Its a building you place across the tracks near a station to allow trains to select any line at the station.
Gridirons are tied to stations but there’s nothing stopping you from making a loop/siding manually .
Wow, second chapter is a lot harder.
And the DLC for the first game I found that objectives can be pretty tight
After the initial trouble it didn’t end up being too hard, save for the very final goal (balance over 50k). It was just that the start of the scenario throws a bunch of new challenges all at once - much higher engine costs, lots of npc track and stations blocking your way, awkward preplaced lines, fewer of each resource available. That in turn means your early moves store up trouble for later that need to be reworked at some point at great expense.
I’ve watched some of Adekyn’s Youtube videos on the new game. Hard to say, but I’m not seeing a lot there to justify $50. There are improvements to be sure and the game looks gorgeous, but a lot of it plays like the old game. Since I still have DLC unplayed from the first game I may stick with that and get this on a sale. Unless you guys really think the new game has a lot more to offer.
Is there a way to add additional parallel lines after you have been running awhile? I want to added dedicated Express line but it will not auto build like it does when you first lay down the original two tracks.
If you’ve still got stuff to play from the first one, sure, go for it. I’m on Game Pass so I might as well play the new one, but yeah, shelling out $50 might not be worth it.
Things I’m still unclear on/dislike:
Constant breakdowns even with maintenance stations in place on routes. I guess I need to raise the maintenance threshold, but the calibration seems off.
Seems like you only get a connection bonus if the goods go direct to a city, not to a warehouse station.
No way I can see to filter/sort routes by station. Alphabetical helps a bit, but not much.
It’s very opaque why some short track construction results in a low max speed, particularly when exiting a station straight.
Engine replacement could be a lot clearer, ie showing you a list of routes that are affected.
Maybe I’m missing it, but there doesn’t seem to be a one click “conform this track to the terrain, regardless of gradient” option, as I recall there being in the last game.
Maximum train line name length is stupidly short
I found this annoying too. I will say that there is research that helps with Maintenance which seems to stop the minor breakdowns a bit.
I am trying to put a letter indicator at the beginning of the Route Name to help me a bit (x for express, m = mixed, f = freight). Helps a little bit.
I didnt realize that. Seems to defeat the purpose of using Warehouses. Pay a cost to be more efficient? I would have thought the opposite that having goods in supply would be a boost to getting items to its destination.
It’s the major breakdowns that are killing me.
I notice that sometimes the trains do not repair even though there is a Maint Shop.
Like, WTF. Every one of those has at least one maintenance station on its route, often at every stop.
Apparently adding a Caboose aids in Maintenances issues (I thought it was only the crew satisfaction).
Does anyone know what this does on the Maint Shop Screen:
I am using a Custom Game set in the Great Plains to teach myself. I find it a bit easier since it is flat and a little more open. I try something out than restart - which is helping me a bit to get my mind around things.
Lumber is probably the biggest issue in the Great Plans (to help grow a city). It makers me wonder how many locations can one resource point supply? I do not see anyway to improve resource output.
I would assume it sets all the maintenance sheds to have the same maintenance limit. What does the tooltip say?
If you click on the farm, there’s a button to “resize industry” or something like that.
Not sure what this means. Do Trains that originate usually get repaired at their original Station and this spreads it out?
I could be wrong, but I believe the way it’s supposed to work is that if a train stops at (maybe passes through?) a station and its condition is below the limit, it gets serviced. So this means you can change the threshold at one station and have it apply everywhere.