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OpenTTD vs Simutrans | The Free Transport Simulation Showdown

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Comparing the transport simulation games | OpenTTD vs Simutrans

Transport Simulations are a genre that has not translated to the high gloss, high production 3d game market now seen on PC and console games. However, they retain a huge following and command a niche.

As it stands, since most game publishers have lost interest in making this sort of game, what remains is almost a two horse race with a few outliers. Interestingly, both are now Open Source, so they run on Linux, Windows and Mac. This also means they are being actively developed and have huge relatively loyal communities around them.

The two main Transport Simulation games still keeping up to date are OpenTTD and Simutrans. There are others which will be briefly mentioned below. read on to see a comparison of the two, along with screenshots ,vids a few strategy tips as well as details on their community and how to get them and play them.

What is it about these games? Is it their economic simulation? Is it trying to perfect the profit and build a sustainable business? Or is just the appeal of playing with a really big train set, with planes, boats and buses too?

Simutrans Game as an iPhone App

Simutrans, one of the games on review here, is now available as an iPhone App from

.

This means that you can play with trains and transport on the move, on your iPhone or iPod! This is probably the game with the most depth and complexity yet seen on this platform. See below for info on it.

Simutrans Review

Introduction To Simutrans

Simutrans is a free and now open source train and transport simulation which runs in Windows, on Linux, on the Mac and even has a port to the iPhone.

It simulates many aspects of a transport scenario, starting from a business scenario where money is borrowed to initially finance the operation, then into laying rail, road, canals and bridges. You then build stops, stations, depots and airports.

Laying pathways is fairly intuitive, using existing infrastructure where necessary, unless it is a train line belonging to some other business. The game will autoroute but can be overridden. Underground networks can be built, as city growth responds to the movements of passengers and goods above stimulating local business.

Vehicle orders are fairly simple, and whole fleets of vehicles can be given orders together. There are different vehicles revealed over time, simulating R & D, and vehicles depreciate and need maintenance. Nearly everything has running costs so there is a realistic economic model, along with complex industry networks that you or your competitors can service.

Of these two games, Simutrans has the ability to look much snazzier with graphics packs designed for modern screens. It used to have an edge in installer simplicity, but OpenTTD has now regained that at least in Beta. Simutrans has also come some way in eliminating some of the bugs and issues it had in earlier versions.

For info on installing Simutrans, screenshots, videos, tips and in depth comparison with OpenTTD, read on below.

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OpenTTD Review

OpenTTD is a transport game with a great heritage which currently runs on Windows and Linux. It was inspired by and part derived from Transport Tycoon Deluxe, a classic transport simulation game. However, while this is in some ways lending it a more balanced and previously stable experience than others, it also means that it is slower to gain new features, trying to remain quite faithful to the original.

It has began to slowly gain speed again, and has now got more sophisticated signalling, and importantly a friendly installer which makes it suddenly more accessible to those new to the game.

The biggest feature OpenTTD has which is not present in Simutrans is the network play ability. Going head-to-head with human players is a very different experience to playing against AI players - including the fact that it is much more real-time if you can not pause, or save and continue later. Before going head to head - make sure you are very familiar with the game and know how to set up profitable networks.

OpenTTD allows transport simulation with trucks, buses, trains, ships and planes too, although its rail and road laying is somewhat cruder than Simutrans. OpenTTD has a very easy to use vehicle ordering system and sending cargo around, including to transfer stations, is quite intuitive.

Crazy About Trains?

Trains do exist outside of computers. While a digital train set like OpenTTD or Simutrans is fun, sometimes it just needs to be the real thing. Having an electric train set (or a few) to set up and run round is very calming - it requries space, but allows you to play and be creative. Considering how many model buildings and other stuff can be set up - you can build the train set of your dreams.

Installing OpenTTD

Platforms

Windows.
Linux.
Mac OSX (Some builds, not since 2008 unless you want to build from source).

OpenTTD now has a set of free graphics that most gameplay features should be available on, and the old problem with the legally gray (but probably abandoned) graphcis and data has been resolved with the opengfx set. It is also now stable with those settings, and available this way on most operating systems.

Installing the App in Linux
You now can install OpenTTD. In Ubuntu - "sudo apt-get install openttd openttd-*".
This will install all required files and graphics.

Installing the App In Windows
Download the files at Downloading OpenTTD. You can then simply run the installer.

Installing Simutrans

Download Simutrans!

Platforms
Windows, Linux, and Mac. There is even an iPhone app for this game.

Installation On Windows or Mac
If you are online, the best way to install Simutrans is with the Simutrans online installer. This gets you set up quickly and allows you to choose enhanced graphic paks on the way so there is no fiddling. For non nonsense - you should download Simutrans complete, which comes with everything you need to start playing. Download it here.

Installation in Ubuntu
Simutrans is fairly easy to install with just the defaults. Where it is in a distribution, it will install and run simply through the built in package manager, and will work straight away.

In ubuntu "sudo apt-get install simutrans".

[Optional] Graphics Upgrade
First I should point out that this is NOT needed with the Online installer at the top of this section.
To get nice graphics, you can go onto the simutrans website and install additional pak files. This is not required, but optional, but the pak128 looks very good on higher resolution screens. It is worth noting that the default, Pak64 has the most features and has had the most time put in so far. This is for good reason - the lead developers of Simutrans personally contributed to it.

*Recommended* Read the Starter guide
I strongly recommend reading the Simutrans Starter Guide before getting stuck in - it may save you making newbie mistakes and get over gameplay aspects that take days to learn.

Simutrans is also available as an iPhone App.

Other super Rail Games

If these two are not enough for your need to play with big train sets, how about some others to whet your appetite?

Laying Roads and Rail

Simutrans and OpenTTD each have a slightly different method to laying ways.

In OpenTTD a way is laid almost square by square. When you have a long line that may need to route around hills and forest, this can be painstaking. Especially when you can only issue those building orders while the game is running (unless you enable building while paused). It has autorail which at least saves having to select which orientation a track is and allows you to drag a line.

In Simutrans, you can click a starting point, an end point, and the game will auto route the road or rail. It will even look for existing infrastructure to use like village road systems. This is much quicker and less painstaking. You can click, hold and drag the end point to see the route it would choose. Of course, this means that if you want to optimize the route, you may have to dig up some after. There is no need to set the orientation.

The Simutrans method has a shortcoming in that laying dual tracks too close will cause them to join up in a way you did not intend. You can not route diagonal tracks as tightly in Simutrans as in OpenTTD. Use the drag functionality and control key to prevent this happening.

The dragging in Simutrans and OpenTTD are very different. OpenTTD requires you to drag like brush strokes - you cover every square exactly. SImutrans, you click a start point, then click and hold near the end point, and can drag the whole route around like a rubber band, releasing to settle the line. SImutrans also has an undo button if you let go when you didn't intend to.

Overall, the Simutrans pro's do outweight its cons, and after using Simutrans, going back to the OpenTTD way of laying roads and tracks is very painful.

Multiplayer and Network Play

OpenTTD has a network play mode. Multiple players can connect from machines on a LAN or the Internet and go head to head building their empires. There is no building while paused - indeed no pause mode in fact.

The game takes a while to unfold in any mode, so you need plenty of time to play a Multiplayer game. You can join and leave games at any time - taking over a company not being played or starting a new company. each player gets vehicles with a very clear livery too.

Simutrans currently has no such feature, but one is being planned and developed currently.

Industry Chains

One big differentiator in the games is the complexity of their industry chains.
What is an industry chain?
In a transport game, moving freight is a very important part of the game and can become one of the main sources of income. This means moving coal to a power plant or similar.

In OpenTTD, there are some shallow chains, and one or two with 2 layers - farm to food processing factory to a city. The number of industry types is fairly limited.

In Simutrans, this is much richer - with chemical industry chains, food canning chains, car manufacturing chains.

Take the last example. You need a coal mine and an Iron Ore mine. These are used to supply a steel mill. You need to be moving both coal and iron ore to the steel mill to get steel. You then can move the steel to a car manufacturing plant. This will then be able to manufacture cars. You can then move the cars to a car showroom where they are sold. At each step, if you get the transportation right, there is a chance to make a profit. If you control the whole chain well, then you get great profit.

Each step is an enabler - if there is no steel to the car plant, there are no cars to transport, if there is no coal or ore to the steel mill, then there is no steel to transport. This means you need to start feeding industries and then you can move their output once you have their inputs sorted.

Now watch out here for what can only be called "back pressure". You may suddenly find stops that have previously been a "good little earner" give you know goods to transport. Check the destination - if it has a lot (over capacity) of this particular kind of good, but not enough of another to function, then there will no longer be a demand, and the good will no longer be being produced. It is really, really important that you have pickup based transport either serving more than one good type (unlikely) or set to 100% at the source station.

One handy aspect of Simutrans is that an industry will show those others that are its suppliers and consumers on its dialog. This make it easy to find the routes. It comes with a price though - industries that do not list each other will not accept or supply goods on routes between them. These operate like contracts.

One handy thing OpenTTD has that Simutrans is missing are messages to inform you of rises or decreases in production. The author is not aware if this is because the messages are not there, or the model does not behave that way in Simutrans.

In Simutrans Power stations serve a purpose more than just to sink coal/oil cargo - they produce electricity, and by creating a network of transformers and powerlines, this can increase production in other connected industries.

Beginner Tip For Both Games
One tip that holds for both games - if you are starting out, aim for the connections between power stations as these are quickly profitable, and do not depend on other industry chain links. In Simutrans, having only half an industry chain will eventually stop when there is too much of one product and no demand somewhere down the line.

Building stations

OpenTTD and Simutrans have a different tack in building stations.
The basics are the same, you have bus stops, road loading bays and train platforms to name a few common types. Placing stations adjacent to each other is in effect extending the first station, and allowing transport interconnects.

In OpenTTD, you can click and drag out a station. You have to preselect the orientation. This means you can quickly place a station and you do not need to have the rail in place before hand. In fact - you must not lay out the rail, but just add the station.

In Simutrans, you need to pre-lay the road or rail before being able to place a station. This also goes for depots. You then place a station square by square. This first appears a bit of a pain, but without needing to preselect the orientation, and being able to better plan station layouts, as well as extend them with buildings and warehouses, it turns out to be more versatile.

Simutrans also allows you to build underground stations. More on that below.

Underground Mode

One thing unique to Simutrans is the underground mode. OpenTTD allows tunnel building point to point, but Simutrans has something much richer.
You start by placing a similar point to point tunnel, but then pressing Shift+U takes you to an underground view. Here you can create tunnelways, placing stations, signals, depots and so on in this view. Once you have stations on them and trains running, you can disconnect the point to point tunnels, and end up with a pure underground rail system.

It is very expensive, but means you can route trains through the heart of built up areas. Frustratingly, you can only go a few layers deep before you hit water. However, you can build network at each layer, independant of ones below it. It can get a bit too confusing if you have too many layers. You can then link up the networks via their stations, although allowing trains or cars to move between those networks requires surface exits and ramps.

Also in the underground mode, it is not easy to construct anything but the simplest junctions without major surface excavations somewhere.

Simutrans Underground Mode- a Wiki tutorial

There is also a way that this can be used to cheat - building water tunnels that are mysteriously above the water level, but considered underwater.

Shared Orders, Lines, Routes and Groups

This is another place where Simutrans shines.
In OpenTTD, you can clone a vehicle when creating a new one from a depot, or clone its orders, better still you can share orders between vehicles so when you update one, they are all changed. Shared orders means only one vehicles orders are updated, and other vehicle sharing those orders get the changes. The cloning in OpenTTD allows you to select a vehicle, a clone it and its order so they are either a copy or shared. Cloning in Simutrans is a bit more clumsy in that the vehicle chain you wish to clone must be in a garage to clone it in this way, however, the lines system, which I will go into below, makes the order much easier.

You can also group vehicles so you can select them, repair them or view their finances together. However, orders do not make groupings, that is an additional step. Being able to set up repair and upgrades on groups is very handy, and the upgrades are a feature that Simutrans could do with.

In Simutrans, you can create single schedules, or "lines". You can promote schedules to lines. A line is a bunch of orders, and a number of vehicles can operate on a line. These lines can be named (and seasoned players will always name their lines) and updated across the board. vehicles can be built in a depot, have a line applied to them, and they are automatically grouped with other vehicles on the line.

There is a lines report, which allows you to update lines, and also see how profitable they are, how much goods they are carrying and if there are crowded or empty stations on their route.

Lines in Simutrans give it an edge over OpenTTD bar one thing, in OpenTTD, groups of vehicles can be scheduled for upgrades, and as yet, the writer has not found equivalent functionality in Simutrans.

On repairs, Simutrans trains do not break down or require maintenance in the same way as OpenTTD. Perhaps this is a bit of depth to the simulation that could be added.

Autosave

One feature of both games is the ability to automatically save. When trying things out that might bring down your empire, or you've arrived at a good place, saving the game is a very wise move.

However, people will forget. They will have had the moment where they tried something, it went wrong, or even they had a powercut, and then they want to get the game back. This is where automatic saving is handy.

OpenTTD has this ability up front and easily activated, it saves a number of rolling copies so you have a set of versions to go back to.
In the current Simutrans this is not something that is easily changed in a running game.

OpenTTD clearly has the edge in this respect.

Stability

One huge blow for Simutrans, at least versions 101 and 102 is that it is still a little buggy and crashes. This is only when compared with Stable OpenTTD, compared with the latest builds (which are needed for all free graphics and non-complicated installation), it is about on par. If you have spent hours on a game since a last save, that will be very frustrating. However, it is under active development and there are good channels to report any problems.

The Stable OpenTTD gives a much more polished experience. It may not have quite as many nice features but it is very solid on stability.

Simutrans also exhibits occasional screen update glitches, which moving away and back can sort out. There are also times when it can pull a lot of CPU - generally when there is a lot happening on screen - like a busy city area, and you hit the fast forward button. I have seen the cursor sometimes disappear too.

The big thing here is that if autosave (discussed above) was easy to set up, this would have made it less annoying in Simutrans. OpenTTD clearly comes out better on this one.

Transport Tycoon

Transport Tycoon was the original that both these games are based on. Simutrans is a separate interpretation with its own features, whereas OpenTTD is fairly loyal upgrade with a few patches, very similar to the original

The original is still available for those that want to play it in its original form, and the strategies employed there do have a bearing for playing both of these games.

OpenTTD Screenshots

Simutrans Screenshots

City interconnects- Pak128

Country station - a sand mine - Pak128

Underground mode - Pak128

City with airport - Pak64

Simutrans Startup with Pak128

Tips and info on Simutrans

Both these games are games of some depth. Simutrans needs more than at a glance to really get the best out of it. Learning some of the tips and tricks will really help a player enjoy the game. The article also has plenty more screenshots.

Other info on gaming and computers

So is it Simutrans or OpenTTD?

So which of these games do you, the reader think is better?
They are both under active development, but which do you prefer to play?

HTML is allowed in comments - links to relevant stuff will be permitted. This is a moderated duel.

What is the best of these transport simulation games?

Fetching blurbs now... please stand by

OpenTTD is an awesome classic

Shep says:

I started with simutrans but the interface was clunky and the graphics kinda ugly. In fact the higher resolution texture packs made it even WORSE.

Open TTD has a better interface and more artistic graphics, although I wish it had some of the more advanced features of simutrans like passengers with destinations and poweplants producing electricity.

Fortunately the OpenTTD community seems to be larger and more active.

Posted January 17, 2012

Goreiilar says:

OpenTTD is superior. It is very versatile, and as a result almost all of the shortcomings of it, compared to Simutrans, can be customised, changed, or fixed with a patch or NewGRF. I never played the original TT, so it was never nostalgia for me. Just awesome. With Cargodist / Cargodest, the shortcomings of cargo in OpenTTD can be overcome. For me, a lack of Multiplayer is a major downside.

Posted December 15, 2011

Flibuste says:

I tried both, and I must say I prefer OpenTTD. Simutrans had many appealing features, but it is so complicated!

Understanding how to install on my mac took me about ~ 30mins - 1h, whereas OpenTTd took me... 5 minutes?

I also still have to understand signals and even basic concepts such as rail stations in simutrans, while it took me only a few moments with OpenTTD. The thing is, not only are things not always clear in-game, but the in-game help and the wiki aren't really helpful. They mostly describe stuff and don't relly explain how to use them. The best I could find about stations is "build a rail station several tiles length", with no pictures or anything. Well, bad news: it won't let me, and what I can produce looks nothing like the few meager screenshots I could find. So what, now?

Also, while simutrans looks nicer in the above screenshots, after playing it a bit, I must say OpenTTD is much more polished. Simutrans, in comparison, feels clunky and pixelly.

Posted November 01, 2011

GuyFawkes says:

Simultrans might be interesting if they get it working. Some nice concepts in there. BUT, I downloaded and tried it (09-11), and the signals and routing part of the game is frustratingly bad. Ok if very simple. But as soon as I tried to tie some stations and put in some signals and passing lanes, my company went bankrupt as I was spending all my time trying to unsnarl traffic that should have worked. Funniest was a part in their manual that showed signals working opposite of how its described. And the auto-track laying is frustrating as well. I'm trying to unsnarl traffic, and it absolutely would not let me lay some of the track I needed. I think they copied the original mess that Trans Tycoon was in this, plus the frustrations of Sid Meier's track laying.

Remind me to go back and look in a year or so to see if it gets any better. Otherwise, I'm back to OpenTTD after a few hours of total frustration. In OpenTTD these little details work, so you can concentrate on building your RR and making money.

Posted October 13, 2011

TTD FAN!!! says:

Hi all! Nice post, I am a huge Transport Tycoon fan, so it is nice to see so many people enjoy this kind of games! I took a look to Simutrans, and I think I have to disagree graphics are better than OpenTTD. Yes, they may have more detail when you fully zoom... but OpenTTD looks nicer! It is a matter of personal taste. What I enjoy from OpenTTD is PLAYABILITY. I remember playing Locomotion (Transport Tycoon Deluxe sequel), it's graphics were awesome, underground capability, etc... but it lost THE SOUL of what makes a game fun, no matter how real it is (for example, mooving passengers like cattle in OPENTTD IS FUN, though I agree it is not real). Simutrans and OpenTTD are both great games, some of us would prefer one to another, but it is great both are Open Source, getting better every time! Have a great day

Posted August 15, 2011

Simutrans is bigger better and bolder

Tolovaj says:

Go Simutrans!

Posted January 18, 2012

EvilBert says:

Simutrans for me. It has a deeper economic model and more satisfying (and challenging) gameplay (well, I don't find it deep enough at all, but it's much deeper than what OTTD provides). Sure OTTD has lots of GRFs, but the most significant of these (and the most important patches) that add depth are adding functionality that already exist in Simutrans (more complex supply chains and sensible destinations). Since most of these patches and GRFs that alter the economic game aren't compatible with each other (or aren't balanced to be playable together - try playing with both YACD and ECS Vectors) you can never get the economic depth of Simutrans in a game of OTTD, you can only try one or sometimes two of those patches or GRFs at a time. The best combination I've found is CargoDist with ECS Vectors.

Both games appear complicated at first, but both are actually very simple. OTTD is essentially a sandboxed model railroad simulator... the philosophy behind it is not to let any economic system get in the way of painting your desired transport system on the landscape. You're always swimming in money so costs mean nothing. You don't get that satisfying feeling of having built a business empire from scratch, after overcoming many challenges.

Simutrans has taken steps to make itself appealing to players who want a deeper and more challenging economic game. You have to design very efficient systems to make profit... you can't just build a huge station bringing coal in from half a dozen mines to one power plant, just because you want to design a switching system to handle all that traffic.

It's unlikely that OTTD will have any changes that add economic depth, as this just goes against the sandbox "do what you like" philosophy behind it. For example, the latest builds of OTTD have infrastructure maintenance, but the rates are insignificant compared to maintenance costs in Simutrans and don't force you to design networks to that level of efficiency.

Posted December 17, 2011

Mikael says:

As I don't have the nostalgia reason to appreciate OTTD, that benefit of OTTD vanishes. I'm left with what feels like very small maps, tedious track laying, and somewhat outdated gameplay that - to me - seems more like a causal game with transport theme that willfully ignore that it no longer is the 1990's*, than a seriously challenging game with roots in real life.

Now, simutrans is far from perfect. One of the reason I don't play it more than I do is that the UI, when trying to juggle several dozens of lines/schedules and train engine models, and a couple of hundred of stations at the same time, turns into a pain in the behind. Unfortunately, when I tried OpenTTD, it felt in no way easier. Though I never got around to get into large networks in OpenTTD, so I don't know what that would be like.

*With the obvious exception of the graphics, which is pretty neat, but then, so is simutrans'.

Posted September 08, 2011

Jake says:

Simutrans is a littlebit more advanced... So I think I prefer it.

Posted May 16, 2011

Rexides says:

One very, VERY important feature of Simutrans that the article has omitted is that the passengers behave like passengers and not like cattle. You can't just load them at a station in droves and ship them anywhere you like (like OTTD does). They each have a destination in the map, and if your network does not provide a route, they will just not use it.

It is amazing watching a passenger board the tram in order to get to his town's train station, then take the train to the port town, board a ship to an island resort, and then taking the tour bus to an ancient castle there. OTTD has a loooooooooong way to go before it can do that. And considering how long it already had, I don't see doing it any time soon.

(The CargoDestinations patch does not cut it)

Posted December 10, 2010

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