Train Fever: Railroad Business Simulator

[Kenadian]

I love trains, what boy doesn't, but a railroad business simulator?

My first reactions in loading up Train Fever were indeed positive but I never thought I'd get into the game as much as I have. As of this posting I've amassed a nest egg of $123 Million but it took an incredible amount of trial and error and 35 hours ingame to get to this point.

...not to mention copious amounts of head scratching.

The concept is quite simple really, try to link towns and make a profit without going bankrupt.

The cool thing is you can actually do this (all be it much slower) by not using trains at all. You can create a Public Transport System or even resource extraction and supply without ever laying rail.

Starting off in the year 1850 means horse drawn carriages are your only vehicles to work with. Since they take so long to get to where they need to go it takes careful planning to make them profitable.

Making one change to their route or simply placing your depots in the wrong area can result in a financial windfall or bankruptcy.

The same can actually be said for every aspect of the game.

I've spent countless hours laying rail that intersects in a visually stunning manner, timing my trains so they run within meters of each other only to find out that cool looking does not result in profitability. In one case I nearly killed a profitable Passenger Rail Line taking it from nearly $2 mil/month to a loss of just under $1 mil.

All of which happened because I had a Coal Rail Line slowing down the Passenger Rail. Once I moved the Coal Rail to its own line Passenger Rail picked up and now nearly 12 hours later it's almost back to where it was originally.

What's also cool about Train Fever is the Towns are affected by your growing empire.

Your success directly impacts the Towns growth. Even land value within the Town is determined by how successful you are.

It's really quite brilliant and in my opinion possibly the best part of Train Fever.

Now I'm in year 1980 and have about a dozen rail lines responsible for the bulk of my wealth. With all this disposable income I guess it's time to link as many of the other Towns added in this procedural generated world to see just how rich (or broke) I can get.

Anyone else playing Train Fever and if so what are your thoughts?

Screenshots to follow.

 

[Daunt]

Should've made this a blog post! I love realistic, high interaction business sims. They're good time killers and can be pretty addicting. This is still on sale right?

 

[Shilka]

I got this game at release in 2014, and really liked it (though it did need a couple of patches in the beginning). It has a pleasant visual style, and I like how it has transport tycoon like elements such as roadbound transport and growth depending on how well you hook up cities.

I tried playing the game with no railroads at all, but you must use very smart routing or you'll end up with heavy congestion. (they patched in larger stations to somewhat help the problem somewhat) In general, the game doesn't add any spectacular new features to the genre, but it is, as I like to say, a very solid game. It works without any major flaws, and it looks nice.

My major gripe was that fast road traffic won't overtake slow road traffic, even when it has multiple lanes available. Lane use on multilane roads is fully depending on the route that is being taken instead. Not sure if that problem has ever been patched or otherwise improved upon.

I did like the game a lot though, and it's one of those game that can do with a reinstall once every couple of years for sure. Should have a look at it again one of these days.

 

[Kenadian]

Should've made this a blog post! I love realistic, high interaction business sims. They're good time killers and can be pretty addicting. This is still on sale right?

Good point, I'll probably do that later and add images.

I got this game at release in 2014, and really liked it (though it did need a couple of patches in the beginning). It has a pleasant visual style, and I like how it has transport tycoon like elements such as roadbound transport and growth depending on how well you hook up cities.

I tried playing the game with no railroads at all, but you must use very smart routing or you'll end up with heavy congestion. (they patched in larger stations to somewhat help the problem somewhat) In general, the game doesn't add any spectacular new features to the genre, but it is, as I like to say, a very solid game. It works without any major flaws, and it looks nice.

My major gripe was that fast road traffic won't overtake slow road traffic, even when it has multiple lanes available. Lane use on multilane roads is fully depending on the route that is being taken instead. Not sure if that problem has ever been patched or otherwise improved upon.

I did like the game a lot though, and it's one of those game that can do with a reinstall once every couple of years for sure. Should have a look at it again one of these days.

Never really payed attention to the road traffic because I don't really count on it for income. You are right though, I have seen slower traffic hold up faster but never tried to see if there was a remedy for it.

 

[Daunt]

Glad to hear it duke.

Now that you mention in Shilka, I remember in EA I watched a youtube video of it and there were MAJOR issues with laying rails that were extremely annoying and laughable. I think one issue was that if you laid a long line, which due to the gradation of the track, caused nearby land to be raised to accommodate it. But then if you removed the track you were stuck with the raised land still. haha

 

[Kenadian]

Glad to hear it duke.

Now that you mention in Shilka, I remember in EA I watched a youtube video of it and there were MAJOR issues with laying rails that were extremely annoying and laughable. I think one issue was that if you laid a long line, which due to the gradation of the track, caused nearby land to be raised to accommodate it. But then if you removed the track you were stuck with the raised land still. haha

I wouldn't label it a bug because I think it's intended by the developer.

The one thing that's missing (infuriating to many) is an "undo" button. The reason is that if you make a mistake there is still a cost associated with that mistake so you have to pay for it.

Similarly if you need to delete or adjust a road (for example) to get rail through it you must demolish the houses on that section of roadway first. In order to demolish the houses you must pay for them, likewise the road.

In this case if your rail line needs to be elevated then that's changes to landscaping which are all figured into the cost of that section of rail. Assuming you delete the rail line the landscaping remains and if you want it fixed you have to pay to smoothen it out.

In the beginning it's a bit infuriating but once you get used to it you start to appreciate the fact it's there. It makes you plan much better and if you make a mistake you have to pay for that mistake.

It's actually a really great system and one of the reasons I'm so into the game.

I actually have one rail line that is so fucked up it's cheaper for me to keep it and not run trains on it rather than demolish it.

This echos in the real world where you have train lines scattered across the landscape that are no longer in use. Even in the case where the rail lines have been removed the landscape still bears the scars of the railway.

 

[Daunt]

You bring up a good, fair point. I like the mechanic behind that.

But I've seen (and read) that the actual rail building tool is clunky and buggy, especially creating necessary / excess slope and such. How do you find it (the tool itself)?

Still, I'll watch for this to go on sale.

 

[Kenadian]

I have very few issues with it to be honest. There is the odd time when trying to get rail to cross wider sections of road where it can be a bit dodgy.

Sometimes it will also say "not enough space" when trying to place a roadway or track but both things I described are not all that common unless you're trying to squeeze stuff together or cross things at lesser angles.

I haven't run any tracks over extreme mountainous regions though but to be fair that's not exactly realistic either. Railroads always pick the flattest route possible and will demolish the landscape or tunnel through it to achieve that goal.

I think it's quite possible that some want to go extreme with rail and the game won't allow for it and imho it shouldn't.