Idea/Wish List for Railroads!
- Thread starter zx1111
- Start date
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..
Given how much coding that would probably take, I would think this would probably count as a good "SMR2" suggestion...
StreetWired
Chieftain
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..
Just get MSTS..has that and lots more..
StreetWired
Chieftain
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?
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?
Sentoa
Samaka 3ajiba
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
- 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
AlabamaCajun
Chieftain
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2006
- Messages
- 29
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.
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.
(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.
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.
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...
Use the minimize key - if someone else outbids you, re-open it.
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...
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.
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....
That'd be kinda cool, actually.
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.
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).
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).
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)
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.
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.
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).
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.
*That* would definitely be nice.
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!!!)
StreetWired
Chieftain
The point I was trying to make, is 10 years just flies by, so everyone gets the benefit at that time. However, if they couldnt 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..
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.
And there's no way they spent any significant time beta-testing this mess for multiplayer.
StreetWired
Chieftain
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..
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..
AlabamaCajun
Chieftain
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2006
- Messages
- 29
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
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
GenericKen
Not at all suspicious
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2005
- Messages
- 202
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.
-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.
HoriujiMan
Chieftain
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2006
- Messages
- 52
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.
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
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.
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.
mytholibar
Chieftain
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2007
- Messages
- 1
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.
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...
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