Transport Tycoon Forums

hello

I have the new game done by Sid Meier's called Railroads
and it is a totaly new game with very good graphics and many new things now you can buy the industries, ad play online not like with Raildroads Tycoon series.

Yes, and there's a topic about it right next to this one.

Ah well, might aswell turn this into something meaningful.

I just got the game, and i must say i am impressed. All the locomotives have beatiful running sounds, the game looks good and runs impressively. Internet play is lagless atleast here. There are industry specific stations from what i've seen, and most of all the way trains load properly,a train goes car by car under a coal loader, and loading animations play as a car comes under the loader. Oh and cargo "annex" is cheaper than a station in a city, and all the Annex types have load animations for them & their associated wagons.

Also cities have limited industry slots, each has three from what i can see, but this is only for manufacturing industries, supply industries like grain farms apperear outside cities, wich you must connect to, you can't haul the cargo from the nearest city.

The game under no circumstances is a direct clone of RRT3. I'd say this game is worth buying, even if you hate the scale of trains & buildings, cause its not very disturbing during the very smoothly running gameplay of Railroads.

Gamespy has a professional review of the game.
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/sid ... eview.html
It got a rating of 8.1/10 !
And that rating is what i would agree with.

Oh, and there is no catenary in the game, so electrics with pantographs can run without. I think this is because the catenary would make the track harder to look at. The patent buying adds A LOT to the game, a company that can amass A LOT of beneficial patents is always assured to be in the lead. You can also bid for industries other players want to buy, everytime you or someone else starts buying a industry, a bidding process starts. Highest bidder wins ofcourse. This makes the gameplay A LOT more interesting than in RRT3.

I guess I am too used to the control and choices in OpenTTD/TTD.

I've played Railroads! and it feels very simplistic by comparison.

You can only lay down track by connecting it to existing track. The signals system and trying to make crossovers/junctions is a bit of a joke and pales compared to OpenTTD presignals and junctions system.

It basically boils down to just using one or two buttons (lay track/lay double track). You have no control over anything else, let alone putting signals down where you want.

Trains never crash. Actually quite often they seem to get jammed up and eventually just pass through each other (even on the same piece of track) to get unjammed.

Industry/town growth is very limited and of course there is no scope for anything other than railways (no other forms of transport)

Oh it also seems prone to crashing.


The graphics are very nice as are the sounds.

Overall it has more of a Theme Park type of game feel to it than a proper railways sim game like TTD/OpenTTD.


I wish someone could make something like OpenTTD but with graphics like in this game, that would totally rock!

Yes, very pretty graphics - beautifully modelled A1 and A4 - but WHY do the vast majority of steam locomotives have NO TENDERS?!

By no means a simulation, this is a game which is on the whole fun but essentially simplistic compared to TTDLX, OpenTTD, RRT or even Locomotion. The signal thing has annoyed me SO much as well as the frequent crashes to desktop.

The game seems unfinished and unrefined as well as lacking (or have I missed it?) a proper scenario editor.

humdingerx wrote: Trains never crash. Actually quite often they seem to get jammed up and eventually just pass through each other (even on the same piece of track) to get unjammed.!

Then you got a low pathfinding difficulty, switch it to hard, and trains no longer pass through each other to fix jams.

I hate the signalling system.

My trains always get stuck because signals appear where I don't want them.

I liked the scale and economic model most in RRT3.
I think the signalling and routing is best in TTD.
I like the industry-specific animated annexes in SMR most.


I spend most of my time in SMR overviewing existing tracks to un-jam trains that got stuck head-on. Even on tracks I wanted to be used unidirectional.

Anyway, those who like RT2 and RT3 mostly don't like SMR in its current state. See this forum for some userreviews from the RT2/RT3 comunity.

Please, use the edit button so you don't have to doublepost.

Getting the signals right is matter of how you build your rails, i can 80% of the time get the signals exactly where i want them. If you keep building piece by piece, the game really akwardly places signals. Also any failed building of a rail seems to also add a signal. I only had a jam in SMR once, and that was on hard pathfinding difficulty.

After that, i never had a jam, not even on hard. Don't overservice stations, or certain track blocks, and you will have no jams. If you don't know how to play, ofcourse your system jams when you overservice, or put to much traffic through at one point. Plan ahead where and how you build your track, and plan ahead how much trains your going to place.. You have to work with the limitations of the game your playing, you can't expect to place 100 trains on certain track block, and expect it to work when the game is not designed for that.

The first patch is already on the way, wich should fix quite a few of the CTD issues. Though you can minimise the CTD issues by making sure you have "recommended" specs(or even better), rather than lower than that.


[edit]IGN now has a review, and it gave the game the score of 8.0
http://pc.ign.com/articles/741/741678p1.html

Got the game in my snailmail today, and I have to say I had mediocre expectations. And after playing a few games, I have to say I had too high expectations. At least for the complexness. I will try it out some more, and play it like it should be played, I guess. But I have a certain feeling that this will be a shelf-warmer like 3dtt became.

The good:

Most detailed 3d locomotives so far.
Patents
Auctions
Seems to be designed for fast multiplayer games (have to try that out)
The old RRT scoreboard is back
The selction of RRT locos is back
There are Signals!
Nice graphics and animations. Especially for the loading and unloading.
Fairly easy trackbuilding.

The bad:

The Signals
When playing on the hard route mode, you have no option to reverse a train, nor stop it. Creates deadlocks where you have to sell the train.
Too fast playing time. One game lasts too short.
No upgrades to the station bar the size.
Map is too small
No loans
It's too similar to RRT2/3 but lacking the amount of scenarios. I guess FA tries to make it similar to all the RRT games. And fails. Only the custom game seems to have a decent goal (last company standing) in regards to the old RRT series.
It's got elements from RRT1 and claiming not to be.
No breakdowns, robberies or other accidents (at least for the middle difficulty).

The ok:

8 cars like RRT. At least not less.
Very light game all in all. Good for a short break from something heavier. (The size of game, speed and shallowness is balanced)

The conclusion:

Any ttdpatch/locomotion fans have to stay away from this one. At least if you didn't like RRT2/3. If you like to complete a strategy game in less than an hour, this game is for you. It's the arcadeversion of all the railroad games.

The suggestions:

An expansion pack called "complexity pack". Or a "Sid Meiers Railroad Tycoon II" game. (I know there is a RRT2, but not SMs RRT2 )
The same zoom out mode as in Civ IV. Where in the widest view, you get a 2d view like in the old RRT game.
Biased towards route planning not, track laying. If a single line track, you have to place locations where trains can meet, like in RRT1
Leave the track laying for Cris Sawyer.

The Question:

Doesn't it look awfully a lot like RRT2 and 3? Has Sid worked for PopTop

When will Sid and FA make a Sequel to RRT and RRTdx with the same amount of dept plus a few new aspects. Like Civ 3 and 4 was to Civ1 and 2.

Firaxis has released a livery pack for the game, sporting 4 new diffrent liveries.

http://www.firaxis.com/games/game_detai ... &showcon=2

Signals were part of the original RRT (which Sid created), and were discontinued in 2 and 3.

I wonder, is this game worth the price of purchase?

Chrill wrote:I wonder, is this game worth the price of purchase?

If it's as cheap as locomotion then buy it, I won't because I never bought or liked anything besides TTD/lomo
If you've read Ana's conclusion then it is nothing for diehard ttd fans
But if they only ask 15 euros for it then it would be worth it I guess

Try the demo, then decide if you want to buy it(get it at Fileplanet, http://www.fileplanet.com/168865/160000 ... oads!-Demo ). Don't purely draw your conclusions on other peoples conclusions about the game.

I'm a "diehard" TTD Fan, and i say the game is worth the price myself. I'd rather buy it right now, and ensure the game gets patched cause its a success, rather than wait for patches to fix up issues, then end up like Locomotion wich never got any further patches beyond 1.76 cause it was not a success!

Akalamanaia wrote:then end up like Locomotion wich never got any further patches beyond 1.76 cause it was not a success!

Locomotion has a very big modding scene

spaceman-spiff wrote:

Akalamanaia wrote:then end up like Locomotion wich never got any further patches beyond 1.76 cause it was not a success!

Locomotion has a very big modding scene

Gee, i didn't know that did i? Being a Locomotion modder myself, clearly i got no idea how big the community for modding is(Its not "very big", its small compared to other games, and this modding scene hardly generated money for Atari, and many of the modding scene people got a pirated copy!). However the game sold poorly, so it did not get any patches! I can't care how many trainpacks the game gets, but theres not going to be patches that are going to fix issues for Locomotion.

OK, I bought it today and will give it a try.

Got it. Played it. Didn't like it. Full lock-up. Uninstalled.

The maps are too small and too few. That's what it boils down to. The build method is fine, it's just too constricted by the size of the maps.

RRT3 was great. I played and enjoyed that a lot. I think SMR! has been trimmed back in the features department and pumped up on graphics. I just doesn't feel like a complete product.

I watched a video on YouTube about how Sid Meier went to Firaxis and said he wanted to do the game but they were too busy. Firaxis sent Sid of with a copy of 3D Studio Max and he did a basic working model. Firaxis then polished it up and put it on the shelves. That's how it seems, a nice-looking game that's only a crude game underneath. Reading between the lines, it seems Sid wanted to make the game but Firaxis weren't that bothered so, just to keep him happy, they put something together.

There are so many things that could have been done in the game to make it feel like a more encompassing product.

It's not all bad. I do like the little animations of things like cattle getting into the livestock wagons. I liked the icons telling you the locations of supply and demand with distances. I like how when you own a business, you get profit from it - even if it's a competitor making the journey (a feature which would be nice in Locomotion.)

All-in-all, I was somewhat disappointed with the game. I wouldn't recommend the purchase.

is there a non-subscription version of te download anywhere? i would like to try this too.