Dry Lake - Beta Version

Discussion about reviews and strategies for user created scenarios made for RT3 version 1.05 and earlier.
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OilCan
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Dry Lake - Beta Version Unread post

A simple game of hauling goods - mostly iron. Meant to be fairly easy and fun. Does have a PNW goal as well but shouldn't be that hard to achieve. No AI - so issue stocks when needed. There are some built in surprises: some good, some distractions and some otherwise.

1.05 version. North Am. steam trains. No crashes.

Would appreciate any comments or suggestions to improve the game.

Note: Removed the Beta on Sept 7, 2012.
Last edited by OilCan on Fri Sep 07, 2012 10:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Hawk
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Re: Dry Lake - Beta Version Unread post

Man, I failed miserably on this one, and that was on medium difficulty. ^**lylgh
Dry Lake.jpg
I'm going to have to try this one again. This time with a bit different strategy. A little more aggressive.

Maybe if the cheaper tunnels were made available a little earlier. ;-)
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Re: Dry Lake - Beta Version Unread post

I played on a littler longer and got Bronze in Jan. 1891
The screenshot in the previous post was taken in Jan. 1890
Dry Lake 2.jpg
So is it 30 or 31 years?
Were you able to actually haul 1,000 loads in 31 years?

Had I played it a bit differently, the PNW would ave been attainable in 31 years for Gold.

Unfortunately I didn't connect to a few of the iron mines early enough and they disappeared before I got to them. Those were the mines around Hades. I connected to all the others.

Just out of curiosity, why is building two stations in Mercy considered cheating? Does it have to do with load/unload times?
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Re: Dry Lake - Beta Version Unread post

I played on, even though I'd already got the Bronze, just to see how long it would take me to hit the 1,000 loads of Iron. I finally made it in May, 1904
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OilCan
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Re: Dry Lake - Beta Version Unread post

Hawk, you actually did very well for a first try.
On of the things that might help is to 'assisgn a camera view' to each of your stations which capture iron (Shift - number). This allows you to jump quickly from mine site to mine site to make sure a train is waiting for the ore.

And you need a train waiting at all times so this means adding trains at a mine site until the trains start returning on their own. I set the custom consists at 3 cars for the nearby mines, 5 for the mid distance mines and 7 for the far off mines.
Hawk wrote:Just out of curiosity, why is building two stations in Mercy considered cheating? Does it have to do with load/unload times?
There is a hidden territory under the Misery station. If a second station is allowed to be built within the cache of the Misery station then all player needs to do is haul iorn between the two stations and run up the total count. A second station allows a way to cheat and had to be prevented.
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Hawk
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Re: Dry Lake - Beta Version Unread post

I did have enough trains set up so that there was always a train waiting at a mine station for loads. ;-)
I had pretty much the same set up for loads on trains that you suggested.
I'll try and remember that camera assign trick.

I see what you're talking about for cheating now. I did build a second station at Misery. That's how I found out. ^**lylgh
It wasn't with the intent of cheating though. I was just doing it to lighten the congestion at the primary station. I never even considered the cheating aspect.

I will say, I like this scenario. I'll definitely play it again.
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Wolverine@MSU
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Re: Dry Lake - Beta Version Unread post

I just started it yesterday and have 3 sets of mines connected. I'll let you all know how I get on, but so far so good. Had to micromanage the iron hauls a bit at first to make sure that i was able to get 5 loads each year (had to stop a 5-load train short of the Misery station and restart it the following year). Have bought/built some industry, but most funds have gone toward traversing the vast open spaces with rails. Fun so far, and we'll see how challenging it becomes to get the iron to Misery.

Oh, by the way Hawk, as far as a second station there, remember "Misery loves company" *!*!*!
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Hawk
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Re: Dry Lake - Beta Version Unread post

Wolverine@MSU wrote:
Oh, by the way Hawk, as far as a second station there, remember "Misery loves company" *!*!*!
In this case, that's not necessarily true. :mrgreen:
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OilCan
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Re: Dry Lake - Beta Version Unread post

I use the assign camera view thing alot in games. I like to assign views to my key industries and to my central station. It really helps me to quickly check on how things are going.

Congestion at Misery was intended to become a big issue - but it can be dealt with by approaching the station from both directions and creating special dedicated tracks (later in the game). In this kind of game one has to continually tend to their rail network by double tracking, re-aligning and creating "express" routes.

Wolverine mentioned "vast open spaces" - that was intended too. I wanted give the feeling of expansiveness, of building track across wide areas of nothingness. The dry lake bed fit that perfectly.
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Re: Dry Lake - Beta Version Unread post

This is really a great fun scenario. Enjoyed it very much, although I was not able to even get the BZ the 1st attempt. Missed the haul by 13 loads of iron.
Managed to get all and take advantage of all the "options". Believe I made a mistake of tracking to Chimney area, instead of Iron Valley. I just believed it best to extend the track "Stinky"(?), as it was to help with the Prisioner transportation.
Tunnels were just too expensive, so basically all the track was around the mountains.
As for the Misery congestion, I just double tracked all the way to mines forward of Skillet. My biggest problem was that of payable loads back to the Iron Valley mines. I had at least 3 trains operating from each of the mine areas.
Basically the only time that I used other than the Sterling, was for that of hauls coming from the Chimney areas.

Overall, it was a lot of fun. :salute: {,0,}
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Wolverine@MSU
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Re: Dry Lake - Beta Version Unread post

I got through this one without a hitch. managed Gold on Expert in Jan 1885 (see screenshot of Dec '84 saved game). In Dec '84 I went into the Editor and upped the goals so I could play on and wound up after 30 years with the second screen shot. As you can see from the Cargo Overlay map, the Iron was piling up at Misery to the extent that other cities actually had a higher demand for Iron than Misery; go figure **!!!** . A few comments:

1. In the Events, you need to have the years counter come before the Medal awards events. Remember that the game processes events in the the order they are listed, so the medal check currently comes before the years counter is incremented, and the game doesn't end until after 31 years have passed. Also, the Bronze Medal event needs to come AFTER the Silver medal event, otherwise it triggers first, even if the player has achieved the Silver Medal requirements. As a general rule, Medal awarding events should come very near the top of the event list.

2. Check the "Event Validation" summary. I'm not sure how these errors effect event firing, but event checking (yearly, monthly, weekly etc.) should correspond to the Condition evoked. Although not listed, the "Summer Heat" event is supposed to trigger in May, but it is set to trigger at the beginning of the year. I wasn't paying attention to the messages, so I don't know whether is successfully fired throughout the game.

3. Thanks for the reminder dialog about Tool & Dies not taking Iron after 1877. I didn't realize this when I built a T & D just to the West of the Warehouse that demanded the Iron in Misery and promptly bulldozed the Warehouse so it wouldn't sop up the Iron. Fortunately, I had a saved game and could go back and rethink this strategy. Looking more closely at the Cargo overlay, and seeing where the Iron delivered to the Misery Station first moved to, I repositioned the T & D to take advantage of the movement of Iron from the station. I actually built another on the same economic cell and reaped huge profits until 1877 when they stopped using Iron. Which bring up the next point:

4. After the T & D stops taking Iron, it really piles up in Misery to the point where some of the Iron Mines actually had a higher demand than Misery itself, and only by using Custom Consists, and shipping at a loss was I able to get the Iron to move to Misery. Perhaps by adding some Coal Mines around 1875 and enabling the Steel Mill, the excess Iron can be utilized to make steel, and give raw material to the T & D shops to keep them profitable.

5. I like the beginning of the year options (Credit Rating boost, Interest rate drop, etc.) as well as the other opportunities to gain allies and improve services (I took them all).

All in all a very fun scenario. I was so well along in track building by the time "Explosives" arrived, I didn't bother with it; tunnels at that point would not have done much for my bottom line. I agree with Ray that double tracking is a must at some point, and not just at Misery station. By the end of the game I had double tracked almost all of my rails, and even then, some of the routes were quite congested. The map seems very balanced, although cargoes are somewhat limited (intentionally, which is a good thing). I did notice that a Furniture Factory placed right next to a highly productive Lumber Mill failed to make money most years as it didn't seem to create a localized demand for Lumber, resulting in trains hauling the Lumber away to other cities. Same thing seemed to happen with Breweries, which didn't want to attract Grain or Rice as much as one might expect, and as a result were largely unprofitable. The exception was a Brewery that came up in Kettle, and was adequately fed by three Grain Farms nearby.
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Hawk
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Re: Dry Lake - Beta Version Unread post

Wolverine@MSU wrote:and shipping at a loss was I able to get the Iron to move to Misery.
Do I understand correctly that you played this map in 1.06?
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Re: Dry Lake - Beta Version Unread post

Hawk wrote:Do I understand correctly that you played this map in 1.06?
Yes, was I not supposed to? I didn't notice that it was a 1.05 map. If so, I'll have to go back and replay it.
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Re: Dry Lake - Beta Version Unread post

From the first post in this thread. :mrgreen:
OilCan wrote: 1.05 version. North Am. steam trains. No crashes.
The advantage in 1.06 being shipping at a loss.
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OilCan
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Re: Dry Lake - Beta Version Unread post

I greatly appreciate the comments.
Wolverine@MSU wrote: 1. In the Events, you need to have the years counter come before the Medal awards events. Remember that the game processes events in the the order they are listed, so the medal check currently comes before the years counter is incremented, and the game doesn't end until after 31 years have passed. Also, the Bronze Medal event needs to come AFTER the Silver medal event, otherwise it triggers first, even if the player has achieved the Silver Medal requirements. As a general rule, Medal awarding events should come very near the top of the event list.
Correct! I had all the medal events lined up but didn't do a final check - they get scrambled when I add or remove an event. I have noticed that once the event list gets lengthy, whenever I try to move a new event up through the list the order of the events gets messed up.
2. Check the "Event Validation" summary. I'm not sure how these errors effect event firing, but event checking (yearly, monthly, weekly etc.) should correspond to the Condition evoked. Although not listed, the "Summer Heat" event is supposed to trigger in May, but it is set to trigger at the beginning of the year. I wasn't paying attention to the messages, so I don't know whether is successfully fired throughout the game.
I'll double check this. Thanks for catching it.
4. After the T & D stops taking Iron, it really piles up in Misery to the point where some of the Iron Mines actually had a higher demand than Misery itself, and only by using Custom Consists, and shipping at a loss was I able to get the Iron to move to Misery. Perhaps by adding some Coal Mines around 1875 and enabling the Steel Mill, the excess Iron can be utilized to make steel, and give raw material to the T & D shops to keep them profitable.
I thought long and hard about adding the steel industry but always kept coming back to the theme of game being iron hauling - I didn't want steel making to become the focus of the game, even if it was in the later years of the game. I too noticed that trains were running iron ore back to the iron mines (and to other stations). The warehouse can accept 48 iorn every year, yet, even with 1.05 haul for profit, I was able to ship over a 100 loads in one year to the warehouse: obviously quite a bit of iron was being shipped away from Misery. I think this is one of those things which one has to just let it be.
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Re: Dry Lake - Beta Version Unread post

Ray of Sunshine wrote:This is really a great fun scenario. Enjoyed it very much, although I was not able to even get the BZ the 1st attempt. Missed the haul by 13 loads of iron. ....... I had at least 3 trains operating from each of the mine areas.
Ray, thanks for the comments. Sorry you missed Bronze by so few loads. Next time you may want to consider adding more than 3 trains per mine site. I think I had 5 trains at the closest mine site and the trains grew in number as the distance increased to the mine site. I didn't count, but I'm guessing that I had about 25-30 trains running from Iron Valley (had two stations and added a new train about every 3 months until they started to return).
I had to add even more trains to every site once the iron production increased.
I know you will do much better next time! :-D
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Re: Dry Lake - Beta Version Unread post

I may be taking a little different approach than others here. So far I'm only 13 years in and I don't do it all the time but for the longer routes, like to Iron Valley, I use the American 4-4-0 and just have them wait at the station til it's a full load and then send them to Misery. Once they got to Misery, I used them to replace some of my older Americans. After that I just started scrapping them. They cost 40k, yet I'd spend more than that in fuel just to get them back to Iron Valley. Sure they could haul something back to somewhere like Toast, but the amount of profit in that seemed negligible at the time. Unfortunately this requires a lot of micromanagement in that i'm frequently making new trains and/or assigning them elsewhere. I think I allowed a few consolidations on the same run to survive though as they get a little better fuel efficiency. So far so good for the map. I'll report back when I get further.
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Re: Dry Lake - Beta Version Unread post

Nice to see that I'm not the only one who missed a medal at the first try. :-D Fulfilled the iron loads (for Bronze), but didn't it concerning the PNW. Nevertheless, it IS a great scenario - absolutely what I prefer to play! !$th_u$! OilCan !**yaaa
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OilCan
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Re: Dry Lake - Beta Version Unread post

Hawk wrote:Were you able to actually haul 1,000 loads in 31 years?
Yes, but not every time. Here's the final tally from my latest game. Made both the haul count and PNW well before the 30 year deadline.
DR1.JPG
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Re: Dry Lake - Beta Version Unread post

OilCan wrote:
Hawk wrote:Were you able to actually haul 1,000 loads in 31 years?
Yes, but not every time. Here's the final tally from my latest game. Made both the haul count and PNW well before the 30 year deadline.
DR1.JPG
wow. is this a joke? i'm gonna play this game and see what you map creators have come up with - (0!!0) . (most likely i'll have 10,000 loads by the 31 year deadline, lol)
gismoskip, current RT3 player working on the maps of tomorrow for RT3. better belive it.
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