Revision 4

The world of Railborn is covered by an enormous network of railroad tracks that the player's train travels along. The network is not linear: it includes junctions, climbs, and descents, and it carves through mountains and dives beneath the sea.

Track Switching and Train Direction

Because players build their train piece by piece, the train has no fixed front. Players decide which end leads, which makes switching tracks a deliberate design feature rather than a simple turn. At junctions, players choose which branch to follow rather than laying new track of their own.

Track Types

The developers have experimented with several track layouts and currently use two baseline track types, not counting weather-affected tracks:

Beyond these two baseline types, some tracks are affected by weather, adding further variation to how routes behave. Communicating this track information clearly on the map is something the developers describe as an ongoing design challenge.

Reading the Network

Players learn the layout of the network through exploration and through information towers, which reveal local track layouts and Core locations. Choosing efficient routes is part of managing the train across a hostile world. See also Train Building and The World.

Track Blockers

Players can expect many interactions between the train and the track itself, including obstacles that block the way forward. Track blockers are one such hazard. The basic blocker is a relatively simple obstruction, with more involved blockers planned but not yet detailed. The intended counter is to research and build a cowcatcher, a front attachment that clears obstructions from the rails ahead of the train. Building toward a cowcatcher early gives a train a way to push through blocked track instead of stopping, adding train attachments through the technology upgrade tree.

Bypass Switches

Not every stretch of track is open from the start. Some routes are reached only by opening a track bypass, which means leaving the train to explore on foot. Most bypasses are marked in the world by a bypass tower, though the developers keep a few of them hidden so that certain routes are found only through exploration. Opening bypasses works alongside upgrading the train, which is what lets it handle steep inclines and weather-affected track.

Tunnels

Where a track runs through a mountain, the game generates a tunnel around it using a dynamic tunnel system, complete with its own tunnel biome inside. The developers have said the same approach may later be extended to undersea routes. Tunnels were among the systems polished ahead of the game's upcoming playtests and demo.

Notes

Track behavior, including the number and properties of track types, is still being iterated and may change before and during Early Access.