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Game Start with Airplanes

An alternative to transporting coal with trains as the moneymaker at game start is to use airplanes to transport passengers and mail. There are several advantages to using airplanes instead of trains:

• No track to construct
• Constructing airports great distances apart costs no more than constructing them nearby
• Airplanes can transport their cargo faster than trains can
• Avoids having production at coal mines swell before the final network is constructed

Choosing Towns for the Airports

Care must be taken when choosing towns to build moneymaker airports in. Under ideal conditions, the best candidates are larger towns in opposite corners of the map. The larger the town, the more passengers that will be supplied. The farther the distance, the greater the earnings per trip. Other factors such as available space should be considered as well. A large town on a small island or in mountainous terrain is a poor choice for a moneymaker airport as teraforming will be required to create a large enough piece of land to build the airport on. Also since farmland has a greater cost to build on top of, it may be wise to build away from farms. Always remember to communicate with your fellow coop players about where to build moneymaker airports. Without communication we could end up with two players building two airports in the same city, an unnecessary expense at the only time in the game when money is tight. Start with two airports, often times this will be expanded to four as income becomes steady.

Building the Airports

Once towns have been chosen, build the airports as close to the town as possible. Avoid demolishing town buildings and avoid teraforming as much as possible. Use drive through road stops to walk the station to the town center to increase catchment area. This practice in generally discouraged in most final networks, but works well for moneymakers. Even small airports works well as it doesn't take large numbers of airplanes to generate the required income. Always remember to communicate with your fellow coop players about where to build moneymaker airports. Without communication we could end up with two players building two airports in the same city, an unnecessary expense at the only time in the game when money is tight. Rename the airports to "MM01, MM02, etc".

Buying the Airplanes

When choosing airplanes for the moneymaker, a balance needs to be struck between cargo capacity, running costs, and speed. As we commonly use different planesets each game, this is a decision to be made as a community. It is also important not to buy too many planes to begin with. If we spend all our money before the first plane reaches it's destination, we could end up going bankrupt. Building additional planes should be handled by a single player to avoid confusion. As always keep one unit of loan on reserve, ready to be taken if money goes into the red at any time. In these circumstances when the full loan is taken, the top priority is ALWAYS to repay at least one loan unit. This is more important than purchasing new airplanes or airports.

Town Growth

A side effect of airplane moneymakers is that it can cause towns to grow. This should be avoided as larger towns could get in the way of the final network. There are two ways to prevent town growth. The first is to set town growth in the advanced settings / economy tab to "none". This can only be done by members, so ask if you notice that town growth is on. The second involves buying land adjacent to the city to block growth, or in some cases restrict growth to a certain size by buying land a few tiles away from the city to allow for growth to increase moneymaker profits through more passengers. That decision should be made by the community, and made known via signs for players who are not online at that moment. Purchasing of town land should be done after income has stabilized to avoid bankruptcy.

Completion of the Moneymaker

Once income has stabilized and the loan has been repaid, the moneymaker stage of the game is finished, and the planning stage begins. The moneymaker will continue to earn money until the final network is planned, chosen, built, and begins making money itself. At this point the moneymaker is generally dismantled as it it no longer needed.

Communication is Vital

At game start there are generally a lot of players connected waiting to create a plan for the final network. You are welcome to help build the moneymaker, but please remember to use the in-game chat to communicate with the other players. Without communication, several players could end up trying to do the same thing, and this can lead to confusion and wasting money at the only time when we need to be worried about cash levels. Please be patient about creating your plan.