Track routing and management FAQ
Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2006 10:11 am
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!)
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!)