Poll: previous experience with other simulation games

[vilvoh]

I know many of you come from the dark side, but I would like to know exactly how many of you have experience playing with other transport simulation games like OTTD, RailRoadTycoon, A-train, etc.. Each game has its own way to play it, with different goals and strategies, therefore I think wouldbe a good idea to know the previous influences of the Simutrans community. It doesn't matter if you still play any other game, apart from Simutrans. This poll is focused on gaming experience.

P.S: probably I've forgotten some other simulations games similar to Simutrans, but I think they're the most popular ones.

[jbode]

Transport Tycoon ... early 90s ... I did not like the creation of wagons at the station and the overtaking/running of trains ... and there had been a very low limit of max trains (can't remember ...)

[Dwachs]

Simcity 1 (on a 8086 machine / monochrome), simcity 2000 (on windows 3.11), railroad tycoon, ttdpatch and openttd some years ago

In ttdpatch/openttd I did not like the ability of trains to lose their ways and passsenger without destination. This changed maybe in the meantime, but I dont have time to try it out.

[Zeno]

I played all them but RollerCoaster Tycoon. I played a lot with A-Train, with all simcity series, later on I played Transport Tycoon till madness and finally I played OTTD for a couple of years, before I found Simutrans.
I miss Traffic Giant in the poll... I played a lot as is the only game appart from ST which supports citicens with their own destiny, besides allowing them to change transport to reach its destiny. Very limited thematic, but nice game though.

[vilvoh]

I miss Traffic Giant in the poll...[..]

Well, as I said, there are a lot of transport simulation games, and the poll has a limited set of options. Therefore in case the game is not available between the options, you should vote Others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Transport_simulation_games

EDIT: I've changed RollerCoaster Tycoon by Traffic Giant..

[VS]

IMHO it would make more sense to merge OTTD with TTD and ttdpatch, as these mostly share the same design paradigms.

There is no entry for Railroad Tycoon series in the poll.

Also "no game before" and "Simutrans is first" are identical, no?



I played TTD, ttdpatch and rt2. Simutrans beats them all - why else would I be here Even at the early stages, it had unlimited number of vehicles, variable size of map, destinations for cargo... today it doesn't seem so great and innovative, but back then it was unique as far as I could tell!

[vilvoh]

IMHO it would make more sense to merge OTTD with TTD and ttdpatch, as these mostly share the same design paradigms.

You're right. I considered it, but I was not sure. Now they're merged.

There is no entry for Railroad Tycoon series in the poll.

Opss!! an important one...added.

Also "no game before" and "Simutrans is first" are identical, no?

IMHO, it's not the same. In this case, No game before means, you never played with a pc game (i.e. people that comes from models and dioramas world) while Simutrans as first means you usually play with pc games, but not of this kind (FPS, MMORPG, Arcades, etc...)

[Zeno]

... you should vote Others...

I also want an All option!

Or may I vote more than once?

There is no entry for Railroad Tycoon series in the poll.

Oh... so many hours spent with that one (also)... I'm feeling a bit nostalgic!
But vilvoh is right with the amount of options: there are quite a lot transportation games...

[VS]

True.

[vilvoh]

Just one point that needs to be clarified. The poll is related with Transport Simulation Games, similar to Simutrans where the most important issue you have to deal with is transport management (buy vehicles, set routes and loads, supply stuff for industry chains, etc..)

Therefore, we can't include Civilisation,Master of Magic, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, Call to power, Freecol, C-evo and some others because those ones are focused in other areas (economy, technology, diplomacy or city development)

Btw, I've changed the poll's question to be more precise,thus we avoid any misunderstood.

[VS]

Now the poll seems better. I think I played all games on your not included list anyway

[Lmallet]

I need a "most of the above" option (never played A-train)   

[Roads]

I clicked SC4 although the original RailRoad Tycoon was my fav.  The reason I didn't click RailRoad was I did not like the sequels at all.  Actually the only thing I really liked about SC4 was creating maps.  Glad I found Simutrans.

[vilvoh]

[..] never played A-train...  

As far as I know, It's from japan and it looks really good (link to large image) It was quite popular some time ago. It was distributed in USA by Maxis Software, founded by the famous Will Wright (Spore, Simcity series, the Sims, etc...)

[VS]

That screenshot is from FreeTrain, its clone.

[vilvoh]

Opsss!! I didn't know... a screenshot from the original A-train

@VS: seems you actually have played with all existing transport simulators...

[VS]

No, I just happen to know a lot about some. Freetrain looked very promising, but I never got it to run. It is written for .NET... : And that screenshot is quite famous.

[jamespetts]

Hmm, this poll doesn't allow me to vote for more than one thing! I have experience with the original Transport Tycoon, the original Railroad Tycoon, Railroad Tycoon II, and all four versions of Sim City. (I tried the demo of Railroad Tycoon III and Sid Meir's Railroads!, but was not impressed with either).

[isidoro]

I should vote more than one too.  My history with these games begins with OpenTTD.  Then, Transport Giant, not Traffic Giant, though from the same German company.  I liked the graphics and the taste, but the game was very limited (not heights, very limited signalling, etc.).

Then, I came across Simutrans, but I didn't like it.    It was complicated for me to get trains and all running at the beginning and that odd thing when two railways join in an infinite series of 8 loops.

Afterwards, Locomotion, TTD sequel.  What can I say?  Very nice.  I liked the graphics very much.  The way you can build all kind of curves and track switches, all those trees.  Signalling was again not that good and the availability of unlimited high artificial slopes was pretty, but really not very realistic.

And what to say about 3DTT, alias Train and Trucks Tycoon.  I liked schedules, transport "by feet", 3D impressive graphics, you can ride your trains, but lacks ships, airplanes and models are few.  Routing could also be improved.  I had to play with an illegal copy, but, shhhh, please, don't tell anyone...   

And, eventually, Simutrans.  What to say about it here what has not been said before? 

In the way, I tried the RailRoad Tycoon series, but together with some other minor games, I didn't like all the economy stuff: shares, buying, selling managers, etc.  Also liked the idea of Traffic Giant or Industry Giant, but never got tied to them.

I cannot decide for one option, but if I had to, then TTD.

[Ormac]

Well I've voted Others as I've played both the Simcity series(SC SC2000 SC4) and Railroad Tycoon I & II as well as Simutrans of course.

Simcity 2000 was my favourite but I'm now left with Simcity 4. Railroad Tycoon I was also very enjoyable

And I've also played the Civilization Series (I through IV)

Ormac  

[vilvoh]

Seems we'll need another poll about how many transport simulation games have you played before Simutrans... :

[VS]

On logarithmical scale, please

[lukesleftleg]

Er... pretty much all of the above and more.

I really wanted to like A-Train, and I gave it a good try, but I couldn't make any money. Anything I did make just got taken off me every year by the taxman.

Locomotion was probably the one I lost the most hours to though.

Unless you count Guild Wars, but that's a completely different category.

[emaxectranspoorte]

And I've also played the Civilization Series (I through IV)

I've played the same ones as well. And some other types which don't really count as simulation. All this before Simutrans.

[Roads]

Yep emax I don't think carrying a backpack full of potions and pies with +1 to Int is really considered transportation.

[DirrrtyDirk]

Unless you count Guild Wars, but that's a completely different category.

Ooohh another one who opted to try something different than WoW... 

Back to topic:

From all the things in the list, I think I only played the original Railroad Tycoon and Simcity (2000 I think) - so I voted RT, because that's more "transportation" than SC.

[emaxectranspoorte]

Yep emax I don't think carrying a backpack full of potions and pies with +1 to Int is really considered transportation.

[Roads]

Sorry emax, was just joking with you.  I apologize both for that and going off-topic.

Back to the subject, Dirk is right.  SimCity is not really a transportation game.  Wish I had voted for RT1.

[isidoro]

Well, I forgot to mention.  In the SimCity series, I didn't like the management and random events, and never played a lot of real-time simulation games because they include all the battle stuff and that bores me.

[Magic_Gorter]

I played Transport Tycoon, most of the Simcity games and Railroad Tycoon. I voted for the last because I liked it the most of these three.
Transport Tycoon I discovered a few months before simutrans but simutrans was more challenging so I never played TT a lot.

I still play a lot civilization II. But that's a totally different game.

[wipi35]

Simutrans is the first Transport simulation game I ever played. Before that I used Microsoft Trainsimulator which is no transportation game, the only fun was driving various trains along a number of fixed tracks. So rather soon it became boring. An other (non transportation) game I like very much and often play is MS Flight Simulator. Very close to reality! 

[zengrath]

I've played all of them except A-train. i love simulation/strategy games.. But never tried a-train.