First look
Options, Settings, Controls
Start game. Rename towns?
First project
Railways first
Saving games; trial runs
Towns , Cities
The world editor

My thanks to those on the Web who provided the pictures I've 'borrowed'.

First look
Here is a small primer for the new Transport Tycoon (DeLuxe) player:
NB! Most of this page was written from plain old TTo;
not TTd - TT deluxe. No one way signals, etc!

• Start TTd / TTo. First Look at the 4 demos/tutorials; learn how to use the menu bar along the top of the screen. Learn how to build road and rail stuff; 2- and 1-way(TTd) rail tracks.
• Choose 'difficulty settings':
  set 'No of opponents' to maximum; their 'starting time' to 'immediate'.
  Start a NEW GAME. Then just sit and watch your opponents! At this early stage, they can teach you a bit.
• Much of what they do is stupid! their railway routes ... Arggggh!
  But they do use the right length for stations and double-track loops, relative to length of their trains; and depots in sensible places; and little road loops for cars to turn back.
• While watching opponents, get familiar with the game controls.
  NB: fast-keys F1 to F10 (and SHIFT-Fj) will call up the No 1 item under each little icon in the top menu bar.
  NB: Your INSERT key can be used as Left Mouse Button (LMB)!
• The top menu bar: by holding the Left Mouse Button (LMB) down when pointing at an icon, you see the other items under that icon, and can move down to these.

• Climate: selected from the main menu. TTo has only 1, no selection.
  In TTd, with no previous experience: Choose TEMPERATE for your 1st game; maybe SUBARCTIC for your 2nd or 3rd? or stick to Temperate.
  TROPICAL is difficult, because of the many expensive raintrees.
• set the Initial loan size to the highest number you are allowed to. Play with tougher conditions later, if you insist.
  NB! You can not change the Max loan size during the game!
• Initial inflation rate: low! - LOW !! - as low as you can! It's easier to assess the cost of a project if you remember the price of one rail.
  With high inflation, in TTo you might run into the negative numbers bug in the program! your airplanes will lose money when delivering, instead of earning!
  
• Currency: £; UK pounds!
  it's psychologically easier to keep track of small numbers , so use the biggest money unit.
• Economy: STABLE for your 1st game; maybe FLUCTUATING for your 2nd? this means industries may shut down with 1 month's warning! They normally don't if you're using them.
• Trains reverse at END-of-line only: is easier to manage, and usually best. Can be changed during the game. In TTd trains can be manually turned.
• Competitors' starting time: in 0 .. 3 .. 9 months.
  You may want a bit of peace at the beginning. in TTo this option can be changed during the game; in TTd not.
  No of Competitors: 0 to 7; can be changed during the game.
• Number of Cities: - NORMAL - is quite enough.
• Number of industries: - HIGH - gives more opportunities.
• Terrain: FLAT for your 1st game;
  HILLY for your 2nd game. Hilly is more challenging and amusing.
  
• Number of lakes: LOW or MEDIUM. There's quite enough water on those maps!
• Other: your own choice.

- . - . - . - . Nice horse, Horses, Horse. Seabiscuit, the race horse. Also a nice racehorse film. "Seabiscuit". 1 .
Chief Superintendant Wycliffe TV-series BBC TV series, Chief Superintendent Charles Wycliffe; TV detective. s .

• Start game. Rename towns?
  Now start Tycoon, check that your 'Difficulty' and 'Game options' are set right. Ask for 'New game'.
  Alternative: go via Editor - Create Scenario first; or use one of the scenarios from the Web.
  Then: 'Play Scenario'.

  Sit ready with your finger on the F1 button; the moment your game appears, push F1 to stop time from running. Save your game.

  I always take care of the January 1 1950 (or 1930) save: Later I (or someone else) might want to replay it differently.

  You are now on the 1st of January 1950 (or 1930, or ...)
  Choose company name, owner's name, face; and colour scheme.
  These can be changed later.
  

- . - . - . - . - . Nice horse, Horses, Horse. Seabiscuit, the race horse. Also a nice racehorse film. "Seabiscuit". 2 .
Chief Superintendant Wycliffe TV-series TV series, Cornwall, Chief Superintendent Charles Wycliffe; TV detective. s .


• 
  Sorry, this is my own design!
  With time stopped (F1), get familiar with your map. Note corresponding industries at good distances from each other.
  Good distances? at least 50 tiles,
  (type North+West).
  Note important towns. The town names are silly: 'Plingfingley Market' or 'Pfungstadt'!! I usually rename all my towns to something of 4 letters, followed by the town's initial population, and 'NW' or 'SEast' etc. Later, I rename them again, to something more normal.
  As a friend of mine told me: "After a while, the cat tells you what his REAL name is ..."
  

• First project
  Plan your first project, which should be industry transport!
  You need to make money, and industry is where the money is early in the game.
  Coal pays best;
  Iron and Wood are also good.

  Farms pay less, but the temperate Farm produces 2 things, so it's a sort of 'double' resource.
  Also, the factory you bring Farmstuff to may in time produce a lot of Goods , which you might transport to a city. GOODS pays very well!
  

  Oil? Oil wells in the temperate climate often reduce production, in my experience. But Oil wells in the tropical climate, and Oil RIGS in all climates are OK. Oil can stand very long transport without losing too much of it's value.

  Passengers/Mail? Only if you have 2 GOOD cities at the start (some scenarios do). Passengers/Mail pay on both legs, but 70 passengers/month will NOT pay well enough!

• Length of transport route: should be not too short (pays little); but not TOO long: a long line needs more trains! Distance about (40)..60..90 tiles is usually OK for TTo - 1930 / TTd - 1950.
• See that your trains visit the source - Coal mine, Iron ore, ... at least once per month, preferably twice or more.
  Frequent visits, (or 'FULL LOAD' in the train's orders), will give better 'station ratings' - encourage the source to produce more.
  This is why one often uses 2 small trains rather than 1 long one.
  

- . - . - . - . - . Nice horse, Horses, Horse. Seabiscuit, the race horse. Also a nice racehorse film. "Seabiscuit". 3 .
Chief Superintendent Wycliffe TV-series TV series, Cornwall, Chief Superintendant Charles Wycliffe; TV detective. s .


• Railways first!
  Your first years of TT transport should be based on trains! Railway is the best and most economic way of earning transport money. Leave ships and airplanes till later!
  Route efficiency: Normally use the strongest engine available.
  Avoid going up and down hills, if possible.
  Avoid too many sharp turns.
  Shorten the route: Flatten land, use tunnels and bridges:
  This costs some money, but will make your train trips faster and more profitable.
  
• In TTd a railway line should have a depot force : if the signal on the straight track is 1-way, trains going opposite are forced into that depot.
  Be 'Service aware'! In the window describing each vehicle's contents, you may edit the service frequency DOWN from the standard 150 days to 90 or 60 or so!
  A critical number to watch is the 'reliability': After a service it's equal to the engine's maximum. Then it starts declining; the more it goes down, the greater the risk of a breakdown
  
• You should also consider the reliability when selecting a train engine or bus. A somewhat slower engine may be better, if it breaks down much less often.
  The reliability changes with time: New engine types have medium values, which get better after a while. When the engine type grows old, reliability goes down again.
• Sunset in Hell railway station (Norway):
  Plan your Industry railway stations big enough!
  If you NOW need 1 track station, length 3: you should PLAN for at least 2 track station, length 4 or 5 tiles; in the future, you're looking at several length 8 to 10 trains (2 wagons per tile). Those industries can double production up to 3 times!

  Do you think this rail line will never need more than 1 train?? then you probably shouldn't build it at all!

  One needs a bigger station sometime; so map out the space for 4 tracks, length 5. Occupy the extra tiles with rails, if you're afraid the city or the opponents or the trees will take them.

  Exception: 'tram line' stations for internal city use only: there is often space for only 1 or 2 tiles' length.

• This picture shows a passing loop with TTd's one way signals.
  NB! a little too SHORT for the lefthand train!
  TTo has only 2-way signals. In old Transport Tycoon the program's way of treating trains at junctions is none too good!

  - With large integrated rail systems, your train often ends up very far from where it was asked to go!
  - so stick to simple track systems in your first 1 or 2 games!
  You earn more money if you keep your different train lines quite separate. This is not elegant, but it takes time and experience to get around the 'train stupidity'.
  - Maybe in the next version of TT trains will be more 'intelligent'?
  

• At this stage, forget about ships and airplanes. they are expensive to buy, and don't pay well early in the game.
  But planes are fun to watch! So use them in trial runs.

  Use trains for serious industry transport, not a stream of lorries!

  Use Buses - maybe Mailvans - for town development.

  Lorries for industry: only if the amounts to transport are very low, and the distance short.

• I use frequent game saves (I'm NOT suggesting YOU should); later I delete the unwanted ones, keeping only important moments; ex: Shortly before end of month; or just after starting a new train, before it leaves the depot.

  At such moments: save the game, then let time run, and watch your new vehicle(s) for a while. If they don't function well, you can fix it when you restart. You might want to fix some tracks, add more carriages to a train, etc.

  These trial runs are good for experimenting: Try an airline, a ship route, or develop a town, and watch it grow.

• Saved games are tightly packed, but at the top a DOS viewer (Norton Commander) will show the save name: usually company name + date.

  I usually rename saved games to e.g. Trt23.sv1' for the 23rd of the month, or 'Trt86.sv1' for the 6th of August, etc;
  you only have Trt00 to Trt99 available. if you're a Game Save Nut like me, use directories to separate groups of save files.

• When your first 1 or 2 industry transports are going well, think about developing a town or two: a town soon large enough to bring GOODS to.

  Start 2 bus stations in the town, and send 1 bus between them.
  NB! in TTo: inside the town, not between 2 towns! In TTo - Transporting local passengers and mail helps the town grow.
  Transporting between towns, or industry stuff doesn't.
  In TTd Passengers between nearby towns may be good enough.

• When bulldozing near towns: don't chop too many trees! The town will dislike it, and make development difficult for you.
  Bulldozing houses is also unpopular. You can find other spots for that bus stop. Stations can be moved later.
  
• Don't build railway station or airport too close to a town! it needs space for growth. Rather start a bus stop in the town, then attach Lorry stop to it; ... maybe a dock; ... and railway station; ... and maybe airport .....

  So that the Railway station is pulled outside

  For more about this: see my extended station methods.
  

Don't give up!
Even with all this advice, don't expect your first game to be very good. My first try was horrible! my 2nd and 3rd were also not very good. I had no Web assistance then - I was quite on my own.

It takes time and practice to become a good TT engineer.

NB! Most of this page is from plain old TTo, no one way signals, etc!
- some hints may be obsolete, or wrong - in TTd - TT deluxe.
- Too few graphics? Sorry, I had no screen capture facility, then.
- Most of those you see are 'borrowed' from others.

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Last updated: begicorn.htm 2004-1001,0606, 0416,0409, 0323a,0213B,0209a,0201,0130,0125,0124d
,2003-0106,(2001-1004,2000-0130,...1998)

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