The Early Access Strategy RPG Bounty Train got a big update:

Changelog Update 08 [ENGLISH] - 24.12.2016

Hey, here you´ll find all documented changes, we have in store for Update 08. If you have feedback or questions, feel free to join the conversation – thanks to you and your input we already were able to improve the game´s experience a lot and will continue to do so :)

Now, what exactly has been changed & improved:

-> Changelog

Three more developer videos for Bounty Train are available now, featuring more information about gun shops, vehicle upgrades and the hospital.

Bounty Train: Lucrative and risky deals at the saloon

Dev-videos explain new features step by step

 
the West will become even wilder: with today's update saloons and shops will be open for business in Daedalic Entertainment's and Coribe Games' Railroad Simulation. In Saloons, you can cut lucrative but risky deals with outlaws. And mastering these deals require the right equipment from gunshops or pharmacies.
 
Also, engines and cars are now even more customizable. More cargo space or armor plates? No problem! After all, every engine driver should be prepared for the new random encounters which can be their very own boon or complication...
 
There are several more extensive updates planned until the final release in summer 2016.

Here are two early access impressions of Bounty Train.

Oprainfall:

Besides keeping your characters and train alive, since both are expensive to heal, you also often have to protect your cargo. This isn’t a problem with, say, steel, but there are a lot of flammable cargo items like oil, cotton and tobacco. Weapons are the worst because they can cause a massive explosion, but they’re also one of the most profitable items. Every city has different buy and sell prices for each cargo item, so it’s worth analyzing your prospects any time you start a journey. You pretty much have to make a profit all the time, since even if you don’t get attacked, the coal to move from city to city is a constant cost.

Christ Centered Gamer:

From a moral standpoint, the game is surprisingly solid, especially given the subject matter. People do get killed in the game, but merely fall over and lie on the ground. It is possible – and encouraged – to trade alcohol and tobacco, but the usage of such substances isn't displayed in the game. Bounty Train also is, surprisingly, vulgarity-free from what I've seen so far. Given the subject and the difficulty, I'm pleasantly surprised with how kid-friendly the game has been. It's possible that smuggling elements could be introduced in the game as well, since some of the cargo indicates that the items may not be allowed in certain cities. But I have yet to run into this as an option.

So, Bounty Train is an interesting mashup of edutainment, real-time strategy, economic simulation and role-playing game. It shows quite a bit of progress in this early access stage, but still needs more work before I feel I could whole-heartedly recommend it. I look forward to seeing how it develops, though!

Thanks Eye.

Bounty Train has been previewed by Final Boss Fight:

Even though this is still an early access title there is a lot to like. Visually it looks impressive – the detail in the various screens really stand out and you can clearly see what is happening. Also I didn’t really notice any bugs which is always a good sign. But one thing I really liked was the music. The title screen has a traditional rendition of Yankee Doodle and the main game has jaunty, catchy western style tunes.  I would definitely be interested in obtaining the soundtrack for this game should it become available separately.

This is the sort of game that rewards time and effort. Usually it takes me two or three attempts to fully invest in a game like this – the first try is normally to see what the mechanics are – but I am confident that, given enough time, this will join the list of games such as Elite Dangerous and Sid Meier’s Pirates as games I keep going at until I feel like I’ve done everything there is to do. If you like sandbox trading games such as the two I’ve just mentioned or you just want something different then definitely give this one a look.

And the game has also seen an update:

Update 04:

After the long wait, we can finally present to you the latest Bounty Train update and all the additions and changes we implemented into the game. Here's a summary of the most important changes:

New Save System:

With Update 04, manual saving has found its way into Bounty Train. No more moving files around. We know how annoying that was. Now you have complete control and can save the game whenever you want. You can also create various save games. We still consider using the old system for runs on higher difficulty, but this decision is still pending and we'll definitely wait for your feedback on this.

Day/Night Cycle

Areas can now be accessed during day or nighttime. We plan on extending on this feature in the near future. We'll implement day and night-dependent missions, for example, as well as other alternative options matching this theme.

Economy Adjustments:

Right now, we're not too happy with the in-game economy and thus we tweaked the price development a little. Additionally, we introduced some new goods which should be worthwhile alternatives to the present goods and encounters. In the long run, we want to have goods in the game you can process further to specialize certain areas even more and provide more in-game options for players.

New Events:

One issue of the last version was the frequency of enemy encounters and subsequent combat. We want to mitigate this by implementing more events and reducing the spawnrate. We have added additional game events like fire, epidemic and goods shortage in cities to spice things up here. Also some direct events on the tracks have been added, like soldiers might now sometimes will control your train and search for forbidden goods.

Character Adjustments

You can now switch the loadout of individual characters. You think Walter should be a grenadier? Well, you can give him grenades and let him wreak some havoc. Speaking of which, we also plan to add more shops to make respective gear more accessible. And enemies will drop special items and weapons in the future.

Cabin Adjustments:

One of our main goals is to provide you with the means to build your very own train that matches your playstyle. With the new system you're no longer quite so restricted: you can customize cabins and have more control over expenses and weight of your train. For now you can assign turrets to turretstlots to change the role of your carriages.We plan to unlock more custom options through shops and inventions.

Bugfixes:

We could reproduce and resolve many of the issues you have submitted. For example, sudden, unexplainable vanishing of resources should no longer occur, wanted characters should appear properly and players shouldn't get stuck in scenarios under certain circumstances anymore.

Thanks Eye

Some time ago we brought you news about a fame named Bounty Train hitting Steam Early Access. As we were somewhat curious about the game we sent out some interview questions to the publisher Daedalic, who forwarded them to Yurij Ishchuk, Corbie Games' General Manager and who's answers you can find in our interview article.

I received an email from Daedalic about a game named Bounty Train, which is available on Steam Early Access and is claimed to have RPG elements. They have this to say about it:

Bounty Train is a historic train simulation game, which was released in the Early Access program of Steam on 25^th August. It is a complex, tactically challenging game and confronts the player with historical events, from the onset of the Civil War to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln -- and depending on player choices and performance, the course of history may be changed.

On Steam it says:

“Bounty Train is a complex game. Your character will be an engine driver, a train engineer, a fighter, a trader, and an investigator, probably all at once. This complexity requires a wide variety of game mechanics from different game genres, such as train simulators, real-time strategy games, business simulations and RPGs. It is difficult to create such a complex game from scratch, so we decided to do it step by step. In cooperation with our passionate players we hope to make Bounty Train an enjoyable experience.”

Here is a video from E3.