Early Access FAQ

19 April 2021

First of all, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts 💜 Without you, our little project wouldn’t be possible. You supported us in the pre-alpha stage, you support us now with the Early Access, and we hope to see you later with the full release in the coming years.

Thank you! And we really mean it.

Of course, the development is nowhere stops with the Early Acess release, and we’re already working on the next update.

In the meantime, we’ve been a bit overwhelmed with the amount of feedback that poured on us on every channel, from Discord to Steam Discussions. It was literally impossible for us to answer every question and suggestion, so we decided to compile the most frequent issues into one FAQ, which you can read below.

We also want to thank anyone who spent their time answering questions and helping people here and there. Special thanks go to scailman, refreshfr, Elvis Cooper, and UGH Dany.

General

If I bought the pre-alpha on Itch previously, should I buy it again on Steam?

No, you don’t need to buy the game twice, it’s already yours. Follow these instructions to claim your Steam key.

The price is too steep for me. Will the game be on sale?

We have no plans to participate in sales. We believe that the current price properly reflects our intention for long-term support and development of the game.

If you are having trouble deciding if the game is worth your money, please look for some videos on YouTube, read reviews, or even ask other players for opinions directly on our Discord!

The game is not loading or there’s another technical issue

Check the Troubleshooting page.

Where can I get help with gameplay?

The best place to get help is our official Discord server. In the meantime, you can check the community guides.

How can I help?

Leave a review. We are getting many nice words about the game on mail, Discord, etc. We encourage you to leave reviews on Steam if you haven’t yet, it helps a lot!
Answer questions. Help other people on Discord, Steam Discussions, etc.
Write guides on Steam. If you are pretty familiar with the game, your insight knowledge may be very helpful for newcomers.
Proofread and improve translations. To do so, join our Discord, then go to our translation portal and suggest changes. You can even translate to a completely new language. If you need help, use #translation channel.
Spread the word. Tell your friends that could be interested in the game. If you’re a content creator and want to request a press key, please fill out the form on this page.

Development

How many people are on the team?

The game is developed by just two guys. But we can’t fail to mention the important role of our community volunteers helping us with content for the game, translations, moderations, writing guides, and more!

Can you say if some feature is planned?

Please take a look at our roadmap to get the idea of what major features are planned and in what order we plan to implement them.

Can I participate in the early beta of the next updates?

Sure! We’ll set up a beta branch on Steam soon, so everyone interested can receive future updates early and give us immediate feedback.

Where to report bugs or suggest ideas?

The Voxel Tycoon Issue Tracker is the right place.

Before posting, please check the roadmap for if the feature you want to suggest already planned and check on GitHub if it’s already posted.

Gameplay

I have hard times building bridges, connecting roads, etc.

We feel you! The current system - which is responsible for roads, rails, bridges, conveyors, etc - was originally introduced in the early days of the pre-alpha, and it was our 3rd attempt on building tracks already from the moment development begins.

While it was time-proven as a working solution for handling most of the tasks, it obviously has its limitations and can be cumbersome to use at times.

To address that, we are working on a new system, that eventually will replace the current one. Not only it should make building a much more pleasant experience, but introduce many new interesting features, like so:

Level crossings
Customizable curvature of tracks
Left-hand traffic
Diagonal roads
One-way roads
Horizontally curved bridges and tunnels
Planning mode
Support for blueprints
Performance optimizations

and more.

Why are there no level crossings?

See the answer above.

I think the signals are working wrong!

Signals are battle-tested for a couple of years already, so we are pretty confident there are no major bugs. The implementation Voxel Tycoon utilizes is called block signals, which may the source of confusion for players who are more familiar with other implementations.

There’re two common issues that unprepared player might face:

A train can’t find the way to its destination. Usually, this is caused by a one-way signal facing the opposite direction. You should have a second signal on the opposite side of the rail if you want to allow a train to pass the track in both directions.
A signal is red, even though it seems there’s no other train blocking the way. Usually, this happens when two parallel rails are built too close to each other. Even if they do not intersect visually, the system detects a possible collision and blocks a train from passing. This behavior will be improved with the track system upgrade described above.

Learn more on how signals work and how to build advanced designs:

Also, don’t hesistate to ask for help on the Discord.

While the current system is fully functional, it has some limitations, and we’ll continue to explore this area in the future and see if we can bring even more flexible ways to control the flow of your trains.

Mass replacing of vehicles is a hassle

We’ll introduce mass replacing of vehicles in one of the next updates.

Cities build impossible to connect roads

This will be worked on after the track system rework described earlier.

Is the current gameplay loop final?

Not even close! We have plans for a lot of new gameplay mechanics that will greatly diversify the gameplay. Please check our roadmap.

My trucks get loaded with cargo that is not meant for them!

By default, trucks (or railcars) get loaded with any available cargo they can handle. However, you can force them to load only specific cargo by doing one of these:

When buying a vehicle, click the magic wand icon above the truck or railcar and choose a specific cargo
Send the vehicle to a depot, open the depot window, and click on the small cog icon on the bottom right corner of the vehicle card to reconfigure the vehicle. Then you’ll be able to choose a specific cargo by clicking the magic wand icon as described above

You can also add refit tasks to a vehicle’s schedule to reconfigure it for different cargo on different stations.

With the next update, we’ll introduce the next changes to help newcomers:

Storage will be not chosen by default, you’ll have to choose either Auto or exact cargo type explicitly (as it already working with storages)
You’ll be able to manually refit a vehicle by clicking on the cargo icon in the Details tab of the Vehicle window, without the need to send a vehicle to a depot

Will passengers able to switch stations in the future?

Absolutely! The current implementation is just a beginning.

Will passengers travel to factories?

Yes, we have plans for that.

Can I set a schedule that way that my bus traverse stations like 1-2-3-2-1, without the need to add all five stops?

Sure! Go to edit schedule mode, then click on the icon on the left of the route name.

Check these posts:

Where is creative mode?

There’s no separate creative mode at the moment, but you can use some cheats if you just want to play with all available stuff right now, ignoring game rules.

To activate cheats, press Ctrl+Alt+C while in-game (not the main menu). The game will ask you if you really want to do that.

After cheats are activated, there are some secret menus now available here and there, for example:

Right-click on the money indicator at the bottom left corner and set any amount of money you need
Right-click on the research button at the bottom right corner to unlock all research
Right-click on the research name on the left of the research tree window to unlock any specific research
Right-click on the button at the bottom of the warehouse window to fill the storage with selected items
Right-click on the vehicle unit card in the Details tab of the Vehicle window to fill the unit with selected items

We plan to add the proper creative mode in future updates.

When the multiplayer is coming?

No timeframe at this point, this is a pretty major task that is at its early stages currently. We’d say don’t expect it arrives this year. If you’re looking exclusively for a multiplayer experience, we advise you to hold your purchase until it will be implemented.

That’s it for now

If you have any more questions, feel free to join our Discord and ask them there!