Transport Tycoon DeLuxe Game Calculations
by Josef Drexler and James S. Baughn (
Transport Tycoon Semi-FAQ)
Station ratings
Josef Drexler described in details on the formula that TTD uses to the ratings of each cargo type waiting at a station. This rating is based on a 255 point scale and is made up of these components:
- Number of days since the last carrier picked up this type of cargo,
based on this chart:
Points |
Days elapsed for all carriers except ships |
Days elapsed for ships |
130 | Less than 3 days | Less than 12 days |
95 | Less than 6 days | Less than 24 days |
50 | Less than 12 days | Less than 48 days |
25 | Less than 21 days | Less than 84 days |
0 | 21 days or longer | 84 days or longer |
Notice that ships receive extra leniency — they can take four times as long as other transport types and still receive the same number of points. This is a subtle incentive to use ships, especially hovercraft, since they often have higher ratings and thus more cargo waiting for them at the docks.
- Amount of cargo waiting at the station:
Points |
Units |
130 | Less than 100 units |
120 | Less than 300 units |
100 | Less than 600 units |
90 | Less than 1,000 units |
55 | Less than 1,500 units |
0 | 1,500 units or more |
For liquid cargoes (oil, water, etc.) one "unit" is equal to 100 liters.
- Maximum speed of last carrier picking up this cargo (i.e. how modern is it?). This is calculated by: Points = 0.25 * (LastSpeed - 85 km/h). Or, in chart form:
Points |
Maximum speed |
43 | 255 km/h or faster |
25 | Faster than 185 km/h |
0 | 85 km/h or slower |
Speeds above 255 km/h don't count any more than 255 km/h.
- Age of the last carrier:
Points |
Age at the end of the current year |
33 | Newer than 1 year |
20 | Newer than 2 years |
10 | Newer than 3 years |
0 | 3 or more years old |
In the case of trains, the age of the last wagon is used instead of the engine. This provides a nice way to boost your ratings: frequently replace the last wagon while letting the rest of the train age gracefully.
- Statue in nearest town. Receive a 26 point bonus if your company paid to erect a statue in the city center of the corresponding Local Authority. (So yes, statues are good for something!)
- Computer player bonus. Companies managed by the Artificial Intelligence receive additional points based on their "intelligence" level as configured in the difficulty settings:
Points |
Intelligence level |
63 | High |
31 | Medium |
0 | Low |
The computer really does cheat...
Finally, to calculate the rating, the game adds up the points from each
component and then takes the percentage out of 255. So, if you have 255 or more points, you get a rating of 100%; 127 points gets your 50%, and so on.
Funding an advertising campaign in the nearest town provides a temporary boost to station ratings. However, after some time (six months?), the ratings will slowly converge to where they should be.
Station ratings always change slowly but steadily. Even if there's a sudden boost in performance, the rating will only slowly rise to the value given by the above formula. The opposite is true as well; if you stop servicing a station it might take a few months for the passengers to realize they aren't going anywhere. However, if one your vehicles is involved in a fatal crash, then the ratings in all nearby station could instantly plummet to zero.
The rating is used to determine how much cargo is shipped to your stations. Passengers, for instance, would rather avoid going to a station with a crappy performance record, knowing that they might have to wait months, years, or longer for a train to arrive. In cases where multiple stations are competing for the same cargo, then the station with the highest rating (even if the difference is only 1 point) will receive the lion's share. This becomes particularly important when the AI (with its inflated ratings) builds a competing station and suddenly all of your business evaporates.
In the real world, a passenger who keeps experiencing delays in departure might give up, demand a refund for their ticket, and storm off. The same is true in TTD; if your station rating drops below 50% then some of your waiting cargo will start to disappear. And if the rating continues to drop, there just might not be much cargo left when your carrier finally arrives.
Company's performance rating
(Much of this information was discovered in by Josef Drexler.)
TTD ranks each player and AI company on a 1,000 point scale. These points are assigned based on whether each company has met certain objectives. Most of the objectives are proportional: if you fully meet it, then you get the maximum number of points; if you only complete half of the objective, you get 50% of the points, etc. The objectives and the number of points possible for each one are listed below:
Max. points | Objective |
400 | 40,000 units of cargo delivered during the span of the last four quarters. This objective is worth 40% of your total rating, so it's important to meet this one if you want a high score. To increase your delivered
cargo, you'll need more services, faster vehicles, and more efficient layouts.
It would also be nice if several industries increased their production, but unfortunately you have little control over that. |
100 | 120 vehicles in operation Since TTD will only let you build a maximum of 80 trains (unless you apply TTDPatch), this objective requires you to diversify the services you build. Hint: As far as TTD is concerned, one road vehicle is equivalent to one Concorde, even if one is much, much cheaper to build.
|
100 | 80 station parts Here, a "part" refers to each bus stop, airport, platform, etc., even if several are combined into one station. Indeed, since the number of stations you can have is limited (especially if you have many competitors),
you will need to combine multiple services at some of them. |
100 | £10,000 minimum profit for all vehicles more than 2 years old This objective is somewhat flawed, because:
- If you don't have any vehicles older than 2 years old, then
you get the 100 points by default.
- It doesn't take inflation into consideration. Early in the game,
it might be difficult for all of your vehicles to earn £10,000 per year.
But as time goes on, £10,000 is worth much easier to make because it
isn't worth as much.
- You probably don't want all of your vehicles to earn a profit. You
might intend some services to be intermediate "piglet" lines that supply cargo to
other vehicles which then take them to their final destination.
- Road vehicles often don't turn a very big profit, at least not
early in the game.
|
100 | £100,000 minimum operating profit for at least one quarter out of the last 12 |
50 | £50,000 minimum operating profit for all of the last 12 quarters |
50 | 8 different types of cargo delivered during the last quarter
This is trickier to achieve than you might think. You have to transport — and successfully deliver — eight different cargo types during the past quarter. |
50 | £10 million cash on hand |
50 | £250,000 maximum loan
So, if you are borrowing £250,000 or more, you won't get any points for this. Otherwise, if you have a smaller loan, or don't have any debt, then you get
all 50 points. |
Note: All of the above monetary figures are in British pounds. You'll
have to convert to your preferred currency (i.e. double those amounts for US dollars or quadruple for DM).
With the above information in mind, here are some hints for maximizing your performace rating (and thus increasing your final score when you reach 2050):
- Many of the objectives involve a fixed amount of money. With inflation,
those amounts become easier to attain since they are worth less. Therefore,
it might actually be to your benefit to increase the inflation level in
the game's difficulty settings. Of course, this might make the game
harder in other ways (especially near 2050 when it might cost a million
dollars to plant a few trees), so be careful.
- If you can afford it, build lots of vehicles and stations, even if
you don't intend to use them. TTD will award you the points for
having 120 vehicles and 80 station parts even if some of them
aren't active.
- Pay back your loans as soon as possible (or at least pay back all
but £250,000). This does have the odd side effect of decreasing
your net worth (since you have less cash on hand), but if you're making
enough profits then this will be temporary.
- Don't let your unprofitable vehicles age more than two years. Sometimes
it's strategically useful to have services that don't make any money — but
just make sure they don't eat into your performace rating.
- Avoid any expensive purchases (i.e. building a statue, funding a
new industry, bulldozing an entire mountain, etc.)
until after you have accumulated £10 million. The sooner your
bank account reaches this amount, the sooner your performance rating
increases by 50 points.
Final standings
(This information submitted by Josef Drexler)
This chart shows the performance rating necessary to achieve each title in the High Score table when you reach the year 2050:
Performance Rating |
Title |
0 to 319 | Businessman |
320 to 447 | Entrepreneur |
448 to 575 | Industrialist |
576 to 703 | Capitalist |
704 to 831 | Magnate |
832 to 959 | Mogul |
960 to 1000 | Tycoon of the Century |
This chart shows the performance rating necessary to achieve each title on the in-game Company League Table:
Performance Rating |
Title |
0 to 127 | Engineer |
128 to 255 | Traffic Manager |
256 to 383 | Transport Coordinator |
384 to 511 | Route Supervisor |
512 to 639 | Director |
640 to 767 | Chief Executive |
768 to 895 | Chairman |
896 to 959 | President |
960 to 1000 | Tycoon |