relatively few players. While those numbers are still okay, a second round usually has lower numbers and will lead to player numbers that can cause problems with gameplay.

Won’t another event slow down your work on HTML5?

No. When we thought about how we can offer entertainment during the coronavirus pandemic without putting a burden on our developers, we specifically chose Fast Forward since repeating this event does not require any development or testing. That’s also the reason why Fast Forward 2 will still run on Flash. This way, we don’t have to test another version of the game mode right now and our developers can continue to focus on HTML5.

What if the second round is even more popular and too many players register on the game worlds?

All our game worlds have a limit of 10,000 registrations to prevent overcrowded cities and any performance problems caused. Should too many players be interested in playing the second round of Fast Forward, another international game world is ready to be started on demand.

My country or language is not among the announced game worlds. Does this mean I can’t play Fast Forward?

No. On the international game worlds all languages are available and allowed. While we recommend English for international communication, every other language is welcome too. Please respect that we have players from all over the world with completely different languages skills. Not everyone will speak your language or English. Please stay respectful, even if communication is a challenge. This is especially important, given the hard times many people are going through right now.

Dear players,

We’re happy to announce that a giant milestone in the history of Rail Nation will soon be achieved: the switch from Flash to HTML5!
The complete switch to HTML5 not only secures the future of Rail Nation but also allows us to focus on this version of the game, instead of having to continue developing the game in both Flash and HTML5 simultaneously.

We also want to thank all the players who assisted us with testing this important change in the last weeks and months. Of course, we’ll continue to work on fixing any remaining bugs or problems.

During the development of HTML5, we also gathered quite a collection of bug fixes and smaller improvements, among them an increase in the museum capacity, balancing changes for landmarks and an improved track design.

You can check the exact roll-out schedule and the extensive changelog HERE.

Just like in recent weeks on the first two live game worlds with HTML5, our focus remains on providing you with frequent updates and fixing remaining bugs quickly.

For us, it’s also important, especially in these unusual times, to provide you with entertainment, but without distracting our developers from their main goal: game quality.
You can read more about how we plan to do this in an upcoming blog post.

Until then…

Your Rail Nation Team

Dear players,

with the Corona pandemic spreading in all parts of the world and more and more countries closing borders, cancelling public events or even imposing a curfew, we all have to adapt to this new reality and take care of ourselves and each other. This pandemic touches most of our lives in some way and we hope you stay healthy and wish you and your loved ones a quick recovery if you are already affected.

As gamers, we all share a hobby that is luckily not affected by the Corona pandemic. In these unusual times where we might have to spend a long time at home, games are a form of entertainment that remains available and we are still able to keep up the social contacts to our online friends. With people having to stay at home, boredom and loneliness can become a challenge for many people and games can help to reduce those problems.

This is why, after the rapid spread of  the virus and the lock down in Italy, we wanted to support our Italian players who have to stay at home right now and sent them a bonus code for 500 gold and 14 days of Plus Account last Friday.

Now, a few days later, the situation has changed and more countries will face similar situations as Italy.

This is why we decided to expand this initiative to everyone and hope that this makes the lives of all players at least a little bit easier.
Starting immediately, you can use the bonus code „TAKE-CARE“ to receive 500 Gold and 14 days of Plus Account on one game world of your choice.

Here are the details:

• Bonuscode: TAKE-CARE
• Yes, upper case spelling and the „-„ are important.
• When you copy the code, please make sure to check you didn’t also copy an empty space…or just type it manually
• The code can only be used in the browser and on Android devices.
• The code can only be used once per account, i.e. on only one game world per player
• The code is valid until the 30th of June 2020.
• The code needs to be entered in the shop, as seen here:

We hope you all take care and we wish you all the best in these troubled times.

Your Rail Nation Team

PS: Due to doing this rather quickly, this blog post is currently not available in any other languages. Our apologies for that.

Dear players,

We’d like to give you a little update about the current status of the HTML5 version of the game.

For those of you who missed it: We’re switching from Flash to HTML5, since support for Flash will end next year.
A while ago, we already switched all Russian and German servers to HTML5 for a short period. During that time we noticed that, although the game was running smoothly for most, a few players still had significant performance problems with the new version of the game. That’s why we decided to switch back to Flash, while we polished HTML5 a bit more.

Today, we’re in the middle of doing just that and we want to explain what exactly this involves. The bug reports we received in our previous live test did not point to a specific singular cause, but were rather quite general performance issues.

Luckily, we identified an area with a lot of potential for performance improvements: the user interface (UI) elements.
Right now, the processes in the background when a UI element is moved or changed require a complete recalculation. Other UI elements that are connected to this element then need to be recalculated too. And, like a domino effect, others that are connected to those elements need be recalculated as well.
This chain of unnecessarily complicated recalculations can use up the entire CPU capacity for the browser tab and then lead to memory problems, resulting in performance issues.

Our developers are currently working on changing how these UI recalculations work. In simple words, if a UI element is changed, it checks which other elements need to be recalculated with it, instead of causing a chain of recalculating everything.
It’s quite a complex process to overhaul this, but we think it’s worth the effort. We can’t give you an exact date yet, but we at least wanted to provide a bit of insight into what exactly we’re doing for HTML5 right now.

We’re looking forward to entering this new era of Rail Nation and we’ll share further news with you as soon as we can.

Your Rail Nation Team

Rail Nation – Origin Journey is returning to the tracks!

This time, as an express server due to popular demand from the many express fans among you. You are now finally able to experience the event scenario on the map of Germany, Austria and Switzerland at twice the speed!

Run the economy of the three countries at the heart of Europe and establish your railway empire.

Enjoy the familiar gameplay on the alternative map, transporting regional goods like Swiss watches, German beer and Austrian cakes.

And speaking of special features…

Each player who registers for this round of Rail Nation – Origin Journey in the first era will receive a very special train as an exclusive gift:

the Alstom Coradia iLint production series will be unlocked for free! This train is not only the world’s first hydrogen-powered engine, but also travels exclusively in Germany and was developed in cooperation with the German Aerospace Centre. 

What’s more: from the second day of the first era, each player will also receive additional login bonuses such as vouchers and lottery tickets, which will enable everyone to start this event server at high speed!

If you missed the first round of Rail Nation – Origin Journey, you can find the details from that initial round HERE, allowing you to quickly climb aboard and experience this express scenario that combines the familiar Classic gameplay with a new look.

This time, the following servers will be launched for Rail Nation – Origin Journey:

We’re looking forward to running the rails at full speed with you!

Your Rail Nation Team