Roman Empire

Discussion about reviews and strategies for user created scenarios made for RT3 version 1.05 and earlier.
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Hawk
The Big Dawg
Posts: 6503
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 10:28 am
Location: North Georgia - USA

Roman Empire Unread post

The following text is a compilation of what was salvaged from the old Gathering Forum. It contains postings from several different people.
Thanks goes out to Wolverine for putting this all together.

Hawk


Roman Empire
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I've placed my Roman Empire map at The Terminal.
http://theterminal.dune2k.com/?p=rrt3-files-maps
The cargo flow has been reduced by limiting the startup of industries.
The cost of industries has been reduced so that the player can place more industies as needed.
This is a what-if map. It is 1866 and the Roman Empire still exists.
History has been modified and Roman still has 11 Outposts. It has lost use of it shipping fleet and needs some way to supply the Outposts.
This is where you come in.
This map can be played as an open ended or as a win map.
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The loggers clearcut the Roman Empire Map and I forgot to replant it. O'well, I can't think of everything
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Not much to talk about until the 1.04 patch comes out. Everything has been said 10 times.
Since my Roman Empire Map is open ended - no time limit, I would be interested in knowing the following:
1. What was your best Gold win year - Years to win. 1866 to xxxx
2. How many trains did you run, on auto loads or custom loads etc., and
3. How much track did you use to reach Gold.
My guess is the competitive players will focus on the Gold and win in under 20 years.
Players like myself will connect 3 times more cities that necessary to win and receive the Gold in about 30 years.
My first Gold took 37 years. I ran about 75 trains most on auto load and built a lot of extra track but did not build/buy many industries. I was always out of money. I only bought track from the Portugal traders one time.
For my present game I'm limiting myself to 16 trains (replaceable) the number that fits on the screen without scrolling, all of which I will micro manage. Since I'm a builder I have already connected too many cities and I will build spur lines. It is just my style.
Maybe we can turn our focus to threads like this to releave the frustration, while we wait for the 1.04 patch.
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To help myself wait for the 1.04 patch I went out and bought trainz 2004. I had been waiting for the price to come down and got it the first weekend it was $30 (instead of $40). Now I've got two patches to wait for.
Thanks for the map! I'll be trying it soon!
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i like this map. its very challenging and creative. i hope you do another map soon.
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I'm waiting for the 1.04 patch and just doing some research for future maps at this point and playing some maps.
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If I don't get a gold until 37 years have elapsed, then I shall be 107.
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That's my score. Anyone can beat that. But, I know what you mean.
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Be aware the bond debt bug is still apart of RRT3 as it was in RRT2.
When merging another company if total bond debt goes over $10 million the game does not allow a way to pay back the excess over $10 million.
One requirement for Gold on this map is to be debt free.
This problem would apply to any map with the debt free event trigger in use, if 10 million is exceeded.
Hopefully the 104 patch will fix this.
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i really like the map. i have played about 15+ years already on it.
one question. where do i hire security for my railyards. someone keeps stealing my track
seriously tho, this is one of the most creative and unique maps ive played so far. it not easy and yet not hard
i am playing the map conservetivly so im not setting out to win the gold. im getting a feel for the map and the objectives. so much to do and keep track of.
please keep up the great work and let us know of any future maps you are thinking about.
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I think you will find the Roman Guards are busy in Spain.
Thanks for the kind words. I try to create maps that are different from the norm and/or have a twist of some sort.
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That you have done. Did I tell you how SADISTIC you are?
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Well you shouldn't trust those scull and bones pirates on the African coast that steal track from you.
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AFRICA - I ain't down to SPAIN YET!!!
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lol...i hear ya. the map is soo big and with track thieves running rampad...i dont think we will get too far. i think im gonna put up electrified fence around my railyard
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sent me word that the Roman Empire book keeper needs to be fired. Seems he doesn't keep track of time very well. He may collect your loan payments too early or not collect a payment at all.
The bank loans are now a gamblers game.
You could loose to or gain dollars from the banks.
I was going to remove these random events after I couldn't find the triggers I needed to make them work correctly.
Then I forgot to do it.
Should not affect game play very much by knowing the bankers can't figure. Or maybe they figure too much.
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Would someone with a good graphics card tell me how the
paint job looks on the Roman Empire Map.
I spent a lot of time with the paint tools for this map.
I lightened the water and land masses
and brightened the coast lines trying for more realism.
My card is not so good.
I'm putting off buying a new computer for a while.
The map was looking quite good when I finished it.
Also, I remember reading that the the colors do change to
some weird colors when a map uploads.
I've noticed that a number of maps have unrealistic colors.
There must be a method to moderate this color change that takes place.
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Putting off buying a new graphics card sounds smart to me, since if you buy anything now you'll have to get AGP and that's a dead end. If you wait six months you'll be able to get a pci express mobo & graphics card. Which will of course have all sorts of new driver problems but you can't have everything.
I looked at your map and thought everything looked ok. Just before I saw your post I had started to play the Great Northern map but didn't because it looked so bad (even the water is green). I tried to mess with coloring the water but couldn't get anything but a jagged (blocky) coastline.
There's no blue color swatch! All I could do is use the water-fill tool and it made the coastline totally harsh and blocky, then I couldn't get the paint to blend when I tried to paint in another color. And the minimum sized paintbrush is way too large. So I dont know how you do it!
The only suggestion that occured to me is try to do some beaches somewhere. Also, did I read somewhere else that you intentionally left out trees to help performance? Somebody said that somewhere about some map, but I dont remember where and I dont see it in this thread... Trees would look good but I guess they go in last?
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There's no blue color swatch! All I could do is use the water-fill tool and it made the coastline totally harsh and blocky, then I couldn't get the paint to blend when I tried to paint in another color.
if you're trying to paint 'sea' that's already there, hold down the control key when painting. it works a bit better doing that.
the other thing you can do is convert all water to land, re-paint it, then convert it back.
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That's weird. What kind of video card do you have? Two different type Nividia cards in two different computers show the water as a royal blue. But some of Pop Tops maps appear black-greenish me when they might appear to be blue to them.
But you can change the water in editor to what looks blue to you. Click the eye drop button in the color applicator and you will get 3 scales for red, green blue. Manually slide the blue to what you like. Then paint the water with the brush tool while holding the shift key down.
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Well most maps have blue water for me. Only the GN map has green water the same color as the ground. The Roman map has nice blue water. What I meant was when I click on Paint Terrain, then on "Paint with color from a swatch", none of the 32 predefined swatches are water colored.
I can click on "paint oceans, lakes" and then "Use fill tool", uncheck "Change height", check "Change color", click on "fill all points BELOW" and dump blue dye into the oceans, but it leaves a crappy blocky non-blended effect at the shoreline, and the ground at the bottom of the lake is still whatever color it was before (green), its just the transparent water gets a blue tint.
My video card is an ATI 9600 XT based card from Xstacy. But card settings (gamma and such) as well as your monitor have a lot to do with how colors look. Everyone's mileage varies. A long time ago I had an STB card that came with an elaborate color calibration procedure, including a mostly-opaque vinyl mask with holes in it that you stuck to the screen (it adheared by static electricity), then ran through a software-controlled series of q&a's and adjustments. And even then what your printer printed would be totally off from how things looked on the monitor because the printer isn't color calibrated either.
edit: K's tips work, combined with a custom blue color from the color picker. I think part of the trouble is the map is scaled a bit too much (big or small I dont know) -- the effect is that I want a smaller brush because I'm trying to paint features that are not much wider than the smallest brush, which then makes a blocky mess out of any edges I touch.
The map I was smearing around with is the GreatNorthern1.4 -- for no particular reason.
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I did a screen capture of the ocean color from the color picker with PaintBrush Pro to check the color. PBP says the RGB number is 4:8:96. Which is a blue color to my eyes. The actual ocean color when captured varies since it also reflects the sky color. Some RGB values are 21:30:78 and 15:39:86. But they also are shades of blue.
Use the solid paint brush at 100% for the lake and ocean bodies. Use the spray paint tool at 50-100% at the shore edge.
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pjay figured out what was going on with that. i was having the same complaint about this. the color 'array' is always the same, 1024 x 1024, i think it is, but the map scale can vary depending on what you've set it at. this means that if you have a very large map, the color array is going to have larger 'cells' than the map cells you see when you turn on the grid. that means that on a large map you are actually going to paint, even with the tiniest brush, a map area larger than one cell. this then tends to make doing shorelines very difficult, as the color cells overlap the map cells. think of it as two separate arrays, where the color array scales itself differently depending on the terrain array. i'm sure this was done to save file space. if the color array was pixelated so that you only painted one pixel at a time, the file sizes and ram usage would just be too large for any of us to use in playing the game. it works, but it makes painting a bit more difficult and less precise than say paint shop pro or photoshop.
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I saw something about PJay's discovery in the other thread, but didn't quite get the implication. You've explained it clearly, thanks.
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You should have seen some of the maps Gwizz whipped up for RRT 2.
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I think it's painted just fine. Like I said before, the Med is SO BLUE!!! Love it. Don't miss the trees. I see no problems with any colors.
Got a couple of hours in this weekend and made the Spain Outpost connection. Ready to move into Greece.
I'm REAL pissed off at Outpost 1. It wants NO GOODS and NO STEEL. I hijacked a train with the last loads of goods needed and sent them. Thought I'd try building a Tool and Die there to get a steel demand. Spent $300K and it STILL does not want the Roman Steel. Darn those fickle buyers!!!
I would suggest putting the three places you get 2000 rails into the Briefing. You don't need to say how much, just name them. I have to go into the editor to find them, and that gets too tempting to cheat on other events.
Still having fun with it.
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Excellent map. The only thing wrong I can see is no listing of buildable track cells in the ledger.
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I didn't think about adding buildable track cells in the ledger.
I have never tried to do that. Need to check that out.
They do list on the build track screen.
I had them in the status reports, but may have removed them.
I don't remember if I had spill over of the status screen or why the change.
I simply forgot to add the trees.
After playing the Roman Empire map so many times, I got use to where each city was located; But as a player I also have a problem finding cities on a new map. I need to remember to supply locators for the key cities in my future maps.
Thanks all for the helps.
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Any other players have any comments on the Roman Empire map before this thread is locked
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Hey you dont give us much time!! When I'd finally got to understand how this game works it was great. I connected all the outposts some time well before 1900 (no idea how much line I'd used) and only then realised that if you dont run specific consists none of the required goods gets hauled so put this on to each outpost and only then realised I hadn't put a minimum number of cars on each so they were running from Rome to Centa etc empty - which takes about 2 years there and 2 years back!
Anyway this lost me maybe 4 years and I got Bronze around 1898. Then I sat back and waited ... and waited .... and waited. Most simply didn't want one consist or another. Around 1912 I finally crept up to Silver and by now my previously fantastically profitable railway was getting deeper into the red (all bonds paid back but finished $10m in red) and after a few more years I was fed up and gave up with Spain still refusing to take Steel as unprofitable to carry and Tunis refusing Goods.
Having said that I enjoyed the map and the context of the story line - making it open ended also adds to the fun. There is definitely a problem with the loan offer - 1st time I took $3m and didn't get it (but didn't have to pay it back) 2nd time I took $1m just to see what would happen - got it and (presumably) 5 years later was asked to pay back $1.5m - but only lost about half this - unless a major train load(s) arrived at the same time I didn't follow what had happened.
On to another try/next map! Oh, I was in Expert by the way - dont know what difference this makes.
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probably too early to ask, I'm on the way in Tolosa, heading for Spain. I spotted this roman road through Spain to Portugal. Now, I expect that Spain will turn hostile soon and throw me out. So the best thing would be to use this corridor, but it is not adjacent to France so in case of losing access to Spain, the connection will be cut anyway. Or can I tunnel this stretch of spanish territory, and the tunnel will be unharmed?
Thanks for this awesome map, I will turn it into german (and, if you don't object, present it on a german server)
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Am I supposed to lose track even when the game is pause (not track thats built but track thats part of my allotment). The amount of track I have to lay seems to decline slowly. I can't tell if its a design feature or something is messing w/ my game ( i'm running it windowed and lots of other programs running at same time).
I've just begun this map but it sure looks nice.
sorry for the repost i didn't mean to post it as a new post before.
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Thanks for the fed back.
This is a busy map.
Seems like some of the events go random.. Sometimes they work correctly and then for the next player an event or two missfire.
Well Off for the coast.
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Well I finally managed to get Gold on Expert. Connected all the outposts prior to 1890. Took till 1905 to get Bronze and 1913 Silver and thought I'd pack it in as Steel was impossible to haul to two outposts. Then I added two Steel Works in Rome and upgraded all four to try to drive prices down and that didn't work (altho it cost lots of money being big loss makers). As there's no industry requiring steel buildable I tried Tool & Die and built two at each of the outposts and that must have done it cos I got Gold a couple of years later.
I had $100m cash at one point (around 1900 - 1910) but this was whittled down to a mere $69m at the end. My shareholders (mostly me) hated me all the time (even when I turned in $25m profit!) and cut my salary to practically nothing so I paid myself $3m in dividends and got rich. To keep from boredom whilst I waited for that steel to get delivered I connected to every city on the map - which I have to say is a great one. I also noticed it took four years to get a train from Rome to the furthest outposts - but they seemed to take less time coming back!
Thanks GWizz.
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Quote: Seems like some of the events go random.. Sometimes they work correctly and then for the next player an event or two missfire.

that's the same problem i'm encountering on my heavy event maps, gwizz. thus, i'm waiting for the new patch before testing and releasing any more of this type of scenario. the mis-fires in mine just screw everything else up if they dont happen.
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Yep that's right. Forgot to mention last post but I was offered loans cos I wasn't making enough money even when I was pulling in $10m+ pa and at the end when I was losing say ?5m pa the loan offers stopped!
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Thanks again for the feed back.
I hope the 104 patch fixes these problems.
They take the fun out of testing a map.
On the Roman Empire Map, For the outposts that are far away, I started many trains early, on a one way trip, with required cargo, going first to a nearby station. Then I redirected (hijacked) the cargo as I built track ahead of these trains.
Spain was tougher to supply.
This is one map that can cause you to spend a lot of time on pause.
Other trains were used to make a profit or to supply Rome with raw materials. After the trains reached their outposts, I would send them to some other station, whereever I could use them to make a good profit.
The best time was a little over 20 years using many trains. (94 or 95)
Using less then 40 trains it took nearly 40 years for Gold.
I'm sure these scores can be beat.
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wrote: ...I was offered loans cos I wasn't making enough money even when I was pulling in $10m+ pa

That's a bug. For the event, check against Player only must be activated. (The message comes every year, because the AI German Railroad is making <5m pa)
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Hmm, something isn't right here. I'm going to have to have a talk with the manager at the Tunis outpost.
He's counting everything but the goods. I've been hauling to there like crazy (not easy since their demand for Roman goods is negligable) but none of the goods deliveries are being counted.
Everything else is. I had 10 of 11 fully supplied, but Tunis just will not count the goods.
Alas!
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The pirates of Tunis can be very active. I tend to over supply everything.
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Orange46
Dispatcher
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Location: NW of Chicago

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This is a fairly straight foward cargo delivery scenario. You have to deliver essentially the same 4 cargoes to 11 different Roman outposts. Because the cargoes are the same and the scenario tells you when you have completed your deliveries to a destination, it isn't too hard to manage. At first, it appears that track limitations could cause problems, but this doesn't happen. Also, it's not too hard to produce the requisit cargoes and it is very easy to make money, so the scenario is really about building track, delivering goods and travelling thru lots of new locals.

There doesn't seem to be a time limit, so most should be able to play on to gold. After finishing, I peeked at the well organized events, and it looks like help might even be provided to those who get in to financial difficulty.

About the only change I would suggest would be to drastically increase the difficulty for the expert level (an idea I got from one of the other recent scenarios). Perhaps the random bad events should be stepped way up - I only got hit twice and it didn't really cause me much trouble, other than figuring out what French trains disappeared and replacing some track in North Africa. Also, the industry subsidy could be eliminated and the track allotments reduced for the expert level.

This is another enjoyable scenario that causes RT3 to prevent me from getting on to other things.
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Ace of Spades
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I just started playing this & it seems pretty cool. One thing I noticed is that when I click on an industry, I can't see if it's making money or not. I can see it in the Industry section of the Ledger, though. Could this be because I'm using 1.06?
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Hawk
The Big Dawg
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Just a slim shot but did you try clicking on the button on the top right? :wink:

Image

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Hawk
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Ace of Spades
Hobo
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Location: Hamburg, PA

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Yep...I get the little production icons on all of them, but not the financial info. Plus, it's only on certain ones. For example, I can check coal mine A & get all the info, but check coal mine B & get nothing. I can't get the financial info on any of the farms. I seem to be able to get everything on Tool & Dies & Construction Firms. Strange....
Gwizz
CEO
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Joined: Sat Nov 11, 2006 6:45 pm

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I'm finding the same problem on another map using the 106.
The way I play it is not a biggy. I pay little attention to the numbers.
But for the players that do watch the numbers, I guess it could be a fairly big problem.
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Hawk
The Big Dawg
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I'll have to keep my eye out for this and see if it happens to me too, since it only happens on some.
Hawk
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JayEff
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If an industry is pre-built in the editor, and the date was later than the current game year you are playing in, the profit and loss data will not show. It will show when you get to the date the industry was created and beyond. The year you do your editing can have this weird effect.
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ChrisW
Watchman
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Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2007 11:20 pm

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Aha, interesting! So ideally, you should set the year to the start of the scenario or earlier when you're editing?
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Ace of Spades
Hobo
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JayEff wrote:If an industry is pre-built in the editor, and the date was later than the current game year you are playing in, the profit and loss data will not show. It will show when you get to the date the industry was created and beyond. The year you do your editing can have this weird effect.
I'll keep an eye on that. Thanks!

It shows up in the ledger, so I can least see if my industries are making money there.
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JayEff
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ChrisW wrote:Aha, interesting! So ideally, you should set the year to the start of the scenario or earlier when you're editing?
Yep, and it is weird the way you have to do it. It depends on the year you were in the last time you played a scenario, any scenario, before you opened the editor.
Gwizz
CEO
Posts: 1100
Joined: Sat Nov 11, 2006 6:45 pm

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It continues to amaze me how much deepth this game has. I'm continuely learning something I didn't know before.

Did I understand correctly: The date of the last map I played will affect the build date of pre-started industries for the next map opened in the editor where these buildings are planted?

Thanks for sharing that.
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OilCan
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Re: Roman Empire Unread post

At first look this seems to be a game with complicated requirements...but it is not. It is a simple connect and haul game. And it is great fun. I'm one outpost short of a gold and have enjoyed the entire game - spent all weekend on it. Earlier comments above my post spell out the best approaches to this game, so I won't repeat them here. I will echo the game author's own comments to not let Rome territory get overcrowded with trains. This is an excellent game to practice merging and milking AI companies. In fact, you have to absorb an AI company at the start of the game...even before you unpause the game. It also offers good practice for starting a successful second company(ies). You will probably find yourself sidetracking supply trains in southern Spain, bound for N. Africa, as you wait for 1895 and the invention of suspension bridges. There is no time limit, so go slow and enjoy your trains and railroads. I give this game a thumbs up. !*th_up*!
low_grade
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Re: Roman Empire Unread post

So, I may finish this scenario, though there's the requirement that the required cargoes be shipped from Rome, and I haven't checked the editor to make sure that's what the ledger is telling me, because it appears bronze and silver don't care where the loads come from...

But what a crazy hoot! 80% off industry???? I netted $26M in my third year! Entire network built in 5. Who needs to wait for suspension bridges? But I'm not being very careful, and was playing a side game of seeing how much I could boot the other guy out of my company. Went $100M in personal debt with margin buying, lol! Paid it all back with dividends within a few years, and ended up with 99% of my company.

Track limit is really not an issue. If you self restrict to no industry, this map would probably be okay, but with 80% off building and buying, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too easy, not recommended if you can't resist. Unless you just want a hoot, and not a challenge.
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