Railroad Tycoon 2

[Angthoron]

So I fell prey to the hype and got the game, thinking that maybe the previous time I tried it I didn't get it, and that maybe I would like it more now.

Man was I in for a surprise. The game that came out after TTD and focuses solely on railroads seems to be far more simplistic than TTD rail management. Where are all the line management things like signals and stuffies and nya? Why are the graphics so mercilessly shitty? TTD has beautiful graphics to this day, and OTTD kicks it further into high-res glory, the art is clear and pretty and the whole thing is generally a fun sandbox. Unlike RT2. Which so far seems to be none of those things.

So what am I missing? Is there some important aspect I've overlooked? Beautification projects? Community patches? Open source upgardes? Brains? Is there some actual way to enjoy the game? I would like to, but it just doesn't seem to let me.

Help me Codex!

 

[VooghKhloor]

A friend pretty much said the same thing, though he played Sid Meier's Railroads. Or possibly Railroad Tycoon 3, not sure.
While I've never played any of these games, I've gotten the impression that OTTD is the de facto best transport type game out there, with particularly the rail management being often several times better than games entirely dedicated on just that area (as well as being the most interesting part of the game).

 

[Angthoron]

Mh, yes, and yet it's supposed to be an "awesome, genius game" somehow. Which makes me wonder what I've missed.

 

[Paperclip]

After trying OpenTTD, I got the impression that the passengers don't have destinations, that is they can be dropped anywhere. This bothers me somewhat. Which transport tycoon games feature passengers with destinations?

 

[Angthoron]

Simutrans does, for example.

Edit: it's free and opensource, too, I believe, but compared to TTD has a much more messy interface and takes longer to figure out. Plus it's still WIP, so it has some issues. Still, has destinations.

Traffic Giant also has them.

 

[Jimmy McDunce]

booooring

 

[Angthoron]

booooring

bsb

 

[Jimmy McDunce]

booooring

i fucked my dadda

ok

 

[Monocause]

RT 3 has destinations. Both RT 2 and 3 were fun but were bogged down by simply not having enough features or leaving some underdeveloped.

RT 2 for instance allowed you to play at the stock market or purchase businesses but there wasn't really an incentive to do so. Theoretically this helped you to take over your competitors but it was totally unneccessary, you just had to secure the best connections and be quick about it. Basically it meant taking a few loans at the start and then reaping the huge profits your competitors would never be able to make.
Businesses were very expensive and provided little profit, making laying more track and building more stations a much better choice. Building station improvements also didn't make much sense apart from mandatory water&sand towers and roundhouses here and there.

RT 3 had some improvements and the 3D transition actually improved the gameplay in terms of mood and such but it was quite buggy: strange things happened often and laying track properly was difficult due to bad design.

I'd recommend both games, just don't expect anything close to the awesomeness that TT was until you got bored with it.

 

[kyrub]

I have very fond memories of the Cape to Cairo scenario from the demo version of RT II.

Connecting Cape Town with Egypt at the end of XIXth century while maintaining the rentability... building railroads through Sahara... avoiding the gangs in Congo... that was simply unique experience. I replayed the scenario about 10 times. Sadly, none of the 30 maps packed with the game went even close to that. Well, maybe, the presidental election tour (the puzzle) deserves mention as well.


RT2 had cumbersome interface and, generally, had awkward functionnality compared to TT. The only advantage of RT is the (quasi) historical setting. TT world feels plastic compared to the RT one. Historical / geographical flair of the game is awesome.

(I still cannot recommend Cape to Cairo enough!)

 

[Paperclip]

I recently acquired Traffic Giant because I like the graphic and the game seems to be interesting. But I couldn't find any tutorial (the game doesn't seem to provide any) and I don't even know how to begin.

 

[ScottishMartialArts]

I've only played Sid Meier's Railroads which was a thoroughly enjoyable, if not particularly deep, economic strategy game.

 

[Angthoron]

I recently acquired Traffic Giant because I like the graphic and the game seems to be interesting. But I couldn't find any tutorial (the game doesn't seem to provide any) and I don't even know how to begin.

It takes a bit of trial and error. I'd recommend you start with busses and then move on to the rest of the stuff. It's a pretty nice game, but as with most German sims, it just misses something. I can play TT for hours and days and weeks, the Giant series, not so much. I guess it's because once you figure it out it's about as exciting as managing bus routes actually sounds.

But as I said, it's fun for a while, and pretty. Unlike the recent TT remake, what the heck was it called, the official remake. That one was such a failure.