Hello, Captains!

Update 4.2 has just landed, and it’s a big one: full COI Hub integration directly in the game, modular ramps, a host of new train features, and major performance improvements. We’ve also put together a new trailer highlighting the key features, while this post takes a closer look at everything included in the update.

Important: If anything seems off after updating, use Steam’s Verify integrity of game files option. Several players on the experimental branch found that Steam had not applied the update correctly and left the game in an inconsistent state.

New capsule graphics on Steam

While not technically part of Update 4.2, we’ve completely redesigned our Steam capsule art to better showcase key features like trains and bridges.

Steam main capsule before/after. We ended up building the entire scene in-game and painting over it so that what you see is what you get!

COI Hub integration

Mods, maps, and blueprints from COI Hub can now be browsed, downloaded, and updated directly in the game. The new Mod Manager takes care of installing and updating mods, Hub maps are available when starting a new game, and Hub blueprints are just one click away in the Blueprint Manager. No login or account creation is required. This ensures that your mods and maps remain up to date, as long as they are compatible with your current game version.

All blueprints are now parsed and verified by the Hub before being added. This allows us to extract useful information, including mod dependencies, so you can filter blueprints based on the mods you have installed. We also create an index of all entities used by each blueprint. In the in-game Hub, you can now search for blueprints that specifically contain the machines or buildings you need. On the Hub website, we have also increased the blueprint size limit from 100k to 500k characters.

You can add a blueprint to your library by pasting its corresponding Hub URL or by adding it through the Hub UI. In both cases, the blueprint will remain linked to its Hub entry, so you will be notified about updates and can see its main Hub image in the side panel.

The blueprints manager

Mods managed through the game’s Hub integration also come with several quality-of-life improvements. For instance, the game will not offer you a mod version that is too new for your current game version. This frequently happened with mods that had been updated for the experimental branch. The game also automatically identifies and downloads any required dependencies.

The mods manager

Of course, the new integration does not prevent you from manually adding content to the game.

To make the experience smoother, we have also improved image compression while serving larger images, giving you crisp but optimized results. We added a local image cache to make browsing faster and smoother. We also changed the Popular sorting option so that popularity is calculated based on activity from the past six months rather than all-time activity, and we added a Rising sorting option. Mods can now be filtered by save-file compatibility, while maps can be filtered by difficulty.

Modular ramps

The struggle of fitting a limited number of conveyors and pipes under a ramp is over. Modular ramps are built using a new place-and-drag tool and can be any length, with a height of either one or two levels. Unlike bridges, all vehicles can drive on them, including the largest ones.

We still see ramps as heavy-duty, short-distance solutions for crossing obstacles such as belts, rather than as a replacement for bridges. Existing ramps are now considered obsolete. You can still copy and paste them and use them in blueprints, but we plan to retire them sometime around Update 5.

Modular ramps are very convenient, but this convenience comes at the cost of a larger footprint.

New train features and improvements

New T1 and T2 universal wagons can carry any product, whether unit, loose, or fluid, at 3/4 of a dedicated wagon's capacity.

Universal wagons – great for train networks that can fully share such trains for all jobs.

New train track pieces: corner ramps, grade transitions, and 2-tile S-bends allow for easier and more compact builds.

New train track pieces.

Waypoints can now restrict which trains may path to or through them, using configurable allow and deny rules.

The new waypoint rules are perfect for fine-tuning your train network.

Trains can now change direction of travel autonomously on dead-ends of bidirectional tracks.

Trains can now turn around by (1) driving forwards to a station, (2) backing out of station into a dead-end, and (3) continuing forwards.

New train network tutorials cover networks, linked storages, advanced train line rules, station groups, and troubleshooting.

Performance

Product rendering is now up to 20× faster thanks to a brand-new, highly optimized renderer. Our torture-test map improved from 23 to 78 FPS, while real save files see solid gains of 20–50%. Terrain physics is also up to 9× faster during avalanches and large-scale mining operations. For the full story, including all the technical details, check out Captain's Diary #56.

Torture-test map with over 1 million products running at 78 FPS.

FPS increase on three community-provided maps on different machines.

Notable improvements

All 100+ product 3D models

Every product model in the game was remade from scratch: better looking and with up to 90% fewer polygons.

Evolution from old product models to new ones, including triangle counts per product.

Detailed per-recipe breakdown

The product statistics window now breaks down production and consumption by individual machine recipe, complete with stacked bar charts and percentage shares. To support this, we’ve revamped our statistics tracking to account for recipes. Recipe-level statistics will begin accumulating as you play.

An example of per-recipe breakdown for products, namely the Hydrogen. You can clearly see where it is being produced and consumed.

Improved construction tools

Drag placement now works with surfaces and decals, and there is a new optional "hold key to drag-place" accessibility mode.

You can now drag-place decals, making repeated patterns easier than ever.

We’ve also enhanced the look of construction previews, making them non-transparent and better visible on bright backgrounds.

Paused construction on mined rock used to be really hard to see. Thanks to the new shader, this should no longer be an issue.

Bridge building improvements

Bridges now show height lines and a height-delta readout for a clearer sense of depth, with faster previews and better performance.

Bridges are easier to build now and height-delta lines help with depth perception.

Wrap-up

And that is just the highlights. Update 4.2 also brings a pile of smaller improvements and fixes, so check out the full changelog below if you want to know it all!

See you in the game, Captains!

Full change log

New feature: COI Hub integration

• Added a Mod Manager that lets you browse mods from COI Hub and install/update them directly in-game.
• Maps from the Hub can be browsed, downloaded, and updated directly in-game.
• Blueprints from the Hub can be browsed and downloaded directly in-game from the blueprints manager.
• All these features currently do not require a login or account creation.

New feature: Modular ramps

• Added modular road ramps built with a new place & drag tool.
• Modular ramps can have any length and a height of 1 or 2, and unlike bridges, all vehicles can pass over them, small vehicles can pass under them.
• The original ramps are now obsolete.

New train features and improvements

• Added T1 and T2 universal wagons that can carry any product (unit, loose, or fluid), at 3/4 of a dedicated wagon's capacity.
• Added new train track pieces: corner ramps, grade transitions, and 2-tile S-bends.
• Waypoints can now restrict which trains may path to or through them, using configurable allow and deny rules, including filtering by wagon product type.
• Trains can now perform switchbacks autonomously on bidirectional tracks: navigating to a dead end, stopping, and reversing back out.
• Added train network tutorials covering networks, linked storages, advanced train line rules, station groups, and troubleshooting.

Performance

• New product renderer makes product rendering itself 10-20x faster, cutting product draw calls and memory dramatically. A benchmark map went from 23 to 78 FPS, and real saves see solid 20-50% FPS gains too. See Captain's diary #56 for details.
• Optimized terrain physics processing for avalanches and large-scale mining, up to ~9x faster on heavy avalanche and mining scenarios.
• Optimized train pathfinding goal selection at stations, making pathfinding more than 2x faster on train-heavy saves.

Improvements

• All 100+ product 3D models have been remade with better graphics.
• Reworked construction preview and blueprint graphics: new shaders with blueprint grid lines and improved depth perception.
• Inspector windows now remember their positions.
• Office and Captain's Office bonuses now activate and deactivate with a delay via a charge that fills while needs are satisfied and drains otherwise, preventing rapid on/off toggling.
• Added a detailed per-recipe breakdown to the product statistics window, showing production and consumption by individual machine recipe with stacked bar charts and share percentages.
• Added /60 per-minute toggles to the Maintenance, Food, and Fuel statistics tabs.
• Drag placement now works with surfaces and decals, and a new "Hold key to drag-place" accessibility option (off by default) only starts drag-placing while the grid-fill key is held.
• Bridge building improvements: height lines and a height-delta readout for a clearer sense of depth, faster validity arrows and previews, higher performance, and bug fixes.
• Product search now covers more buildings, including Food Market, Hospital, Captain's Office, Research Lab, Shipyard, Sorter, Cargo Depot, and train station modules.
• Construction and deconstruction now obey the target zone's vehicle bans instead of the construction zone's, so vehicle restrictions you set up are respected.
• Shipyard now shows its storage buffers (non-empty cargo only).
• Settlement waste, biomass, and recyclables module inspectors now show the amount collected in the last month.
• The rocket launch pad inspector now shows its logistics zone.
• Vehicles now show their unreachable destination even when no specific entities are targeted (useful for tree harvesters).
• Moved the entity tooltip icon into the inspector title bar.
• Loading progress is now shown in the Windows taskbar, with a blink on completion.
• Improved the tutorial window with a per-message section navigation list, a maximize button, and improved styling. Tutorial messages now appear in a consistent order across all games and saves.
• Upgraded rendering engine to Unity 6.3.19 (modders may need to update).

Fixes

• Fixed notifications lingering for destroyed entities.
• Fixed an error when panning the camera with the tower area overlay open.
• Fixed a train pathfinding requeue bug that could stall pathfinding on very large networks with many trains.
• Fixed deleted stations still showing lines when a train reported an unreachable destination.
• Fixed tenders triggering their own refueling events; they are now grouped with their locomotive to calculate a combined fuel level.
• Fixed train network loading jobs completing all alignments even when enough was already loaded (unless an alignment is needed for fuel).
• Fixed a "last leg" issue where a busy train's path-improvement tasks prevented it from ignoring critical sections right before a station.
• Fixed air friction overflow on very long trains (50+ wagons).
• Fixed products being rendered at wrong positions on reversed train cars.
• Fixed product source statistics losing precision when small quantities were consumed from large product pools.
• Fixed Fix32 overflow in settlement internet provider and transformer calculations.
• Fixed vehicles using stale height after the terrain changed beneath them from mining, dumping, or flooding.
• Fixed train track construction and Unity cost issues: double-counted deconstruction materials, wrong Unity cost, and redundant commands during area removal.
• Fixed being unable to continue building from a 45-degree sloped track end that had a pillar.
• Fixed several connectivity manager errors and issues when vehicle pathability capabilities changed.
• Fixed an error when starting a drag-placement after previews were cleared mid-drag.
• Fixed a fast click and drag placing only one entity instead of the dragged copies.
• Fixed frosted glass rendering after a screen resize.
• Fixed several file-handling issues for CrossOver (Mac) users: the max auto-save limit being ignored, a successful recovery-save export reported as failed, and new games wrongly reporting the folder as non-writable.
• Fixed the maintenance statistics tab showing "+" instead of "-" for consumption, plus several chart selection, hover, and year-range display issues.