A player's first experience

[Purno]

I just tried to play simutrans again, didn't do it a very long time. Some things that came to my attention;

- Start up music, please add an option there to turn it off (it was damn annoying). I had to start up a game to be able to turn down the volume. Usually I close games (and websites) which start with music right away. I think some possible players will be turned down by the music.

- No landscape grid, which resulted in my building crappy railways. I couldn't see the landscapes shape (wether it was sloped up, or down), etc.

Then at a sudden the game crashed. I think I'm gonna try a stable version now.

EDIT: Unclear installation guide, it's not as easy to install the stable version as I expected it to be. What about adding a readme to either the download page or in the downloaded package? Which PAK I need anyways? For you, experienced Simutrans players, it may all be easy, but I'm viewing this as a noob. (In order to help you making the game better).

[whoami]

- Start up music, please add an option there to turn it off (it was damn annoying).

Start ST with parameter "-nomidi".

- No landscape grid, which resulted in my building crappy railways.

See keyboard help - use '#' to toggle grid display

Then at a sudden the game crashed. I think I'm gonna try a stable version now.

That can happen with the versions that are published for testing.
Version 99.11 is quite OK. 88.10.5 ist the most recent official stable release.

For you, experienced Simutrans players, it may all be easy, but I'm viewing this as a noob.

True, some things can be confusing (like the different pak sets).
Basic installation isn't hard:
- download executable
- download matching pak64 version
- unpack both into the same folder (=directory)
- start simutrans.exe
Of course, you may want to change settings (simuconf.tab), add more paks, but these changes are optional.

For more questions and comments, I suggest using the English/international forum, because there's only litte traffic regarding ST here.

[Stubbsy14]

- Start up music, please add an option there to turn it off (it was damn annoying).

Start ST with parameter "-no

I don't like to use that way, I prefer to go to game options, sound and click and drag the music volume bar to the left side, but this doesn't stop the music together it only stops it until you turn off your computer and turn on again, then you have to do it again. But i like to listen to some of my own music now and again.

[ostlandr]

Just got started playing it myself. Very challenging- both passengers and cargo have destinations.

Quick tip- get a line operating from a coal mine to a power station, then build power lines to connect the plant to the mine (need a transformer box at each end- both are in the "special construction" menu.) Having access to power helps the mine's output and the power plant's demand for coal.
Hey, you're delivering electricity from the source to the consumer (and getting paid for it.) That's transport, right?

Also remember to set up buses and trains on lines. When cities start to grow, you will need to be able to identify which lines are maxed out and add more buses/trains.

So far so good with the "stable" release- had one glitch where a Zeppelin got stuck (I start in 1930) and one or two game crashes. Need to play it a lot more.
One complaint is the track construction system. Gaaaah! It drives me nuts- I can't get tracks close together without them melting together into spaghetti. Would definitely prefer a square-by-square option with the num pad directions.

[phantom25]

Track consruction system is though of to be an end-to-end connection system. In the diagonal track, you have to build with a space in between, then no unwanted spaghetty connections will happen.

I myself prefer the end-to-end building system very much, since you can easly and very quickly build long stretches of track. The same applies to road construction.

Also, using hub station concept works splended in Simutrans.

The only thing, that is bad is, if you have two goods, which go in same waggons, i.e. both oil and methane go into the same type of track. When you would like to transport 50% of one and 50% of another in the same train, that will not work. Instead, the logic is to transport only one of them (usually prefered is oil).

Otherwise, the unstable versions are even more stable than TTD(patch) itself. Later ones even have an underground system possibility (for tracks and roads). Also, trolleybusses are possible, as also MAGLEV. They can be found as addons.

The only "bad" thing is, that the old idea of working pipeline system is abadoned...

[prissi]

BTW: For OpenTTD beginners, http://simutrans.sourceforge.net/openttd.htm might be helpful (although not complete).

[Dutchman on Rails]

Hello All,

I'm trying my hand with Simutrans 99.17.1 at the moment, and I tend to agree with Ostlandr about having a square-by-square option alongside the point-to-point option for building rail lines. At times it would help to have precise control over where the rail lines are going, especially on diagonal tracks.
Apart from that and a few minor points, I like the game very much.

Kind Regards, DoR