Best Transportation / Train Logistics Game?

Games
21

I would disagree with “no challenge”, but it’s true that outside the campaign the challenge is largely self-imposed. You’re not competing with other companies a la Railroad Tycoon. But infrastructure is expensive, both initially and in terms of operating costs, and if you’re not careful it’s easy to run at a loss (especially early game where your options are limited and not very efficient). So, sure, if you take things slowly and don’t make silly decisions, you’re never going to “lose”. But it’s not about that. It’s about growing your infrastructure from one horse and cart to a sprawling multi-modal empire over centuries, and constantly optimising.
Re: supply and demand, there are some oddities to the model, but I don’t really see the issue with what you describe. You can do that, but it’s not efficient, so why would you?

None of this is to say it’s a perfect game. I have lots of gripes with it. But I’ve enjoyed it more than any game of its type since RT2.

22

Thanks! It’s certainly been on my radar for a while - I was planning on picking up Railway Tycoon or TF2. Just never been able to decide!

23

Any recommendations on a maritime logistics game? I already own the Patrician and Anno games, which include maritime trade, but I’m more interested in multimodal terminals, anchorages, supply and repair, etc.

Right now Transport Fever 2 seems like my best bet.

24

There’s a new Port Royale coming out imminently, but it’s not really what you’re describing. I’m not sure TF2 is either, to be honest. The maritime aspect is fairly simplistic (basically cargo v passenger, large v small ships and docks). Repair is weird in the game. It doesn’t directly affect operating costs or anything like that, it just affects your pollution stat (which in turn inhibits city growth). So to keep that stat down, you either have to pay more for maintenance or sell your old vehicles.

25

Was going to suggest Port Royale as well.

You can get into the beta if you don’t want to wait:

26

Thanks for the Port Royale recommendation (ditto @jpinard ), but I don’t think that’s what I’m looking for. Seems similar enough to the Anno games, and I’d prefer something with tankers rather than tall ships. How’s that for a niche interest?

The closest I’ve found to scratching this itch is Cities Skylines, designing ports with roads, trains, airports, etc. TF2 seems like an improvement over Skylines in this regard, even if the focus is still mostly on trains.

27

I can’t speak to the quality, but maybe TransOcean 1/2?

28

Awesome, that’s pretty much exactly what I was looking for, and it’s easy to justify giving it a chance at that price. I’ll report back once I get a chat to try it out.

I’m still considering TF2, so you all should keep talking about it.

29

First impression was not good. It’s very clumsy and a bit ugly. Helpful? ; )
(It’s really not nearly as ‘inviting’ as, say, Railway Empire. It’s right from some Swiss tech students’ office. Is that just me?)

30

Carto I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but a third of Anno 1800 is managing shipping trade routes including oil tankers and also trade via shipping.

31

Yep! I really enjoy Anno 1800 but I took a break right before industrializing. I needed a chance to clear my mind before going back to try out the engineer and investor tiers.

But Anno’s ships are there to support the island supply chains, and don’t really have any logistics mechanics of their own. Transporting goods to the port and onto the ship all happens automatically. (Which is fine; Anno doesn’t need to be more complicated on my account.) The other game I played that came close was Cities Skylines, since it provides all the tools to design port infrastructure and manage the flow of goods in and out.

I think games about maritime logistics, specifically tramp shipping, could be interesting. I’ve really only played games about maritime trade, though: buying the commodity at point A and selling it at point B. That’s different than logistics of actually getting the commodity from A to B.

If you don’t mind a little tangent, let me start with Anno as an example. In Anno, some of your ships will repeatedly run the same route between islands, these are your lines. Others will go wherever you need them for specific trades. These are your tramp ships. They’re called tramps because their uncertain schedule makes servicing and supplying them tricky.

IRL, these ships lose money whenever they aren’t loading, unloading, or moving cargo, so owners try hard to avoid downtime. They try to schedule refueling, provisioning, crew changes, coast guard inspections, you name it during the 2-3 day window they expect to be in port. Everyone in the port knows this and charges accordingly.

And these schedules never work out, so owners constantly have to figure out how to make do or push back operations to the next port.

There are lots of potentially interesting decisions in the nitty gritty. Do you take on a lucrative contract to the U.S., even though you’ll need to schedule downtime for inspections? Do you leave it to your chief engineer to fix an anchor winch or stop for repairs? Do you skimp on potable water so you can leave on schedule? Do you establish or buy local services to save money in key ports?

I’m watching a Let’s Play for TransOcean right now and it seems to focus on these sorts of decisions. But I won’t be able to try it out for a few days yet.

32

Do any of these games simulate the transport of narcotics?

33

Compared to OpenTTD?

The retro gamer in me wants to recommend this, but I doubt it holds up:

34

Isn’t it what X2 was about?

35

I do recall some space trading sims having drugs. I’m more interested in Earth train and truck sims though.

36

FWIW, Adekyn has been streaming Cartel Tycoon recently.

37

Coincidentally, I was looking around and apparently OpenLoco is a thing that exists these days. Whilst Chris Sawyer’s Locomotion, on Steam or GOG, did not receive quite the same love and praise from fans and critics as Transport Tycoon it still had some solid improvements, and is the basis for the mobile releases of Transport Tycoon too.

38

To have that with a modern 3d engine would be the bees knees.

39

Logistical is VERY good, you guys.

40

Logistical is more just a busywork kinda game, unless it has changed a lot. Not to say that it is bad or not fun to kill some time with.

I’ve been playing The Colonists and enjoying it a lot. It’s almost like an Anno game with the annoying parts taken out. Not as many levels of stuff or variety, but the resource balancing and UI is pretty nice.