OpenTTD – USA-Canada 4K Scenario P.3 – Expanding Networks with Coal, Oil & Goods, Ships, Airplanes

In Part 3, we add aircrafts and in addition, not only transport coal but also oil and goods in a hierarchical railway network. We transport oil from oil producers to an oil refinery. The USA is the largest oil producing country in the world. Oil rigs start to appear on water from the year 1960 onwards. Obviously, being on water, oil from oil rigs must be picked up via ships. Though ships have an extraordinarily high cargo capacity, they are very slow. We build docks at the nearest coastline and pick up the oil at the docks via trains. OpenTTD. Watch, learn, play by yourself and have fun! :-) -- Watch live at   / lightproton  

00:00 - Intro
07:09 - Gameplay

► The USA is the largest oil producing country in the world. In our session today, playing the USA-Canada 4K scenario, we will transport oil from oil producers to an oil refinery. Oil is produced by two types of primary industries in OpenTTD: First, onshore oil wells, producing oil on land and second, offshore oil rigs, which are constructed on water. -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History...

► Oil wells have the disadvantage, that they start to disappear from the year 1950 onwards. New oil wells will not spawn after 1950 and existing oil wells will operate until they run dry. Eventually, oil wells disappear from the map. On the contrary, oil rigs start to appear on water from the year 1960 onwards. Obviously, being on water, oil from oil rigs must be picked up via ships. -- https://wiki.openttd.org/en/Manual/Ba... -- https://wiki.openttd.org/en/Manual/Ba...

► Though ships have an extraordinarily high cargo capacity, they are very slow. Transporting long distances from oil rigs to the next oil refinery via ships can take a very long time. Income from transporting oil over water is rather low and it is challenging to keep ships alone profitable. We will improve the transport time and payments from transporting oil, by shortening the transport time of ships as much as possible. We will build docks at the nearest coastline and pick up the oil at the docks via trains. Trains are much faster and can also carry significant amounts of cargo. Using a hierarchical railway network with a mainline and sidelines, we still will be able to earn income from oil transport by transferring oil from ships to trains and transporting it a longer distance to a farer away oil refinery. -- https://wiki.openttd.org/en/Manual/Ships

► We will also engage into aviation, meaning passenger transport via airplanes. The three largest airlines on the world by passengers are situated in the USA. American Airlines is the largest airline worldwide. In OpenTTD, airplanes are good for initial money making when starting a new game. In contrast to using trains for initial money making, what we did, airplanes are easier to initially set up. Their infrastructure, which are only airports, is easy and quick to be setup. Airplanes travel very fast and therefore effectively carry passengers and mail to generate a significant income. -- https://wiki.openttdcoop.org/Game_Sta...

► To maximize income from primary industries, like coal mines and oil rigs, we will try to grow their production. We aim to increase the station rating due to two reasons. Firstly, more produced cargo will be loaded onto our vehicles. Secondly, production can be increased. With this approach to increase production and retrieve a higher share of produced cargo, we can use the existing infrastructure even better and transport more produced cargo as well as generate a higher income. -- https://wiki.openttd.org/en/Manual/Ga...

► The probability of a primary industry to grow its production increases with an at least good station rating, which means at least 60%. The station rating also directly translates into the amount of cargo which can be transported from the industry. There are many factors improving the station rating which you can find in the OpenTTD game manual. Some factors are easy to improve, others are quite fixed once the infrastructure and vehicles are selected. It always makes sense to assure that there is at any time at least one vehicle waiting to pick up cargo at a primary industry. Also, building a statue in the town of the station is an easy measure to increase the station rating if you have the necessary capital.

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