Behind the scenes #4 – Sales, distribution, piracy and marketing

[ErstO]

I haven’t started a lot of maps,  but I would say your problem is competition,  you have already given your peeps a cheap way of traveling between cities with bus lines 

Have seen this with cargo,  when I get a cargo line profitable with trucks and want to replace it with rail,  I have to cut back on the number of trucks or even remove the truck routes completely before the rail lines see profit.

I never run buses between cities,  I only use them to feed peeps to the train stations and between homes and work.

You can try cutting back the number of bus’s so the route will take longer then the train, or cut all the bus’s so the peeps have no option then to take the train.

[ErstO]

Thanks Traian,  I’ll give it a try,  since updated my bus an tram routes the cities are growing way faster then my industries.

[ErstO]

To grow the demand make sure the industries have acces to passenger transportation. The industries themelfes will grow that way.

wow,  thats a new thought,  are you saying that adding a bus route to an industry can help it grow?

[ErstO]

Thanks,  I didnt slow down the trucks,  but I did look at the bus and tram routes and discovered I was not keeping up with demand,  made lots of tram improvements and added a few bus routes,  ten game years latter and I am back to figuring out how to get more goods to the cities 🙁

[ErstO]

Thanks for the tip,  I did not notice that, living in So Cal I’m sort of burned out on desert tan.

[ErstO]

Not sure if this applies,  but the same thing was happening to me,  I traced the problem to what I call garbage collection, an old programing reference to old data stored in RAM

I normally do not shut down my computer but let it sleep between sessions.  When I noticed the game lagging or freezing up I re-boot Windows and all is fine again.

Of course if you shut down Windows after every session then I guess this is not the problem your having.

[ErstO]

I don’t really see this as a huge problem,  yes it has happened to me, and resulted in having a huge multi-train back up.

I can see how it happens,  even with the game paused train routes are recalculated as you edit tracks,  add a siding and a signal, and the route is instantly recalculated,  so it makes sense that if you delete a section of track, any train that is on approach will turn around and try to find a new route.

Knowing it works this way, it’s easy to make a note of any train thats on the track system your editing and to check their direction of travel before you un-pause the game.

As for the idea Norfolk_Chris has “holding trains at terminals until the correct interval has elapsed before dispatch”  That would be great to have,  or even better “Dispatch Rules”,  example, train A waits at station #1 until train B arrives at station #2

 
But I doubt we will see either, meanwhile I Try to space out my trains with blocks and signals,  that seems to work

[ErstO]

I think the programers need to add a tow truck to the game  😉

A really cool screen shot but I am sure frustrating,  had a similar problem with a train that refused to leave a depot,  but I was able to tell it to return to the depot and sell it off.

Have you tried to demo the truck stop?    I demoed roads and watched cars disapered .

[ErstO]

Well I have been able to complete my own test, albeit a small circular route, 3 cities.

I ran 2 years point to point A-B  B-C  and C-A  two trains each,  then I went back and started the same 2 years with 2 circulars A-B-C than back to A then the counter clock C-B-A then back to C,  each route has 3 trains

After two years cost and profits were more or less the same so I think any added profit may be with larger routes like Trailvan86 has.

The advantage is that block control is easer as each loop has it’s own platform at each station,  but as gcampono points out this is not something you can do early in the game as the cost is higher double tracking everywhere.  Although you can get by with sidings just as we do with point to point.

And the other thing is, it looks cooler then point to point 😉

Thanks to Nope17 for posting the link to Dampfnudels Mega City,  I watched the full 14 minutes and came away with two thoughts.

One,  I’m going to need a bigger computer

 
Two,  I’m a rookie and need to do a lot more planning.

[ErstO]

Thanks Chris,  that sort of makes sense,  no demand, no produce.   I’ll sell off the trucks and wait for the city to grow.

[ErstO]

Thanks,  but maybe I was not clear enough,  I have trucks going to the woods and then heading over to the saw mill,  but the woods are not producing wood.

I have trucks going to a oil field and then heading to a refinery, but the oil field is not producing.

I am getting oil from other oil fields and making money taking that to a refinery

I’m just wondering what gets an oil field to start producing oil,  it doesn’t seem that my trucks are doing the trick.

[ErstO]

wow,  yes it does sound like they have a lot to work on,  it’s still a good time burner and very enjoyable.

Thanks for the feed back.

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