Saying Hello and Posting Newbie Questions

[Brooklyn Pete]

Hello everyone! I'm Peter, and my love of trains was fostered from about the age of 3 by a narrow gauge heritage railroad that still runs a meandering 5 mile loop around cranberry bogs in Southeastern Massachusetts -- Edaville Railroad in Carver, Massachusetts (near New Bedford, MA where I was born and raised). To this day my heart belongs to steam, although RRT3 has warmed me a bit to more modern trains, especially electrics, of which I'm quite familiar thanks to the NYC subway system.

I've been playing RRT2 and 3 off and on for some years and consider myself fairly experienced at playing. I've even managed to create new maps and scenarios, including a couple I made from imported heightmaps (I've since hit a wall trying to create new TGA files that work with RRT3 but that's for another day). However, my current problem is that while I registered and downloaded some of the amazing new Hawk & Badger content I want to try, I've hit a dead end trying to figure out how to get any of it to work. Let me start with a very basic question.

1. Is there a simple step-by-step guide for what to do with a Map Scenario once it's downloaded from the Archives to get it to work in RRT3? Where do I put the extracted files, and how do I get them to appear in RRT3? Do I have to put them in a special place in the program subfolders for RRT3? From forum posts, I've inferred that there are exact places you have to place the files but I can't figure out how that works. Finally, how does RRT3 know that I've put new maps/engines/rolling stock/buildings into the system? I'm content to start slow and just get one new map to work and worry about the rest later.

If it's relevant, I have (the god-awful, worst version of Windows yet) Windows 8 and I downloaded RRT3 from Steam (which works perfectly with Windows 8 with no patches like those for Vista, etc.). My RRT3 has the Coast to Coast and 1.05 patches. Sorry for the lengthy first post, but much like Blanche Dubois, I've always depended on the kindness of strangers. Looking forward to sharing train experiences (virtual or otherwise) with all of you very soon!

Peter

[Blackhawk]

Well unfortunately, I'm not sure how things work exactly with the steam version of the game. Those of us that don't have the steam version have multiple installs of the game. (1.05, 1.06, some of us even have Trainmaster). viewtopic.php?f=82&t=2363

Many of the rolling stock comes with readmes that explain where to install the files to.

You would unzip files for scenarios that you downloaded and place the files in the "maps" folder in your RT3 directory. These files are .gmp files. I'm not sure where that would be in your Steam directory. Possibly Steam/Steamapps/RT3/Maps ? Once the .gmp file is in the /maps folder, the map should appear on the scenario list. (Unless the map was for another version of RT3). (A side note, .gms files are saved game files and would be found in your /Saves directory)

Locomotive files, the readmes should say, but the .lco and .car files would go in the data/enginetypes folder, and the other files would go in data/Poptopextracontent or userextracontent.

The first thing you have to do is find where the Steam directory for RT3 is, then once you find that you can start finding these subfolders where these add ons would install to.

Also be careful to only play 1.05 maps in your 1.05 install, as 1.06 maps that rely on additional cargoes and locomotives will not work in 1.05.

Edit: If you ever got tired of 1.05, you may be able to upgrade to 1.06 although it may be a little confusing and difficult to accomplish, but 1 person reported they were able to get 1.06 working on Steam. See this thread for details: viewtopic.php?f=82&t=3569

[Bcbuhler]

I have the Steam version of RT3 the game files are located at Program Files (x86)/Steam/Steam Apps/common/Railroad Tycoon 3. I have managed to get multiple installs through playing around with files and a no cd version of the game was required to upgrade to 1.06. I have all three 1.05, 1.06 and TrainMaster and they all work on Windows 7. Like Blackhawk said put the scenario .gmp's into the map file.

[Brooklyn Pete]

Thanks, everyone! I'm going to play around with this and see if I can make it work.

[Brooklyn Pete]

Bcbuhler solved my problem (it was quite simple). It was a Steam issue - when I installed RRT3 on my computer it created program files under the regular Programs folder on my C: drive. However, the Steam version of RRT3 apparently looks for its files under the Steam/ . . . /RRT3 folder, as you indicated. Now to see if I can get a few more maps to work and then work on the engines/skins and hopefully work up to 1.06 and Trainmaster (which seem to have even more good stuff). Thanks everyone for the valuable input on a problem that had me stumped!

[Blackhawk]

Good to hear you got it working!