Help making a Southwest map

[Stoker]

P.S. Something I didnt include in that explanation is the "Limited access" portion of the territories menu. If you intend to make territories available without purchasing them, and the goal is only to make the person start in L.A., you would NOT select "limited access" in the territories menu for each territory, as the Event that has the Effect: "Territories enable all" FALSE at the scenario start turns them all off- then the series of events I described turns them on without purchase. You WOULD selct "limited access" for MEXICO, and type in the amount you wish to purchase rights there for, and NOT make an enabling event for it, as this is handled through the in games' "Players territories" menu.

Edit to add: I have re-read through this explanation, and it is fairly confusing, i know. but the steps listed are correct to do what you stated, which is to force the person to start in L.A. then allow the rest of the US, and pay to enter Mexico. Just remember when programming that each command is really a simple yes/no and that you must tell the computer exactly what territory-player-companny- etc that you are referring to every time you make an event, and that you need a separate event for each different territory, as there is no "exclusion" function for them i.e "All territories EXCEPT X" .

[Stoker]

Something was bugging me about this explanation, so I made a test map. I made two errors. 1. you must exclude territories individually if you have one or more that can be purchased. The other is that you should exclude them "when a company is started" instead of at the start of scenario. Here is a map that explains how to script these events Kevin, it is a very small map and hence a tiny file. Take a look at this (load it an play it) and get back to me if you have any questions.

Edit to add: Making a tiny test map like this is a good way to work out events, rather than trying them on your pride and joy map and possibly introducing flawed events that are difficult to track down later and a micro map like this will load instantly when your are testing something.

[Grandma Ruth]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but wouldn't the easiest way to make the player start in LA be to start the company and build a station there in the Editor before the game "starts". Don't know if that explains properly what I mean and as usual I'm at work so can't get to any scenarios to give examples.
But there are quite a few where the human player's company is already started up with at least a station built.

[Stoker]

That would definitely be easier, but Kevin wanted to make it so that you have to start your company in this scenario.

[WPandP]

Can one just make it such that all Territories are unavailable to the player at start, but the "LA" territory is an affordable purchase while all others are prohibitively expensive? Then, as the player achieves certain milestones, the purchase price for other Territory rights can drop; maybe even an auto-drop that happens annually (i.e. every territory becomes a little cheaper each year after game start). The player would be forced to select LA - maybe even make that a triggered event upon company start - but would get the freedom of starting their company from scratch.

[Stoker]

Yes , that is possible. The scenario Kevin outlined seemed to only have the requirements that the player has to start a company which precludes pre-making a company and placing first station in the desired stariting point of L.A. and that the player then has access to the US states, but has to purchase Mexico. Making it so that other states have to be purchased would use the same events I included in the demonstration map- the difference being that any to be purchased would NOT have the exclusion event for them and they WOULD have the "limited access" box checked in territories menu- the same as Mexico is treated in the demonstration map. The demonstration map I made that is posted above has the correct Events in it, and it really isnt that big of a deal- about 6 events total- a few more depending on how many states there are on the map. I spent about a half hour trying to type out the instructions to do this and still had a couple of mistakes, and about 10 minutes to make the demonstration map, which has the correct events...

[KevinL]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but wouldn't the easiest way to make the player start in LA be to start the company and build a station there in the Editor before the game "starts". Don't know if that explains properly what I mean and as usual I'm at work so can't get to any scenarios to give examples.
But there are quite a few where the human player's company is already started up with at least a station built.

Age of Steam II is one, I'm playing it now. But as Stoker said, I dont want to limit the player to whatever company and logo I come up with. I am generous enough to let the player start and come up with their own company name.
I'm having a hard enough time coming up with auxillary events and bonuses other than the major goal of connecting the cities. Most of the good stuff happened in the early days of rail, and there isnt much recently. Is there?

[nedfumpkin]

Players can always change the company name and logo if they want, but I like that you want to give them the option of determining how much they invest in the company, which is sometimes important if there is a PNW goal since on those scenarios I like to get all my companies stock as soon as possible since your PNW then gets pretty much equal to your companies value.

Something you might want to consider for your scenario is the recent train crash in LA. Perhaps build a story around it and safety.

I'm currently working on Mr. Scott's Wyoming and Lackawanna Valley base map to create the tutorial for Trainmaster, and something I discovered was that the early 0-4-0 locomotives weren't suitable for North America because they kept coming off the tracks, so for that, rather than have an average speed that has to be met, I am working in the idea of having a maximum speed that if the player goes over then their breakdowns are increased.

Since we are limited on the early locomotives, I am playing with the idea of choosing the Norris 4-2-0 or the Balwdin 0-6-0 (both came out of Philly), or both. Depending on the choice the player makes, the max speed is either 15 mph (Baldwin) or 18 mph (Norris). If both are chosen then 15 mph.

Just some thoughts I wanted to share in case they spur your imagination.

[KevinL]

I just wanted to mention that this isnt dead, its just in hibernation. Its a lot more fun to play scenerios than to create them.

I have the base map all done with all the resources and industries placed in each city. I'm currently researching events to make the game more interesting.

[KevinL]

Wow, I feel terrible that I have been working on this for a year now, and dont have much to show for it. The map is done, I'm just trying to make the events work, and have them make sense.

I'm still having trouble locking the other states until a company is created and a station placed in the Los Angeles territory. I need to review other maps again and see how its done.

A minor bug, I have a bonus given when you link another city to Los Angeles "when a station is placed" with a newspaper pop up announcing the $2 million bonus. However, the game is giving the bonus immediately on connection, and then when you exit the "track laying" or "station laying" screen, then the newspaper pops up. Any way to fix that so the newspaper shows first, and then you get the money bonus?

I've also considered scrapping the idea of having this be a semi-modern scenerio starting in 1975 - present, and instead starting in 1945 after WWII and changing history to make railroads more popular than cars and planes.

[Hawk]

Don't give the money as an effect for the station placed. Instead use an effect such as Player Variable 1=1, then create another event with the condition as Player Variable 1=1 and the effect is the money and set that to test either weekly or monthly, depending on how long you want the player to wait after the connection.
This way the Player Variable 1=1 won't test true until the previous event sets the Player Variable 1 to 1. Then the second event will finally test true a week/month after the first one.
Leave the first event as the newspaper headline.