Smr Simple!

for examply is it better say if you are importing wood to take it to a city(say they are same distance away) which only makes paper or one that makes paper and manufacturing goods from it,

i dont KNOW but if anyone does can they say i did think having the 2 industries was better but i now begin to think otherwise because having a powerplant and a steel mill in the same city is very bad because the powerplant drains the imports without giving anythin back so is it better to say only export 1 good that is more expensive or 2 goods that gives range

(does say taking 4 wood cars give 4 paper and 4 manufacturing goods or half of each/other)

thanks for any answers

You are on the right track! The resource will be split between the 2 industries, taking twice as long for either one to increase in size. See Red Knight's excellent advice: http://www.hookedgamers.com/gamewiki/Si ... on_Choices

Edited -- too many replies drifting off topic!

keotaman wrote:You are on the right track! The resource will be split between the 2 industries, taking twice as long for either one to increase in size. See Red Knight's excellent advice: http://www.hookedgamers.com/gamewiki/Si ... on_Choices

I like to micro-manage as well, but mainly in track-laying. The underpowered locos should be replaced as soon as a new one becomes available (trade-in value helps), up to Mogul at least. When you click on select to change engine, you can see the power vs. cars graph for that particular engine. That helps you decide if a new engine will give you a significant speed increase. Too many cars on small locos will slow them down! In fact, just use 2 psgr. cars, forget mail until several trips later.
Keo

Gotta disagree with you Keo. There are several maps that begin with norris/american and quickly the mogul becomes available. I submit to you that the mogul is a very dangerous engine to be used with caution. I see many players who assume "bigger is better" and frankly that is rarely the case. This is especially true if you compete for a good with another player. But it is also true in general and engines are one of the least understood aspects of the game. Speed is not everything with engines. Ultimately profit is all any of us should care about. And speed has a cost. So the question is answered in the cost benefit analysis. Is the cost of the bigger engine > or < the benefit.... and that will tell you which engine is best for which job.

Thanks Hemi, for your input, but I can't say that I even understand the point you are trying to make.
... [Edited out]...
To get back to WoodenSpoons' question, the resource will be split between the 2 industries.

Note to Hemiroid: Your posts are offensive ... take it to PM if you can't be positive.

keotaman wrote:Thanks Bob, for your input, but I can't say that I even understand the point you are trying to make. What I was talking about is to trade up As Soon As Possible in the early stages, else your opponents will leave you in the dust. The early engines don't have the POWER to handle more than 2/3 cars, so upgrade whenever a new engine is available. As for the Mogul -- dangerous? What means this? Mogul is a powerful, but not too speedy engine, more capable than the following new one, which is why I mentioned it before as the place to re-think upgrading engines whenever a new one was available. Otherwise, each engine that can pull the Cars You Need Pulled at a faster speed is better for you, regardless of cost (which is often largely offset by trade-in value).
To get back to WoodenSpoons' question, the resource will be spilt between the 2 industries.

Keo, let's not go in circles, you simply repeated what you initially said. I'm telling you, you're wrong. The cost is NOT offset. One of the major strengths I have in online games is that I know the engines better than 95% of the players. Most of them follow your philosophy. If you'd like to put it to the test, I'm online playing right now and would be happy to show you what I mean. The Mogul IS dangerous, so is the American at times. And don't get me started on the nuts who begin the game with all the engines, I never go past a stirling or the next freight train and I beat them everytime using their big fat, 300k engines....

Again Keo, you're looking at ONLY speed, that's a mistake.

There are a lot of factors that go into choosing your engine, but again, all that matters is the bottom line. Example: Say you ship 2x more coal than I do due to your engine size, BUT my costs are 1/4 of yours.... who do you think makes more money? Each train is an isolated case. I say that because I don't want to hear about the steel coming out the other side, that's a different train, and I'll beat that one too...


It's about PROFIT, not speed. I can lay tracks very fast, but there are a few players who lay track faster than I. But, I usually beat them, because my overall profits win out. Profit keo, not speed.

I gotta agree with Darthroid, if you can't fill the cars with ppl or the mine can't load the cars that a mogul can pull at speed your better off with the more cost efficent engine. atleast untill the tons hauled warrant more Hp.

captaintractor wrote:I gotta agree with Darthroid, if you can't fill the cars with ppl or the mine can't load the cars that a mogul can pull at speed your better off with the more cost efficent engine. atleast untill the tons hauled warrant more Hp.

I would mention captaintractor, that you should try using an "8 cars no matter what" rule. You'll find that 98% of the time 8 cars is the way to go. As the crazy modders on this site have proven, empty cars have zero weight. Thus there is only the benefit of turning around quicker (efficiency) to consider. The only exceptions are when you are tracksharing (correctly, not the kind of tracksharing I saw on your pretty routing picture, that is bad tracksharing that causes problems), and one of the trains has a destination that is only a few inches/miles away from station in which case the 8 cars can clog up the entry point and should be hacked down to 3-6 cars depending on the distance... just a tip

keotaman wrote:Thanks Hemi, for your input, but I can't say that I even understand the point you are trying to make.
... [Edited out]...
To get back to WoodenSpoons' question, the resource will be split between the 2 industries.

Note to Hemiroid: Your posts are offensive ... take it to PM if you can't be positive.

Also Keo, you mentioned how the mogul beats the stirling (the next engine).... you do realize that one is a passenger train and one is a freight train???? Of course the mogul beats the stirling (FOR FREIGHT CARGOS) but the stirling does not get beat by the mogul for its design, which is passengers. You certainly need to understand that the type of engines is a very fundamental issue. If you don't understand that then I understand why my more complex points confused you.

what do you mean darthroid by 8 cars turning around quicker? If i put 8 cars on a pasenger train and say 5 fill up it would cut the speed drasticaly, does a slow train with more full cars produce more revenue then a faster train with less cars? Or were you talking about freight trains only?

captaintractor wrote:what do you mean darthroid by 8 cars turning around quicker? If i put 8 cars on a pasenger train and say 5 fill up it would cut the speed drasticaly, does a slow train with more full cars produce more revenue then a faster train with less cars? Or were you talking about freight trains only?

Actually an 8 car train with 2 cars full travels the same speed as a 2 car train with 2 cars full. When a train gets to the station, it turns around, and the caboose becomes the engine.... thus with 8 cars, it turns around 6 cars (in this example) closer to the next stop.

Now this is much more beneficial if you route properly, by that I mean you don't have more than 2 stops for every train, it just goes from A to B to A to B, repeating those 2 stops. Try it, you'll see. You ALWAYS want 8 cars (99% of the time), trust me. If you don't believe me, play me online and I'll show you how efficient you can be with this trick and about 70 others....

captaintractor wrote:what do you mean darthroid by 8 cars turning around quicker? If i put 8 cars on a pasenger train and say 5 fill up it would cut the speed drasticaly, does a slow train with more full cars produce more revenue then a faster train with less cars? Or were you talking about freight trains only?

First, let's not complicate things ok? Let's just look at things like an economist would (I'm an economist) so that means we isolate each issue. If all else is held equal, say both engines are the mogul, more cars will produce more money in same situation, same track, same mine, etc.

Regarding engines, see my above explanation. All these variables matter, and engines are crucial. There are no hard and fast rules, it's a formula that includes
a/ Distance to resource
b/ slope/grade of your track
c/ size of resource
d/ # of people competing for that same resource
e/ stage of game

see? it's a bit more complex than "always upgrade as quick as possible".... you'll get killed with absolute rules like that in this game... well I suppose crap like that might seem to work against the lobotomized computers...

Bob's point is this:
If you've ever looked at the train when it turns around, it ends up basicly centred around the station. Ergo if you use 8 cars, your engine is now that much closer to the other end of the run. Especially if you use his trick of having the station trackage pared down to the bare minimum length, a trick I've yet to master but since, as Bob notes, I only compete against ye olde lobotomized computer, its not neccecary.

Star Ranger4 wrote:Bob's point is this:
If you've ever looked at the train when it turns around, it ends up basicly centred around the station. Ergo if you use 8 cars, your engine is now that much closer to the other end of the run. Especially if you use his trick of having the station trackage pared down to the bare minimum length, a trick I've yet to master but since, as Bob notes, I only compete against ye olde lobotomized computer, its not neccecary.

I like my essay version of the answer much better!! Okay, I'm a bit wordy so thank you for the concise explanation of what I said Star. And how do you know about short tracks if you don't play online... clearly you must, what is your user ID? And to maximize the effect there are several other tricks involved, not just the "pared tracks" as you describe. And I do occasionally play the lobotomized computers. But only to harass another player or players. If there are only two or three of us, sometimes I add one or two computers. With the computers on investor level and the humans on robber baron. Every once in a while you do get a computer on PCP that goes nuts and can definitely cause problems for less than advanced players and it's kinda funny.

Also note, the 8 cars rule applies no matter what except in the one exception case I noted above that should be ignored until one is at least at intermediate skill.

Let's play sometime Star. I always offer a handicap to keep it interesting (robber vs investor), maybe I can show you how to master a few new tricks...

I play online, just not SMR. Only online game I make time for is a piece of abandonware called Allegiance.

Everything else about on line competition i've learned from YOUR posts...