Can't get past part in tutorial, thusly, have no bloody clue how to play the game

[Neebs]

I can't get past the tutorial part when double-tracking the Washington station. I doubletrack where the green arrows are, and I lay track to connect it to the main line, but it's still not continuing with the tutorial, like I haven't done anything yet. It's clearly connected, but good ol' Sid, who wasn't around to provide tutorial voice-overs like in Civ4 apparently, doesn't think I've connected it to the main line.

 

[farsider]

when you say they are clearly connected what does that mean? I thought the same but had to build a diagonally connection at both ends to allow trains to switch tracks.

 

[Neebs]

Like, in the game's visual, they're /connected/. Pretty much.

 

[AlabamaCajun]

If you do exactly what it says then it works. Be sure when making the connection that little white with red stripe (end rail) signs are not left in the intersection(s). This would be obvious but it happens. One other possibility is if you click outside the signal area green arrows and got the yellow arrows that the switch is under the train where it won't back up and go through.

 

[Neebs]

Well, i did it PRECISELY as it wants to, and it works. I finish the tutorial to find...there's not much tutorial. I'm pretty much ok at figuring things out, I RTFM, but, how the heck do I connect to 'Outer-lying industries and cities.' I can understand not being able to pop-up in Los Angeles when in Las Vegas, but I can't even connect to places pretty bloody close to me? LIke the Las Vegas Mining Company?

WTF.

 

[AlabamaCajun]

Think of industries as branch lines and cities as trunks. You want to run track from city to city (Your strategy will vary). Place a depot at the newly connected city. Now you will notice black signal towers at the entrance to each city. These are the boundaries used by trains to not enter if another train is already in the station. This keeps trains from running into each other. More on this later. Looking at the city Vegas in your example. Hover over it to find what it needs. Say it has the corn symbol, look for grain fields. Just outside of the cities signal tower click on the track. What we are doing is creating a spur. Stretch this track near the fields. Stretch to where the track is heading into one of the field blocks or the barn. You will see the green circle, go inside the circle for at least 2 car lengths and click to place the track. Hopefully it did not tunnel through the Rockies or Grand Canyon as thats expensive. One thing to remember when running the spur is that the track branches away from the city. Sometimes the interface will reverse it running backwards where the train can't reach it. You may have to run the spur in smaller sections to go over and around stuff. Watch inclines and slopes, this eats profits on steep inclines. Now once you have track in the fields, click depot and point inside the circle along the track and you will see a grain loading station (ghosted). Click to place it and one will build there. Now add a train. See the small dot near the larger city dots, they are the resources. Click the small one first. Add 2 grain cars then click the large city dot. Close the city window and Ok the routing window. Your trains should now appear loading grain. For every car of grain delivered, one car of dinner will be produced. Find a hungry city to deliver cars of groceries to. What I do is at the city stop where I deliver grain, I drop off the grain hoppers and pick up food boxcars and send the train to the next city with food requirements. This is where you will need to double track the city.
Once all is rolling. If the city needs oil and an oil field is near the grain field then you can extend the track from the grain field to the oil field connecting it with a oil pump station. Clear the routing of that train and starting at the new oil station. Pick up to tankers, go to the corn field and pick up to corn hoppers then dump that off at the city. Clear the train, pick up food and products (wooden boxes) and deliver them.
Find some model railroad magazines or sites and look at the layouts for ideas. On thing odd in this sim is that the trains flip and turn around where real trains just back up to a turn around or round house.

 

[steve dave]

I am still having trouble getting the double track in Washington to work. I believe I am putting the track exactly where they say but I must not because I still can't get the tutorial box to go to the next thing.

I put the cursor over the green arrows for the double track and then choose single track and can't get any combination to work.

Does my original single track in Washington have to be in a certain place or just inside the green Washington circle?

 

[AlabamaCajun]

Just the first track has to be inside the circle. Once a station is buildable, then the land for tracks 2,3,4 is automatically annexed into the city. You should see the pedestrian over walk build as soon as you place the double track.

 

[steve dave]

I have tried several more times and still have no idea how to get the double track in washington to work.

Could someone who was successful take a screen shot and post it?

 

[Snoopy55]

Here are some screenshots and a readme that may help you. Their in 3 seperate Zip files.

 

[Reignking]

I can't get past the tutorial part when double-tracking the Washington station. I doubletrack where the green arrows are, and I lay track to connect it to the main line, but it's still not continuing with the tutorial, like I haven't done anything yet. It's clearly connected, but good ol' Sid, who wasn't around to provide tutorial voice-overs like in Civ4 apparently, doesn't think I've connected it to the main line.

I don't think I was ever able to get through the entire tutorial, either, because of the minute details.

That's how the game plays, too. You don't really know if you've double-tracked, until see trains not able to use the track or you highlight the station. Plenty of problems.

 

[Snoopy55]

Sometimes you have to look over what you did. My bro laid a double track and then entended the same track. He was blaming the stupid game cause he couldn't put a train running where he had intended it to. Turns out he had not got the two tracks connected. You really have to stop and examine your connections to see if they did what you wanted them to do. I've run into this many times adding crossover switches. I got onto the track, but didn't go far enough.

 

[steve dave]

Thanks for the pictures Snoopy I appreciate them but how do you connect those two tracks. In the tutorial I can connect balitmores double track with no problem but when I try to connect the same thing in washington it doesn't work. I can't do it in a regular game either.

 

[Snoopy55]

Steve, explain what you mean by 'how do you connect those two tracks'. If you are talking about the ends of the 2 I have branching out in different directions, you have to do that in short sections of curves. It won't let you do it in one peice. If you get a double track meeting up with another and can't get it to join, use a peice of single track. If you have trouble starting a double from another double, come in close and move the mouse slowly. I have that problem sometimes myself.

 

[steve dave]

Steve, explain what you mean by 'how do you connect those two tracks'. If you are talking about the ends of the 2 I have branching out in different directions, you have to do that in short sections of curves. It won't let you do it in one peice. If you get a double track meeting up with another and can't get it to join, use a peice of single track. If you have trouble starting a double from another double, come in close and move the mouse slowly. I have that problem sometimes myself.

The best way I can explain it is I can't do what they want you to do in the tutorial or the regular game. In the tutorial it has you double the track and then connect them in Balitmore which I can do and then it wants you to do the same thing in Washington and I can't get it to work there or in regular games either.

 

[Snoopy55]

Get to that point in the game then do a save. Zip it and upload it here with a discription of where it is exactly. I'll look at it.

 

[Krupo]

On thing odd in this sim is that the trains flip and turn around where real trains just back up to a turn around or round house.

From a model railroader perspective it's certainly odd, but in gaming, it's been an accepted "shortcut"/hack/cheat since the original RRT.

Of course, back in the day all the trains were just black blocks or pretty blue electric/diesels, so it didn't look as distracting - perhaps in an SMR2 they will all trains to back up or use a roundhouse.

Of course, a roundhouse would probably mean changing the scale (in this case, the roundhouse is still "imaginary" - although in RRT you actually had to build them if you wanted to buy engines in a particular city - that was an interesting twist, in terms of making you more careful about which station you upgrade with critical facilities).

In retrospect, I believe the "dumbing down" of station management was one of SMR's biggest faults.