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Home Forums Better simulation, better usability, better Train Fever

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Viewing 15 posts - 61 through 75 (of 77 total)
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  • gcampono
    Participant

    Ciao, a me Train Fever piace molto. Come simulazione è fatta veramente bene, le uniche cose che mi mancano sono 1) l’aspetto business (competizione) che c’era nei vari Railroad Tycoon o Transport Tycoon, 2) alcuni strumenti per capire meglio la redditività e l’utilizzo delle varie linee e 3) il tempo scorre troppo velocemente e quindi non si capiscono bene gli impatti delle scelte fatte sul conto economico. Ho provato a giocare a Transport Tycoon recentemente, ma con la grafica ultradatata ho abbandonato subito.

    in reply to: Cargo station placement? #18555
    gcampono
    Participant

    You should place cargo stations near industries and industrial districts. Before cargo uses the stations, you must develop a line that delivers products to their destinations under 20 minutes (including transport to cargo station, picking waiting time, transportation time to destination station, transport from destination station to industrial buildings)

    gcampono
    Participant

    @OIFEVT I really appreciate your post and this is one of the best ideas I read on the forum. Yet, I have no high hopes that developers actually implement this as it would probably require some important changes in their simulation code. I do however hope that developers at least implement the possibility to place industries in a smarter way and give us the possibility to have a map editor to have more map variety.

    in reply to: Pain of the overall cargo flawed system #18453
    gcampono
    Participant

    Because this system is most realistic: factories produce if they can sell their goods. There are only two problems (20 minutes rule and slow increase of supply) that should be addressed (in addition to strange behaviours reported by some people when factories or cities are supplied by more suppliers).

    in reply to: Industial Stimulus #18410
    gcampono
    Participant

    Is the 20 minutes rule applicable to each step of the chain or to the whole chain ? I mean 20 minutes to transport logs to sawmill + 20 minutes to transport goods from sawmill to city or 20 minutes for both ?

    in reply to: Mod request. Unlimited time #18398
    gcampono
    Participant

    Computationally it should not be too much of a problem (if done properly): computign paths over a larger distance might take a little longer, but should not be impossible. I don’t know how they simulate passengers, but once a destination is established (randomly?) and a path chosen (fastest?) the agent simply follows its path until destination. Calculating a path is therefore only a minimal part of the time. However, I do not think that for passengers it is a good idea… it replaces most of the incentive to have a well connected and efficient network: the  farthest (and quickest) I can bring customers within 20 minutes the more money I do. For cargo, this could be a good idea, though.

    in reply to: How to increase Industrial adjustment? #18324
    gcampono
    Participant

    The 20 minutes rule for passengers is (in addition to competition by private cars) one of the few incentives to expand to faster trains and a more efficient network comprising in-city transportation. It really rewards players to build a well thought train network with customers wanting to travel farther and thus generate more revenues (or at least this is my assumption, in reality I don’t know how the rule really works in selecting which locations passengers want to go).

    For freight it could be a very different story. I agree that relaxing this rule would be beneficial to gameplay, but there are two more important topics: clever industry placement (alas it is completely random) and slow industry production rampup and maximum levels (waiting for demand to produce, little demand and production increments and little demand and production overall limits) really limit the need for long freight trains… I would like production to increase at least 5 times it does now (and of course reducing prices)  … in that way trains would be more competitive to trucks and long heavy freight trains would become a necessity and feel different than passenger trains (adjusting the weight of freight cars could also be a possibility).

    gcampono
    Participant

    @Azrael: what you say is true, but you can replace old trains in service with a new locomotive of the same “old model”. Increase in speed and power is capable of offsetting higher running costs only in the early-mid part of the game. I am not sure if the added range of the 20 minutes limit with a higher speed is capable of offsetting added running costs. In my experience I tend to have more profitable lines, also for passengers, by choosing the locomotive with the lower running costs even if it has lower power and speed (except for the first part of the game), which is often an older model. Of course this could be balanced in other ways such as increasing running costs of older models with time due to inflation (but prices should also adjust), difficulties of finding spare parts etc.


    @isidoro
    : it is true that those bonuses are somewhat unrealistic, but in some countries we have price discriminations for high speed passenger trains, faster mail delivery etc. I don’t know for freight. However, this is a game and it should be fun: many other transport games have this kind of mechanism and the game was funnier (of course they also had competition with other companies or players…).

    gcampono
    Participant

    I like the idea of penalties/bonuses depending on speed delivery. I think revenues should increase over time (inflation) but speed penalties should increas as well in a way that for an average performance compared to average transport speed (which also increase over time) should approximately be the same. If one is able to provide better speed he should be rewarded…

    To be fair, in the game there already is a similar mechanism in that the higher the speed, the higher the goods/passengers can be delivered in the same time span which generates more revenues and thus profits. However, faster trains also cost a lot more in running fees… with supply not increasing as much (even considering that with added speed the 20 minutes limit means a larger radius) it often seems that is economically better to remain with older locomotives rather than invest in new ones… which does not economically makes sense.

    So I think there should be some added incentives to renew one’s train fleet: speed bonuses, more supply, added city/industry growth

    gcampono
    Participant

    Train Fever is not a bad product. There are performance problems and a few bad design/gameplay choices. However it is still one of the best train/transport games. Railroad Tycoons and Transport Tycoon (in part) might have better gameplay, but are now graphically outdated. Railroads was interesting, but it was even more bugged than TF and developers did not support it.

    I think that what I regret the most about Urban Games (which by the way are to be applauded for the product they made and their ongoing support with many patches [I know that they should have released a more finished product, but at least they are patching it]) are that

    1) many probably not so difficult modifications that would improve gameplay are not done (e.g. street over rail, X crossing, slower pace of time, articulated industry, editable maps, different “weight” of passenger and cargo wagons … there even is a post with hundreds of suggestions)

    2) developers do not seem to care responding to these posts (even knowing that they plan to work – or not – on some elements would be better than indifference).

    So please developers, show us that you care about our remarks and please try to benefit from them to improve the game.

    in reply to: Have a city with High Pop, and Low Usage. #16977
    gcampono
    Participant

    I believe it is related to the 20 minute line.

    I never fully understood it, but it seem that if you have 15 minutes waiting time with 4 trains, the time of a trip along your loop is 60 minutes. People are willing to travel only a few cities away… You might want to wait for faster trains or make your loops smaller.

    I am also not sure, but maybe when citizens plan a travel, they also check the way back. If it is the case, then people may be getting in time (<20 minutes) to destination, but since you go only one way, they will not be able to get back in time (<20min). The suggestion by douglas seem pertinent. Try that and tell us if it goes better.


    @douglas
    I am less convinced of your other comment. I often make longer connections between more cities and that seems to work well, and to me it seems even better than single lines only. Do you feel that single lines are better ? Do they make larger profits ? Do they increase usage ?

    Anyway, anyone knows if citizens also consider their back trip when deciding to travel or not via our networks ?

     

     

     

    in reply to: Eletric train crash #16396
    gcampono
    Participant

    It is (probably) a problem of line electrification. There is an option to electrify track. However you must manually electrify all track semgents and there may be one so small (like a few pixels!) that it is difficult to see. Often it is immediately after the station.

    in reply to: Bus line does not make money #16395
    gcampono
    Participant

    I also tend to go slightly in the red (hard difficulty) because I have a higher frequency. I still feel that it helps feeding my other train lines.

    However, I am not convinced about what is the best type of line. Is it better a circular line or it is better a hub and spoke line (I mean, station/residential>commerce>station/residential>leisure>station/residential>industry) or even multiple separate lines ? Did you experiment with different liines layouts ?

    gcampono
    Participant

    Well, I am very happy we would get a performance patch, collisions, multi-entrance stations and modding possibilities.

    However, I am quite sad that the developers mostly focus on gimmicks (according to me) like tram catenary and door openings and not on more important things like (in order of importance for me):

    – passing of time (years pass too rapidly, which results in less time to enjoy the different eras and a wild fluctuation of financial results)

    – better economic information about lines (e.g. occupancy, travel time etc.), industries, cities. It would be nice to have other overlays such as line profitability, vehicle profitabilty, city growth, percentage of city demands fulfilled, more info about people using or not using the transport and their destinations

    – road over rail

    – timetables (a way of evenly spacing of vehicles would suffice)

    – multiplayer (I must admit I enjoy the game as it is, but it rapidly wears out but multiplayer or AI competition would give a much more interesting twist).

    gcampono
    Participant

    @kimmaz

    I also like a hard game (that’s why I suggested raising busses/trucks and tram costs), but also wish it was fairer (better balancing the different transport types, although this may already be obtained by raising the other costs)

    I know it depends on lenght and number of passengers/cargo, but do you know if the function is linear/increasing/decreasing with distance ?


    @Pasi

    Thanks for the suggestion, I think I will check it out. I like some of its concepts (like making cargo wagons heavier) but I did not find information on how much costs are rebalanced. Does anybody have this information ?

    Has anybody experienced with some custom modifications on its own ?

Viewing 15 posts - 61 through 75 (of 77 total)