Shack: So, we've got Railroad Tycoon, and we've got Sid Meier's Railroads! Any connection there? Why the omission of the Tycoon name?
Dan Magaha: There's a definite connection – Sid created the Tycoon genre nearly 20 years ago with the original Railroad Tycoon, and this new game is really Sid returning to that classic and refocusing the franchise on all the things that people loved about the original, but taking advantage of the things that couldn't be done 20 years ago.
The name change was a very deliberate move on our part. We felt that the "Tycoon" genre had really sort of lost its way and that consumers now tend to associate very different feelings and emotions with the word "Tycoon" now than they did 10 or 15 years ago. We also thought it was a great way to crystallize our focus for this game, which is all about the trains!
Shack: What types of trains are available?
Dan Magaha: Right now we have around 40 trains in the game. Each geographical area has between 10-12 unique trains it can use, and the mix of the trains depends on the area. There are more electrics in Germany, for example, and more steams in the UK and US scenarios.
Generally speaking, we've tried to include most of the really important and iconic trains that people recognize, so you'll see the F3 "Super Chief", the 4-8-4 Golden State "Daylight", the 4-6-2 Pacific, the A4 "Mallard", and so on.
Shack: How do we access new trains?
Dan Magaha: New trains become available as time progresses, but we've tried to balance them between cargo and passenger duty, so that you always have an interesting choice to make.
Shack: During what time periods does the game take place?
Dan Magaha: Primarily 1830's to 1950's or so, though some scenarios run a little longer depending on the trains you can use in the scenario. Even though we're including a good mix of diesels and electrics, the primary focus of the game is really the "Golden Age" of steam locomotives.
Shack: Why that time period?
Dan Magaha: Because the plastic age of trains wasn't nearly as romantic! NoÂ…it just goes back to the focus of the game being all about the trains. During that time period, especially in America, trains represented progress and technology and the promise of the future. Where trains went, prosperity followed. Literally, if your town had a train station it was "on the map" and if it didn't, it was like you were "off the grid".
That's a theme we try to capture in the game as well, so small, irrelevant towns that have train stations and handle a lot of rail traffic can grow and become important cities, just as they did in those days.
Shack: In what locations will we be railroading?
Dan Magaha: Several parts of the US – Northeast, Southwest, Midwest, and Pacific Northwest, as well as France, Germany, and England. We also have a bunch of fun "fantasy maps" which we tend to play a lot in multiplayer games. There are 15 maps in total.
Shack: Do I have to progress through the entire time line (e.g., 1850 to 1851 to 1852) or can I jump to any period I want in order to use my favorite type(s) of train(s)?
Dan Magaha: All of the scenario maps have a couple of different time periods in which you can start, so you can jump right into the modern era if that's more your speed.
Shack: How much control over the trains does the player have? For example, can I build my own trains? Can I customize trains?
Dan Magaha: Player train creation is something we initially were experimenting with, but it didn't quite pan out, and there were balancing concerns that caused us to put it aside (although we hope to revisit the idea again).
You will be able to "pimp your train" with a number of custom livery options including paint schemes, colors, and logos. And, just as with the original, if you set a speed record with a train, you get the ability to name that bad boy anything you want and it then gets an extra passenger revenue bonus.
Shack: Speaking of customization, what modding support will Railroads! make use of?
Dan Magaha: Out of the box, all of our data is exposed and available for users to modify, in standard XML (for game data) and Targa (for map data) format, so there isn't much players couldn't modify there. We're going to release our world editor shortly after we release the game. It's currently an internal tool we use and isn't designed yet for public consumption, so we need to clean it up and get it ready for prime time before we put it out there.
Additionally, all of our trains use the same Gamebryo KFM and NIF formats that Civilization IV used, so there are available exporters and things that would make it possible for really enterprising modders to even create new trains if they wanted.
We've tried wherever possible to keep the game data open and flexible, so that modders could have fun with it, but at the same time some things don't make a whole lot of sense for a game like this, so you won't see the entire game coded in Python scripts, for example.
Flip the page to find out more about the game's economic system, multiplayer options, and more.
_PAGE_BREAK_Shack: Tell us about the economics system used in Railroads!
Dan Magaha: In case I haven't mentioned it yet, our focus for this game is really the trains. So, one of our major design goals was to really simplify the economy to the core of what's important. And we think that is supply and demand, revenue and expenses. So those are the only really important concepts you need to know to understand how the game economy works. If 3 players are flooding the market with coal, that's going to drive prices down because supply is far exceeding demand. Conversely, if nobody's making paper, you can sneak in there and make a mint because a demand is going unfulfilled.
Shack: What about industries? Tell us all about those.
Dan Magaha: There are over 30 industries in the game, ranging from natural resources that produce goods you can pick up, like coal, oil, wood, etc.. to refined products that you haul away from factories and industries inside cities. Those industries take natural resources and make even more valuable items out of them, so wood can be turned into paper, and coal is used to fire steel mills that make steel, and so on. Some industries just take goods and consume them, but pay you for deliveries just the same. Power plants, for example, consume oil and coal.
You can even buy those in-city industries and earn revenue from every carload delivered to that industry, regardless of who's doing the deliveries. So, you can really use another player's strategy to your own benefit if you plan and execute well.
Shack: How does the player go about introducing new forms of technology, products, et cetera in the game?
Dan Magaha: The player doesn't actually introduce new technology but you do get to fight other players for the rights to use them. Periodically you'll get opportunities to bid in an auction format for "patents" that can bestow benefits to your entire operation. These are all based on real innovations that occurred because of the railroad industry, and they offer benefits like halved maintenance costs, increased speed up steep hills, even reduced price bridge-building or tunnel-digging.
The winner of a patent gets exclusive rights to that patent and its benefits for 10 game years, and then it becomes public domain and everyone can use it. These are a lot of fun in multiplayer games.
Shack: Nothing like a little corporate warfare to get the blood simmering. Tell us all about this feature: are there hostile takeovers; can the AI participate in warfare; online play; etc.
Dan Magaha: For a good portion of the early game, you're really just kind of minding your own business, running your railroad, making money, thinking the world is your oyster, and then you come upon some tracks that you didn't lay, and that you can't use, so you have to go over or around them. Then you'll notice things like the other players buying and selling stock to make money. Maybe even yours! That's the core of the corporate warfare: you get to try and buy out other players by making a run at their stock and eventually raising enough capital to execute a hostile takeover.
It's a two-way street though. If you don't watch your back, you can end up out of the game yourself. The AI is no slouch; I actually had it embarrass me a couple of times on a press tour because it would buy me out when I was in the middle of giving my demo.
Speaking of AI, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that it is personified by a selection of history's most famous robber barons and train men: guys like J. Pierpont Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, Isambard K. Brunel, and George Stephenson.
Shack: Any sort of online mode(s) planned for the game? Tell us about them.
Dan Magaha: Yes, up to 4 players will be able to play LAN or Internet games (we're using GameSpy), and we've been having a blast playing the game in MP. MP games are all about making cash and ruthlessly buying out the competition. Some of the strategies we see people employ in MP are really creative. I always tend to go for the compact, ultra-efficient railroad, whereas Scott Lewis, our UI guru, does the closest thing to a "train rush" I can imagine and usually has 5-6x the length of my track after 20 minutes of play. There's a good dynamic there.
Shack: Thanks so much for your time! Anything else you want to make sure our readers know?
Dan Magaha: There are still lots of things I haven't talked about, but my pet feature is our sandbox mode, which we call the "Train Table" mode. It's like having a virtual train table set that let's you build amazing train layouts your wife would never in a million years allow you to do in your basement.
Sid Meier's Railroads! will be released this October for the PC.
