Chris Sawyer's Locomotion
Encyclopedia : C : CH : CHR : Chris Sawyer's Locomotion
Chris Sawyer's Locomotion is a computer game by independent game developer Chris Sawyer. In his words, it is "the spiritual successor to Transport Tycoon".
The game allows the player to use railroads, trams, trucking lines, buses, airplanes and ships to earn money in a transport company during a period between the years 1900 and 2000. It contains over 40 pre-designed scenarios and a scenario editor. It can also be played in multiplayer mode.
The game is played in an 3D isometric view like the other games by Chris Sawyer, with partcularly close similarity to RollerCoaster Tycoon, due to them both using the same engine. The engine was originally developed for this game, but used first in RollerCoaster Tycoon.
The game was released in the U.S. on September 7 2004 and a few days later in the rest of the world.
Reviews of the game were generally not favorable, with many noting the game's poor user interface and AI compared to the original Transport Tycoon. However, the AI algorithm had indeed expanded since TTD, and the AI would now build 2 way routes and non looping routes.
It also included a hidden manual mode to allow the actual control of trains, activated by stopping a train, holding down the "insert" key and typing "driver", then selecting manual from the start/stop selector.
New features compared to Transport Tycoon
- Easier road station/terminus building
Players may now set up bus passenger stops without having to demolish a block of land to make way for a proper bus station right in the town's road itself. However, players may not build bus stops at junctions or indeed, any other stations at all. Cargo receiving stations may only be build at the end of a road although there is now no need to destroy the existing road beforehand as the station must now straddle the road. The same principle also applies when building a passenger terminus (as opposed to the smaller passenger stops).
- Tunnels leading to underground stations.
This can be incredibly useful in preserving the landscape above ground (such as office buildings etc. to maintain high passenger levels, or to avoid destroying trees which will lower a town's rating towards the company responsible) and also to be able to construct the railway tracks or roads without hindrance from other competitors. The drawback to this new feature is that these underground links can be extremely expensive to build and should not be utilised in the early part of the scenario when bank balances are low. It is also a nightmare to edit these underground constructions, if they are under a city where clicking right mouse button can accidentally delete buildings.
To begin constructing a tunnel a player must level the land accordingly so that the landscape must be at least two horizontal blocks higher than the entrance of the proposed tunnel. In order to construct underground stations, the player must be in underground view mode. Should the building process of the tunnel be interrupted at any instance, the player may resume construction later by clicking the underground view mode and right clicking the unfinished tunnel track/road.
In as early as the earliest timeline possible in the game (
1900), the player may now construct an extensive tram system in any town they wish. Tram tracks may overlap the road as in real-life counterparts and may loop at the end of any sections of the intended circuit.As with the other vehicles in the game, trams also witness their own evolution and is an alternative to quickly boost ratings within a town. Tram stations may double as bus passenger stops.
- Larger railroad stations.
The longest possible length of a train station may now be 16 blocks at the maximum. This can be used to maximise passengers within the catchment area. Since the stations are now longer, the trains may also be fitted longer than the regular unpatched Transport Tycoon Deluxe.
Airports are simpler to be built in difficult terrain situations provided that no roads or railway links are in the way. However, the cost of elevating the land is taken into account and may lower your ratings in the town if some trees or buildings are destroyed in the construction.
Throughout the game, whenever a player builds any links which has a change in altitude (whether sloping upwards or downwards), elevation markings would now appear to assist the player. This helps when constructing a transport service within a hilly town or to construct extensive railway services through challenging terrain.
Whenever a player builds a train in a simple local route (e.g from point A to point B) without any extensive railroad combinations involving other trains, the player now need not set the directions for that single train unless s/he intends to order a full load to that train for a particular type of cargo. The same principle applies for trams within a circuit as many stations may be serviced without having to set pre-instructions to the tram operations. Further, a player may also configure certain vehicles (e.g. buses) to be set on an express route, thereby ordering the said vehicle to strictly obey its destination routes and not stop at every available stations along the way (when, by default, set to local route).
As opposed to Transport Tycoon where the sole and primary aim of the player is to be the leading magnate in transport, Locomotion now offers various challenges aside from the abovementioned objective. To make the game a lot more exciting and to encourage the player to construct services at every possible opportunity rather than to sit back idle, certain scenarios require the player to complete a scenario's objective(s) within a certain timeframe. The victor of the challenge would have his or her transport company recorded as the current record holder in the scenarios' tab alongside the time in year(s) and months they took to complete it. In the scenario editor, a player may customise their own constructed world's challenge as they see fit. These options include becoming the top company in addition to accomplishing the mission or to achieve a certain company value within a deadline.
A long list of preset tycoons with silly names now replace the old TT random face generator. The new faces now animate in accordance to the state of the company's performance index, showing for instance, a gloating or happy expression when the company is performing well, or an indifferent look when all is normal, or a horrified and/or angry expression when things do not go well (or worse). This may act as a quick guide as to the company's fortunes to the player who may be busy constructing services elsewhere.
Among the new industries available in the game are the Ski Centre, Brewery, Chemical Labs and more. Livestock Farms and Grain Farms are now individual industries. Food delivery services in Locomotion are also more flexible as compared to TT Deluxe as considerably more smaller towns can now accept food in town centres.
Cities can now achieve metropolis status which can guarantee larger passenger service opportunities than previously available.
Vehicles in Locomotion are now not serviced in depots. On the one hand, this can mean a minor advantage in preserving key areas in the cities for a strategic catchment area or for saving building maintenance fees. However, on the other hand, vehicles' reliabilty can now never be maintained at the current level and will continually depreciate over time whereupon the onus will be on the player to pick the appropriate moment to replace the vehicle(s). As in TT Deluxe, lower vehicle reliability meant an increased likelihood in the vehicle breaking down and interrupting services.
Vehicles may now be easily replaced by stopping whatever it was ordered to and either dragged to the 'trash bin' icon (to preserve the current route without the hassle of resetting destination orders after building a new vehicle) or by instantly clicking the bin icon after stopping the vehicle, thereby erasing the vehicle data from the player's records (this may well be used for scrapping a non-profitable route and rebuilding elsewhere).
Players now have an option to customise the colors on all of their vehicle types and not strictly follow the chosen company colors.
In Locomotion, the era of the game can now reflected in the music played (if so chosen by the player) with several pieces of
ragtime music by
Scott Joplin in the early 1900s and moving to the various musical styles of the by-gone eras as time progresses.
External links
- Official site
Reviews
Miscellaneous
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.
