Games PC TRANSPORTGIANT User Manual

Content

Installation ……………………………………………………………………………… 5 Game Start ……………………………………………………………………………… 5 Technical Information…………………………………………………………………… 5 Technical Support and Customer Service ………………………………………… 6 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………… 7

Transport ……………………………………………………………………………… 7 Endless Play…………………………………………………………………………… 7 Campaigns …………………………………………………………………………… 7 Industries ……………………………………………………………………………… 8 Cities …………………………………………………………………………………… 9

Main Menu ……………………………………………………………………………… 9

Continue Game ……………………………………………………………………… 10 Load Game …………………………………………………………………………… 10 Campaign ……………………………………………………………………………… 10 Endless Play…………………………………………………………………………… 11 Players ………………………………………………………………………………… 13 Settings ………………………………………………………………………………… 14 Best‘s List……………………………………………………………………………… 15 Credits ………………………………………………………………………………… 15 Quit Game …………………………………………………………………………… 15

Game Menu ……………………………………………………………………………… 15

Player Logo …………………………………………………………………………… 15 Account Balance ……………………………………………………………………… 15 Date …………………………………………………………………………………… 15 Info-Line ……………………………………………………………………………… 16 Game Speed ………………………………………………………………………… 16 Zoom In/Out…………………………………………………………………………… 16 Toggle Trees…………………………………………………………………………… 16 Toggle Buildings ……………………………………………………………………… 16 Toggle Signs…………………………………………………………………………… 17 Toggle Loading Symbols …………………………………………………………… 17 Toggle Player Symbols ……………………………………………………………… 17 Toggle Player Colors ………………………………………………………………… 17 Toggle Overview Map………………………………………………………………… 17 Vehicle Depot ………………………………………………………………………… 18 Schedule ……………………………………………………………………………… 18 Build …………………………………………………………………………………… 18 Expand ………………………………………………………………………………… 18 Route List ……………………………………………………………………………… 18 Building List …………………………………………………………………………… 18 Statistics ……………………………………………………………………………… 18 Info……………………………………………………………………………………… 19 Demolish ……………………………………………………………………………… 19 Extras ………………………………………………………………………………… 19

A Transport Route ……………………………………………………………………… 19

Moving in the Game Environment ………………………………………………… 19 Find Buildings ………………………………………………………………………… 20 Means of Transportation …………………………………………………………… 20 Build a Train Station ………………………………………………………………… 21 Building a Train Station Correctly ………………………………………………… 22 Rotate Train Station ………………………………………………………………… 22 Undo …………………………………………………………………………………… 22 Lay Tracks …………………………………………………………………………… 23 Lay Curves …………………………………………………………………………… 23 Water Towers ………………………………………………………………………… 23 Bridges ………………………………………………………………………………… 23 Tunnels ………………………………………………………………………………… 24 Finish Construction Section ………………………………………………………… 24

Tracks Must Be Connected ………………………………………………………… 24 Additional Track Platforms ………………………………………………………… 25 Expand Length of Train Station …………………………………………………… 26 Repair ………………………………………………………………………………… 26 Water Towers ………………………………………………………………………… 26 Loading Crane ………………………………………………………………………… 27 Storehouse …………………………………………………………………………… 27 Cold Storage ………………………………………………………………………… 27 Kiosk, Restaurant and Hotel ………………………………………………………… 27 Modernise a Train Station …………………………………………………………… 27 Income and Expenses for Train Stations ………………………………………… 27 Vehicle Depot ………………………………………………………………………… 28 Purchase Vehicles …………………………………………………………………… 29 Your Vehicles in the Depot ………………………………………………………… 29 Sell a Vehicle ………………………………………………………………………… 29 Schedule ……………………………………………………………………………… 30 Create a Schedule …………………………………………………………………… 30 Multiple Traction ……………………………………………………………………… 30 Destinations in the Schedule ……………………………………………………… 31 Change Vehicle Route ……………………………………………………………… 31 Load and Unload Goods …………………………………………………………… 32 Passenger and Postal Transport …………………………………………………… 33 Vehicle Load…………………………………………………………………………… 34 Delete a Station in the Schedule …………………………………………………… 34 Insert Station ………………………………………………………………………… 34 Wait for Full Load …………………………………………………………………… 34 Wait Till Fully Unloaded ……………………………………………………………… 35 Wait in Station ………………………………………………………………………… 35 Confirm Schedule …………………………………………………………………… 35 Cancel Schedule Changes ………………………………………………………… 35 Change Schedule …………………………………………………………………… 35 Rename Route ………………………………………………………………………… 35 Clone Route …………………………………………………………………………… 36

Am I Earning Anything?………………………………………………………………… 36

Route List ……………………………………………………………………………… 36 Building List …………………………………………………………………………… 37 Account Balance ……………………………………………………………………… 37 Income-Outgo-Diagram ……………………………………………………………… 38 Company Info ………………………………………………………………………… 38 Purchase Competitors ……………………………………………………………… 38 Read Old Messages ………………………………………………………………… 39 Vehicle Info …………………………………………………………………………… 39 Building Info …………………………………………………………………………… 39 City Info………………………………………………………………………………… 40

Passenger Transport …………………………………………………………………… 40

Postal Transport ……………………………………………………………………… 40

Freight Rates …………………………………………………………………………… 41 Additional Information ………………………………………………………………… 41

JoWooD Productions Software AG

Technologiepark 4a,

A-8786 Rottenmann, Austria

Homepage JoWooD: www.jowood.com

Homepage „Transport Gigant”: www.transportgiant.com

Technologiepark 4a, A-8786 Rottenmann, Austria.

Installation

Turn your computer on and start Windows.

Close all running applications. Place the TransportGiant DVD in your DVD-ROM drive.

The installation program will start automatically within a few seconds if the autoplay feature on your computer is activated.

If the installation program does not start automatically, the autoplay feature is disabled. In this case, simply click on the DVD-ROM icon within My Computer and then on the setup.now icon.

Now follow the instructions on the screen to install the game.

Safety information

About Photosensitive Seizures

A very small percentage of people may experience a seizure when exposed to certain visual images, including flashing lights or patterns that may appear in video games. Even people who have no history of seizures or epilepsy may have an undiagnosed condition that can cause these photosensitive epileptic seizures while watching video games.

These seizures may have a variety of symptoms including: lightheadedness, altered vision, eye or face twitching, jerking or shaking of arms or legs, disorientation, confusion, or momentary loss of awareness. Seizures may also cause loss of consciousness or convulsions that can lead to injury from falling down or striking nearby objects. Immediately stop playing and consult a doctor if you experience any of these symptoms. Parents should watch for or ask their children about the above symptoms. Children and teenagers are more likely than adults to experience these seizures. The risk of photosensitive epileptic seizures may be reduced by sitting farther from the television screen, using a smaller television screen, playing in a well-lit room and not playing when you are drowsy or fatigued. If you or any of your relatives have a history of seizures or epilepsy, consult a doctor before playing.

Game Start

To start the game, double-click on the TransportGiant icon on your Desktop.

Of course you can also start the game from the Windows Start Menu. Please make sure the TransportGiant DVD is always inserted in your DVD-

ROM drive when you start the game.

Technical Information

We suggest you close all other running applications and background programs prior to starting the game.

Some screensavers may cause problems with the graphics and images in the game. If this happens, we suggest you deactivate your screensaver prior to starting the game.

You have the possibility to switch to other applications during the game. Certain graphic cards do not support this function and may not display the game graphics correctly. We advise you to quit the game if you would like to run other applications.

In case you experience problems with the display of the game, make sure your graphic card driver is up-to-date. Usually, you can obtain the latest version of your driver through the graphic card manufacturer‘s homepage.

Technical Support and Customer Service

You are experiencing technical problems while you are installing the software or playing the game?

Our hotline-service employees will be glad to help!

Support

SOLD OUT SOFTWARE

E-mail: support@sold-out.co.uk Phone: +44 (0) 845 234 4250

Fax: +44 (0) 845 234 4243 Tech Support

Sold Out Software 122 Southwark Street London SE1 0SW

http://www.sold-out.co.uk

Introduction

Transport

Transport is literally the name of this game. It‘s all about transport of goods and passengers. The transport industry is really the only possibility for you to earn money, so you will be dealing with the establishment of a transportation infrastructure. Different than in games like IndustryGiant 2, you will not be dealing with the production or sales of goods. Actually, all you really have to do is load goods or passengers at one location and unload them at another location where they are required. You‘ll obtain a certain freight rate in accordance with the distances you travel, which can vary just as much as the products you transport. It sounds very easy, and it is easy. Nonetheless, if you truly want to establish a spanning and efficient transportation system, you might actually find yourself dealing with a pretty cool brain-twister.

Endless Play

In TransportGiant you have different game modes to choose from. One of these modes is the so-called Endless Play mode. We call it Endless Play because you can play all the way into the year 9000 in this game mode. However, the technical improvements end in the year 2050. From this day on, you will not receive any new vehicles or goods to transport, but the economy continues to suffer or benefit from the economic fluctuation.

In Endless Play you can determine the year you start your career as a transport mogul. However, we would like to point out that starting the game in later years does not necessarily make things easier.

You do not have a true game mission or goal in this mode. You can retreat from active business at any time, when you think you have established everything you desire. A rating in the form of points will give you the possibility to compare your abilities with your former achievements or with others‘. Sure thing is, the more money you make, and the faster you make it - the better your rating will be.

Campaigns

In campaign mode, things are different. If you have decided to play this game mode, then you have the possibility to play two different campaigns with seven missions each. The goals you have to fulfill are clearly determined in the missions. You also always start in one preset year and you have a certain time limit to fulfill the goal.

The goals you have to fulfill in the missions are not always the same. Accordingly, you may have to gain a certain amount of money, or in another mission you‘ll have to deliver raw materials to a construction site so a certain building can be established, and many more. You can only start a successive mission when you have successfully accomplished the previous one. However, you can play the missions as often as you want.

Less common are the industries you can bring products to, which do not produce anything though. At least nothing that could be transported anywhere. Any kind of power plant belongs to this category, for example. That means you could deliver coal to a coal power plant, but obviously you cannot transport the produced energy with a vehicle.

And not to forget: the...

Industries

As we have mentioned earlier, all types of industries in the game are only means to an end. They are nothing but providers of goods or recipients of other products. One of your main activities will be locating these industries, in order to connect and supply them by establishing a transport net.

A simple example should make this clear. In the middle of the forest there is a woodcutter store that produces tree trunks. You could transport these tree trunks to a sawmill. You obtain a certain freight rate for delivering the tree trunks. The sawmill has received raw materials, so now it can produce boards from the tree trunks you delivered. If there happens to be a carpentry near-by you could seize the chance and deliver the boards to the carpentry. However, you do not necessarily have to do that. You can determine for yourself how complicated and widespread your transport net is supposed to be.

There are different types of industries in TransportGiant. In our example above we introduced two of them. The woodcutter store belongs to the category of raw material providers. This type of industry produces their raw materials on their own - the player does not have to interact. Additional examples are all types of mines or pits. You cannot deliver any goods to these industries, simply because they do not require anything.

The agricultural companies are providers of raw materials as well. They also produce without any assistance from the player. However, they do accept certain delivered products. Consequently, you can have a positive influence on the yield of a fruit plantation by delivering fertilizer to the plantation. And the chicken at the poultry farm would also lay a much larger amount of eggs if you provided a respective supply of corn.

The sawmill we mentioned above belongs to the most common category. These industries require certain products to be able to produce their goods. Consequently, they do not start producing their goods until the player has delivered the necessary products. For matters of management, you can always make one wagonload of processed products out of one wagonload of raw materials. In our example above that would mean the sawmill produces one wagonload of boards out of one wagonload of tree trunks.

Cities

Strictly speaking, the cities are really nothing more than additional industries. But we don‘t want to start this topic in such a prosaic manner, now do we...

Cities accept various types of goods. And they also produce goods, if that‘s what you want to call it. In cities you can pick up passengers, mail and garbage. The first two have determined destinations, where you can bring them. Naturally, garbage is brought to the dump or later on to the garbage incineration center.

The larger the city, the larger the variety and the higher the amounts of products you can deliver. For example, a small village may only require one wagonload of eggs per month, which isn‘t very difficult to achieve, but it could be nearly impossible to provide a full supply of eggs for really large cities.

Although why are cities really nothing more than an additional industry? What is that supposed to mean? It‘s easy: in games like IndustryGiant 2, the cities were still the final and absolutely essential link in a production chain, whereas in TransportGiant, you can play without ever delivering a single product to a city, or picking up a single passenger. Of course, the missions are the exception. In the missions, cities usually play the main role. For example, a mission goal could be to make sure one train arrives in every city.

Main Menu

When you start the game, the first thing you will always see is the main menu. This is where you can continue a game you previously quit. You can load saved games, adjust different settings according to your needs and quit the game again.

Continue Game

When you switch to the main menu during a running game, the game will automatically be saved. The option „Continue Game“ allows you to re-enter the game without having to load a savegame.

This also works when you close the program.

Therefore, you basically never have to save a game. Of course, we discourage you from doing this. You should always save your game on a regular basis, especially when you are working on large construction projects. That way, you can undo potential mistakes you made. And why not take advantage of the things that will never be possible in reality?

Click on the desired continent and confirm your selection by clicking on the „OK“ button. Click on „Cancel“ to return to the main menu.

Now the window appears where you can select which mission you would like to play. If you are playing this campaign for the first time, you will see that only one mission is available. You can play all the other missions by successfully completing the previous ones.

Load Game

Load a previously saved game.

Simply click on the desired savegame in the list and then confirm your selection by clicking on the „OK“ button. That brings you right back into the game.

To delete older savegames, simply select the desired

savegame from the list. Now click on the „Delete“ button. As a precaution, you will now be asked to confirm your selection once again. Once you have confirmed your selection, the savegame is deleted. This action cannot be undone.

Campaign

Once you have decided to play a campaign, you will have to make another decision. Select which campaign you would like to play. .

You can play missions you have previously completed at any time. Therefore, you still have the chance to play a mission again at any point in time, once it has been won or lost. You will see the mission description and the goals you have to fulfill. Please read this description carefully. But don‘t

memorize it. Of course you can read through the description at any time later on in the game. Now, all you have to do is determine how difficult you want this mission to be - and off you go!.

Endless Play

Select a map for Endless Play. As you already know, there is practically no time limit in Endless Play and no determined game goal. Oh, you haven‘t heard? Then you probably belong to the type of players who never read the

Introduction in these manuals. We understand that, so we‘ll just explain this game mode again in short. In Endless Play you can play and build into the year 9000.

Well yes, that is a long time and assumingly only a few players will really take advantage of this function. By the way, technical advancements stop in the year

2050. That means, additional vehicles or products no longer appear in the game. However, the economy does continue to suffer or benefit from the economic fluctuation over all the years.

You can quit an Endless Play game at any point in time by simply retreating from active business. A rating in the form of points shows how you played. Of course, you should never take ratings like this too seriously. And never forget, the advantage of games like this is the fact that you determine your goal yourself.

Now select on which part of the earth you would like to play, just like in campaign mode. Click on the desired continent and then confirm your selection.

However, there is one major difference: please take a look at the selection button in the lower left corner of the window. Click on this button to open an additional menu. In this menu, you can create endless amounts of random maps. Using your own imagination and the editor! You‘ll never have to worry about not having enough game environments to play in. We‘ll

explain how to create these maps in another chapter („Random Maps“).

Once you have selected a continent, you then have the possibility to select a map template.

Usually, you will start in the year 1850. However, you might want to start with trucks, which is why you may also determine the starting year. Select the desired starting year and confirm this selection. Good things take time. You can‘t start quite yet. First you should decide how difficult you want the game to be. We‘ll explain

the differences between the various levels of difficulty later on. For now you should know that the Sandbox mode allows absolute free play. In this mode you will have no financial worries whatsoever. You won‘t spend a penny, and you won‘t earn a penny. Therefore, you can build various dream-routes to the top of your bent and you can afford any vehicle, no matter how expensive it may be. Conversely, you won‘t receive an end-rating in this mode.

Select the desired level of

difficulty and confirm your

selection. Slowly but surely,

things are now getting serious.

There‘s only one more selection

window between you and the

game. Do you want competi-

tion in the game? Then this is

the time to decide.

How strong your competitors

will be depends on the level

of difficulty you previously

selected. Select the number

of competitors and confirm

your selection. And now, let

the games begin!

Click on the desired name of the map in the list and confirm your selection.

Players

You‘ve decided to change your name during the game? A dulcet name for a company would be nice, wouldn‘t it? No problem, you can have it all.

Click on the respective name field and enter the name you desire. In addition, you may also select a company logo. Click on the arrow-buttons to the left and to the right of the preview window for an overview of all available company logos.

You want your vehicle fleet to look really cool? Or perhaps something like the original varnishing? It‘s your job to determine how your vehicles should be displayed. To the right of the logo you can see a small preview of how the vehicles could look. Use the arrow buttons to take a look at all the other available possibilities.

By the way, one of the possibilities leans towards the original varnishing of the respective vehicle. If you select this option, you‘ll obviously receive a colorful, yet not uniform look for your vehicle fleet. By confirming your selection, all settings are saved and you return to the main menu.

By clicking on „Cancel“, the settings are not saved.

Best‘s List

You can make it into the best‘s list when you quit an Endless Play game by retreating.

Credits

Take a look at the team behind TransportGiant. Of course we can only present actors/persons directly involved with TransportGiant.

Quit Game

Quit the game and return to your Desktop.

Game Menu

Let‘s take a first look at the navigation and controls of the game. To prevent the game buttons from interfering with the game map, all buttons are located at the edge of the screen.

By the way, you can open each menu with two clicks, at the most.

Now let‘s take a quick look at all the buttons and their meanings. We‘ll go into detail and work with the buttons in the next chapter..

Player Logo

Settings

Adjust the screen resolution, brightness and volume.

Select the desired screen resolution from the list.

Use the throttles to adjust the brightness of the screen as well as the volume for background music and sound effects.

Only select the option „V-Sync“ if the images and graphics in the game are not displayed correctly.

By confirming your selection, all settings are saved and you return to the main menu.

with this. It only shows your company logo. And after you have assumingly

Start in the left corner with the player logo. You can‘t do anything

selected it yourself, it can‘t do anything, but it sure does look cool!

Account Balance

From the most unimportant button to probably most important and interesting part of the menu. You see a field right next to the logo, which shows your account balance. We assume we don‘t need to explain much more. The higher the number, the more money you have on your account. Except for when you see a big, fat minus in front of the number. By the way, if your account does show you are in debt, then you cannot build anything and you cannot buy any vehicles.

Date

To the right of your account balance you see the current date.

Info-Line

Toggle Signs

Various information is published in the info-line. For example, you can see how much a certain construction project would currently cost.

Game Speed

Now we have finally reached the small controller buttons. The first five of these buttons are responsible for the game speed. This is where you can pause the game, or even let it run faster.

Zoom In/Out

Use these buttons to zoom in to the happenings on the map. Of course, you lose the overview over the game environment, but that‘s the price you‘ll have to pay. However, for a better overview you can also zoom out and increase the range of sight. By the way, you can adjust these settings much easier and more elegantly by using the mouse wheel.

Pre-set ranges of sight can be found in the chapter „Hotkeys“. For example, you can set the range of sight back to default size by clicking one single key.

Toggle Trees

]

Toggle the trees on the game map. For certain construction projects it can surely be helpful to gain a better overview over the routes being built.

Toggle Buildings

In case a building is in the way of important objects,

you can click on this button to blend out all buildings.

map.

Blend out all signs for a clear overview of the game

By the way, you can identify the owners of buildings according to the color of their name tags.

Toggle Loading Symbols

You can blend out the loading symbols if you already know what your vehicles are transporting. The loading symbols show which product a vehicle or train is currently transporting.

Toggle Player Symbols

Use this button to toggle player symbols. The player symbols show which vehicles belong to which player. Small images of the respective company logos are displayed in the symbol.

Toggle Player Colors

Once you start playing with opponents, you might not be able to determine which routes belong to whom anymore. To prevent this from happening, you can apply a certain color to each route. Now each route and every building on the route will receive the respective player color.

Toggle Overview Map

The maps in TransportGiant tend to be rather large, which is why we have provided an additional overview map, for matters of orientation. You can blend this map in or out.

Vehicle Depot

Info

Now we will take a look at the activity buttons. In the top left you can see a button for the vehicle depot. Click on this button to purchase and sell vehicles and to gain an overview of all vehicles that are currently not being used.

Schedule

Create a new schedule for a desired vehicle. We‘ll show you exactly

how to do this in the next chapter.

Build

Open the construction menu. Use this menu to build transport routes

and buildings.

Expand

Click on this button if you would like to expand an existing buil-

ding.

Route List

Gain an overview of all existing vehicle routes. At first sight you can see which vehicles are earning well and which routes you should consider closing.

Building List

You found a woodcutter store? But where‘s the next sawmill? And where was that one city again? The building list will answer all these questions.

Statistics

Statistics show you the relation between income and expenses. That means, whether you‘re making profit or if you‘re in debt. In addition, you can also see your total expenses for train stations, for example, and much more.

Information concerning the value of your own company, and the value of your competitors company. In this menu you can also buy competing companies.

Demolish

Be very careful with this button; you can use it to tear down anything and everything that belongs to your company. You will not see a security notice or precaution. Once you press this button, the object is immediately demolished. Therefore, if you happen to accidentally demolish your favorite train station, all you can do is load a previous savegame.

Extras

You want to save the game? Load a game? Turn off the music? Enlarge the overview map? Then click here.

A Transport Route

Obviously, one of your main jobs in the game will be construction of transport routes and buildings, because without transport routes, transportation of goods might be a bit difficult. And without buildings, nothing works at all, not even with ships or airplanes. Don‘t worry, there‘s really not much you have to know to be able to build a functioning transport route. With a simple example, which we‘ve intentionally made a bit more complex than necessary, we will now construct a first transport route. Let‘s stick to the example we‘ve already mentioned above, and see how to transport tree trunks from a woodcutter store to a sawmill.

So, let‘s look for a woodcutter store, not too far away from the sawmill. But wait-how do we find these buildings?

Moving in the Game Environment

The normal method is to move the section of the game environment until you finally find the suitable building. To do so, simply move the mouse cursor to the edge of the game screen. The game environment will follow in the same direction.

Or you click on a spot in the overview map. That spot will now become the new center of the game field. This way, you can cover long distances very quickly.

Find Buildings

This disadvantage disappears with modern models. A good six-wheeler can mean serious competition for the normal train.

Blimps are only intended to transport passengers. They are fairly slow, though they do not require transport routes. In certain cases, we suggest you use this aircraft. In normal cases, it will probably remain a hobby.

If you don‘t want to search the whole game environment for certain buildings, we suggest you consider using the building list. In this list you can see all existing industries, listed in alphabetical order. Click on the desired building in the list. Now, click on the „GoTo“ button and the building will automatically become the new center of the game map. Once we have found both industries, it‘s time to make a first decision.

Means of Transportation

Prior to constructing a new transport route you must consider which type of vehicle you would like to run on this route. We would like to underline one thing: there is no ‚best vehicle‘. All types of vehicles have advantages and disadvantages.

Horses are cheap and practically never break down. They do not offer a large amount of tractive force; however, this disadvantage can be compensated for by using several horses at once. Horses can travel on gravel roads, but they are fairly slow.

Of course you can always deploy ships if there is enough water around. Nevertheless, by deploying ships you will remain in the outer reaches of the game. Even if your capacity is unusually high.

Horse trains are definitely worth considering, especially at the beginning of the game. Let alone the low costs of purchase in comparison to the normal trains. You can continue using the train stations later on. In exchange, the horse trains are inefficient and most of all, slow.

Normal trains are surely the most flexible means of transportation in the game. You can find the right vehicle for every field of application among the normal trains. The costs of purchase, however, are extremely high, and the performance of the older locomotives leaves a lot to be desired.

A major disadvantage of the train is the obligation to build closed routes, which we will discuss shortly.

Trucks can be beneficial because they are not particularly expensive. And construction of streets is not quite as expensive as the construction of tracks. Capacity and performance, however, are limited. In order to increase the transport capacity you will need to purchase a new vehicle.

You won‘t discover airplanes till later on in the game. The costs of purchase are extremely high, as are the utility costs. Nonetheless, when it comes to delivering goods as quickly as possibly, they are pretty much the best choice. Of course, another major advantage of airplanes is the fact that you do not have to build transport routes. Therefore, every body of water and every mountain chain can be crossed without the necessity to build scandalously expensive bridges or tunnels.

Helicopters offer one major advantage that airplanes cannot offer: they do not require a complex and time-costly landing and starting procedure. Nevertheless, the capacity as well as the speed of the helicopters could leave to be desired.

In our example we have decided to use the horse train. That saves money and later on we can save money when we expand to the normal train.

Build a Train Station

To be able to load products onto a vehicle you will have to build a train station. The industry building must be in the catchment area of the train station, so make sure you place the train station correctly. But wait, one step at a time.

Now, click on the „Build“ button. In the following section we can select trains (the horse train can be found in the section trains). By clicking on the „Trains“ button once, the construction menu for trains opens.

Use the buttons at the top to select the train you would like to build. Throughout the years, more and more buttons become available.By the way, this selection is only important for construction of vehicles that run on tracks or roads. You can use train stations and terminals universally.

You have already activated the button for the horse train. Now we have to decide, which train station we would like to build.

You can choose from three different track lengths. At the beginning of the game, the inexpensive, shorter train station with short tracks will definitely suffice.

By moving the mouse cursor over the symbol, you can easily gain a quick overview of what a construction item costs. In a small window, a tool-tip, you can see all important information. By the way, practically all elements in the game offer tool-tips. Now when you click on the symbol for the small train station, it will be ready to be built. The train station is „hanging“ on your mouse cursor, so to speak, and you can place it anywhere on the game map by clicking on the specific location, where you want the train station to be built.

Once the building is highlighted in green, you know the train station can be built on that spot. However, if the building is highlighted in red, then you may not build the train station on that spot, or you do not have enough money.

button until you confirm your construction by clicking on the „OK“ button. After that, all you can do is demolish the construction if you don‘t like it.

Lay Tracks

It‘s pretty much a matter of taste, whether you would like to build the second train station next to the sawmill, or if you would rather lay the tracks between the two, first.

We‘ve decided to lay the tracks, first. Click on the symbol for straight tracks; the first thing we should do is „fill“ the track platform area with tracks.

To lay tracks, click on the desired starting position on the game field. Now you can „pull“ a straight line of tracks, as long as you want the track to be. Once you are pleased with the length of the line of tracks, simply click on the desired ending-field and your first part of the tracks is finished! Of course, you can also undo these types of actions.

Building a Train Station Correctly

As we‘ve mentioned before, your train station must be built correctly. Every train station (this also applies to every other type of terminal) has a predetermined catchment area. Only the buildings that are at least partially located in this catchment area can provide or accept products from this train station. Buildings that are located in the catchment area of a train station are highlighted in green.

Rotate Train Station

After a few tries we‘ve finally found a position for the train station, with a woodcutter store located in the catchment area. However, the train station is facing the wrong direction. We don‘t want the train station tracks to be facing the woodcutter store, because it might be a bit too narrow when we decide to expand later on. So, we have to rotate the train station. It‘s easy

- just hit your spacebar.

Undo

Ok, so maybe we did put the train station a bit too close to the surrounding buildings - but that‘s no big deal. Simply click on the „Undo“ button, and it‘s as if your last activity never occurred. You can use the undo

Lay Curves

Straight tracks are obviously not going to suffice when it comes to reaching your goals. You will always have to include and build curved-tracks. Create these tracks just like you construct buildings. Select the respective symbol and place it somewhere by clicking on the game map. You can rotate curves by clicking the spacebar - just like the terminals.

Water Towers

Distances between train stations can be somewhat long at times. That‘s why it is necessary for you to build water towers on long routes, so the steamers refill their water supply while they‘re on their way.

Build a water tower by clicking on the respective symbol and placing the tower next to tracks. You cannot build water towers next to curved tracks.

Trains will automatically stop and refill their water supply if a water

tower is available.

Bridges

At the beginning of the game, you‘ll probably do anything you can to avoid building bridges, because they are extremely expensive. During the course of the game, however, you‘ll need them more and more. Of course the necessity for bridges always depends of the nature of the map. In addition, you will only be able to build wooden bridges at the beginning of the game.

In the course of time, more and more modern bridges will become available. Of course, these modern bridges will also be more expensive. Modern bridges allow a faster tempo.

To build a bridge, click on the symbol of the respective type of bridge. Now click on the field, where the bridge should start and pull the bridge to the desired length. Click on the ending-field to build the bridge. Of course, you can undo this action.

Bridges are not that easy to build. They require quite a bit of space for the drive-up ramps. These ramps may not be built in water or on tracks and roads.

mountains. So, if you would like to overcome a building or a mountain chain you will have to build a tunnel.

You may not build bridges over buildings or

Tunnels

You can build tunnels the same way you build bridges. When you build a tunnel you also require a fairly large amount of space for the ramps. You should keep that in mind while you are planning the construction project.

Tunnels are the most expensive construction projects in the game. Therefore, you should thoroughly consider the decision to start a major project like that. Even in the long run, bypassing the obstacle is often much less expensive than a complex and costly tunnel.

Please keep in mind that tunnels may not cross with other tunnels.

Finish Construction Section

So, we set tracks to the sawmill and established a second train station. Now it‘s time to actually build the route - till now it was all just planning. The yellow highlighted parts of the route show you the planned construction projects.

By clicking on the „OK“ button you start the actual construction

process. Now the expenses are finally deducted from your account.

Tracks are always considered connected if they are tracks in a train station. Therefore, you can build several lines of tracks all starting in one train station, without actually having to connect the tracks. In this case, the connection is provided through the train station itself. So, if you have connected two train stations with one track each, and you now want to make a connection to a third train station, you have two possibilities. Either you can insert a switch into one of the already existing tracks and then build the new line of tracks to the third train station, or you can expand one of the train stations to include a second line of tracks. Now you can also connect with the third train station. But a railway system does not have to stay connected forever. The requirement to connect tracks is only given when you build new tracks. Therefore, you can go ahead and demolish older routes or tracks.

Once in a while it might even be necessary to connect tracks, although parts of these tracks will never be used. You can demolish these parts at any time.

Additional Track Platforms

Usually one track platform will not suffice. Or the train station will simply become too short in the course of time. Then you obviously have the possibility to expand existing train stations.

To expand a train station, simply click on the „Expand“ button. Select the desired means of transportation by clicking on the respective button.

In the options menu you will find all the different possibilities available for this type of terminal.

To construct an additional track platform, click on the symbol for the additional track platform. Then click on the train station that should receive the additional platform. That‘s it. The track platform has been built. Of course this only works if there is enough space available for the additional track platform.

You can repeat this action as often as you desire.

Tracks Must Be Connected

Now it‘s time to introduce the one major disadvantage of trains in comparison to other vehicles. The only way you can build functioning train tracks is by connecting them to other tracks or a train station.

Move your mouse cursor over the desired train station to find out in advance, how much the expansion project would cost. A tool-tip will appear, showing the total expenses.

Expand Length of Train Station

Follow the same steps to expand the length of a train station. Train stations are available in three different lengths. Of course, once the largest type of train station has been constructed, you cannot expand it any further.

Loading Crane

Decrease loading times for heavy goods by including a loading

crane in one or more of your train stations.

By the way, you could always use the shortest train stations in the game. However, when longer trains arrive, that do not fully fit the station, you will have to reckon on much longer loading times.

Repair

Maintenance is important for all vehicles, to avoid break-downs. Therefore, you have to build repair shops in train stations (and in all other types of terminals). If the train station or terminal serves as a regular destination for a vehicle, that vehicle will automatically be repaired and maintained when it stops at the train station or terminal. If a vehicle only passes through a train station with a repair shop, it will not be repaired or maintained.

But you don‘t have to build these expensive repair shops in every train station. How many you will need depends on the length of the route and the type of vehicle running on the route. Certain vehicles are quite susceptible to damages and breakdowns; therefore they must be maintained and repaired more often.

By the way, vehicles only age and become damaged when they are in use, i.e. moving. That means, if a vehicle is simply standing around in a train station, its condition will not become worse.

Water Towers

Steamers require water to run properly. You will have to offer the required water supply by building water towers.

We suggest you build water towers in train stations. Every train that stops at this train station as a regular destination will automatically refill its water supplies.

It may be necessary to build additional water towers alongside extremely long routes. We‘ve already provided instructions on building water towers in the above.

Storehouse

Decrease loading times for general cargo by including a storehouse

in a train station.

Cold Storage

A cold storage will also decrease turnover times. Obviously this

serves for all perishable goods.

Kiosk, Restaurant and Hotel

This train station expansion can offer additional or more income for passenger transport. You can reckon even a small kiosk with few passengers is worth the investment. Restaurants are good for train stations with average passenger transfer. And for a hotel to be worthwhile, you‘ll have to have quite a few passengers that use the train station.

Modernise a Train Station

After a certain number of years you will have the possibility to modernize old train stations. To modernize a train station, click on the respective symbol and then on the desired train station.

And what‘s that supposed to be good for? Simple: old train stations are not allowed to have more than 8 tracks. The modern train stations, on the other hand, can have up to 64 tracks.

Nonetheless, if 8 tracks suffice for you, then you really have no reason to modernize.

To include a water tower in a train station, simply click on the water tower symbol in the options menu. Now click on the desired train station, and with that, steamers can now quench their thirst at this train station.

Income and Expenses for Train Stations

Train stations have standing charges. Each building expansion also causes running monthly utility costs. However, you can also earn a bit through kiosks, restaurants and hotels. Of course, this also applies to all other types of terminals.

Move the mouse cursor over a desired train station. A tool-tip will appear with an overview of the income and expenses of the train station.

Vehicle Depot

So, now that we have built our first transport route it‘s time to start spending some money on vehicles.

The part at the bottom is also very important. It shows you which goods you can transport with this vehicle in the first place. The digit above the product symbols shows how many wagonloads this vehicle can transport without overloading.

Purchase Vehicles

This is where the vehicle depot comes into play. Click on the „Vehicle Depot“ button. Again, select the category of the vehicle you desire. In our case we should select trains - we already know that the horse train belongs to the category of normal trains.

In the vehicle depot you can see which vehicles are currently available. At the beginning of the game, you don‘t have a very large selection; however, during the course of the game more and more new vehicles become available. At the same time, older models slowly disappear from the product range.

For closer information about a specific vehicle, simply click on the desired model in the list to the left. All important information concerning the vehicle is then displayed in the middle of the menu.

Of course you don‘t have to read through every little bit of information displayed, and it is not absolutely essential. Surely the most important thing to know is the price of purchase. And in addition, the speed is also something to take into consideration. For certain goods, you will only be able to obtain a decent freight rate if you deliver the products extremely quickly.

The yellow progress bars give a quick overview of the price relation compared to other available vehicles, and where the price stands today. These values can obviously change in the next few years. For example, a vehicle that is on the highest price level today could easily fall into the middle field in a few years.

Certain vehicles require specific types of tracks. This is important and you should always keep this in mind when you purchase a vehicle. Otherwise, you might find yourself trying to get a monorail to run on normal train tracks, in vain. Or you can‘t understand that the brand new, fancy electro-locomotive just doesn‘t want to run. And only because you don‘t have tracks with an aerial contact line yet.

Once you have decided to purchase a vehicle, simply click on the „Purchase Vehicle“ button above the list of vehicles to the left. And with that, the vehicle is delivered to your depot. Of course you don‘t have to worry about delivery times and similar displeasing topics, but instead, the supplier does want his money immediately. If you don‘t have enough money, you can‘t buy the vehicle.

Your Vehicles in the Depot

The right side of the menu shows your vehicle depot. In this depot you will find all vehicles that are not included in a schedule.

If you do not own any vehicles, this list will definitely be empty.

Vehicles you have purchased immediately appear in the depot list.

Let‘s continue here with our example. Hopefully you still remember, you know, we wanted to build the horse train. And because horses are not particularly efficient, we‘ll go ahead and buy two. Why two? We‘ll tell you shortly.

Although we have bought two horses, only one horse appears in the depot list. That‘s because we bought two horses of the same kind, and the vehicles in the depot list are presented in groups, according to the type of vehicle. This serves for matters of better orientation. So, if you take a closer look you‘ll see a little button with a plus-sign in it. Click on this button to expand the list of all vehicles of this type.

Click on a vehicle in the depot list for closer information about this vehicle. The details are displayed in the middle of the menu. The most important information for you will probably be the resale price.

Sell a Vehicle

Of course you can also resell vehicles. But don‘t take too long to make that decision - the value of a vehicle falls in the course of time. Until finally, after a few years, the vehicle isn‘t worth a single penny anymore. After that, you can still sell it, but you won‘t get anything for it. Although, that‘s still better than in real life, where you would assumingly have to pay horrendous additional fees for disposal.

If you have several vehicles of the same type and you did not select one specific vehicle from the list (i.e. you did not click on the plus-sign to expand the list), then the oldest vehicle is always automatically selected and sold.

Destinations in the Schedule

The required vehicles have been deployed. Now we have to tell the vehicles which stops they are supposed to make on the route.

Ok, so we have purchased two horses and now we want to use them to transport tree trunks. But first we need to create a schedule.

Schedule

Create a schedule to determine a transport route. Without a schedule, the vehicle would simply stand around uselessly in the depot.

Determine which vehicle you want to deploy in the schedule. You also have to determine the destinations and which goods it should transport.

Create a Schedule

Create a schedule by clicking on the „Schedule“ button. Select the

desired means of transportation.

Or click on the desired terminal (in our example that would obviously be a train station). In this case you can leave out this step - the means of transportation has already been determined through the terminal selection.

On the right side of the schedule you can see which vehicles are available and waiting in the vehicle depot (i.e. not included in a schedule yet).

Select the vehicle you would like to include in the schedule. Now click on the arrow button pointing to the left (Deploy Vehicle). Now the vehicle will appear in the first of the eight vehicle fields of the schedule.

Multiple Traction

One vehicle alone cannot pull the required load? Well, in this case certain vehicles offer the possibility to couple several vehicles one after another. We call this multiple traction.

Click on the train station next to the woodcutter store. This train station is where the route is supposed to start. And the vehicles will always return to this train station. Of course, one train station as a destination is not really enough for a functioning route. You‘ll need at least two destinations.

Click on the desired track if you have train stations with several tracks. If there is only one existing connection between two destinations in the first place, the game will then automatically select the correct tracks.

So now let‘s click on the second train station, the one near the sawmill. We want the horse train to bring the tree trunks from the woodcutter store to the sawmill.

We have already entered all the required destinations. As we‘ve mentioned earlier, after stopping at the last destination in the schedule, the vehicle returns to the first destination.

Change Vehicle Route

You have surely already noticed that the vehicle route between one destination and the next is represented by a red line. This has practically no meaning in our simple example with only one track between two stations.

However, the more complex your transport network gets, especially when you start including switches, the more we recommend you to keep an eye on the route-display. Beachten Sie bitte, dass immer nur der Weg vom gewählten Ziel zur nächsten Station angezeigt wird. Sie sehen also niemals die komplette Route.

In our example, a horse would not be strong enough. So we‘ll simply deploy two horses in a harnessed team.

Unsere Pferde wissen jetzt also, welchen Weg sie nehmen sollen. Aber wir müssen noch festlegen, welche Produkte Sie transportieren sollen. Denn nur so zum Spaß wollen wir sie natürlich nicht auf den Weg schicken.

Click on a destination in the schedule to see which route a vehicle is running on. The red line will now show you the vehicle‘s route from the selected destination to the next destination in the schedule.

You will see an additional symbol above all the switches on the route, offering alternative possibilities to reach the destination. Click on this symbol to shift the switch. Then the vehicle will take an alternative route.

Please keep in mind that the red line only represents the route between the selected destination and the next train station. Therefore, you will never see the whole route.

Ok, so now our horses know where they have to go. But we still have to determine which products they‘re supposed to transport. We don‘t want to send them off on their journey for nothing, right?

What does it mean? It‘s easy! We‘ve determined (in the schedule), that the vehicle will load one wagonload of tree trunks every time it stops at this station. Accordingly, the little boxes represent loading units. When dealing with trains, one little box represents one wagon/railway carriage.

Depending on the type of vehicle, you can transport up to 64 wagonloads. Although you can only see 16 loading boxes, you can use the scrollbar to scroll through the section. Thus, all 64 loading boxes are available to you.

Of course you can always remove symbols from the schedule. Click on the respective loading box. Now click on the arrow button pointing to the right.

Back to our example. At the first station we have determined tree trunks are the product. Therefore, the vehicle will load tree trunks the next time it stops at the woodcutter store. We still have not determined a product for the second station. That means the vehicle is supposed to unload here. Thus, the tree trunks are unloaded at the sawmill and the train returns to the first station with empty wagons.

Load and Unload Goods

If you have already entered the destinations then you surely noticed that the right side of the schedule suddenly changed. Now you cannot see any vehicles, but instead a list of goods to be transported.

You can see all the goods that can be transported, available within the range of the stations. To make this section of the game clearer, we decided not to display all the products you cannot transport in the first place (because there is no industry located in the catchment area of the station, or perhaps because these products are currently not available on the map).

Let‘s get back to our example. We want to transport tree trunks form the first station to the second station.

Click on the symbol for tree trunks on the right hand side. Now you have selected the desired product. To include it in the schedule, simply click on the arrow

button pointing to the left, above the products list.

Now a symbol for tree trunks will appear in the first loading box of the first destination.

Let‘s take a look at a more difficult example for a minute. This is what another schedule could look like:

Station Woodcutter store - 8 loads tree trunks Station Sawmill - 4 loads tree trunks, 2 loads boards Station Paperworks - 2 loads boards

Station Carpentry - no load

What would the train in this example do? Let‘s take a look. It‘s really not that difficult. The train loads 8 wagons with tree trunks at the woodcutter store station. At the sawmill, 4 wagons are

remain loaded. In addition, 2 wagons are loaded with boards. The other 4 wagons with tree trunks are unloaded at the paperworks. The 2 wagons with the boards are brought to the carpentry where they are also unloaded. Now the empty train returns to the woodcutter store.

unloaded, the other 4 wagons

Passenger and Postal Transport

Dealing with passengers and mail is slightly different than dealing with goods. Passengers and mail must be delivered to certain destinations. But we‘ll go into that later on.

For now, all you need to know is that you have the possibility to transport passengers and mail as well. However, in every station, the number of passenger and mail wagons attached is automatically determined by the number of wagons you decided for the first station. Therefore, it is not possible to attach ten passenger wagons at the first station and then attach additional five passenger wagons at the next station.

Certain types of trains have a fixed quantity of wagons. This number cannot be changed in the schedule. Because these trains also only transport passengers, you needn‘t determine the load yourself in this case.

Vehicle Load

Always keep an eye on the load information while inserting products. The load information can be found above the load boxes. It shows how fast the vehicle can run with the current load and the max. load.

Avoid loads above 100%. That would mean the vehicle does not only run considerably slower, but it will also break down much faster.

Nonetheless, if you do decide to run overloaded vehicles, then make sure the distances between the repair shops are not too large.

By moving your mouse cursor over a vehicle you can see up-to-date information regarding the vehicle, such as the current condition, water level, speed and current destination.

Delete a Station in the Schedule

You cannot only remove loads, but also whole stations from the schedule. Simply click on the „Delete Station“ button next to the desired station.

Insert Station

To insert a third destination between two existing destinations, simply click on the first destination and then click on the desired station on the game map. This station will now be inserted in the schedule between the other two destinations.

Wait for Full Load

Wait Till Fully Unloaded

Click on the „Wait till unloaded“ button next to the respective station

if you would like let a vehicle wait in the station until it is fully unloaded.

Wait in Station

You can also make a vehicle stop and wait for new commands in a certain station. Simply click on the „Wait in Station“ button. The vehicle will now stop and remain in this station until you approve the vehicle to run again.

Confirm Schedule

Once you have made all the settings, you have to confirm the schedule. Then it becomes valid. Click on the „OK“ button to confirm the schedule.

Cancel Schedule Changes

In case you don‘t want to use the schedule at all, then click on the „Cancel“ button. If it was an existing schedule, all new changes you made are discarded. If it was a new schedule, the whole schedule will be discarded.

Change Schedule

Of course you can always make changes to your existing schedules. You have two possibilities.

Close all open menus and click on a specific vehicle on the game map. The schedule for this vehicle automatically appears. Now you can make the desired changes.

However, you can also open the route list and select the desired route. Now click on the „Change Schedule“ button. The schedule appears and you can make the desired changes.

Rename Route

You‘ll often notice that it makes sense to wait at one station until all products have been loaded. If you want this to be general practice, simply click on the „Wait till full“ button next to the respective station.

Every new schedule automatically receives its own name. Of course you also have the possibility to name your schedule. Click on the name field and enter the desired name.

You can rename schedules at any time during the game.

Clone Route

An extremely helpful and comfortable function is the clone route (or schedule) function. You‘ll hardly ever need this function for trains, but it is extremely helpful for horses and trucks.

You want to deploy several trucks with the same schedule on one route? Easy as pie! Create a schedule for the first truck. Confirm the schedule. Now open the schedule for the truck again by clicking on the vehicle on the game map or by selecting it from the route list and clicking on the „Change Schedule“ button.

Now click on the „Clone Vehicle“ button in the schedule for the truck. With that you have already created a new schedule for an additional truck. Confirm this schedule with the „OK“ button or by clicking the „Clone Vehicle“ button once again.

You can continue cloning schedules until there are no more vehicles available in the depot.

Am I Earning Anything?

Aside from building routes, you will also spend a lot of time dealing with management matters and searching for new possibilities to make money. TransportGiant offers a few helpful devices for this purpose, which we would like to introduce.

Route List

ZAt the beginning of the game it is still fairly easy to manage all your vehicles. All you really have to do is observe the vehicles in the stations. If you see green numbers, then everything is ok. Red numbers mean the utility costs have gone above what you earn, or nothing is delivered to this station, according to the schedule.

When you‘re dealing with several vehicles though, things get to be a bit more complicated. That‘s why you have route lists. To open a route list, click on the „Route list“ button and select the type of vehicle you desire.

In the list, all routes (and/or schedules) are shown in alphabetical order. Routes with the same name are combined to a separate list, for matters of better management. Click on the plus-sign in the little button to expand the list. You can see the name of each route - which is, by the way, a perfect way to clearly sort your routes - as well as your current income since the beginning of the year, the annual income from last year, and total income since the route was established. In addition, you can also see the vehicles that run on the route.

By clicking on a route in the route list you can select the route. Then click on the „GoTo“ button. Now the game environment is automatically centered on that vehicle.

You can also open the schedule for a specific route directly from this list. Again, simply select the desired route and then click on the „Schedule“ button. In case you no longer require a certain route, select the route and then click on the „Discard Route“ button. But be careful: you cannot undo this type of action.

Building List

So you‘ve already found a woodcutter store, but you are still looking for a sawmill? Sure, go ahead and search the whole map. Or you can just use the building list.

Click on the „Building List“ button, and then click on the „Industry“ button. A list of all available indus-

tries will appear. These industries are listed in alphabetical order. Now look for the entry for ‚sawmills‘ in the list. Click on the „GoTo“ button and the game environment is automatically centered on that building. By following these steps you can also search for cities, attractions and any kind of terminal.

Account Balance

Click on the „Statistics“ button and then select „Balance“ for an overview of your income and your expenses. This window shows an overview of all your expenses and income.

The most interesting number is down at the bottom. That is your total profit or loss.

Income-Outgo-Diagram

Click on the „Statistics“ button and select the „Income-OutgoDiagram“. Now you have a quick overview, whether the clock is ticking for or against your business. At the beginning of the game, your expenses will exceed your income by far. However, after a few years you should be making more than what you‘re spending.

Company Info

The company info menu offers a general overview of the total value of your company, the number of vehicles and terminals you own as well as the number of passengers you transport per year (this is a very important value for certain missions!). Click on „Statistics“ and then on „Info“.

You can read through the same information concerning all competing companies. Simply click on the company logos at the top.

Purchase Competitors

In the company info menu you can also purchase competing companies. If the company is for sale, the price of purchase will be displayed in the window.

Read Old Messages

You closed a message too quickly? Now you can‘t remember which factory was offering lower freight rates? Don‘t worry, you can read up on all that in peace later on.

Click on the „News“ button and select „Messages“. Now

you can see a list of the titles of all the messages you have

received till now. Click on the desired title and then click on the „Show vehicle or event“ button. At once, the old news message appears and you can read through everything once again in peace and quiet.

Vehicle Info

You would like to know what condition a specific vehicle is currently in. Then simply move your mouse cursor over the desired vehicle in the game environment. Perhaps you should consider using a slower game speed while checking the vehicle info.

As long as you hold the mouse cursor over the vehicle, a tool-tip will appear, showing information about the vehicle.

Up on top you see the name of the route. Underneath you can see where the vehicle is coming from and where its next destination is.

An interesting factor is the current speed in comparison to the max. speed. If the vehicle is overloaded, it will not be able to reach max. speed. How much load is on the vehicle is also displayed in the tool-tip.

In the next line you see what type of vehicle it is, the age, its current condition and the water level (only for steamers).

Building Info

It‘s just like dealing with vehicles. Simply move your mouse cursor over the desired building in the game environment for closer information.

Click on the „Purchase“ button if you are sure you want to buy the

company.

In the tool-tip you see the name of the building and its location.

Right underneath you see what the building produces. The min. monthly production shows how many wagonloads the building produces per month, without the required supply of raw materials. You can only reach the max. level of monthly production when the necessary raw materials are supplied.

Further down you see how many wagonloads you have already picked up this month.

In case the building requires raw materials, this tool-tip will show you which raw materials you require in specific. If you‘re not playing in easy-mode you will have to keep in mind that industries do not accept just any amount of raw materials per month.

City Info

Move your mouse cursor over a city for closer information about this city.

The tool-tip shows the name of the city and the population.

However, much more important is, which products the city needs and how many. The tool-tip also provides this information. The numbers always stand for the number of wagonloads per month. The first number shows how many wagonloads you have delivered this month; the second stands for the max. number of wagonloads you can deliver.

The cities grow, and in the course of time they will need more and different products. Therefore, it‘s always good to keep an eye on the cities.

Passenger Transport

Passenger transport is another good way to make money. But keep in mind, passengers don‘t want to go just anywhere. Passengers have a fixed idea of where they want to go, and if you can‘t reach these destinations, then there‘s no way in the world any one of them would even consider taking a train - even if it‘s the most modern luxury tram in the world.

The city info will also show you where the passengers want to go. You can find detailed information concerning the number of passengers who want to leave the city and travel to other cities.

Schedules for passenger trains may also include several stations. Each passenger will stay in the train until he/she has reached his/her final destination. Of course this also applies to all other means of transportation.

Nevertheless, passengers cannot switch trains. If the cannot reach their desired destination directly, they will stay at home.

Postal Transport

The criteria and rules for transport of mail are the same as the rules and criteria that apply for passenger transport. For more information, please read the respective chapter.

Freight Rates

No freight rates, no income. Every product in the game brings in different freight rates. Generally, you can reckon that you will make less profit with raw materials than with processed products.

Like we said at the beginning: you don‘t purchase the products you transport. Therefore, you don‘t spend money for them. And you also do not sell the products. What you get is the reward for transporting them.

The obtained freight rate depends on the distance you transported a product. But now please don‘t think you have to cover the longest distances to make a lot of money. The price is calculated according to the shortest possible connection between two locations. That means, if your vehicles take the long way round, it will surely have negative influence on your income.

The obtained freight rate also depends on how quickly you transport a product. For this reason the average speed you reached is calculated. You‘ll have to be really fast for certain products, so you can obtain a decent price. You can emanate from the fact that iron ore is hardly perishable, raw materials do not have to be delivered very quickly. Perishable goods, especially passengers or mail, must be delivered to their destinations as quickly as possible.

Therefore, it is surely possible that you will obtain better prices on shorter routes with a slower, but yet fast-accelerating vehicle than with a vehicle that may be fast, but takes a very long time to reach its max. speed.

Additional Information

Unfortunately, we couldn‘t include all the hints and tricks we have for you in this short manual. So take a look at official game homepage! http: //www.transportgiant.com

You can find tons of additional hints and tricks for TransportGiant on the homepage. In addition, you can also gain access to a discussion forum, where you can exchange opinions and ideas about the game with other players, or get direct support from the developers!

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



Corn

Cotton

Tabacco

Olives

Hop

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





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400

650

900

1150

1400

620 520 420 320 220 120

Money

mph

Whisky

Eggs

Milk Hogs Wool

400

650

900

1150

1400

620 520 420 320 220 120

Money

mph

Aluminium

Copper sheet

Paper

Planks

Steel

600

850

1100

1350

1600

620 520 420 320 220 120

Money

mph

Bricks

Cenment

Chemicals

Gasoline

Jewelr

400

650

900

1150

1400

620 520 420 320 220 120

Money

mph

Beer Rum

Coffee

Fish

Ice

400

700

1000

1300

1600

620 520 420 320 220 120

Money

mph

Cheese

Meat

Textiles

Cigars

Olive oil

400

700

1000

1300

1600

620 520 420 320 220 120

Money

mph

Wooden houses

Furniture

Building materials

Tools

Food

400

700

1000

1300

1600

620 520 420 320 220 120

Money

mph

Fertilizer

Paint

Elektro

Household

appliances

Newspaper

400

1050

1700

350

000

620 520 420 320 220 120

Money

mph

Post

Passenger

Garbage

Credits

Project Lead and Game Design

Hans Schilcher

Programming

Dieter Bernauer-Schilcher (Lead) Christian Charbula Rafael Ubl Markus Zeller

Graphics

Martina Lindenmayr Hans Schilcher

3D-Graphic

Joe Reitinger (Lead) Thomas Egelkraut Jürgen Wagner Martin Weinacht

Leveldesign

Thomas Egelkraut Joe Reitinger Hans Schilcher Jürgen Wagner

QA, Ebensee

Jürgen Maier

Music and Sound Effects

SmartSound Joe Reitinger Hans Schilcher

Project Controlling

Sabine Pendl

Production Assistance

Petra Magritzer

JoWooD Productions Software AG

Director Product Management

Robert Al-Yazdi

Marketing Director

Gerald Kossaer

Leo Jackstaedt Tamara Berger

International Localisation Manager

Nikolaus Gregorcic

Community Management

Marc „Plex“ Olbertz

Graphic Artist

Jaqueline Zweck

International Security & Protection Manager

Gerhard Neuhofer

International QA, Purchasing & Production Director

Fritz Neuhofer

Hochwimmer, Andreas Kainer, Christian Kargl, Stefan Klaschka, Alexander Kumer, Rudolf Kussberger, Hedwig Matl, Mario Moser, Harald Ploder, Mihai Popescu, Stephan Radosevic, Eveline Rinesch, Walter Schmiedhofer, Gerald Schurl, Dagmar Tiefenbacher, Harald Fritz, Rene Kreuzbichler, Christian Pohlhammer, Peter Schicker, Anton Seicarescu, Griesser Sascha, Stefan BERNHART, Stefan Seicarescu, Mark Höflechner, Markus Griehsebner, Harald Egger, Florian Kriz, Peter Hirschler, Sascha Leitner, Markus Reiter, Martin Schwarzl, Gerald Sailer, Andreas Köberl, Dominik Bachner, Stefan Reitmaier, David Brucher, Michael Steiner, Markus Sölkner, Hannes Helmhart, Daniela Concin

Thanks to MSI (www.msi.com.tw) and Integris (www.integris.at) for providing the following PC-systems to our QA for game testing purposes:

“MSI Mega PC” “Integris Genesis Top”

Leadtester

Norbert Landertshamer Robert Hernler Reinhard Gollowitsch

Lead Assistance

Roland Gaal

Tester

Jörg Berger, Markus Brucher, Martin Bucher, Benedikt Ebli, Katharina Grassegger, Georg Grieshofer, Petra Grossegger, Oliver Helmhart, Barbara

Index

Installation ……………………………………………………………………………… 5 Game start ……………………………………………………………………………… 5 Technical information …………………………………………………………………… 5 Technical support and customer service …………………………………………… 6 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………… 6 Missions ………………………………………………………………………………… 7

Australia campaign …………………………………………………………………… 7 Requirement to win: annual turnover ……………………………………………… 7 Requirement to win: total turnover ………………………………………………… 8

Changes in comparison to the main game ………………………………………… 8

Automatic vehicle replacement …………………………………………………… 8 Airplanes ……………………………………………………………………………… 8 Vehicle income………………………………………………………………………… 9

Signals …………………………………………………………………………………… 9

Preface ………………………………………………………………………………… 9 Selecting signals for the game……………………………………………………… 9 Building signals ……………………………………………………………………… 10 Destruct signals ……………………………………………………………………… 10 Signals for stations …………………………………………………………………… 10 Signal directions ……………………………………………………………………… 10 Block signals ………………………………………………………………………… 10 Main signals …………………………………………………………………………… 10

Route with block signals ……………………………………………………………… 12 Signals and switches …………………………………………………………………… 13

Safe distance ………………………………………………………………………… 14

JoWooD Productions Software AG

Technologiepark 4a,

A-8786 Rottenmann, Austria

Homepage „Transport Gigant”: www.transportgiant.com

Homepage JoWooD: www.jowood.com

Technologiepark 4a, A-8786 Rottenmann, Austria.

Safety information

About Photosensitive Seizures

Game start

To start the game, double-click on the TransportGiant icon on your desktop.

Of course you can also call the game from the Windows start menu. Please always make sure that the TransportGiant DVD is inserted into your

D-Rom drive while you are starting the game.

Technical information

We suggest closing all other running applications and background programs prior to starting the game.

Some screen savers make cause problems with the images in the game. In case this, we suggest disabling your screen saver before you start the game.

You may switch between other applications during game play. However, after doing so, certain graphics cards may cause problems with the graphics display during the game. The best thing to do is quit the game if you would like to work with other programs.

If you experience problems with the display of the images in the game, make sure that your graphics card driver is up to date. You can download

the latest version of your graphics card driver from the website of your graphics card manufacturer.

Technical support and customer service

Are you are experiencing technical problems while installing the software or playing the game? Our hotline employees will be glad to help!

Sold Out Software

E-mail: support@sold-out.co.uk Phone: +44 (0) 845 234 4250 Fax: +44 (0) 845 234 4243

http://www.sold-out.co.u

Introduction

Who is not fascinated by the appeal of the smallest continent or the largest island of the world? The flora and faunae of the continent is not the only interesting thing Australia has to offer. The transportation system also plays by its own rules, thus offering respective exotic facades. For example, did you know that the Australian railroad network was not truly completely enclosed until after 1980? At that time, the whole network was not really even connected. Therefore, trains in particular do not play the same role throughout Australia. While a well-situated and widespread railroad system can be found in the highly populated areas of the country, other parts have never been connected to the network. In the best case you might see a milelong train pulling itself slowly through the plains, transporting an enormous amount of iron ore. In that case, it‘s not unusual to have to spend up to 15 minutes at a railway crossing. And if you ever come across one of these trains, please stop and wait. These monsters are not going to pull the brakes

- no matter what‘s in the way. Australia‘s trains are mainly constructed to transport goods. Passenger transport hardly plays a role, other than a few suburban routes. As a result, Australia does not have a true high-speed route, like in Europe or the USA. But what is just as impressive as the iron ore trains and popular throughout the world? - The road trains. True monsters on the road. Ranging up to over 50 meters in length, these „trains“ have little in common with the trucks we usually use. Even today, these trucks play the main role in the transportation business in certain regions. Especially tourists enjoy the tickling anxiety that comes up when they try to pass these vehicles - a dangerous thing to do. In fact, it‘s probably better to get off the road completely when you hear the sound of the foghorn, announcing another heavy load of iron ore that‘s being transported in up to 5 trailers. Or what would you think, when the driver of the accompanying vehicle yells out to you in a cool voice: „Hey buddy, you better pull off the road if you don‘t want to be killed!“?

Of course we can‘t leave out the important industrial branches of Australia. For example, you can also transport ostrich eggs, kiwis, kangaroo meat or even opals.

We hope we‘ve been able to capture a bit of the flair of this amazing continent and now, before we start, we‘d like to thank you for purchasing this add-on.

Have fun down under!

Missions

Australia campaign

This add-on offers you the possibility to play a new campaign with 12 new missions, altogether. The missions are based on true events in Australian history, from the first gold rush, the first crossing of the continent to finishing the railroad network, shortly before the start of the new millennium. Select the Australia campaign as usual from the now extended campaign menu.

Requirement to win: annual turnover

We‘d like to introduce a new requirement to win the missions: your annual turnover. It may sound complicated, but it‘s really simple. Annual turnover is the sum of all your income in one year. Your expenses are not taken into consideration for this value. Therefore, in these missions you have the chance to try to raise your income until the very last minute. Even if you have nothing left after expenses. You can reach your annual turnover during any desired year. As soon as you‘ve reached the required annual turnover, you have won the mission. Therefore, you can win these missions, even before the time limit is exceeded. You can view your current annual turnover in the

menu „Mission goal“. Or in your balance sheet, under „Total income“. Your balance sheet also shows you the current annual turnover in comparison to your annual turnover from the previous year, allowing you to see if you are making positive or negative progress.

Requirement to win: total turnover

Another new requirement to win is your total turnover. Just like in the annual turnover, only your income is calculated here. However, this time your total income since the beginning of the mission is calculated. In these missions you do not have to have any funds left after expenses - only your turnover counts. And you can try to raise your turnover until the very end of the time limit, without having to worry about expenses.

Changes in comparison to the main game

Automatic vehicle replacement

You now have the possibility to automatically and immediately replace vehicles in case they break down. Activate this option in the menu „Options“ during a game. You can also deactivate this option at any point in time. Broken vehicles are always replaced by vehicles of the same type. Even if the required type of vehicle is no longer available on the market, your fleet manager will find the respective sources. Of course, if you already have the required vehicle in your fleet, that vehicle will be favored.

Comfortable loading

You will often experience situations, where you will want to or you must load a long train with a large amount of the same goods, for example. Till now you had to click on the arrow button once for every product you wanted to load, now this process can be complete much easier and quicker. Simply select the last slot to be loaded in the schedule. Select the desired product and press and hold the Enter key on your keyboard while you click on the arrow button. Now the schedule will be filled with this product, from left to right until you have either reached the first slot or a slot that has already been assigned with a product. Of course you can also apply this method to delete products from the schedule.

Airplanes

The control tower operators have learned a lot since the main version of the game - they now behave like a true team of control tower operators would behave in reality. The planes in the main program always had first priority. That constantly led to tremendous waiting times for airplanes, which they had to spend wastefully circling the airport until they received a landing permission. The priority system has now been changed. Airplanes in the air have absolute priority in comparison to planes on the ground. As soon as an airplane reaches its position for approach, a control tower operator enters the plane into a waiting list. As long as planes in the air are in the

waiting list and parking spaces are available, other planes on the ground may not take off. This will assure that the waiting lists remain fairly short. In addition, the motional leeway around the airport is increased. Thus, you can move a plane to its parking space and at the same time, you can send another plane to the runway.

Vehicle income

You can now view the total amount of income for a certain vehicle by looking at the respective vehicle tooltip. Move the mouse pointer over the vehicle to activate the tooltip.

Signals

Preface

Signals are a very complex topic, often discussed and dealt with by many people in the true world of railway networking. Trains can only function properly and without accidents with the help of signals. But signals alone will not guarantee a smooth flow or safety and security. Without the assistance from human logistics, the signal system would not prevent deadlocks or downtimes.

Signals are not an easy topic to deal with, not even in „Transport Giant“. We suggest only pro players use this option.

Signals are not a must in „Transport Giant“, but instead they are an enhancement. They are not required to earn record-breaking amounts of money nor are they required to build up a complex transportation system!

The signals in the game behave according to their own rules. These rules are necessary as the human control factor cannot be calculated and integrated. You must follow these specific rules. Please keep in mind that you cannot construct a functioning network/system if it does not correspond to these rules.

In addition, signals obviously require additional computer-memory time. Therefore, you should be running the program on a respectively wellequipped computer system.

Selecting signals for the game

You may select whether you want to use signals during the game in the menu „Level of difficulty“ when you start a new endless map or a new mission. You cannot change this option for games you have already saved. That means if you start a game without signals you may not change this option for that game.

Building signals

Build signals via the same menu as tracks or stations. Select the desired symbol in the menu. Now you may add as many signals as you want in the game environment. The signals are placed over tracks.

Destruct signals

Select the symbol for „Destruct“ from the menu „Build tracks“. Now you can remove signals. Make sure you only remove the signal and not the surrounding tracks by only clicking on the field on which the signal is located.

Examples:

Section with main signals

Signals for stations

Stations are always secured by means of main signals. These are placed automatically and cannot be removed!

Signal directions

To make the system understandable for Transport Giant newbies, signals are always responsible for both directions. If you are dealing with wing or form signals, the upper wing is always responsible for the direction from down to up (from the perspective of the player and as seen on the screen); the lower wing is responsible for the opposite direction.

Block signals

Block signals are a type of signal that is very easy to understand. The part of a route that is located between two block signals is always blocked for any following, crossing or confronting traffic, as soon as a vehicle enters that block section of the route.

Block signals mainly serve to increase traffic on single-track routes in one (!) direction. More information can be found further below.

Main signals

Main signals are more „intelligent“ than block signals. However, they are also a bit more difficult to understand. Main signal sections serve as higherranking block sections between two neighboring main signals. Block signals can be positioned within this section, serving as secondary blocks.

These signals block a blocked section the same way block signals do. However, if you have positioned additional block signals, then the main signals will operate according to the traveling direction of the vehicle that is currently in the block. Thus, that section is blocked for a certain direction of traffic. You may travel on free secondary sections in the same direction, but not in the opposite direction.

Two stations are secured through main signals (automatically). As soon as a train approaches the route, that whole section is blocked. Thus, it is impossible to run several trains in this section at the same time. Additional trains must remain in the station until the route is clear.

Connected route with several stations

The same rules as in the former example apply here. All stations are secured through main signals, thus creating a large block section. Again, only one train at the most is allowed to run on the empty route between the stations.

I.e., a route section also belongs to a block section, if it has been connected by means of switches.

Routes with passing sections

On this route, several trains are allowed to run at the same time. We can see a total of 4 block sections (1-4), secured through main signals.

If a train now leaves A, it will enter block section 1. This section is then blocked for all other trains. Another train leaves B in the direction of A, thus blocking block section 4.

The first train‘s route leads into block section 2. As soon as this train and all wagons has left block section 1, this section is then clear and available for a new train, and instead, block section 2 is now blocked.

The train must now wait until the second train has entered block section 3, thus making block section 4 available again.

Route with block signals

In this example you can see the function of block signals. The route is secured by means of main signals at the stations and block signals on the route in between. This constellation creates one large main section and three smaller block sections.

Now the train has arrived in block section 2. Of course this block section is now blocked. However, a train can now move from A into block section one. This is possible because the main signal knows that another block signal is securing the route between the train coming from A and the train ahead of the train coming from A.

Using this method, up to three trains can run on the route between A and B, in the same direction. However, only one train is allowed per block section.

The conclusion: when you use main signals to secure a route, only one train may run on that route between those stations, however if you place block signals as an additional method of securing the route, you can also run more than one train in one direction on that route.

Signals and switches

If you are using signals on switches you should always place the signal at the double-end. Otherwise the system will not work properly.

One train now leaves A in B‘s direction. The train is in block section 1. The whole main block section is now blocked. However, block section 2 is clear because there is currently no train in that section (secured through block signals). Nonetheless, nothing can happen in the opposite direction because the main block section is blocked (secured through main signals).

Signale sollten bei Weichen immer am doppelten Ende plaziert werden. Nur so wird das System wirklich funk tionieren.

This is correct

And this is wrong!

If you place the signals for switches incorrectly, a so-called deadlock may occur. The trains end up facing each other, one on each side of the signal, and nobody may continue.

Safe distance

A safe distance for trains has been integrated. This safe distance is approx. equivalent to the length of four wagons. I.e. the actual size of a train is 4 wagons longer than what the train has actually loaded.

Keep this in mind, particularly when you are in a passing section. A passing should always be at least as long as the longest train on the route, plus 4 wagons, to make sure the whole train fits between the securing signals. Otherwise it might happen that the (invisible) end of the train will block the signal behind the train!

Appendix

Freight rate tables

1617181920

Credits

Projektleitung und Spieldesign

Hans Schilcher

Programmierung

Dieter Bernauer-Schilcher (Lead) Christian Charbula Rafael Ubl Markus Zeller

Grafik

Martina Lindenmayr Hans Schilcher

3D-Grafik

Joe Reitinger (Lead) Thomas Egelkraut Jürgen Wagner Martin Weinacht

Leveldesign

Thomas Egelkraut Joe Reitinger Hans Schilcher Jürgen Wagner

Qualitätssicherung Ebensee

Jürgen Maier

Musik und Soundeffekte

SmartSound Joe Reitinger Hans Schilcher

Produktionsassistenz

Petra Magritzer

JoWooD Productions Software AG

Producer

Schilcher Johann

Director Product Management

Jan Wagner

Product Manager

Arnold Pötsch

Director International Marketing Management

Gerald Kossaer

International Marketing Management

Mario Baumann Marcel Uhlmann

Assistant International Marketing Management

Nicole Mühlbacher

International PR Management

Leo Jackstädt Tamara Berger

International Localisation Manager

Gennaro Giani Nikolaus Gregorcic

Creative Writer

Johann „Ivan“ Ertl

Lead Graphic Artist

Sabine Schmid

Graphic Artist

Jaqueline Zweck

International Security & Protection Manager

Gerhard Neuhofer

Int. Production & Purchasing Director

Fritz Neuhofer

Website Management

Martin Langbrugger Ernst Satzinger Johann Ertl

Community Management

Marc „Plex“ Olbertz

Sales

Volkmar Hadan Susanne Kania Georg Klotzberg Emmanuel Denis Richard Grantham

Financial Department

Sigurd Schöfl Barbara Stoiber

Legal Department

Matthias Schachner

QA Manager

Robert Hernler

Leadtesters

Stefan Seicarescu

Testers

Jörg Berger Markus Brucher Martin Bucher Uwe Drescher Benedikt Ebli Harald Fritz Katharina Grassegger Georg Grieshofer Petra Grossegger Anton Handl Oliver Helmhart Barbara Hochwimmer Andreas Kainer Christian Kargl

Stefan Klaschka Alexander Kumer Rudolf Kussberger Peter Lippusch Hedwig Matl Mario Moser Harald Ploder Mihai Popescu Stephan Radosevic Stefan Reitmaier Eveline Rinesch Walter Schmiedhofer Gerald Schurl Thomas Schwarzl Matthias Thurner Dagmar Tiefenbacher

Thanks to MSI (www.msi.com.tw) and Integris (www.integris.at) for providing the following PC-systems to our QA for game testing purposes:

“MSI Mega PC”

“Integris Genesis Top”

Games PC TRANSPORTGIANT User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual