Simutrans is, as the name suggests, a transportation simulation. You build infrastructure which allows to transport goods between the various industries and towns. Passengers need transport to and from work, between cities, and to tourists attractions. Raw materials need to be transported to factories, where they can be refined and later delivered to the consumers in the city.

There is no set goal. You can try to become as rich as possible, you can try to connect everything your map offers, or you pick some other goal. But there is no end to the game - even if you reach the year 2999, while time will stop, the game won't. However, no matter what goal you set for yourself, you will transport stuff somehow.

Before you can start, you need to have some basic knowledge about industrial chains in this game.
There are some factories in this game which produce goods, such as mines and farms - they only have "Production". There are some factories that accept these goods and refine them, such as mills - those have both "Production" and "Consumption". And then there are some factories which only consume goods, but don't create anything (or only electricity), such as stores and power plants - those only have "Consumption".

If one factory produces something another consumes, they are linked, because you as the player will try to transport that good from the producer to the consumer. Since Refiners are linked to both Producers and Consumers, they link to both, and many links form a chain.

Why is that important? Because as the player, you always have to transport goods along the whole chain, since otherwise, factories will stop producing. To understand that a bit better, let's have a look at the contents of a factory info window.

A) The name of the factory. You can rename them, eg. to brand names, for easier differentiation.

B) The base production per month. If you deliver all goods this factory consumes and don't "boost" production, you will get 700 units per month out of this paper mill.

C) A list of goods produced in this factory. A paper mill produces paper, which is classified as "deliverables". The percentage at the end is relative to the production value in B, so yes - it's 700 units of paper. The two numbers state how big the storage for that good is, and how filled this storage is. As you can see, it's almost filled up. This is because the chain is not complete, and the paper is not yet transported to the printing works.

D) A list of goods consumed in this factory. Since it's not a 100% but lower, you know that not each unit of wood you deliver to the paper mill will be turned into exactly one unit of paper. Consumption lists 3 numbers. Again, the first one is what's currently in storage at this factory, and the last one is the storage size. The number inbetween shows how much wood is already in transit to this factory. This wood may be in a train, a station or even in the tree plantations storage, but it's reserved for this paper mill and will arrive there eventually.

E, F) Consumers and Suppliers list all factories that consume whats produced in this factory or produce whats needed in this factory, and where a contract exists.

G) The list of cities workers of this factory live. This becomes relevant once you build a pax network.

H) A list of all stops connected to this factory.

You might already have thought so: Yes, since the paper storage is (almost) full, this paper mill won't produce any more paper, and instead the lumber will just be stored in this factory. After a while, the lumber storage will be filled up, and if that happens, no more wood will be sent from the tree plantation, and you won't have anything to transport anymore. In order for your wood transportation to run on, you have to connect to another factory that consumes paper. Of course, the printing works will run full as well, and this time, connecting to Publishing company won't be enough, since the books can't even be produced without chemicals from a refinery, which needs crude oil from a oil rig or oil field. You will have to complete the chain in order to avoid overfilling the storage.

However, you also have to look at the contracts. Not every printing works on the map would accept paper from this paper mill, only those listed. If you played other games of this genre, this might be strange to you, but there is a simple explaination.
You are a transportation company. You do not buy and sell goods at companies, you only deliver them and earn a transportation fee. Thus, you don't care about the qualities of the goods you carry, and only see "books". However, there are many different books, and if someone ordered some childs book, they would be quite upset to receive erotic novels instead. Thus, even though you don't care and don't know the specifics, every good needs to go to it's predefined destination, even if it means transporting coal from A to B and other coal from B to A.


Once you get used to this, it's not too difficult anymore, and you will miss this effect in other games. But for starters, keep it simple and pick a chain with only one link, like coal mine to power plant. On big maps it's easiest to find a factory via the factory list in the lists-menu. Remember, you can rename factories, and they will show with the given name in this list.

However, for starters you also want to find short routes you can build without much of a hassle. This is easiest to find via the map. Click on Selections and choose "Factories", and all factories will appear bigger on the map. If you move your mouse over a factory, you can see contracted consumers. Press Control, and you see all contracted producers instead.

So you picked a nice coal mine and a good coal power plant for the start? Very well, now you want to build your first train route. Or maybe a truck route? Ships, Planes? Maybe narrowgauge track or a maglev? How to decide?
Well - don't. While the game engine would allow it, no pakset is created in such a way that normal trains are a bad idea, so when in doubt always use them, you can't go totally wrong even if another type of vehicle may be better for the job.

But there are still lots of decisions ahead, even restricted to trains. For example, which track will you use, and how long should your stations be? That's actually dependant on the available vehicles, which you can find in a train depot. Therefore it makes a lot of sense to build that first. Just build two tiles of the cheapest (slowest) track and place a depot there, I personally think it's hard to find, especially for beginners, so I added the depot button image to the right.
You should also add electrification to the depot, since otherwise you won't be able to see electric locomotives.

First, you should look at the available cars, in case of coal those that deliver "bulk good". You can mouse over each car and look at it's details at the bottom of the depot window. But it's easier to use the filter to reduce only to cars capable of transporting the chosen good.
Pak128 only has one coal car available at any time, so there is not much choice here. If you started in 1930, it's the RVg Mineral Wagon (1850/20) with a max speed of 50km/h. Now you know that you don't need tracks faster than 50km/h since you coal wagons won't go faster anyways. If you had several different wagons to choose from, the best indicator which to use is comparing capacity to the cost in brackets, which is the running cost you will need to pay each tile that vehicle moves. Since you'd pay 0.10 Credits per tile, and move 20 tons at once, you pay 0.005 Credits per tile and ton. If another vehicle would, have a running cost of 0.15 Credits per tile, but move 40 tons at once, it would be at 0.00375 Credits per tile and ton, which is cheaper.

Since the coal car is chosen, you look at the locomotives. Be careful, since some locomotives are divided in several parts, or require a tender.
Obviously, you don't need a locomotive that goes faster than the cars, so you don't look for speed. However, goods are usually quite heavy, so you need power. Just so it won't be too easy, you can't trust the power stated and also have to consider the gear. This system is quite convoluted and only enjoyable for people who love spreadsheets. Luckily, there is a more practical way. When you click on a vehicle, you buy it. However, you don't actually lose money, but your cash becomes assets. If you sell the vehicle before it left the depot, the assets become cash again, and nothing is lost. Therefore, you are free to build whole trains inside the depot and you don't have to worry about your bank account at all.

Just buy any locomotive and hang cars on it, then change to an empty convoy on the very top of the depot window, and create a train with another locomotive. Hang as many cars as you can without getting a lower score at max speed, and compare these trains by switching through the convoys, especially the running costs and capacity. If there is no clear winner by that alone, check the station tiles. A shorter train requires less station tiles, which is cheaper.

Once you chose your train, you know it's speed and the station length. Pick tracks that allow that speed and lay them between the two factories and next to them, and build your goods station as long as your train is. Make sure to leave some space, you might want to expand your stations later. Now all you need is a schedule for your train and you can send it on it's way, selling all other vehicles you tested around with.