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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:
  1. Number of days since the last carrier picked up this type of cargo, based on this chart:
  2. Points Days elapsed for all carriers except ships Days elapsed for ships
    130Less than 3 daysLess than 12 days
    95Less than 6 daysLess than 24 days
    50Less than 12 daysLess than 48 days
    25Less than 21 daysLess than 84 days
    021 days or longer84 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.
  3. Amount of cargo waiting at the station:
  4. Points Units
    130Less than 100 units
    120Less than 300 units
    100Less than 600 units
    90Less than 1,000 units
    55Less than 1,500 units
    01,500 units or more
    For liquid cargoes (oil, water, etc.) one "unit" is equal to 100 liters.
  5. 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
    43255 km/h or faster
    25Faster than 185 km/h
    085 km/h or slower
    Speeds above 255 km/h don't count any more than 255 km/h.
  6. Age of the last carrier:
  7. Points Age at the end of the current year
    33Newer than 1 year
    20Newer than 2 years
    10Newer than 3 years
    03 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.
  8. 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!)
  9. Computer player bonus. Companies managed by the Artificial Intelligence receive additional points based on their "intelligence" level as configured in the difficulty settings:
  10. Points Intelligence level
    63High
    31Medium
    0Low
    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. pointsObjective
40040,000 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.
100120 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.
10080 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:
  1. If you don't have any vehicles older than 2 years old, then you get the 100 points by default.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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
508 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):

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 319Businessman
320 to 447Entrepreneur
448 to 575Industrialist
576 to 703Capitalist
704 to 831Magnate
832 to 959Mogul
960 to 1000Tycoon 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 127Engineer
128 to 255Traffic Manager
256 to 383Transport Coordinator
384 to 511Route Supervisor
512 to 639Director
640 to 767Chief Executive
768 to 895Chairman
896 to 959President
960 to 1000Tycoon
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