Going Bankrupt Half Way Through Game

[Barry Scot]

The early game seems to be fine but as soon as i get into the early-mid diseal era i quickly lose all my millions i have saved up and can't get out of the red.

The GRF's i'm using are:
-Av9.8
-eGRVTS v10
-Finescale standard gauge and 3rd rail
-FIRS Industry Replacement Set 1.3.0
-FISH 0.9.2
-Industrial Stations Renewal 1.0.1
-UK Railway Set (UKRS2)
-UK Railway Add-on Set (UKRS2+)

Any help would be appreciated as i have to delete my save and start again; trains flow fine with only little waits near larger stations. and most of my journeys are small at start but slowly get larger.
My Trains are only 4 tiles long and get smaller if they carry created goods etc.

[kamnet]

Do you have inflation enabled?

[Alberth]

If you have a previous save, could you post it?
It's much easier to find the cause if people can have a look, do some experimenting, etc.

They may also give advice on what to do, eg with your play style to improve profitability.

[Barry Scot]

To be fair i've never seen it before but just checked and yes i do. would this make costs increase?

[Barry Scot]

Sorry first time; here is my latest play through.

PS: would like to say that i tried borrowing to see if it would help but might have made it worse.

[Dave]

BANG and the dirt is gone!

[Alberth]

To be fair i've never seen it before but just checked and yes i do. would this make costs increase?

It does, as costs grow quicker than profits.

You can switch inflation off to stop the growth, but it won't reverse the damage already done.
You either have to start again (with inflation on 'off'), or cheat yourself a couple of million money and continue playing

[Barry Scot]

I guess i'll start again, thanks for the help

[Baldy's Boss]

To be fair i've never seen it before but just checked and yes i do. would this make costs increase?

It does, as costs grow quicker than profits.

You can switch inflation off to stop the growth, but it won't reverse the damage already done.
You either have to start again (with inflation on 'off'), or cheat yourself a couple of million money and continue playing

I've always considered it a monstrous cheat not to have inflation on,so I guess I know not to use this NewGRF set!

[Panando]

A few comments on the save:

FIRS is not the economically easiest industry set, this is because of the fairly unprofitable engineering supplies/farm supplies deliveries required to boost production of primary industries. With the default industries, and with ECS, industries naturally increase in production if you provide good service and with ECS the vehicle factory produces small quantities even when not serviced, which helps with bootstrapping primary industry production. There's nothing wrong with using FIRS, but I would not recommend making freight transport your primary income in FIRS unless you have a strong mastery of the FIRS industry dynamics (and even then, it's not an optimal choice).

You should build some money-spinner routes, especially when using FIRS. The most profitable routes in the game are passenger and mail service between distant cities as you get a payment in both directions, just select two large cities (as large as possible), ideally about 100-500 tiles apart and connect them with a dedicated rail route. Then add as many trains as required to move all the passengers. In the early game the best cities produce far more pax (~400/mo) than the best industries do (~160/mo). An even more profitable money spinner is Boeing 747 routes between distant cities (500+ tiles apart). Actually monorail/maglev will also be absurdly profitable for these long journeys, but a Boeing 747 route is much simpler to set up. These money-spinner routes can subsidize less profitable or unprofitable freight transport.

When transporting freight, you generally get paid more for delivering to a more distant destination. Generally aim for 200-500 tiles. Delivering non-perishables very long distances can be extremely profitable and be a money-spinner comparable to pax. The payment from perishables can take a bit of a hammering if the delivery time gets too long and you might want to keep it down to 300 tiles, but you can go nuts with stuff like scrap metal and generate huge profits for long distance.

[Pingaware]

To be fair i've never seen it before but just checked and yes i do. would this make costs increase?

It does, as costs grow quicker than profits.

You can switch inflation off to stop the growth, but it won't reverse the damage already done.
You either have to start again (with inflation on 'off'), or cheat yourself a couple of million money and continue playing

I've always considered it a monstrous cheat not to have inflation on,so I guess I know not to use this NewGRF set!

Inflation works fine in the original context of TTD - 100 years of play from 1950 to 2050. However, it's fundamentally broken for any longer play time or starting any earlier than 1950 because it's literally just a ramp up figure - it's not been adjusted to take into account the new conditions of play.

[V453000 :)]

Meanwhile, original vehicles have low running costs, some extremist sets like UKRS2 make this effect 10x to start with.

[Baldy's Boss]

It does, as costs grow quicker than profits.

You can switch inflation off to stop the growth, but it won't reverse the damage already done.
You either have to start again (with inflation on 'off'), or cheat yourself a couple of million money and continue playing

I've always considered it a monstrous cheat not to have inflation on,so I guess I know not to use this NewGRF set!

Inflation works fine in the original context of TTD - 100 years of play from 1950 to 2050. However, it's fundamentally broken for any longer play time or starting any earlier than 1950 because it's literally just a ramp up figure - it's not been adjusted to take into account the new conditions of play.

I understand that inflation runs for 170 years and stops,though I've never played a 170 year game yet.I almost never start in 1950 because I started with original TT which starts in 1930.I start games in 1940 or before.

[Kevo00]

UKRS2 costs after about 1935 can be a little crazy, I always turn off inflation. If you have infra costs enabled you might be able to survive by turning that off for a couple of decades (consider it a government bail out), until your profits recover.

[Barry Scot]

Thanks for all the comments guys ill have another shot at it and hopefully can get somewhere. i understand the basics but guess i just need longer routes

[Transportman]

Thanks for all the comments guys ill have another shot at it and hopefully can get somewhere. i understand the basics but guess i just need longer routes

Longer routes are often more profitable, especially if you can also do return full instead of empty, but there is an optimum distance for cargoes at around a few hundred tiles (depending on speed, there is a whole analysis on the wiki). I also notice in my games, that my longer routes generate the money, while inner-city routes are often making a loss, but they provide a big chunk of additional passengers, making an invisible profit (which I probably can tune a bit with the transfer payment setting.

[leifbk]

FIRS is not the economically easiest industry set, this is because of the fairly unprofitable engineering supplies/farm supplies deliveries required to boost production of primary industries. With the default industries, and with ECS, industries naturally increase in production if you provide good service and with ECS the vehicle factory produces small quantities even when not serviced, which helps with bootstrapping primary industry production. There's nothing wrong with using FIRS, but I would not recommend making freight transport your primary income in FIRS unless you have a strong mastery of the FIRS industry dynamics (and even then, it's not an optimal choice).

You can do very well with FIRS and nothing but freight, but the playing style may be quite different from the ordinary. The low production is well suited for road vehicles and small ships, and very nice for pre-1900 horse & sail games, when a production output of 100 tons a month is about the limit of what you can practically handle.

I've run several games with FIRS starting in 1700, often without a single mail or passenger route. As long as inflation is turned off (as it should be with games starting before mid-20th century), it's not hard to make money in a FIRS economy. The profit margin isn't huge, but after a few decades I always end up with more money than I can spend.

[Translink]

I've had the same problems as you, I'll have to turn off inflation for future games until the mid 20th century I suppose.

[Baldy's Boss]

I have reached 2051 rolling in profits with games starting in the 1920s,and have never considered turning off inflation.
Still haven't brought games started any earlier that far forward...but not seeing economic collapse from inflation alone so far in any.