We're a proud member of Gamers Link Xtreme
There are no graphics on this page.
Trains
How many times
have I heard it is all in the trains? That is true to a large
extent, trains are fast and have a high capacity. Also it is fairly
inexpensive to add a few more carriges to the train to increase
its capacity, however long isn't always beautiful. When connecting
short distances trains should be short, because their frequency
being so high they will probably not fill so many carriges, and
it is always a good idea to wait for a full load. For short distances
a 4 car (including the engine) train should be used, and then
for longer distances a 6 car (including the engine) train should
be used. For very long distances more trains should be added to
the system rather than putting on more carriges, as otherwise
ratings can dither. Only go above 6 cars if you are lucky enough
to have an industry with a very high output and there is more
cargo at the station than your train can carry. Otherwise don't
go in for long trains, because when you set to full load if the
train is waiting at the station that time is counted as journey
time, so the cargo will not pay very well. It is advisable not
have mixed cargo trains, because if one cargo is in better supply
than the other, if you set to full load your train will always
be worse off. The only exception is passenger trains, where it
is a good idea to mix passenger and mail cars, rather than have
them running seperately, as you normally don't set that to full
load and also you can keep the passenger and mail ratings up with
just one train. The way you build your track is very important
too, so be sure to visit the Railway Building Technique section
Aeroplanes
Aircraft can be taken seriously, however when you first start the game the largest aircraft carries only 65 people. It will probably make profit, however it is a lot of capital for not a very good return. Wait until fast aircraft which can carry in excess of 100 people come out. You don't need any infrastructure in-between the towns, however airports cost a large amount. Air services are best suited to long distance journeys. There is one downside to aircraft which is noticable when maglev is introduced. Relatively speaking they do certainly not fly at 592 mph. It is certainly possible for a maglev train to overtake an aircraft, and funnily enough, the Dinger 1000 which supposedly doing 1,448 Mph appears to travel at about the same speed as a maglev travelling at 400 Mph (assuming the track is straight and level). Add on the time it takes to take off and land, in the late stages of the game, speed wise aircraft don't have a lot going for them. Aircraft are not really useful for cargo, because they can fit a quater of the capacity compared to passengers, coupled with the fact you would only make money going one way, it is difficult to get a meaningful profit. However, if you refit aircraft for goods, it is only half the capacity, so an air goods service is economically viable.
Road Vehicles
Road Vehicles do not provide a lot of money, but are useful when connecting industries with a low output. A low output can be judged to be half or less than starting production figures, which are generally around 90 or 100 units, or 9,000 or 10,000 litres. There are two main problems with road vehicles, they are too slow, and their capacity is too low. In real life road vehicles are popular because they need no extra infrastructure, however in transport tycoon infrastructure is only provided in towns. Also loading depots have very limited capacity, and if too many attempt to visit at once a jam up can occur.
Boats can be used
if convenient, hovercraft can do a healthy 70mph, and make a tidy
profit, and considering they need almost no infrastructure, you
may want to try it.
Industries
Industries provide raw materials. They are primary industries. The secondary industry is the one that starts production once supplied with raw materials. An example is taking iron ore to a steel mill, and steel is produced. The amount that the secondary industry produces is proportional to the amount of raw materials supplied. This is good, as you can centralise your infrastructure, taking iron ore from many mines and supplying it all to one steel mill. Then you have a steel mill making a lot of steel, and the steel service from the steel mill to a factory would be creating a very healthy amount of money. Then of course, supply the factory with wheat and grain and you have a factory producing a lot of goods, which can be transported to the centre of large towns. This means that the supplies of raw materials are important. 'Production expected to double' message means you going to have big buck rolling in. However, equally production could drop 50% too, so there is a risk. It can have a big knock on effect, not only is the iron ore transport much less profitable, so the steel production drops and you loose profits there, and goods production drops too, meaning lost profits there as well. However you can minimise the effects, as I said earlier, if you connect many iron ore mines to a steel mill, a drop in iron ore production of one of the mines should not have such a dramatic affect on steel production. You can minimise the risk of production drop too by ensuring your ratings are high enough. Occasionally industries close. In the deluxe version this is due to either a secondary industry not being supplied with raw materials, or a primary industry having a very low production and there is a risk of complete closure.
Passengers and Towns
Passengers are
important in transport tycoon. Aircraft are not worth trying to
transport cargo with, as the capacity of them is so low you would
be fortunate to break even if you say, decided to fly iron ore.
In early days, when your cash is limited, a railway service is
a good idea, for temperate climate anyway. The great thing about
passenger services is that once you link towns, they grow as you
feed passenger into them. This means that passenger services will
pay off in the end, even if they are unprofitable to begin with.
A warning though, in the arctic climate, above the snow line towns
need to be supplied with food in order to ensure they grow. In
the hot climate it is even more awkward, in the desert you need
to supply water and food to ensure growth of a town. So if you
supply a town with water, try to supply it with food as well and
vice versa. One thing to bear in mind is that passengers do not
mind where they go, just as long as they have a fast freqent service
to... somewhere. This can be a bit of a nightmare, if you have
a big service into a big town often competitors set up a bus service,
from one side of the town to the other. This is very irritating,
because of the short distance their frequency is high, and hence
get high ratings, but they don't make all that much money, but
they can loose you a lot of cash, no wonder options in the local
authority window such as "fund local road reconstruction"
are there. However, competitors only really do this if they have
some cash to spare and have nothing better to do. If you have
this problem, see the cheats section
to see how they can be killed off.
Speed Distance and Time
Speed, Distance and time are all important factors in transport tycoon. If you look at the cargo payment rates graph, you get paid certain amounts for delivering certain goods over a certain distances in certain times. The further you transport something the more you get paid, the faster you transport something the more you get paid. However long distance journeys take longer which means they will make money less frequenlty, which makes the speed of the transport medium doubly important. In the more extreme climates, trains do not go nearly as fast as in temperate climate and there are no electric trains, they are all diesel. I don't see why the cold climate should stop high speed trains, although I see that in the desert, the lack of wealth could explain this. In the extreme climate, the fastest Double headed engine is only 100Mph, and only 70Mph for single headed trains. In temperate climate, a single headed engine can do 110Mph, with a fast 165Mph double headed train, so bear this in mind. I don't see though why the trains are so slow in these climates. If you are interested in high speed trains, look at my fast trains section.
Quick Tips
When playing transport tycoon there are a few things you should remember. For a more detailed guide visit the stratergy section.