RAILROAD TYCOON II^©
User Manual and The Second Century

All other brand names, product names, and characters mentioned in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks, or registered trademarks of their respective companies. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies.

Contents: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 21 Appendix

Chapter 1: Getting Started

Chapter 2: Tutorial

Chapter 3: The Main Menu

Chapter 4: The Main Interface

Chapter 5: Stations

Chapter 7: Players and Companies

Chapter 8: The Stock Market

Chapter 9: Multiplayer

Chapter 10: Using the Map Editor

Chapter 21: UP & RUNNING WITH RAILROAD TYCOON II: THE SECOND CENTURY

Appendix

Industries

Tech Support and Troubleshooting

Limited Software Warranty and License Agreement

1. GETTING STARTED  >Table of Contents<

In this chapter:

• About this Manual

• About Railroad Tycoon II

• Railroad Tycoon vs. Railroad Tycoon II

• Installing Railroad Tycoon II

• Starting Railroad Tycoon II

It’s a truism at computer game companies that most gamers don’t read the manual—until a problem rears its ugly head. In that case, the average gamer wants to spend as little time as possible with the manual (or tech support), then get back to the game. This manual is designed to do just that—get you up and playing fairly quickly, while also providing an easy-to-use reference for the game. The manual is divided into nine chapters, organized in the order that you’ll need them if you’re new to Railroad Tycoon II:

• Chapter 1: Getting Started, includes information on the game, changes since the original Railroad Tycoon, and instructions for installing Railroad Tycoon II.

• Chapter 2: Tutorial, is intended to give you a jump start for playing Railroad Tycoon II. Go to this chapter to fire up the game and give it a test drive.

• Chapter 3: The Main Menu, provides detailed information about the game’s primary menu and all its sub-menus.

• Chapter 4: The Main Interface, covers every function available from the game’s main interface. This is where you’ll spend most of your time, so bookmark this section for easy reference.

• Chapter 5: Stations, provides an overview of planning and placing stations for maximum profitability.

• Chapter 6: Trains, covers purchasing a train, and selecting its destinations and cargo.

• Chapter 7: Players and Companies, includes detailed information about managing your company’s finances, as well as your personal wealth.

• Chapter 8: The Stock Market, has everything you need to know to corner the market and make beggars of your competitors.

• Chapter 9: Multiplayer, has everything you need to know to set up and play a multiplayer game.

• Chapter 10: Using the Map Editor, covers the basics of creating your own maps with Railroad Tycoon II’s built-in editor.

• The Appendix contains important information that goes beyond the fundamentals of the game, which is another way of saying, it didn’t fit anywhere else.

In addition, Railroad Tycoon II comes with a Readme file on CD, as well as a brief (read: not comprehensive) in-game tutorial that duplicates some of the content of this manual—for the 90 percent of the public that doesn’t read manuals.

Since the invention of the wheel, man has been obsessed with finding faster and more efficient ways of transporting people and goods to distant destinations. The ancient Romans used ruts or grooves in their roads to improve the flow and speed of traffic. In the 1600’s, miners laid down wooden planks on which they led horse-drawn carts to lighten their workload, and increase the speed at which they could extract coal and other raw materials from the mines. However, few things changed the world as dramatically and as quickly as did the introduction of steam power in the 1700’s, and the invention of the steam-powered locomotive in 1804.

Initially replacing the horse for freight work and thus earning the long-lived moniker "the Iron Horse," the steam locomotive and the railways on which they ran revolutionized the means of transportation and inspired visionary entrepreneurs and generations of song writers. Virtually overnight, it became feasible to haul cargo over great distances, and the railroad industry quickly became a cash cow for landowners and the railroad barons themselves. For the first time, long-distance travel was a reality, and new industries, folklore, and legends were created to cater to the needs and dreams of a more mobile population.

Railroad Tycoon II takes you back to this momentous period in human history. You slip into the role as chairman of your own railroad, and it is your job to be better, faster, and just plain smarter than your competitors. Good business sense is a must, but so is a healthy dose of guts to go for the glory of building and ruling your own iron empire.

As your fledgling empire grows, you’ll have the chance to bring rail travel to the cities of your choice, supplying them with the goods they need. You’ll also be given various tasks whose completion depends upon your ability to think faster than your competitors, make allies out of enemies, and above all, satisfy your shareholders. The stock market is another area where you can pad your fortune, or grind your rivals into dust. You can even hire managers—each with unique bonuses that contribute to your success—to assist you with everyday operations. There are as many ways to accomplish your goals as there are individuals playing the game, and each scenario won’t play the same way twice, resulting in a fresh game play experience every time. Once you’ve mastered the role of chairman, you’ll be ready to take on other players in multiplayer mode, or even design your own maps and remake history as you see fit, in the extensive map editor provided with this detailed, addictive, and highly entertaining game.

Railroad Tycoon II is the sequel to the award-winning simulation Railroad Tycoon. Although it does include many of the same features that have been updated in various ways, there are some major differences in the two games. Railroad Tycoon II features:

• Better graphics—Designed to run in 1024 x 768 resolution, Railroad Tycoon II is a much more visually impressive game than its predecessor.

• Full-motion video—As an enhancement to game actions, full-motion video clips are included at various stages.

• More engine and cargo types—With over 60 available engines and 34 cargo types, you’ll never run out of options when building your empire.

• A stronger financial market system—Railroad Tycoon II’s economic model is as close to the real world as possible, allowing you to even adversely affect your competitors’ stock by short selling and other robber baron tactics.

• Deeper industry webs—More types of cargo are produced, leading to advanced economic relationships between destinations.

• Territories—Your rights in certain areas will depend upon your railroads relationships within the area. So be good to your neighbors!

• More time periods—The game encompasses the years 1804 to 2020, allowing you to experience the early growth in steam engine railways, the power of diesels, and the modern era of electric engines.

• Nearly twice as many chairmen—Play as any of 40 chairmen, from Otto von Bismarck to William Wheelwright.

• Managers—Select from 40 managers with their own operational bonuses.

• Campaigns—An 18-scenario campaign, starting with simple scenarios, then moving up to more sophisticated and challenging scenarios when you’re ready.

• More configuration options—Set up the game the way you want it to play, even select and play maps separate from the Campaign mode.

• Sandbox mode—Play with no economic model active, with all the time and resources in the world. This is great for learning basic railway design as well as industry relationships.

• Multiplayer modes—Compete against other human players over a local area network (LAN) or the Internet.

• CD quality music—Upgraded sound system, including appropriate music to set the mood for industrial domination of your rivals.

• 3D map environment—View actual terrain features, including trees, hills, and rivers, and rotate the map in any direction to better view your holdings.

• Full editor for maps and events—Build (or import) custom maps, and script every detail down to available computer opponents and timeline events.

For Railroad Tycoon II to work, your computer must meet the following minimum requirements:

• You must have either Windows 95/98 or Windows NT 4.0 or later installed.

• Your computer should be a Pentium 133MHz or better.

• There must be at least 16MB of RAM installed.

• You must have a 4x (or better) CD-ROM drive.

• Your graphics card and monitor must be capable of 1024 x 768 resolution and 16- or 8-bit color depth.

• You must have MS DirectX 5.0 or greater installed. If you don’t, you can install it as part of the Railroad Tycoon II installation process.

• You must have at least 130 MB of available hard disk space.

To install Railroad Tycoon II on your computer

1 Turn on your computer and start Microsoft Windows 95 or later, or Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 or later.

2 Remove the Railroad Tycoon II CD from its case and place it in your CD-ROM drive.

3 If AutoPlay is enabled, a menu will appear once the drive closes. Select Install, and then follow the on-screen instructions.

or

If AutoPlay is not enabled, you’ll need to manually install the program: double-click the My Computer icon on your desktop, double-click the icon for your CD-ROM drive, and then double-click the Setup.exe icon. Click Install when the setup screen appears, and then follow the on-screen instructions.

If you have problems during installation, refer to the troubleshooting section of the Readme.txt file on the Railroad Tycoon II CD.

 To uninstall Railroad Tycoon II

1 Turn on your computer and start Microsoft Windows 95 or later, or Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 or later.

2 Place the Railroad Tycoon II CD into your CD-ROM drive.

3 Click the Start button on the taskbar, select Settings, then Control Panel. Double-click Add/Remove Programs, select Railroad Tycoon II, then click Add/Remove to uninstall the program.

Once you’ve installed Railroad Tycoon II, there are three ways to start a game.

You can:

• Click the Start button on the task bar, select Programs, and then Railroad Tycoon II to launch the program;

or

• If AutoPlay is enabled, click Play on the Railroad Tycoon II menu that appears when you place the CD in the drive;

or

• Open Windows Explorer and go to the directory where you installed Railroad Tycoon II. In the main directory of the folder where the game resides, double-click the Rt2.exe icon to launch the program.

Sit back and enjoy the opening cinematic. Once the steam clears, you’ll see the Railroad Tycoon II main menu. If you’re one of those impatient types, who can’t wait to relive and reshape the formative years of railroad travel, you can click around in the game to your impatient heart’s content. If you’d like some guidance as to what to do to keep your trains running on time and turn a profit, turn to Chapter 2, Tutorial, which gives you a basic overview of the basic elements of Railroad Tycoon II (page 7). For a comprehensive overview of every menu, item, and function within the game, please refer to Chapter 3, The Main Menu, and Chapter 4, The Main Interface (pages 23 and 29, respectively).

>Chapter 1<

2. TUTORIAL >Table of Contents<

In this chapter:

• About this Tutorial

• Setting Up a Game

• Exploring the Main Interface

• The Map Overview

• Starting a Company

• Laying Your First Track

• Building Stations

• Buying a Train

• Selecting Destinations and Cars

• Entering the World of High Finance

• Controlling Your Railroad Empire

This section provides a brief overview of the basic elements of Railroad Tycoon II. It is not a comprehensive overview of every menu, item, and function within the game, but should get you up and playing fairly quickly—provided you belong to the 10 percent of the public that actually does read manuals.

You don’t have to complete this tutorial to play the game. In fact, if you’re one of those people who just likes to dive right in, you can refer to the brief in-game tutorial and click around in the game to your impatient heart’s content. However, if you have a few minutes to spare, we can save you a lot of time by showing you how to do the things you need to do to keep your trains running on time and turn a profit. For a comprehensive overview of every menu, item, and function within the game, please refer to Chapter 3, The Main Menu, and Chapter 4, The Main Interface (pages 23 and 29, respectively).

Upon launching the game, you will find yourself in the main menu screen. This is your launching pad for starting new games, loading saved games, starting multi-player games, etc. The tutorial is based on a saved single-player scenario. Let’s dive into it…

1. From the main menu, select Single Player, then Load Scenario. A panel will open to the right, allowing you to select the game you wish to load.

2. Highlight the Tutorial game, then click OK.

As you enter the main game, you’ll be greeted by a popup window explaining the goal of this game. Please read it carefully. As a recap, your goal is to reach $10 million dollars in personal net worth by the year 1900. That means you must accumulate a combined total of cash and stocks with a value of at least $10 million dollars by the year 1900. If you can reach $25 or $50 million by the year 1900, you will receive a greater victory. Click the OK button to close the window.

Next, press the PAUSE key twice. You’ll see that this toggles the game between paused mode and a game speed of "3". For now you’ll want to leave the game paused, so you can look around and set up your railroad without time pressure. When everything is set up, you can resume the game by pressing the PAUSE key again or by pressing the Plus (+) and Minus (-) keys.

There are four sections to the main interface:

• Main Window (A)—This is where the actual game play takes place. Consider this your window on the world. The four oval-shaped icons in the lower right corner of the window enable you to change your view by rotating it, or zooming in and out.

• Radar Area (B)—In the lower left corner, there is a radar view that enables you to move around the map without scrolling.

• Center List Box (C)—The rectangular box to the right of the Radar Area is the List Box—the nerve center of your empire. Use the four tabs to view summaries for Stations, Trains, Players, and Companies. This area also shows cash-on-hand for your company, and, to the left of the tabs, the current date.

• Activity Box (D)—The area in the lower right-hand corner is the Message window. You’ll receive various messages throughout the game, and can access them here.

 With the game paused, the first thing you need to do is look around a bit. The Map Overview icon enables you to view resources on the map—a crucial part of planning your first route.

1 Click the Map Overview icon—the fourth one down on the left side of the screen that has a picture of a globe on it. In the List Box, you’ll see a graphical representation of all the resources (cargo) available in the game.

2 Pass the mouse cursor over any resource to temporarily highlight it on the map. Clicking any resource toggles the view of that resource on or off. You can select multiple resources, or overlay all resources on the map at the same time by clicking the All button. A supply of a resource is shown in white; a demand for it is shown in yellow.

3 Move the mouse cursor to the edges of the screen to scroll the map in the direction you want. If you want to move to another area of the map quickly, click on that area in the Radar Area.

4 Experiment with the overview. Your goal is to locate areas where there are concentrations of resources and industry (supply and demand) that need one another. Resource locations are randomized, and will change each time you play. To get back to the regular list box view, click on the Cancel button at the bottom of the List Box.

Before you can start laying track to connect the resources you’ve located, you need to own a company.

1. Click the Company tab in the List Box (it’s the rightmost tab.) Double-click Start a new company. When you start a new company, you decide how much of your own money you put into the company, as well as how much you will accept from investors. In general, you should accept little from investors if you plan to pursue complete ownership of the company, but you may choose to accept more to give yourself plenty of operating cash.

2. For this tutorial, slide the Player Investment and Outside Investment sliders all the way to the right. This will give you a whopping $1,650,000 total cash to spend.

3. Type in a name for your company in the Company Name box, or use the default name. Once in the Company Name box, press ESC if you want to leave the box without making changes, or ENTER if you want to keep the name you’ve typed in.

4. Select a Company Logo by using the up or down arrow, or use the one provided for you. Click OK to accept your selections and start your company.

5. Back at the main interface, you’ll see the logo and name of your company, your available cash, and your profits (which are $0K at this point) in the List Box.

Now that you’ve started a company, it’s time to get down to business. The first thing you need to do is find a suitable route. You’ll find the city of Slough ideally situated to be the center of your new empire. Slough is near the far south central part of the map and just west of the city of London.

1. With the game paused, click the Lay Track icon—the top icon on the left side of the main interface that looks like railroad tracks—to start laying track. Your mouse cursor will change to a track icon.

2. The List Box gives you two track options, Single Track or Double Track. Select Single Track for now. The third option is bridge type, which is chosen by clicking one of the two icons on the

right side of the List Box. Select Wooden Bridges (the top image).

3. To lay track, place the cursor between the sheep farm and the cattle ranch just to the east of Slough, then click and hold the left mouse button down. As long as you keep the mouse button down, you can move the mouse cursor around the screen, dragging your track around with it. Drag the cursor towards Oxford (further west), the next destination. You’ll notice that there are white, green, and yellow numbers all along the track. The white numbers are the costs for each piece of track. The green and yellow numbers are the grade (steepness) of that section of track. Yellow numbers are steep (red are the steepest), which will slow your trains down. You don’t want a steep grade, so before you release the cursor, press the ESC key to clear the proposed track. Now, click and drag smaller sections of track, releasing the left mouse button at the end of each short section. Trace your track around the hill.

4. When you think your track route looks good, click on the track button again (top left) to exit out of track-laying mode.

TIP: The tabs at the bottom of the Center List Box will take you to the detail screens for trains, players, and companies, by double-clicking on an item in the List Box. Clicking the left or right arrows at the bottom of this view moves you from station-to-station, train-to-train, player-to-player, or company-to-company. These views are very useful for fast management of everything.

Laying track is only the beginning. Next, you need to set up stations in order to make resources available to your trains.

 1. Click the Build a New Station button (Top left, second from the top).

2. There are three station sizes, Small, Medium, and Large. You can choose to place any of them at each destination on your track. The difference between them is the area they pull resources from, which is represented by a gold circle around them on the map. To see an example, click the Medium Station, then move your cursor, which now looks like a medium station, to a point along your track just south of Slough. You’ll notice the station automatically line up with your track.

3. Once the station is placed, any resources within the gold circle will be available at that station. Medium and Large stations have larger circles around them. Just be sure that its gold circle covers the resources you want to access. In this case all of the houses, the sheep ranch and cattle ranch should be in the golden circle. When you’ve got the station covering the right resources and lined up to the track right, it will turn green. Now click the left mouse button and your station will be placed.

4. When you place a station, you’ll be shown a 3D representation of it. This is called the Station Detail Screen. Click the Buy button in this view to see the improvements you can add to the station. Purchase a water tower, a sanding tower, and a roundhouse for the station to improve train performance and maintenance. When you are done, click the Exit button in the bottom right.

5. Repeat this procedure at Oxford. However, you probably won’t need the three building improvements, as your trains will be able to carry enough water, sand, and oil until they return to Slough. Once you have two

stations connected by track, you’re almost ready to start shipping cargo between them.

Once you’ve laid track and placed stations, you’ll need to purchase a locomotive to get things rolling.

Selecting a Locomotive

Based upon the time period and geographic location, various locomotives will become available as the game progresses. There are three locomotives available as you start this tutorial.

1. Select the Purchase a new train icon (the one that looks like a train) from the icons along the left side of the main window.

2. Next, select the 4-4-0 Eight-Wheeler from the list on the left. You did build a mostly level track, right? Notice that each locomotive’s stats appear on the right as you select one from the list. Click Purchase to complete the transaction.

Now that you’ve purchased a locomotive, you need to decide which cargo to haul between your two destinations. The routing screen is where you choose destinations, select cars, and check the supply and demand at each station.

 1. After you purchase a locomotive, the next screen you see is the Train Detail Screen. It will show the new train you just purchased, already set to go to your two destinations. The map on the right shows all available destinations —if you had more than two, you would select the destinations you want for this train on the map, and they would appear in the list on the left.

2. Double-click Slough in the List Box on the left, and the right side of the screen will switch from the planning map to a Car List panel. At the very top of this panel you will see two passenger cars—the default consist. Clicking a car will move it off your consist, or list of cars. Clicking a car from the list below will add it to your consist.

3. At the very bottom of your screen, you will see a list of what the selected station supplies on the left side and what it demands on the right.

4. Cars available at this station will show up near the top of the Car List. Select one wool car and one passenger car. Check the demand at the other station to make sure you are hauling cargo that is in demand (we know you are but it’s a good practice). When you’re finished setting up the consist at this station, click OK to confirm it, then double-click the Oxford station listed on your consist list on the left side and select one passenger and one goods car. The wool you’ve delivered will be converted into fine goods to be transported back to the hard-working people of Slough.

5. You have one more decision to make here. Take a look at the two stations in the list on the left. The traffic signal will have the green light showing. Clicking this signal will change the light. This signal is what you use to dictate the behavior of this train in that station. Your choices are:

Green—Don’t wait for cargo, proceed with whatever is already available at the station.

Yellow—Wait until at least half the cargo cars are full before proceeding.

Red—Wait until all of the cargo cars are full before proceeding.

For now, set the stoplight in Slough to yellow and the stoplight in Oxford to green. When you’ve made all your changes, press the EXIT button to return to the main interface.

That’s it—you’re all set! Set the game speed to "3" by pressing the PLUS key three times—you can set this faster as you get more comfortable with the game, but "3" or "4" are the best speeds for now.

Here are a few tips for keeping an eye on things from the main interface, now that your railroad career is underway:

• Set your train classes—From the list of trains in the List Box, click the icon to the left of each train to set it to Express, Normal, Slow, or Halted. These are the settings that dictate how this train will react when it meets another train on the same track, and they also allow you to change a train’s status on the fly.

• Manage your consists—Right-clicking each train’s consist in the List Box will show you its current destination, speed, cargo value, and weight. As you build more trains, you can view a bit more detail on all of them by using the List button, located in the bottom right corner of the List Box—it looks like a bulleted list.

• Use the List Box and Detail Screens to keep track of everything—The List Box and the Detail Screens (accessed by double-clicking an item in the List Box) are very important interfaces. In each view, use the four tabs—Stations, Trains, Players, and Companies—and the List button to view statistics about each. Think of it as a hierarchy—the List Box shows you general information, while the Detail Screens show you in-depth information.

• Scout the map for opportunities—Once you’ve established a money-earning route, start looking over the map for other opportunities. A variety of approaches can be used to plan your railway’s path to glory. In this case however, look for ways to improve your production and improve the use of your existing assets. No need to spend investors’ money unwisely. Connect to London to haul cattle to the meatpacking plant there (unless you’re a vegetarian). The grain farm just south of Slough could increase the production rate of your wool and cattle farms by 50 percent!

• Buy lucrative industries—You can buy up cash-producing industries along your routes, or even along your competitors’ routes. Click a resource to view its profitability rating. The more loads that are carried to and from it, the more profitable it will be.

So far, this tutorial has focused on getting your railroad up and running. Now it’s time to take a quick look at the other aspects of Railroad Tycoon II—company management and the stock market.

Company Management

Managing your operation requires more than just adding and working with stations, trains, routes, and consists. Remember when you set up your company, and you chose to have outside investment as part of your initial funding? Well, those investors have expectations for your operation, and they’ll hold you accountable for how well things are going. To see what they are looking at, we’ll be working in the Company Detail Screen.

 1. To reach the Company Detail Screen, click the Company tab at the bottom of the List Box, and then double-click your company.

2. The Company Detail Screen shows your ledger—click on the different tabs and look around to get a feel for what information is present here.

3. Click the Finances tab. You could issue some bonds to raise more money, but for the moment, stay debt free and issue some more stock. Your current Share Price is listed on the left page. Click Issue Stock and a window will appear giving details of the transaction. Click OK in that window if everything is fine. Note the change to your current Share Price.

4. Feeling fickle? Buy Back Stock and take a look at its effect on your Stock Value. Investors are very particular about Share Price—they want it to go up. Period. Don’t disappoint them, or you’ll be out on your ear. Remember that chairmen are appointed, not born.

5. Experiment with the other options here (except Declaring Bankruptcy unless you’re ready to bail) and familiarize yourself with their effects.

The Stock Market and Personal Finances

 Your personal wealth is, of course, directly tied to your company’s performance. In addition to your excellent management ability contributing to your company’s success, you can accumulate personal wealth by savvy investment in the Stock Market.

1. From the main interface, click the Stock Market icon along the left side of the main window.

2. You’ll be greeted with the Stock Market Detail view. There are two tabs here:

Personal—This tab enables you to view your current stock portfolio, as well as buy or sell stock.

Corporate—This tab gives details about your company’s financials, including a list of major shareholders and a five-year weighted return among other things.

3. In the Personal section, you’ll usually see the option to Buy or Sell a particular stock. Unfortunately, you’ve used up all your cash to start your company, so you probably won’t see the Buy option yet. After a year or two, the accumulation of your salary and dividends may give you enough cash to buy some more stock.

4. Selling stock is done in the same manner. Just select Sell from the Personal section. Normally, you can only sell shares that you personally own. If you don’t have the shares to sell (usually this would apply to another company), then you’ll have another option—Selling Short. If the stock price drops—which is the intent here—then you cash in. If it rises, you’ll be forced to buy the stock to meet the Margin Call. If the company buys up stock, you may have to buy the stock at inflated prices. Be careful with this option.

TIP: If you don’t have enough cash to make a purchase, you might still be able to buy stock on Margin—essentially borrowing money to buy the stock. If you buy on Margin, and the stock value goes up, you’re in good shape. However, if it falls, you’ll be forced to sell stock to cover the Margin Call, even if it bankrupts you personally.

That about does it for this tutorial. You’ve seen all the important game elements, and had the chance to experiment a bit. If you’re a quick study, maybe you have a decent start. After experimenting a little, you might want to start a new game to use your knowledge. Also, don’t be afraid to jump right into the campaign—the first few scenarios are geared toward a novice player, and you can learn as you go.

As a summary, keep a close eye on the following:

• Routes—Find profitable ones and exploit them.

• Locomotives—Maintain them well, and upgrade whenever possible.

• Stations—Improve them to increase revenues and route performance.

• Industries—Buy them to pad company coffers and increase your holdings.

• Finances—Be a smart manager and run a solid, profitable business by maximizing revenue and return on investment.

• Personal Wealth—Increase it by good management and mastering the Stock Market.

• Competitors—Bury them by doing all of the above.

For more detailed information about any of the topics covered in this tutorial, read the rest of the manual (Oh come on, you’ve read this far already!) A few options you’ve seen in this tutorial, such as buying industries, buying stock on margin, and short selling, are only available if you set up a game on the expert financial and industrial models in the options panel. If you’re playing the campaign, they aren’t available until a few scenarios into it. We’ve given you a taste of everything here, though you won’t be able to use every option in every scenario.

>Chapter 2<

3. THE MAIN MENU >Table of Contents<

In this chapter:

• Navigational Aid

• Main Menu Options

• Single Player

• Multiplayer

• Campaign

• New Scenario

• Options

Navigational Aid

The main menu screen in Railroad Tycoon II gives you five options:

• Single Player—Select this option to start a single-player campaign

or scenario.

• Multiplayer—This option enables you to play with multiple human opponents. The multiplayer option is discussed in detail in Chapter 9, Multiplayer (page 65).

• Editor—The Railroad Tycoon II map editor enables users to customize or build their own maps for the game. Click here to access it. This option is covered in Chapter 10, Using the Map Editor (page 71).

• High Scores—Click here to view the high scores for the game.

• Credits—Take a look at the hard-working folks that brought you this game.

• Quit—Selecting this option will immediately return you to Windows.

To start a single-player game, click Single Player on the main menu screen. The next menu will appear, giving you four options to choose from: New Campaign, Load Campaign, New Scenario, and Load Scenario.

Railroad Tycoon II’s campaign mode enables you to play through 18 individual scenarios, designed to be played consecutively. The first few scenarios start off fairly simple, then escalate in difficulty. To start a new campaign:

4. Click New Campaign on the Single Player menu.

2. Choose a difficulty. We suggest Normal Difficulty if you’re experienced with strategy games, or Easy Difficulty if you’re not. Stay away from Hard Difficulty until you’ve played at least one campaign all the way through. Note: You can’t change campaign difficulty after you’ve started, so choose carefully.

3. You’ll start with the first scenario, "The Iron Seed." Choose one of the available bonuses from the list below. The bonuses available will change from scenario to scenario throughout the campaign, and can be key strategic choices.

4. Click Play this scenario to launch the game and start the campaign. Skip to Chapter 5, The Main Interface (page 41), before you begin play.

Load Campaign

If you’ve already started a campaign and saved it in progress, click Load Campaign to bring up a dialog box with a list of currently saved campaigns in it. Select the campaign you wish to load, then click OK. The game will be launched, returning you to the point where you previously saved your campaign.

When you select New Scenario from the Single Player menu, a dialog box will pop up with the following elements: Map, Options, Skill Levels, and Computer Players.

Map

Click this button to select the map your game will be played on and the Map dialog box will appear. Click on a map name to see the map and its description below. If the map is set up to allow it, you can also change the starting Date for the map by clicking the up or down arrow below the map. Once you’re satisfied with your selection, click OK in the map dialog box.

Once you’ve selected your map, click the Options button. You should now see another dialog box to the left of the New Scenario dialog. These two dialog boxes contain all the options you’ll need to set before starting your game. The Options dialog contains the following settings:

• Sandbox mode—In this mode, you simply build and run trains. Money and competition are non-factors—all Financial and Industrial settings are toggled off—so build to your heart’s content.

• Financial model—This setting controls the financial aspects of the game. Set this option to Basic, Advanced, or Expert. The effects of these settings are as follows:

• Industrial model—This setting configures the industrial side of the game. Set it to Basic, Advanced, or Expert. The effects of each setting are as follows:

• Revenue modifier—The two sliders in the revenue modifier section of the Options menu can be used to increase or decrease the amount of revenue received for hauling cargo. You can set this for both Human and Computer players. When lowered for Human players, this results in less revenue per load, making the game significantly harder.

Skill Levels

In the Game Setup menu—the right-hand dialog box when the Options menu is open—you can change your skill level by clicking any of the horses to the right of the Options button with the following effects:

• Easy—Basic Financial and Industrial models are selected. Human player receives a +20% Revenue Modifier, while the computer receives a 10% Revenue Modifier.

• Medium—Advanced Financial and Industrial models are selected. No Revenue Modifiers for either computer or human players.

• Hard—Expert Financial and Industrial models are selected. Human player receives a -10% Revenue Modifier, while the computer receives a +10% Revenue Modifier.

• Expert—Expert Financial and Industrial models are selected. Human player receives a -20% Revenue Modifier, while the computer receives a +20% Revenue Modifier.

As you change the skill level, or any of the other Options settings, notice that the Difficulty Rating shown below the computer players changes to reflect the changes you make. Changes you make outside these skill settings fall under the Custom skill level.

Computer Players

The last Options setting you need to work with is the Computer Players option. In the text box below the Skill settings, you’ll see yourself (the human player) listed, as well as any computer players already in the game. Adding more computer players by clicking the up arrow drives the Difficulty Rating higher. You can’t decide which players to add, and in some scenarios, you won’t be able to remove all of them either.

Once you’ve set all the Options, clicking OK in both dialog boxes will start the game.

Load Scenario

If you’ve already started a game and saved it in progress, click Load Scenario from the Single Player menu, then select the game you wish to load from the listing that appears. Once you’ve selected it, click OK to launch the game and return to the point at which you saved your position.

Railroad Tycoon II enables you to match wits with, and test your financial prowess against human opponents in any of four modes: TCP/IP, IPX, Modem, or Serial. For information on setting up a multiplayer game, see Chapter 9, Multiplayer .

High Scores

Click the High Scores button to see the current high scores for the game.

Credits

Click the Credits button to view a list of everyone involved in bringing Railroad Tycoon II to you.

Quit

Clicking Quit on the main menu takes you out of the game and back to Windows.

>Chapter 3<

4. THE MAIN INTERFACE >Table of Contents<

In this chapter:

• Navigational Aid

• The Four Parts of the Main Interface

• Navigating the Map

• The Primary Action Icons

• The Center List Box

Once the game is launched you will interact with the world through the main interface, which consists of four parts:

Lay Track

Build New Station

Bulldoze Objects

Map Overview

Purchase Train

Stock Market

Control Panel

File Options

• Main window (A)—This is where actual game play takes place. Consider this your window on the world. This area contains the icons you will use to interact with the world.

• Radar Area (B)—Located in the lower left corner of your screen, the Radar Area is useful for moving quickly around the map. Click on the Radar Area, and the Main Window will center on that location.

• Center List Box (C)—To the right of the Radar Area is the List Box—the nerve center of your empire. You can use the four tabs to view summary information about Stations, Trains, Players, and Companies in the game. Double-clicking any item shown in the List Box will take you to that item’s Detail View.

• Activity Box (D)—Think of this box as your home entertainment theater and your mail box rolled into one. Here, you can view in-game videos of various selected processes (for example laying track and building stations) and read special messages that will be delivered to you throughout the game.

There are four icons located above the Activity Box (D). From left to right, the first two enable you to rotate the map as necessary, and the other two enable you to zoom in and out of the map. The small Compass in the upper left corner of the main window can also be used to rotate the map.

Viewing Buildings and Terrain

Railroad Tycoon II comes with a neat feature that alerts you to the properties and industry type of each building. If you move and hold your cursor over a building, you can see the industry type below the tabs of the List Box, near the edge of the screen. Clicking the building will bring up an interactive dialog box that includes this information:

• Ownership—This entry shows which railroad owns the building.

• Profitability—Based upon the number of loads hauled from the building, profitability will go up (or down). More loads translate to greater profitability. Levels range from Gushing Cash, all the way down to Poor.

• Purchase Price—The cost of buying the facility.

• Production—This entry shows what the plant demands (if anything)

and produces.

When you’re playing with the Advanced Industrial model active, this dialog is where you will be given the option to buy the building. Right-clicking on any building gives you the same information, but doesn’t give you the buying option you get when you left-click.

Right-clicking on any unimproved terrain will tell you:

• Type of Terrain—This is the terrain represented by the specific point you click on the map.

• Territory—This entry shows you which territory this piece of land belongs to.

• Your Access Rights—This entry tells you if you have access rights for this particular area, based upon which Territory it’s in.

• X,Y—These are the coordinates of this point on the map.

Checking Your Radar

The map in the Radar Area can be used to refocus the main window view quickly to other areas. Click on the map in the Radar Area and drag to scroll across the map at top speed. Cities are pinpointed in white on the map

The series of eight buttons along the left side of the main window represent the primary actions you can perform within the game. The first four buttons are special modes you can use to Lay Track, Build a New Station, Bulldoze Objects, or see the Map Overview. For all four of these, pressing the button once will put you into that mode, pressing it again will take you out of that mode. The next two buttons let you perform important game play actions such as Purchase a New Train and Go to the Stock Market. Finally, the last two buttons are more global in nature, letting you access the Control Panel and File Options dialogs.

Lay Track

The first icon is used to place track on the map. Click on the icon, and your cursor turns into a representation of section of railroad track. Click at one endpoint of your track, hold the left mouse button down, then drag the mouse cursor to your destination, and release the button when you have the layout you want.

Track can be laid between any two points, but can’t be laid over oceans or through buildings. It also will not be laid if you can’t afford it—as you lay track, the current cost of it is displayed below the List Box tabs.

There are a few choices to make when laying track:

• Type of Track—Select your preference from the List Box before laying your track. Lay Single track on short routes that only one train is likely to use. Double track is a must for busy routes, especially those connected to large stations. In later scenarios, you may choose to lay electrified track, which costs more, but allows the use of fast, efficient electric engines.

• Bridge Type—Wooden, Stone, and Iron bridges will become available as the game progresses. Select the type you prefer from the icons in the right side of the List Box before laying your track. Go with Wooden bridges to start with, then upgrade them later as you upgrade your track. Wooden bridges are cheap to build, but can only support single wide track, and force trains to slow down greatly as they pass over. Avoid building bridges whenever possible—they can be as much as ten times as expensive as regular track.

• Cost—When you begin laying track, you will see a set of cost numbers displayed in white along the track as you lay it. In addition, the total cost of the track segment will appear below the List Box tabs. Keep your track cost down so you can spend money on more routes. Track cost is increased by steep grades, heavy forests, deserts, and other hostile terrain.

TIP: You must own a company BEFORE you can build track.

• Grade—In addition to cost figures, track grade will be shown along the track as you lay it. Ideally, these numbers should be green, which translates to a flat grade. Yellow numbers can be all right if there’s no other way to get where you’re going, but red numbers are big trouble. A grade greater than 4.0 is considered steep, and should only occur if the obstacle is unavoidable. Anything higher than 4.0 will kill most routes, in the early 1800’s, when locomotives aren’t very powerful, but can be acceptable later as locomotive power increases.

Build a New Station

Clicking this icon changes the cursor to a set of builders tools. In addition, the default station size is selected, and the cursor drags a color-coded representation of that station across the map. You may choose to place your station on existing track or out in the open (where you can connect to it later).

If the station is colored green, it is in a valid location, with a valid connection to existing track. If it’s colored yellow, it is in a valid location, but has no track connection. If it’s colored red, the station is in an invalid location (such as over water, or overlapping an existing building). Move the station around until you find a satisfactory location for it.

Surrounding the station cursor you’ll notice a gold circle. This is the station’s collection area, and it varies with the size of the station. A collection area graphically represents the area that a particular station will collect resources from. Make sure to place stations so that their collection areas cover desirable resources.

Available station sizes are shown in the List Box, along with their associated cost:

• Small Station ($50K)—Use these for single resources, or areas where resources are very close together.

• Medium Station ($100K)—These are good for small cities, since you’ll want to include as much housing as possible in the collection circle.

• Large Station ($200K)—Use these for hubs or large cities.

In addition to these choices, you can also select a station’s architecture from the six selections in the right side of the List Box. Your choices here are Default, Victorian, Colonial, Mission Revival, Tudor, or Kyoto Revival. Default will automatically choose the architecture best matching the geography. The different architectures are visual only—there is no impact on the gameplay from the different architectures.

Below the station architectures, you can choose the station’s facing. The center square is the default, which attempts to auto-rotate the station to best fit its surroundings. The eight surrounding boxes force the station to a particular facing (useful when you’re trying to fit the station into a tight spot).

Bulldoze Objects

Things won’t always go the way you planned, so it’s a good thing you can do something about it. Bulldozing is done by clicking the Bulldoze objects icon, selecting a brush size (area of effect) from the List Box, and then clicking on the object you want to demolish. You can bulldoze almost any object, including resources, so be very careful how you use this tool. You’ll have to have enough cash on hand to pay for the demolition.

Map Overview

Clicking the Map Overview icon brings up a list of five different overlays you can view on the map. From the List Box, you can select:

• Resource Map—When you select this overview, all the resources in the game appear in the List Box. Passing the cursor over each one in the List Box will highlight them on the map. White text indicates a supply of the resource, and yellow text indicates a demand for it. You can toggle resources to stay on by clicking on them, or if you want them all to overlay on the map, select All. You can clear your selections by clicking Clear.

• Station Statuses—When this overlay is selected, a small box appears near each station on the map. This box displays the current supply at that station, enabling you to see at a glance where additional trains or resources are needed.

• Track Grade Map—This overview toggles the track grade map on or off. This is the same grade map you see when you lay track without the cost numbers to clutter it up.

* Traffic Density—This overview helps you avoid high-traffic routes by showing traffic density on the tracks.

• Track by Company—This overlay shows how much track is owned by highlighting the track in the main window for the company selected in the List Box. This helps when planning routes that will have to use competitor’s track.

Purchase a New Train

Once you’ve started a company, laid track, and built at least two stations, you’re ready to start buying trains and hauling cargo. Clicking the Trains icon brings up the Purchase Train dialog box. If you buy a train, you’ll then be taken to the Train Detail screen, where you can set up the train. For more information on purchasing and setting up trains, see Chapter 6: Trains

Stock Market

The Stock Market is a crucial piece of the game, since it’s the primary mechanism by which you can enrich yourself, as opposed to your company. See Chapter 8, The Stock Market (page 61), for more information on using (and abusing) the stock market.

Control Panel

The Control Panel icon takes you to the Control Panel screen, where you set the global game settings. There are three sections to the Control Panel: General settings, Graphics settings, and Game Play.

General

The following options appear in the General section of the Control Panel, and are simple to set:

• Game Speed—In most cases, you should set this to "3" or "4". The year flies by as it is, but if you go above these settings, things move at a very fast pace. There are two other methods of controlling game speed. You can use the Plus (+), Minus (-), and Pause keys to increase, decrease, or pause the game speed, respectively. You can use the small slider on the lower right side of the main screen to adjust speed, as well.

• Sound Volume—This control sets the overall sound effects volume for the game, from 0 to 100%.

• Music Volume—This control sets the music volume from 0 to 100%.

• Color Depth—You have the option of 16-bit or 8-bit color depth. 16-bit color looks much better, but is about 10 percent slower than using 8-bit color. Experiment to see which you prefer.

• Memory Usage—High memory usage means that water will be animated, and directional information and other data will be stored in memory rather than on disk. Toggle this on if you have 32MB of RAM or more. Use low memory usage if you have less than 32MB of RAM.

• Full Screen—Unless your desktop resolution is set to 1152 x 864 or higher, you will be playing in full screen. Toggle this off if your resolution is high enough, and you want to play in a window.

• Grid Lines—This control shows the border of each cell on the map. This is useful for debugging your own maps, or for more clearly seeing changes in elevation.

• Color Mouse Cursors—These cursors look better, but they can slow down performance. Experiment to see which you prefer.

 Graphics

The Graphics portion of the Control Panel is used to fine tune your graphics preferences. In most cases, you can set the Overall Detail for best results. This setting incorporates five automatic settings—from Very Low to Very High—that you can experiment with to see if any of them work for you. Obviously, you get better looking graphics the higher you can set this option, but might have slower performance.

If you can’t find a setting that works for you, customize your settings by moving the sliders below the Overall Detail setting. Each item can be turned off at various zoom levels. There are six levels of zoom, so start turning things off when you get above a certain level. The highest levels are bird’s-eye views, so turn most items off for them. Below that, it’s up to your own preferences and performance.

The Border setting shrinks the visible map. This can greatly speed up performance, even at Very High graphics levels.

Game Play

The following options appear in the Game Play section of the Control Panel:

• Arrival Bell—This setting controls the frequency and volume with which the train arrival bell is played.

• News Frequency—This setting enables you to reduce the number of pop-up dialogs that appear (specifically, the annual report and the economic changes newspaper announcements).

• Train Logos—This setting places a company logo above All trains, Foreign trains, or no trains (None).

• Keep game going in dialogs—By default, time stops when a dialog pops up. If you’d rather it keep rolling, then check this box.

• Dialogs disappear if left alone—By default, you have to get rid of dialogs that appear during the game. Check this, and they’ll automatically go away after a few seconds.

• Game Tips—This enables or disables the game tips that appear upon starting a new game.

• Tutorial—This enables or disables the mini-tutorial for the game. By toggling it on and off, you also reset the tutorial to its starting point. (This is useful if you’re introducing the game to somebody new.)

File Options

From the File Options menu, you can Load, Save, go to the Main Menu, or Quit a game. When you click Load game without saving your current one, you will lose the current game. Save your game periodically to be sure you can come back to it later. If you just want to bail and start over, then go to the Main Menu. If you click Quit, you’ll be asked if you’re sure. If so, click Yes to return to Windows.

The Center List Box is one of the most useful features of the main interface. Using the four tabs—Stations, Trains, Players, and Companies—you can access information quickly. Here’s how it works.

When you click one of the four tabs below the List Box, the item in question is shown in summary form in the List Box. Stations and Trains are only shown for your company, but Players and Companies will show all in the current game. Here’s the summary information for each respective tab:

• Stations—For stations you own, the list of stations shows the current Supply of cargoes available at each station and the amount of revenue generated on hauls From and To that station in the current year.

• Trains—You can manage your trains from the List Box quite easily. From left to right, you can set the train’s class:

You can also view a current image of the train’s consist. If a cargo car is dimmed out, it is carrying no load. Further right is a speedometer, showing the trains speed, in absolute terms. Along the bottom of the train’s list entry, a colored line will mark it’s progress toward its destination. As the train approaches its destination, the line will extend to the left, touching the left side when it reaches its destination. The color of the line indicates the train’s current speed relative to its maximum speed:

Red Line—The train is stopped or running slowly.

Yellow Line—The train is running at about half its maximum speed.

Green Line—The train is running at top speed.

There are also some graphical and text clues to the train’s performance. Trains can run out of Oil, Water or Sand. They can also Breakdown, Wreck, or be Robbed. These things are indicated by text in the train’s list entry, and by an appropriate graphical icon.

Finally, the row of gold coins in the upper right corner of the train’s list entry represents the current value of its cargo, at a rate of $10,000 per coin. As time passes, the number of coins will shrink. Time is money! Some cargoes, such as mail, are more time sensitive than others, such as coal.

You can right-click any list entry to view details about each train as well.

Players—This List Box tab shows the Cash, Stock, and Purchasing Power (P.P.) for each of the players in the game.

Companies—This List Box tab shows the Cash on hand, and Profits for each company in the game.

For any of the lists, you can click the List Screen button—it’s in the lower right corner of the List Box, and resembles a bulleted list—to view a more detailed listing. Once you’re there, you can use the tabs to navigate between Stations, Trains, Players, and Companies.

You can also reach the Detail Screens for stations, trains, players and companies from here. Double click on any item in the Center List Box, and you’ll be taken to its detail screen. From there you can use the tabs to navigate to the other detail screens. For more information on the Detail Screens, see Chapters 5 through 7.

Cash Display

Just to the left of the tabs, you’ll see a box showing your currently available company cash. If you control no company, it’ll be blank. Click here to toggle a display of your personal cash. If you have enough personal cash, it might be time to go shopping at the local stock market.

Date

To the right of the Cash display is the Date display. Pay attention to the date! Many scenarios require you to fulfill certain objectives by a specific date to win. Many engines and buildings don’t become available until a specific date. Some things happen in certain months (for example, dividend are paid at the end of each quarter—March, June, September, and December).

Time is abstracted in Railroad Tycoon II. Trains travel about as far in one game year as they would in one day of real life. Trust us—you wouldn’t want to play this game in true real time, where it would take you 30 real-life years to build your empire. (Will any computer available 30 years from now even run this game?) So sit back and enjoy it, and when your broken-down train takes 6 game months to fix, realize that only represents about a half a day—if only it were so easy to get your car repaired in half a day!

That’s it for this chapter. If you want a chance to practice these commands go to Chapter 2, Tutorial, or dive right into your own game.

<Chapter 4>

5. STATIONS >Table of Contents<

 In this chapter:

• The Economy

• The Role of Stations

• Station Detail Screen

• Cargo Supply & Demand

Well-planned and well-placed stations are the backbone of any successful railroad. They’re one of the three major expenditures for railroads (along with track and trains). Having the right stations in the right places will go a long way towards ensuring the success of your venture.

The first step in building your railroad is determining where to place your stations, and what types of stations to place. Be conservative as you place stations or you’ll burn through your money in a hurry. It’s best to start a line with only two or three stations, then expand gradually. Where you place your stations is dependent on the economy of the scenario you’re playing. A quick overview of the economic model of the game is in order...

The economy in Railroad Tycoon II is a microcosm of the real world economy. Only the elements that directly affect the railroad business are shown on the map. Other methods of transportation (such as shipping, trucking, and so on) and other industries that don’t rely on the rail system are assumed to exist, but only factor in as background elements, mitigating major fluctuations in rail service.

The industries in the game are some of the most important to the rail industry, but also serve as proxies for smaller industries (for example, iron, coal, and bauxite serve as proxies for all other mined minerals, such as tin, lead, copper, and so on).

While you can often make a modest profit simply hauling passengers and mail between the major cities, the biggest profits are to be had by supporting the industries on the map, supplying them with the cargoes they need, and delivering the cargoes they produce to other areas that need them.

The Reference Card shows all the industry flows. For example, sheep farms produce wool, which must be delivered to a textile mill, which will turn the wool into goods, which must be delivered to a town (a cluster of four or more houses all within one station’s radius). You can also right-click any industry to see what it supplies and demands.

While you can always deliver cargoes to locations that don’t demand them, you’ll receive much less money for doing so. The amount by which the price is reduced depends on the Industry Model. On the Easy industry model you’ll receive a decent price, not quite as much as if the station demanded it, but a solid price nonetheless. On the Advanced industry model, you’ll receive much less. On the Expert industry model, you’ll barely receive anything.

The Easy industry model also simplifies one other piece of the industry puzzle. With that model, all industries produce cargoes all the time. A steel mill will always produce steel. On Advanced and Expert industry model, a steel mill will not produce steel unless it is supplied with both iron and coal.

TIP: Try to spread your cargo deliveries around to a number of stations. If you’ve got several sheep farms producing wool, try to spread the wool deliveries to several textile mills, so that the Price Level stays high at each one.

The Expert industry model introduces two additional features Industry Buying and Price Levels:

• Industry Buying—On the Expert industry model, you also have the opportunity to diversify your business interests by purchasing industries. Click any industry building on the map to see its price. Bigger buildings cost more, but can also earn a bigger profit. Profits are determined by how well that building is being serviced by your railroad and/or other railroads. If it is being properly supplied with all it needs, and all its cargoes are being taken to stations that demand them, then the building will be profitable.

• Price Levels—On the two lower industry models, demand for goods is constant. A station either has demand for a particular cargo, or it doesn’t. On the Expert model, the level of demand, called the Price Level, can vary from 0 to 9. If you deliver a large quantity of a cargo to a station in a short time period, the Price Level will fall. Over time it will rise again. If a station has not received any of a particular type of cargo for a while, the price level will rise, and a nice premium will be paid for the cargo.

Houses are a special type of industry. By themselves, they produce a small amount of passengers and mail. Where they really become important is when they are clustered together. If a station has within its radius of effect at least four houses, then those houses constitute a town, which has a demand for goods, lumber, food, and milk. Eight houses clustered together is a city, which demands everything that a town does, plus autos, cement, paper, oil, and coal. Note that houses are the only type of industry you can not buy.

Stations serve as your anchors within the economy. They enable you to pick up and deliver cargo from buildings located near them, and they service and maintain your trains, keeping your entire operation running efficiently.

Cargo Pickup and Delivery

Both the stations and the buildings they service are somewhat representative. In the case of buildings, one factory on the game map might represent the entire Detroit area auto industry. One large station represents not only a station and accompanying facilities, but also a small network of feeder lines and sidings snaking out through the city to pick up cargoes from the major industries.

It’s entirely possible to build multiple stations with overlapping service zones. If a building sits within the zones of two different stations, it will ship out through whichever station has a train ready to accept it. Thus if an opponent puts down a big station in New York or London, you can outfox him by putting your own station nearby and doing a better (and faster) job of picking up cargoes.

If a railroad does a particularly good job of servicing the industries around a particular station, the surrounding area will grow, adding new buildings and increasing in size.

Servicing Trains

Like any other complex mechanical device, trains need a lot of care to perform optimally. In Railroad Tycoon II, train servicing consists of three elements: water, sand, and oil (a proxy for general maintenance), provided, respectively, by water towers, sanding towers, and roundhouses. For more information on the uses and effects of these items, see Chapter 6: Trains. All of these structures can only be built at stations.

You will generally want to have at least one of each type of service building somewhere on your lines, unless you’re running all diesel and electric trains, in which case water towers are unnecessary. However the buildings are expensive, and you’ll want to use them efficiently. Roundhouses, in particular, are the most expensive, but a train only needs to visit one occasionally (usually once every two to three years), so you can probably get away with one of them on a small line.

There is one important difference between how trains use stations for pickup/delivery, and how they use them for servicing. A train must actually stop at a station to pick up or deliver cargo. However, a train only needs to pass through a station to be serviced by it—a full stop is not necessary.

The Station Detail Screen is the primary screen used for planning and monitoring pickups and deliveries, and for building service buildings and other support structures.

When you purchase improvements, you can purchase one improvement at a time, or multiple improvements. Clicking an improvement and selecting Purchase will only purchase the improvement you clicked. To purchase more than one improvement, click the checkboxes to the left of several improvements, then click Purchase to purchase more than one.

The Station Detail Screen is accessed every time you add a new station, or when you double-click a station on the main screen Center List Box. Here you can see a 3D representation of your station as it grows. You can also buy improvements for your stations, as well as see current cargo Supply/Demand information.

Structural Improvements

The 3D view shows which structural improvements are currently built for the station. You can purchase more structures by clicking on the Buy button. This will bring up a list of currently available structures. Clicking a structure and selecting Purchase will only purchase the structure you clicked on. Click the check boxes to the left of several structures, then click Purchase to purchase more than one.

In addition to the train-servicing structures, several other structures increase passenger revenue, decrease turnaround time, or decrease the effect of delays upon certain cargoes. (If you store the cargo well, your customers will be less upset with a slow delivery.) Some improvements are not available until later dates.

At the bottom of the screen is a list of cargoes supplied and demanded by the station.

On the left are cargoes supplied. Each car shown represents one carload available for pick-up. If there are more than four cargo types available, the additional types will be shown as text only. If a cargo type name is shown with no cargoes above it or a zero quantity, it means that the cargo type can be available there, but none currently are. In some cases, you only have to wait a while for the cargo to show up. In other cases, you must supply certain raw materials to the station in order for the cargo type to be produced.

To the right are shown the cargoes demanded by this station. This is an aggregate of the demand of the individual buildings around the station. Certain types of demand only occur when enough houses are within the area of effect of a single station. Four houses near one station constitutes a town, demanding food and goods, among other things. Eight houses constitutes a city, demanding everything a town demands, plus autos, paper, and other products.

If you chose the Expert Industrial Model option when you started the game, then a number of cars or a simple textual number will be shown next to each cargo type demanded. This is the demand level, which ranges from 0 to 9. The higher it is, the greater the price the station will pay for that item. If a station is oversupplied with an item, the demand level will fall, and the price will fall along with it.

To the right of the Demand section is a From/To section, with coins representing the total value of cargoes hauled from and to this station during the current year.

To make those coins really pile up, you’ll need well-run trains to use your

well-planned stations, which brings us to Chapter 6, Trains.

<Chapter 5>

6. TRAINS >Table of Contents<

 In this chapter:

• Locomotives

• Cargo

• Get Your Trains Rolling

• Train Purchase Window

• Train Detail Screen

• Train/Station Info

• Map Router/Car List

Now we get to the best part—the choo-choos.

Aside from looking neat chugging around and putting out steam, trains are actually the key component that makes everything else work. Railroad Tycoon II enables you to build trains from the earliest puny experimental steamers up through the latest electric bullet trains. You can create express trains to haul mail and passengers, or slow freight trains to haul coal and iron out of the mountains.

Train locomotives are the engines that provide motive force, to pull your cargo cars along the track toward their destination. From the beginning of the nineteenth century through the present day, locomotives (or engines) have seen tremendous improvements in pulling power, top speed, and reliability. There are three principal types of engines—steam engines, diesels, and electric. A few other hybrids have been tried over the years, but none achieved widespread success.

• Steam—Steam engines burn coal, wood, or oil to heat a boiler. Steam pressure from the boiler drives pistons which power the train. Steam engines were the only engines widely used from the beginning of the rail era through the middle of the twentieth century. Eventually, diesels and electric replaced steam engines, for a variety of factors including their generally lower fuel and maintenance costs

• Diesel—Diesel engines are actually diesel-electric engines, using an on-board diesel engine to generate electricity, which then powers the wheels. This type of engine is more commonly known simply as a diesel. Diesels first entered widespread usage after World War II and (along with electric) had almost completely replaced steam engines by the mid-fifties. Almost all engines in commercial use in North America today are diesels.

• Electric—Electric engines draw electricity from an external source and apply it to the drive wheels (as opposed to diesels, which generate their own electricity). While the first electric appeared in the late nineteenth century, they weren’t widely used until the 1930’s. Electric engines are generally more efficient than diesels, but they require an expensive infrastructure of electrified track. Throughout Europe, most major lines are electrified, and electric engines are in heavy use. In North America, Electric engines are only used in a few places, most notably the Northeastern U.S.

Locomotives are used to haul cargo cars. Hauling cargo by rail is considerably more efficient and cheaper than hauling by truck, and is still the primary method by which a vast array of products (especially heavy, bulk goods) is transported. Railroad Tycoon II has 32 basic types of cargo cars, plus two special cars. Not all cargo is available on every map. You’ll find coffee in South America, but not in Scandinavia. You’ll find more wool in Australia than in Canada.

Your railroad is not buying and selling the cargo, but rather, being paid to transport it. So, even though a load of finished steel is a lot more valuable than a load of raw iron ore, you won’t necessarily get paid more to haul the steel. Other factors, such as timeliness of delivery and distance hauled affect the rate as well. In general, four major factors affect prices paid:

• Demand—If a station has demand for a cargo, a much higher price will be paid. The exact difference depends on which industry model was selected from the options panel when the game was started. With the expert industrial model, there is a specific price level for each cargo at each station that rises and falls depending on how many of those cargoes are arriving at the station. If the station is being flooded with a particular type of cargo, the price level will fall.

• Distance—Longer hauls pay a higher fee. Some cargoes (such as mail and passengers) are particularly distance sensitive.

• Speed—A faster delivery will pay more. Again, some cargoes are more sensitive to this (such as mail, produce, and milk)

• Cargo Type—More valuable types of cargo generally pay somewhat more than less valuable types. Processed steel pays more than raw iron ore.

Some small railroads make 90 percent (or more) of their revenue hauling a single commodity, such as coal. To find out more about the pricing and timeliness of a cargo, right-click on any car carrying that cargo.

There are two special car types that aren’t used to haul cargo. The dining car increases passenger revenues by 20 percent. Use this on a train with three or four passenger cars to really make some money. The caboose increases train safety (which reduces breakdown and crashes), and train security (which reduces robberies).

The basics of train usage are as follows:

• Scout out a new route that needs a train.

• Purchase an engine reasonably well suited for the route.

• Use the Train Detail Screen to set up the train’s route and consist.

• Keep an eye on the train to make sure it receives adequate service and that its route is still useful.

The first step is to scout out a promising route. If you’ve just laid your track and stations, you probably had a route in mind. If your railroad is an ongoing venture, keep an eye on your stations, and whenever you see cargo pile up for a while at a station, you’ve found a likely spot to add a new train. Be careful not to add too many trains, or your lines will be choked with traffic congestion.

Next, you’ll need to purchase an engine. Click on the Purchase Engine button on the main interface (left side, fifth from the top). You’ll be presented with Train Purchase window. In this window, you’ll see a list of available locomotives—you’ll be notified periodically when new ones are available. On the right side are the stats of the locomotive currently selected. There are five statistics tracked, as well as a top speed matrix:

• Cost—The price to purchase the locomotive.

• Maintenance—Estimated annual maintenance costs.

• Fuel—Estimated annual cost of keeping the locomotive rolling. Note: this can vary considerably depending on how far the train actually travels.

• Acceleration—A measure of how fast a particular locomotive can get to full speed.

• Reliability—A measure of the reliability of an engine.

• Top Speed Matrix—A matrix that shows the locomotive’s performance on various grades with various numbers of cars. Since car weight varies, you can change the assumed weight per car, to see how the engine does pulling something heavy (such as coal), as against something light (such as passengers).

In general, you won’t find any train that’s ideal in all categories. Cheap trains are often unreliable. The fastest trains also tend to have less hauling capacity, and so on. You’ll notice that there is often a considerable difference between a train’s top speed and its performance hauling a significant load. Think of a Ferrari versus a pickup truck. The Ferrari can go a lot faster, but you wouldn’t want to hook a trailer up to it. The pickup truck may not accelerate very well or go very fast, but it can haul a big load, and probably has a lower maintenance bill than the Ferrari as well.

Once you’ve purchased a train, the next screen you’ll see is the Train Detail Screen. This is where you’ll select destination and cargo for your train.

Train Detail Screen

The Train Detail Screen is the nerve center for controlling your trains. It’s divided into four windows, one has a double function:

• Instrument Panel—The area at the top left of the screen may look like a background graphic, but it also shows some valuable information.

• Route/Consist List box—The list box on the middle left side of the screen displays your route and consist.

• Train/Station Info—The bottom panel shows information on your train, sometimes toggling to information on a station you are working with.

• Map Router/Car List—The right side of the screen is a dual purpose window that can be toggled between a map of the main world from which you can choose your route, and a car list of available cars used to set up your consist at each route stop.

The instrument panel on the upper left part of the screen shows several important gauges (oil, sand, and sometimes water) and has one important control (the throttle). The layout of the instrument panel changes a bit depending on whether the engine is a steam, diesel, or electric engine, but the gauges themselves look the same.

• Oil—The oil gauge is a round gauge with an oil can on it. Oil is used as a

proxy for overall train maintenance. As your oil level drops, your chance of a breakdown increases. If your train runs completely out of oil, its chance for a breakdown increases greatly, and its maintenance costs go up significantly (parts break faster if they are not maintained, requiring replacement, rather than repair.)

• Sand—Sand is used by engines for traction in areas with steep grades. Your engine will use very little sand if it is running over primarily flat areas, but will run out frequently in the mountains. There is no impact until your engine is completely out of sand, at which point its ability to climb grades is halved (a 2% grade acts like a 4% grade).

• Water—Water is only required by steam engines. A steam engine that runs out of water travels at a greatly reduced speed (using reserves and water found along the line).

Oil, sand, and water are replenished when a train passes through a station with a roundhouse, sanding tower, or water tower respectively. You’ll generally need a lot of water towers, significantly fewer roundhouses, and a varied number of sanding towers depending on the grades in the area where you’re building. If any of these items run out, an appropriate icon will appear next to the train in the Center List Box on the main interface.

Also on the instrument panel is the Throttle, a lever that enables you to increase or decrease the speed of your engine. It is normally set to a default level of 85 percent of maximum capacity—the highest value that is reasonably safe. All rated speeds for an engine are based on this throttle setting. For severe cases, when a little extra boost is needed, you can push the throttle into the red zone, but at a greatly increased risk of breakdown or crash. If the throttle is fully engaged, breakdown risks are four times normal. Conversely, you can lower the throttle for a bit more safety, though the effects are far less dramatic. A throttle setting of half normal reduces breakdown chances for the equivalent distance traveled by half.

Route/Consist List Box

Below the instrument panel is a list box showing all currently scheduled station stop-offs for the train, along with the list of cars that the train should haul from that point on (the consist).

Normally your train will start at the top station on the list, travel to the next station down, and so on until it reaches the last station, then it will go back to the first station. You can redirect a train by clicking in the small area to the left of a station’s name. The Next Station marker should change to reflect this.

You can remove a station from the route by clicking on the Delete button at the right side of each station. (Adding stations is explained in the section "Map Window/Car List.")

Just above the Delete button is a stoplight icon. Click it to change its color. The color determines whether or not the train waits for cargo at this station before proceeding:

• Green—Don’t wait for cargo. This causes the train to grab whatever is ready to go when it reaches the station. Use this when the cargo you plan to pick up at the station isn’t that important, perhaps for the back end of a long route.

• Yellow—Wait until at least half (rounded up) of the cargo cars are full. This is a good compromise between speed and efficiency.

• Red—Wait until all cargo cars are full. Be careful with this option, if you overuse it, you might find that your trains spend most of their time waiting around in stations, rather than hauling goods and making money.

The bottom panel normally shows train info, but sometimes shows station info for the currently selected station, depending on what action you’re taking. For more info on the station info panel, see Chapter 5, Stations.

The train information is a capsule summary of the train’s current state and recent history. At the top is a side view of the full train. If a cargo car is dimmed out, it is empty. Train engines are never dimmed out. At the lower left is the train’s heading and speed, its cargo value and weight (heavier cargo loads require more powerful locomotives), the engine’s age, and chance of a breakdown.

As engines age, several things happen:

• Slower Speed—They lose about a half percent off their top speed every year—a 20-year-old engine is about 10 percent slower than a new engine of

the same type.

• Higher Maintenance—A 20-year-old engine costs about three times as much in annual maintenance.

• Higher Breakdown Risk—A new engine has virtually no breakdown risk; a 20-year-old engine has about a 60 percent higher risk than a 5-year-old engine.

For best results, you may want to look at replacing engines as they reach 15 to 25 years of age.

The breakdown chance can be a critical issue. Poor reliability doomed many otherwise promising engine designs to a short life span. Breakdowns are based on distance traveled, not time elapsed, so, all other things being equal, a faster engine is going to go further each year and have a higher chance of a breakdown. Other factors affecting the risk of breakdown include:

• Engine Reliability—Each level of engine reliability is about a third less likely to breakdown than the one below it; an "above average"-rated engine is about a third less likely to break down than an "average"-rated engine.

• Engine Age—As mentioned above, older engines are less reliable.

• Oil Level—Keeping an engine’s oil gauge nearly full significantly reduces breakdown risk. Running out of oil altogether is the worst possibility, tripling breakdown chances over an engine fully topped off with oil.

• Heavy Loads/Steep Grades—The greater the stress on the engine, the greater the breakdown chance.

• Throttle Setting—Full red-zone throttle quadruples breakdown chances.

• Caboose—Adding a caboose decreases the breakdown chance by 25 percent.

• Manager Effects—Certain managers provide a safety bonus to the railroads they supervise.

The right side of the Train Detail Screen contains a dual purpose panel. It toggles between the Map Router, in which you set up a train’s route, and the Car List, in which you pick which cars to include in the train’s consist at each station. You can toggle between them by using the lever above the panel. Also, double-clicking on a station in the Route/Consist List Box will automatically open the Car List.

• Map Router—The green stars are your stations. Yellow stars are your opponent’s stations. Black track is yours, belongs to your opponent. Click on any station to add it to the bottom of your route list. For more precise placement, drag the station to a specific spot on the route list.

• Car List—The top section of this panel shows the current consist at the selected station. Click on a car to remove it from the consist, or click on clear to clear out the current consist completely. Click on any car at the bottom to add it. Cargoes available at the current station are shown in the top group—normally you’ll want to confine your selection to them. Select OK when you’re done.

More On Train Routing

Proper train routing can have a great impact on the speed and profitability of your trains.

For the most part you can let the trains go about their way without much supervision—track switching, use of sidings, and other operational details are automatically handled for you.

Once told to travel between two stations, trains will automatically select the best route, if more than one are available. Trains will generally follow the shortest route.

Trains can use the opponents’ track, if they need to. However, you will have to pay the owner of the track a portion of the revenue received equal to the portion of the total distance traveled which was on his track. However, the opponent does not absorb any of the train’s operating cost. So if a train travels 50 squares from Chicago to Detroit, including 8 squares over your opponent’s track, and generates $100,000 in revenue, you’d have to give up 20 percent (8/50) of the revenue. Try to use as little of your opponents’ track as possible.

You can also pick up and deliver cargoes from and to your opponents’ stations, at a cost of $2,000 per car load picked up or delivered. Again, use with caution.

If you have an electric engine, an entire route from station to station must be electrified, or the engine will not move. You don’t have to electrify all your track, just whatever routes you want your electric engines to use.

<Chapter 6>

7. PLAYERS AND COMPANIES >Table of Contents<

In this chapter:

• Player Detail

• Company Detail

The great railroads were built by great companies led by a handful of great men (sorry to be politically incorrect, but there were no significant women railroad tycoons—trust us, we looked hard.)

In Railroad Tycoon II, both the players of the age and the companies they built are the mechanisms for railroad development. You play a railroad tycoon who is interested not just in building a great railroad, but in personal enrichment as well—sometimes at his railroad’s expense.

Sometimes in a game you might control several companies in succession, either because you see new investment opportunities that beckon you to leave behind your original companies, or because the board of directors of your original company, ahem, "invites" you to seek employment elsewhere. You don’t always have to start a company from scratch—sometimes you’ll start as head of an established company, and sometimes you’ll have the opportunity to grab control of a company from some poor sap...err...I mean, from the under performing current chairman.

The player you play is usually predetermined for the scenario you’ve chosen. Forty great tycoons are available. North American tycoons tended to be ambitious private businessmen, sometimes more eager to enrich themselves than build a lasting successful company. European tycoons and tycoons from elsewhere throughout the world are sometimes private businessmen, and sometimes political figures, leading national railroad-building efforts. Political figures tended to be more concerned with building a large railroad, even at the expense of profitability or personal gain.

You can choose to play however you want, although the goals of a particular scenario may encourage certain types of play. However, your computer-controlled opponents will tend to act in the manner they acted historically—Jay Gould will speculate relentlessly in the stock market, while Cecil Rhodes will focus on company expansion, even to the point of bankrupting his railroad.

To get a closer view of yourself and your opponents, and to check out everyone’s financial situation, double-click on a player on the main interface Center List Box.

You’ll see a close-up of the handsome and not so handsome faces of the different players, a description of their historical activities (which gives an indication of their likely activities within the game), and a breakdown of their finances.

Most players will soon start a company, for it is through companies that all building activities occur. For more information on starting a company, see Chapter 4, The Main Interface.

Once your company is underway, the principle means for controlling and monitoring your company is the Company Detail Screen. This screen shows your company ledger, and it has five tabs you can use to manage your operation:

• Overview—This tab has information related to you and your current manager, and gives you a quick look at your operation. You can choose to Resign as Chairman if you plan to pursue other interests, View/Hire other Managers, or Change Company Name/Logo from this tab:

Resign as Chairman—This option enables you to hand over the reigns to another leader. You can resign as chairman, and still hold onto all your stock and wealth, then start another company.

View/Hire other Managers—Different managers give different bonuses. The better managers demand a higher salary, and won’t even apply for the job until your company is thriving and successful. Click here to view, and perhaps hire, from the two current applicants.

Change Company Name/Logo—Click here to change the company’s name and/or logo. You can do this as many times as you like.

• Income—This is just what it sounds like. This is your Income Statement that shows revenues (the good stuff) and expenses (the necessary evils of running a business) for the life of your business, and the past three years. For the financially challenged, the idea here is to have greater revenues than expenses.

• Balance—The next tab is your Balance sheet. Here’s where heavy borrowing, in the form of bonds or tons of stock offerings can come back to bite you.

• Territories—Not everyone loves you. The Territories tab enables you to access your railroad’s Political View, Access Rights View, and Goodwill by territory:

Political View—This shows the political divisions on the current map. Some maps have no political divisions at all—ahh life is easy. Unfortunately, many maps are divided into dozens of small countries and territories. From this view, you can consult the governments of these territories and try to gain access to those places where you don’t already have it.

Access Rights View—This view shows the territories that you currently have access rights in, as well as those you don’t. You won’t be able to lay track or run trains in territories where you don’t have access rights.

Goodwill—This view shows your current goodwill ratings by territory. Run your operations efficiently, and your goodwill will improve. If a few too many of your trains go Boom! you might see your goodwill take a dive. Make nice with your neighbors—it pays.

Finances—This is the tab you’ll probably visit the most. Here is where you can issue bonds, issue stock, buy back stock, change dividends, attempt merger, and if you’ve had enough, declare bankruptcy.

Issue Bonds—You won’t be able to issue bonds unless you have a solid credit rating of at least B or better. The better your credit rating, the lower the interest rate charged (The prime rate also affects interest rates). Improve your credit rating by reducing debt, showing a solid profit for several years, and having a high level of assets relative to your total debt. Click here to issue bonds and click OK on the next screen to finish the transaction.

Issue Stock—Click this option to issue company stock. A window will appear giving details of the transaction. Click OK in that window if everything is fine. Note the change to your current Stock Value on the opposite page.

Buy Back Stock—Use this option to buy up company stock from the market. Take a look at its effect on your stock value. Investors are very particular about stock value—they want it to go up. Period. Don’t disappoint them, or you’ll be out on your ear. Remember that chairmen are appointed, not born.

Change Dividends—Change your company’s dividend payout to shareholders here. The board of directors may not let you set this too high, since it will drain your company’s cash. If you own a lot of stock in your company, a high dividend rate is a good way to funnel cash from your company to yourself.

Attempt Merger—Clicking here will do nothing if there are no other companies in the game. If there are, select the company you want to merge with, then set the offering price. You’ll see the resulting shareholder vote, and your companies will merge upon a positive result. You can only attempt a merger once a year. You’ll get more votes if you offer a higher price. If you control stock in the target company, you can use those shares to vote in favor of the merger and increase the chance of success.

Declare Bankruptcy—When you’re carrying too much debt, and have no hope of paying it back, or when things are just going horribly, click here and select OK from the next screen. Half your debt will disappear, but this has consequences: you won’t be able to borrow money, you’ll have to forfeit all company cash, you won’t be able to issue bonds for awhile, and you’ll have a hard time issuing stock once you declare bankruptcy.

TIP: If you buy back enough stock, then you will have sole control of your railroad. This is an extremely good thing, if things are going well. However, it can use up all your company’s spare cash and leave you in control of a tiny shell while other company’s grow.

<Chapter 7>

8. THE STOCK MARKET >Table of Contents<

In this chapter:

• Stocks 101

• The Stock Market

Many of the great fortunes of the railroad age were built not through efficient railway building, but through merciless exploitation of the stock market. The nineteenth century saw a largely unregulated stock market used as a personal piggy bank by many of the tycoons of the day. Here’s your chance to take all those stock market gambles your accountant brother keeps shooting down.

Few individuals have enough wealth to build a railroad all by themselves. In real life and in Railroad Tycoon II, the most common practice is for one principal investor to put up as large a sum as he can afford, then solicit investors to invest money in the company, with all investors receiving shares in the company proportionate to their investment. If the company is profitable, it pays a portion of its earnings to its investors in small quarterly sums called dividends. The company will usually retain a portion of the earnings to use for growth. A profitable stock will both pay its owner a continuing sum in dividends, and rise in price to reflect the company’s earnings.

Investors can buy and sell their stock. In general, if several blocks of shares are

sold soon after one another, the stock price will fall. If the company is still financially sound, the low share price might be a bargain waiting for a watchful investor to snap up.

In Railroad Tycoon II, all companies in the game have tradable shares. Sometimes, all the shares may be owned by one or more players, in which case none will be available on the open market. More commonly, players hold a portion of

the shares in their companies, and other investors (the public at large) hold the remainder, creating a market of people always willing to make a trade with you, if you’ve got the money.

The Stock Market Screen is where you can keep an eye on the share prices of your company and your opponents’ companies, and make investments as you see opportunities. There are two tabs on the Stock Market Screen: Personal and Corporate. The Personal section lets you see the current holdings of yourself and others, and change your holdings by buying or selling stocks. The Corporate section lets you view more details on the key financial data for each company in the game.

Personal

The Personal tab on the Stock Market Detail Screen shows your personal holdings. Most of your stock, at least initially, will be in your own company. From this screen you can Buy, Sell, or View corporate information (this is the same as the Corporate tab).

Buying stock in a company will usually drive up the share price, at least temporarily. Selling stock will usually lower the price. There are two wrinkles added when you play with the Expert Financial Model active—Buying on Margin and Short Selling:

• Buying on Margin—When you buy stock on margin, you are in effect borrowing money to buy the stock. You use your existing stock as collateral for the loan. You may borrow up to half of the value of your stock holdings. The purchasing power figure you see on this screen is the sum of your cash, plus half your stock (which you can borrow against.) As you go deeper into margin, your purchasing power will decrease to zero (0), at which point you can’t buy any more stock on margin. Beware: if the value of your stocks fall, they are less valuable as collateral. If they fall far enough to drive your purchasing power below zero, you’ll get a margin call from your broker, requiring you to sell off enough stock to restore your purchasing power. Unfortunately, selling off part off your stock can drive the price down, creating an even bigger hole for you to dig yourself out of. You can lose a lot of money quickly if you’re heavily margined.

• Short Selling—This refers to the practice of selling stock you don’t actually own. The shares are implicitly borrowed from a broker, and eventually you must repurchase the shares you short sell to pay the broker back. You hope to repurchase the shares for less than you originally sold them (basically—sell high, buy low). Short sell a stock when you think it is overpriced and due for a fall. But beware, if the stock price goes up instead of down, you could lose your shi