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Fixes: 1) Much improved framerate in crowded yards. I improved the animation engine to handle more cars in a yard. I have put about 400 cars in Barstow yard and still had acceptable performance. I'm curious to know how many cars you can stuff into a yard!2) Fixed the single car coupling bug. You may have noticed that sometimes a single car would overlap and not couple at the correct location. This is fixed.2) Added background radio communications. This is really cool. If you want to have radio communications that randomly play in the background, download the Radio Sounds 1 (2.0 MB) and unzip them into ...\Yard Duty\Sounds\Radio. You can also add your own wave files to this folder and they will be played. A sound is played every minute, so make sure your sound files are less than one minute in length. There is a checkbox in the options window to turn this feature on/off.Thanks! KingJPWPS: I will now work on the game's financial system...
Kudos on the new release! I am up and running reliably now (new motherboard), and the radio chatter really adds to the experience! Also, the coupler bug does indeed seem squashed - good job.I have sent you email regarding the undef. variable error 91 bug. I'll try to compile a list of all bugs or feature problems that I've found, and post them here. That way we can all collaborate on the current bug list.- David
Hmm, here's a partial list of bugs, typos, or feature requests:1) When selecting engines on a new train, dialogue says "Swither" instead of "Switcher"2) The National Map should follow the same convention as the yard map, using the right mouse button to pan. Would make selection much easier.3) The color filters do not work reliably, or at least not immediately. I changed my yard filters, but they would not show up on my trains. However, they suddenly worked when a new train arrived. Do you have to restart the program to change car colors?4) It might be nice to have an alphabetical list of yards and their state available in the game, or at least in a document in the manual. I would be willing to compile this.5) In combination with #4 above, it is generally difficult to kep track of all the yard names, and will only tend more and more towards impossibility as the national database expands. I would like to see state names or some other regional indication associated with car destinations when hovering over them.6) Maps named "Industry" or "Receiving Yard" are too vague - they need to have a place-name, too.7) (Question) What do you do with empty cars after you have made a local delivery or put them on an unloading track?- David
In response to the above:1) Fixed in next version.2) I agree, but I can't change how the North America map works, because it is a 3rd Party (i.e. purchased) control. Hey, there was a time when I didn't even have a map! Imagine how hard it would be to play without it. 3) You don't have to restart the game. I think they take effect when you enter a map, as you noticed. Maybe I can improve this.4 & 5) I agree. Let me think about how to make this easier.6) Not really, because they are satellite yards. What I need to do is make sure to always refer to them as for example, 'Barstow Yard - Receiving Yard' or 'Norwalk Yard - Industry #2' That's the idea. Notice that they are indented in the map list as well.7) Good question. You can build up a train of empties and 'deliver' them to local industries the easy way, regardless of destination. The empties will be removed from the train and you engines will return to the map. Or you can take an empty car to a 'loader'line (the purple line) and they will be loaded (assuming the loader line can load that type of car).Thanks.
Sounds good. Bummer on the national map panning. Perhaps if you implemented aids as per #4/5, I might not need to use the national map as much, easing the interface woes.Re #6, that's exactly what I meant - adding the place-name association, like "Barstow Receiving Yard" or "Norwalk Industry #2"Perhaps all yards need to start with their two-letter state code? CA-Barstow Yard, OR-Portland Yard?I have a new bug identified that I'm having a lot of trouble with. When laying track in a custom yard, after a while I cannot get the segments to connect to the proper ends of the existing segments. The first 50 or so track segments laid down fine (with a lot of "figuring it out"!) but after a while the segments start connecting to the wrong ends of existing segments, or in one case not connecting at all. In the latter case, while laying a new track I could highlight an existing segment with the second endpoint, but it would not "take" - if I clicked to terminate the line, nothing happened. I had the proper color track selected, and the existing track all had the proper orientation. The existing track also only had a single connection, so it wasn't a "full endpoint".In the other cases, blue ends connect to the purple end of existing track. I've tried every combination I can - starting the line on the existing track, starting the line solo and building back to the existing track, using the correct color, using the opposite color - nothing works properly. Also, I am using the same techniques that worked properly when I was building the first part of the yard, which works perfectly in driving mode. So something is wrong, and I am not sure what. Should I send you the unfinished yard to look at?- David
David, Go ahead and send me the files, because I played around with the editor last night and everything looked fine to me.BTW, there are several of your ideas in the latest version. I'm sure you noticed that. Jim
