How to get started?

[VPa]

Hi,

When you start Simutrans, there is a map with some drowsy towns with some people walking on the roads. How can I get them interested?  I've made a railway connection between two towns, built stations, trying to keep the stations connected to the villages by roads, and established a route/line, but nobody seems interested -- they just walk slowly and indifferently on those little roads.

How can I make any difference in the game?  How can I get any routes into operation?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Isaac Eiland-Hall]

Welcome to the forum!

The visible people are just eye candy - they can be turned off in the settings.

Passenger networks in Simutrans have to be moderately large to start to attract a lot of passengers, because goods and passengers both have specific destinations. So passengers in a particular city that are generated will want to basically go all over the map. If you're only serving a couple of cities, you won't get many - and you won't be profitable.

I'd recommend poking around the map to find industries; find a connection between two and transport the goods. A great way to start is to find something like oil or coal that goes to a power station — because that's a simple industry connection with only one step. You can see how it works. Then look at industries that have multiple layers. Industries won't produce goods that require input goods until all the inputs are satisfied, so you have to work bottom-to-top.

This might help a little: http://www.simutrans-tips.com/en/tutorials/startagame.php

More here: http://www.simutrans-tips.com/en/tutorials/

[dannyman]

Another strategy if you prefer to focus on passengers is build out a bus network that covers as much ground as you can, then start upgrading links to rail as needed.

[VPa]

OK, thanks guys.

The problem was that I didn't know what exactly I should do to get a line to work, but little by little I foud out and got a profitable line. I tried to write down the steps necessary to get a line working:

1. Verify that there a relatively straight roads between the targets.
2. Build the stops for the bus or truck.
3. Create a route between the destinations, using the route list view.
4. Build a garage near the route.
5. At the garage, buy a transportation vehicle and assign it for the line.
6. Start the vehicle, and it should start driving the route.

Would it be feasible to add that type of "Getting Started" instructions somewhere?

Thanks, regards,
Vesa

PS. Admitted, page http://www.simutrans-tips.com/en/tutorials/truck.php contains pretty similar help content but it would probably be good to include that type of information into the documentation in the game or directly linked to the game.

[IgorEliezer]

Hey VPa, you might want to see the Simutrans Starter Guide: http://simutrans.igoreliezer.com/docs/Simutrans%20Starter%20Guide.pdf

It's a bit outdated, but still worth trying.

[Frank]

...
The problem was that I didn't know what exactly I should do to get a line to work, but little by little I foud out and got a profitable line. I tried to write down the steps necessary to get a line working:

1. Verify that there a relatively straight roads between the targets.
2. Build the stops for the bus or truck.
3. Create a route between the destinations, using the route list view.
4. Build a garage near the route.
5. At the garage, buy a transportation vehicle and assign it for the line.
6. Start the vehicle, and it should start driving the route.

Would it be feasible to add that type of "Getting Started" instructions somewhere?
...

a german tutorial for this, I think

google translate this page to en