Newbie - Completley Lost

[johnnyr]

Hi all,

I just discovered Simutrans, and am really interested in it. The problem is, I can't figure out how to play! I've been reading all the info I can find, but it all just seems to be bits and pieces of how to do things, not WHY to do things, or how I should start out.

Is there a total beginner tutorial, that takes you step-by-step through the first years of the game?

Thanks!

John

[jamespetts]

John,

welcome to Simutrans! Take a look at the Simutrans starter guide here for a gentle introduction into the wonderful world of Simutrans.

[johnnyr]

John,

welcome to Simutrans! Take a look at the Simutrans starter guide here for a gentle introduction into the wonderful world of Simutrans.

Thank you for the link!

It's very informative, but I'm afraid I'm still lost =(

Perhaps I can ask a few specific questions?

1) When placing bus stops, do I need to have enough bus stops to cover every house?

2)Is there an easier way to add bus stops to a Schedule, rather then finding and clicking on the tiny graphic (that is often obscured by buildings) I know I can remove the building but it's still difficult to see them all, and if you accidentally click on a spot with no bus stop, you get a waypoint entered in the schedule.

Thanks!

[jamespetts]

John,

(1) you don't need to cover every house, but you will get fewer riders the fewer buildings that you cover. You can always start small and increase your network over time; and

(2) there is not another way of adding 'bus stops than by clicking on the graphic, although zooming in and/or rotating the map might make it easier. If you use lines, rather than individual schedules for each vehicle, your job should be somewhat easier in that there should be less clicking required in the first place.

[idan44]

1) No, Every bus station has a coverage of area. ( 2 squeares to each side of it. ) if you won't cover any building so no passengers will come out of it.
2)As much that I know  No. But if you wish to hide the building go to main menu and choose display adn change the options. or just click shift + " ( a few clicks will cancel the hiding. )
Oh, and when you are removing a buildinng - it costs you some cash.

[johnnyr]

Thanks for the replies guys!

I think I kind of understand how the bus network works now, though I've yet to be profitable =)

I just figured out how to connect the bus network to a train system, so thats good!

I'm sure I'll have more questions, but I'll try to keep them to minimum =)

Thanks,

John

[vilvoh]

One detail about stops. As idan44 said, every station has a coverage area but the size of that area depends on the stop building level. A higher level means a bigger area.

[jamespetts]

One detail about stops. As idan44 said, every station has a coverage area but the size of that area depends on the stop building level. A higher level means a bigger area.

Are you sure? I thought that that the coverage was fixed. Indeed, having seen the code for this particular aspect of things, I am fairly sure that it is fixed...

[johnnyr]

One detail about stops. As idan44 said, every station has a coverage area but the size of that area depends on the stop building level. A higher level means a bigger area.

Ah...I didn't know that! How do I lay down a bus stop of a higher level? All the ones I see available have the same coverage area...

[vilvoh]

You can't increase or decrease the building level, johnnyr. That attribute is set up by code, however you can increase the coverage area constructing extension buildings next to the stop. If you play with pak64, there're several bus stop sets that consist of stop with different building levels. Check the pak64 addons board or addons.simutrans.com.

[johnnyr]

Ah ok, I'm using pak192.comic.

I've got an interesting problem, I hope solving it will help me better understand the game.

I've got two strawberry farms (that produce berries), and one juice manufacturing plant that wants berries. They are all connected via bus stops. I have a truck that has a capacity for 18 crates going to each location.

The problem is, no crates are ever picked up from the farms! (and therefore nothing is delivered to juice factory)

Ideas? What am I doing wrong?

Here is a pic:
http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/4884/stopsk.png

[prissi]

THe coverage area is always 5x5 tiles (or whatever value it was set at beginning of a game), no matter what level of the stop. You can extend conerage area by extension buildings like post offices. But they will only extend it be adding a 5x5 area around them.

[jamespetts]

The number of tiles varies depending on the pakset. In Pak128, for instance, it is 2x2 tiles - I cannot remember what it is in Pak192.Comic. But if you press "v", you will be able to see a graphical representation of the station coverage. Press "v" again to turn it off.

[jonasbb]

In pak192.comic we use 2.

The problem on the image is: you use the wrong type of stations. The stations have to accept goods.
You can see what is accepted by looking at the small symbols right to the green line in the left upper corner.

[johnnyr]

In pak192.comic we use 2.

The problem on the image is: you use the wrong type of stations. The stations have to accept goods.
You can see what is accepted by looking at the small symbols right to the green line in the left upper corner.

Thanks! That fixed it!

[johnnyr]

Thanks!

[gauthier]

you can see station coverage with the hotkey "v" and you can hide buildings with the hotkey "3" (Not sure of these hotkeys because I have a French keyboard).

Stations can accept three types of things :
_ passengers
_ mails
_ goods

Having only one part of the station (station or extension) which accept one of these make all the station accepting it. For example when you have a goods'station, if you add a passengers'hall next to the station, the station will accept passengers too.

There are represented by tiny icons on the top of station icons or in a station window.

To transport goods from an industry A to an industry B :
_ make sure that the station of the industry B accepts goods
_ make sure that the industry A is a supplier of the industry B (see in industries'windows)
_ make sure that your convoys can carry the goods (for example, coal is transported in bulk wagons and not in cooling wagons ...)

[micslu]

Re: bus stops
I don't know about other paks but in Pak128 there are Bus Stops with yellow markers on the road surface.
This helps me immensely in setting up bus routes, especially in built up cities.

I often combine Bus Stop with Mail Box to increase bus stop coverage -- even though I'm not using Mail.
But make sure the addition is next to the first stop so the combination is still the same Stop and not separate.
Once you get hang of increasing Bus/Train stop/station coverage, you can get quite creative.

[johnnyr]

Thanks for all the help guys. I've had some other issues but figured out that pak192.comic is still missing quite a bit of functionality. That makes me sad, because the regular 64pak is really hard on my eyes. =(

[jamespetts]

Try Pak128, or Pak96.Comic?

[prissi]

YOu can easily zoom into pak96.comic until it is 192 size ...

[johnnyr]

Try Pak128, or Pak96.Comic?

is pak96 complete?

[gauthier]

... pak96 is a bit complete 
The creators do many buildings and some stuff but not the essential so it is not very complete.

However pak128 is more than complete but if you have a slow computer it might slow the game a bit. The pak128 economy seems to be a bit hard to master, currently the best to do with pak128 is to drastically increase the starting money so you can build a decent network before getting in debt.

[johnnyr]

... pak96 is a bit complete 
The creators do many buildings and some stuff but not the essential so it is not very complete.

However pak128 is more than complete but if you have a slow computer it might slow the game a bit. The pak128 economy seems to be a bit hard to master, currently the best to do with pak128 is to drastically increase the starting money so you can build a decent network before getting in debt.

Thanks, I can play pak128 comfortably. =)

One last question.....is Simutrans multiplayer yet? I'm confused on what I have read on the forums. Is there a guide to setting it up and playing with another person?

Also, the nightly build link appears to be broken?

[gauthier]

Yes the nightly page is currently broken ...

Simutrans isn't multi-human-player simultaneously.

Actually you can use AI in the game or run the AI yourself (so it's no more an AI .......) but impossible to play multiplayer by internet or something like this.

[johnnyr]

Yes the nightly page is currently broken ...

Simutrans isn't multi-human-player simultaneously.

Actually you can use AI in the game or run the AI yourself (so it's no more an AI .......) but impossible to play multiplayer by internet or something like this.

Ah ok, I was reading this thread and it sounded like it might be possible:

http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=4153.0

I keep saying last question....so I'll just stop doing that =) I do have another question, is it possible to change the amount you can zoom out? I find that I can't zoom out nearly as far as I would like to, and the minimap is kind of a pain to use.

Thanks!

[VS]

It's in the works... that's all. I'm not even sure how much is ready.

[gauthier]

You can make the minimap isometric.

[AvG]

Try the combination of isometric max zoomed-in Minimap (1:4).
This is IMHO for an overview better than max zoomed-out of the normal game-map.
AvG