Part 9: Disasters
A small UFO will fly around, looking for one of your road vehicles. When it finds one, the road vehicle will breakdown and the UFO will descend and destroy it. The UFO will not affect the computer's road vehicles (how convenient). This disaster only seems to happen early in the game (before about 1975, although I'm not sure of the exact date). This is one of the worst disasters that can happen because you must buy a new vehicle and assign orders to it. This disaster defeats the realism of TT; just how many road vehicles have been destroyed by aliens in real life?
A large UFO will fly around, looking for a section of one your railroad tracks to land on. Once it lands, there is no way to move or destroy it. No amount of bulldozing, building, or landscaping will cause it move. Although it appears to be sitting on the railroad track, trains can still pass freely. After the UFO lands, a military-type aircraft will appear at the northern end of the map. It will slowly head for the UFO. When it reaches it, the military aircraft fires some kind of weapon, causing the UFO and an 8x8 patch of land to be destroyed. Unoccupied railroad tracks, city buildings, and trees will be destroyed. Everything else if unaffected. Afterwards, the the military aircraft flies off towards the south. This disaster only appears later in the game, usually after 2000.
The UFO landing can't be avoided. However, when it lands, order a train to stop on the railroad tracks nearby. Keep the train there until the military aircraft destroys the UFO. The track under the train will not be destroyed. This can save some expense.
This disaster would have been more realistic if, afterwards, the newspaper would say "Military announces UFO landing was a hoax; it was a weather balloon!"
One of the shafts at a coal mine will collapse, leaving a long line of destruction. The line will extend from the coal mine out a random number of spaces. Trees, farmland, town buildings, and your railroad tracks will be destroyed. The computer's transportation is unaffected (of course). Other than that, this disaster is fairly benign.
Oil refinery or factory destroyed
A top-secret military aircraft will traverse the map and destroy either a factory or an oil refinery. The industry will rebuild, so no harm is actually done. However, the production of goods at the plant will be delayed until it is rebuilt.
Two trains heading towards eachother on the same track without signal protection will collide. This shouldn't happen unless you order a train to ignore signals or if you make major changes to the signal system while train are using it. After the trains collide, their remains will block the tracks for about a month. If another train comes through and collides with the remains, it will also be destroyed. Plus, the ratings of your nearby stations will drop to zero and will take months to recover. This disaster is very detrimental, but it can be avoided.
Unexpectedly, a plane will crash while attempting to land at an airport. Everybody on board the plane will die, which causes the ratings of your nearby stations to drop to zero. The plane will continue to block the runway for about a month. Then you have to buy a new plane and pay for an advertising campaign to improve your ratings. Unlike some of the other disasters, this one can happen to the rival companies.
Train collides with road vehicle
A train demolishes a road vehicle at a dangerous grade crossing. The train will remain unharmed and will continue on without incident. However, the road vehicle will be completely destroyed, and it will remain on the crossing for several weeks before it is towed to the scrap yard. It may block other road traffic. The ratings of nearby stations of the company that owns the road vehicle will drop dramatically, while the ratings of the train's company will not be affected.
Often this happens when a road vehicle breaks down in the middle of a crossing when a train is approaching. Or a slow truck will enter the crossing before the flashing lights come on and the more powerful train will quickly overtake it. Also, if there are two tracks crossing the road, a truck may sit on one crossing, waiting for the next one to open up, and disaster will strike.
In Transport Tycoon, grade crossing are very dangerous. Avoid them! When building your roads, alway build bridges over other train tracks! If a rival company build a grade crossing on your roads, then make sure to route your trucks away from the crossing! This disaster can be avoided by not building grade crossings. However, DO build your train tracks across your opponent's roads. It doesn't hurt you if one of your trains just happens to hit one of their road vehicles.
This disaster can happen frequently to rival companies. For some reason, the AI likes to build lots of dangerous grade crossings. Many times I've seen a train hit a road vehicle of the same company.
The newspaper will announce that a Zepplin blimp is about to crash at your airport. The blimp will crash, and its remains will block the airport for a month. I'm not sure if this crash affects the ratings of nearby stations. The blimps only crashes at your small airports.
Here is a picture of a blimp in the air:
If you have the Economy option in the difficulty settings set to Fluctuating, you can expect to have economic recessions. The newspaper will pop up when a recession starts. During a recession, all industries cut their production in half. This has a domino effect: You ship less cargo, causing finished product industries (factories, food processing plants, etc.) to output less. So, there are less food and goods to transport. This will effectively cut your profits in half, sometimes even more. On the plus side, because there is less cargo at your stations, your station ratings go up. When the recession is over (usually a year after it starts), those higher ratings will cause your profits to soar. In some cases they will rise higher than they were before the recession, then they will drop back down to normal.
The rivals tend to have inefficient transport, so they typically have huge stockpiles of cargo waiting at their stations. During the recession, then, they still have plenty of cargo to ship. Their profits usually won't drop hardly at all. Darn.
This isn't really a disaster, but if it happens it can be quite destructive. However, you have to cause this to happen on your own.
In TT, water will expand to the sides if the neighboring squares are at sea level. If there happen to be any buildings, rails, roads or trees in the way, they will be destroyed by the flood. Therefore, it's not wise to build at sea level, especially if water is nearby. You can protect land by building dikes, but if for some reason the dike is breached, the land is toast! Buying land (plopping down signs) will also hold back water.
| This picture shows the flood inundating a town. Right after this screenshot was taken, the large building and the road section was destroyed. Within seconds the whole town was wiped out. |
The TTD CD-ROM has a "scenario" on it called "Damn!!!" (arctic climate) where all the towns are at sea level and protected only by a narrow dike. This is a fun scenario to "play God" and cause flooding.
What's the deal with the UFOs?
Several of TT's "disasters" involve UFOs. This raises the question, is Microprose trying to send us some odd, subliminal message? Were they out of ideas for disasters? Was Chris Sawyer abducted by aliens?
Actually, it appears there is an explanation for the UFOs. Chris Sawyer loves the game "X-COM", an alien defense game. The "top secret aircraft" that destroys the large UFO is very similar to the fighter used in X-COM.
| This picture provides more proof of the X-COM connection. This scene is from a "scenario" on the TTD CD-ROM called "snowy peaks" (arctic climate). On the left side of the map is this island. |
Also, the TTD CD-ROM contains the "crop" scenario ("Toyland" climate). Large letters along the northeast side spell out "UFO'S WERE HERE." In the center is a design similar to "crop circles" presumably left behind by alien ships.
What's this thing in the water?
| I'll let Chris Sawyer answer this one:
It's a periscope from a submarine, and the myth that it destroys ships and oil rigs is not true. It was put in at Microprose's request, to link with another game they were marketing at the time. |
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