How do YOU start?

[GoldRush]

I prefer freight trains to anything else, really.

[Welsh Z]

Ships, nothing like taking down lumber by river

[warwickboy]

By the time I've scanned around the entire map seeking out easy starting opportunities, a subsidy will normally have popped up. I invariably go for that, whatever it is. I'm obsessed with subsidies really.

If I can get it in before the subsidies appear I will normally be connecting a fairly easy-to-get running, moderately paid connection. This could be anything, from passengers to wood. No preference really, though I find that it's often simpler to get into coal, iron-ore or farm products, just to get the revenue started. I vote for cargo based on this.

Trucks? Euch! I haven't used these in any game for about ten years.

[Gremnon]

For me at the moment, it depends on the kind of game.
For CargoDist ones, I find two moderate sized towns, give both a collection of bus and truck stops (sometimes trams instead) and the vehicles to go with it, a link to a rail station each, then link them by rail. It doesn't produce much at first, but after a while, each new station added onto one end of the network or the other starts increasing the revenue a great deal.

I'm experimenting with a new set of station designs that'll improve that further, cutting down on costs, and improving efficiency even more, so hopefully a small network of a dozen such towns connected will turn into a massive earner.

Non-CargoDist ones I always go for a coal route, or similar depending on which industry set is loaded.

[oberhümer]

I just cheat, cheat, cheat and build first a pretty realistic passenger rail network, with trams, buses or(more realistic) a combination in cities, then go to bus/mail truck connections, highways, airplanes, and then cargo(often with ships).

[Dada]

Coal is great as an initial cash cow. Either that or I add a few small bus stations here and there to crank up my rating before building large train stations.

[Jacko]

I tend to start with Iron Ore, connect all the mines to a steel mill then send off all the steel to a factory, before transporting goods, then i do pax and other stuff.

Only good thing about trucks is destroying them!

[Emperor Jake]

But it's realistic to use trucks! I use them quite a bit in my games, so that I have roads with trucks on them What has everyone got against trucks?
I often start with buses, passenger trains or something, but I find my rail networks become more successful if I let them grow organically, a opposed to planning them big from the start.

[doonz]

Money cheat -> Start network

[FooBar]

Too easy. TTD is not one of these game where money is an issue.

[ostlandr]

I'm a bit odd. I play the crazy Chillcore Patchpack, which combines a ton of patches including CargoDist and Daylength. I use the unpopular but awesome Pikka's Basic Industries, which basically add stockpiling to the original industries and a few tweaks like having steel mills require coal also.

To start, I usually hunt around the map for a factory, a secondary and a primary industry grouped fairly well. Then I build a rail line to connect them. I build passenger & mail routes in nearby towns. I run out of capital pretty quick, so I really have to manage my network while it's small. I start shipping goods into the towns when I can (rail -> truck) and connect the towns by bus or rail also. Really wish OTTD let me access the bond and stock markets for capital as well as bank loans!!!! Anyway, my networks grow organically. I have to start off with single-track rail lines with level junctions. As traffic demands, I upgrade, having to work around obstacles, urban sprawl, the AIs infrastructure, etc. BTW I use the AI that just builds highways connecting towns- that feels realistic, helps the other AIs compete, and lets me tap into other local markets without huge capital expenditure.
I eventually try to get all the industry chains up- steel, plastic and lumber to the factories, grain and livestock to the food plants, et. al. Cargodist does an awesome job of getting stuff where it goes without bizarre transfer schemes.
On some of my games, I have built up to 4-track rail lines connecting huge stations, pax going by rail, bus, ferry, and air (so easy with Cargodist), ships hauling oil and iron, trucks feeding a radius around rail stations, etc. But I eventually get bored and start a new game with just a little money and a dream.

[YingCFoo]

I also play this game during mid 90's , this game is really awesome!
Mostly I start the game with long distance oil / wood rail , to get a big bag of money instantly~
Passengers rail are also good choice~ You can earn money from both sides of stations while cargo rail can only be one side

[Ovenbaked]

Long haul coal, inter city passenger, or something related to my "limit".
As i normally play with a "limiter", such as "mountain railway" or a target such as "link two cities from opposite sides of the map with an express passenger service" and always have the limit of networking, I never make a Line without it being linked to another (possible exception being metros and light rail)

[Sabre_Justice]

Since I nearly always use FIRS nowdays, I seem to start a lot by finding the first convenient fish farm and harbour. Must be an ancestral calling considering I come from a fishing town.

Makes me want a dedicated Fishing Boat NewGRF.

[Supercheese]

Makes me want a dedicated Fishing Boat NewGRF.

FISH ain't fishy enough for ya?

[SquireJames]

Well, ignoring the spam bump, I'm just starting a new game as I type this and I plan to try something a bit different. After reading about "Condor" Trains (container door-to-door) last night I thought it might be fun to try a CargoDist game with Goods, Alcohol etc also being distributed. Therefore, rather than having a single route where all my goods get sent to 1 town, I could have (and would need) a lot of goods trains that auto-refit to carry whatever consumer goods might be required and go from town to town dropping off the demanded products. I'll either use separate "yards" built next to my mainline, or use waypoints to direct the goods trains to special platforms of my mainline stations. Should make the game pretty interesting traffic wise. Might even find a use for trucks, given as I could have a large handling yard outside several towns, and have trucks ferry the goods to inline road stops inside the towns.

And if I splashed some cash or planned well and made sure I had producing industries at either end of my mainline, then the trains would run full in every direction

Must admit, CargoDist makes the game for me. I love connecting small towns to huge conurbations, along with special airport services, bus services running inside the town, maybe even trams, and CargoDist lets all this work so much better than regular "anything goes" transport

[TSH]

I tend to start by building a fishing fleet and then later transporting food but I normally start games in the 1800's and with all the ECS industries. In vanilla games I find airports to be the best way to make a quick buck.