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******************************************************
*** FAQ for Transport Tycoon by Microprose ***********
*** Version 1.1 **************************************
******************************************************
*** compiled and edited by Peter Elfers **************
******************************************************
*** please send additions, corrections, hints etc. ***
*** to elfers.pad@sni.de *****************************
******************************************************

With additions from: Mark Dobie (mrd@ecs.southhampton.ac.uk)
Orin Thomas (orin@werple.apana.org.au)
[who made the Reunion FAQ]
Dave Calvin (calvid@rpi.edu)
Martin Nilsson (d90mn@efd.lth.se)
David Skreiner (david@htu.tu-graz.ac.uk)
Robert Court (robert@court.cityscape.co.uk)
Ben Blaukopf (jbb1003@hermes.cam.ac.uk)
Chuck O'Toole (otoole@chuck.enet.dec.com)
David Leadbetter (davidl@cs.uq.oz.au)
[writer and maintainer of the Theme Park FAQ]
Chuck Jones (cej@ccsitn.att.com)
Bert Paul Rauhut (hz262ra@rs1-hrz.uni-duisburg.de)
Dave Budd (budd@bnr.ca)
Edmund Stephen-Smith (stephens@solartron.com)
Chris Smith (csmith@convex.com)
Markku Tuovinen (mjtuovin@cc.Helsinki.FI)
[mentioned in arbitrary order]

Many thanks to all and special thanks to the FAQ writers mentioned above.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

0 Introduction
0.0 Sorry
0.1 Abbreviations
0.2 This FAQ's version
0.3 About Transport Tycoon
0.4 The demo
0.5 Cheats
0.6 Patches

1 Installation
1.1 Hardware requirements
1.2 Software requirements
1.3 Problems during installation
1.4 Problems during gameplay
1.5 Serial link with TT

2 Options
2.1 Difficulty level
2.2 Other game options

3 Gameplay
3.1 Building stations
3.2 Connecting two stations
3.3 When to use what type of transportation
3.4 Changing train layout/selling vehicles
3.5 City menu
3.6 How trains and signals work
3.7 Reliability of vehicles
3.8 The monorail system
3.9 Disasters
3.A Anything becomes more expensive

4 Strategies
4.1 Starting strategies
4.2 Strategies during the game
4.3 Fighting against opponents
4.4 Cities growth

5 Tables
5.1 Resources
5.2 Trains
5.3 Road vehicles
5.4 Ships
5.5 Airplanes
5.6 Limitations

============================================================================

0 Introduction

0.0 Sorry
Sorry for not so good English. I am German and using a German version of
Transport Tycoon. So please send me corrections where translation is
incorrect or language is *+%&$&.

0.1 Abbreviations
RMB Right Mouse Button
LMB Left Mouse Button
TT Transport Tycoon
MS Microsoft
FAQ Frequently Asked Questions

0.2 This FAQ's version
This is now version 1.1 of the Transport Tycoon FAQ.

Anything added since the last version is marked on column 1 with a '#'.
Creation and administration by: Peter Elfers (elfers.pad@sni.de)
Any hints, corrections, and additions are very welcome.

0.3 About Transport Tycoon
Transport Tycoon was programmed by Chris Sawyer inspired by Railroad
Tycoon as mentioned in the manual.
TT is distributed by Microprose.
The main idea of TT is to develop a universal transportation system in a
randomly created world using road vehicles, trains, ships and airplanes.
The games time range is between 1930 and 2030. The game is 'real time'
so the speed cannot be changed (but it can be paused).
Is it worth the money? Well I think you will need about 120 hours
(depending on your machine speed) to complete one game.
If you pay 60$ / 100 DM / 330FF for the game you are entertained 120
hours for only 0.50$ / 0.83DM / 2.75FF per hour. Than you can start a
second game.

0.4 The demo
# There is an official Microprose demo available on several ftp-sites.
# The demo should be on ftp.std.com in the /vendors/COMPUTER_EXPRESS
# directory.
# Filename is ttycoon.exe.
# The demo works only with trains (no airplanes, ships or road vehicles).
# You never find oil wells. The number of years you can play is limited.

0.5 Cheats
"[...] Start a new game, and before you build anything else, go to one
coast and try to build a tunnel all the way through to the other. It
doesn't have to go all the way, just has to be really expensive.
Instead of telling you that you don't have enough money, it gives you
about 400 billion! I've tried this a couple of times and it worked, but
I didn't try messing with my settings to see if that made a difference.
[...]" provided by Dave Calvin (calvid@rpi.edu)

In my German version that doesn't work (perhaps its better this way).

0.6 Patches
There are rumours about a patch available from MicroProse but as far as
I know, nobody is really informed what it will be for.

I send mail to Brian from MicroProse to get information about a possibly
existing patch. If I get an answer I will post it and write it down
here.

1 Installation

1.1 Hardware requirements
IBM PC AT min. 80386DX25 with 4 MB (as said in technical guide)
# Bert Paul Rauhut (hz262ra@rs1-hrz.uni-duisburg.de) told me that even
# a 386SX with 16 MHz and 4 MB is possible (for patient players :) ).
You will need about 6 MB on your HD and perhaps lots of additional space
if you want to store lots of saved games (they take up to 250K each).
A mouse is also required.
The game is in 640x480 256 colors so you need a SVGA card.
[T On a normal ET4000 (1MB) the game runs without any VESA-driver and using
TLIVESA the mouse cursor leaves trailers on the screen.

1.2 Software requirements
MS-DOS 5.0 or higher (I'll never tried other DOS versions like Novell or
IBM DOS).
MS mouse driver 8.2 or higher.
(requirements taken from the manual of TT)
# Further notice from Bert Paul Rauhut is that TT is playable with OS/2.

1.3 Problems during installation
There are no known problems.
# "TT will not install if you haven't a mouse driver installed." (Bert
# Paul Rauhut, mentioned above).

1.4 Problems during gameplay
During the game the mouse pointer can leave trails behind.
Some people mention that a VESA driver works. Especially that one coming
with SimCity 2000 should do well.

Mark Dobie (mrd@ecs.southampton.ac.uk) wrote:
"I have also had one solid lockup. It happened when two of my trains
collided in a station. The game froze during mid explosion..not even
ctrl-alt-del would work."

And at one time I had a cold reboot during the game without any
noticable reason (which means: the game reboots my PC without any action
from me).

1.5 Serial link with TT
# Bert Paul Rauhut tried to connect two machines via a null modem cable
# but failed.
# I never heard of an existing connection controlled by TT so if anyone
# did it, please email me.

2 Options

2.1 Difficulty level
There are three preset and one custom difficulty levels.
The following difficulty settings are possible:
Custom Custom
Option Easy Medium Hard easiest hardest
========================================================================
number of oppon. 2 4 7 0 7
opponents start aft.6 mon. aft.3 month immediatly aft.9 month immed.
number of cities normal normal many few many
number of firms many normal normal many few
max. start. loan 1,200,000 600,000 400,000 2,000,000 400,000
interest rate 2% 3% 4% 2% 6%
vehicl.work.exp. low medium medium low high
opp.build.speed medium fast fast slow vy fast
opp. intelligence low medium high low high
vehicl.breakdowns reduced normal normal never normal
subsidies x3 x2 x1.5 x4 x1.5
building costs low medium high low high
area flat hilly mountain. flat mount.
numb.of lakes/sea low low medium low high
economy constant uneven uneven constant uneven
Train change dir. station & end o.track end o.track end o.track end o.
end o.track & station track
disasters off on on off on

# Description of the options:
# Number of opponents:
# This value indeicates how much opponents will try to make a bigger
# transport empire than yours.
# With this value increasing you harder find a good area to build a
# station. Furthermore you will sooner reach the vehicle limit.
# Opponents starts:
# This is the time you have to find a good place to start before your
# opponents crowd the map. But even if you select 7 opponents starting
# immediately they won't. They need time to search for good place, too.
# Number of cities:
# Few cities are about 17 or so. In normal condition there were 29 and
# many means about 40.
# Number of firms:
# This indicates how much facilities there are. If you select 'few' you
# will hardly find two facilities to connect in the beginning (because
# of the big distance between them).
# Max. starting loan:
# This value will change depending on the currency option. I saw it on
# a minimum of 400,000 DM and 200,000 $. This option is a heavy one
# because in the beginning you will need lots of money and (like in real
# life) the bank won't give it to you. Later on you have enough money
# but could take loans of x millions.
# Interest rate:
# Well, the interest rate?
# Vehicle working expenses:
# How much you have to pay to keep your vehicles running.
# Opponents building speed:
# Here you can decide whether you want to can see the opponents laying
# track after track (so you can hinder them building) or fast enough
# to build (for example) their stations just on that place that you
# have prepared to build a statioin (but you can't because they were
# faster).
# Opponents intelligence:
# Uhm. All selections are synonyms for: _really stupid_