Makeing money beginner's guide?

[ruyasan]

I'm a loong loooong time TTD player, but I can't quite get the hang of Locomotion. The computer seems to completely outclass me every time I play. On a very flat scenario with plenty of room and industries i'm ok, but in mountinous spaces, especially in the early 1900s it is exeedingly difficult to make money (like the Sweden 1905 scen - holly crap thats hard).

Before the 8-0-2 (I think thats what its called - the second engine) any sort of hills make trains slow and thus station ratings are pretty pathetic. Building double track systems at the very begining is VERY expensive. How can the computer expand at such an insane rate? Its almost insulting with how much impunity they lay down raised track, whereas I have to struggle to get even simple bridges/tunnels to be cost-effective.

I also have 5 specific questions:

1. I keep hearing about people making slews of cash through passanger service - how does that work? I've never been able to get decent volume out of cities.

2. What sort of route length do you use for early 1900s? Trains are quite slow, and even though you can combat low station ratings by setting up many trains for the same route, i'm not so sure about the lower pay-out because of huge transit times.

3. How do you build your track? I assume double track (2 way) like most people did in TTD is still the best, but I'm having a lot of trouble with it. Locomotion rails are a lot more curvey (and pretty!) but require a lot more space. This space just always seems to be at a premium. The stupid ramps make things even more difficult because there is hardly ever a significant amount of perfectly level terrain, so you always have to build bridges and turns which makes junctions a nigh-impossible task sometimes!

4. Related to #3, do you often use diagonal track for long routes? It just seems like the lack of junction options makes it a huge pain to work with (no raising/lowering, no S bends, etc.)

5. Can ANYONE use narrow-gauge track profitably? The only benefit I see to them is the fact that you can build steep slopes, but only on rack rail (EXTREMELY slow, your ratings to to s*** almost immediatly). If you're not going to use rack-rail, why not just use normal rail whcih has better engines available.

I want my huge multi-billion transport empire like I had in TTD, sniff....

[Stormscape]

ahhh but NG is cheaper to build.

[ruyasan]

sure - but speed is oh so much more important
it seems you can recuperate the loss from building normal track rather then NG rather quickly in most situations

I also rmemebered another question:
5. Do you use full-load? If I'm not mistaken, cargo waiting inside a train counts towards the total delivery time, so for goods such as food and passangers, it can severely decrease decrease route revenue. Thoughts?

[Davie_UCF]

Subscribing to this thread because id like to know the answers to some of those questions too

Davie

[Jango]

interesting thread, i agree. I'll answer some of the questions through my own limited experience.

1) Making money from passenger routes is not easy at the very beginning of a game. Once trams and small passenger trains have been employed to build up the population of a town, it becomes more feasible to try a good passenger route. At this point, embed the station into the town (as ye olde TTD), and increase station coverage with bus stops. It might be better to build the tracks where the station is going to be before expanding the town. It is also very easy to get a lot of customers by building underground stations in larger towns. At this point, whack on a few trains and keep the ratings good. Once the trains are fast enough, and the passengers are rolling in, you'll have loads of money.

2) Route length for early 1900 has to be short, and i don't even think it's particularly worth using trains here, because it's so frustrating... Try trams. Although they are rubbish at first, they'll soon bring a good steady income in.

3) Double track is the most cost-effective once you have enough trains. Yea, junctions are a pain. But you could try over-and-under junctions which utilise the extra features in Loco. I admit that the curves and slopes are annoying in terms of gameplay. I've started building underground much more (when you have cash), because you don't get penalised by building those slow brick ramps. I hate the underground editing mode though, because underneath a town, it can become impossible to edit the track because of the numbers of houses you have to delete just to be able to right-click on the track.

4) I used diagonal track once, but decided it wasn't worth it after that. Like you say, the lack of junction options is again annoying. Just a simple S-bend would have been nice.

5) Never tried

6) Full-load IMO is only useful if you have enough goods coming in. It's useful to avoid two trains coming to a station at the same time and one filling up, and leaving the other empty. It can make the network more efficient, but normally doesn't.

[Severn]

1. The cities develop AFTER you've given them a good bus/tram service and served local industries. Trains seem pretty much an overkill before the city is a decent size. When the city is large you have the problem of access. Either underground, or demolition. Demolition seems easier than TTD, you're less likely to get refused, especially if you are popular with the city for other services.

2. See above. I've concentrated on industry early in the 1900's with buses/trams in towns. I'm working my way through the scenarios, so haven't been much beyond 1938 yet!

3. I begin with 1 track. Unless you have a very heavy load, and a long sustained climb, I find that the trains don't slow down too much so 'ground hugging' works best to keep the building cost down. Every now and then I build a long level stretch so the trains can build up some speed. Usually running 1 train along the single track for 1 or 2 trips earns enough money and raises my performance index enough to allow me to build the 2nd track.

4. Yes, it's a much shorter journey time. If you have an 'up line' and a 'down line' you don't need many junctions anyway, just signals to make 'block sections'.

5. I've found that for long climbs, in the earlier years, narrow gauge trains go just as quickly as regular gauge, and they can climb steeper inclines. In the 'Race to read' scenario, there are some slopes where you have to lift regular gauge rails MILES before a slope begins to be able to crest the hill. This is enormously expensive and the trains don't seem to go any quicker). Although the trains look as though they carry less, the trucks are half the length so you can deliver the same amount by pulling double the trucks. They are also lower cost per section, and have tighter turns.

Here's a combination of regular and narrow gauge that worked well for me in the 'Race to Read' scenario. The regular gauge go into the mountains for wood, but so they can climb back up the hill empty, a narrow gauge line takes the paper back up the mountain (with rack rail on the 'up' line only) to the printing works.

[LegodragonXP]

One thing that nobody has mentioned yet here is to double head your locomotives (use two or more). This doubles your HP and if one loco breaksdown the other keeps the train moving(albeit slower)
-Lego

[herbicop]

I'm a complete beginner, but have had great success with passenger traffic. I jumped to the Aerophobia scenario after doing some of the easy ones ... it's SO difficult. To beat my computer rivals I'm just concentrating on passenger trains, because some of them make 100,000 a month profit. The attached pics show one that reached that after a couple of months. (The 2 pics show the complete track length.) The key "seems" to be getting the stations right into the heart of the metropolis. Because space is very limited they must almost always be single track.
But I've also hit problems with this technique. Some stations just won't accept anything; although I can't work out why.

[jules]

6. Do you use full-load? If I'm not mistaken, cargo waiting inside a train counts towards the total delivery time, so for goods such as food and passangers, it can severely decrease decrease route revenue. Thoughts?

Full-Load

I've fiddled around with full-load a bit and found a good time TO use it and a good time to AVOID like the plague.

+VE: Use full-load when building your stations BEFORE a medium sized length of track. (You should avoid doing this... i build track first, place signals, then place station blocks on the track, then buy trains)

If you click the station then click the third tab, you will find that the station rating will have dropped to about 13%, and clicking the industy tells you that only about 10% of goods is transported.

This is bad, 10% of a 300 units/month industry is 30! Build your train(s) and put them on full load. (read bellow if your confused how to.) Now leave these trains and do somehting else and come back in a few minutes. Check the station again, and with some luck, the rating will now be in the green (70%+), with most of the goods produced being transported. Result. Now find your train(s) servicing this station and remove the full load.

If the station ratings drop and lots of goods build up at the station, build another train if you've got a dual-track layout, or consider expanding.

-VE: Any other time when not above. trains will strart counting how long it took to deliver the goods fdrom when it starts loading (i.e. price for delivering drops while in full-load mode.) The trains should be able to visit this station, unload and return to avoid significant ratings losses, if products are building up on the platform the train will full-load anyway, and expansion should be considered, otherwise see above.

How to select full load
Can't be bothered to type this will find a link to someone else's description or else just ask and i'll reply how