Recommend Loco Progression

[TheNightRogue]

Just wondering what people think is a good solid progression for the locos. What trains should you get in what order and the like, maybe even the licences for everything else.

[Pentium100[LT+EN]]

I just went from the DE2 to the S060 and then the S282 because I prefer steam engines :)

[TheNightRogue]

Originally posted by Pentium100LT+EN:

I just went from the DE2 to the S060 and then the S282 because I prefer steam engines :)

That is exactly what I was thinking of buying too, I've watched a few vids on the s060 and it doesn't seem that hard to drive, my only question though is wither it can deal with most of the hauling jobs or will I need to focus on shunting still.

[Pentium100[LT+EN]]

Originally posted by TheNightRogue:

Originally posted by Pentium100LT+EN:

I just went from the DE2 to the S060 and then the S282 because I prefer steam engines :)

That is exactly what I was thinking of buying too, I've watched a few vids on the s060 and it doesn't seem that hard to drive, my only question though is wither it can deal with most of the hauling jobs or will I need to focus on shunting still.

I think it can pull upto about 500-600t, less if you are trying to do that uphill in the rain though.
It's a good locomotive and not that difficult to run (assuming you know at least in theory how to drive a steam engine). You can make it from sawmill to the goods factory on one tank of water, but in general you have to be careful to not run out of water in the tanks and especially in the boiler, because if the water level drops below the glass, the boiler goes boom. Water level in the glass depends on the amount of water in the boiler and if the locomotive is level or going uphill/downhill.

I was primarily doing logistical haul jobs with it as they are lighter.

[TheOofertaffy]

If you do not care about whether you progress to steam locomotives or not, this is my recommended loco progression. (Keep in mind, this progression is just to make the maximum amount of money in the shortest time)
Start DE2
DM3
S282 OR DH4
then whichever ones you want after that. this list is just to make the most money as fast as possible, but it's really up to your gameplay style on which ones you really go for.

[Montuhotep]

Noob here. Started with the DE2, of course... DH4 has been very good as a second-stage engine. About to work up to the DE6 for heavy loads, and then will start getting into steam once I have the basics down.

[K***boo]

DE2 - DH4 - 2x DH4

Unfortunately there's little reason(other than personal preference or fun) to use anything else. A 30k you drop on DM3 is 30k you could have used to get DH4 faster instead.

IMO DH4 should be like 200k and DE6 400k, then the DM3 would be a worthwhile "stepping stone".

[Schlappspaten]

In my opinion:
- shunting license
- doing shunting/driving to MF
- remote control, makes shunting easier and gives access to a 2nd engine in the train without license, so copay stays at $100 but you can drive heavier trains which leads to:

- concurrent jobs 1
- train length 1
(which ever of them is needed first)

- multi-unit
- slug

Given that you return with the slug to harbour first and there are always a lot of heavy jobs with light hazardous material:
- hazmat 1

Now you can move substantial consists even with hazmat in shunting and quite some tonnage on the road which provides for good income.

Next block in random order, what suits money and jobs at hand:
- DH4
- concurrent jobs 2
- train length 2

I tend to use two of the DH4 back to back as soon as I can get hold of a 2nd engine. This eliminates the need to turn the loco (to drive it forward for ease of control) and also the need for other locomotives for quite a while since there's now plenty of power at hand. With the other two license you eliminate any job count or train length restrictions which lets you couple lots of small jobs or few bigger ones with the only limitation being the tractive effort at hand (refer to multi-unit license and engines at hand, 2 DH4 will take roughly 1.000t from harbour up the western tracks)

- hazmat II
- military I
- manual service

The "logistic haul" license can be bought whenever there is money and good jobs at hand (like in "needed"). The remaining licences can follow as you wish or have suiting jobs at hand.

Licenses for DM3 and S060 can be bought as early as possible if you wish to learn how to drive them. This is for the simple reason of LOW COPAY covering any damages you might cause (blowing up the boiler results in $150k+ of damages, grinding gears at the DM3 or blowing it up is also very expensive) . If you know how to handle them or won't drive them much you can buy those license as late as possible (since you don't need them and don't need to think about copay and damages any more).

Since the combination of DE6+slug or multiple DE6 are pretty strong engines it may make sense to buy them early on and hold back on hazmat and military licenses. I personally don't like the DE6 for the limited view forward and backward. Things got worse for me with the remote no longer working with DE6's directly (there's a work around with MU'ing them with either a DE2 (diesel off to not blow the traction motors) or DH4. If I have to choose I'd rather bundle up 7 DE2's than using one DE6 (but that's a personal thing ;) )

So I prefer to buy DM3, S060, DE6 and S282 licenses when I have all other licenses.

[EyesBlack84]

Honestly I get my license's based on what missions are available at that time/loco's are in the roundhouse where I am at, but generally... I would get the shunting license first then... later when possible get the remote control at the machine factory shop.

for me the 2 paths I tended to take... my current playthrough

DE2-DH4-multiconnection/DE6 - Non steam route, (cons gets high co-pay early so be careful of accidents, pros can haul anything with the right setup of engines linked together)

focusing on getting licenses that gave me better pay early not caring about co-pay, in such a way that makes sense with what engine I am working towards.
-Manual service
-Long 1 (eventually 2)
-Concurrent jobs 1 (eventually 2)
-Logistic haul
-Hazard 1
-The rest of the license's over time
--------------------------------------------
The other path I did was on my first playthrough keeping low fines as long as possible since I was learning the game and trying out as many loco's as possible for experimentation. Since co-pay is low you can skip manual service for a long time, but the job pay also kinda stinks for a long time till you get the better licenses)

DE2-S060/DM3-...S282-DH4-DE6 (...=fines start getting harsher here)

(hit print on licenses to see if it raises co-pay and if it did I held off till later unless it was minimal)

Its a bit grindy but perfect for learning where hills are, testing the limits of what things can carry up Harbor East, making mistakes and just general learning but isn't the best for making bank.

[Thero]

I personally find the big S282 much easier to run than the S060. Logically I've started with the smaller one but never could keep the pressure at or over 9 bar, at least not with a load. Also you can not really do multiple jobs in a row without refueling your water. In the s282 the pressure generation reacts much nicer to changes of damper, regulator or adding water, it feels more "natural" (I'm not a train guy). With only a few hours in with stem locos I'm surely not as efficient as i could be, but I finished multiple runs with ~900T with the S282 where as I barely finished a few 250t runs with the S060, I hope it's just my lack of steam loco experience, because I like mid-sized shunters like the DM3 more dann the big locos.

My not-beginner-friendly progression career-wise would be
- 3x DE2* + concurrent 1/train length 1
- DH4/S282 Depending if I wanna do chill runs or do more hands-on, until I have nearly all licenses
- DM3<>Slug<>DE6<>DE2 combined for 6+ concurrent jobs with ~1900T runs (DM3 is imo the best shunter for stacking multiple jobs and the DE2 is purely for remote control) > My endgame is multiple, heavy jobs with a train length over 900m

*You can just stack multiple DE2s without MU and do really heavy jobs to jumpstart your income. It was a fun experiment, started a new career on realistic, drove a job down to harbour, bought length1 and concurrent1 and stacked a second DE2 for a combined 400T (uphill). Drove two jobs to GF and stacked a third DE2 on top, and did two jobs at once with ~590T. Your copay at this point still is 6000 and you don't spend time servicing your locos, but with 3 DE2s (600T capacity uphill) and two jobs you can earn easy 50k plus time bonus per run. You do this a few times and have all the money to directly start with hazmat 2/3, and your favorite big loco.

At a point I jumped between 4 consecutive DE2s to accelerate (first 1 click on regulator > second 2 clicks > third 3 clicks > ...repeat on the way back to the frist loco). At cruising speed you set the regulator of the other locos to 0, one DE2 is enough for small increases in speed. Also you only need to use one train brake, so only the acceleration requires multi tasking. At one point this becomes more of a hassle, but it is fun to try out, since at this point it doesn't realy cost you to use multiple locos. Of course this is only time/cost efficient until you get more licences and your copay starts ramping up