FIRS Help

[TrainLover]

I've recently gotten into FIRS, and I'm wondering how anyone makes money in this NewGRF besides starting with passengers. I usually start around 1900, and I've tried to do different industry chains, and the only one that is profitable is passengers, every other industry, like coal or iron ore, just doesn't make as much money as passengers. I'm wondering if this is what it is, as historically freight outweighed passengers by a lot.

[Leanden]

I would guess you arent completing the freight loop and supplying machinery to the various industries to boost production.

[Supercheese]

I would guess you arent completing the freight loop and supplying machinery to the various industries to boost production.

Maybe he's not... Gung Ho enough?

[Pyoro]

Frankly, this depends more on other GRFs and settings used than just FIRS - but OpenTTD dynamic usually has a clear passenger advantage: they make profit both ways. Cargo doesn't. So it's not unusual to make the most profit with passengers.

[TrainLover]

I would guess you arent completing the freight loop and supplying machinery to the various industries to boost production.

I try the metal route, and the trains that are delivering metal to machine shops and the engineering supplies that go back to the coal are making a lot less than my network that is road vehicles and trains connecting cities. Anyway, is freight supposed to be the early game moneymaker, because the resources used to invest in track make those types of networks are just not early game!

[andythenorth]

In FIRS passengers payment rate is in the middle of the range

So there are higher paying cargos than passengers.

But the boost from 2-way traffic is important (as Pyoro says).

Coal and other raw materials tend to be the lowest paying. But connecting the chain completely will produce cargos like goods, which tends to be high paying.

I often start with fish, it's not the most valuale, but it needs very little infrastructure, just a dock and a couple of boats

You maybe know this already, but the cargo payment graph in game can help understand the cargo rates.

[Wahazar]

By the way, for better balance of cargo vs passengers, station ratings should be improved for cargo (larger tolerance on cargo waiting and last visit).
I already done something similar for ECS (ECSext) and it works fine.
Currently FIRS cargo ratings act evenly at all cargoes, maybe it would be worth to consider such option like above?

[srschacher]

I've been playing FIRS a lot, and recently with the Goal-Based City Growth script. I have inflation turned off, but I do have maintenance costs turned on.

Since my major goal is to grow a designated town, I'm forced to build networks that connect nearby industries. What I've found in my games (and it might just be me), is that the running cost of a train is far greater than the delivery payment for cargoes.

I was delivering milk from a farm to a dairy. Milk is near the top of the rate graph, but I still couldn't overcome the cost of the train. In another game, I was delivering coal to a power plant. Coal pays very low, but it doesn't degrade with distance.

I've come away from this exercise with several take-aways:

1. You have to look at the whole value chain. Some components (such as milk to the dairy) may net a loss, but then food to the town makes up the difference, netting a gain.

2. I've been recently looking into refitting a train between locations, so I can try to make money both ways. Thee trick is to find consists that can be refitted to both products, such as using flat cars instead of tankers for milk.

3. The cost of building a rail network early in a game eats up most of my budget, so I don't have a lot left over for town deliveries, which are necessary in the Goal-based script to "turn on" town growth.

In short, I think I have to start with a road infrastructure to establish the value chains, and then perhaps add rail later to increase my delivery volumes when I can absorb intermediate leg losses.

We'll see...

Steve