Looking so far, the game seems to be going in the right direction. I really love the railroads and other things we have seen till yet. I’ll have to say, kudos to the developers for such a marvelous work.

But one thing bothers me – we still have not seen one of the biggest and oldest methods of transporting people and goods from one place to another: SHIPS.

In many of the older games listed in the genre history from where the developers may have taken inspiration, there were ships. They formed important links between areas, especially with large rivers and seas. The huge water bodies which cannot be bridged require ships to load the goods on, and then send off to the other port which needs the good.

Coastlines need to be reworked a lot, though, looking at the screenshots. Maybe beaches, smoother terrain, etc. make a good game.

It also presents interesting possibilities and ease for the player. Say, there is a huge sea on one side of the map (maybe created by the player using a possible map editor?) and there are cities not far from the coast. So, the player might build a port on both sides, transport the goods to one port using railway or trucks, load them onto a ship and then send that ship off to the other port, where the goods will be unloaded and then picked up by the trucks which will carry them off to the city? Many more things can be done.

On that note, we come to PLANES. I haven’t seen a plane or airport in any description or screenshot yet. It is certainly important for moving passengers in the late-game if the maps are going to be as large as SimCity 4’s regions. In Transport Giant, helicopter also formed a method of transport in the late game (though not as important as aeroplanes). Is air transport going to be in the game?

i think: first of all are trains, because TRAIN Fever 🙂

Planes, helicopter, ships:

What about air?

And i think first trains, trucks, etc. and later planes etc. will be fine

What about air?

“In the first release and the first DLC we’re not going to add planes or helicopters. It could be possible to be added in a late DLC. Our main focus is to give the players an innovative and userfriendly train tycoon.”

(No quote BBtag :()

a large harbour that provides import and export of goods would also be fantastic for your freight trains to go to.

Airports should be international connections with the outside world; same goes with ports.

Though we should have access to the smaller, short distance boats (feryboats, water taxis and such) and maybe helicopters, but not to the very large passanger liners/aircraft. Those should be handled by the game, and just be there for eye candy.

Eh…. wishthinking…… We’ll se what the devs have in mind.

They could add it as DLC, if you don’t like it you won’t have to. Or optional to put planes off before you start a map. Best for of both worlds 😛

Ships should fit perfectly but most rivers should be broader then they now are (from which I saw in the videos, the rivers looked to small for watertransportation).

Helicopters are more easy I think, because there are no map adjustments needed. Just place a Helipad and you good to go.

I hope to see as much variant tranportation methods as possible, it will make the game last much longer and keeps the game intressting for more people.

Maybe a strange idea: Add Taxi’s !!! How fun would that be?, and realistic too: here in the Netherlands it’s very common, Trainstations are very crowded with Taxi’s waiting for passengers !!!

a large harbour that provides import and export of goods would also be fantastic for your freight trains to go to.[/quote]

This is a very great idea – have an “international” air/seaport for goods/passengers brought up “off map” and then use trains/buses/trucks to transport through the map, i.e. DMUs from city to airport.

But why stop there, Mansen’s post has some other nice ideas to expand that thought. For example, you have a small town up in the hills. Building a railway would be a bit tiresome because of the elevation and all, too many tunnels, tracks too steep, etc. Why not have a short airfield there, which could take a Cessna Caravan or even Dash 8. Shuttle passengers/goods from big international airport to a distant hill town. And of course don’t forget about the river transport.

What about Taxi’s ? It’s never done before in games like this, it’s original and adds realism if you ask me. Taxi’s and trains go very well together. Take a look at your local trainstation, atleast here in Holland there are always taxi’s waiting to pick up customers from the trainstations… 😀