Most open world-games let you be whoever you want in a specific setting, but none of them lets you become a proper train engineer.
Derail Valley fills a loved chine and does its job well.
And despite still being an Early Access game, meaning work on the game is far from done, I’d say Derail Valley already has a dedicated fanbase with an active bunch of modders.
The more I look into modding games, the more I’m turning pro open source for all this stuff…
As of this writing, Derail Valley’s devs are still working on that 1.0 release. And we could expect some of these features to even become part of the game officially at some point. But if you want some custom train track action right away, dive into this list and see what kinda treasures you can find.
Rearranging train cars, moving from one station to another, and dealing with any issue that may arise on your journey… this can be very taxing sometimes.
What about some soothing music to take away the stress?
DV Radio is a simple mod that lets you play any music track at any time during gameplay.
The mod comes with all the functions you’d expect from a music player, including the seek backwards and seek forwards options, so you can listen to any specific part of a song many times. Or maybe setup some classic lo-fi chillhop, which seems to be all the rage these days.
Or maybe you want to check out every car’s tiny little details. Well stop squinting your eyes and download the VR Camera Zoom mod.
This is a very simple install that lets you increase zoom while playing the game in VR mode. The only thing you have to do is install the mod, press forward on the right joystick on your controller, and enjoy the game’s world in greater detail.
Ah, the beauties of seeing the (virtual) countryside by train.
And probably all the train stations in this beautiful valley, too.
Heads-up Display gives us an extremely handy overlay menu that shows plenty of useful information at a glance.
This will allow you to act quickly in case something goes terribly wrong (I’m sure it won’t, but just in case).
The current version of the mod shows, train speed, track grade, upcoming grade and speed limit changes, upcoming switch settings, car destinations, and quite a bit more.
This mod is so useful that you’ll no longer be able to play Derail Valley without it. Or I’d wager you’d go back kicking and screaming to vanilla.
The Schematics map is one of the most important features included in the game, and yet it’s the most complicated.
It almost requires a master’s degree to be fully understood… OK maybe not, but you get the idea.
With the Enhanced Schematics Map mod installed, this all gets a lot easier to read. The mod increases readability and overall usefulness for more casual players.
Take notes, devs: I don’t want to get an engineering degree to read my 1.0 map!
Moving cargo from one station to another doesn’t pay all that well. But what about passenger jobs?
This mod is certainly unique, giving us new job generation scripts in Derail Valley. Now we can take on these new jobs and earn some good money on the side…
Just don’t expect this to be easy money: you’ll need a new Passengers 1 job license to take on these jobs, and you must complete them under the time limit to see some serious dough start rolling in.
When a regular remote is no longer enough to drive your trains from a distance, you need a Super Remote.
Like this one!
I don’t know what kind of magic bigyihsuan used to create his mod, and I probably don’t even want to know.
A miniature nuclear reactor must have been used here to extend its range to the entire world, and make its batteries unlimited. Very useful, but let’s keep this in-game only.
I’ve had enough of seeing the same old containers.
With Cargo Swap we can make things exciting again!
While this mod doesn’t really introduce any major new gameplay mechanics, the Cargo Swap mod goes a long way to make Derail Valley a little more pleasing to the eye.
We get custom textures for containers and other solid types of cargo, and they’re definitely noticeable. You even get an Amazon skin: what else could we ask for?
Being an open-world game, one would expect a little bit more immersion in Derail Valley.
But while we wait for the talented team to expand the game further, we can download the Persistent Jobs mod to make things a feel a bit more proper.
This mod introduces not only a couple of fixes that deal with train cars despawning, but it also adds procedurally generated jobs in a chain, only when the previous job has been completed. Almost like in the real world, right?
An open-world game with no day/night cycle and dynamic weather?
Preposterous!
Procedural Sky gives us exactly what we want. In fact, it might arguably be the most important feature of any open-world sim game: a working day and night cycle.
As if this wasn’t enough, the mod also adds dynamic weather with rain and tons of other features that make everything look great in VR mode. Now that’s more like it.
I’m not sure, but if there is one, he’s definitely near a station.
Derail Valley Custom introduces a lot of different options that give you full control over the game, allowing you to turn on and off many of the game’s mechanics. This is certainly a bit like God Mode, and frankly that might have been a better title…
Either way, give this a try if you want to truly take control of the experience.
I love it when someone else does my dirty job for me.
Even moreso when he does it without me having to issue commands!
Auto Fireman is a very handy mod that keeps water in the boiler and coal in the firebox. So the only thing you have to worry about is driving your train.
That’s exactly what we’re going for, right?
The only time you really need to act is when you need more steam… I mean, you can’t expect this mod to do all the work for you.
But dozens of new skins, right here for your enjoyment.
The Skins Pack adds more than 40 new skins to Derail Valley, allowing you to customize your train’s appearance with ease.
The skins have been created by the amazing Discord Modding Community, so make sure to dedicate your next successful journey to them. I think they deserve a shoutout for their tireless work.
Let me guess: you need more steam, but do not want to deal with the hassles of a powerful locomotive.
Modders got you covered once again.
Multiple-unit Steam makes it so all steam locomotives on a train have a common throttle, brake, reverser, firebox, injector, and everything else you can think of.
This is so convenient that someone should make something like this happen in the real world… but I’m far from an engineer so let’s not take my thoughts as gospel here.
In the meantime we can at least enjoy a few benefits like this in-game.
Steam is the past. Diesel is the present. Multiple diesels locomotives are the future.
Your future, in fact.
Like the Multiple-unit Steam mod mentioned earlier, this Multiple-unit Diesels add-on makes it so all diesel locomotives on your train share a common throttle, brake, and reverser.
Now it’ll be much more convenient for you to control your train, and complete jobs in the fastest way possible!
Derail Valley reaches its most boring level when you have to switch rail tracks constantly.
If only we could plan routes ahead of time…
Route Manager is among the most useful mods ever made for the game (so far). It allows you to build routes based on active job data using the radio.
This means that you’ll be able to plan ahead and make all your journeys smoother and way more enjoyable.
The additional features included in this mod will also make you a better player, at least if you put in the hours. So if you’re looking to level up your train conducting skills, this is the mod to download.
And you need the Dispatcher mod to always know precisely where they are.
This small mod introduces an amazing quality of life improvement, as it reuses the tutorial display popups to inform you where the cars you need are located. And this appears based on each job you take, so it’s truly dynamic.
It does feel a bit like cheating, but if you just want a super comfy chill-out session then why not make your life a bit easier? Knowing exactly where to go with some semi-linear gameplay might be exactly what you need after a long day at work.
This mod does exactly what you’d expect it to do: take a save file of yours and let you change stuff like money, position, licenses, and more.
Just be sure to make a backup of your unedited save file. If you played games back when memory cards were a thing, you know the pain of losing everything.
The Derail Valley Skin Manager is an essential download if you want to change how your train looks.
Or if you want to put your artistic skills to the service of the community.
This mod not only makes it possible to effortlessly add new skins to the game, but also to create skins, export them, and share them with fellow players.
This kinda stuff is how you build a real community around your games. By far one of the most expansive mods out there, and I can only expect more good things to come here.
