Train Fever is about transporting people and freight. In this development update, we show what can be transported, and explain from where to where. In addition, we present how the game world is simulated and explain what a town needs in order to grow and develop.

Let’s start with introducing the six basic transportation items of the game. There are people (which are most important in the game) and goods:

In addition, there are four raw material types:

Raw materials (coal, wood, iron ore and oil) are mined at several locations in the game world. Mines and refineries are typically located outside of towns. The raw materials are required by industry buildings, typically located inside of or close to towns. If industry buildings also get enough people (employees), then goods are produced. Goods are then sent to commercial buildings, which will finally sell them to people.

People not only want to buy goods in commercial buildings, they also want to go to work and have some recreation time (leisure, parks and attractions).

The game world can include up to 25 towns and even more mines and refineries. Most industries do only need a selection of raw materials. For instance, a furniture industry primarily needs wood.

The following illustrations summarize movement of people and freight:

So far we have explained the basic movement of people and freight. Let’s get a more detailed view.

People look for work places, commercial districts and recreation destinations. Freight items are sent by the producer to a destination which requires the respective item. In both cases the destination is chosen randomly within a certain maximal travelling time. The faster a destination is reachable, the more likely the destination is chosen.

Once a destination is chosen, the person or freight item is transported on the fastest way to this destination. Of course, people and freight can change transportation vehicles and can be temporarily stored at stations on the way to the destination. A player can be successful and earn money by constructing efficient transportation lines which fulfill the movement demands of people and freight.

The faster the transportation vehicles and the higher the frequency, the more items will be transported with your lines. Note that if you don’t construct or if your transport infrastructure is not efficient enough, the world will not stop to move! People will walk or use their cars. Mines, refineries and industries will transport their items by their own (manually or by using trucks). Of course, you can speed up growth and development by taking action.

This brings us to the last topic: When will towns grow and industries increase production?

Residential districts grow if a lot of industry, commercial buildings and attractions can be reached as fast as possible

grow if a lot of industry, commercial buildings and attractions can be reached as fast as possible Commercial districts grow if as many people as possible pass by for shopping and if as many goods items are delivered by industries

grow if as many people as possible pass by for shopping and if as many goods items are delivered by industries Industries grow if they get enough required raw materials and employees

if they get enough required raw materials and employees Leisure locations grow if as many people as possible pass by for recreation

grow if as many people as possible pass by for recreation Mines and refineries increase raw material production if they find enough industries to deliver their items and if delivery is as fast as possible

We have designed a simple but also quite realistic economy model. Thanks to its simplicity the game will be fun to play. And because of the realistic movement of items and impact on town growth there is a quite high complexity and depth of simulation at the same time. You may have noticed that public and freight transport are connected in this model. For instance, delivering more raw materials to industries will let industries grow and will also make well-accessible residential districts more attractive.

In a future update we will go into more details and we will also present the respective buildings (residential, commercial, industrial, leisure, mines and refineries).

Update: Thanks in advance for your feedback, questions and criticism. As usual, we will answer the most important questions a few days later (this weekend) in a Q&A post.

Update: Please find a Q&A post here.