Something you ought to know about Transport Giant Gold ...

[one billion daleks]

I just purchased Transport Giant Gold, the release that includes the expansion pack TG:Downunder. Everything was fine until I applied the two patches 1.2 and 1.3, whereupon the TG:Downunder expansion pack completely vanished from the TG menus!

So bear in mind if you want to play TG:Downunder, don't install the patches!

Apart from that, I have mixed feelings about Transport Giant. Accomplishing simple tasks is not intuitive at all, and involves navigating a labyrinth of buttons. I figured the only way I would have any chance of getting to grips with the game is by creating detailed step-by-step instructions for myself, that I could refer to during gameplay - because there seems little chance I'd ever remember how to do anything in the game otherwise!

I find it a pity that a game with such excellent graphics can be rendered pretty much unplayable because no thought has been put into making the interface intuitive / user-friendly. It's a real shame.

The other thing that I find very disappointing is the zoom function - you can zoom in real close, but you can't pull back very far to get a birds-eye view of the action. As a result, trains come into view on one side of the screen, and the engine has already disappeared off the other side of the screen before the rest of the train has come into view! It's like having your nose pressed up close to the monitor all the time - it makes it impossible to step back and get a sense of what's going on in any wider context, something I consider essential in a sim.

Oh well, looks like it's back to good ol' Transport Tycoon for me!
And Railroad Tycoon III of course, for those incredible graphics - and a decent user-interface!

Cheers,
Larry

[Ben1337]

Yeah I know but I don't think the zooming is really very good.

How can you work the signals?

[one billion daleks]

Well, I didn't look at signalling too closely, I didn't need to really with only a couple of trains!

But another thing with this release is there's no manual included with the software, I had to go hunting around on the Internet to locate one, which was apparently written after the game was released - after the developers realised people were having problems with the interface.

But the manual's not much use anyway, you really have to play in Sandbox mode and try things out, then write your own documentation based on trial and error!

But to be fair, the game may be quite good once you've figured out how to do things, but it's a very steep learning curve, and you need to be willing to invest a lot of time just getting the hang of things.

It looks like this game was released before it was really ready, perhaps the developers ran out of cash, or lost key members of the development team, or something.

One day I might have another go at it when I feel like spending the time necessary to figure it all out!

[athanasios]

Signals in TG? That is a nice joke!

[lobster]

i have to agree, the building system is utterly useless. the graphics are alright, but simply laying a track requires finishing the entire track before 'applying' it. and somehow, with longer tracks it usually didn't. truly, utterly impossible.

perhaps if someone creates a Transport Giant Patch... wait, no.

[djmerlin]

wilburt99 told this:


Press and hold down the ENTER-key while placing the station and you can start as many new routes you want.
Can sometimes be a little tricky but it works.

[tline]

well signals that they have you need to undrestand
i found the website for the signals
http://www.transportgiant.com/images/pa ... nglish.PDF

[Hyronymus]

well signals that they have you need to undrestand
i found the website for the signals
http://www.transportgiant.com/images/pa ... nglish.PDF

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