Watching Master Hellish’s Season 12 co-op streams clear up exactly why they are using that specific, unusual layout. Combining ultra-fast Vactrains with a localized feeder metro system is actually a brilliant strategy to bypass the game’s strict inner mechanics, even if it looks bizarre on paper. [1, 2, 3, 4]
The layout relies on specific mechanics to function effectively:
Metro Lines as Feeders
In OpenTTD, long-distance express trains (like Vactrains) fail if you try to stop them at every small town. It ruins their momentum, and the tracks are far too expensive to build everywhere. [1]
- The Catchment Area Solution: Small town stations have tiny coverage grids. Master Hellish and his volunteers build cheap, high-capacity metro/tram networks directly inside and between adjacent cities. These metros gather thousands of passengers from every corner of the urban zones and dump them directly into the central Vactrain hub. [1, 2]
- Station Rating Boost: To keep a Vactrain hub profitable, it needs a constant stream of passengers waiting. If a station sits empty, its “rating” drops, and local authorities stop letting you expand. The feeder metros act as a constant conveyor belt of cargo to keep those ratings maxed out. [1]
- Preventing High-Speed Gridlock: Merging high-speed lines with slow commuter lines causes massive traffic jams. Keeping local commuter traffic restricted to isolated metro tracks ensures the Vactrain lines stay clear for uninterrupted, cross-continental sprints. [1, 2]
Cross-Continent Expansion
By expanding to more hubs this week, they are executing a textbook “Hub-and-Spoke” network model. [1]
- The Metros act as the tiny capillary veins, gathering passengers locally.
- The Hubs pool those passengers into massive numbers.
- The Vactrains act as the main arteries, firing those massive passenger loads at 900+ km/h across the entire map for a staggering financial return. [1, 2, 3]
Because OpenTTD rewards ticket prices based on distance traveled multiplied by speed, hauling a metro-load of thousands of passengers across a literal continent via Vactrain will generate astronomical profits for their shared company. [1]
This Hub-and-Spoke approach makes perfect operational sense for raw industrial freight. Setting up those massive Vactrain hubs out in open fields—away from town boundaries—is a classic OpenTTD veteran move to handle the sheer physical scale of multi-line cargo networks.
When dealing with primary industries like oil and wood, Master Hellish’s “open field” hub strategy solves three major late-game headaches:
1. Bypassing Local Authority Rage
- The Problem: Local town councils hate demolition. If you try to bulldoze a massive, 10-platform Vactrain station inside a city to bring in oil or wood, the town’s rating of your company will instantly drop to “Appalling,” and they will ban you from building anything else.
- The Hub Solution: Building out in the middle of nowhere means zero local authority restrictions. The team can build massive, sprawling track layouts, multi-line junctions, and giant depots without ever needing city approval.
2. Managing Massive “Footprint” of Vactrains
- Insane Turning Radii: At 900+ km/h, Vactrains cannot handle sharp 90-degree turns without grinding to a near-halt. They require incredibly long, smooth, diagonal curves to maintain momentum.
- Station Length: To maximize the efficiency of a continent-spanning line, you need long trains (often 8 to 14 tiles long). An open field is the only place with enough flat, unobstructed space to accommodate both the massive station platforms and the massive approach tracks required for those high-speed lines. [1]
3. Industrial “Vacuum Cleaner” Effect
Because raw industries like oil wells and forests are scattered randomly across the map, you can’t realistically run a separate Vactrain line to every single one. Instead, the team uses their feeder networks (likely smaller, cheaper diesel/electric freight trains, or ships) to act as a vacuum: [1, 2]
- The Feeders: Go out into the rugged terrain, collect oil and wood from 5 or 10 different small industries, and bring them to the central open-field hub.
- The Transfer Mechanic: They use the “Transfer” command to dump the cargo at the hub without selling it yet.
- The Long Haul: The massive Vactrains then bulk-load that accumulated mountain of cargo and shoot it across the map to a distant refinery or sawmill for a truly massive payday.
It is turning out to be a brilliant strategy, at least it certainly seems to work for Master Hellish’ team on their live stream games right now! I plan to start incorporating ore of it in my games going forward…