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Transport Fever is announced

Started by isidoro, April 11, 2016, 11:42:17 PM

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isidoro

Urban Games joins Gambitous to develop the successor of Train Fever: http://www.transportfever.com

The main improvement will be the addition of new means of transportation: boats, planes...  But some improvements asked by the players of Train Fever are also planned:

       
  • More complex industry chains
  • Campaigns
  • Easier build modes
  • X type railway crossings
  • Easier updates or expansions of stations
I own and like TF.  Let's see what comes out of the second part...

Taurus

Interesting if it will be any better although I wont be buying it. Deeply dissapointed by Train Fever.

Isaac Eiland-Hall

How big are the maps in comparison to what's possible with Simutrans? If you might be able to guess a comparable size. Might be a difficult question, I know, but I'm asking less for technical info and more for the "feel". :)

isidoro

It's indeed difficult to answer that question since TF is a full 3D-game.
With the last patch, it's possible to import height maps and maximum size is 4097x4097, which is pretty decent.

Once you play it, the feeling of the biggest map is at most "medium" size, compared to ST.  Another problem with TF is that all random maps look the same and the import feature is very limited: cities are placed at random and with fixed names, all of them has to be connected by road, which for some maps it's really difficult, no rivers, etc.

Nonetheless, the game is nice to play in my opinion.

ucho

I see nothing about UI improvements and the poor interface was my biggest issue with Train Fever, having more that 20 lines was already hard to manage, while Simutrans is still all right with a thousand.

Hitardo

Hello,

I did not even know about Train Fever.
I just discovered about Transport Fever and I am really excited to see and play it.

I just watch this review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hWJEmBcytM&feature=em-uploademail

My biggest concern is - and always will be - the AI.
If the passengers are generated only because I have placed a line - like in OpenTTD) - I do not want it. If the passengers have well defined origins and destinations, with criteria in what are the restrictions (e.g. only trasnfer two time) - like in Simutrans - I really want to play it.

Let's see how it evolves, and what is the initial release.
One thing is sure: I will not buy it until it is released and fully tested.

What is your opinion?

Cheers!
Always looking for new things, new knowledge.

jamespetts

Not buying games until they are fully released and tested, no matter what the game, is a given, is it not?
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isidoro

I think that passengers in Transport Fever are agents and are simulated individually.  It means that a person has a home, work place, etc. and they will try to go there once in a while.

I very much liked Train Fever, although the game had certainly some limitations.  Transport Fever is a refurbished version of Train Fever with some of the main issues of Train Fever addressed, and some not.  Although the game engine is new (I think), from my experience from Train Fever, I had no serious issue with that game, but experiences may vary from person to person.

I've already ordered Transport Fever and the release is due November 8th.

jamespetts

I strongly suspect that map size will be much more limited in Transport Fever than in Simutrans: with an individual agent model, computers are simply not powerful enough for country-sized maps that are achievable now in Simutrans.
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Hitardo

I agree with everything said here: the agent-behaviour of passengers, and the map limitations.

I simply did not already bought Transport Fever because I do not believe in pre-orders.
But, there were already reviews from Youtubers I trust (like Squirrel, which I placed above), where the game shows maturity state and near-finish state.

Allthough - much like Simutrans - Transport Fever will not be "finished" in the real sense of the word.
And the mod support is something that remains to be seen, especially through Steam.

Nevertheless, more options for transport simulation is always good!
Always looking for new things, new knowledge.

Hitardo

Hello,

Have any of you played Transport Fever?

What is your feedback?

Thank you in advance.
Cheers!
Always looking for new things, new knowledge.

isidoro

I've bought the game and already played 11 hours.  It's an improved version of Train Fever, with a lot of improvements and novelties, but still a lot of coincidences with its predecessor.

I like Train Fever, so for me, it's worth the price.

If you want to know any detail, just ask.

Hitardo

Thank you!

My main doubts are related to AI in passenger movement and in time-consistent.

a) Are passengers a challenge, in a good way, like in Simutrans.
Do they have destinations - like work, home, shopping, etc... - and only take the lines that respect their objective?
If you create a line from "nowhere" to "another nowhere", do passengers appear?

b) Is the time-consistent, in the way that it takes one and a half year to factories create goods to be transported?
Always looking for new things, new knowledge.

jamespetts

I have seen quite a number of gameplay videos of this, although I have not bought it myself (I watch the videos while I am waiting for code to compile, or waiting to see whether a Simutrans server/client will desync, so I have seen a large amount of game footage by now); I get the impression from them that it is a little like a simplified version of Simutrans-Standard with more modern 3d graphics, but a much smaller range of vehicles/terrain/buildings. The balance seems off to me (electric railway locomotives cost more to build and run than steam railway locomotives, for example; freight appears to make little or no profit most of the time, whereas passengers can make huge profits), and players who have set up railway lines that are essentially a giant circle of the whole map (which is small in terms of what Simutrans can do on modern computers) seem to have done very well in terms of profitability, which suggests that passengers do not care how long they take to get where they are going. There does seem to be a system in which vehicles get old and wear out, which is in principle a good idea and absent from Simutrans (both Standard and, at present, Experimental), although I have not seen any footage where it is clear what, if any, impact this has on gameplay.

Having watched videos rather than played it, my ability to comment in detail is limited, but I get the impression that it is the sort of game where a player can succeed in the game's own terms (i.e., passengers/goods transported, money, towns growing) by producing quite unrealistic and (in real world terms) inefficient transport networks.

On the other hand, it does look quite good graphically (except that the terrain is a bit bland) and the tracklaying is reported to have been improved a lot from Train Fever, with this appearing to be quite easy and intuitive, producing realistic looking results fairly easily.

Time also appears to pass very quickly.
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asaphxiix

I really love this game. It's great. It's a bit too buggy, but it's playable and I hope they address the issues soon, there are plenty. However it's just a brilliant and smart game.

A) Cargo is a very hard challenge, so hard that I have yet to really occupy myself with pax. Indeed pax have destinations, and will take only lines that get them there. They won't appear unless they want to go there already, and other conditions are met (like simutrans experimental).;

b) I'm not sure I understand your question, but I think time is rather consistent, yes.

Spenk009

The game mechanic for vehicle aging and replacement is needed on vehicle age. All vehicles have a lifespan (usually 30yrs) and will function normally within that lifespan. After that I believe they lose power and break down. There is a vehicle replacer that you can set a replacement vehicle/consist with and choose when the vehicle is to be replaced in terms of its lifespan (25%, 100%, 125%, 150%, 200%). It will automatically be replaced while at a stop/station.

While a nice concept, the lifespans end up equal to vehicle availability in the time line and so you find that the replacement you set for 100% of the lifespan ends up being cancelled due to history moving on and a replacement being de-selected due to it becoming unavailable for purchase.

Hitardo

Thank you for your comments.
I think I now have the knowledge I needed.

I will buy the game, due to two reasons: new game, with more pleasant graphics; and to help improve this type of games, that really has room to grow and improve in so many ways.

What are your thoughts?

But let me assure you that Simutrans is going to continue to be a part of my free time, as I love my save game, which I invested a lot of time since 2011 :)
Always looking for new things, new knowledge.

isidoro

Once you've played with it, you can tell us about your experience.

Regarding the comments above, I mostly agree with them.  The only thing I find not accurate is vehicles that get old.  They never break down (and I doubt that they really lose power or performance).  What it surely happens is that maintenance price goes up very quickly.

It's very annoying to have to manually replace your vehicles and, although you have a sort of automatic replacement for lines, in Train Fever (not checked in Transport Fever) you lost your cargo when a vehicle was automatically replaced and, as mentioned above, the feature is of little use when the vehicle isn't produced any more.

In terms of gameplay, I think more suitable not to consider obsolescence at all.  If a pair of horses with a cart is good enough for an old mine in the mountains, why force the change?  Just make the characteristics of new vehicles (speed, power, efficiency, price per km and tonne, etc) do the trick, just like in real life.

A good solution to some of these problems (and also an idea for ST) is to make possible a deferred replacement: you can tell the vehicle the changes you want to make and it will automatically do it at the next station or depot.

jamespetts

Quote from: isidoro on November 15, 2016, 11:44:58 PM

A good solution to some of these problems (and also an idea for ST) is to make possible a deferred replacement: you can tell the vehicle the changes you want to make and it will automatically do it at the next station or depot.


Something broadly along those lines is eventually planned for Experimental.
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isidoro

That would be great!  A lot of time is presently lost with micromanagement (send vehicle to depot (which can take very very long), change consists, going back to route...).

Even if the trains are eventually forced to do their deferred changes in depots and not on the fly or stations, it would be great, since the strategy involved in placing depots in the right places just to avoid deadlocks or similar would surely increase the game experience.