new map: Dragozain (fictional)

[brunom]

For your pleasure..

This is supposed to be ready for archiving, but I still post it here first, so you fellas can share your reviews


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Have fun
B

[brunom]

There's an important background to this map, which matters nothing to anyone playing it, but that I wish to share.

The original Dragozain map dates to the 1990's, when I was a teenager and played Play-by-EMail games. Dragozain was a fictional land where I based a game called Time for Treason, in which I played as Game Master and around 12 guys played as medieval nobles in their duchies. This was hosted at Geocities and even after I quit playing it, I had regular requests for information and I kept the site just because I was so proud of both the webpage and the game.

In the meanwhile, I lost all files I had for that game when I had a laptop stolen years ago, and the other day I thought of retrieving the stuff from the site. Well, that was when I realized Geocities closed... There is an organization archiving what was on geocities and after some search I found the file with the original map.. (here's the link to what exists now: http://www.oocities.org/treasonmaster/)

It was a long effort to transform it into an RRT3 map. But I am happy - both happy with the result and happy that Dragozain "once again exists".

So, once again, I hope you enjoy it
B

[RayofSunshine]

Well Bronum,
If this scenario is anything like your previous scenarios, I am sure that we will find it of interest.
I am glad that you were able to find the "original" game, to transpose it into an RT version. It is always good to be able to share our creations with others, and especially to be able to attain the original game.
Thanks for the comments as to the original game. It gives us an idea of the immagination which was used in its creation, and for us to enjoy the RT version.

[brunom]

Making maps has been a hobby of mine since 10 or so... you wouldn't imagine the amount of drawings I had! (It pretty much explains this hobby of mine, nowadays, of making RRT3 maps)

Me and my friends had a "whole world", which I can still pretty much draw from memory, and all kinds of things we learned in geography, science or history, we'd incorporate in it. I have some ideas for maps based on that too (more on this later as I'm preparing another "fictional map" map for release).

For now, yep... I think you guys will enjoy Dragozain.

B

[RayofSunshine]

This is an interestng scenario, with its concept of challenges and goal. There wasn't any problem with the programing and I had a minimal amount of crashes and depressions.
As non of the programmed industries were available for purchase, I only invested in establishing a railway system. That however did not meet with the satisfaction of the authorities, as although I did manage to get an adequate amount of hauls to all the cities required, I fell short on the company profite to make the Silver. Therefore the scenario ended "that I should leave the country, and never come back". LOL
So in my next attempt, when I sneak back into the country, I will establish some industries for the needed revenue for the company profit.
There is a good selection of engines, so I did not have a problem to be able and navigate the "high" hills, but still tried to tried to mantain the lowest incline levels.
A great scenario, but I only played the Medium level.

[Hawk]

I almost made Gold. This screenshot is from Dec. 1924, just before I lost Gold, but got the Silver.
The year prior I had about $5.9 mil.

So close and yet so far.

Here's my industry list.

Fun and challenging map.

[RayofSunshine]

That is an interestng post Hawk. And it just goes to prove that a player has to have industry in order to get an adequate amount of revenue for the financial goals. I just tried it without that agenda and although I was connected to all but a few cities, I could not attain the Gold. However, I just never seem to have an adequate amount of revenue to purchase the higher yeilding industries, although on the 1st attempt, I did have good cash, but just tried the scenario without them. The secon attempt was even worse, as the economy was not yielding, or very little thru 1913, and was on the verge of getting fired.
As stated, a very interesting concept and challenge.

[brunom]

Thanks for posting your dealings with it, Hawk and Ray. If I haven't said before (I'm sure I have), I'll say now that that's what I enjoy the most about creating new maps.

This one is a fast-rush-for-money kind of map . It has a lot of industry opportunities and you simply can't fund expansion enough without that revenue. Moreover, without industry profits, it's dead hard to make more than $6 million yearly.

I have played this scenario quite a few times myself, because it's fun and quick. While there are some "routes" I always build, the map can be played in so many different ways and with so many different starts/expansion options that I never play it two times alike. So, two q's:

1 - despite the overall topography being hilly/mountainous, how hard was it to lay track with "pleasant" grades? were there significant problems that I should correct?

2 - did you come across any programming glitch / spelling mistake / "grammatical lunacy" (I'm quite good at "inventing" grammatical forms)

Thanks for testing, for posting and for replying. If you don't reply, I still love you guys
Give or take a couple of days and I will update this to the site properly, Hawk, deleting the version in here.

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[Hawk]

I didn't come across any programming glitches, and I really didn't pay much attention to spelling mistakes or "grammatical lunacy".

As for the terrain, I thought it was fine. I did have to go a little out of the way to lay track that didn't have to steep if a grade, but isn't that the way of real life anyway?

I still haven't been able to get Gold on this, even though I've tried several times, but that's most likely just me not paying close enough attention to things.

[brunom]

this is one for the "industry geeks"

[Hawk]

I'm usually pretty good at industry scenarios, but not being able to buy existing industries makes it a bit more difficult.
The key is to get a good seeding right from the start. The fewer textile mills, furniture factories and steel mills at the start, the better, especially furniture.
It seems that the textile mill is the only one cheap enough at start to buy.

[Wolverine@MSU]

I would agree with Hawk's comments. I just started a couple nights ago, but haven't played too far yet. First few years were just building industries, and now I'm laying track. Have connected all but one of the four initial target cities and have about 20 trains. Profits now in the $3-4 M range, but always increasing as I lay new routes. So far so good and will report back when I finish.

[brunom]

I guess I'll say what has been posted already 1000 times in this forum..
To control the entire production chain normally yields much more profit than having only the textile mill, or the furniture factory - even if they play the "star player" role in the chain.
Also, a big debt has a big toll on your yearly profit - if profit is a target, and pnw is not, it's important to replace bonds with stock whenever possible.

The only difficulty in this scenario is how fast it requires you to be, which means you need to balance track and industry really tightly. Obviously, Wolverine will excel in it - but even that sounds like an understatement

B

[Wolverine@MSU]

Finished it with a Gold on Expert with 7 years to spare. One thing to keep in mind whenever you have to haul something somewhere, like PAX to various cities in this scenario, is to look at the station overview to see what wants to go there from other stations. Usually we just look at what cargoes are at the station that want to be shipped out, but don't forget that when you click on a cargo, it also shows what other stations have this cargo to ship to the station you're at. It's the upper panel on the right side, and will only show a finite number of stations with that cargo to ship. Once I had my cities connected, I went to each of them, looked to see who wanted to ship PAX there, set up separate trains to haul them, and as I added more and more trains, more and more stations appeared showing they had PAX to send. It only took a couple of years to make the 50 PAX quotas to all cities. By the end of the game I was bringing in well over $12 M in profit, even durning a short Recession.

A nice map with mostly gentle grades and easy routes between cities. Had to double-track a lot to keep up with the Express trains hauling my precious cargo.

[brunom]

.... and that's a wrap concerning this beta .....

will post it to Hawk asap.

Big thanks for everyone who gave it a try.

B

[Hawk]

It's now available in the archives, in the Other Lands section.

[Sugus]

Yeah - that's (also) a map of my taste! My thanks go to brunom (silently once more).

Ok, by reaching Silver only, I didn't it really better than Hawk, but, I'm sure, that I will do it better on a second or third try, because I was only somewhat short in reaching the $6 million yearly for a final 5th time. Hmmmm ...

[brunom]

You'll see you can get Gold. It's not that hard at all, just be sensible in investing in industry and avoid spending all your money paying debt over the bonds over and over.

Now, the scenario I posted after this one - Kane... that's a serious struggle to achieve Gold...

Thanks for posting, Sugus, as always you are free to take it and translate it - though, unfortunately, that is not of so much use anymore.

Cheers
B

(and thanks for your euros in the bailout - i promise to pay them back )

[Hawk]

Thanks for posting, Sugus, as always you are free to take it and translate it - though, unfortunately, that is not of so much use anymore.

Cheers
B

For whatever it's worth, I'm in the process of adding all the translated maps from Molse's site to the archives here, as well as the maps that were on Molse's site that weren't here.
I've already completed the South America section. http://hawkdawg.com/rrt/rrt3/map_arch/r ... merica.htm

[Blackhawk]

Like Wolverine I finished this map with 7 years left. At first I thought this scenario was harder than Kane. I actually thought about stopping and restarting as I didn't think I'd be able to expand fast enough to get the PAX goal. I looked at the ledger screenshot Hawk posted and was worried I was running far behind his progress, but I continued on and eventually I hit a point in the scenario where everything was bringing in cash and it was easy to expand my track and industry at the same time. I believe the economy started to turn around for me during the last couple years of Communist rule, so I was able to expand quickly and I took out some lower interest bonds to buy the track and stations while they were still "cheap." From there it was just a matter of expanding track and industry at a quick enough pace to make sure I'd be able to get the PAX goals.

I started around Lazarc to Taruss to Kair-ed Eoc. Then connected to Juhamsa and Colmec. After that I stopped building track for awhile and turned to just building industries until around the last few years of the Communist rule, then I expanded down to Cormac and the surrounding cities, and the next year I'd expand up towards Korel while building down towards Uhman.
There was a time I think I had up to 7 million in bonds but they were down at a 8-9% interest rate so they didn't hinder my ability to get the $6 million in profits. Once I was making that much money, it was easy enough to pay off the bonds quickly. My profits actually jumped fairly quickly once the economy took off and I added a couple more industry. I only had one year where I made more than 4million but less than 6 million in profits. After that my company continued to just take off as I reinvested the money into new rail connections and industries.

I do have one concern though, I think the credit rating for the company actually is improved after the country ends up in bankruptcy. In a second check of it, my company went from a rating of A, to AA after the country went bankrupt.

Overall, a nice map that had me worried at first I wouldn't be able to meet the goals. And thankfully the terrain wasn't too mountainous to make building only connected track that bad of a task. It often bothers me in scenarios where I can't build from the other direction and link up the track but I didn't usually have that problem here.