Specific train signal

[Appel001]

Although I do not own the game, the games seems to be a nice reincarnation of the good old transport tycoon. (although limited to railroad).

As I have watched a few videos I was wondering if it is possible to dedicate specific rail-lines to either a Freight, Express, Mixed train. I am aware of the waypoint system, which would sort of help in this scenario. However wouldnt it also make more sense at a certain stage (different speeds) in game to have dedicated lines for those specified trains?

Not related to the train signal system, but what is special about the DLC? Is it just different train types and terrain? (like a mod...)

I do like it that the development team releases roadmaps as to see where the game is heading, unfortunately no co-op or multiplayer is available. Which in my opinion (c/w)ould enhance gameplay a lot.

Also I am wondering why city-stations do not act as a warehouse. Is this due to game mechanics that would otherwise haul the 'incorrect' goods? Upgrading a normal station with a warehouse would be a great addition.

Anyway back to the original question, why go through lenghts to use waypoints, if you could dedicate a line specificly for a certain type of train?

[Empty1958]

I do dedicate rails for Express and Freight separatly. In the city I use a 2 or 4 line station. Most of the time I add a side line just outside the station to each and force the direction in each set so I can run multiple trains. ex: A city has a dedicated Express line out/in then it separates into 2 lines, one out and one in. I do the same at the next city, the next city, the next city....... I also run mail only and passenger only trains. Depending on the length of the run I have had 6 express trains on a line. I only run Mixed at the very beginning. Probably about 20-30 years into the game
I have only Express and Freight. Seems to work better.

DLCs (Down Loadable Content) are kinda like a mod but I would describe it as "larger".

Warehouses are available and can be "Attached" to a city. No rails are needed for product to be shared with the city in both directions. You can pick 6 products in the WH and multiple WHs can be attached to a city.

I've played a few train games over the years. I like this one as well as the others but it is different. More micro-managment involved. Depending on what you like doing some of the management can be ignored.

Hope this helps.
Mark

[Appel001]

Thanks Mark,

It seems to be something out of the latest V 1.5 updates that I overlooked during youtube videos. Seems like the devs are adding some good stuff. I am not really the micro management type of guy. But it seems that if you do this game can give you some efficiency bonus which could be nice. Micromanagement can offer some more depth to the game for sure. Would you recommend the game as it currently is? Will wait a bit longer, as the current price is a bit to steep for my wallet, but will consider this game for sure.

[gardlt]

Just thought to give my opinion/thoughts on micro-management in this game.

The major unavoidable task for the player is building, especially laying new rail lines. Some users refer to the game as having a "puzzle" element, and I would describe this part of the game as such. Bear in mind that locations for resources are fixed, unless you randomize everything with a random map.

Thanks to the updates with crossings and proper Y-junctions, there are now a lot of options on how to run the generally accepted "line": pair of up-down tracks, to provide connections throughout the map.

If you plan with the game's automatic "shortest route" logic in mind, you can avoid using waypoints entirely. Train's will use a bypass track around a station since an update which is the main time I was using waypoints.

With the idea of separate lines for express vs. freight trains. The normal occurence is that you want said trains to visit different platforms. So specifing even one platform can be enough to separate the trains to different tracks, depending on the setup.

Separating express from freight in practice is best done latter on when your cities have grown large, since express needs frequent pickups for maximum usage as there is a wait period of I believe 14 days. The downside is obviously a lot of new infrastructure, which takes time to build. If you didn't plan for it all along, fancy junctions etc. can complicate things for level ground planning, unless you are ok to Bridge-and-Tunnel-About.

With the new warehouses, you would probably be building the infrastruture then switching the old trains to express, with an entirely new setup set to haul into the warehouses. Warehouses will not accept express, so trains going there can stay on the default Auto setting.

In terms of train management, like other games if you work WITH the system micro management subsides. For example, the train list. When starting a new "route", if you buy one train, then while it's still loading quickly copy it, the copied/second train will be blocked from spawning. This gives the opportunity to quickly switch it's stop order so it starts at the other end of the "route." Advantage is that both have the same name. These will all be grouped nicely in the train list when navigating that list with next-previous. This is a major help for any route changes.

That's the most common "micro" thing I do. But such a step is optional. Of course it's possible to do major mico managing such as manual consists, but the emphasis would be on "optional."

When you get the game I do recommend the DLC maps especially the Great Lakes one. It's naturally an evolution and the devs have been pushing foward map and scenario design as they go. Also, those maps are 4 times the size of the regular ones so in general there is a lot more space for fanciness without ending up with a network that looks like spagehtti puke.

[Dray Prescot]

Except early in the game when you are getting started on building your rail lines, the strong natural tendency is to separate the Mail/Passenger trains from the freight trains on their own tracks. This is because freight payoffs are fixed and do NOT depend on distance and time taken for the delivery of cargo, Mail + Passenger payoffs depend on BOTH Time and distance. Plus freight trains are often slower than Mail/Passenger trains. You do NOT want a slow freight train ahead of a Mail/Passenger train on the same track going in the same direction since it reduces the payoff.

Very early in the game you just want to get a rail line between A and B to start getting some income and to start growing the cities' populations. So Freight and Mail/Passenger trains will start off sharing the same track, until you have enough cash to build more track, and after the cities have grown some.

In fact, sometimes really early in the game you might even have both types of trains in both directions sharing ONE track by using some sidings. BUT you do not want to do this for very long.

Also really early in the game, if the cities are very small, you might even start with one train carrying all cargo types, since there is not much freight (of ANY kind) being delivered between them. This can happen when the raw materials are coming on one side of the city and the Mail + Passengers + Manufactured good(s) produced in that city are leaving it on the other side of the city.

Also in very early game periods, small cities usually only have one of two possible industries in them at game start. So two adjacent cities might very well (50%) start off with the same industry and so have NO manufactured goods to trade with each other.

Once the cities grow enough, I will have one double track for freight and a separate double track for Mail/Passengers between two cities. (Assuming that I have enough cash to build them).

Also there is NO game mechanism in RE (at present) that would allow a fast passenger train to over take and pass a slow freight train traveling in the same direction on the same track. This could be done in some of those old Rail Road games. This could lead to low priority trains trying to get into or pass through busy stations having to wait for (very) long and uncertain periods of time to get into a busy station in those games.

When you get to a large and busy station, because of limited numbers of platforms, a double track may get squeezed down to one track using one platform, particulaly when the trains turn around there.

Traffic congestion can (will) still be a problem in RE at large cities.

[Simple]

Not to waste an opportunity to chime in and to add/clarify:

Trains can be in one of four modes:
1. Automatic (default) – populates train with Passengers, Mail, Freight until full or no available resources to fill (rural resource locations are going to be freight anyway, so, unless you need Manual, you can ignore all other modes)
2. Passenger & Mail Only – as the name says
3. Freight Only – as name the says
4. Manual – select each car and determine what is dropped or picked up at each station

Selection of mode is done at line setup and can be changed at any time. Additionally, you can limit the number cars before the train moves. The default is that the train will move with a Minimum of 0 cars (so just the train) and with a Maximum of 8 cars (trains only have 8 cars to fill). Sometimes it is good to tell a train to wait until a full load to reduce congestion – for example, at a Corn farm, load 8 then move. If a commodity is in low demand at destination, it may sit at the farm for a while.

But there’s more! Each train can have up to 4 specialty cars – Dining car, Mail car, Refrigerated car, Caboose. The first three type boost income by 20% for Pass., Mail, Food (not raw) freight (milk, meat, beer, etc.) respectively. Caboose boosts train crew skill building. Again, each of these cars takes a slot of the 8 available.

An added bonus. Crew skill. You can assign crew for the following effect:
Engineer – reduce maintenance requirement or boost speed
Stoker – same as above (mix and match!)
Conductor – boost income from either Mail or Passengers (so don’t assign to freight trains)
Security – boost freight income (not to deliveries to Warehouses however) (don’t assign to Pass/Mail trains).

So, in addition to assigning platforms at setup, you can have a lot of micro choices to make. The Copy train function mentioned by gardit helps. However, crew are never copied and must be manually assigned, which, when you lots of trains… Now, version 1.6 (still in beta as of this writing) is supposed to allow for auto-population of crew. Also, crew can like or dislike other member(s) which can increase or decrease skills.

Finally, you can copy – paste train changes. Make your changes in one train, copy the setup, then go the next train or trains and paste changes. These will all be the same, so watch out for platform overuse. Again, does not apply to crew.

The Warehouse attachment to city function is new as of version 1.5, so videos made earlier… Pass./Mail never go to Warehouses, so must go city to city.

Micro can be an issue, but once you get money rolling in, I anyway, start worrying less about micro.

DLCs added maps, two new trains (each), and scenarios.

[chaney]

If you want to make a passing lane, Mowgli developed a clever setup:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/503940/discussions/0/1700541698694094790/

You have to set Waypoints for the trains you want to take the siding, but it does work to allow a fast Express running on the heels of a slow Freight to overtake.

As a practical matter, separate tracks may be a better choice, but for long runs or if it suits your style and pleasure, this is a nice technique. When it was under discussion, we suggested the type of automatic switching requested by the OP. Maybe some day it could get put in ...