Redesigning the cargo economy model(s) for RR Tycoon III

Part 2

After a few elementary remedies to grotesque inaccuracies in several production recipes of the "default" RRTycoon III industries, it becomes obvious that it's a long-long way towards achieving an acceptable level of realism.

As work proceeds, more and more detailed industrial research is becoming necessary for fine-tuning production algorithms.

First of all, a clear definition is required for every cargo category. Clarifying what every single item is, and also what it isn't. Not as self-evident as it sounds, given the technically imposed limit of 52 cargo categories (actually only 49 freight without the 3 express categories). To give an example, how should cellular phones be categorized? As Goods or luxuries? A single phone may be quite inexpensive, but what about a boxcar full of them? It may be worth more than a carload of, say, stoves. Also, a percentage of such products might also be exported as "Mail" (preferrably renamed to "Mail-Parcels" or something), like converting "Electronics" to "Mail". I clearly recall as a young engineering student, several computers and other gadgets being dispatched by the local electronics manufacturer "Plaisio Computers" in mail/combine cars of the now mothballed Peloponnese narrow gauge long-distance passenger consists, while others were conveyed in conventional all-boxcar freight trains.

This illustrates that the logistic properties of things and their customer base matter more than their ontological essence. Manufacture, handling, packaging of the various kinds of freight must be thoroughly studied to translate quantities to carloads in order to:

Decide which ingredients are important to include in our -inevitably simplified- production recipes and which ones are too insignificant for inclusion. Under "ingredients" take also into account fuels, catalysts, containers and other stuff required beside the actual components of anything.

Mind however that such a "rule-of-thumb" will need to have exceptions. In a wartime "arms' race" scenario, even a minimal percentage of uranium would have to be taken into account for properly evaluating a player's performance

Properly translate merchandise quantities to carloads

Decide where each commodity can be produced. For instance, do steelworks produce directly items like pipes and wire/cable, or must they ship their steel in semi-finished form to separate rolling mills? Or are both cases possible?

This was a research improperly conducted by the original publishers of RR Tycoon III, as a demonstrative sample of the numerous arising remarks and questions shows:

Steelworks producing 2 carloads of steel from 1 carload iron ore and 1 carload coal? Seems impossible, even with the best quality Australian ore!

A carload of "Goods" allegedly demands a carload of steel or aluminum! What kind of "Goods" is this, consisting of compact metal?

How are rubber tyres shipped to automobile manufacturers? Probably in some space-saving form, so that a boxcar of them will suffice for numerous carloads of autos (remember to count the spare tyre in!).

All these issues and countless more will have to be addressed in the course of the cargo economy revamping

Special attention has to be provided in the case of "Goods". It consitutes by far the most heterogeneous general category, with an incredible variety of stuff hiding behind it. An attempt to break it down by just one level, will probably produce several dozen sub-categories, that will at least occupy most available freight slots and cause a huge micro-management burden, more or less forbidding for a 1-person "edutaining" simulation. So, this generalisation is an acceptable one from the part of the original developers.