Sorta get this started here :) Feel free to add/subtract:
Things to keep in mind first:
When you build a new station you can double rail it to start. It will move around the 'third' rail depending on where you put it, so you can save it for later for strategy. If you don't understand what I mean just make a station anywhere. Double rail it and put a rail on the outside.. the station will move. Delete that rail and put on the inside. The station will move again. You can choose to just start by triple railing it for 'planning' but I found later starting with 2 is better cause theres always that one resource hiding somewhere you really really need.
All track routes are a cycle. Whatever you say first is where it starts and whatever you say is last is where it ends. It will go from the last stop back to the first stop and take the 'best' route possible and doesn't take rail traffic into consideration. It will pick the shortest linear point to point path avalible. It doesnt care if your passenger income is shot to nothing. So plan rails accordingly.
Yeah its true you can only build 3 lines through a city. I've got it pretty much figured out though. We will start with managing 3 cities. Don't worry about the rest of the map yet. Gunna go with a loose setup here of Town A,B,C each with a resource of need around the area.
1) Use one rail for passengers only to start *unless* you can bring a needed resource in on that line at the 'back' of the station.. what i mean is something like this:
(oil)=======(TownA)=======(TownB)=====(TownC)
Now there is no conflict with these trains whatsoever. You can set the passengers or the frieght to to high priority and have them take it first if they get 'conflicted' but they will peacefully coexist on that same track.
2) Now say you need to get that same resource to Town B but dont wanna conflict with passengers or make a general head-on mess (which will happen)
(oil)==============(TownA)=======(TownB)====(TownC)
(passenger rails)======(TownA)=======(TownB)====(TownC)
3) Town B now gains Goods because you are shipping it oil on the frieght track, which Town C demands. Simply get the frieght train to do this:
1.(oil depot) Add 3-4 Resource Cars (or more depending on engine/resource pool)
2.(Town B) Clear Resource Cars and add 2 Goods Cars(or more depending on output)***
3.(Town C) Clear all cars
Hit Ok
***Step 2 will not be immediatly succesful because it will take a bit for Town B to produce goods.
4) Eventually Town B will need goods itself, but since its creating goods and not recieving them you can generate income by bringing some to them. Lets say there is some Trees to the east of our cities and Town A can create goods from it. Time for the triple rail:
(oil)============================(TownB)====(TownC)
(passenger rails)==(TownA)=============(TownB)====(TownC)
(new rail)=========(TownA)===========(TownB)====(TownC)===(Trees)
1. (Trees) Add 3-4 Wood cars (or more depending)
2. (TownA) Clear Wood cars and Add 2 goods cars(or more depending)***
3. (TownB) Clear all the cars
Hit Ok
*** Same for step 2 above applies.
Now you have a passenger/mail rail and are generating a swapping method of resources!
5) eventually Town A will also need Goods, so you simply ask the top line train to pick some up at B, after it drops it load off at C and heads back towards its original oil depot route.
The trick is to figure out supply and demand. If its a small resource you will have to limit the trips back and forth a lot more than with a Large resource and your output will vary vastly due to the size of the resource you are pulling from. If you can manage to tap a large resource in the beggining with slower trains you can double route 2 trains and start a wave of mass production! Just simply tie into the same route but provide a double rail that does'nt interfere with any of the other tracks. They might have to take turns at the station but you will have a steady flow of resources and no holding up other lines. Don't try to mix and match too many resources on one line.
Think of it this way: How can I make that one track get everything I need to the city. Answer is you can't.. ever. But you can space out things greatly by trying to keep frieght and passengers seperate at all times and only invade passenger lines if you have a quick resource gap like in step 2.
Also every city needs the following things always(not minor dump offs at the start but you can build them into cities later):
Mail/Passengers
Food
Manufactured Goods
Cars (eventually)
If you can create circuts by using the methods above you will generate massive production and income. You could build a Food station at town B and add a couple food cars to the top rail where you are shipping goods and bring the grain/cows in on the bottom line where the trees are coming in. This method is often better than trying to drag food produced from 8 cities over when its only 500k to build a plant and it would take 500k+ track + more trains+more traffic to get food to those cities. Add in a few supplies and demands and you are on your way to Tycoon status.
Other tips:
-You can drag many rails through a depot but only the 3 inside the station 'bracket' will be able access it. You can use those 4th/5th rails as simply bypasses where a train doesnt nessicarily need to stop there but at the next station it does. You can tie the 4th rail with a rail that touches the station and it will jump back on the 4th rail and leave the station open and preventing needless traffic.
Example
Say I need to take stuff from Town A to Town C
-----=====================================-----
====(TownA)//===========(TownB)==========\\(TownC)
====(TownA)=============(TownB)============(TownC)
====(TownA)=============(TownB)============(TownC)
Now the train will simply 'drive around' Town B but not block a station slot doing so. That forth rail can be used to ship other things from distant locations to both A and C. You could add the same switch at Town B and provide it with needs as well, but try to keep all traffic between A, B, and C exclusivly on the 3 station rails. This could also be used to route traffic in the situation above where Oil was taken to B and Goods to C, but it didnt need to access A again.
-Do not assign a station for a train that has no buisness in a city. That should go without saying but you can skip around some. It will not take the bypass whatsoever if you have assigned it to stop at that station.
-Do not even connect tracks that you want to remain 'exclusive' like passenger rails. If it tries to even touch another rail it will cause confusion later.
Another 'cheat':
Tracks must be built off exsisting track, but they don't have to remain there. You can drag a track somewhere and delete a section and build off the remaining section that closer to your objective. Seems dirty but its strategically effective when you want to access other cities/goods and not create turmoil on those routes. (or make it ugly!)
Track routing and management FAQ
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mangadrive
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Sun Oct 29, 2006 9:01 am
You have to set a route where A took food to B then went back to A to get food for C. In this situation you could simply create a Manufactured Goods market at B so that you were shuttling stuff back to A when you touched B and C so you weren't just using a train only for food. Thats where the 'switch' option I noted above would come in handy.
If the city has grown to a metro and has 3 industry slots already it seems that food income is just 'money'. People will not leave and move out just cause theres no food coming. So running 8 cars of food to the nearest city would be an almost better option for just quick money unless you were trying to build another up for population from more supplies or create more industry space. Thats just my theory so far from what I've seen. Theres no decline in population, only an increase. I havent fully experiemented with it though. Shuttling the food off would be more along the lines of you are having it build up to the point of stores being dormant and production overlapping the maximum storage amount. Also if you could figure out to get Goods created in B and or C you would create even more reason for it to come back to A :) Its more about supply and demand for money reasons other than demand in the literal sense with penalties for NOT bringing them the shipments.
There is no 'depoting' in this game as of yet that I can find. I remember playing RRT2 for quite some time wishing this option was avalible and it was finally included in one of the expansion. This game seems to push more of the 'traffic mayhem' approach for quick and dirty multiplay with lots of point to point management instead of the micromanagement. Where in other games the food income would vary due to market prices and more of a 'demand' in the literal sense would take place. Its not bad cause this game isn't exactly a *full* tycoon game and I enjoy it for its quick get in and play :) If i have more time to play a game I jump into a full 'Tycoon' game though. Perhaps in an expansion or something they would add these features but it would go against the total nature of this game I belive, but who knows what they have planned :) I would personally like to see a bit more depth like this as well.
If the city has grown to a metro and has 3 industry slots already it seems that food income is just 'money'. People will not leave and move out just cause theres no food coming. So running 8 cars of food to the nearest city would be an almost better option for just quick money unless you were trying to build another up for population from more supplies or create more industry space. Thats just my theory so far from what I've seen. Theres no decline in population, only an increase. I havent fully experiemented with it though. Shuttling the food off would be more along the lines of you are having it build up to the point of stores being dormant and production overlapping the maximum storage amount. Also if you could figure out to get Goods created in B and or C you would create even more reason for it to come back to A :) Its more about supply and demand for money reasons other than demand in the literal sense with penalties for NOT bringing them the shipments.
There is no 'depoting' in this game as of yet that I can find. I remember playing RRT2 for quite some time wishing this option was avalible and it was finally included in one of the expansion. This game seems to push more of the 'traffic mayhem' approach for quick and dirty multiplay with lots of point to point management instead of the micromanagement. Where in other games the food income would vary due to market prices and more of a 'demand' in the literal sense would take place. Its not bad cause this game isn't exactly a *full* tycoon game and I enjoy it for its quick get in and play :) If i have more time to play a game I jump into a full 'Tycoon' game though. Perhaps in an expansion or something they would add these features but it would go against the total nature of this game I belive, but who knows what they have planned :) I would personally like to see a bit more depth like this as well.
Last edited by mangadrive on Mon Oct 30, 2006 3:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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mangadrive
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Sun Oct 29, 2006 9:01 am
Took this from the 'electronic strategy guide' that came with RRT2. Its good info that still applies to Railroads in many ways (except for all the water tower/sanding/stuff that doesnt appear in Railroads)
Track Systems
There are several different overall systems to use when laying track. All of them are useful, but you should choose the one that best fits your current application.
Main Line
A main line system is when your railway has one long line connecting two distant cities. Main lines connect the two cities by making a wavy line across the landscape, jumping from one smaller city to another. A combination of different routes can be set up, leapfrogging passengers from one city to another that is two cities away. Passengers from the city in between these two can then be sent to another farther away. This will allow you to haul all of your passengers, while increasing the distance to gain greater revenue. Send a few more trains from one end of the main line to the other, and you will make a lot of money when the trains finally pull in. These routes could take years to finish, but are usually very lucrative.
Most players will quickly realize that too many trains will congest a main line. Other players will not be able to pass up industry deposits close by. This is when using a Spur system becomes a good idea.
Spur System
Spurs are small tracks that shoot off from the main line to hit a station or two. These spurs can be single lines, or small loops that reconnect farther down the line so that trains can rejoin the main line without doubling back. These loops, or pockets, not only shorten a train’s travelling distance to the next station, but also help fight congestion.
Loop or Circuit
A different system that is very efficient is the Loop or Circuit. Not necessarily round, this system allows a train to start at one end of an industry flow and carry that all the way to the end product. For example, a train can pick up grain from a grain farm and haul it to a sheep farm, where it picks up a load of wool and carries it to a textile mill. There it converts the wool into goods and hauls them to a large city that is close to the initial grain farm. This system makes money at every step along the way, and creates its own product as it goes. The drawback to trying to use this system is that the opportunity to run a track that utilizes every step of the industry flow and ends up near the first step rarely presents itself.
Hub
Another good system is the Hub system. In this system, one large city serves as a central hub, and smaller routes and spurs eventually create lucrative supplies for this central city. This is a good system because large cities have high demands. The problem is that even the largest of cities can only take so much, and some industries such as auto production often only pop up in larger cities. Your hub city will grow and produce its own cars and passengers, but you will not have any good location to take them to. You also find your hub city quickly becoming congested as many of your trains fight to deliver cargo to one or two central stations.
Web
The Hub system’s shortcoming naturally leads to the extensive Web system. This system connects several hubs into a large web network. You feed your large cities in routes just like in the Hub system, but you can then exchange goods between the large cities, as well. Since your trains are dispersed across the web, congestion is kept down and demand is kept up.
Broken Line
The final system is the Broken Line system. This is simply making small routes wherever you find a lucrative one. You may have a couple stations connected by track hauling passengers on the east side of the map, another on the west side creating goods and shipping them to a port, and another in the north making steel.
In practice, players will automatically use a combination of these systems, shaped by the industry distribution, goals, and politics of each map. Some maps do not allow the Broken Line system, only permitting players to build from existing track. For example, the Orient Express scenario lends itself to a combination of a hub or web in France (between Paris and Orleans) with a main line extending far across the continent to Constantinople. This line, then, may have spurs extending from it. Other times, a main line might have spurs that become other main lines.
Track Systems
There are several different overall systems to use when laying track. All of them are useful, but you should choose the one that best fits your current application.
Main Line
A main line system is when your railway has one long line connecting two distant cities. Main lines connect the two cities by making a wavy line across the landscape, jumping from one smaller city to another. A combination of different routes can be set up, leapfrogging passengers from one city to another that is two cities away. Passengers from the city in between these two can then be sent to another farther away. This will allow you to haul all of your passengers, while increasing the distance to gain greater revenue. Send a few more trains from one end of the main line to the other, and you will make a lot of money when the trains finally pull in. These routes could take years to finish, but are usually very lucrative.
Most players will quickly realize that too many trains will congest a main line. Other players will not be able to pass up industry deposits close by. This is when using a Spur system becomes a good idea.
Spur System
Spurs are small tracks that shoot off from the main line to hit a station or two. These spurs can be single lines, or small loops that reconnect farther down the line so that trains can rejoin the main line without doubling back. These loops, or pockets, not only shorten a train’s travelling distance to the next station, but also help fight congestion.
Loop or Circuit
A different system that is very efficient is the Loop or Circuit. Not necessarily round, this system allows a train to start at one end of an industry flow and carry that all the way to the end product. For example, a train can pick up grain from a grain farm and haul it to a sheep farm, where it picks up a load of wool and carries it to a textile mill. There it converts the wool into goods and hauls them to a large city that is close to the initial grain farm. This system makes money at every step along the way, and creates its own product as it goes. The drawback to trying to use this system is that the opportunity to run a track that utilizes every step of the industry flow and ends up near the first step rarely presents itself.
Hub
Another good system is the Hub system. In this system, one large city serves as a central hub, and smaller routes and spurs eventually create lucrative supplies for this central city. This is a good system because large cities have high demands. The problem is that even the largest of cities can only take so much, and some industries such as auto production often only pop up in larger cities. Your hub city will grow and produce its own cars and passengers, but you will not have any good location to take them to. You also find your hub city quickly becoming congested as many of your trains fight to deliver cargo to one or two central stations.
Web
The Hub system’s shortcoming naturally leads to the extensive Web system. This system connects several hubs into a large web network. You feed your large cities in routes just like in the Hub system, but you can then exchange goods between the large cities, as well. Since your trains are dispersed across the web, congestion is kept down and demand is kept up.
Broken Line
The final system is the Broken Line system. This is simply making small routes wherever you find a lucrative one. You may have a couple stations connected by track hauling passengers on the east side of the map, another on the west side creating goods and shipping them to a port, and another in the north making steel.
In practice, players will automatically use a combination of these systems, shaped by the industry distribution, goals, and politics of each map. Some maps do not allow the Broken Line system, only permitting players to build from existing track. For example, the Orient Express scenario lends itself to a combination of a hub or web in France (between Paris and Orleans) with a main line extending far across the continent to Constantinople. This line, then, may have spurs extending from it. Other times, a main line might have spurs that become other main lines.
There is a really easy way to make a system where you have 3 tracks through youre station and several trains coming in and out without interefering with each other. When I get home I´m going to take some pictures, but you can almost guess my strategy if you look at the way the AI lays its stations.
The basic idea, is to have all three tracks availible for any train that comes to the station. Say you have 3 rails like this
==========(A rail)===========
==========(B rail)===========
==========(C rail)===========
If you want to make the optimum of this system and want two trains to use the station at C rail, there is going to come a time when the track is blocked by the other train.
So you want it to be able to swith to ANY availible track. In this case A and B. If you also do this for all the other tracks there will hardly be any waiting time, since all tracks are availible to any train heading to the station.
This is where I had trouble until I found out how to do this properly. What you do for EVERY track is to connect it to every watchtower going into the station.
This can be a bit hard to figure out without pictures so I´m going to post some later.
The basic idea, is to have all three tracks availible for any train that comes to the station. Say you have 3 rails like this
==========(A rail)===========
==========(B rail)===========
==========(C rail)===========
If you want to make the optimum of this system and want two trains to use the station at C rail, there is going to come a time when the track is blocked by the other train.
So you want it to be able to swith to ANY availible track. In this case A and B. If you also do this for all the other tracks there will hardly be any waiting time, since all tracks are availible to any train heading to the station.
This is where I had trouble until I found out how to do this properly. What you do for EVERY track is to connect it to every watchtower going into the station.
This can be a bit hard to figure out without pictures so I´m going to post some later.
Actually i remembered my setup a bit incorrect. I have 2 trains on each of the 3 tracks going through the station, but the trains on the middle track cannot change to another lane if the middle one is already occupied. It works pretty good though. The 4 "hubs" collects resourches in my games and then the trains on the middle track hauls the finished goods elsewhere.
The setup has an illeagle track formation .... I call it the peace symbol
If you set up a main line then spur to the right then spur to the left using the same signal like your pic shows ... the game will not use the spur to the left ... I have done a fair amount of testing on it.
Maybe one of the firaxis guys will come by and say I am wrong or something...
I am curious about something so I will probably do the exact setup you have and test it.
If you set up a main line then spur to the right then spur to the left using the same signal like your pic shows ... the game will not use the spur to the left ... I have done a fair amount of testing on it.
Maybe one of the firaxis guys will come by and say I am wrong or something...
I am curious about something so I will probably do the exact setup you have and test it.
leo: Well I got the savegame to show that it does work. It can be tricky though. If a spur isnt beeing used, its probably because it isnt connected. It might LOOK like it is, but I have found that it isnt always the case. The easiest way to find out is to check if you can route a train so that it would have to use the spur. If the city is greyed out, it means there is a hole somewhere. Look out for those "track ends here" signs, it really means that the track aint connected even if you delete it 
EDIT: Uhh not sure if it where my pictures you related to lol. Well, I leave the savegame anyway for anyone to check out.
EDIT2: Hmm actually we where both right. After noticing carefully, 2 of my trains in the download attached didnt use the second track, but I was able to fix it, relaying the track.
EDIT: Uhh not sure if it where my pictures you related to lol. Well, I leave the savegame anyway for anyone to check out.
EDIT2: Hmm actually we where both right. After noticing carefully, 2 of my trains in the download attached didnt use the second track, but I was able to fix it, relaying the track.
- Attachments
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- Setup.rar
- (1.18 MiB) Downloaded 447 times
I downloaded the game ... and even tho one side isnt connected perfect it still didnt work as intended.
I deleted the side tracks and left the crossover parts ... that is the only way to find out if your crossover will work or not ... both grainfields were unable to be connected.
So basically your grain trains will never use the crossover to get to the middle track.
I deleted the side tracks and left the crossover parts ... that is the only way to find out if your crossover will work or not ... both grainfields were unable to be connected.
So basically your grain trains will never use the crossover to get to the middle track.
Yeah I didn´t update the download. It seems you cant connect more than 3 tracks to the same signal. Kinda limits the possibilities. To make a system that can do what the one I last posted, couldnt do eventually, I had to do this
Rather excessive and it is SO easy to make a connection that isnt really connected.
A light version where the outer trains can´t switch tracks
Rather excessive and it is SO easy to make a connection that isnt really connected.
A light version where the outer trains can´t switch tracks
