My thoughts on Trainfever

[SkyRat]

I’ve been having a blast figuring out the best way to develop my little train world including the interrelations between cities, how to best take advantage of the available industries and create the best possible public transport system.  The graphics are a great!  Love zooming in and watch the cars/trains/people move about.  I have learned a lot from other Trainfever forum members, thanks very much.  Overall, I’ve had a great experience!

Would be really cool to work on map many times larger than your largest size, if possible.

Thanks for making

 

[mg]

I suspect they would need to improve the performance a bit before they provided a much larger map.  Otherwise it would just create difficulties and bad feedback, and that’s just not good for a game.

Once you start to have quite a number of vehicles, even my Core i7 with 32GB stutters..  However, I too would love to play bigger maps, so devs – could you have a look at the performance a bit? 🙂

Glad you’re loving the game SkyRat.  Me too!

[Kaizan]

Yeah, I have a pretty modern computer and I had to stop playing my large map, cause once you have every town with a few tram lines and lines between each town…it just lags =\

I would also like “Goods” to be broken up into different materials for the game, and having towns require more then just that generic good to grow. On a side note for towns growing, I’ve found they seem to only grow rapidly per each new town connected which is really disappointing 🙁 was expecting more of a diverse growth.

[Goelsdorf]

Keeping in mind this game is created by four guys, it is great.

However, there are some bugs and missing features.

But most missing is a comprehensive manual. Without a comprehensive manual peps get very quick frustrated. I just cannot understand the missing manual, its a big mistake for marketing.

[Norfolk_Chris]

I totally agree any game should have a comprehensive manual; it doesn’t even have a poor one like CIM2.

Another serious omission is the lack of railway crossings, these are universally found on all railways.  You need a crossing for a compact junction between two double track lines; it would also simplify the pathing as it has less choices

It would also help if road/rail construction had less ‘terrain collisions’!

• This reply was modified 9 years, 7 months ago by Norfolk_Chris.
• This reply was modified 9 years, 7 months ago by Norfolk_Chris.

[Javis]

Now hold on a minute there, gents…

You talk about wanting larger maps so am i to understand that you tackled the sofar largest map with all ( or most..) cities connected with eachother, all ( or most..) of their demands fullfilled and all (or most..) industries producing more or less 100 % with, say, 750 million in the bank and counting ??….

I have been playing this wonderful transport game for 145 hours now but every time i try to expand my ( medium map, medium difficulty, medium terrain) good working 4 or 5 cities connection, most industries hard at work, each of the 4 or 5 cities running various profitable bus and tram lines, and say 25 million in the bank and counting, it all goes terribly wrong….  It seems to happen everytime i try to connect that other city in the far distance and/or upgrade single track to double track which then requires to demolish single track stations and replace with double track stations, which in turn often requires to demolish some expensive buildings, and add more trains. Schedule then needs to be adjusted which then leaves all platforms, which used to be filled up with passengers, just about empty….

In the end of such disastrous actions my bank account usually has diminished from 25 or 30 million and counting to a measily 8 million and counting down… Train figures in the red, bus and tram figures in the red, and before i know it my bank account also in the red… Another booming business down the drain…

So how on virtual earth do you guys manage to run a large map without getting bankrupt ??….

Can you, real transport tycoons, possibly shine some light on what to do and what not ?….

Do you start in the 1950’s f.i. ?  Choose high speed electrified double track from the start, use branch lines rather than city to city, upgrade streets from the start, etc and so on ?…..  In other words, what’s the secret behind setting up a large, profitable map and still keep the money flowing ( in the right direction) ?

Any enlightenment highly appreciated !  😉

[SkyRat]

Appreciate all the comments.

I have to agree that game documentation is thin, and if it weren’t for all the generous contributions made by many people in this forum and at Steam under Train Fever’s “Community Guides” I’d still be lost…

Now that I have been playing this cool game for awhile (63 hours), I have learned that even though
I’m running a very fast computer:
intel core i7 4930@ 3.40 (not overclocked)
16GB ddr3 @ 666mhz
asusteck x79-deluxe lgs2011
SAPPHIRE 100360SR Radeon R9 295×2 8GB GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card
windows 8.1
Samsung 840 EVO 1TB sata iii SSD

the game’s fps (unless I’m up real close to the ground) really starts to slow down after I have developed even 3 towns. I mentioned I’d like huge worlds before I knew how bogged down the game gets even on a medium world that is full of activity…

I highest game in terms of earning so far for me has been 502Million; I saved that game and have been experimenting with other game development methods.

This is what I do, now. Seems to work well, and of course, I don’t know if this is the best way to develop the world, but I have liked this so far..

I always start the game in “pause” position.

1. I start games in 1850
2. First thing I do is connect two cites with a bus service and I place the stations (and a depot per station) in the downtown area somewhere and buy one bus that starts at each station.
3. I create about 3 or maybe 4 bus lines in the first city, but not the second one, I buy one bus for each line.
4. I find out how many goods my first town needs and then hook up some industry using horse and wagon and I buy one horse and wagon to start from each location on the industry line.
5. I then turn on the game to double speed, then add buses and wagons until I get the right number, which is usually around 60 to 100 seconds.

Then as I build up some money, pay off the loan, and then I’ll add a few bus lines to city number two.

I then add the third city to the inter-city bus line.

I then add industry to the 2nd city to get up to the right number of cargo for it.

I then add some city bus lines to the third city.

I then add industry to the 3rd city to get its cargo up to the right number.

While this is going on, I check the bus lines in all the other cities. If I see I need to add more buses, I will. If I see a bus line that is running inside a city is not making money year-over-year, I send the buses back to the depot and delete the line, and sometimes try to redesign a new line.

And then after twenty or so years and things are developing well, and I have the cash, I’ll start to add trains to compete with the city to city bus lines. and if I think it will work, I’ll add train lines to the industry that is providing cargo to whichever city.

Eventually all 6 or 7 cities on a medium map are linked in as best a bus line circle as I can do and that way I have one bus line “circling the world” servicing all the cities; each city will by then have its own industry source and I have 4 or so bus lines in each city. The highest year I’ve been so far is in the mid-1960s. I found that things, even on my computer, got really slow on in the game where I was up to 502M.

As part of an upgrade, I’d love to see those giant bus stop signs disappear, or at least toggle on and off; the same with all other big signs.. I don’t like looking at a city choked full of those things.

I hope the above is helpful. Anyone have other ideas on developing their worlds, please let me know.

Thanks!

Henri.

 

 

[Javis]

Thanks a lot for your elaborate explanation, Henri !  🙂

Your development method isn’t that different from mine only i use trains instead of buses to connect cities. I did find that setting up bus and tram lines first in the cities i initially want to connect, wait and see what they do and only then connect the cities via railway. I was curious to find out about your bus city connection so i tried that with immidiate success. People couldn’t wait to hop these (6) buses ! 😉  Mind you, this bus line went to a city which wasn’t connected by railway just yet. I will certainly use this method in my next endeavour.

Thanks much again for this tip and explanation. It certainly is helpful !!

Cheers,

Jan

[Yeol]

My thoughts on Train Fever?

I like it tremendously. Through, it’s not finished, but this first release shows an enormous potential. The developers have put their hart into it: it has atmosphere, it is beautiful, it has personality and the concept is great. I see a developers team that wants to make this game really fantastic, and to continue to invest in it by including more and more features. And the modders are already creating extra stuff to fill the gaps.

This game can go far, and it is also by our (the player’s) feedback and constructive critisism, that this game can grow into a modern and worthy successor of the illustrious railroad games of the past.

Just my thoughts… 😉

[Javis]

Henri, i do meet with a few probs when using an intercity bus line which do not occur when using a railway.F.i., it’s the 1930’s era and at the moment freight trucks are much faster than buses. As the TF car drivers have yet to learn that it’s Ok to overtake a slower vehicle it can happen that 3 or more trucks can be seen stuck behind a bus on a pretty long winding country road. That makes me nervous…  😉  ( once faster buses become available that problem will be gone of course )

Another problem is this :

I really feel for those guys…   😉

I have 6 buses running on that intercity bus line now. (frequency is 4 minutes). After a bus has unloaded its last passengers at the bus station of city A and goes on its return trip to city B, after the first and second stop the bus is already totally filled up with passengers… It seems obvious that i need to atleast double the amount of buses but then i see terrible trouble when the times comes to replace all these buses and keep a good seperation between them going. And certainly when 6 or 7 cities are connected this way….

How do you go about keeping queue’s at the stops reasonably and not look like that there’s a rock concert going on at the other side of the road ?….     ( train station platforms can get pretty much filled up as well but once the train has arrived the queue is gone in a second)

 

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