Demo update: clearer guidance and fixes for vehicle operations

The demo's opening minutes are easier to follow: start at your own pace, learn the main controls and see more clearly which vehicles you can buy. This update also fixes problems with depot exits, return trips, training runs and tram rendering.

Getting started and controls

• More room to experiment in Naumburg: New demo games start with €5 million instead of €1 million, leaving more money for the ring and country line, stops and vehicles. The prepared starter bus is paid for from this budget. Existing saves keep their balance.
• A paused start: New guided games start paused. The first step starts operations and follows a tram. You can reopen the guide later with “Open guide”.
• A short introduction: Five hints explain following vehicles, time and speed, moving the map, the menus and the demo mission. You can end the tour at any time.
• Visible purchase limits: Depots show occupied and free spaces, suitable vehicle lengths, your budget and available models. Hints explain why a purchase is unavailable and what you can change.
• Arrow keys: You can now move the map with the arrow keys.
• Illustrated manual: New in-game pictures explain buying vehicles, choosing signals and building traffic lights in German and English.

Vehicles and operations

• Naumburg depot exit: In a new game, car 38 stands at the front towards the exit, with reserve cars behind it.
• Delayed return trips: A late arrival no longer prevents the immediately following return trip of the same duty after the normal turnback.
• Automatic driving school: New games schedule at most four training runs per day. On the first day, they begin no earlier than 9 am. The driving school also works on Naumburg's line 4; change automation under Operations → Driving school.
• Training runs after a stop: Training trams continue after a pause or traffic stop. Their speed follows driver experience and route knowledge. If training holds a ready service tram in the depot for too long, the course ends at the next terminus.
• Cab changes: At connected Sh7 terminal markers, the tram body stays in place during turnback, including training runs.
• Cars and trams: On Poststraße, yielding cars return to their usual lane only after the entire tram has passed.
• B1 in Naumburg: Vehicles in the neighbouring lane no longer hold the bus indefinitely at Curt-Becker-Platz.
• Roßbach terminus: Empty trams also call correctly at their terminus before changing cabs.
• Fewer distracting notifications: Routine signal changes no longer produce generic notices claiming that a tram is waiting at a stop signal.
• MAX in Portland: Trains return after trips outside the map. Automatically generated platform placeholders no longer incorrectly prevent longer MAX trains from calling at stops.
• Jump to an incident: Accident and roadworks notices have a “Show location” button that takes you to the affected event on the map.

Construction and rendering

• Pictures in the build menu: Signals, traffic lights and balises have in-game previews and short explanations.
• Construction costs: Tracks cost €300 per physical track metre, bus stop positions €4,000, and tram stop positions €15,000. Double track and paired stops are charged for both tracks or positions. The preview shows the cost and any shortfall; undo and redo account for the payment.
• Naumburg trams in curves: While a new angle image loads, the last loaded image of the same vehicle remains visible. The switch to a rectangle at certain angles and sizes has been removed.
• Zooming: Prepared map images remain available longer in Naumburg and Portland. Map tiles need recalculating less often.
• Less drawing work: Traffic routes entirely outside the visible map are excluded earlier. A route cache avoids repeated calculations while drawing.
• Signs and directions: Missing pedestrian signs to reachable destinations in Naumburg have been added. Visual artifacts on highway signs in the map overview have been fixed.

Still being worked on

Performance in Portland and the cost of traffic simulation still need work. A vehicle model being displayed for the very first time may briefly appear as a simple shape while loading.

Get the free demo on Steam.

Read the patch notes on Steam.

If you find a bug, please report it in the LineManager Steam discussions. The region, steps to reproduce the problem and a screenshot help us investigate.