Industry - Production/Line Useage - Pointless

[Quince99]

Following the last update which promised more stable industries and production cycles, I reinstalled TF, hoping to somewhat recreate the vast networks i had with Transport Tycoon (the original on floppy disk!) a VERY long time ago.

Whilst I managed to get oil flowing (pun definitely intended) quite effectively, the same could not be said for other industry chains: getting the entire gamut of plastics, steel (coal/iron) and planks together for a machine tools factory proved impossible and so - with great reluctance - I bulldozed the entire lot (again).

The main issue was that if I laid on trucks, a supply of sorts would occur but, with the distances involved, it would mean fleets of dozens of trucks to provide a consistent service in order to maintain production/supply. Placing railway stations for freight was no use as the industries in question, despite the proximity of said station, just would not use the line after taking months (of game time) to set up the entire chain.

As it's unlikely that I'll see a simplified industry model from UG for us casual players, my question to anyone reading this is:

What are the best and most user-friendly industry-based mods, in your opinion, that provide for an enjoyable and workable game experience as either an alternative to the default industries or that work (properly) alongside them?

Thanks for reading.

[genemead]

I know, TPF can be "frustrating".

First, this is not a "casual" game. If you're looking for a casual railroad game, please look elsewhere. (In case you're wondering, Railway Empire is not a casual game either.)

Second, there's no mod that makes the game "easier". They may make things "different", or add complexity, but they don't make it easier.

The whole Industry thing is easier to understand if you look at it backwards:
What does a city need?
What factory provides that?
What does the factory need?
What producer(s) have those raw material(s) that the factory needs?

* Cities need only 7 things: Commercial only needs 3, Industrial another 3, and Residential only needs passengers.
* For instance let's try a "complicated" example: Commercial buildings in cities (blue) need Tools.
* Tools come from Tool and Machine Factories.
* To make Tools, that factory needs Planks OR Steel. (Remember that a "I" means "or".)
* Planks come from Sawmills.
* Sawmills make Planks from Logs.
* Logs come from (you guessed it) Forests.

So there's the "industry chain" you need to complete: Logs>Planks>Tool & Machine Factory>City. Lucky for you, you make money delivering stuff each step of the chain. Make sure you're using the right type of station (passenger or freight, be it a truck, train, or ship), it's hooked to a road, it's in "catchment" of the industry, and you're using the proper kind of truck or train car to haul that product, and finally you're delivering the finished product to the right area of the city. Once you've completed the "chain" and you're using the proper transportation, ta da, you're making money.

Now, is all that "simple"? Absolutely not. But it gets easier the more you play. Just take things a step at a time. Once you have "simple" chains figured out (like Crude Oil>Refinery>City, or Farm>Food>City, or the simplest, Passengers from one city to another), you can move on to more "complicated" chains for even more money (more steps=more money).

[clixor]

In addition to above, industries also have input/output buffers which need to be filled/emptied at a regular basis (that's the frequency of lines). So even if you completed the whole production chain until the end customer in the cities, you still need to make sure that you supply industry on a regular basis to prevent industries into lowering their production, or even shutting down.

An example, you could have one train hauling the entire years worth of supply/demand in one go, so even though total numbers would add up that will lead to production problems.

[theSeb]

Cargo wants to take the cheapest route. Costs are calculated using speed x distance. Therefore usually trucks will be cheaper because their top speed is <= 100 km/h. If you want trains to work, then do not have trains competing with trucks. Use trucks to complement trains (i.e. complete routes). So for example you may have a saw mill near a forest, but you can only build a train station near the forest. So set up a truck route between the forest and saw mill (timber to saw mill, and then planks back for a train). Now the train can take the planks to a goods factory or a tools/machines factory. From the tools / machines factories you need another route (or more) to supply these to a town or towns. Again, you could use a train and to a station near the town and have trucks delivering it into the cities.

What's important, as already noted, is to balance what you are able to deliver with what the town actually needs. Click on the town and it will show you how many tools / machines / other stuff it wants. Then open up your line manager and see how much you are actually delivering.

Let's imagine for simplicity's sake that we are wanting to deliver tools to the town which wants 300 as per the town info window. That is 300 for the year (all of these numbers are annual by the way). We have a tools / machines factory and a saw mill / forest set up not too far away. To create a tool you need 2 planks. That means for the truck route between the forest and sawmill mentioned above we need a rate of 600. For the train taking the planks to the t/m factory we need a rate of 600. For the train taking the tools to the town and for the truck route delivering into the town we need a rate of 300. Rate is basically all about the frequency (how many times per year will the delivery be made) and capacity. A single train carrying 100 cargo that manages to make the trip 3 times per year will result in the line having a frequency of 300.

[SBGaming]

Each vehicle type has a different ticket price scale, so for instance, a 100kph truck will be cheaper to transport goods than a 100kph train.

Also, with that said, depending on what sort of demand you have flowing through your network, and production that's happening at connected industries, you can setup competing truck and train lines. I've done it in both my Truck Fever Series and my European Freeplay.

In the Truck Fever series my main cargo transport was via trucks, and then I setup a 4 town freight line running 75kph Moguls. Not only were they slower than the 100kph (Freightliners), but they were still more expensive due to the ticket price scale. The trains that I ran did get used. They simply provided some extra transport capacity flowing through the center of the map.

The key to getting it to work is to connect up a massive amount of demand coming from towns, which drives the production of goods at each step in the production process. With a fully staffed truck line, with a really good frequency, industries will like it, which means they will be looking to produce, and be more likely to produce. Odds are though in the early period of the game your trucks may not be able to provide the capacity to haul the quantity of goods that the industries will produce. As a result, goods still want to get to where they want to get to, and so a rail line that provides extra (more expensive) capacity will get used.

This works primarily when your 'competing' lines are distributing via a decentralized hub network. Connect various towns together with mainline cargo transport, and feed different goods into such a network. The backbone of the network are these town to town connections, whereas you feed goods into such a network via spokes out to different industries. The more towns you connect up to your network backbone, the more potential demand flows through the network, triggering all industries connected to supercharge their production and thus they are able to demand more inputs.

[BGR]

Well if you are looking for a problem free phylosophy then try this mod. Hakuna Matata

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1428316002&searchtext=cargo+generator

[BGR]

Oh and if you are interested in making passenger transport less painfull try my new mod. Yea I know, another shamelss plug.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1442999979

[CashonWheels]

time progression 4x slower= It will take factories 30 mins to downgrade instead of 8 min.
More stable industries= more storage room for finished products.
Industry unlocker = makes the two mods above redundant.

Use a map that has "no industry" and place industry where you want it. Start on no cost or use pork barrels. Train maintenance cost are outrageous in this game! One too many freight or passenger cars/wagons/locos will sink you early in this game.

Unlike IRL, trucks are twice as cost effective than trains. Do not send trucks and trains to the same destination with the same cargo! Trucks will win every time. Yeah! for empty train with high maintenance cost!