Locomotion demo out.

[toblix]

For those who only visit this site. What struck me was the size difference between the two versions. The one with music is 100 MB bigger than the one without. Makes you wonder what the Hell kind of sound format they're using.

Oh, and I just watched the tutorial bits. I think this is going to kick ass. I don't think the graphics are that crap, and the vehicle graphics are nice and smooth, with images for every angle, not just eight of them.

[ysbreker]

err? A link to the actual demo would be nice...

[toblix]

I'll do even better!

Here!

[Farbror]

What worries me about this game is that it won't be to different from the original Transport Tycoon. I mean, I still got that game, I can still play it, why should I buy this instead?

All right, all right, I'll donwload the demo before I'll whine, then....

[ysbreker]

the demo is fun, but too short

I want more! More!

I'm hooked already, it's diffirent from transport tycoon, but it still has the same simple gameplay which makes you play the game into the little hours. But the demo (wisely?) cuts you off after one ingame year. Just enough time to set up a few bus routes or one or two railways

I did find a bug* tho. and it crashed on me once. Is this a bad omen of things to come?

* the bug I found was when you press 3 to make the buildings & trees invisible and you move around the country, the game sometimes still draws the buildings. Still nice to see that the keys from rollercoaster tycoon still work

[SiN]

great demo!

so chris sawyer hasnt lost his touch then ... the game still has the same addictive qualities that his other games have. i havent played transport tycoon much, but this feels like a great game anyway. the graphics arnt great, but they arnt all that bad ... nothing i cant handle.

what bothers me is that i cant believe that such an important section of the game is done in such a sloppy manner ... building roads/railway tracks. i KNOW that it isnt all that hard to create a sim city style road system, where u just lay tiles and the cpu figures out what type it should be. IMO, thats prolly the most annoying thing about the game ...

... but other than its an excellent game ... im sold!

SiN

[Marek]

I don't like the new track laying interface either. I didn't play Rollercoaster Tycoon but that's where I imagine it comes from? Seems like it's geared towards a more novice audience. Just try teaching your mother how to drag with the mouse and letting it go at the right moment (or better yet, don't). This interface is much better for novice players, but it kind of sucks for people like us.

I'm not too impressed with Locomotion. I don't hate it either, but it seems like halfway towards being a real sequel. Maybe this is the code that Chris Sawyer has been working on for all those years on the side, and he just wants to get it out there, figuring that few people still remember or know the original. Locomotion actually seems like a slightly more streamlined version of Transport Tycoon with crappier graphics. Meh. Where's Locomotion 2?

[Dalixam]

I played the demo and although I didn't expect much I got hooked right away. Too bad the demo is so short. Bad demo! Anyway, the new way of building roads/tracks makes it possible to actually build up in the air or bewow the ground with turns and height differences underground, not just a tunnel from one side to the other. Same with bridges. No more head-scratching with figuring out how to squeeze an extra railroad between all the others. Now you can just go under or over

I can understand some like drag-and-drop, but I can't see how that would work with roads going up in the air or underground.

As I mentioned, the demo already got me hooked and brings back memories of playing TT, but aside from a slightly different interface I can't see any difference al all from the original TT. I think I'll save my money for RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 which looks like it'll be awesome.

[toblix]

So, I've been playing the full version for a while (12 years, it says!), and I'm lovin' it™. Especially I'm lovin' the fact that it has scenarios that you can complete, i.e. goals, which the lack of makes me tire quickly of games.

[Farbror]

Okay, I tried the demo, and my computer crashed. Something's weird over here.

[BigJKO]

I played the demo and although I didn't expect much I got hooked right away. Too bad the demo is so short. Bad demo! Anyway, the new way of building roads/tracks makes it possible to actually build up in the air or bewow the ground with turns and height differences underground, not just a tunnel from one side to the other. Same with bridges. No more head-scratching with figuring out how to squeeze an extra railroad between all the others. Now you can just go under or over

I can understand some like drag-and-drop, but I can't see how that would work with roads going up in the air or underground.

As I mentioned, the demo already got me hooked and brings back memories of playing TT, but aside from a slightly different interface I can't see any difference al all from the original TT. I think I'll save my money for RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 which looks like it'll be awesome.

I really don't see the point in putting roads in the air...

I can see the point in having to go over railroads, but that was easily done with a small bridge in TT. But putting roads in the air for the sake of it is just silly.

That said, the track-laying thing had me baffled. Drag-n-Drop worked so well. And I couldn't even get a Lorry Station built.

Little too much like Rollercoaster Tycoon to me. I personally didn't find anything wrong with the graphics, but like Marek had mentioned it's all just too... grainy. The buildings do look very nice. I just wish it had kept the clean style of TT and RCT.

I'm gonna give it another whirl later on, but first impression was lackluster.

[toblix]

One thing that really annoys me with this game, and indeed with all games with similar interfaces, is that for some reason a road can only cross a railway if they're both going diagonally. It doesn't matter that they're perpendicular if they're not conforming to the 3/4 isometric perspective stuff. So then I'm forced to make roads in the sky.

[ragnar]

Even worse, roads can only go in four directions and trains can only go in 8 directions. I want a TT-clone where you can build the roads and rails in any direction.

[ysbreker]

That is simply a restriction of the graphics engine used. every angle and direction needs to be animated. so if you wanted to have complete free track layout you'd need some form of 3D engine I think.

[toblix]

Yes, but I wouldn't mind that restriction if it was being followed consistently. Some tracks can only go in four directions, some in eight, some can cross each other in only four of eight possible directions. It's the inconsistency that's the problem, not the limitation in itself.

[Dalixam]

I really don't see the point in putting roads in the air...

I can see the point in having to go over railroads, but that was easily done with a small bridge in TT. But putting roads in the air for the sake of it is just silly.

I didn't say that you should build roads in the air just for the sake of having them. My point was that you have a lot more freedom when building bridges and tunnels.

[Farbror]

Okay, so I buy the game, despite the demo not working, just beacuse I trust Chris Sawyer's genius. Not too surprisingly, the game doesn't work either.

Super-angryness follows, where I smash chairs and walls and throws sticks at random bypassers. Then I download the old drivers for my graphics card, and everything works fine.

And what did I get when I bought Locomotion? I got Transport Tycoon, but with worse graphics. The new building mechanism borrowed from Roller Coaster Tycoon may work semi-good when building train stuff, but is awful when building roads or large segments of anything. Instead of just clicking, moving mouse, and release, I now have to click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click. Maybe it's good for doing fine-adjustments, or when many tracks need to be coordinated or something, but how often do you do fine-adjustments in a game like this? Maybe when you build rollercoasters, but not nearly as often here.

A little disappointed.

Not that this is a bad game, however! But if you already got Transport Tycoon, then maybe you should be happy with what you've got.

[Marek]

Crappy track laying interface aside, I'm really enjoying this game at the moment.

Once you accept that the interface is crappy, it actually becomes fun. More fun than the original.

[ragnar]

That is simply a restriction of the graphics engine used. every angle and direction needs to be animated. so if you wanted to have complete free track layout you'd need some form of 3D engine I think.

Yes, I know. It's done in RRT3, so it can be done in other games, right? It's just that the rather poorly done camera management of RRT3 kills the fun (imo).