Topic: Tips to surviving

[accord2]

I need tips on extended, and probably new players too. So can you share your game tips? I have been playing pak 128 Britain for some years now, but extended is a lot more complex. I can't make profit at all! Thanks.

[DrSuperGood]

Currently goods are not profitable. So concentrate on passengers. Mail can be profitable but needs huge volumes to be so, do not start with it.

Passengers want to go between places. However they want to go between places quickly and efficiently. To do this one needs to set up passenger services using the line time tabling feature so that there is a regular service. One also needs to make the service fairly regular, eg every 30 minutes, if one wants to catch commuter traffic. There are different wealth level of passengers as well, with wealthier passengers willing to pay more to travel (more profit).

Start by connecting a few cities together with commuter lines. Then connect more cities together. Then repeat the process for another built up area. Finally connect the two areas together with a long distance line. The result should be plenty of profit.

It is worth noting that a bug with the travel time logic means that one occasionally has problems with some passenger lines. For example a long distance line might get no traffic because it appears to be painfully slow or gets far too much traffic as it appears to be impossibly fast.

[accord2]

Currently goods are not profitable. So concentrate on passengers. Mail can be profitable but needs huge volumes to be so, do not start with it.

What year do you recommend for best start?

[DrSuperGood]

What year do you recommend for best start?

No idea. Simutrans Extended is so unstable at the moment that from a 1750 start the server has not even progressed to 1760.

[accord2]

I see, probably I will wait some time. Thansk!

[zook2]

I've recently started a new game in 1840 (early steam railroads). Industry is currently a bit broken IMO, but I was surprised how well passenger lines can do. Connect two medium sized towns where roads already exist, buy a few stagecoaches (two pairs of horses if there are slopes to climb), and you'll make your investment back in a few years. Clippers, too, are almost guaranteed to make a profit. After about five years, my mail business is doing so well that some clipper mail holds (700 bundles) are getting full. Railroads can be profitable but are extremely expensive to build, and effective signalling in 1845 requires some imagination (cough, cough).