Railroad Tycoon 3

vovan · October 3, 2003, 23:19

A new preview has been posted on Gamespot:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/...w_6076372.html

Quote:

Railroad Tycoon 3 is very far along in development at this point. Its single-player campaign is complete, so PopTop artist Brian Feldges was able to take us through a few of what the developer describes as the game's "puzzle missions." These require less in the way of acquiring piles of revenue by expanding your rail business and more in the way of intelligent routing and shipping under strict time deadlines or other challenging concerns. And at this point, most of the game's new features, such as the new luxury passenger cars, are implemented and working. Railroad Tycoon 3 lets you create a s****y passenger train by adding dining cars and a caboose car, which increases your train's desirability rating for passengers looking to ride in style--but it also increases a train's overall weight and thereby slows its progress, especially over steep hills. You can also choose to haul coal, steel, or other items, since the game has plenty of other types of cargo that you can load your trains with in various combinations (known in the game as "consists"), including one of the game's most lucrative commodities, the mail.

But as Feldges explained, all cargo in Railroad Tycoon 3 will have a "decay time" associated with it, and the mail--and passengers--will have extremely high decay times, as will perishables like groceries. Delivering the mail long past due, bringing passengers to their destinations late, or shipping spoiled groceries will result in a loss of money, so even though they can bring in the big bucks, shipping only these cargo types won't always be a guaranteed path to success. Neither will shipping only coal, which lasts a long time in a train but usually sells very cheaply and weighs down your cars enough to endanger your shipping deadline.

Since another key aspect of Railroad Tycoon 3 is laying tracks for trains to run on, you can speed up your progress by building Railroad Tycoon 3's new connective structures: bridges, overpasses, and tunnels. While these solutions can help you draw the shortest distance between two points, they can often be exorbitantly expensive, especially "chunnels," tunnels that run underwater, so you'll have to build them judiciously. As Feldges demonstrated, your limited funds may require you to do as the American settlers did: build tracks that snake around mountains and hills, rather than through them, which is expensive, or over them, which adds a very steep grade to your tracks and slows a train's progress considerably.

Feldges then went on to demonstrate the campaign game's fictitious scenarios, which take place on a near-future version of Earth in the wake of massive global warning, such that many continents are submerged under enlarged oceans. One mission requires you to guide a fictitious electric train across Greenland, which has become far more habitable but is devoid of vegetation. The train is equipped with a futuristic gadget that sprays plant seeds from its sides and creates plant life in its wake, so the object is to guide it across as much of the island as possible using smart routing. Another mission requires you to ship a certain quantity of radioactive uranium to a now mostly submerged England. However, England is in the market for plastic, a byproduct of petroleum. And while England doesn't process petroleum itself, it's the only source of it in this scenario, so you'll have to trade for petroleum, process it into plastic, and trade back the plastic for uranium. In other words, you'll definitely need to do some wheeling and dealing, not only to earn enough money to build an underwater tunnel between England and the new European landmasses, but also to get all the materials you need to create plastic and trade it for uranium.

Sounds pretty good. Also, I got a very nice impression from the screenies. Although I am normally not a big fan of 3D and in fact was kind of skeptical about RR goind 3D, I think the screenies are looking pretty good.

Nubclear · October 4, 2003, 02:03

I didn't understand the second one.

My opponents were always getting more profit than I was!

FrostyBoy · October 4, 2003, 02:42

what was that one from sid meier? was that Railroad tycoon?

that was the best one!

Urban Ranger · October 4, 2003, 02:48

Yup, the first one is the best, still.

Anyway, I hope this one has more substance than fluff.

Adagio · October 4, 2003, 05:07

The last Railroad Tycoon type of game was also in 3D... and the 3D part killed the game... and RRT3 looks a bit like it

Kropotkin · October 4, 2003, 05:52

Oh well, I did enjoy RR2 as well. Still play it from time to time. But as already have been pointed out, the industry is just giving us more graphics, not better games.

Ecthy · October 4, 2003, 06:50

Played some RR2 before. didn't like it

Rasbelin · October 4, 2003, 07:07

Quote:

Originally posted by Comrade Tassadar

My opponents were always getting more profit than I was!

Of course that's the idea in a capitalist economy like in RR2. Did you expect that Communism would be more profitable?

Rasbelin · October 4, 2003, 07:09

Looks pretty nice!

Can't understand why people want old fashioned 2D graphics type "Railroad Tycoon." It would look ugly, IMO. The RR2 graphics were already good, so it can only improve now.

Ecthy · October 4, 2003, 07:11

Asuka, his complaint was based on the fact that it wasn't him getting the most profit

DrSpike · October 4, 2003, 07:13

RT2 was ok................admittedly I enjoyed RT on my Amiga more. I'll keep an open mind about RT3.

Rasbelin · October 4, 2003, 07:15

Quote:

Originally posted by Ecthelion

Asuka, his complaint was based on the fact that it wasn't him getting the most profit

I did notice that.

Ecthy · October 4, 2003, 07:21

Then why did you reply the way you did?

Urban Ranger · October 4, 2003, 07:33

This seems to be more like the original than RRT 2, which is a good thing.

Ecthy · October 4, 2003, 09:28

Well I never played the original, how was it?

Adagio · October 4, 2003, 12:29

Quote:

Originally posted by Asuka
Looks pretty nice!

Can't understand why people want old fashioned 2D graphics type "Railroad Tycoon." It would look ugly, IMO. The RR2 graphics were already good, so it can only improve now.

After having seen the screenshots of RRT3 I must admit: The graphics in RRT2 was much better than the graphics in RRT3.. usually the graphics would get better during those years, but it didn't in this case

Here's what I don't like about 3D tycoon games

3D games just can't give the level of detail I love (That's 3D tycoon games I'm talking about)...
3D tycoon games makes the controls much worse...
It requires more computer powers than 2D games...
It takes more time to make a 3D game than a 2D game

Sorry, but I can't see the benefits of this "Everything should be 3D" thing going on...

General Ludd · October 4, 2003, 14:21

I personally hated the graphics of RRT2, and while I'm not generaly a fan of 3D when it's not neccisary, i do like RRT3 graphics over the second.

And apparently tunnels are possible, atleast.

Adagio · October 4, 2003, 14:39

Quote:

Originally posted by Osweld
And apparently tunnels are possible, atleast.

Now we're talking

General Ludd · October 4, 2003, 14:45

The preview even mentions underwater tunnels.

Ecthy · October 4, 2003, 14:45

Osweld, your avatar is somewhat disturbing...

General Ludd · October 4, 2003, 15:05

Quote:

Originally posted by Ecthelion
Osweld, your avatar is somewhat disturbing...

You got a problem with my mage?

Adagio · October 4, 2003, 16:32

Quote:

Originally posted by Osweld
The preview even mentions underwater tunnels.

Sounds better and better...

I just hope they have gotten rid of these HUGE bugs:

- Whenever I got far in the game, all my trains kept crashing, even though I just replaced them with the newest model
- You have to edit the scenarios to be able to get the # of opponents you want to play against...

Ecthy · October 4, 2003, 17:46

Are you OK, Osweld?

Adagio · October 4, 2003, 17:50

Quote:

Originally posted by Osweld
You got a problem with my mage?

That's a mage?

I thought it was some guy who was trying to gets his jacket of, but didn't succed

Ecthy · October 4, 2003, 18:01

For a moment I felt like Osweld was going to jump on me

DrSpike · October 4, 2003, 18:10

Quote:

Originally posted by ADG

That's a mage?

I thought it was some guy who was trying to gets his jacket of, but didn't succed

That's funny, I thought he was checking his 'pits to make sure he smelt fresh.

Ecthy · October 4, 2003, 18:12

I thought he was some guy trying some 80s disco dance.

General Ludd · October 4, 2003, 18:33

You uncultured savages

that's the red mage from Final Fantasy. And yes, he's doing a disco.

General Ludd · October 4, 2003, 18:36

I've got a head banging white mage, too, but she doesn't show up too well on the white/grey scheme.

Urban Ranger · October 4, 2003, 21:26

Quote:

Originally posted by Ecthelion
Well I never played the original, how was it?

It's good, particularly when you consider how old it was. You can find it somewhere on the Web.

If you are more of a buider than a ~~mucker~~financier, you'll love the original.