Wow Sid Meiers Railroads SUCKS! ;)

[ravinhood]

Hey Punk I've been reading over at the official site recently for the M2TW game there is some retrofit mod that does actually improve the AI since they did at least allow the modders access to the AI this time time around. You might want to look into that one first. Particularly from this thread over at the official site

and this appears to be the initial mod/modder overview/features

and of course the download page

Aren't I nice gave you all the props. Try it out tell me what you think as I sold my copy of M2TW awhile back. I'd rather have feedback from someone who doesn't or didn't like it as opposed to the fanbois out there that think CA is gods gift to computer game society.

[Valkyrie]

ORIGINAL: Grell

ORIGINAL: Valkyrie

ORIGINAL: Grell

Hi Valkyrie,

I adored Trainz, it was really a great game, I didn't know they made a second version.

Regards,

Grell

Actually, there are about five different versions available. They started fairly simply and kept adding stuff on until it started getting too complex to run well. Trainz 2006 had a lot of detractors. Their latest is something called "Trainz Classics" I believe which was a bit of a step backwards in complexity.

Someone said Auran was in bankruptcy.. I hadn't heard that, but just checked out their forums and it seems that "Auran Development" (that was producing a ton of non-TRAINZ titles) went under but the core TRAINZ group remains in operation (though with a smaller staff) and development on their next product continues. It looks like they tried to do this massive expansion beyond Train simulation and that is what blew up on them.

Anyway, they have a collection pack that includes the orginal TRAINZ, Ultimate TRAINZ, TRAINZ 2004 and TRAINZ 2006 in one affordable package.

Hi Valkyrie,

Five versions holy moses is that alot. I never saw them in stores ever. I wish that I could find that classic collection you mentioned but i doubt it.

Regards,

Grell

Correction: The Classic Collection doesn't include the original TRAINZ (which is now no longer sold) but does include three collections of TRAINS Routes plus UTC, 2004, and 2006 versions of TRAINZ. That's a great bargain.

Look for it Here at the Auran online store. I bought all my versions online from them as they never had much store penetration, especially here in the US.

[cdbeck]

BW, Direct2Drive has a copy of Railroad Tycoon 3 for sale, for those unable to find the CD. My CD always gave me fits with install and running it (strange errors with the movies). But I loved the game, when it did run.

I may try out the Trainz demos, I love a good RR sim. I even liked Sid's Railroads, despite what RH says. The game was simple, was meant to be a "railroad set based game." Still, it does have some nice economic sim to it and allows for quick track laying. It is no RRTycoon 2 (or even 3) but it does it in a pinch.

SoM

[marcusm]

Also watch out for the new MS Train Sim, using the same engine as FSX.
If you are in UK(or just interested in British rail like me), check out uktransim.com, they
have tons of stuff for MSTS but also some for Trainz(there are better dedicated Trainz sites though).

It's quite simple. If you are into model railroading, then TRSXX might be the most fun but if you like
a realistic sim then MSTS is the better one. I like both but then I love trains .
The cool thing about Trainz is that it makes designing your own tracks very very easy, there are also thousands of free objects etc you can use. Mainly US, EU and AU stuff but there are some cool Japanese stuff as well. Not as good as the MSTS Jap items.

Also. If I could recommend onge single download for TRS. It would b Razorback Railways, it's free and totally amazing. It's a huge very realistic Australian map with hundreds of activities and awesome terrain. It is simply a must have for any TRS owner.

There are those who can't understand the novelty of trains but then they never grew up with model railorading .

Actually. Auran had this long term goal to do some kind of economic sim out of Trainz but I am not sure it would work, the editor would have to be far easier to use.

[cdbeck]

Speaking of economic train sim, are there any out there besides SM Railroads and Railroad Tycoon 3? I always had problems installing RRTC 3 and Railroads is just too simplistic for me to feel overly excited about. I almost decided to spend the money to get the D2D version of RRTC 3, just so my faulty CD would not plague me, but I hate to spend money for a game I already own.

I like the look of Trainz, and I know that you can pick up cargo and try to meet your schedule, but I would guess it is too hardcore driver for me. I love the ability to drive street cars as well. I had such high hopes for Chris Taylor's Locomotion, a few years back, but that game was so much crap.

Basically, I am looking for a game that allows you to ferry both people and cargo, set up transportation routes, deal with transport based economy. Don't even mention Transport Giant, as I have an nVidia card and the drivers do not work for Transport Giant or Industry Giant Gold.

SoM

[marcusm]

There is Rails across America but it is a bit old now.

[ravinhood]

There's 1830 Railroads and Robber Barrons for the PC made by Avalon Hill (I think) that is probably the best strategic simulation of them all since the AI is ruthless to the core. If you play anything above normal they won't help float your railroad and you'll have to do it all yourself and beat them alone. It's a DOS game so it's a bit finiky working on XP but it does work you can use DOSBOX as well. It doesn't have any animations like the railroad tycoons or trainz it's pure TILES and SMILES when you play it. haha

Then for a bit of everything there is "Transport Tycoon Deluxe" and "Industry Giant II", both are excellent fun of cargo hauling of various kinds though the IG-II gets a lil bogged down with the 4 wheel vehicles and there will be 10000 on the screen before you know it. lol Transport Tycoon Deluxe on the other hand has an improved AI (I think the game cheats now lol) and staying at the top is not as easy as it once was.

[Grell]

ORIGINAL: Valkyrie




Correction: The Classic Collection doesn't include the original TRAINZ (which is now no longer sold) but does include three collections of TRAINS Routes plus UTC, 2004, and 2006 versions of TRAINZ. That's a great bargain.

Look for it Here at the Auran online store. I bought all my versions online from them as they never had much store penetration, especially here in the US.

Hi Val,

Thank you so much for this![:)]

Regards,

Grell

[andym]

Of course if you just want to drive trains then theres always Microsoft Train Sim.Its a bit dated now but there are a wealth of sites developing routes and rolling stock on the net.I use UK Trainsim,they have some excellent community CD's with miles and miles of track set in all timelines,50's onwards.
 
have a look at www.uktrainsim.com

[cdbeck]

ORIGINAL: ravinhood
Then for a bit of everything there is "Transport Tycoon Deluxe" and "Industry Giant II", both are excellent fun of cargo hauling of various kinds though the IG-II gets a lil bogged down with the 4 wheel vehicles and there will be 10000 on the screen before you know it. lol Transport Tycoon Deluxe on the other hand has an improved AI (I think the game cheats now lol) and staying at the top is not as easy as it once was.

Man, you don't read. I said don't even mention those two games. They don't work for nVidia, which I have. I wanted to get Industry Giant a while back from Gamersgate, but they simply don't want to make it viable on an nvidia system, as it is too old.

[ravinhood]

Ummm Transport Tycoon Deluxe definitely works on XP with Nvidia cause that's what I have. Now Industry Giant II yeah you need a 5950 card or less to run it, but, I run a dual boot with Win98 and a 5950 setup for when I want to play some older games that have issues with newer cards. But, I never had issues with Transport Tycoon Deluxe working with my Nvidia 7600 card. Also Transport Tycoon Deluxe is NOT Transport Giant, in fact I never even heard of Transport Giant, it's always been Industry Giant and then Industry Giant II Gold.

[marcusm]

Did anyone here get the new Railroad Simulator from EA/Kuju? I wonder if has any
kind of activities/industry like Trainz. I havent seen anything in reviews.

[cdbeck]

Oh, Transport Tycoon not Transport Giant. Yeah, I mentioned Locomotion, which was Chris Taylor's half hearted attempted to "update" Transport Tycoon Deluxe. This ended up failing miserably and was a giant, crappy, buggy, horrible mess.

BTW RH, have you seen the Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe project? Apparently they are updating the open source to add more functions without changing the gameplay.

RH, this is the Transport Giant I was talking about. It is also by JoWood. Funny, I just saw that Trainz 2006 and 2004 got put up on Gamersgate last night, as we were talking about them. Which is the better pick?

Marcusm,
looks like the Kuju program only comes with 4 real world routes, which depends on the country version you buy. They said each route is about 90 miles. That seems rather short, even if one can create their own routes via a world builder.


SoM

[marcusm]

Well, a detailed route could be worth ten crappy ones .
Look at the default content in Flight Sim, almost everyone starts with buying some kind
of landscape/airport package because the default ones sucks.

For MSTS I loved German Pro Trains. Fantastic routes (not all but most).

[andym]

ORIGINAL: marcusm

Did anyone here get the new Railroad Simulator from EA/Kuju? I wonder if has any
kind of activities/industry like Trainz. I havent seen anything in reviews.

I dont have it but on the UK Trainsim site there is a forum dedicated to this and there are some activities and routed in development and some already available as a free download.

All the routes that are developed by the UKTrainSim community are unbelievable,they rank as high if not higher in quality as those commercially available.where can you get London to Liverpool and Manchester with rolling stock and over 100 activities for less than £5!!!!!

Check it out.The screen shot forum is amazing.

[marcusm]

What about activities though? I havent managed to find anything about any industry activities.

As an aside, it seems GamersGate has both TRS versions for download today.

[Valkyrie]

ORIGINAL: Son_of_Montfort

Oh, Transport Tycoon not Transport Giant. Yeah, I mentioned Locomotion, which was Chris Taylor's half hearted attempted to "update" Transport Tycoon Deluxe. This ended up failing miserably and was a giant, crappy, buggy, horrible mess.

BTW RH, have you seen the Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe project? Apparently they are updating the open source to add more functions without changing the gameplay.

RH, this is the Transport Giant I was talking about. It is also by JoWood. Funny, I just saw that Trainz 2006 and 2004 got put up on Gamersgate last night, as we were talking about them. Which is the better pick?

Marcusm,
looks like the Kuju program only comes with 4 real world routes, which depends on the country version you buy. They said each route is about 90 miles. That seems rather short, even if one can create their own routes via a world builder.


SoM

The better pick? I'd go with TRAINZ 2004 to get your feet wet. Afterwards, if you want more depth and complexity (and have a heavier duty computer) you could move up to 2006. I just found 2006 to be extremely impressive, but just not as much fun for someone like me who isn't a hardcore train buff. A lot of people on the TRAINZ forums would agree. 2006 was greatly improved by a massive patch (and I mean it was HUGE)which was necessary to fix a lot of issues with the original release. One issue with 2006 was with the utility to manage all of your downloaded content - it was complex, confusing, and often buggy. 2004 was easier to add new content to IMHO. Honestly, there is so much stuff out there to download that you can easily end up with thousands and thousands of trains, rolling stock, scenery, and routes. Each new route may add it's own list of additional terrain and building items that need to be downloaded which further complicates things when you try and run a route and suddenly find the track ends at a bridge that you don't have <LOL>. The "download station" has always been the strength and weakness of the series for this reason: tons of great stuff to download, but increasing complexity to manage it all if you take advantage of the huge library of assets.

It's all worth it though... at the prices being charged now they are all worth having in your gaming collection. If you go with TRAINZ 2004 be sure and visit TRAINZ Pro Routes and download their Clinchfield Route... it's my favorite!

[Adam Parker]

ORIGINAL: ravinhood

There's 1830 Railroads and Robber Barrons for the PC made by Avalon Hill (I think) that is probably the best strategic simulation of them all since the AI is ruthless to the core.

If Matrix is still in the business of resurrecting old games, I'd like them to give us this one.

Another guy on these forums, Mark Shot, fell in love with this old game recently.

As for me, I've been playing Railroad Tycoon 3 alot lately and I've noticed one big thing compared to RRTC 2. There's no AI! I've played 4 scenarios in a row now and not once has the AI started a railroad of its own - not laid a single track!

What gives?

(But compared to the Sid Meier game, RRTC 3 at least, is immensely more intuitive to play - and looks fantastic).

[ilovestrategy]

I remember that game not doing well in the reviews. Sid miers, I mean.

[cdbeck]

ORIGINAL: Valkyrie
The better pick? I'd go with TRAINZ 2004 to get your feet wet. Afterwards, if you want more depth and complexity (and have a heavier duty computer) you could move up to 2006. I just found 2006 to be extremely impressive, but just not as much fun for someone like me who isn't a hardcore train buff. A lot of people on the TRAINZ forums would agree. 2006 was greatly improved by a massive patch (and I mean it was HUGE)which was necessary to fix a lot of issues with the original release. One issue with 2006 was with the utility to manage all of your downloaded content - it was complex, confusing, and often buggy. 2004 was easier to add new content to IMHO. Honestly, there is so much stuff out there to download that you can easily end up with thousands and thousands of trains, rolling stock, scenery, and routes. Each new route may add it's own list of additional terrain and building items that need to be downloaded which further complicates things when you try and run a route and suddenly find the track ends at a bridge that you don't have <LOL>. The "download station" has always been the strength and weakness of the series for this reason: tons of great stuff to download, but increasing complexity to manage it all if you take advantage of the huge library of assets.

It's all worth it though... at the prices being charged now they are all worth having in your gaming collection. If you go with TRAINZ 2004 be sure and visit TRAINZ Pro Routes and download their Clinchfield Route... it's my favorite!

Well, there is the collection, and it isn't much more than the Trainz 2006 by itself. I am really interested in city routes with elevated trains or trams (I live in NYC). Does 2004 have these, or is it all locomotives? Why is 2004 more "user-friendly"? I have both demos and literally can't tell much of a difference.

Incidentally, and a bit off-topic, anyone try Ship Simulator 2008? If there is anything I like more than trains, it is ships!

SoM