CASE FILESUBJECT: ONE (1) RAILWAYSTATUS: COMING SOONTHREAT LEVEL: CAFFEINATED
Exhibit C · coming soon · Windows PC
— a transport management sandbox for Windows PC, coming soon
NewCaptains is a transport management sandbox for Windows PCs. Lay rail, road, canal and airport networks, buy trains, buses, ships and aircraft, and haul coal, goods, food and passengers between towns and industries as the decades change. It keeps the classic build-haul-earn loop and adds curved track with speed limits, free bridges and tunnels, level crossings that bite, and a day and night cycle. In development; no release date yet.
Every great railway begins with a modest loan and a regrettable level crossing.
Twenty vehicles now have their own 3D models in the game: nine locomotives, three coaches and eight wagons. A diesel, two coaches, three cabooses and a wagon make one proper train. Last week they were boxes.
BBuilt, not shown
The model viewer shows each model at three levels of detail: the wooden tank wagon from 5,910 triangles down to 1,434, the green tank engine from 11,819 to 3,467. We have not yet watched the game switch between them.
ARuns today
Flaws, visible in the pictures: steam smoke is a flat grey slab, a white lamp sprite floats ahead of one engine, the caboose roofs are blocky, and the green engine's paint looks smudged up close.
ARuns today
Towns get a window: advertise, fund new buildings, buy exclusive rights, pay for road reconstruction. The buildings come in 40 types and four stages of construction. They are still boxes with brick textures.
ARuns today
Roads are laid with the same path tool as rail, and a new long-haul start option gives you longer lines with passing loops. Starting that option freezes the game for five to seven minutes while the world builds. We know.
ARuns today
Today's newest full check run in the game passed 59 checks and failed 2, both in a new track-realigning step being repaired. The run before it passed all 64. Of 4,332 automated tests, 4,330 passed; the two failures are timing tests.
Steam engines get a pioneer look: balloon stack, headlamp, bell, cowcatcher and spoked wheels. The shadow side is lit now, so the wheels show instead of vanishing into black.
ARuns today
The electric locomotive stops looking like a coach with a wire attached: raked cab, louvres down the side, a pantograph on the roof.
ARuns today
A tank wagon joins the fleet: banded barrel, dome, walkway handrails. It is grey, which is allowed.
ARuns today
Level crossings now come in two kinds, chosen when you build: an automatic warning with disc, bell and lamp, or a bare crossbuck. The 3 October picture has barriers. These do not.
ARuns today
Laying track shows a curve plan, with cost and safe speed, before you commit. Two recommendation cards are fighting over the same corner of the screen. That is a bug, and it is in the picture.
ARuns today
The latest full check run in the game, on 14 October, passed all 59 checks at about 75 frames a second.
Tonight's full check run in the game passed all 55 checks at about 78 frames a second, back in the usual range after last run's 12. Nobody has explained the dip. It has simply been outlived.
BBuilt, not shown
The advisor has learned four kinds of trade hint: whether a route pays, market timing, how a port is coping, and which supply chains are at risk. Each one gives a reason and a number.
BBuilt, not shown
In a check run inside the game all four hints answered and their alerts fired. Nobody has seen them on screen yet, and the markets they talk about are not built, so for now they advise on stand-in numbers.
CDrawn, not built
Nearly all of the new jobs are about long-distance freight: longer trains, more than one locomotive per train, passing loops sized to fit, yards that sort wagons, and routes that leave the edge of the map. All of it is on paper.
NewCaptains is a transport management sandbox. You lay track and roads between towns and industries, buy vehicles at a depot, give them orders, and get paid for whatever arrives. The calendar moves through five eras, and the vehicles on offer change with it.
Lay track and roads
Join a mine to a power station, a forest to a town. Drag a curve and see its cost and its safe speed before you commit.
Buy and run vehicles
Buy a locomotive and wagons at a depot, write their orders and timetable, and send them out.
Haul cargo as the decades change
Coal, wood, goods, food, water and passengers move between towns and industries while the years go by.
In the box todaycounted 23 Oct 2026
20vehicles with their own 3D model
6cargos
9industry types
5eras
15interface languages
16 kmsquare default map
Of the 98 vehicles a new game offers, 20 now have their own 3D model: 9 locomotives, 3 coaches and 8 wagons. The rest still stand in as simple shapes, and many industries are still plain boxes. The industry count includes towns. All 15 languages carry the same set of text keys; checking how each one looks on screen is still to do. This is a young build, so the content is thin and we would rather say so.
TIMELINE/ five eras & beyond
Five eras of transit, from pioneer timber to the stars
Each letter pair in NewCaptains charts the evolution of your logistics empire across history—from steam and timber to magnetic levitation and orbital flight.
N · eEra 1 · 1850s
Pioneer Timber & Steam
Hand-hewn wooden ties, iron spikes, glowing kerosene lanterns, and 4-4-0 wood-burning locomotives puffing white steam down unmapped valleys.
Locomotion: Wood & steam locomotives
Infrastructure: Timber trestles & iron rail
Signature: Starter loans & sawmill runs
w · CEra 2 · 1900s
Industrial Boiler & Rivet
Heavy riveted boiler iron, copper steam pressure conduits, bronze gauges, and coal hopper networks powering burgeoning factory towns.
Locomotion: Heavy coal freight haulers
Infrastructure: Riveted iron bridges & switchyards
Signature: High-tonnage industrial loops
a · pEra 3 · 1940s
Streamline Moderne & Sky
Polished chrome cowlings, diesel streamliners, paved municipal roadways, and fabric-winged radial biplanes pioneering early airmail routes.
Locomotion: Diesel streamliners & biplanes
Infrastructure: Airfield grass strips & highways
Signature: Passenger express & rapid freight
t · aEra 4 · 1980s
High-Speed Electric & Express
Aerodynamic steel bullet trains, catenary power grids, containerised intermodal shipping, and computerized railway dispatching.
The genre has rules everyone knows. Here is where this one bends them, graded by how much of it you could click on today. Jokes never outrank grades.
ARuns today
Seen working in the real game.
BBuilt, not shown
Works in the simulation, but not yet in the game you can click.
CDrawn, not built
Designed on paper. No code yet.
Tally: 8 run today · 2 built, not shown · 1 drawn, not built. The evidence-grade legend is the fine print; the fine print is the point.
01ARuns today
Curved track with a live speed limit
You
Drag a curve and a graph shows its cost and the fastest safe speed before you commit. Tighter curves cost more.
Different
Speed follows the curve radius and the track class, not a flat rule per piece. Standard track manages 32 km/h at 128 m and 46 km/h at 256 m.
Limit
The first drag tool lays one arc at a time; the path tool lays whole routes, on roads as well as rail. Easing curves, a gentle lead-in to a bend, are not built.
02ARuns today
Click, stretch, lay
You
Drag a route and double-click a straight to add a bend. A curve plan shows its cost and safe speed before you commit, and the sharper the curve, the slower the train. The mouse wheel changes the radius; one key switches to double track.
Different
Replaces dragging one arc at a time with a path of several bends in one tool. The same tool lays roads.
Limit
A first version. Radii come from a fixed list of sizes rather than any value, and there are no 90° turns. A realign tool and rivals using paths are not built; the realign order exists in the simulation but fails its check in the game.
03ARuns today
Switching, not just stations
You
Serve an industry from your own siding or “hold”, cut cars away, shove them in. Keep stations for the big terminals.
Different
Cars and switching, not just a station parked next to the factory.
Limit
Holds and orders run today. The shove, runaround and wye visuals are not yet part of the automatic checks.
04ARuns today
Level crossings that bite; breakdowns that get rescued
You
Trains never stop for a crossing. An unprotected or broken one destroys a vehicle, fines you and makes the news. Broken locomotives either limp to a depot or are fetched by a rescue locomotive for a fee, depending on a company setting. You also choose each crossing’s protection when you build it: an automatic warning (disc, bell and lamp, the default) or a bare crossbuck.
Different
Consequences instead of waiting.
Limit
Proven in a dedicated test pass, not yet in the default checks. Tow trucks cannot be bought yet. Warning devices are billed when you build, so choosing a bare crossbuck refunds nothing. Road vehicles do not have service intervals yet.
05ARuns today
Free bridges and tunnels over anything
You
Span a river, a road or a rival’s line, whoever owns the track below. No permission and no fee; clearance rules refuse bad spans.
Different
No permits, no tolls and no ownership fights over a crossing.
06ARuns today
Day and night, seasons, a first-route guide and undo
You
Lit locomotives and aircraft, a sun and a moon, and seasons. A nine-step first-route guide ends with a one-time celebration when your first train arrives. Ctrl+Z undoes track and road builds.
Different
You set the length of a day, from 30 minutes to 4 hours, or follow your own clock.
07ARuns today
A scale you can state
You
Cells are 16 m. Distances are shown in “game km”, and one game km is deliberately 256 m. The default map is 16 km square.
Different
Curve radii, speeds and lengths are in real units, so a 128 m curve is a 128 m curve.
08ARuns today
Towns that grow building by building
You
Towns extend their own roads and add or replace single buildings, so a town’s size follows the land rather than a fixed circle.
Different
Forty building types, placed one at a time.
Limit
A town window lets you advertise, fund new buildings, buy exclusive rights and pay for road reconstruction, and it runs in the game’s checks. The 40 building types are plain boxes with simple textures for now, and long-run growth over decades has not been watched in the game.
09BBuilt, not shown
Rivals that follow the same rules as you
You
Rival companies build and trade only through the commands you use. No scripted opponents, no cheats.
Different
No hidden advantages, by design.
Limit
Rivals run in new games (three by default) and the check runs show them building and running trains, but you will not see them in a normal play-through yet: the league screen still shows one company. A few rival routes freeze on some maps; that is on the fix list.
10BBuilt, not shown
Hills that matter
You
A heavy train stalls on a steep grade and can fall back. The plan is that a helper engine couples on, or you split the load and “double the hill”.
Different
Grade and tonnage genuinely limit what a train can do.
Limit
Stall and fall-back physics are built and pass their checks in a test world, but the setting is switched off and a new game cannot turn it on yet. A helper engine that couples on, and an order to retry a failed grade, now exist in the simulation. “Double the hill” is still drawn, not built.
11CDrawn, not built
Customers, yards and real dispatch
You
Customers get their own spurs, and you order cars by count instead of buying wagons. Yards assemble trains, with an optional hump. Dispatch grows from controlled locations to centralised control to automatic train control.
Different
Freight as persistent cars and customers.
Limit
Customer spurs, yards and dispatch are drawn on paper only; no code yet. Multi-unit power and long trains exist in a long-haul preset; the yard that sorts wagons does not.
FILE 03/ photographic exhibits
Seventeen real captures, in two flavours
Real captures from the build’s own test runs. Nothing here is concept art. Some of the interface shows a “Proof world” badge, because these runs come from the test harness. Click one to enlarge it.
In-gameCaptured from the running game client, interface visible.
ShowcaseRendered by the test harness in a small test world, no interface.
Day 3 vs day 18 the same project, fifteen days apart
The first commit was on 16 September 2026, so 18 September is day 3 and 3 October is day 18.
Day 4 vs day 18 the same test shot, then and now
FILE 04/ how it works
How it works, with the covers off
Two halves that never reach into each other, one rule for curves, and a clock. Then the instruments: what we measured, when, and what it does not mean.
Two halves, one rule grade A · built and running
Fig. 1 · the two halves
The client only draws. It never changes the world. A click becomes a command; the simulation checks it inside the tick and may refuse it.
The simulation never waits for pictures. It runs on its own thread at a fixed 30 ticks a second, so a slow frame cannot stall the world.
Integers only. Money is whole cents and ratios are fixed-point, so the same seed and the same commands give the same game, tick for tick.
A state hash every tick is how we notice, to the tick, when something stops being deterministic.
The curve rule grade A
The curve you drag is rounded to one of a fixed list of radii. The first drag tool offered eight, from 16 to 256 m; the path tool offers more, up to 8,192 m. Max safe speed is the lower of the track class ceiling and a limit that grows with the square root of the radius.
Maximum safe speed by curve radius, standard and high-speed track
Curve radius
Standard track
High-speed track
R4 4 cells · 64 m
23 km/h
38 km/h
R8 8 cells · 128 m
32 km/h
54 km/h
R16 16 cells · 256 m
46 km/h
77 km/h
Rule: max safe speed = the lower of (track class ceiling, √(radius × sideways acceleration)). Halve the radius and the speed falls by about 30 per cent. Tighter curves also cost more to lay, in proportion to (R + 2) ÷ R per cell step.
The clock grade A
30simulation ticks per second
74 ticksmake one game day: about 2.5 seconds at 1×
15 minmake one game year at 1× (27,010 ticks). Speeds are pause, 1×, 2× and 4×.
The workings, in the game eight captures
Interface and instruments from the running build. The last one is the simulation’s own debug viewer, which is not the game and does not pretend to be.
On paper only grade C · drawn, not built
Fig. 2 · planned, not built
CDrawn, not built
A trip would start only if the destination has reserved slots. Otherwise the train is staged with a stated reason, and you get four fixes:
Expand the yard.
Add storage.
Reduce the allocation.
Use another yard.
None of this is in the game today. It is on paper, with a design written and nothing coded.
Telemetry as of 23 Oct 2026
Seven readings, each with where it comes from. The benchmark line is a benchmark of the simulation alone; it is not what the game window shows.
Telemetry readings as of 23 October 2026
Reading
Value
What it is
Comes from
Automated tests
4,330 passing
The full automated suite. Two timing-sensitive tests failed on the latest run; they depend on machine load. The last fully green run passed all of them.
Automated test run
In-game checks
59 of 61 passing
Scripted checks that run inside the real game client, latest run. The latest run has two failing checks, both from one new step (realigning track), still being repaired; the previous run passed all of its checks.
Game-client check run
Frame rate
99.9 fps average
At 1080p on one desktop GPU in a development build.
Game-client check run
Simulation benchmark
4.99 ms per tick
Average for 1,000 timetabled trains, 500 road vehicles, 150 ships, 100 aircraft and 5 rival companies, against a 33.3 ms tick and an 8 ms test gate. Measured on a quiet machine. Under load it has run slower, up to about 12 ms, so the 8 ms gate is not always met. A benchmark, not the game window.
Headless benchmark, quiet machine, measured 17 Oct 2026
Balance run
50 game years, 0 findings
Four rival companies played fifty game years with no deadlocks and no insolvency.
Headless balance run, 23 Oct 2026
Code size
~431,000 + ~248,000 lines
About 431,000 lines of product code plus about 248,000 lines of tests.
Line count
Age
38 days
Since the first commit on 16 September 2026.
The calendar
FILE 05/ recreation room
The passing siding
A TOY, NOT THE GAME
This is not NewCaptains. It is a small toy railway for passing the time on this page, and it runs itself. A tank engine called Kettle shunts wagons at Muvae Sawmill while an express that considers itself important waits at the signals. The siding keeps toy accounts, and meddling can now wreck them, deliberately. Left alone it behaves. The siding also holds a disputed place in railway history, and has the plaque to prove it. You can help. Help is not required.
A TOY · one main line · one loop · two spurs · block signals · toy numbers only09:00
TreasuryBANKRUPT
Score0
Jobs done0
Crashes0
41,262 DAYS SINCE LAST INCIDENT
Locked out during the incident: the dispatcher has had eleven coffees and is not allowed near the levers. Back after the cleanup.
The red button arranges one incident in this toy and nowhere else. It works every time, which is the only thing here that does.
Freight: on its way. Main line: clear. Dispatcher: awake.
Not NewCaptains. The real game is unaffected, and nothing here is a feature. All money is toy money. On a break, the points are yours: use the button, or tap a set of points on the drawing. Sound plays only when you press a sound button. The timetable, the cows, the history and the plaque are pretend (no cows were harmed).
FILE 06/ the pinboard
Concept art
Concept — not in the gamedirection, not a build
The viaducts, the glass-and-light interface and the modular stations pictured here are goals, not features. Nothing on this board runs. The real interface looks different, and the lettering inside the mock-ups is placeholder.
FILE 07/ goals and pillars
What we are trying to build
Seven pillars, and a list of things this will never be. Where a pillar is only partly real, it says so.
Keep the classic loop; add depth only where it pays
Build, haul, earn stays the heart. New depth, such as switching, goes in only where it pays for the company.
Status: switching holds and curved track run today.
Fun is the test
Every feature faces one question: would a veteran of the genre smile more?
Natural track
Click, stretch and lay track with natural curves anywhere. The sharper the curve, the slower the train.
Status: the path tool runs today, first version.
Hills matter
Trains stall on steep grades under heavy loads, and a helper engine can couple on.
Status: stall physics built but switched off; helper engines built in the simulation; the rest drawn.
Freedom to run a railroad like the real thing
Locomotives, cars, customers and yards used the way a railway uses them.
Status: multi-unit power and long trains exist in a long-haul preset; customers and yards are drawn, not built.
The world is the dashboard
Data should live in the world. You read the network by watching it work, and it should be as satisfying to watch as to run.
Same seed, same game
The simulation is deterministic: same seed, same commands, same result.
Status: checked every tick by a state hash.
This will never be
A city builder. No zoning, no utilities, no citizen simulation.
A combat or survival game.
A game with premium currencies or pay-to-win.
A mobile game.
FILE 08/ progress
The story so far, in plain words
What happened, when, up to 23 October. Everything below has been built, except where it says otherwise; how much of it you could click on is what the grades above are for. The day-by-day story is on the updates page.
16 Sep
First commit. The simulation kernel runs 1,000 trains. Stations, orders, payment, signals and timetables follow the same day.
17–18 Sep
World generation, towns, water, air and vehicles by era; a fifty-year balance run; a first debug viewer.
19 Sep
The Unreal Engine client boots. First box on rails.
20–22 Sep
Terrain, water and the first vehicle models.
21 Sep
Buy a train from a depot. Save and load.
23–27 Sep
Switching, labour and inflation (on the simulation side), day and night, curved track, bridges, the first-route guide and town actions.
28 Sep
A quality programme starts with 94 work orders. The list now holds 189 tracked work orders.
29 Sep – 3 Oct
New-game options, undo, towns made of buildings, a front end, level crossings, free bridges, and an independent review of the whole project.
4–16 Oct
An accessibility panel with colour-vision profiles, era-specific vehicle models in the test renders, new level-crossing devices, the path tool and its curve plan, and a plan redraw that doubled the work list.
17–23 Oct
Real 3D models for 20 vehicles in the game, a town window with road reconstruction, waterworks and a long-haul start option, and a tutorial that offers to do a step for you. Also: the newest check run has two failing checks in a track-realigning step, which is being repaired.
The status board
as of 23 Oct 2026 · 189 tracked work orders · 46% closed
87closed
8running
37ready to start
56waiting on something else
1superseded
Be fair to the number. Only 32 of the 87 closed items are things a player can see. The rest is plumbing, libraries and design.
FILE 09/ the schedule
The schedule, arithmetic showing
A date with no working is a wish. This is the sum, the assumptions behind it, and the ways it goes wrong. It is arithmetic on stated assumptions, not a promise, and there is no store page yet.
ARITHMETIC, NOT A PROMISE
The sum
The open list is the planned work still to do. “Closed per day” is how fast we finish items; “new per day” is how fast we add them. What is left each day is the net burn-down. Divide the open list by it and you get the days until the planned work is done. Then add a ship gate, in weeks, for everything that is not on the list.
days until the planned work is done = open work orders ÷ (closed per day − new per day)earliest public build = the day that work is done + the ship gate (weeks)
The ship gate covers store review (the plan allows four to six weeks), a closed playtest, balance, and an art pass. Right now there are 101 open work orders.
What we observed
9 of 189tracked work orders closed in 7 days, which is 1.3 a day.
187 → 190items on the list over the same window. 3 new items arrived, about 0.4 a day. (One of the 190 is a standing lane, not a work order.)
So the net burn-down is slower than the closure rate. Closing 1.3 a day while adding 0.4 a day leaves less than 1.3 a day of real progress. That is the whole reason for the three scenarios below.
The counter only sees goals on the official list. A lot of repair and proof work now sits in side lanes that are not counted, so both closed and added are understated.
Three scenarios
Fast
Feb 2027
Observed closure rate (1.3 a day) and a quarter of the observed rate of new work.
Ship gate 6 weeks.
Likely
Jun 2027
Two-thirds of the observed closure, because what remains is the heavy kind that touches the simulation core, and half the observed rate of new work.
Ship gate 10 weeks.
Slow
Jul 2027
The likely closure rate (0.9 a day), held down further if changes to the simulation core land more slowly than that, and half the observed rate of new work. Core changes are landing at 4.9 a day; held down by that limit right now: no.
Ship gate 16 weeks: adds a handheld hardware check, a store festival cycle, name clearance and credential slack.
The three scenarios, side by side
Measure
Fast
Likely
Slow
Closed per day
1.3
0.9
0.9
New work per day
0.1
0.2
0.2
Net per day
1.2
0.6
0.6
Days to finish the list
86
158
158
Work done on
17 Jan 2027
30 Mar 2027
30 Mar 2027
Ship gate (weeks)
6
10
16
EARLIEST PUBLIC BUILD
Rates are rounded to one decimal; days are computed from the unrounded rates, so a hand subtraction on the rounded figures can differ a little. Dates run from 23 Oct 2026. The headline is the likely case; the window runs from fast to slow.
What would move it
Scope growth. New work arriving faster than old work closes is the classic way a date slides. The rates above say whether that is happening right now.
One change at a time. Only one change to the simulation core can be merged at a time, and most of what is left is that kind.
One graphics test slot. Only one copy of the game engine can be tested at once on the one development machine.
Store review. The plan allows four to six weeks, and it is outside our hands.
Name clearance. The name has to be cleared before a real launch, and clearance takes as long as it takes.
The art pass. Twenty vehicles have real models now; the industries, the trees and most of the scenery are still plain shapes, and that is a job in itself.
Plainly: this is arithmetic on stated assumptions, not a promise. There is no store page, no price and no release date. If the list grows faster than it shrinks, the sum gets worse, and this page will say so.
Station announcement: the Early Access service is delayed by an unspecified amount of scope.
FILE 10/ questions
Questions at the information desk
Is it out?
No. There is no release date, no store page and no price. The only date here is the estimate in the schedule, with its arithmetic.
Which platforms?
Windows PC first. Nothing else is promised.
Will it have multiplayer?
Not promised. The determinism and a network test harness exist, but there is no lobby and no network transport, and nobody should plan a game night around it.
Will there be a demo?
Unknown. Nothing has been decided, and we would rather say so than guess.
How is it different from Synapse Grid?
Almost completely. Synapse Grid is a fast light-cycle combat racer built around reflexes. NewCaptains is a slow-burn transport sandbox built around planning, timetables and consequences. Same studio, same one person.
