In this thread, please jot down your feature wish list or idea for enhancement of the Railroads game for next patch.

Here goes my first wish.

First of all, give us overview map. The SMR does not allow us to zoom out far to view overall map.
This is understandable to reduce graphics requirement needed for far zoom out.

But instead, give us vertical overview map much like 2D paper map. The mini-map is far from enough.
The overview map should have city and its info, major terrain fearure, resources location and amount,
the rail networks (traffic/congestion indication woukd be handy) and other info needed for planning.
Only major supply and demend should be displayed ( like gold or coal, but not passanger, mail or food)

And let us to print the overview map on hard-copy printer. The printed map on paper is extremely helpful tool for planning the rail route and stragegy.

.

More Diesel, 20th Century Steam Engines (Union Pacific Big Boy and New York Central Hudson), and Electric Locomotives for North America.

More maps, larger maps, and the ability to zoom out farther than is currently possible.

Re-generate game map. (single play game only)
Before we start the actual game, it would be nice if we can re-generate new game map from the in-game menu.
The Civ4 game didn't have this feature, but after 1.62 patch, we can reganerate the game map.
Instead of repeatedly doing new game <-> quit game cycle to get better game map, the Civ4 way is much better.

Please let us to have trial track build mode.
In this mode, we can try to build rail to check or measure its cost or viability *without* or *before* our actual track rail reach to the trial track and we have money to build it.
Currently, to be able to measure cost or course of rail to build, our rial network should reach to the point.
But it would be nice if we can make a mesurement or trial before our rail network reach there.

Remove OK confirmation Button in "Go to City Selection" list selection dialogue.
Once you select The City to go from list, Clicking OK button is unnecessary and redundant.

Show Annual profit (= revenue - expanse) of each players besides to Net worth number.
The displayed profit may be profit of previous year. A year passes so fast, so we don't need moving average.

Don't pre-build rail and station in initial start-up city.
In some case, the given position and direction of the initial rail segment is very inappropiate. More over, I can not remove the wrong rail to correct position/direction of it.

It would be better if only start up city is given without initial rail segment. Player will build first segment around the city. Or at least, Player can rotate and move around the initial rail segment around the city.

Map rotation conttrol direction is counter-intuitive.
When I move mouse left pressing wheel button or pressing control-left arrow key, the map rotates counterclock-wise. This feels weired to me.
I feel that the map should rotate clockwise when mouse is moved left or left key is presssed. This depends on peoples feeling.

So, we should have option to switch rotation direction.

Factory icon display needs some enhancement.
"->" notation that denotes processing factory of the city looks ugly.
(For example, Automative factory is denote by steel icon + "->" + car icon)
"->" should use graphic arrow head (symbol character), not text 'dash' + 'left angle bracket'.

Map rotation conttrol direction is counter-intuitive.
When I move mouse left pressing wheel button or pressing control-left arrow key, the map rotates counterclock-wise. This feels weired to me.
I feel that the map should rotate clockwise when mouse is moved left or left key is presssed. This depends on peoples feeling.

So, we should have option to switch rotation direction.

I'm irritated by the fact you have to hold down the mouse wheel to do it. I'm *so* used to using the right mouse button - who decided that the middle button would be a good choice? Yuck!

I'm getting used to it, but it's incredibly counter-intuitive.

A re-mapping option would rock!

I agree with the calls for larger maps and zoom-out options.

Or if making larger maps isn't feasible with the current game engine (?), play with the scale to make it feel like there's real distances being travelled, rather than a hop skip and a jump across the street!


I understand why they set-up the "fixed" start locations -> to add more challenge to an otherwise relatively easy game, but I also agree with the desire to

zx, here's a hint for "trial building", aside from save/reloading the game (save, sell all your stock, figure out how much it cost you), just drag a "straight line" of rail to your destination and don't let go (hit escape instead, when you're done) - before hitting escape, it should tell you the cost of the selected distance of track.

I agree that the "go to city" ok button is quite redundant... and it's a shame it no longer says "Where the heck is...?" like in the old games. :)

I wish there was a way to see what goals/medals you had already accomplished on a scenario in a previous try.

support for older graphics cards

Okay, sorry to break it to you, but older graphics support isn't going to happen.

People have asked developers to make sure their game can run on their old system - and they won't.

I remember people waiting for Falcon 4.0 back in the day hoping that it would run in DOS and be able to run off a 486.

If you know anything about that insanely demanding flight sim, you'll immediately know why that's hilarious. ;)

---

I really liked the RRT2/3 model where if you got 'bought out' you could start a new replacement company. This would be an excellent feature to compensate for the super-short game and the 10-share stock market system.

For multiplayer speed, you could disable this "respawn" option.

What keeps the strategy element alive is the fact that you use the RRT2/3 model: you start your new company with the money you earn from being bought-out.

That way if someone buys you out even though you own 100% of your shares, you're still incredibly dangerous.

But if you only owned 10% of your company, you're pretty much dead (depending on the size of your company, of course).

I doubt they'll ever do this - this is clearly in the "wish" rather than "practical wish" column, but that would've been a great new feature to add (as it stands, SMR is 'truer' to RRT by excluding this option).

so its a better idea not to buy a new game.

so its a better idea not to buy a new game.

Not unless you have a new-ish computer.

But honestly, there's a TON of great games from 2000-2003 to try out which I presume your system can handle quite well - I got Rise of Nations for free along with Rise of Legends at the store last week - now to just get a chance to play all these titles! :)

ok, just wanted to be sure
the game manufactures are more interested in my buying a new machine
than they are in me enjoying a new game

btw is this new game any better than the previous version that will run on my machine?

I mean besides the eye-candy.

The idea of a single train taking goods from the source to the destination doesn't work for me. I loved the original where you could drop goods off and pick them up later with a dif train. Maybe it is too much micro management for most people but I like scheduling. Also the "wait" option was great, it was satisfying to get a resource from one corner of the map to the other employing several trains in the process.

I surely miss the one-way signal from transport tycoon. It is a must to develop fine looking and efficient railroads.

Sounding more and more like the previous (and far less graphics dependent) versions had far greater play value.

It seems the big thing is event driven or goal oriented games rather than situational. The reason I always liked Civ so much is that it is situational. Railroads could be so much more than "oh geez my bridge washed out or I need to make a million dollars". The complexity of manipulating several trains on the same track or getting a resource to a far market thru a series of drops and pickups seems infinitely more appealing to me.

A couple things I’d like to see:


I’d like to see a random map design interface that you choose the % water, hills, rivers…..


Also, you can choose where you start. So, everyone will choose their starting position blind to others and once all has chosen, the starting positions will be revealed. This could be interesting, because the best places might not be that good, since everyone would want to start there.


More AL players.

Better & more interesting rewords from city quests.

Start 10, 15, 20 years after a established computer rail system
.

I've also had a few ideas, even though some them are more kind of sequel/extension ideas rather than quick balancing fixes...
At the moment I think the gameplay of the game doesn't make the most of the possibilities. For example:

So far it doesn't really matter what trains you use, as long as they run smoothly and it's the latest one. Having a system where maintenance cost vs income is a lot more difficult to balance would make choosing the right train for the right route a strategic decision...
On a similar note I got a bit confused by the preferred cargo info...there's no information on what that means in gameplay terms, or whether it does have an effect...if it does, the effect doesn't seem to be pronounced enough. The journeys that the trains make are simply too short for the speed difference of goods vs passengers/mail to have a significant impact.

Similarly, while the prices of individual goods do vary with time via the real time economy, it's not pronounced enough. Pretty much after 30 minutes play you would have connected quite an array of resources that soften the blow
during a drop in Steel prices for example.
As an extension, the industries that the player owns could become a bit more involved in gameplay:
If you own a newspaper, and you carry a lot of paper into that town, it could spread advertisement of your company...this could have an effect on the population (passengers), i.e. placing ads in the newspaper will make passengers board your company's trains, not the competition's. Similar things could happen with all the other industries...

Two companies could form an "alliance" based on "I'll do the passengers, you do the automobiles" for a certain amount of time, this could be a beneficial strategy, and would encourage a bit more specialisation on a single industry, rather than the "a bit of everything" approach that's going on at the moment...at the same time this would make changes in market price that much more significant.

I agree that the point mentioned in a previous post about the city quests...maybe you could start an industry by supplying a city with a resource first?
Fastest train? Does that do anything? This should also be rewarded...

Achieving the objectives in the scenarios should also be rewarded differently...some of them are quite difficult to pull off, if you aim to buy everyone out at the end (assuming you're playing Tycoon/hard)...
For example, connecting two cities first (Liverpool/Manchester for example) should grant you exclusive rights to all passenger/mail traffic on that route...this could have a 10 year limit.

That's it for now...I do enjoy playing this game, despite all the flaws...hoping for a quick patch release to make it all better...;)

Please let us to have trial track build mode.
In this mode, we can try to build rail to check or measure its cost or viability *without* or *before* our actual track rail reach to the trial track and we have money to build it...
I like the idea, but then it has a cost! It is a Feasability Study, and it should be an option, with different qualities of Studies, the most expansive reducing the risk of error in the Study, as costs simulated by the Studies can not be 100% sure!!! The game is about"business" is not it? So then we should have business tools...

Otherwise, my ideas would be to have another RAILROAD game, excatly at the opposite of this one. In the game, we consider building the tracks and bridges as granted. In "my" game, this would be the main part!
- first having huge maps, Civ4 style.
- then having to design and think about a path
- have to get the authorisations, land, etc, for crossing various places
- find the differnt types of labor, support them (food, health, tools, bring salaries to them without being lost/stolen) with increased difficulties when you are further and further from your base(s)
- gather the building equipments (with upgrades possible), and have to maintain, warehouse, etc...
- gathering resources (wood, stones), buy or build your one rails, ...
- have lots of random events (or not so random...), such as earthquackes, strikes, robberies, attack by local unrest tribes, geological problems (rocky parts, underground water, etc...), weather, desease, key staff hired by your concurrents, political turmoils, etc,....
- having the choice between various type of bridges, track support, etc...

Building is the hardest part, as the success of the game will stand on a track that is well built, and will allow better evolution in the future.
Example, you take ages for building your track while the AI will do it quick and dirty. The AI will gather quickly more business/money, but, at the first problem (ex: heavy rain making underground unstable, and part of the tracks are gone or limit the weight/speed of transports), it will slow down, and perhaps your better quality track will gain a boost...
Later on, the path choice can be essential also for better growing (double tracks, larger bridges... if teh original location allows it!...)
Also, as the game grows, so is doing the civilizations around! Your tracks once on open land are now surrounded more and more by buildings or roads, and your expansion becomes much more difficut in some areas, up to a point where you have to consider making a distinct track for allowing higher speeds and avoiding bottlenecks!...

The logistical part, which is 95% of the current game, would just be part of the game, for generating money for barely sustaining the evolution of the network. No more million dollars falling within minutes into your pocket like in the current game.

Fastest train? Does that do anything? This should also be rewarded...


Yes, you get a revenue bonus from "named trains" that set speed records.

Given how much money you make in the game (assuming your trains don't get stuck) it may not be noticeable, but it's there.

btw is this new game any better than the previous version that will run on my machine?

I mean besides the eye-candy.

Yes, in the sense that I'm tired of the old games since I've "beat" them - this game offers a different sort of challenge and a set of (relatively) completely new gameplay mechanics -> I really want to sit down and keep playing it.

And I know I will; I'm just waiting for the patch to come out.

This being a Firaxis game, the smart thing to do is,
1. wait until the patches come out (or, if you're really patient or you're not going to upgrade your computer anytime soon)
2. buy the inevitable "gold" edition of this game which will no doubt include one or two expansion packs, will clean up the bugs, and by that point in time you'll hopefully have a new computer that can handle the eye candy (which is, really, remarkably awesome eye candy - one of the most "delicious" varieties I've seen in a while).

So yeah, the waiting game is totally a smart move - but you will want to play this once it's actually a "finished" product. :)

So yeah, the waiting game is totally a smart move - but you will want to play this once it's actually a "finished" product. :)
Interesting idea, but

they never actually finished Sid Meier's Pirates!
they simply abandoned it.

So your plan may have a serious flaw.

Interesting idea, but

they never actually finished Sid Meier's Pirates!
they simply abandoned it.

So your plan may have a serious flaw.

Okay, I'll bite - list your issues with Pirates for me, aside from the fact that you had to catch the bad guy 16 times to save your family. ;)

In particular, I want to hear about CTDs - you can get used to weird gameplay quirks, but CTDs just ruin my day.
Pirates crashed on me maybe once in a freakish incident - that's one of the most solidly programmed games I've played in a loooong time.

ok start by reading the patch notes

now find 3 items that were actually fixed in the patch

even though they are listed as patched.

then go read all of http://www.hookedonpirates.com/


add to that

non-modability
modability designed out while under development
still displays random graphics on auxillery sails at random times
refusal to listen to complaints

Patch that introduced more bugs
and the company has refused to deal with these bugs
.
.
.
shall I continue?

Possible to plunder Negative Gold
Driver looking for wrong disk in drive (still)
Sound and video driver CTD
Problems with Intel chip sets
lost in hyperspace over DirectX9c
Multiple occurrences of the same rescue
More DirectX issues
Frozen Mice
Cross language translations
Obscenely incorrect translations
Random system graphics overloads if too many files in "Custom" folder
Patch changes your Numlock Status

Fair enough, if you're into mods.

I was happy with vanilla Pirates and I didn't have any compatability issues with my system.

I'd like to see a way to enlarge the mini map, or better yet be able to put it or any other desired data screen onto a 2nd screen. The larger mini map would alow you to watch what you have and look at what you want to do without a microscope.

Ability to start in whatever city you want.

Abilty to lay two tracks...rather than lay 1...then have to go over it again to get the 2nd track.

Zoom out alot farther.

Abilty to Hide Cities and landscape.

TENDERS!

The steam engines in the game should have tenders - it hurts my eyes seeing 4-4-0s with not tenders. In the very first preview screenies the locos had tenders - why are they gone??

While playing Multiplayer...

The mini map and the world map are blacked out.

Interesting idea, but

they never actually finished Sid Meier's Pirates!
they simply abandoned it.

So your plan may have a serious flaw.

So Pirates wasn't finished, either?

We've got to stop buying these games -- this was the final straw for me.

Allow us to track into another person's station (computer or otherwise) and battle it out by running goods into the depot and have the town council vote on who stays and who goes. Like it was on the original RRT from Microprose. give us some more options on trains the Acela here in the US and the ICE trains from DB in Germany (unless you count the the TGV from France). Maybe have a CN or Alaskan Railroad scenario.

Scenarios and logos will come from the users.

I don't know if it'll be possible to mod up rail sharing into the game without heavy patching.

The more important question, though, is - do you really want that?

Remember that in RRT in a rate war, you built your line into the 'enemy' train station at any crazy angle. In SMR you would have to line up your tracks SMR/RRT2/3 style.

Problem is, in RRT2/3, your trains "lose" to enemy trains on their rails: you would ALWAYS lose when you're attacking if the enemy line just crammed the rail line with their own trains, because yours would be perpetually sidelined (in easy/medium routing), or you would destroy their rail system (in hard routing) by flooding it with trains.

Unless they force easy/medium routing that would simply be impossible in SMR without destroying gameplay, IMHO.

More maps, larger maps, and the ability to zoom out farther than is currently possible.

I agree! :goodjob: Does anyone know if the next patch gonna contain more maps? Or an editor maybe?

Weather conditions and night/day mode would be nice too. I would be beautiful too see a freighttrain drive through the snow at night. Only illuminated by the searchlight and the lights from the windows.. :drool:

Weather conditions and night/day mode would be nice too. I would be beautiful too see a freighttrain drive through the snow at night. Only illuminated by the searchlight and the lights from the windows.. :drool:

As if it weren't slow already!

As if it weren't slow already!

:D It would look nice though. And dont think the game is slow either...

Weather conditions and night/day mode would be nice too. I would be beautiful too see a freighttrain drive through the snow at night. Only illuminated by the searchlight and the lights from the windows.. :drool:

Given how much coding that would probably take, I would think this would probably count as a good "SMR2" suggestion...

Weather conditions and night/day mode would be nice too. I would be beautiful too see a freighttrain drive through the snow at night. Only illuminated by the searchlight and the lights from the windows.. :drool:

Just get MSTS..has that and lots more..:)

First off, the patents. They should be exclusive for a 100 years at least, preferably till the player is bought out. Secondly, the patent auctions should be able to be started by the players.
Next, when you want to add a plant to a city, you should allow for more then just three, and the new plant should be auctioned, same as a patent.
The patent screen should not overlay the players stock information, and should be a movable window, and could run a few minutes to start with. After all, you can make a lot of $$$ in those minutes and allow you to purchase patents or plants that you really need.
Fix the timing in the game. It does not take one month to fill one railroad car with goods. Nor does it take 2 or more years to travel over 500 miles of tracks, especially when it is the only RR on the track.
Allow for a 'clear all tracks connectors' within a highlighted area. When I play I try never to create any short connectors, what that tight turn patent supposedly fixes, but on occasion, a section of track near depots can have too many connectors, which is what I think really slows the game up, and sometimes it is impossible to remove them without deleting all the trains that use those tracks. To allow for them to be cleared, then new connectors can be placed, and any trains that can no longer get to their pickup/dropoff points could show as greyed out, or perhaps noted on the trains screen that addition connections are required.
Allow all players to see all which patents each player holds. This is important in deciding which stock to buy, to attempt a buyout to secure the patents. Same goes for what industries they have purchased and whether they are profitable or not.
Allow players to auction off patents and plants they already own.
Start charging maintenance on tracks (they could disintegrate if not properly maintained, same on train stations and plants. If a train station is in poor repair, then passengers should not be using them. Same with plants, they should blow up or something if poorly maintained. $$$ values from these items should be based on the quality and also distance. If I take a train to the next city I pay $5 and if I go across country it is $250. Same with goods. This is really basic finances, and should already exist in this version of the game. The current finance system allows for all players to unfairly amass huge amounts of money, especially AI, and totally destroys the gameplay, as I try to create what I consider a good train network, yet I see AI's with 160 miles of track and 2 trains become multi-millionaires in a few years.
I intentionally sell off most or all of my stock, just to get the AI to be more aggressive and I occasionally get bought out, but when I am able to prevent that and buy them out it makes the game a lot more fun & challenging. It would be great if you could program that kind of competition into the game. Perhaps the finance changes would go a long way in that.
I also have noticed that the AI determine initially (long b4 the actual laying) exactly where they plan to lay track, and even though I already have track in the same location, they just lay their track over mine. Perhaps if the AI did not pre-plan and just mapped out their routes at the time they can afford it, then there be less cheating, as in not paying for bridges etc. Also, I notice that many times when they can't get close to a resource or city they just place the depot or plant loader anywhere close to the city or resource, ignoring the green area completely. Again, it is this kind of cheating that really takes away from the game.
Lastly, least for now, if I own another players stock, especially if 50% or more, I should get a percentage of the Companies profits after expenses. Be best to get it if you own any percentage. And fix that problem where stock purchases for a company can run about 8 million, and the buyout 10 million, yet when you chose liquidate, the buyout is $600,000 after an investment over $16,000,000.
Also, allow for better options selections in graphics and sounds. You have loads of sounds yet I can't figure out how to mute the LOUD noises the game makes every time something happens, yet listen to the roar of the trains and the bells & whistles. And in graphics, more choices for lessor quality would allow for cheaper video systems to play the game. Don't foolishly believe that everyone can afford $500 cards, or even want to spend that kind of money on a card for just one or two games. Not everyone plays every game that comes out, some just enjoy certain types, like RR games and should not be blocked out just cause you HAVE to show ppl walking over train station depots.
Anyway, hope you do something soon, as lots of cool racing games that actually work and have nice sounds and graphics are being released... get my drift?

I played the download and ordered the game... already, based on the info in the forums here's my wish list:

- Map Editor
- Ability to continue to infinity with a game (like in Civ after the score or victory condition is completed)
- Ability to name cities, create custom logos for trains...etc.
- A Rush-Hour like expansion (think Maxis SimCity) would be nice to ride any given train at track level
- A Panzer General 3D promotion style feature where you can also purchase engineers, station managers and other special ability employees with various skill sets/bonuses

Hey this would be fun!
Compound articulate engines of the later steam years, Dash 8s,9s (a few more engines).
Slow down the clock for oppertunity to do more in the time span.
Control of stops, I want to leave two cars of ore at Baltimore and bring the other 2 to Harrisburg. Not unload all four at Bal.
Closer zooms and Farther zooms. (not a big request but it would be a nice touch).

In the North-Eastern Map: Where are the cities like Altoona, Cumberland, SandPatch, Harpers Ferry, etc.

Right now this game is seriously disappointing me, they have made some very poor design choices.

(A) either give us full control over train routing, or fix the braindead AI routing.

(B) the financial-market side of things is roughly pointless. Owning 60% of someone's stock does nothing? No bonds or interest-rate fluctuations? The game is now just about building stuff, the financial side is just eye candy particularly for multiplayer.

(C) see (A) again. EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING!!! I don't play strategy games in order to be frustrated.

(D) the choice of what engine to use is basically meaningless -- just use the most-recent one by default and safely ignore any other options, it won't impact whether you win or lose. So then why bother with that whole issue at all? Silly.

(E) the interface is quite poor. The zooming is really annoying -- why can't we zoom out and see the whole map??

(F) we should start without a fixed starting location and have to choose where to "settle", like in Civ with the initial settler.

As both an addicted fan of Civ IV multiplayer, and a huge fan of the original RRT in singleplayer, this game right now gets a big yecccch. It's lame and frustrating for both MP and single. It feels like they farmed this project out to Sid's intern or something.

First off, the patents. They should be exclusive for a 100 years at least, preferably till the player is bought out. Secondly, the patent auctions should be able to be started by the players.


Real life patents only last 17 years or so, depending on the country you live in - this is actually one of the things that "works" in the game and really should not be touched, IMHO.


Next, when you want to add a plant to a city, you should allow for more then just three, and the new plant should be auctioned, same as a patent.


That would kill the strategy, though - auctions are great b/c you can get a deal. New industries all cost $500k. Unless you want *that* to change...



The patent screen should not overlay the players stock information, and should be a movable window, and could run a few minutes to start with. After all, you can make a lot of $$$ in those minutes and allow you to purchase patents or plants that you really need.


Use the minimize key - if someone else outbids you, re-open it. :)


Fix the timing in the game. It does not take one month to fill one railroad car with goods. Nor does it take 2 or more years to travel over 500 miles of tracks, especially when it is the only RR on the track.


Well you know that's a total abstraction and you're never going to satisfy everyone.

Having said that, classic RRT games could last days or weeks - SMR's been designed with a quick "few hours and you're done" approach in mind.

You can, fortunately, edit the INI files to tweak train speeds, then run the game at a faster/slower speed to get the desired effect...


Allow for a 'clear all tracks connectors' within a highlighted area. When I play I try never to create any short connectors, what that tight turn patent supposedly fixes, but on occasion, a section of track near depots can have too many connectors, which is what I think really slows the game up, and sometimes it is impossible to remove them without deleting all the trains that use those tracks. To allow for them to be cleared, then new connectors can be placed, and any trains that can no longer get to their pickup/dropoff points could show as greyed out, or perhaps noted on the trains screen that addition connections are required.


That would be nice, but in the interim, I recommend tooling around in traintable (sandbox) mode to get a feel for how track laying works.

The tight turn patent doesn't have any effect on track laying per se.


Allow all players to see all which patents each player holds. This is important in deciding which stock to buy, to attempt a buyout to secure the patents.
Same goes for what industries they have purchased and whether they are profitable or not.


Does it currently only show your own, or everyone's? Have you checked the industries/patents screens? I can't recall at the moment, but I think I saw something like that....


Allow players to auction off patents and plants they already own.


That'd be kinda cool, actually.


really basic finances, and should already exist in this version of the game. The current finance system allows for all players to unfairly amass huge amounts of money, especially AI, and totally destroys the gameplay, as I try to create what I consider a good train network, yet I see AI's with 160 miles of track and 2 trains become multi-millionaires in a few years.


Depends on AI ability/difficulty level - the ability to make money hand over fist is actually kind of delightful compared to the miserly little ghettos you used to service with trains in the earlier RRT games.

I think you can probably mod the game enough to make running railroads less lucrative - but as we all know, they had "fun" more than "fair" in mind while designing gameplay. I was able to take out my 2 competitors on the German map at Mogul mode in about 50-100 years, allowing me to play the rest of the game in a "for points" sandbox mode.

Of course, starting in Leipzig, across the river from Berlin, made that pretty easy.

It was fun coming from behind to catch up to the #1 tycoon who had spent all his cash buying out the #3 tycoon (of course, I owned a few shares of #3, so when #3 was bought out, I profited handsomely).

Ironically #3 owned half of *my* stock, so I had to expand my network like crazy (now that I couldn't plow any more money into the stock market), to get $17m to buyout the Czar (or whoever #1 was), before he made $11m and could buy me out.

He was getting dangerously close to the $11m mark, and I was at $16m, so I sold off one chunk of my shares, and boom, I had the 17m I needed to buy him out.

Totally unrelated story here, but I thought I'd share b/c it was such great fun. :)


I intentionally sell off most or all of my stock, just to get the AI to be more aggressive and I occasionally get bought out, but when I am able to prevent that and buy them out it makes the game a lot more fun & challenging. It would be great if you could program that kind of competition into the game. Perhaps the finance changes would go a long way in that.


Smart move, really - I think Firaxis must've considered bond markets but kept them out b/c then the game would *really* get too easy (of course, it could moderate the effect with Credit Ratings, etc., but any extra source of money would essentially distract from the trains... and add the risk of bankruptcy, which I'm guessing they didn't want to add to complicate things).

there be less cheating, as in not paying for bridges etc. Also, I notice that many times when they can't get close to a resource or city they just place the depot or plant loader anywhere close to the city or resource, ignoring the green area completely. Again, it is this kind of cheating that really takes away from the game.


You're going to have to show a screenshot of that b/c I've never seen that. Are you sure they weren't just at the edge of the circle? There's a surprisingly large radius for annexes (which I use to keep my trains from climbing mountains unnecessarily quite often).


Lastly, least for now, if I own another players stock, especially if 50% or more, I should get a percentage of the Companies profits after expenses. Be best to get it if you own any percentage. And fix that problem where stock purchases for a company can run about 8 million, and the buyout 10 million, yet when you chose liquidate, the buyout is $600,000 after an investment over $16,000,000.


First, you're referring to dividends. They'd be nice, but again, they'd be another source of cash to play with that they probably didn't want to complciate things with - you're going to have to go back to RRT3 to enjoy that.

Second, the dirt-cheap liquidation value is no doubt by design to prevent it from being too lucrative to just "buy and flip" your opponents. If you could do that, you could probably buy out one, liquidate, and then buy out another one with your "returned money".

In a gameplay sense, that would destroy the challenge of multiple opponents, really.

And in a logical sense, remember that you're paying an inflated price for a competitor in a bidding war: you're not paying what it's "actually" worth.

Second, the pre-bidding war price also reflects the projected "future earnings" of the company. It's what the company is expected to be worth (based on SMR's value simluator/algorithm).

If you were to sell off everything piecemeal, and in a hurry, SMR's logic is that you wouldn't get top dollar for everything - people don't value the individual rails/stations as much as they do

(n.b., if I recall correctly, you still do get to hold on to the industries - I should double check that, but I think you do - so when you liquidate, things aren't a complete ripoff - of course, at this point you may say you want to sell the industries, but that's another issue)


Also, allow for better options selections in graphics and sounds. You have loads of sounds yet I can't figure out how to mute the LOUD noises the game makes every time something happens, yet listen to the roar of the trains and the bells & whistles. And in graphics, more choices for lessor quality would allow for cheaper video systems to play the game. Don't foolishly believe that everyone can afford $500 cards, or even want to spend that kind of money on a card for just one or two games. Not everyone plays every game that comes out, some just enjoy certain types, like RR games and should not be blocked out just cause you HAVE to show ppl walking over train station depots.


If you can't run it, RRT2/3 are still fun. Developers will *always* push the envelope and that's part of the fun/pain of PC gaming.

Right now this game is seriously disappointing me, they have made some very poor design choices.

(A) either give us full control over train routing, or fix the braindead AI routing.


Run it at medium routing and you'll have an easy fix for scenarios where the trains don't do what you expect them to do.

Careful track planning is key to enjoy the routing system - once you get the hang of it, it's a joy - unfortunately it's much too finicky, which is why I stick to medium instead of hard, in case I make a mistake that's ridiculously difficult to undo.


(B) the financial-market side of things is roughly pointless. Owning 60% of someone's stock does nothing? No bonds or interest-rate fluctuations? The game is now just about building stuff, the financial side is just eye candy particularly for multiplayer.


I would really love a bond market component. They really copped out by making it a 100% or nothing, '10 share block' system, but I understand their desire for simplicity on that front.

Having said that, it's really sad you can't borrow money (except when it comes to buying engines - that you're allowed to do, for some reason).


(D) the choice of what engine to use is basically meaningless -- just use the most-recent one by default and safely ignore any other options, it won't impact whether you win or lose. So then why bother with that whole issue at all? Silly.


Well in original RRT the freighter/passenger distinction was more key - remember picking a Mikado over a Pacific if you're sending a passenger train through the mountains?

Generally speaking in RRT you'd usually pick the most recent engine anyway - in fact, the ability to pick ancient engines (I haven't played with this, but this is what I've read) means you can get a super-cheap old engine to pull a short freight train for very-low maintenance-cost. In RRT trains went obsolete over time and you couldn't buy them.


(E) the interface is quite poor. The zooming is really annoying -- why can't we zoom out and see the whole map??


*That* would definitely be nice.


(F) we should start without a fixed starting location and have to choose where to "settle", like in Civ with the initial settler.


You'll have to just grin and bear it and reload games if you hate the start location, or accept the challenge.

On some scenarios it's insane if you don't get a location near your objectives (oh, say, Berlin/Dresden/Hamburg!!!)

Real life patents only last 17 years or so, depending on the country you live in - this is actually one of the things that "works" in the game and really should not be touched, IMHO.

The point I was trying to make, is 10 years just flies by, so everyone gets the benefit at that time. However, if they couldn’t get the benefit unless they bought you out, or had to wait 100 years, I feel it would add some strategy to the game.

Oh, and this is the wishlist forum, so those are my wishes..:spear: Do I really expect any of them to get incorporated in the next (??) patch? :xeyes:

Well I just spent a couple more hours on this game and that's it, and I'm done wasting time. What a sad feeble thing it is. The train pathing alone is enough to make me demand the $40 back, and there are a half-dozen other obvious glitches, and at the game-design level it's not a tenth as good as something like Civ IV. If Sid Meier was directly involved with this one then he's lost it, and if he wasn't then he ought to be ashamed for putting his name on it.

And there's no way they spent any significant time beta-testing this mess for multiplayer.

My Original Statement quoted:
there be less cheating, as in not paying for bridges etc. Also, I notice that many times when they can't get close to a resource or city they just place the depot or plant loader anywhere close to the city or resource, ignoring the green area completely. Again, it is this kind of cheating that really takes away from the game.

Your reply:
You're going to have to show a screenshot of that b/c I've never seen that. Are you sure they weren't just at the edge of the circle? There's a surprisingly large radius for annexes (which I use to keep my trains from climbing mountains unnecessarily quite often).

I will be glad to post 2 images I just made of the cheat, quite definitive I might add, in the bug forum, if someone could explain how I upload them, as in Advanced it only allows for a url..:confused:

It should be an option;
Play with trains, layout mode.
Run fast with the current senarios.
Railroad master, switching consists, scheduling, telling trains what routes to take and loads.
I also would like to build my own cities on larger scenes and yes than can load larger scenes, I'll just tell the wife I need more memory :D

A shortlist:

-Reverse the mouse-wheel-drag view rotation; it's absurd that it's reversed right now. You may be manipulating the terrain like a pdf document, but you're doing it from a first-person perspective. The hand-dragging navigation from Black and White was easily one of the worst parts of that game; I don't know why you would want to emulate it.

-Tweak the auctions UI pane. Specifically, either allow the user to move it, resize it (or sort of 'sub-minimize' is so that just the name, the price, and the bid buttons or visible), or at the very least, play with the window size so that it doesn't just barely manage to overlap the first competitor's stock buying and selling buttons.

-Release the map editor. Given that splining is built *into the game*, I can't imagine what would be so difficult about a map editor.


Better planning and pathing would be nice, but given the nature and complexity of the problem, I imgaine that won't be happening.

First post here. I've had all the Railroad versions since the original. I have to concur with the "wish lists" on the financial side of things. Both the stock and bond features in the prior versions made things more interesting in terms of strategies for making runs on other RRs, stripping cash out of a solvent operation and letting it go bankrupt.....Robber Barons!!!...that's what railroading was all about and it was what made the game fun. There is so much less financial stuff that it is more a game of laying track than really managing stuff. Oh well, just my gripes for the good old days...

Sadly, its such a basic design change that nothing that can be done with a patch.

My First first here to!

The only things I would like now are more senarios, trains and more skin options. It's good they released the train livery pack but a shame that it only had four skins in it.

Even more a shame that they put all the train data in a data file so you can't see it or read it with anything - if you could then skinning the trains yourself would be a lot easier.

There are loads of other little bits and bobs that could be improved on, most of which have been said already but if their aim was to make a simple game then they did that quite well.

Peter

Things I wish were different:

Routing that favors realistic track layouts with parallel tracks and plenty of switches outside the platforms. It annoys me immensely to see my trains getting stuck all the time. Congestion should cause delays, not lock-ups. No real-life dispatcher would allow two trains entering the same section of track from opposite directions. On the other hand, trains should be allowed to run on the same section in the same direction, with a suitable safety-distance between them. I realize that I can use medium or easy routing, but trains passing through each other is not a solution for me. As things stand, I basically have to make a track for each route, which is annoying in itself, but the fact that I can't place a new train on the track of my choice makes it unbarable.

A much slower game pace. Money comes in at such a rate that you have to spend all your time looking for investment opportunities if you want to win. I want a game to be days or weeks of joyful playing around and watching the little choo-choos drive around.

Larger maps, much larger. Not necessarily with many more cities and resources, but with longer stretches to make the difference in speed important.

Things I wish were different:

Routing that favors realistic track layouts with parallel tracks and plenty of switches outside the platforms. It annoys me immensely to see my trains getting stuck all the time. Congestion should cause delays, not lock-ups. No real-life dispatcher would allow two trains entering the same section of track from opposite directions. On the other hand, trains should be allowed to run on the same section in the same direction, with a suitable safety-distance between them. I realize that I can use medium or easy routing, but trains passing through each other is not a solution for me. As things stand, I basically have to make a track for each route, which is annoying in itself, but the fact that I can't place a new train on the track of my choice makes it unbarable.

A much slower game pace. Money comes in at such a rate that you have to spend all your time looking for investment opportunities if you want to win. I want a game to be days or weeks of joyful playing around and watching the little choo-choos drive around.

Larger maps, much larger. Not necessarily with many more cities and resources, but with longer stretches to make the difference in speed important.

#1 is what we've failed to articulate but I believe we all want: what original RRT would've called "dispatcher operations". Letting trains down the same track section, either automatically or with user intervention - that woudl be excellent.

#2 can be hacked by editing the game settings - you play the game at 'half-speed', and then boost the train speeds by 100% or something to simulate that effect.

#3 - I agree, but it appears to have been a conscious design choice on the part of designers to make the game more "fast paced".

If they just shrank the size of cities and slightly enlarged the maps, I think it could do much towards making the experience more "RRT"-like.

1st off Love the game just wish it was thought out a bit more.

Suggestions:
Maintenance costs. Rails should have maintence costs, bridges tunnels, even land taxes. Engines the older they get the more costly they become. This should cut down on the expenential money growth.

Rail yards:Pre-built rail yards where the switching is done for car storage for car transfers. Haul food to a city that doesn't need it. It gets put into the rail yard till another train comes through that is going to a city that needs food, picks it up and off it goes.

Advisors: Much like what we have in the other Civ's.
Rail Advisor: Suggest's rail optimization or tracks that would provide more effiecient travel or hooking up goal related cities and supplies. Maybe this advisor could lay track for you in optimum grading, and routing if you requested a route from A to B.

Engine Advisor: Suggests the optimal engine for the route you have put on. Some engines maybe better at hills than others or somthing along these lines where a specific engine is better for the situation than another.

Industry Advisor: Suggests industries that may provide a profit based on current routes. Maybe suggests new routes to optimize owned industry. Maybe a matching if you put this route in and purchased this industry it would be profitable. During Auctions have the industry advisor inform you of the current run down of profitability during the auction so you don't buy a industry that won't be profitable until after the game time frame is done.

There is so much that can be done with this game to make it another one you'd never want to put down. But with the current game play It gets to be a bit much.

Love the idea of larger scale or a more realistic scale both time and distance. This could be rather Epic in a true scale layout.

Have millions of more ideas but will have to share l8r.

First I want to second motions for much larger maps. I recently played my first Railroads! game with a competition (only one rival though) and was really suprised about how quickly the map was full of railroad tracks. Perhaps I made a mistake by concentrating too much to achieve scenario goals (which in that map included byuing my company stock shares and also competitor's) instead of building railroad tracks, and therefore the competitor succeeded to build tracks all too quickly near mine although he started from the other end of map. However I would prefer that there would be much more space in the maps.

Other thing that I would like to see, would be possibility to make detailed timetables for you trains defining exact times, when a given train leaves
each station. That would give some possibilities to prevent several trains trying to use same track at the same time. Perhaps you could also try to maximize your income by running passenger trains during day-time and gargo trains at night-time (except perhaps some long-distance passenger train leaving at evening and arriving in morning)

Other thing that I would like to see, would be possibility to make detailed timetables for you trains defining exact times, when a given train leaves
each station. That would give some possibilities to prevent several trains trying to use same track at the same time. Perhaps you could also try to maximize your income by running passenger trains during day-time and gargo trains at night-time (except perhaps some long-distance passenger train leaving at evening and arriving in morning)


Mmm... original RRT had an abstract "clock" which converted the 12 months of the year into 24 hours.

To turn this from a cute affectation to a real game principle would be an AWESOME suggestion/move.

I hope they're taking notes for upgrade/expansion/new versions... ;)

Remove OK confirmation Button in "Go to City Selection" list selection dialogue.
Once you select The City to go from list, Clicking OK button is unnecessary and redundant.

Are you sure that you want to go to the city?
Are you really sure?
You maybe cant find your way back and be lost forever...
You really mean it?

rofl

i found this board looking for a solution to my issue. the main issue in the game is placement of signals. a lot of people are complaining about routing but i think this is all the signals fault. a train can only see one section ahead. signals are placed at joins in order to allow routing onto empty tracks. the problem is, when you lay tracks in more than one step or delete joined tracks the obsolete signals dont go away. this means the very simple ai the trains use doesnt work because when they meet another train head on there is no sidtrack to option onto as there should be. and because trains cant see past that extra signal it blocks them from picking a more appropriate track earlier.

solve that and the game is at least playable. i dont mind everything else.

I'll echo everyone on this:

1) Slower game. Let it run for days.
2) Huge maps. Railroads are about distance. We have a term in model railroading for what this game gives you - spagetti bowl.
3) Fiscal opertunities at some level like RTDx or even RT1.
4) Signalling that works and could be overridden. I loved RTD signalling!

So, basically, the Orignal deluxe with better graphics and interface.

Man, I loved those priority shipments. How cool to make that work well.

One thing bad I will say about railroad games (in general) and RTD (in particular) - they always show these massive cities out in the boonies, as if they existed before the railroad did. Check your maps, but you'll find that most of your cities now are placed along the transcon. So it wasn't the railroad going to the cities, but the cities going to the railroads.

That always felt wierd - finding a string of cities in RTD and realizing that I was just following the transcon, over and over.

Bluevoss-

... The USA: |6| years with a president with no brains.

I'll echo everyone on this:

<snip>

... The USA: |6| years with a president with no brains.

Beats out the previous |8| years with a president with no brains.

I guess that makes |14| years with the USA running without any brains. :)

Beats out the previous |8| years with a president with no brains.

I guess that makes |14| years with the USA running without any brains. :)

:lol: :lol: :lol:

On a serious note, I think the game is nigh unplayable because of the incredibly small screen (mentioned before). It gives me a headache to scroll around one tiny bit at a time. I also like the idea of having a worldview like Civ4. (I just use the "build train" screen for now but that doesn't help you with cities and resources that you haven't connected.)

Also, bigger maps (to prevent the "spaghetti bowl") would be appreciated.

I hate to burst your bubble, guys & gals, but I highly doubt the Railroads developers (if there are any left) are reading this thread and careless what we all want (a working game).

I disagree, they are probably mining us right now for ideas for their expansion pack.

One thing bad I will say about railroad games (in general) and RTD (in particular) - they always show these massive cities out in the boonies, as if they existed before the railroad did. Check your maps, but you'll find that most of your cities now are placed along the transcon. So it wasn't the railroad going to the cities, but the cities going to the railroads.

What I both love and hate about Sid's games are their historical aspect.
Mind you, no simulation/game perfectly emulates real life. Sid has left out tons of things as far as history is concerned. Such as train robbers, chinese and irish slave workers, and of course the many native Americans that hated the railroad.

I'll echo everyone on this:

1) Slower game. Let it run for days.
2) Huge maps. Railroads are about distance. We have a term in model railroading for what this game gives you - spagetti bowl.
3) Fiscal opertunities at some level like RTDx or even RT1.
4) Signalling that works and could be overridden. I loved RTD signalling!

So, basically, the Orignal deluxe with better graphics and interface.

Man, I loved those priority shipments. How cool to make that work well.
I think its funny. The first civ does not hold a candle to CIV4. Heck, I don't even like to play Civ3 anymore.
Yet people still want to play RTD.