Moving To Asia

On April 9, 2024, at 10:57 p.m., I gained an Achievement in my Transport Fever 2 game: “The Future is Now, Old Man.” In the game I was playing, it was April 9, 2024, at 10:57 p.m.

I played my successful European map into the 2030s.

The new vehicles stopped arriving in 2018. (That answers that question.)

My transport company was profitable. I was upgrading vehicles as they wore out. I was tweaking roads and rail as I saw a need for improvement. But I wasn’t growing much.

It was time to move on to an Asian theme.

In Transport Fever 2, there are three themes to choose from: Europe, USA, and Asia.

The highly customizable maps come in three biomes: Temperate, Dry, and Tropical.

The difference in the three themes is really the types of vehicles that you have available. The Asia theme, for instance, features vehicles from various Asian countries, including Russia.

The randomly generated towns are given names of cities from whichever theme you’ve chosen. But the towns all have that same look to them. (And since the names can be changed to whatever you want, the only real difference between the three themes is the vehicles. That’s a little disappointing.)

I tried a large Asian temperate map, and I failed. I was deeply in dept, unable to make a profit, and unable to afford to grow.

I tried a different Asian map, and failed. I tried again, and failed. I tried an American map, and failed. I tried another Asian map, and failed.

I learned from my failures: Start with a simple passenger rail line between two close cities. Go easy on the debt. Go easy on the expansions. Expand or pay off the loan only when it seems right to do so.

I started a new medium-sized Asian map. I kept regenerating the map until I found one with two cities close to each other.

I started in 1850.

I built a passenger route between Busan and Suzhou.

I built tolley lines in both cities, to bring people from their homes to jobs, shopping, and the train stations.

Then I resisted the temptation to expand too quickly.

There was a significant elevation change between Busan and Suzhou. The first train could barely handle it. Although it hit its top speed of 40 km/h at times, it also dropped to 12 km/h at times on the uphill climbs. But people still rode the slow train to get from one city to the other.

Eventually, my transport company made a profit. I upgraded the Busan-Suzhou train with more powerful locomotives when I could. I paid off parts of the $5,000,000 loan when I could. I built a cargo line to bring food to the restaurants of Busan.