Roadmap

Roadmap

Where Captain of Industry is going, and everywhere it has been.

Future plans for 1.0

  • Overhaul of mining & dumping designations
  • Streamline & simplify early game, e.g.:
    • Remove iron and use steel instead everywhere
    • Move trains to be available slightly earlier
  • Demo on Steam
  • Include a way to easily add recipes or other things via text-based/config-based mods
  • Better modding API
  • Add support for mixed ores on belts / wagons / storages
  • Redesign the world map and its mechanics
  • Improve ships on the island and their immersion and mechanics
  • Revamp settlements
  • Performance improvements
  • Graphical improvements
  • Path-finding improvements
  • UI improvements
  • Improve UI & game tools' responsiveness
  • More quality of life (e.g. undo / redo)
  • Larger maps
  • Roads
  • Multiplayer
  • Investigate supporting other platforms with native builds
  • More flexible contracts
  • More decorations
  • [Highly tentative] Campaign that leads the player through the game's content

Everything here is tentative and may change or be removed. This roadmap is for transparency, not a guarantee. If a specific feature is a must-have for you, please wait to purchase until it's released or confirmed. This is not an exhaustive list: just because something is not here does not mean it won't be considered later. We don't track smaller tasks here.

The journey so far
2026
Jul
0.8.6 Update 4.2
Major
  • COI Hub integration: browse, download, and update mods, maps, and blueprints directly in-game
  • Modular ramps built by drag: any length, 1 or 2 levels tall; all vehicles can drive on them
  • Universal wagons (T1 & T2) that can carry any product
  • Trains can turn around on dead-ends of bidirectional tracks
  • New train track pieces, Waypoint allow/deny rules
  • Per-recipe production & consumption breakdown in product statistics
  • QoL: Drag-placing of surfaces & decals, Improved construction previews
  • All 100+ product 3D models remade from scratch
Performance
  • Up to 20x faster product rendering (real saves gain 20-50%)
  • Up to 9x faster terrain physics during avalanches and large-scale mining
  • 2x faster train path-finding on train-heavy saves
video guides
Blog post Trailer Save compatible
Apr
0.8.3 Update 4.1
Major
  • Train networks: automated train dispatching via jobs with reservations, waiting bays, and dedicated fueling stations
  • Linked storages extend train station capacity; station modules auto-balance their contents
  • Per-product arrival rules for train lines (replacing "wait until full/empty"), conditional station skipping
  • Drag & build: place multiple entities or entire blueprints by dragging (with configurable spacing)
  • Colorable letter & symbol billboards with a type-to-place text tool
  • QoL: Locomotive color options, Zoom-to-cursor
Performance
  • 10-25% simulation speedup on large saves thanks to 2-3x faster terrain disruption processing
  • ~50% faster train simulation
  • Fixed severe FPS drops at game speeds above 3x
Blog post Trailer Save compatible
Mar
0.8.0 Update 4
Major
  • Tier 2 locomotives: Diesel, Hydrogen, Steam, Coal tender, and Wagons
  • Train waypoints
  • Bridges with dynamic surfaces
  • Path-finding for ships (unrestricted docks placement)
  • Amphibious trucks and excavators
  • QoL: Machines idle stats, Global search, Trains replacement, Train lines color picker, Truck type filters for storage
  • Stacker tower
  • Sandbox
  • New map
Modding
  • Manifest files, support for mod dependencies, revamped UI
Performance

  • Optimized ocean to render 16x faster

  • Improved game load speed by 30-50%

  • +10% FPS by moving vehicles pose calculation to GPU

  • Two electric locomotives

  • Fire-less steam locomotive (tier 1)

  • Gas turbine locomotive (tier 2)

  • Nuclear locomotive

  • Molten materials wagon and station

+ Trains expansion DLC
Blog post Trailer Save compatible
2025
Aug
0.7.8
Major
  • New entity replace/upgrade system Allows much more advanced replacements over simple direct upgrades, even for entities that don’t have the same layout.
  • Simplified upgrade refunds
  • Added priorities for train stations within a group
  • QoL: Tool for placing text decals by typing the text, Tool for re-coloring of existing decals, Allow cut/copy/paste surfaces in tools and blueprints.
Performance
  • +15% more FPS in large factories due to improved rendering performance
  • ~5x faster conveyor/pipe rendering
  • +30% faster conveyors/pipes simulation
Modding
  • Increased the maximum number of products from 255 to 65k.
Jun
0.7.5-0.7.2
Major
  • Logistics zones
  • Trains: Per wagon product filter, improved train aligning logic, added 6 train tutorials, 10-40% increased FPS in train-heavy saves
  • QoL: Vehicles mass upgrade tool, Cycling through building tiers (via scroll-wheel), Placement clipboard (Ctrl+Shift+wheel), Placing machines via recipes from toolbar
Blog post
May
0.7.0 Update 3
Major
  • Trains! Tier 1 locomotives, wagons, train depot, signal-free railway system
  • Full UI overhaul
  • Space program: Orbital cargo, Simple space station, Asteroids delivery
  • All maps fully redone to be larger (on average 2-3x times the area)
  • Infinite research nodes
  • Offices & focuses
  • New map: Dragontail
  • QoL: Storage sliders for belts, History navigation in Codex, Option to unity remove products from belts and connectors, Improved port mapping for ore sorter, Toolbar items grouping
  • Significant rebalancing - recycling, smelting, glass, electronics, nuclear, FBR economy & consumption. Glass production requires glass recycling.
New content
  • Ore sorter II, Settlement IV, Pipe IV, Internet module, Luxury goods module, Aluminum electrolytic cell
  • New chains: Aluminum, Titanium, Space program
  • 24 new contracts
Other
  • Increased the maximum height of conveyor and pipe supports from 3 to 5.
  • All vehicles made to travel under obstacles, such as pipes, given sufficient clearance - pathfinder changes
Performance
  • 40% faster vehicle path-finding
  • 10x faster tree stumps rendering
  • Removed CPU overhead for tree growth and decay of stumps. Optimized tree highlighting.
Graphics
  • Facelift for robotic assemblers, rocket launch pad, conveyor belts, pipes, lifts
  • Increased resolution of many textures by 2x and 4x.
  • Introduced a new texture quality setting that controls the resolution of displayed textures.
  • Improved overall scene lighting and color grading.

Launched: Our own translation tool at COI Hub

Changes
  • Removed bricks
Facts
  • Beaten our past launch record with 11k concurrent players!
Blog post Trailer Save compatible
2024
May
0.6.4
Performance
  • Added map-data-cache feature that speeds up game loads by 2x
  • Improved the saving algorithm of terrain data, reducing the raw save file size by 15%
Apr
0.6.0 Update 2
Major
  • Map editor
  • Custom surfaces & decals
  • Loans
  • Ores sorting
  • New map Armageddon
  • All existing maps were revamped and improved
  • Improved difficulties + added option to change them during runtime
  • Conveyor lifts
  • Hydrogen vehicles
  • Extra 30 minutes of new music
  • Launched: COI Hub
Other
  • Stackable balancers
  • Terrain particles
  • Pipes and tank trucks coloring based on contents
Graphics
  • New models for assemblers - also icon of what they produce
  • 4 new types of trees and 16 bushes
Blog post Trailer Save compatible
2023
Sep
Crowdfunding rewards

Shipped rewards to our early Kickstarter backers

Blog post
Sep
0.5.5
Performance
  • 4x terrain physics speedup
  • Improved transport path-finder responsiveness
Blog post
Aug
0.5.4
Performance
  • Rendering optimizations yielding up to 2x the FPS on large factories Animation textures integration
  • Added LODs for the most common entities.
Blog post
Jun
0.5.0 Update 1
Major
  • Tree planting & automated harvesting (forestry tower & tree planter).
  • Significant improvements in terrain simulation & physics New terrain representation storing data in contiguous arrays.
  • Terrain can be up to 65k tiles squared large (260 km^2).
  • Terrain now supports up to 256 different materials (up from 28).
  • Terrain now properly distinguishes between solid materials (cliffs) and mined ones (mined rock)
  • Mixed cargo mining & hauling
  • Leveling designations
  • Our first version of Stacker
  • Added a new mineable resource: quartz
  • Significant rebalancing
  • Extra 30 minutes of music
Other
  • Vertical pipes!
  • Entities can now be set as "surplus consumers", only consuming power generated by "surplus generators"
  • Landfill now decays over time and produces pollution
  • Major rebalancing
New content
  • Significant extension of Nuclear power, including new reactors and reprocessing plants - Mox reactor, FBR reactor, Nuclear reprocessing facility + 12 new products
  • Super pressure steam turbine, Thermal storage, Tier 2 diesel generator
  • Added mainframe: predecessor to datacenter, making bootstrapping of microchips easier
  • Tier 2 electrolyzer, Tier 2 mixer, Tier 2 crusher
  • Waste incineration plant, Compactor, Shredder
  • Paper production
Content changes
  • Sand is no longer made by crushing rock but by crushing quartz instead
  • Silicon production now requires sand instead of quartz
  • Introduced manufactured sand
Graphics
  • Added sun, dynamic fog, and dynamic sky that change based on weather
  • New high-quality terrain textures for nearly all materials
  • New simulated ocean that adapts its wave pattern and color properties to the current weather conditions
  • New tree models: spruce and fir
  • Added rocks to the terrain
  • New terrain tri-plannar mapping
  • New graphics for machines and vehicles
  • Products are now visibly stacked on conveyors, trucks, and around storages
  • Storage units now show icons of what is stored in them
  • Switched to the Forward rendering pipeline (from Deferred) to leverage multi-sample anti-aliasing
Performance
  • Various internal improvements increase the simulation speed of many components by 10-30%. Completely rewritten simulation of machines
  • New terrain rendering tech improving FPS by 1-8x (based on map size and view) and reducing memory consumption by 4x.
  • New conveyor and pipe rendering system resulting in 3x speedup.
  • Optimizing products rendering to use batched GPU instancing
  • New LOD system that adjusts ocean quality based on view distance.
Blog post Trailer Save breaking
Feb
0.4.14 Blueprints

First version of our blueprints system

Blog post
2022
Dec
0.4.13
Major
  • Comprehensive checklist-based tutorial
  • Full revamp of in-game tutorials - 170 new images
  • New map: Insula mortis
  • QoL: Mass upgrade tool
  • Added bricks chain
Modding
  • Allow to add / remove mods from existing saves
Content changes
  • The world map no longer gives refugees from explorations, and the beacon is infinite.
Performance
  • Further optimized transport pillars rendering and added LODs.
Blog post Trailer
Jul
0.4.9
Major
  • Trucks can now batch deliver to multiple construction jobs at once
  • Remove vehicles queuing for storage deliveries to remove bottlenecks
  • QoL: In-game calculator, Reorder pinned products
Blog post
Jul
0.4.8
Major
  • Fixed & improvements in dumping logic
  • Visualization of unreachable goals and designations for vehicles
  • Allow to discard products from the shipyard
Blog post
Jun
0.4.2-0.4.5
Major
  • Added fully-configurable key-bindings
  • Ability to reorder recipes in machines, Ability to rename entities
May
0.4.0 EA release

We are out on Steam!

Major
  • Buildings can finally collapse due to terrain changes
  • Recycling + sorting plant
  • Contracts
  • Haul trucks + Mega excavator, Retaining walls
  • Upgradable world mines
  • Recipes book (later renamed to codex)
  • New farming mechanics - crop rotation, fertility + fertilizers
  • Redesigned storage units and introduced new tiers (4 tiers in total)
  • Introduced food variety and food categories
  • Settlements now produce waste!
  • QoL: Copy-cut-paste tool, Copy settings tool, Unity tool, Navigation overlay, Planning mode, Storage alerts, Allow to remove parts of transports, Revamped balancers UI, Terrain grid system, Statistics for trucks cargo jobs, Photo mode (F11)
  • Sound effects
  • Improved modding support
  • Ships docking areas
New content
  • Space rockets construction & launch pad
  • Tree harvester T1, Burner, Chicken farm, Mill, Fermentation tank
  • Microchips production, Solar panels
Performance
  • +100% FPS by Instancing transport pillars (8-20x pillars rendering speed up)
  • +20% FPS by optimizing settlements.
  • +30% faster simulation by refactoring update logic
  • +50% faster sync speed
  • Dramatically decreased save file size by compacting statistics (2.5Mb to 0.6Mb after 25 years)

Launched: Supporter Edition

  • Tomb of Captains, Golden statue of maintenance
Blog post
2021
Dec
0.3.0 Closed Beta

Closed beta version for our early backers

Major
  • 3 new maps
  • Added limestone as a mineable terrain material
  • Option to choose game difficulty (with 3 difficulties)
  • Priority system for consumption or resources
  • Added simple trading (quick trade)
  • Soundtrack with 64 minutes of music
Other
  • Terrain designations size reduced from 6x6 to 4x4 for better precision
  • Quick-build no longer “cheats” new materials.
  • Redesigned several existing chains
  • Improved excavators' mining logic
New content
  • Nuclear chain: Nuclear reactor, Nuclear waste storage, Uranium enrichment facility, Spent fuel storage, HP & LP turbines tier II, Large cooling tower
  • Blast Furnace II, Arc furnace I & Arc furnace II, Silicon reactor, Polymerization plant, Hydrogen reforming, Power production, Gas and electric boilers, Rotary kiln & cement production, Anaerobic digester, Greenhouse II, Ship bridge III, Housing III, Household electronics module
  • Vehicles ramps
Changes
  • Removed a confusing automated vehicle recovery system
Performance
  • 5x improved rendering performance of terrain designations
  • Greatly reduced game save duration (less lag during auto-save).
Blog post
Sep
0.2.0 Closed Alpha

Closed alpha version for our early backers

Major
  • Added cargo ship and depots
  • Captain's office + edicts
  • Advanced logistics
  • Support for multiple settlements
  • Experimental modding support
  • QoL: Pause tool
Other
  • Improved upgrades: entities remain fully operational until all required materials for an upgrade are delivered.
New content
  • Flywheel, Air separator, Evaporation pond, Desalination plant, Ocean pump I and II, Industrial mixer, Oxygen furnace, Glassmaker, Assembly electric II, Exhaust filtration station, Wastewater treatment plant, Fertilizer maker, Electrolyzer, Greenhouse, Truck II, Excavator II, Tree harvester
Performance
  • 100x faster path-finding for transport builder
  • 400x speedup in transport rendering. Speed up in simulation as well.
Blog post
Jun

CoI goes to Kickstarter and also starts a fundraiser on its website.

Feb

The Captain of Industry has been officially announced and is getting ready for crowdfunding. We are leaving our full-time jobs.

Our first preview trailer is out. Looking back, it is really cute. It's a nice reminder of just how far we've come.

2015

Two devs with an idea to make a realistic simulator with production chains, mining, industrial, and city elements. We also dreamed of dynamic terrain! We started working on weekends and evenings as a passionate project.

Back in 2021, we wrote a short post on our humble beginnings.