Hills and Bridges!

I made some more types of tracks, including extra-long curves, inclines, and overpasses. This required new animation paths for the cars to follow, rebuilding the map-maker menu, and losing the saved maps whose information could no longer be interpreted the same way. I built a much less fragile system this time.

Also, for my birthday, I made a cake-carrier car! Eventually, I'll want all kinds of stuff to be carried by the trains. Maybe the type of cargo will fit some kind of story as the levels progress...

177 hours in.

Money!

When you stop a train at a station, it will now unload its cargo and give you money. Now that there is a score, it begins to feel like a REAL game...

163 hours in.

Physics!

I decided trains that cleverly avoid collisions aren't as much fun as trains that crash. The "ghost car" thing is a bust. The traincars are animated until the moment they collide with another traincar. At that moment, they turn into physical objects with the same velocity as the kinematic cars had, and let the inadequately-secured logs fall where they may!

Here is what happens when crashed trains build up and newly-spawned trains can't get out of the station. Train fountain is a feature, not a bug. : )

120 hours in.