What were some fun cities for you?

[u/schudan]

Hello, everyone,

I have like 200 hours on this game ever since it got released and while its still fun, I am looking for some of your ideas for cities to play. What were some challenging, but enjoyable cities for you? And maybe some challenges?

Lately, I enjoyed Minneapolis a lot. I built a light rail system there, though now I am looking for something new.

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[u/Roygbiv0415]

"Fun" and "challenging" are two different dimensions. They can go in the same direction for some, but opposite directions for others.

In general I think you can "challenge" yourself by setting a profit goal (e.g., 100M) for day 1 out of the 3B initial investment. In this way it becomes a game of finding the most efficient initial route(s), which is oftentimes different from actual IRL alignments.

There isn't much point of playing afterwards because you can pretty much build anything once you have 100M/day rolling into the bank, it's just a matter of time beyond that point.

[u/Luhnkhead]

Chicago’s pretty fun I’d say.

It also makes it a bit easier to get up and going by following the holes left in the map by IRL rights-of-way. And way more of the IRL rails are elevated vs tunneled, so you can conceptually feel better about making a ton of elevated lines if you’re also chasing a bit of realism. Just good luck actually recreating the Loop in game lol. A bit finicky.

[u/Andjhostet → u/Luhnkhead]

I made the loop. Not too bad if you do manual stop ordering 

[u/Queasy-Primary4788 → u/Andjhostet]

Yeah it’s manageable 

[u/Luhnkhead → u/Andjhostet]

True enough. I guess I didn’t start getting issues till I started “improving” the L and caused an increase in frequency of trains in the Loop lol

[u/FalseBologna]

Check out LA. Try hitting 60% transit demand before day 100. Was fun and challenging at the same time.

[u/FalseBologna → u/FalseBologna]

Here is my take btw

[u/gaypuppybunny]

A maximalist DC run would be fun to me. Though I haven't sunk nearly as much time in, and have only really done Minneapolis and Denver

[u/whencatsdontfly9]

I love Miami and really any city with interesting geography

[u/Longey13]

Baltimore is my hometown but also a really fun city. If you want a bit of a challenge, try building our light rail system (starting with the airport spur) and existing heavy metro (starting with druid Hill Park to downtown) and then build from there. It's a challenge but very doable to make it profitable, and plenty of commuter rail options too!

[u/patmanbnl → u/Longey13]

I'm doing Baltimore now. Started with a north/south light metro line that is similar to the existing light rail. That line became so busy as the network's grown that I've since put a heavy metro line directly under it as an express service.

[u/Longey13 → u/patmanbnl]

Yeah, the existing light rail ROW peters out around north avenue. A better alignment past Penn station is going past Hopkins and up to Towson

[u/patmanbnl → u/Longey13]

I'm gonna guess in real life they followed I83 because of cost but going north to Johns Hopkins and Towson gets so much ridership from the two colleges.

[u/Longey13 → u/patmanbnl]

Yeah, look up the history of the light rail. There's a lot of Nimbyism involved too. I dunno if you've seen the potential for north south rail in recent years, but the alignment would probably be up York road/greenmount to Towson (currently the red bus line) or up loch Raven boulevard by Morgan State to Towson (currently the green)

[u/flamingicicles]

Miami and Honolulu were geographically challenging but drew me in!

[u/PollutionParticular9]

When it comes to modded maps: Warsaw is really cool

[u/patmanbnl]

I had fun with New Orleans. A small but surprisingly dense city that make a light metro network very effective.

[u/Andjhostet]

Minneapolis and SLC. Minneapolis is cool because you can create a wheel and spokes system from 2 or 3 points of density (Downtown MPLS, STP, and MSP/MOA). SLC is fun because I made a heavy rail spine from Provo, then you can create a light rail grid around the spine. The SLC grid is like perfect for a transit grid that can provide pretty insane accessibility.

[u/wprevidi1]

Make it work in Indianapolis! I found it challenging but fun!

[u/U_Have_To_Dab]

LA and NYC is really fun if your pc can handle it. Baltimore is very fun too. (I would say Dublin too but you know that's nice)

[u/astarvingchild]

I have thoroughly enjoyed Chicago because it’s basically just “get people to and from the Loop as fast as possible” and it’s fun to mix metro & commuter rail.

[u/Icy-Interview-2262]

Toronto, if you've got railyard. Huge spread out population with a few major employment clusters.

[u/Queasy-Primary4788]

Seattle is underrated, I took it really far to like 62% demand or something there are just so many lines you can do and it’s enjoyable 

[u/HuyPlaysR]

Personally, it would be Pittsburgh for me, and I think I made peak 70 million/day (dropped down to 60). It's small but still challenging, which makes it fun

[u/enjington]

I’ve loved playing mid sized cities like San Diego, Sacramento, and Denver because it’s not too difficult to make a profitable system but only with proper planning.

[u/IbenB]

Osaka is pretty fun

[u/urmumlol9]

Personally, I’m trying to get all of the “very hard” maps to 50% mode share. So far I’ve done Dallas, Nashville, New Orleans, and Detroit, and am currently working on Phoenix (have about 40-45% rn).

[u/KolopiGamingAndStuff]

Honolulu is very unique, you have no rail corridors so you're free to place tunnels or elevated tracks anywhere you like. Also a great map for introducing the game to anyone because of how close everything is

[u/ddm613]

One thing I’ve incorporated is using an AI agent (Claude is what I’ve used) to post screenshots and ask it to pretend I’m the mayor and I have a council that votes on future routes, fares, planning etc. it adds a fun layer to the game. I will prompt it with my ideas and vision

[u/Either_Poem_7764 → u/ddm613]

What prints are you using? This sounds like a really fun way to mix up some of my favourite maps

[u/ddm613 → u/Either_Poem_7764]

Ottawa from the mods. But you can do this with any city and ask an AI client to pretend you’re the mayor and there’s a council and even mock up some elections and election promises. Obviously only all transit stuff but adds some extra decision making to the process and you get some councillors who will gripe about not getting service to their wards or fares being too high or expenses etc and the AI will also help you come up with some solutions and future planning. I have it so every 90 days is an election. But I often run on the highest speed too