DoR's Screenshots and Saved Games.

[Dutchman on Rails]

Apologies for a very long absence. I've been rather busy.

In the meantime, I've taken up Simutrans, particularly Simutrans Experimental. For some time, I've been experimenting with the Pak128.Britain PakSet, lowering the production of the various industry chain endpoints to try to create large numbers of fairly small-scale transport. I've also been reporting on this through a thread on the Simutrans Forum.

However, I find that the facilities on this forum are a bit more convenient for my use, so I decided to return and use a screenshot thread here.

This thread picks up on a game that has run since 1832. First of all, let's take a look at the map, on which several places have been numbered (one needs to enlarge the screenshot to see this though). The screenshots are full, unedited screenshots as one of the programmers is following the thread for the programming.

In the last post on the Simutrans Forum, we left off with a hardware store and the associated industries being set up around the largest city, Port Talbot, and nearbyDartford, with the exception of a contract being established with the colliery near Westbury (1).

Starting with the coal service, services were laid in in the Port Talbot/Dartford area (2) in 1833/34.

Following up on this, experimental mail services were set up in the same area (3). All of the cargo stops could also handle mail, so the service only needed to pay for it's own running costs.

As this service turned out to be reasonably profitable, more such services were set up in Westbury (4), Wakefield (5) and Newport (6). The latter two were withdrawn again in 1835 though, as they were making a loss.

In the same year, a small experimental net of passenger services was set up in Port Talbot and to the Steel Mill and Iron Ore Mine. Despite this service, needing to pay for it's stops, making an obvious loss, it was decided to keep it, because of a healthy effect on population growth. Especially Dartford now started to grow considerably. The following screenshot shows the situation around Port Talbot (to the west) and Dartford (just east of the middle) in 1837.

One important freight route remained unserviced. This was the cider service from London (7) to Newport. Experiments turned out that opening up this service would also open up a fruit service from Inverness (8), a service that due to the detour and the slower shipping would be more dangerous than profitable. However, with the following transport potential (all piece goods):

- Textiles from Inverness to Lowestoft via Wakefield.
- Fruit from Inverness to London.
- Cider from London to Newport.

This might make for a good rail connection from London/Wakefield to the northern shores. Of course that won't be cheap, estimates are well over 100000. But with earnings at 13-14000/year, it doesn't appear to be an impossible dream.

In the meantime, mail services would slowly grow until most of the major villages were connected.

[Dutchman on Rails]

In the previous post, I ended that there might be enough trade potential for a north-south rail link across the center island.

However, developments have steered the company in a different direction.

In the meantime, I've also read the threads on realistic stations by IvanFurlanis with great interest. Though Simutrans does not have true diagonal tracks and therefore not everything can be translated 1-on-1, I hope to use some pages from his book throughout this game.

In 1838, the region reaches 14000 inhabitants and a hardware shop opens in Newport(1)*. At this point, company management is a bit overly focused on the rail project, so it takes them a year to realise the potential for immediate expansion this offers. After this, though, work starts quickly on expanding the existing transport links toward the steel mill and hardware factory around Dartford(2). Work on this progressed enough in 1840 to begin transporting hardware.

Two years later, the expansion starts to cause traffic congestion on the road between the steel mill and the hardware factory. Despite knowing that the steel/hardware service on this route can not support a rail line, this is the option chosen to alleviate traffic congestion.

The hardware factory station can not be built on the desired spot immediately, so the station to the southwest is a temporary one. Also, in order to keep losses to a minimum, the locomotive with the lowest running costs is chosen, despite this 'Puffing Billy' being expected to become obsolete in three years.

Just before building the rail link, the region's population reached 15000, and a china shop opened in Dunfermline(3), requesting china from the pottery at Lowestoft(4). The good part about this route is that the textiles service from Lowestoft dock to the clothes shop can take the china to the dock on the way back, and the hardware service ships can pick it up from there on their return journey and drop it off at Richmond dock(5).

So a service is quickly set up, using some of the piece goods carts that became available after the new rail line cut the Dartford-Port Talbot hardware cart service in half.

With this underway, and services gradually being increased on both focal points, a setback happens around Inverness, where one of the services sheep farms(6) closes, and service has to be rerouted to another one at the other side of the river(7).

* The strange combination of using Simutrans Experimental and Pak128.Britain standard has disrupted the system that controls the creation of industry. So this is done (semi-) manually, keeping industry at around 1 chain for every 1000 inhabitants.

[Dutchman on Rails]

Apologies for a long delay. Much has happened on the Simutrans Experimental section of the forum.

First came the introduction of version 8.2, which always takes a bit of time to adjust to.

Next, a small intermezzo came. A person names deMangler asked for help on getting started with the experimental version (see http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=5423.0). I agreed to play one of his maps, and post the results here, telling in relatively high detail what I do and why. Though later posts and a blog of his shows he's nicely on the way now, I still intend to play his map for some 10 game years. Maybe it helps other new players to Simutrans Experimental.

It took me some time to get the right pace in my game. It starts in the 1930's, which for me is 180 years after my usual starting point. So the dynamics turned out to be quite different and challenging. But I'll stop digressing and start putting out chapters.

First, for orientation, the maps:

This map shows the location of the towns at startup. The largest ones are Exeter (by far), St. Albans and Aberdeen.

DoR Exeter County 1930-01 Map Town Names.PNG (92.69 KiB) Viewed 10954 times

This map shows the industry. Note the power station near Oxford. An issue with the freight and passenger lines here sparked off this replay.

DoR Exeter County 1930-01 Map Industry.PNG (91.08 KiB) Viewed 10954 times

And finally the tourist attractions. Note the cricket field in Exeter.

DoR Exeter County 1930-01 Map Tourist Attractions.PNG (91.14 KiB) Viewed 10954 times

I hope you will enjoy this replay.

[Dutchman on Rails]

So, as pointed out before, this replay game started at Oxford.

DoR Exeter County Oxford 1930-01.png

Oxford as it looks in 1930, with the statistics for the industries.

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Looking at the industries, it's clearly visible that the coal mine has a production of 280 tons a month, but the power station can only handle 109 tons. For this small quantity, I decided that using 5 coal trucks will do nicely for transporting the coal.

Also, it was noted that especially the coal mine has a high passenger (57) and mail (19) level. This should allow for a small passengers service with buses and mail trucks from Oxford.

This shot shows the result. The passengers/mail service (red line) is shown as it winds it's way through the areas of the town to bring passengers and mail to and from the industries. The coverage 'squares' have been left on in this shot to show the coverage. Most of the town is covered and there are few overlaps. The graph is the profit from the five coal trucks by october 1930.

DoR Exeter County Oxford 1930-02.png (225.21 KiB) Viewed 10954 times

It quickly turned out that the mail and passengers capacity could support more vehicles. This also allowed for splitting into more lines, to get a more direct service. All of the lines run direct to the coal mine, so that passengers don't have to change (experiments with that showed a drop in numbers, though this has not been fully investigated).

This shot shows the three lines (green, blue and yellow). The red line is shared by the three lines. The graphs are the profits of the three lines, from top to bottom the green, blue and yellow lines.

DoR Exeter County Oxford 1930-10.png (277.72 KiB) Viewed 10954 times

So, we have a foothold and by October, the Oxford services are making a reasonable amount of money.

[Hyronymus]

Nice story there and I must say Simutrans looks good these days .

[Dutchman on Rails]

Thanks Hyronymous.

I got distracted by some other games, but I have two more chapters.

After the situation at Oxford was up and running, the company started looking for other places to find profit. Near Aberdeen, a fishmonger was found.

This shows the fishmonger and the prices. Both fish and live fish net a very high cargo price, making it quite profitable.

DoR 1930-03 Fish Prices and Aberdeen Fishmonger.PNG (310.94 KiB) Viewed 10954 times

Looking around at the map, it was found there were two fishing grounds and three fishing ports. Unfortunately, the one closest to Aberdeen was found to be in a small lake separate from the sea. The solution was found in digging a rather expensive sea-level canal to this port. Also, in addition to the two fishing boats, a further ship would be used to transport the fish from the furthest port to the closer one, from where the combined loads would be transported by truck.

DoR 1930-03 Fish Routes.PNG

This map shows the projected lines, the canal in blue, the fishing boats in red, the fish shipping service in yellow and the truck line in green. The building inside the green circle is a Stonehenge tourist attraction. Though no plans are set up at this time to start transporting passengers in the area, the road for the truck will pass the attraction.

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So, after several months of running, the result is a nicely profitable service.

DoR 1931-10 Fish Route Map and Profit Graphs.PNG

This one shows the map and the profit graph, with the yellow dots being the vehicles.
The bad profit of the first live fish service was the indirect result of overlooking a ship option on the fish shipping service, so the wrong type of ship was used initially. Fully loaded that ship was too slow, leading to overproduction at the fishing port.

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[lobster]

Those screenshots actually look rather spectacular. Quality nice.

[Dutchman on Rails]

Thanks Lobster,

The last set in this small series:

Following the fish service, the company's eye turned toward Wells, where a clothes shop and a textile mill existed.

DoR 1930-08 Wells Clothes shop and Textile Mill.png

This shows the two industries. Immediately apparent is that the clothes shop needs 99 units per month, and that the textile mill needs 2 units of wool for every unit of textiles produced. So we need to transport no less than 198 units of wool every month.

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Apart from the large volume of wool needed, the low cargo price for wool doesn't allow transport by road very well. So this time the option is to transport by train.

DoR 1931-10 Wells Rail Links.png

This screen shot shows the completed transport links. At the end of each branch, a small truck service brings wool from one farm to the second close by, where it is loaded onto the trains along with the production of that farm. Inside Wells the textiles are brought by truck as well. Also in Wells the usual passengers and mail services have been opened. The two rail lines have been built so that they may be expanded on towards the towns of Exeter and Newport.

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DoR 1931-10 Wells Junction.png

Finally, this shot shows the junction near Wells. No less than six trains cross the junction on a regular basis. The main reason the station is not expanded is that platforms have a maintenance cost several times higher than ordinary rail lines (and signals have no maintenance cost at all).

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Finally, a small closing note. The route this company took next was to start passengers and mail services in Exeter. This caused a luxury problem. With a coverage of 3, the town could only be covered by 37 (!) stops, which caused quite some organizational overhead.

[Dutchman on Rails]

Recently, some developments have taken place. First, Pak.German Experimental was released. Next, Simutrans 9.0 followed suit. These developments had the result that I now have two games running:

1) A new game with a hybrid and modified Pak128.Britain(Ex). The goal is to have many industry chains, but relatively low productivity of the shops and farms (most of the time variating from a few dozen to about 60.

2) As that game goes painstakingly slow at first, a Pak.German Exp. game simply to have some fun in between.

I will post screenshots on both games, so things may be a bit confusing. I'll try to keep it as clear as possible.

First, the Pak128.Britain game. This one started in 1750 in a region I named Carlisleshire after the 'town' closest to the center of the map.

The town map. Each town is only a town hall with some 250 inhabitants at this time, but this should give a general feel of the lay of the land.

DoR Carlisleshire 1750-01 City Map.png (684.1 KiB) Viewed 31555 times

The location of the industries, with the first freight lines numbered.

DoR Carlisleshire 1750-01 Industry Map.png (488.75 KiB) Viewed 31555 times

The company started with whatever freight lines were possible, to get a solid (if not large) income base. In succession, the lines built were:

1. A milk service from Wells Cattle Farm to Wells Diary, opened January 1750 (milk has one of the highest cargo prices).
2. A milk service from Southampton Cattle Farm to Southampton Diary, opened May 1750, using up the remaining starting money.
3. A stone service from Lancaster Quarry to Lancaster Builders' Yard, opened February 1758.
4. A grain service from one of the farms near St. Albans to the Brewery, and a corresponding Beer service from there to St. Albans Pub, opened July 1765.
5. A cider service from the norhternmost Orchard near St. Albans to St. Albans Pub, opened December 1766.

Worchester Pub is too far away from the brewery to connect (with the low volumes of transport it will cost too much to build a transport route fast enough to be profitable), so it was left alone for now.

All of the routes employ a small number of carts to transport the goods.

A typical example of such a cart route is Lancaster, where in 1771, 14 carts transport the stone from the quarry to the Builder's yard. This yard is the shop with the highest productivity.

DoR Lancaster 1771-10.png (535.46 KiB) Viewed 31555 times

Needless to say, with such small capacities and carts, little profit is made. In the late 1760's and early 1770's, profit hovers somewhere between 700 and 825.

Edit: Replaced the screenshots with smaller ones to allow view without download.

[Dutchman on Rails]

Next, let's take a look at the Pak.German Exp. game. Again, it was named after the 'town' closest to the middle of the map as Chieminger Kreis. This game starts in 1815.

The town map.

DoR Chieminger Kreis 1815-01 City Map.png (690.29 KiB) Viewed 31555 times

Due to the much higher productivity of industry, the scenario was created with much less of it, only a single gasthaus in Königswinter with a klosterbrauerei, a barley farm and a hop yard in nearby Stockstadt. The first transport routes are pretty straightforward.

The area of Stockstadt-Königswinter, with the first Hops/Barley/Draught Beer routes.

DoR Stockstadt-Königswinter Industry Map 1815-01.PNG (13.93 KiB) Viewed 31555 times

In addition, the industries, with the exception of the Barley farm, are connected with Stockstadt and Königswinter for servicing passengers and mail to encourage town growth.

By 1835, just before the arrival of the railways, it looks as follows.

The road leading to the brewery shows the busy cart traffic. The road can not take more capacity without causing jams.

DoR Stockstadt 1835-10.png (470.84 KiB) Viewed 31555 times

Edit: Replaced screenshots with smaller versions to allow viewing without downloading.

[Dutchman on Rails]

And finally for today, another set from the Chieminger Kreis.

November 1835 saw the arrival of the railways. Four Adler locomotives were purchased to increase capacity on the Barley line wile many of it's carts have found employment on the hops line and some of the horses on the beer service.

DoR Stockstadt 1838-10.png (424.84 KiB) Viewed 31555 times

In October 1838, the gasthaus industry chain was expanded with a winepress and two grapeyards. Again, the coloured lines show the services.

DoR Stockstadt-Königswinter Industry Map 1838-10.PNG (13.7 KiB) Viewed 31555 times

Finally, from 1844, the more powerful Bay. AI replaced the Adlers, leading to more goods transported with less trains.

DoR Stockstadt 1846-02.png (674.54 KiB) Viewed 31555 times

Edit: Replaced screenshots with smaller ones.

[Dutchman on Rails]

There are no new screenshots from Carlisleshire yet, the game there takes some time to develop into something that is worth showing. However, there are some more from Chieminger Kreis.

In 1846, a power station opened with two coal mines and a lumber yard. Needless to say, Chieminger Kreisbahn jumped at the opportunity to deliver more transport.

The plans for creating the new lines. As much as possible, trains share the same lines. To the northern end of the map, the rail lines around Stockstadt can be seen. In the future, the freight lines might also be useful to set up passenger services from Stockstadt/Königswinter to the south.

DoR Stockstadt-Walldorf Industry Map 1846-02.PNG (385.15 KiB) Viewed 31555 times

Money shortages meant though that construction had to be done in stages. This shot shows the first humble beginnings.

DoR Walldorf Coal Mine 1846-06.PNG (620.21 KiB) Viewed 31555 times

One and a half years later, the line has been upgraded to double track, and several more trains have been added. Three of them can be seen around the power station here.

DoR Walldorf Power Station 1847-11.PNG (835.77 KiB) Viewed 31555 times

[Dutchman on Rails]

With the first stage completed, focus shifted to connecting the Stockstadt coal mine to the same power station and forest.

Stockstadt Barley Farm with the new wood/coal line running past it. The track for empty barley trains is kept seperate to avoid waiting trains hindering the wood and coal traffic.

DoR Stockstadt Barley Farm 1848-01.PNG (824.42 KiB) Viewed 31554 times

The same area a year later. The wood/coal line has been upgraded to double track. To reduce congestion, the barley trains have been lengthened a bit.

DoR Stockstadt Barley Farm 1849-01.PNG (782.49 KiB) Viewed 31554 times

Finally, Walldorf Power Station in 1850. Little has changed with the exception of straightening the track to help trains enter the station at speed. But the presence of 5 trains in this picture shows the effect of the second coal line.

DoR Walldorf Power Station 1850-06.PNG (809.2 KiB) Viewed 31554 times

[Dutchman on Rails]

Some more screenshots, this time of a shipping service in 1781.

Burlingcaster is the largest town on the map.

Burlingcaster 1781.png (201.25 KiB) Viewed 30548 times

Nearby Honeyington has a small textile industry that services a clothes shop in Burlingcaster.

Honeyington 1781.png (147.92 KiB) Viewed 30548 times

Finally Crawham, the second largest town. Note the East Indiaman at the bottom of the picture.

Crawham 1781.png (377.77 KiB) Viewed 10954 times

[Dutchman on Rails]

After some games that didn't get anywhere, I'm now working again experimenting with the industry. The object is to create a 'sort of' realistic economy where lots of small-scale transport is necessary. In the game to which the screenshots refer, every industry has been placed manually to that end. Otherwise I have modified the pakset in several places, which may explain some things looking odd to veteran players.

First of all, a zoom-in view of the most developed part of the map. There are three markets with supporting fish, meat, fruit and vegetables chains, two diaries supplied with milk and one pub supplied with cider. Though this looks impressive, all of these shops require just 4 units per month. It does create a lot of criss-cross traffic though.

Industry map 1799-09.png (18.92 KiB) Viewed 29872 times

The largest town is Rilwick. It has the only industry of any size in the form of the slaughterhouse.

Rilwick 1799-09.png (642.86 KiB) Viewed 10954 times

Finally, Hadwell, a small fishing village. Between Hadwell and Rilwick the road services have recently been replaced with a shipping service. It is not uncommon for these ships to carry several different kinds of goods (for instance, fish, meat and milk) in one trip.

Hadwell 1799-09.png (436.35 KiB) Viewed 10954 times