So... About these Dining and Mail Cars

[Doc Savage]

Anyone played around with whether they can make profitable more profitable, or do they really just take up space and keep you from pulling another car that can pay it's own way..?

I can see using them early when Passenger Trains are running 2 or 3 cars from A to B. However, compared to a Mixed train that can fill holes with the Freight of the Day is it really an advantage to use them..?

What's your experience with the world of Fine Rail Dining..?

Cheers..!

[vivas]

I tend to use them on Express trains but only for estethic purposses. Else it isn't worth it, especialy when there are 6 mail and 2 passengers, wich happens frequently.

[introaether]

7 x 1.2 = 8.4

8 x 1 = 8.

So, if you afford to lose 12.5% volume. You can gain 5% revenue.

Think that math is correct.

And of course...

Say,

3x1 or 3x1.2

[Storpappa]

I have not seen a tasks that could be accomplished because of the use of the special cars, or someone discussing getting to 30/30 because of their use.

It's tempting to play with them, but please share where you find their use makes an impact

Dining Car - Ticket Revene +20%
Refrigerator car - Freight revenue for food +20%
Caboose - bonus for all employees +20%
Mail car - Freight revenue for mail +20%

Are you running an exclusive mail line from A to B?

On some of the tasks, like 2,000 passengers from far away city to SFO, by that stage of the game, those options are all moot. You already laid the track, and are throwing out trains one after another to blitz the goal

[gardlt]

The game is far too fast paced for details like this, maybe there is hope for mods. Currently, volume is king. If your trains aren't full now, grow your cities a bit and they will be soon. The time when I have used them is for a Free Mode task such as $2.8M mail revenue in a quarter. Late game I went around and added mail priority and the mail car to all trains running between cities. They were using auto consist.

Adding mail cars to existing trains is nice because you don't lose a car load. The diner will empty whatever is in the first slot.

[introaether]

Yes dedicated mail cars and dedicated passenger cars seperate.

Staff bonus is also specific ( mail bonus/passenger bonus) so most profitable way is to split the trains. That's if the offset of running them is not more than the bonus.

I see them as a way of gaining a little extra cash at the start when volume isn't important.

[chaney]

What introaether typed.

Originally posted by gardlt:

The game is far too fast paced for details like this, maybe there is hope for mods.

Which is unfortunate given the potential bounty of features already in the game that there isn't time to manage. Full pause fixes that problem, but at this point still seems like it is fighting with the game too much. This game can really evolve into something much greater, and I really hope it does.

[Stryderunknown]

I'd been playing with dedicate express trains either with 7 cars of passengers and a dining car or 7 cars of mail and a mail car.

Such express trains are extremely profitable however they needs to be a demand great enough between stations for them to be filled and ideally those stations should be a fair distance away from each other while running an expressline. The profits are definitely worth the wait for them to reach their destination.

When it comes to staffing, Engineer's and Stokers are useful to all trains, however Conductors only appear useful for mail or passengers (Depending on which perk they have) so picking the right one for the right dedicated car is important.

Furthermore Guards are for the most part pointless(They only guard and don't give you a boost in profit like Freight trains.) on passenger/mail trains, unless of course your worried about the AI throwing up bandit attacks to rob you (since passenger/mail can still be be robbed).

[introaether]

Only reason to place guard on passenger is to make staff happy and therfore increase other bonuses, right?

[Doc Savage]

So far everything seems to be lining up with what I figgered...

Looks like there's still some bottom left to this rabbit hole though.

Cheers..!

[Doc Savage]

Originally posted by introaether:

Only reason to place guard on passenger is to make staff happy and therfore increase other bonuses, right?

That can be quite the helper if you have the time to micro all the relationships.

I'm with chaney on the whole time thing. The game spends too much of it rushing you through tasks and goals that you barely have time to enjoy what you're doing.

I find it sad that the only answer to that will be mods... You would think the Devs would make some scenarios that let things unfold in such a way as to allow you time to really appreciate the nuance of their handiwork.

Cheers..!