What would improve Railroads! ?
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johnb10000
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Thu Nov 02, 2006 6:52 am
Building bridges, tunnels and though cities too easy
Building though cities, building bridges and tunnels is too easy.
The cost of building bridges and tunnels is way too low even on the hard level. In previous railroad games I would avoid building bridges and tunnels at the beginning of the game because they were too expensive and the amount of starting money was low. I would often run the track around the mountain and try to keep the elevation from changing much or go over the mountain. In this game you can build a long tunnel through a huge mountain without much additional cost.
In this game it costs the same to build through the middle of a city as it does along the edge. In the original Railroad Tycoon and Transport Tycoon it would cost money to build through a city. The number and size of the buildings destroyed by the rail line determined the cost. In these games the station had a certain radius and you would have to decide where the place the station to get the houses and industries you want. I find this a lot more fun than sticking a station anywhere in the city.
In the original Railroad Tycoon the industries were scattered all over the map instead of being in cities. If there is a steel mill out in the middle of nowhere you can bring coal then the pick up the steel. After a while houses will start to form and grow into a city.
The cost of building bridges and tunnels is way too low even on the hard level. In previous railroad games I would avoid building bridges and tunnels at the beginning of the game because they were too expensive and the amount of starting money was low. I would often run the track around the mountain and try to keep the elevation from changing much or go over the mountain. In this game you can build a long tunnel through a huge mountain without much additional cost.
In this game it costs the same to build through the middle of a city as it does along the edge. In the original Railroad Tycoon and Transport Tycoon it would cost money to build through a city. The number and size of the buildings destroyed by the rail line determined the cost. In these games the station had a certain radius and you would have to decide where the place the station to get the houses and industries you want. I find this a lot more fun than sticking a station anywhere in the city.
In the original Railroad Tycoon the industries were scattered all over the map instead of being in cities. If there is a steel mill out in the middle of nowhere you can bring coal then the pick up the steel. After a while houses will start to form and grow into a city.
This is why I thought the ability to enlarge the minimap to search it and/or have it as a 2nd screen map would be nice. By the time you get to the video cards required to operate this and most othergames, the 2nd video plug is there begging to be used....MaximvS wrote:I would like to be able to locate raw materials easier. You can click on a resource from the menu to find out who needs that resource, but it would be handy to be able to pinpoint the source on the minimap too rather than having to scroll around the map looking for them.
If you click on a city that requires a resource, you'll see that the mini map will show you where the resources are with an icon of the resource. It needs filters so you can turn on/off things (like if I'm looking for Coal, filter off People/Mail so I don't see the little blue icon cluttering up the minimap).MaximvS wrote:I would like to be able to locate raw materials easier. You can click on a resource from the menu to find out who needs that resource, but it would be handy to be able to pinpoint the source on the minimap too rather than having to scroll around the map looking for them.
in the lower-left corner, near the train list tab is a "goods" tab. Click it, pull it up and hover your mouse over the good in question. The mini-map will change to show the supply points (indicated by that good's symbol) and cities/industries demanding that good (indicated by an exclamation point within a yellow triangle).
There's your filtered goods supply and demand locater.
There's your filtered goods supply and demand locater.
One thing i's change as it's so bad it's actually stopping me enjoying or even playing the game for any length of time is the Bloody speed - PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE if any developers are reading these forum put some sort of speed slider in game as once the railroads develop some the game just runs away with it self and is really no fun to play at all.
In fact it's so bad I actually wonder if this game had any sort of singer player design input at all or had any sort of beta/gameplay testing. I love the look of the game but am really starting to thing firaxis dropped the ball here.
In fact it's so bad I actually wonder if this game had any sort of singer player design input at all or had any sort of beta/gameplay testing. I love the look of the game but am really starting to thing firaxis dropped the ball here.
Everybody happy?
Is everyone so happy with the patch that they've quit posting or have you moved to some other forum?
While there were quite a few improvements, there are still some basic problems and there doesn't seem to be much discussion about them.
Not considering gameplay issues and changes on a wish list of how to make it fit my playstyle, these things are still a big problem to me:
1) Hesitation. Introduced with the patch is a periodic hesitation in all animation and keyboard activity where all action freezes for anywhere from momentary to four to five seconds. This reminds me of the days when the old DOS BASIC would freeze up during its 'clean up' phase.
2) Partial texture display. Occasionally it appears that the 3D engine will display only parts of the view for a few seconds. Sometimes it switches to show the ground texture (green), sometimes the ground texture and only the tracks, and others the ground texture, the tracks and the trains. This also appears to happen during the hesitation mentinoned above.
3) Lock-ups. In all cases, eventually the game will lock up or 'freeze'. During this time, the cursor still shows animation and is active but nothing is happening. Windows task manager shows the game 'Not Responding' and the game cannot be shut-down using it, nor can one reboot without a power down. The task manager shows the game using about 50% of the processor time. The system is still active since I can move the cursor over to my second monitor and do things there (such as post gripes).
These symptoms have replaced the previous crashes to desktop and did not appear prior to patching.
Dell XPS, 1g mem, GeForce 700 GTX (256) with new drivers installed when the game was first released pre-patch.
Old issues still at hand:
The minimap is awsumly TOO mini. All detail is lost on that tiny thing. How about a detachable sizeable map for planning routes?
When I plan a route using the routing tool, I expect the trains to follow the path shown by the little engine on the routing screen unless there is an available bypass. Apparently they will follow that route if no part of their path is blocked but otherwise they will do strange things to get around. I've seen them turn around and go backwards and turn around and run up backwards at a switch (with a curious animation showing the engine somewhere near the switch junction) and turn around between a couple of signals until the path is clear. Can't say that in all my years of running tabletop trains I've ever seen them do that!
So, is anybody out there anymore?
While there were quite a few improvements, there are still some basic problems and there doesn't seem to be much discussion about them.
Not considering gameplay issues and changes on a wish list of how to make it fit my playstyle, these things are still a big problem to me:
1) Hesitation. Introduced with the patch is a periodic hesitation in all animation and keyboard activity where all action freezes for anywhere from momentary to four to five seconds. This reminds me of the days when the old DOS BASIC would freeze up during its 'clean up' phase.
2) Partial texture display. Occasionally it appears that the 3D engine will display only parts of the view for a few seconds. Sometimes it switches to show the ground texture (green), sometimes the ground texture and only the tracks, and others the ground texture, the tracks and the trains. This also appears to happen during the hesitation mentinoned above.
3) Lock-ups. In all cases, eventually the game will lock up or 'freeze'. During this time, the cursor still shows animation and is active but nothing is happening. Windows task manager shows the game 'Not Responding' and the game cannot be shut-down using it, nor can one reboot without a power down. The task manager shows the game using about 50% of the processor time. The system is still active since I can move the cursor over to my second monitor and do things there (such as post gripes).
These symptoms have replaced the previous crashes to desktop and did not appear prior to patching.
Dell XPS, 1g mem, GeForce 700 GTX (256) with new drivers installed when the game was first released pre-patch.
Old issues still at hand:
The minimap is awsumly TOO mini. All detail is lost on that tiny thing. How about a detachable sizeable map for planning routes?
When I plan a route using the routing tool, I expect the trains to follow the path shown by the little engine on the routing screen unless there is an available bypass. Apparently they will follow that route if no part of their path is blocked but otherwise they will do strange things to get around. I've seen them turn around and go backwards and turn around and run up backwards at a switch (with a curious animation showing the engine somewhere near the switch junction) and turn around between a couple of signals until the path is clear. Can't say that in all my years of running tabletop trains I've ever seen them do that!
So, is anybody out there anymore?
I second your problems, wingo! Fortunately, I was able to play for hours on-end pre-patch with no issues or CTD's like others. It was great.
Post-patch, I have the problems you described. Every now and then, it will look like I am running ghost-trains and the industries diappear. To clear this prob, I hit the windows button, and then re-maximize the game and it's fixed. But I get the freezes you described too. No way to re-initialize from those. Have to hard reboot. Also, sometimes I cannot even get a game to start. At the loading screen, the game just closes itself and goes to desktop. No explanation, no error screens, no Windows Reporting screen. Very aggravating.
I think I'll re-install patchless and hope for a better alternative soon!
Post-patch, I have the problems you described. Every now and then, it will look like I am running ghost-trains and the industries diappear. To clear this prob, I hit the windows button, and then re-maximize the game and it's fixed. But I get the freezes you described too. No way to re-initialize from those. Have to hard reboot. Also, sometimes I cannot even get a game to start. At the loading screen, the game just closes itself and goes to desktop. No explanation, no error screens, no Windows Reporting screen. Very aggravating.
I think I'll re-install patchless and hope for a better alternative soon!
I just rad about the patch, I can't wait to install it. Does anybody know if the issues with circular tracks or routes has been addressed? I'm guessing not based on the descriptions of problems above.
I try to run my trains THROUGH each station, rather than having them turn around... (I really hate seeing trans just POP flip directions... for a game with such awesome graphical detail, it really takes me out of the game)
The problem I find is that when you have various stations connected in a circle (even if you are not running any routes around the circle) sometime when your trains hit a switch and the track they need is occupied, rather than waiing a few seconds until it is available they will take the alternate track.
I think what is happening is that due to the fact that my track loops around, that alternate track COULD be used to reach the final destination, so the routing engine takes it. However no human with half a brain would opt to take 50 miles of track just because the station happened to be occupied at that moment... in 10 seconds the train in the station would roll out allowing the next one in.
I try to run my trains THROUGH each station, rather than having them turn around... (I really hate seeing trans just POP flip directions... for a game with such awesome graphical detail, it really takes me out of the game)
The problem I find is that when you have various stations connected in a circle (even if you are not running any routes around the circle) sometime when your trains hit a switch and the track they need is occupied, rather than waiing a few seconds until it is available they will take the alternate track.
I think what is happening is that due to the fact that my track loops around, that alternate track COULD be used to reach the final destination, so the routing engine takes it. However no human with half a brain would opt to take 50 miles of track just because the station happened to be occupied at that moment... in 10 seconds the train in the station would roll out allowing the next one in.
Loops are a big problem
Yes, I almost exclusively use full loops just as I would no a table layout. I agree that the loops are a problem. I'm still getting CTD's and freezes but they do seem to happen more frequently once I've created at least one loop.