Reply To: How To Play
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STARTING THE GAME
There are not many options. You can choose the difficulty level (no idea how they differ). You can enable or disable music and you (apparently, haven’t tried it yet) can disable train battles, which will then be done by the computer (maybe a good idea, given how terrible the battle are to control).
DEFAULT WAGONS
You start out with three functional wagons: The locomotive, where you can let the two dudes shovel coal into the boiler and set the speed at which you want the train to go. Everything else can be done from the map screen (enabled/disable breaks, set train direction). Oh, there’s also the whistle, which doesn’t to anything as far as I can tell except being cool 😀
The guy on the left will shovel Lignite into the oven, that stuff is both money and fuel. The right dude shovels Anthracite into the oven. That stuff burns longer and cannot be used as money. So, if you run out of that stuff you’ll literally burn money.
You can enter the engine controls by clicking the control panel in the back, next to the guy with the wheel. On these controls, only the lever on the top does something: Set the rate at which steam is used to move the pistons. There’s also a temperature view and a pressure gauge: When the pressure gets too high, your train will explode.
The third guy in the locomotive can control the train’s direction (by clicking the wheel) and the breaks (the lever right of him) and the whistle (chain on above the breaks on the roof).
Sometimes, spies find coal mines or other events: They will send you a letter which will appear on the tube on the left. Every of the primary wagons has such a tube.
The next starting wagon is the general’s quarters. Here you can enter the mini map (from which you can enter the main map screen by zooming in) and do spying stuff, which I haven’t tried so far.
The last one is your own quarters. Here you can commit suicide (yes, I know!), save the game and check your log book.
Another screen that is available right form the start is the map screen, where you can set the railroad switches, start and stop the train and set its direction (you have to set the speed from the locomotive though).
You can also speed up the game at any time by clicking the clock in the lower left corner.