Construction Simulator 4 Guide - Begin your journey towards building a blue-collar empire
Simulator games never fail to delivery a vicarious thrill and none come much bigger or better than Construction Simulator.
In Construction Simulator 4 and its try before you buy version, Construction Simulator 4 Lite, fans have been treated with the chance to operate more machinery than ever before - over 80 different types to be precise - and play alongside friends with an online co-op feature.
Of course, playing with friends can have its drawbacks if you're the greenhorn of the group holding everyone up, so to make sure you have a trouble free-time managing your resources and completing your builds we've put together the following essential guide. So put on your hard hat and click below to get started.
1
Preparing for the long road ahead
The first step is, of course, setting your game up. You will need to create your character, which includes picking your look, preferred colour, and company name, which is pretty fun. You can also adjust the length of the economic cycle but to begin with, you want to leave it at 90 minutes until you get the hang of it.
There are a few other options to play with after you are used to everything. You can switch on advanced traffic rules, which will get you fined if you violate road rules. If you want to get really fancy you can switch the hydraulic-based machines to ISO mode for a more realistic feel, but that will make your first run tricky, so keep Violations off and Controls to Arcade for now.
2
Never skip the tutorials
After you've picked your settings, you will meet Happe who will show you how the game plays, which leads us to our second tip; pay attention to the tutorial. An obvious one, yes, but one too many people skip. You will learn how to drive, load your truck, use the map, and all manner of other vital tools.
Use this time to learn the routes to useful locations like the gravel pit and sawmill, in case you want to avoid paying for fast travel. Funds will be important in the beginning so it's worth manually driving to places where you can. After the tutorial, you will be placed in charge of your own company, and then the real fun can begin.
3
Cut your teeth on a few general contracts
When you enter the proper game, you will have the opportunity to pick your own path. In the Job section, there are two options; the campaign stages which will unlock new districts and additional homebases, and general contracts you can complete at random. You will need to get intimate with the latter of these.
This is because most campaign jobs will require machine types at certain ranks. To gain access to these you will need two things; experience and money. You will unlock the higher-level machines in the store by reaching a minimum experience level, so get to work. After you unlock the machines, however, you will be faced with the next choice.
4
The choice to rent or buy follows us wherever we go
You have two options when picking up machines; renting or buying. If you buy your machines outright you have the benefit of keeping them indefinitely, but you will need to pay monthly maintenance costs based on how worn they are. You can store machines in your vehicle hall to halt them from gaining wear, and they will even get repaired for free, so keep your fleet stored when you don’t need them.
The next option is renting, which is pretty self-explanatory. On the plus side, the machines won’t wear so you don’t need to worry about repairs and maintenance. On the flip side, though, you are charged per minute for how long you keep them. To keep costs low, make sure to get the job done with them quickly and immediately return them. To start, you will mostly be renting to keep costs low, and managing finances is very important as you will also need to buy building materials for each job. So before accepting a job, ensure you have the funds for both machines and materials.
5
Gain some additional bonuses
As you play, complete contracts and level up, you will start to earn skill points. So, here's another obvious tip; spend your skill points. These will help you out with earning money and experience, vehicle expertise, and earth movement or transport skills. The best place to start on your first run is the extra money and experience skills, just for that additional boost.
Another way to earn some additional money and experience, amongst some other benefits, is by chasing all gamers' kryptonite; achievements. By hitting the road, discovering new areas, completing jobs, or simply heading off the beaten path and finding them in the wild, you will pick up medals and achievements, offering the previously mentioned rewards, plus a few other benefits. So, it’s worth getting your achievement-hunter head-on.
After a few jobs, you will be ready to give yourself a bigger challenge with traffic violations and the other options, but for your fledgling runs stick to this guide and you will do fine. Watch your finances and don’t bite off more than you can chew, and soon you will be the biggest construction business in the virtual world.