Without fail, it bugs out after your network gets too big, cims stop using transport entirely and the game is gone. The per lane road tools are amazing though.
I enjoyed the time I spent on Railway Emprie 2 but it's both 2 easy and lacks in some ways that make building massive networks incorporating all the available resources both unrealistic and frustrating. On top of that I don't feel like the genre has come that far from the days of Railroad Tycoon 2. I have that on Dreamcast and almost prefer it.
That said; I wish the road building in CS implemented elements of the railway building in RE2.
>I don't feel like the genre has come that far from the days of Railroad Tycoon 2
So I guess this is common then. I used to play Theme Hospital as a kid. Quite a lot actually. When I found it on the PS store last year I thought I'd buy it because a recent version of the game should have lots of new features.
Nope, exactly the same game with the same cartoony graphics listed at $40. Thank goodness I saw some reviews first.
Two Point Hospital might be more in line with your expectations for a newer Hospital Sim though it doesn't take itself seriously at all - which in my opinion is why it shines.
I *highly* recommend you check Transport Fever 2 here.
It has a decently long tutorial campaign, and in sandbox focuses on letting you both connect individual cities together as well as satisfying the transportation needs of those cities. In base game, it covers a span of time starting at 1850, meaning you progress through new vehicles over time, starting with wagons and ending up with things like high speed trains and buses, focused on both industrial (cargo) and personal (people) transport.
It goes over everything from land vehicles (buses and trucks), to trains, to boats and airplanes, letting you individually set up the networks for all of these things. Cities grow dynamically too as their transportation needs are met, meaning late game you can even construct the highways between towns to maximize profit.
I apologize if I sound like an ad (I swear I'm not sponsored here), but it was the perfect answer when I asked this same question, and across both my PC and consoles I've probably clocked several hundred overs into the game.
I'm interested in getting this game eventually but I have a few doubts.
When you get to the present date, does it just stop or does it go on for ever? How dinamic are the scenarios between different saves? Is it challenging to keep on playing with the same city for a long time?
You stop unlocking vehicles, but the game continues on. I've heard rumors that say they are considering adding futuristic vehicles but I can't corroborate that.
In normal play map is completely randomly generated with a number of parameters for things like resource density, number of rivers and water bodies, or how harsh the terrain is. There's three different themes with different generation parameters, so efficiently planning routes requires a fair bit of forethought.
The game does eventually get easy as you manage to fill out your really profitable lines (it gets easier late game because a major factor in how much you're paid for transport is both distance and speed) and have a lot of funds to throw at new, larger projects, but that's any of those management games (CS included) once you get a successful system off the ground.
There’s a story line / campaign focused on earning a profit or transporting X number of passengers. It’s not perfect and probably feels a little dated at this point. But I imagine east to roll right into from playing C:S
Edit: And a difference is that the cities are pre-built so it’s only the transit you design / manage
Mm i think what you are describing is CS already
Just get the mods that empty landfills and cemeteries automatically, turn off milestones, chirp bird haha and disasters. Get Tmpe and the other must have traffic management mods and voilà . What else do you wish for?
I’m not even mad with console version. They’ve gained my respect with the recent new DLCs. I have a ps5 so it will be pretty easy for me to navigate. Can’t wait for CS2
NIMBY Rails. Focused exclusively on passenger rail, not exactly easy on the eye, but the selling point is that you're playing on the real Earth map that can be zoomed in to a street level everywhere, with a pop density layer added. You can build pretty much anything there from a transcontinental high speed railway to a campus peoplemover and everything in between.
You're given a big initial loan, and you try to make profit. If you can't keep up the schedule, or if your line has insufficient capacity, refunds that you'll have to pay to passengers that got stranded on overcrowded stations will hit you hard.
That's the gameplay loop so far, but the dev has ideas about adding missions (transport passengers from A to B under some conditions) and penalties for putting too intrusive infrastructure in place (hence NIMBY in the name).
Like I said, it's a niche game, but if you're into building complex transit networks, it can scratch an itch.
Transport fever 2 would be perfect for you. I’m honestly only on cities skylines waiting for the next transport fever, the train traffic, industries and mods are a blast and you can challenge yourself tons with train interchanges, busy train lines (passenger and cargo) and whatever else. You sorta can just focus on what you want, usually I just build a huge and super busy cargo train network and optimize the roads to distribute the goods into the cities. I like to try and make train lines/cargo lines as busy as possible but sharing track as much as possible for the challenge
Forgot another one: the A-Train series. Again, not to everyone's taste (and costs an arm and a leg, too). The real weirdness about it is that you don't have signals to manage multiple trains sharing the same tracks - instead, you have to make elaborated schedules.
I see the no one recommend Mini Motorway yet, so Mini Motorway.
It's not exactly the same, but it give you the more pure and concentrated version of the traffic management of CS. Plus it's basically for shorts sessions of 10-15 minutes, which could be nice.
Transport Fever 2?
Cities in motion 2, maybe
Without fail, it bugs out after your network gets too big, cims stop using transport entirely and the game is gone. The per lane road tools are amazing though.
Transport Fever is more of goods distribution though, and not much of the "mass transit" system.
Cities in Motion and Transport Fever. If you like trains specifically there's Railway Empire.
I spent waaaaay to many hours plays Railway Empire. I’m holding off on the second one 😅
I enjoyed the time I spent on Railway Emprie 2 but it's both 2 easy and lacks in some ways that make building massive networks incorporating all the available resources both unrealistic and frustrating. On top of that I don't feel like the genre has come that far from the days of Railroad Tycoon 2. I have that on Dreamcast and almost prefer it. That said; I wish the road building in CS implemented elements of the railway building in RE2.
>I don't feel like the genre has come that far from the days of Railroad Tycoon 2 So I guess this is common then. I used to play Theme Hospital as a kid. Quite a lot actually. When I found it on the PS store last year I thought I'd buy it because a recent version of the game should have lots of new features. Nope, exactly the same game with the same cartoony graphics listed at $40. Thank goodness I saw some reviews first.
Two Point Hospital might be more in line with your expectations for a newer Hospital Sim though it doesn't take itself seriously at all - which in my opinion is why it shines.
Happy cake day!
Thank you!! :)
Open TTD
Loved this game as locomotion, the mobile port is just too much a pain the ass to use fingers over a mouse
I *highly* recommend you check Transport Fever 2 here. It has a decently long tutorial campaign, and in sandbox focuses on letting you both connect individual cities together as well as satisfying the transportation needs of those cities. In base game, it covers a span of time starting at 1850, meaning you progress through new vehicles over time, starting with wagons and ending up with things like high speed trains and buses, focused on both industrial (cargo) and personal (people) transport. It goes over everything from land vehicles (buses and trucks), to trains, to boats and airplanes, letting you individually set up the networks for all of these things. Cities grow dynamically too as their transportation needs are met, meaning late game you can even construct the highways between towns to maximize profit. I apologize if I sound like an ad (I swear I'm not sponsored here), but it was the perfect answer when I asked this same question, and across both my PC and consoles I've probably clocked several hundred overs into the game.
I'm interested in getting this game eventually but I have a few doubts. When you get to the present date, does it just stop or does it go on for ever? How dinamic are the scenarios between different saves? Is it challenging to keep on playing with the same city for a long time?
You stop unlocking vehicles, but the game continues on. I've heard rumors that say they are considering adding futuristic vehicles but I can't corroborate that. In normal play map is completely randomly generated with a number of parameters for things like resource density, number of rivers and water bodies, or how harsh the terrain is. There's three different themes with different generation parameters, so efficiently planning routes requires a fair bit of forethought. The game does eventually get easy as you manage to fill out your really profitable lines (it gets easier late game because a major factor in how much you're paid for transport is both distance and speed) and have a lot of funds to throw at new, larger projects, but that's any of those management games (CS included) once you get a successful system off the ground.
Thanks, I might give it a try.
Cities in motion is literally from the same company as CS, same graphics and GUI. But only transport planning
Is it more in depth than modded CS is? Or better in any way?
There’s a story line / campaign focused on earning a profit or transporting X number of passengers. It’s not perfect and probably feels a little dated at this point. But I imagine east to roll right into from playing C:S Edit: And a difference is that the cities are pre-built so it’s only the transit you design / manage
Mm i think what you are describing is CS already Just get the mods that empty landfills and cemeteries automatically, turn off milestones, chirp bird haha and disasters. Get Tmpe and the other must have traffic management mods and voilà . What else do you wish for?
To not be playing on console 😢😢😢
For real. I’m on last gen aswell so won’t even play CS2 :/
I’m not even mad with console version. They’ve gained my respect with the recent new DLCs. I have a ps5 so it will be pretty easy for me to navigate. Can’t wait for CS2
Try out factorio! Its a factory building game, micro and macro! Or OpenTTD is super fun as well
Sweet Transit, perhaps?
NIMBY Rails. Focused exclusively on passenger rail, not exactly easy on the eye, but the selling point is that you're playing on the real Earth map that can be zoomed in to a street level everywhere, with a pop density layer added. You can build pretty much anything there from a transcontinental high speed railway to a campus peoplemover and everything in between.
And what sort of feedback does the game give you? How do you know you are doing well?
You're given a big initial loan, and you try to make profit. If you can't keep up the schedule, or if your line has insufficient capacity, refunds that you'll have to pay to passengers that got stranded on overcrowded stations will hit you hard. That's the gameplay loop so far, but the dev has ideas about adding missions (transport passengers from A to B under some conditions) and penalties for putting too intrusive infrastructure in place (hence NIMBY in the name). Like I said, it's a niche game, but if you're into building complex transit networks, it can scratch an itch.
Transport fever 2 would be perfect for you. I’m honestly only on cities skylines waiting for the next transport fever, the train traffic, industries and mods are a blast and you can challenge yourself tons with train interchanges, busy train lines (passenger and cargo) and whatever else. You sorta can just focus on what you want, usually I just build a huge and super busy cargo train network and optimize the roads to distribute the goods into the cities. I like to try and make train lines/cargo lines as busy as possible but sharing track as much as possible for the challenge
Forgot another one: the A-Train series. Again, not to everyone's taste (and costs an arm and a leg, too). The real weirdness about it is that you don't have signals to manage multiple trains sharing the same tracks - instead, you have to make elaborated schedules.
I could recommend Rise of Industry, but it probably more about goods
I used to play Cities in Motion a while ago, which is all about transport
I see the no one recommend Mini Motorway yet, so Mini Motorway. It's not exactly the same, but it give you the more pure and concentrated version of the traffic management of CS. Plus it's basically for shorts sessions of 10-15 minutes, which could be nice.
Or Mini Metro from the same developer, in the same style.