TRANSPORT TYCOON SEMI-FAQ
A FAQ for those who need more, more, more information and strategies about Transport Tycoon.

Part 6: Tips, Tricks, and Cheats

1. Bulldozing water
2. Bulldozing farmland
3. Tunnel cheat
4. Using the scenario editor
5. Playing the stock market

See also: The Game's AI: How do I beat it? for more tricks on sabotaging the competition.

Bulldozing water

Bulldozing water is usually very expensive. However, you can get around this. Build ship depots on the squares you want to bulldoze (or raise). Then bulldoze the depots and quickly hit `F1` to pause the game. If you don't pause, the water will rush into the squares you've just cleared. Now, unpause the game and buy the squares (build "signs" on them). You can't buy land in the regular version of TT so you'll have to very quickly raise the land. The water will never rush into land you've bought, so you'll be free to do what you want with it at your leisure.

Bulldozing farmland

Bulldozing the farmland in TTD is expensive. However, you can save some money if you build trees on the farmland, and then bulldoze the trees. Be careful, though, because bulldozing a lot of trees can lower the local authority's ratings of you.

Tunnel cheat

In the original TT, build a tunnel from one end of the map to the other. Your bank account should skyrocket. If you hold down `SHIFT` when you build the tunnel, TT will tell you that the cost of the tunnel is negative! This cheat only seems to work in the very first version of TT. This really isn't a cheat, however, it's a bug in the way TT handles numbers.

Using scenario editor

You can use the scenario editor to edit your saved games. Simply rename the game from `WHATEVER.SV1` to `WHATEVER.SV0`. Then fire up TT, open the scenario editor, and load in your game. You can now build new towns, create and destroy large areas of land, build/destroy industries, and more without costing you a single dime! While you are doing that, your vehicles still run, yielding money that is added to your account. However, as far as the game is concerned, the date is frozen. When you are done fiddling, exit to DOS and rename the file back to `*.SV1`.

One note of caution. Because the game wasn't designed to do this, odd things can happen. For instance, if you delete a town, the roads and town sign will be deleted, but the buildings will remain. The buildings will then be a part of the nearest town. This looks rather odd, and you can't undo it. So, it may be wise to make a backup of your game while doing this just in case something odd happens.

Editing the scenarios on the TTD CD-ROM

The TT Deluxe CD-ROM comes with several pre-built scenarios. TTD won't let you load these into the Scenario Editor, but you actually can. First, find the scenario you're interested in on the CD. They have a `.SS0` (for scenarios) or a `.SS1` (for saved games) extension. Use a file viewer or hex editor to read the files. The scenario's name is the first thing stored in the file. Pick out the one you want and copy it to your TTD directory. Rename the file so it will have a `.SV0` extension. Now, when you fire up TTD's scenario editor, you'll be able to load and edit the scenario.

Playing the Stock Market

TT Deluxe lets you invest in rival companies in 25% increments. This may not seem like a big deal, but when used carefully, this feature can make you a fortune. Like the stock market, the key rule is to "buy low, sell high." If you buy 75% stock in a rival when the price is low and sell when the price peaks, you can make thousands of dollars with little or no effort.

Unlike the stock market, you can usually predict when the rival's net worth will rise or fall ahead of time. Keep the following rules in mind:

If the rival...

1. ...Builds stations, the net worth will drop. If the company builds a large airport, for example, the net worth could drop $50,000 or more (the exact value depends on the date and difficulty settings)
2. ...Builds (or bulldozes) rail lines while the trying to connect its stations, the net worth doesn't change much.
3. ...Buys vehicles, the net worth will jump. However, as the vehicle's value starts to decline over time, so will the net worth.
4. ...Sells vehicles and bulldozes stations, the net worth will drop.
5. ...Takes out a loan, the net worth will rise by the amount of the loan (usually $100,000 at a time). See below to predict when this will happen.
6. ...Repays a loan, the net worth will drop the corresponding amount.
7. ...Receives income, the net worth will, not surprisingly, rise.
8. ...Goes bankrupt or is sold to another company, you lose your investment. However, if the rival's company screen is displayed when it goes bankrupt, you'll either get rich or have to reboot.

New company is started; how to take advantage

Let's assume a new company is launched and starts construction near Foobar City. Watch their construction progress. If the rival is building a rail or road line, wait until it is nearly completed and then invest 75% in that company. When the tracks or roads are finished, the rival will buy new vehicles for that route and its net worth will jump. Sell the stock and then count your loot! This doesn't work well for airplanes, however, as the rival builds the airports and planes in the same instant, preventing you from investing.

Next, the rival will probably take out a larger loan. If the rival has already borrowed the maximum, then you can forget about investing in it. However, if the rival can still borrow more money, it probably will. Read this carefully: The rival won't borrow more money until the first day of the second quarter after it was started. So, if Foobar Transport is started on January 1st (1st quarter), it will borrow on July 1st (3rd quarter, two quarters later). If Foobar Transport is launched on June 30th (last day of the second quarter), it will borrow on October 1st (first day of the 4th quarter, two quarters later). This is hard to explain, but if you'll observe the habits of a few different rivals, you should be able to pick up on this pattern.

Figure out the date when the rival will borrow, and invest 75% in it on the day before. If all goes well, the rival's net worth will jump by $100,000 or more. Don't sell your stock just yet, however, as the rival's stock may continue to rise. When the rival borrows $100,000, it will usually start construction on another project. It will build, build, build and then buy more vehicles. The net worth will jump again! If the rival's money runs low, it may borrow some more money, causing the net worth to jump even more. Eventually, however, the company will stop borrowing money and will put a halt to new construction. At this point, sell your stock because the rival's value will start to decline.

Beware, if the stupid AI builds two stations that can't be connected (i.e. two train stations with a huge city in between them and no hope of bypassing it), don't invest! The rival's net worth only rises when it successfully completes construction and buys new vehicles. If the rival has to give up, the net worth will drop. Since the AI is quite stupid, this can happen frequently. Keep an eye out.

Playing the stock market can yield huge incomes, even before you build your first train. If done successfully, you can pay off your loan with money to spare. Playing the stock market is harder when you have fewer opponents and when the maximum loan is low. If you try this when you have 7 rivals and a maximum loan of $1,000,000, you should make quite a killing!

For a real challenge, try to play an entire game by only playing stock market -- don't build anything! If the difficulty settings are set up right, this could probably be accomplished. I haven't yet had a chance to try this.

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This page was last updated on December 16, 1998.