Perkel
Arcane
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2014
- Messages
- 15,901
Train Fever
Developer: Urban Games
Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/304730/
Trailer:
Game is amazing so far. Played in like 2 days straight. My opinion so far:
Pros:
- This is real deal for OpenTTD/TTD/Locomotion fans
literally out of nowhere ! I found it via some obscure youtuber when i searched for some locomotion mods. I heard nothing about it earlier and almost no site raported on this. Same with usual OpenTTD/locomotion generally tycoon places. Even their forum has like handful of posts.
- Proper citizent AI.
They actually are traveling. People are no longer commodity that is released from train at nearest station. Different people have different goals so for example few will drop at city A some at city B instead of like in OpenTTD, TTD or Locomotion at first station. Which means that creating lines have meaning.
- Secondly People are not commodity.
I said that already in above pro but this is whole other thing. People are actually people ! Which means that dude will walk from his home to bus station/train station that will lead him to his work/commerce/leisure. They will also like in real life use multiple sources of travel. So for example dude can use first bus then go on train and then use tram.
They also "move" so they change jobs, where they live and so on.
- UI Heavily inspired by Locomotion UI design
So far it's better than OpenTTD or Locomotion UI. It has ton of good options like removing all buses/trams/trains from selected line and selling them instantly on arrival at depot. Color coding for lines and so on. For many people this may be little bit weird i mention this but for me it is crucial for tycoon game. Good UI is what you are working with for XXX amount of hours and if it is bad as OpenTTD UI it can lessen fun from playing game. Locomotion had great UI at that time but this seems to strike properly what UI should look like. It is readable, quick and you don't spend shit ton amount of time to figure out what is what.
- Game has actuall gameplay that is something more than sandbox for most of the time.
Both OpenTTD and Locomotion have problem in sense that after hour or two you simply can't loose money because earning it is very easy. Here on hard mode i need really to think how to plan my network because everything cost a lot of money. Trains are literally money pits if you don't plan ahead and as years fly by newer trains are available and they cost a lot more to run ! And what is more awesome old cheap ones are removed from buy option after set time so you could end up in dead end scenario where you run out of loan option and can't even buy train or bus (which also quickly increases costs). At Hard i really struggle to get money from my lines. New stuff is always oh fuck moment when you need to seriously think if this new stuff will be more profitable to invest in as oposite to run old stuff for few more years. Unlike like other games here you can't just remove buildings from city for 100$. For example early in game removing house with 8 occupants cost like 800k where you start with 1,2mln loan and you can get max 8 mln loan. And that is just one house.
- Fantastic music. I was suprised in such unknown game i will get my good music fix. Tracklist isn't that robust but all track are excellent.
- Good graphic, excellent sound design
Cons:
- Signal system currently is lacking. IT has signals you can plop but you can't do currently more robust designs like in loco or OpenTTD
- Railway system is also lacking in complexity but i don't know if it is design specific or simply because they didn't do it yet. I mean you can't do for example 3-4 different turns from one track. Or cross railway with other railway or various station designs like in OTTD. I think this is intended though. I always didn't like how in Open TTD for example trains could turn at 90defree angles and so on. Same as i never actually see in real life two railways crossing. IT is always from my experience one above/under other. I state this as con because i simply don't know. But if it is actually intended then i would even consider it pro instead of con.
- creating railway can be sometimes cumber-stone. I mean for most of time it works good but sometimes for some reason it can't lay track or can't connect two tracks. Mind you this is not really that common. Most of the time like 95% of times everything work like intended
- Cities don't grow that much. They start at 200-300 people and grow to only like 1000-1500.
- no waypoint system. When you create line game creates line. Sometimes game can make shitty line so you need to lay new one and hope it will make path different or try to fiddle with your signals. This can be troublesome in later part of game where you have whole train network where quickest way sometimes may be the worst (queues) I think it is something that devs will fix quickly as they already have foundations for waypoint system (signal system).
Game for me is ideal OpenTTD/Locomotion clone that has its own strengths and few but notable cons. Considering devs seems to be active and want to improve game they probably remove in near future those cons.
So far i am addicted and i recomend it for all OpenTTD/locomotion addicts. With few additions this may be the game that will topple both of them. From my point of view proper signals and waypoint system would already make this game at level of OTTD.
Developer: Urban Games
Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/304730/
Trailer:
Game is amazing so far. Played in like 2 days straight. My opinion so far:
Pros:
- This is real deal for OpenTTD/TTD/Locomotion fans
literally out of nowhere ! I found it via some obscure youtuber when i searched for some locomotion mods. I heard nothing about it earlier and almost no site raported on this. Same with usual OpenTTD/locomotion generally tycoon places. Even their forum has like handful of posts.
- Proper citizent AI.
They actually are traveling. People are no longer commodity that is released from train at nearest station. Different people have different goals so for example few will drop at city A some at city B instead of like in OpenTTD, TTD or Locomotion at first station. Which means that creating lines have meaning.
- Secondly People are not commodity.
I said that already in above pro but this is whole other thing. People are actually people ! Which means that dude will walk from his home to bus station/train station that will lead him to his work/commerce/leisure. They will also like in real life use multiple sources of travel. So for example dude can use first bus then go on train and then use tram.
They also "move" so they change jobs, where they live and so on.
- UI Heavily inspired by Locomotion UI design
So far it's better than OpenTTD or Locomotion UI. It has ton of good options like removing all buses/trams/trains from selected line and selling them instantly on arrival at depot. Color coding for lines and so on. For many people this may be little bit weird i mention this but for me it is crucial for tycoon game. Good UI is what you are working with for XXX amount of hours and if it is bad as OpenTTD UI it can lessen fun from playing game. Locomotion had great UI at that time but this seems to strike properly what UI should look like. It is readable, quick and you don't spend shit ton amount of time to figure out what is what.
- Game has actuall gameplay that is something more than sandbox for most of the time.
Both OpenTTD and Locomotion have problem in sense that after hour or two you simply can't loose money because earning it is very easy. Here on hard mode i need really to think how to plan my network because everything cost a lot of money. Trains are literally money pits if you don't plan ahead and as years fly by newer trains are available and they cost a lot more to run ! And what is more awesome old cheap ones are removed from buy option after set time so you could end up in dead end scenario where you run out of loan option and can't even buy train or bus (which also quickly increases costs). At Hard i really struggle to get money from my lines. New stuff is always oh fuck moment when you need to seriously think if this new stuff will be more profitable to invest in as oposite to run old stuff for few more years. Unlike like other games here you can't just remove buildings from city for 100$. For example early in game removing house with 8 occupants cost like 800k where you start with 1,2mln loan and you can get max 8 mln loan. And that is just one house.
- Fantastic music. I was suprised in such unknown game i will get my good music fix. Tracklist isn't that robust but all track are excellent.
- Good graphic, excellent sound design
Cons:
- Signal system currently is lacking. IT has signals you can plop but you can't do currently more robust designs like in loco or OpenTTD
- Railway system is also lacking in complexity but i don't know if it is design specific or simply because they didn't do it yet. I mean you can't do for example 3-4 different turns from one track. Or cross railway with other railway or various station designs like in OTTD. I think this is intended though. I always didn't like how in Open TTD for example trains could turn at 90defree angles and so on. Same as i never actually see in real life two railways crossing. IT is always from my experience one above/under other. I state this as con because i simply don't know. But if it is actually intended then i would even consider it pro instead of con.
- creating railway can be sometimes cumber-stone. I mean for most of time it works good but sometimes for some reason it can't lay track or can't connect two tracks. Mind you this is not really that common. Most of the time like 95% of times everything work like intended
- Cities don't grow that much. They start at 200-300 people and grow to only like 1000-1500.
- no waypoint system. When you create line game creates line. Sometimes game can make shitty line so you need to lay new one and hope it will make path different or try to fiddle with your signals. This can be troublesome in later part of game where you have whole train network where quickest way sometimes may be the worst (queues) I think it is something that devs will fix quickly as they already have foundations for waypoint system (signal system).
Game for me is ideal OpenTTD/Locomotion clone that has its own strengths and few but notable cons. Considering devs seems to be active and want to improve game they probably remove in near future those cons.
So far i am addicted and i recomend it for all OpenTTD/locomotion addicts. With few additions this may be the game that will topple both of them. From my point of view proper signals and waypoint system would already make this game at level of OTTD.