Rail & Road: The 3D Transport Manager

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Rail & Road: The 3D Transport Manager
Studio Virtual x-Citement
Publisher Ubisoft
Senior Developer Peter Dobrovka
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 2002
platform Windows
genre Economic simulation
Game mode Single player
control Mouse & keyboard
medium DVD-ROM
language German
Age rating
USK released from 0

Rail & Road: The 3D Transport Manager ( Trains & Trucks Tycoon ) is a 3D economic simulation for the PC that was developed by Virtual x-Citement and published in 2002 by Ubisoft . There was a seven year long legal battle between the programmer Peter Dobrovka and the developer company over the authorship. In the early 2009 judgment, Dobrovka was awarded the authorship.

Campaigns and Scenarios

campaign

Under the “Campaign” item, the user replays more or less consecutive historical events in railway history , such as the construction and opening of the first Stockton and Darlington railway line or the development of the Ruhr area .

scenario

Scenarios are largely predetermined games in which the player has to perform certain tasks. The scenarios are partly fictional, partly they depict real events.

Geo scenario

Geo-scenarios largely correspond to the free games, but take place on maps that represent certain real areas and sometimes also contain some sights, such as the Eiffel Tower , Cologne Cathedral or the Sydney Opera House . The only goal is to run the best-rated company after a certain number of years.

However, a disadvantage here is that the fleet of the game includes almost exclusively German vehicles.

Generated Map (Free Game)

This is probably the most widely used variant of the game. At the beginning the player has the possibility to design his new world. This is done using sliders with which the quantities or intensity values ​​for mountains, bodies of water, forests, cities and industrial plants can be set. Furthermore, the year of the start of the game can be selected in steps of 5 from 1920 to 2000.

Both points have a direct impact on the course of the game. For example, many mountains make route construction much more difficult and expensive. On the other hand, the lack of mountains limits or excludes mining, which in turn has consequences for other businesses. Without forests z. B. the timber industry, the same happens with goods that are delivered to ports when there are no bodies of water.

The next step is to set the number of computer opponents and the level of difficulty. In addition, the so-called free building mode ( called “ sandbox ” or “sandbox mode” in other games ) is available, in which there is no economy and the player can build as he likes. Another special feature of the game are the two economic models:

Simple model

In this mode, the player can establish and operate all useful industrial connections. When a vehicle arrives and one of the next destinations is a suitable company, all goods available at the departure station are loaded, or as much as the capacity of the vehicle allows.

Complex model

Here the player has to orientate himself to a greater extent to the companies. The individual companies give each other orders and only according to these can deliveries be made. This applies to both the destination of a product and its quantity. The fare and transport prices can also be set in the complex economic model. In addition, cars are also driven on the streets in this mode , which can also be tracked with the vehicle camera.

vehicles

The game is equipped with a wide range of vehicles for transport by rail and road. For licensing reasons, however, most of the names are derived.

Rail vehicles

The rail-bound vehicle fleet has a wide variety of more or less legendary vehicles, see list: (selection)

Steam locomotives:

  1. Stephenson's Rocket
  2. Iron Duke
  3. Eagle
  4. DB 01
  5. DB 44
  6. DB 78
  7. DR 03.10 (streamlined locomotive)
  8. DR S 3/6
  9. SBB C 5/6

Diesel locomotives:

  1. DB V 140
  2. DB V 200
  3. DB 212
  4. DB VT 95
  5. DB 216
  6. Union Pacific SD-40

Electric locomotives:

  1. DB 151
  2. DB 101
  3. DB 103
  4. DB 145
  5. DB ICE 2
  6. SNCF TGV

In addition, there were around 15 passenger and freight cars each over the course of the epochs. However, in the area of ​​passenger transport, some wagons are tailored to special locomotives, such as ICE intermediate wagons or special trailers for Adler and VT 95. All vehicles can be combined as desired.

Road vehicles

The choice of vehicles for transporting people and goods by road is far less pronounced. There are 6 - 7 different generations of trucks with a permanently attached loading area, each in different variants, as well as four tractor units and from around 1950 → X the same trailers . Things look a little better in the bus sector, where around 10 to 15 types have been developed over the years.

A curiosity in road transport is the ability to couple any vehicle to any one. A semi-trailer truck with a vintage bus on the hook, and a tank trailer on the back - no problem. The team drives and even transports goods and people. A total of up to three vehicles in depots can be combined into one unit.

technology

In contrast to most of the representatives of the genre up until then, Straße & Schiene used 3D graphics. The game uses a specially developed graphics engine for this . The player can move and zoom the camera largely freely and view the world from different perspectives, for example from the perspective of individual vehicles. In reviews, the graphics performed mostly average to good, a frequent criticism was the monotony of the landscapes and cities.

A special technical feature is the lack of a grid division: While most economic simulations only allow the construction of new infrastructures within a fixed grid, these can be freely laid in road and rail , and different curve radii are also possible for track construction. This allows routes to be built with a comparatively realistic route.

criticism

Premature release

At many points in the game you notice that you are holding an incomplete product in your hands, for example when putting together trains or building routes. For example, there are no level crossings.

Switches and crossings

The program calculates the speed with which crossings and switches can be passed, primarily based on the crossing angle. This is of course very sharp and the top speed is very low, especially on switches with butt traffic, although there is practically no turning option at all. Since the AI ​​can only "plan" one track or road element in advance, trains are braked abruptly. In extreme cases, this means that an ICE is slowed down from 280 to 40 km / h on half a locomotive length. The effect is limited in road vehicles.

successor

So far there is no reliable information as to whether and in what form the game will be updated and published. In February 2013, however, a further development under the project name 3DTT was announced on a homepage for the game.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Review of April 28, 2002 ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at spieleflut.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.spieleflut.de
  2. ↑ Review of April 6, 2002 at pcgames.de
  3. ↑ Homepage of the follow-up project 3DTT