A few beginner questions
Posted: 17 Feb 2023 21:28
I don't play this game a lot, but I come back to it for a couple of weeks at a time, every year or two, and during this time around, I've come to realize I am far, far worse at this game than I thought.
Sometimes I'll start playing a game, and every city I move into experiences explosive growth, and I have tons of money.
Then the next time I play, I'll be bankrupt in a year and a half. And it will be while trying to play MORE efficiently, using what I'd learned the day before. Obviously I failed.
So here's what I almost always play ... the first England scenario (easiest/earliest level) because there is room to work, but often times I'll see explosive growth in my cities.
I frequently start by building two or three trains, usually one from the Dover chemical plant to the London factory, perhaps one from the Cambridge farm to the London/Brighton (I think that's the city) beer factory, or perhaps from Dover Chemical to the Brighton factory. The problem is, even these short train lines and trains cost a lot of money. And at least on the chemical trains, don't seem to make a lot of profit.
So the last game I tried (couple of hours ago, convinced me I needed to learn a few things) I didn't bother with any trains at all, just started working on trams. Built my first tram line running through 2/3 of London and over to and through Oxford, and started four trams running on it. Built my second line from Brighton through a small portion of London, and over into Chelmsford. Since this route was a bit longer, I put six trams on it. I put my third line from Chelmsford over to Norwich, and ran two trams on it, and was about out of money (the starting $5k loan, and an additional $5k). Often I see explosive growth with trams, but saw none this time around. Unfortunately, tram revenue was low and slow, and the interest payments on the loan were more than the trams were bringing in, so within another 9 months I was bankrupt.
I don't know where I got the idea, but I certainly had the idea that routes between cities were a good thing, which is why I kind of concentrate on routes connecting at least two cities. But maybe I'm wrong about that. Any thoughts?
Sometimes in a city that I'm convinced is going to quickly grow into a metropolis, I'll space my tram stops every 3 tiles or perhaps every four tiles, and it often works pretty well for me, but stops cost money and could affect how fast the trams make it around and back to their starting points. What do others think about stop spacing?
Two days ago I used a train running coal from Sheffield to the power plant at Norwich. I set up two tracks and two trains with 8 cars each. Started the second train at Sheffield right as the first train was dropping off at Norwich, to have them at opposite ends, but somehow within like 2 months, they were right behind each other, and one would get a full load and the other would be almost empty, and the mine never really started producing enough coal to supply these two trains ... but I can remember games where I had 8 tracks running out of two stations at Sheffield (running to 3 power plants and one steel plant) and always having extra coal sitting at the station beyond what all 8 trains could haul. What gives?
So people have indicated it is better to NOT make steel, but just send ONE of the two ingredients to the steel mill because producing steel will make the town angry? Can someone explain this to me?
Best cargos and worst cargos for trains to carry? Maybe I should concentrate on carrying coal for my first train, and add more train routes only once enough money is coming in? Chemicals certainly DON'T seem to be one of the more profitable routes.
For both trains and trams, longer routes better? Shorter routes better? Or it depends?
Oh, and another thing, routing? I have built trams that could go different places, because of tracks that split, and tell it exactly which stops to take in which order, but half the time they ignore it, turn the wrong way, and end up in completely the wrong areas. This leads me to try and build with no places where the track splits, but that limits some routes I'd otherwise like to do. Anyone know why this is happening? I'm wondering if it has to do with stops that have more than one 'location?' (Like on two or three corners of the intersection.)
I think that's enough for now to try and learn a few things, and consider how I can go so right one day, and so wrong the next. Any help is appreciated.
Sometimes I'll start playing a game, and every city I move into experiences explosive growth, and I have tons of money.
Then the next time I play, I'll be bankrupt in a year and a half. And it will be while trying to play MORE efficiently, using what I'd learned the day before. Obviously I failed.
So here's what I almost always play ... the first England scenario (easiest/earliest level) because there is room to work, but often times I'll see explosive growth in my cities.
I frequently start by building two or three trains, usually one from the Dover chemical plant to the London factory, perhaps one from the Cambridge farm to the London/Brighton (I think that's the city) beer factory, or perhaps from Dover Chemical to the Brighton factory. The problem is, even these short train lines and trains cost a lot of money. And at least on the chemical trains, don't seem to make a lot of profit.
So the last game I tried (couple of hours ago, convinced me I needed to learn a few things) I didn't bother with any trains at all, just started working on trams. Built my first tram line running through 2/3 of London and over to and through Oxford, and started four trams running on it. Built my second line from Brighton through a small portion of London, and over into Chelmsford. Since this route was a bit longer, I put six trams on it. I put my third line from Chelmsford over to Norwich, and ran two trams on it, and was about out of money (the starting $5k loan, and an additional $5k). Often I see explosive growth with trams, but saw none this time around. Unfortunately, tram revenue was low and slow, and the interest payments on the loan were more than the trams were bringing in, so within another 9 months I was bankrupt.
I don't know where I got the idea, but I certainly had the idea that routes between cities were a good thing, which is why I kind of concentrate on routes connecting at least two cities. But maybe I'm wrong about that. Any thoughts?
Sometimes in a city that I'm convinced is going to quickly grow into a metropolis, I'll space my tram stops every 3 tiles or perhaps every four tiles, and it often works pretty well for me, but stops cost money and could affect how fast the trams make it around and back to their starting points. What do others think about stop spacing?
Two days ago I used a train running coal from Sheffield to the power plant at Norwich. I set up two tracks and two trains with 8 cars each. Started the second train at Sheffield right as the first train was dropping off at Norwich, to have them at opposite ends, but somehow within like 2 months, they were right behind each other, and one would get a full load and the other would be almost empty, and the mine never really started producing enough coal to supply these two trains ... but I can remember games where I had 8 tracks running out of two stations at Sheffield (running to 3 power plants and one steel plant) and always having extra coal sitting at the station beyond what all 8 trains could haul. What gives?
So people have indicated it is better to NOT make steel, but just send ONE of the two ingredients to the steel mill because producing steel will make the town angry? Can someone explain this to me?
Best cargos and worst cargos for trains to carry? Maybe I should concentrate on carrying coal for my first train, and add more train routes only once enough money is coming in? Chemicals certainly DON'T seem to be one of the more profitable routes.
For both trains and trams, longer routes better? Shorter routes better? Or it depends?
Oh, and another thing, routing? I have built trams that could go different places, because of tracks that split, and tell it exactly which stops to take in which order, but half the time they ignore it, turn the wrong way, and end up in completely the wrong areas. This leads me to try and build with no places where the track splits, but that limits some routes I'd otherwise like to do. Anyone know why this is happening? I'm wondering if it has to do with stops that have more than one 'location?' (Like on two or three corners of the intersection.)
I think that's enough for now to try and learn a few things, and consider how I can go so right one day, and so wrong the next. Any help is appreciated.