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Baronjutter
Dec 31, 2007

"Tiny Trains"

I always make a counter and clockwise route if it's a circle. If not for game effects for realism. But I think it helps. I once had only a clockwise route and the city had about 45% usage, then I added a counter clockwise route and it shot up to about 70%. If you have a modest size loop with like 10 stops for instance that goes station, industrial, commercial, recreation, residential it means people wanting to go from their houses to the recreation will have to go all the way around the loop. Or people coming home from another town need to ride the whole loop to get back to their homes. I think it can absolutely make a difference.

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Fish and Chimps
Feb 16, 2012

mmmfff
Fun Shoe
I've been supplementing my bus lines with a single back-and-forth tram line in the biggest cities. I'm making sure they hit the train station as one of the terminus stations, and that the stops go through the densest parts of the residential, industrial etc. parts of town.

straw man
Jan 5, 2011

"You're a bigger liar than I am."
It seems like there must be some techniques for town growth that aren't well-known yet. The freight buildings all over the map are like a clue - that's way more freight than you'll ever need, unless there's a way to get every town up to 750-1000 pop.

http://www.train-fever.com/forums/topic/town-size/

* What I can tell so far is that better line utilization seems to result in better growth. That could mean lots of short, fast intracity bus routes - i.e., many trips completed - is the main factor. It's also possible that the town grows faster with higher line fares - so a train trip out of town would grow the town faster than a bus trip in town.

straw man fucked around with this message at 20:44 on Sep 12, 2014

Vahakyla
May 3, 2013
Since I am not a humongous pussy, I have ensured that the trains do not get to use auto-turnaround at the station, instead doing it the spergy way.

:smug:

Vahakyla fucked around with this message at 04:15 on Sep 13, 2014

Baronjutter
Dec 31, 2007

"Tiny Trains"

What about the trainsets that have loco's on both ends?

Vahakyla
May 3, 2013
I assign them to to use lines that do not loop, as they are used in some real commuter rail networks. So yeah they get a pass. I put this artifical restriction on myself, requiring me to have those for those lines.

Now, I wish I could do that so that I could assing a loco on both sides of the consist, to create a 2-way freight train like you sometimes see. But the game does not allow anykind of multiple locomotive compositions; not counting the pre-made passenger ones.

mackintosh
Aug 18, 2007


Semper Fidelis Poloniae

Vahakyla posted:

I assign them to to use lines that do not loop, as they are used in some real commuter rail networks. So yeah they get a pass. I put this artifical restriction on myself, requiring me to have those for those lines.

Now, I wish I could do that so that I could assing a loco on both sides of the consist, to create a 2-way freight train like you sometimes see. But the game does not allow anykind of multiple locomotive compositions; not counting the pre-made passenger ones.

Huh? Yes it does. Just buy the second loco and click the little up arrow? Unless I'm misunderstanding what you're trying to do?

e: something like this? You can have the second (or third, fourth, fifth...) loco either in front or in the back or in whatever front and back configuration you wish.

mackintosh fucked around with this message at 09:20 on Sep 13, 2014

Vahakyla
May 3, 2013
Oh. Goddamn.

Michaellaneous
Oct 30, 2013

Vahakyla posted:

Oh. Goddamn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJxCdh1Ps48

Baronjutter
Dec 31, 2007

"Tiny Trains"

Vahakyla posted:

Oh. Goddamn.

You just push-pull hosed your self.

Overwined
Sep 22, 2008

Wine can of their wits the wise beguile,
Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.
Thinking about buying this, but I understand there are some unpolished bits that stand in the way of it being a great game. How active has development been since release? Do they have a development blog anywhere? I didn't see anything on their site.

Basically I'm cool with supporting a game that's a bit rough around the edges, but not if it's not getting developed.

nielsm
Jun 1, 2009



All official communication I've seen has really been the release notes posted in their own forum. http://www.train-fever.com/forums/topic/release-notes/

So far it's almost only been straight bugfixes for crash issues and graphical glitches.

Maybe also this post: http://www.train-fever.com/2014/09/post-release-plans/

Wipfmetz
Oct 12, 2007

Sitzen ein oder mehrere Wipfe in einer Lore, so kann man sie ueber den Rand der Lore hinausschauen sehen.
Which consists of nothing concrete, just "small polish" and "optimize support" and stuff.

mackintosh
Aug 18, 2007


Semper Fidelis Poloniae

Wipfmetz posted:

Which consists of nothing concrete, just "small polish" and "optimize support" and stuff.

The game isn't exactly a runaway success. I think 3000 people was the highest in-game number I'd ever seen it reach, so they probably hadn't sold more than 5000 copies. Something tells me they won't be devoting as much time to it as they'd promised before the launch. I'd like to be wrong, as it does have potential.

Pharnakes
Aug 14, 2009
Surely it must be more than that? It was well up in the steam bestsellers for a day or two.

mackintosh
Aug 18, 2007


Semper Fidelis Poloniae

Pharnakes posted:

Surely it must be more than that? It was well up in the steam bestsellers for a day or two.

Just in its first day and I believe they were third. Maybe they sold more, I don't know, I'm just going by the in-game numbers I'd been observing in its first week.

Vahakyla
May 3, 2013
Games on Steam always sell a heck of a lot more than people are online. That is a really bad metric since most people only play the game very little at a time.

Obsidius
Nov 18, 2009

If you ever drop your
keys into a river of molten
lava, let 'em go, because
man, they're gone.
Yeah the online stats have no real correlation as to the number of sales. There are currently more people playing Arma 3 than DayZ but I'd think that there are a hell of a lot more DayZ sales than Arma. I bought Train Fever and I think I have put in about 30 minutes max play time I won't be alone.

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.
Divinity Original Sin sold half a million copies and never got past 25000 concurrent players. Concurrent players is a pretty useless metric to judge sales.

Overwined
Sep 22, 2008

Wine can of their wits the wise beguile,
Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.
Either way, at the asking price (which is way too high) they certainly made enough money to support the game and fix the problems.

FISHMANPET
Mar 3, 2007

Sweet 'N Sour
Can't
Melt
Steel Beams
I'm waiting for this to be around $20 or maybe even $25 before I pick it up.

Not sure if it's because that's all it looks to be worth or indies and steam sales have taught me not to pay that much for a game.

mackintosh
Aug 18, 2007


Semper Fidelis Poloniae

FISHMANPET posted:

I'm waiting for this to be around $20 or maybe even $25 before I pick it up.

Not sure if it's because that's all it looks to be worth or indies and steam sales have taught me not to pay that much for a game.

In retrospect, I wouldn't pay more than $15 for it. It's simply not ready. I've done one playthrough from 1850 to 2100 and I simply have no desire to go back and do another one. I've spent weeks, months playing RRT, TTD, SC4, etc, they all had me coming back, this one just doesn't. Too bare bones. Kinda like Railroads was.

Vahakyla
May 3, 2013
The game is a wonderful train set, too. Instead of making most effective lines, I often make beautiful lines and route loads of trains to go through same stations to see some of that switching action. Now if only there would be coupling :swoon:

Maybe not worth 35 though. It is a shallow and unpolished game. But, if the mod tools are that great, and devs stick around, the future might be bright.

TheFluff
Dec 13, 2006

FRIENDS, LISTEN TO ME
I AM A SEAGULL
OF WEALTH AND TASTE

mackintosh posted:

The game isn't exactly a runaway success. I think 3000 people was the highest in-game number I'd ever seen it reach, so they probably hadn't sold more than 5000 copies. Something tells me they won't be devoting as much time to it as they'd promised before the launch. I'd like to be wrong, as it does have potential.

It's way more than that, but I can't share the exact numbers. I gave them some euros to crowdfund it, and the crowdfunding they used (gambitious) actually gives you investor status, so if you buy the game I get a (very small) share of the money, and they share some sales numbers with investors. They met their sales goal and have development financed at least for another month or so, but after that it's not yet decided if they'll be able to keep working on the game. I think if it keeps selling they'll keep working on it. Not sure what their exact plans are though, they haven't really said much.

nielsm
Jun 1, 2009



TheFluff posted:

It's way more than that, but I can't share the exact numbers. I gave them some euros to crowdfund it, and the crowdfunding they used (gambitious) actually gives you investor status, so if you buy the game I get a (very small) share of the money, and they share some sales numbers with investors. They met their sales goal and have development financed at least for another month or so, but after that it's not yet decided if they'll be able to keep working on the game. I think if it keeps selling they'll keep working on it. Not sure what their exact plans are though, they haven't really said much.

On the other hand, if they only have funds to continue development for another month, wouldn't that also indicate that they basically were forced to release at the time they did? Since they then supposedly weren't really able to continue development at that point.

tehsid
Dec 24, 2007

Nobility is sadly overrated.
Update dropped today. 6.9mb

quote:

“Build 4334 (September 18)
•Added a button to delete savegames
•Added mouse wheel sensitivity setting
•Added camera key bindings: tilt with <r> and <f>, zoom with <y/z> and <x>
•Added emulation for middle and right mouse button: <ctrl> + left => middle, <alt> + left => right
•Improved compatibility with Mac OS X 10.7
•Improved screen resolution switching
•Fixed a crash while building level crossings
•Fixed a texture loading crash
•Fixed a crash caused by excess files sitting in folders (“.DS_Store” etc.)
•Fixed visibility problem of resolution list in main menu (wasn’t visible on small screens)
•Fixed sound of modern open wagons”

TheFluff
Dec 13, 2006

FRIENDS, LISTEN TO ME
I AM A SEAGULL
OF WEALTH AND TASTE

nielsm posted:

On the other hand, if they only have funds to continue development for another month, wouldn't that also indicate that they basically were forced to release at the time they did? Since they then supposedly weren't really able to continue development at that point.

Yeah, that seems likely. They've probably spent the crowdfunding money and then earned it back on sales, but not much more than that. This just speculation on my part though, I don't have all the numbers.

Howard Beale
Feb 22, 2001

It's like this, Peanut
Did this last patch kill anybody else's framerate? Existing saves which used to run semi-okay, even small maps, just grind down to a halt any time I try to move the camera around.

mackintosh
Aug 18, 2007


Semper Fidelis Poloniae

TheFluff posted:

It's way more than that, but I can't share the exact numbers. I gave them some euros to crowdfund it, and the crowdfunding they used (gambitious) actually gives you investor status, so if you buy the game I get a (very small) share of the money, and they share some sales numbers with investors. They met their sales goal and have development financed at least for another month or so, but after that it's not yet decided if they'll be able to keep working on the game. I think if it keeps selling they'll keep working on it. Not sure what their exact plans are though, they haven't really said much.

I'm glad they met their sales goal, but only a month worth of development funds doesn't imbue me with confidence. There have been some nasty user reviews following the release that could have done some damage to future sales and the devs are making the same fatal mistake a lot of inexperienced indies do - they're failing to communicate adequately. At least that's the impression I'm getting. I hope the sales trickle on though as despite the shortcomings I've still sunk quite a lot of hours into it and would hate to see it die prematurely. It really does have a lot of potential.

Howard Beale posted:

Did this last patch kill anybody else's framerate? Existing saves which used to run semi-okay, even small maps, just grind down to a halt any time I try to move the camera around.

Not really, but I'm very far into the late game, so my frames are terrible regardless.

Howard Beale
Feb 22, 2001

It's like this, Peanut
Setting up continuous tram service between two cities, with four or five stops at the most important and brightest glowing parts of each city (one shopping, one leisure, one or two residential and workplaces) plus your passenger train station, is a license to print money. You can fill the entire line with trams and passengers will still queue up to ride. It's my new favorite moneymaker on a fresh map; I often borrow 1 or 2 mil extra to get the first tram line up but the entire loan gets paid off quickly and I start making 2 million per whatever the Lines window is measuring.

Overwined
Sep 22, 2008

Wine can of their wits the wise beguile,
Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.
Well, I'll go ahead and say it. This game sucks and it ain't getting any better.

There are some good (not great) ideas here, but yet again I find myself stung with an unpolished turd with no future and an egregious asking price. And as a die-hard O/TTD fan from the olden days, this one really stings.

Vahakyla
May 3, 2013

Overwined posted:

Well, I'll go ahead and say it. This game sucks and it ain't getting any better.

There are some good (not great) ideas here, but yet again I find myself stung with an unpolished turd with no future and an egregious asking price. And as a die-hard O/TTD fan from the olden days, this one really stings.

Yeah. I like watching trains go and there is a lot of potential in there, but it is frustrating if the devs consider the game to be ready and only needing minor patching.
It feels like this is the Early Access and the great game will eventually be chiseled out from there. Or I mean, I hope that.

Kilonum
Sep 30, 2002

You know where you are? You're in the suburbs, baby. You're gonna drive.

Definitely feels like early access in all but name. And I just looked at my Steam library page for it, haven't even touched it in 2 weeks.

The Deadly Hume
May 26, 2004

Let's get a little crazy. Let's have some fun.
I don't regret taking a punt (because I knew I was taking a punt) and it was OK, some of the game mechanics are pretty solid but it lacks a few things on the track laying front that'd let you do crazy layouts or likewise. Like, being to have switches that cross would be a help in parts. And possibly some better tools for constructing road over or under rail without having to shift massive loads of terrain and destroying buildings and whatnot.

We'll see if the devs actually do any further work on it before moving onto the next thing.

Howard Beale
Feb 22, 2001

It's like this, Peanut
It will be a shame if the devs really are satisfied with the UI. The depot window is a masterpiece. Two tiny context-free buttons vertically centered on either side of a large list. The window grows and shrinks as vehicles come and go, the context-free buttons change position every time, ready for release yo.

The bugs are fun too. Passenger trains can constantly lose one or two passengers en route to their next stop. Either they're falling off or someone's pushing them or something, I don't know. That poo poo's dangerous. I also love completely clearing a stop of waiting passengers simply by changing the station name or adding tram track to the road near it.

Road over rail turns out to be easier than expected: Just draw the line of road over the existing track and, before clicking the green box, you can raise and lower the level of the road by using M and N. Bridges will automatically appear when viable. The M and N keys work on roads but not rail. The game didn't tell you that? Me neither. I found out while randomly reading through their forums. Let's hear it for comprehensive documentation.

I'd love to see this game polished up. I feel like it's got a lot more potential than the Cities in Motion series, which isn't very difficult to do granted, but the game's certainly not making the best of any potential right now besides the initial release buzz.

nielsm
Jun 1, 2009



Howard Beale posted:

The bugs are fun too. Passenger trains can constantly lose one or two passengers en route to their next stop. Either they're falling off or someone's pushing them or something, I don't know. That poo poo's dangerous. I also love completely clearing a stop of waiting passengers simply by changing the station name or adding tram track to the road near it.

Passengers disappearing from vehicles en-route are probably due to the 20 minute rule.

Since trips are allowed to take at most 20 minutes, if any passenger (or goods item) has been on its way for more than that, it isn't allowed to go any further, the entire trip is invalidated. So of course it gets deleted.

But buses teleporting around when you build and upgrade roads nearby, that poo poo is annoying.

mrpwase
Apr 21, 2010

I HAVE GREAT AVATAR IDEAS
For the Many, Not the Few


nielsm posted:

Passengers disappearing from vehicles en-route are probably due to the 20 minute rule.

"This journey is taking ages, this is bullshit. gently caress it, I'm out" *leaps off train*

Overwined
Sep 22, 2008

Wine can of their wits the wise beguile,
Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.
New update up, here are their comments regarding this update:

Train Fever posted:

Today, another game update was released (build 4414).

The update brings the long awaited high-speed track upgrade tool. Thus, standard tracks can now be converted to high speed tracks with a tool similar to track electrification.

In addition to the Dutch translation, the update contains several robustness improvements. Most important, save games are more reliable now.

In particular, a bug which caused corrupt save games on Mac OS X 10.7 and 10.8 was fixed. Also, textures and crash dumps are now handled in a better way and therefore, the game runs more stable.

Please find the complete release notes here.

Based on the discussions on Steam and on the website forums, still a large list of improvements is currently work in progress. One very important task is performance optimization which will most likely be included in the next game update.

Also let us mention that McAfee anti virus finally white listed Train Fever! Thanks to all players who reported the issue to McAfee as well. Still we don’t understand why McAfee needed almost four weeks for this step ;) anyway the issue is now solved.

While their progress is still very slow, they at least acknowledge future plans in a vague sort of way. While I'm not really happy with the state of the game as it is, as I've said, perhaps there is hope that if we're patient they'll get it right.

Vahakyla
May 3, 2013
The upgrading of speed level rails is a good quality of live improvement, but there are plenty more like the fleet upgrading, level crossings, and other similar small but annoying things.

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Overwined
Sep 22, 2008

Wine can of their wits the wise beguile,
Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.

Vahakyla posted:

The upgrading of speed level rails is a good quality of live improvement, but there are plenty more like the fleet upgrading, level crossings, and other similar small but annoying things.

For instance, the train depot interface is still an affront to god and humanity.

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