I know I'm dumb, but could someone give me a hand?

[Hawk]

I discovered that XP doesn't recognize more than about 3 Gb.

Actually, that's not just an XP issue. How much RAM an OS will recognize is dependent on whether it's 32 bit or 64 bit. That applies to Win 7 as well.
Win 7 32 bit will only utilize about 3.2 GB of RAM no matter how much more you install.
XP 64 bit will utilize more than 4 GB of RAM, but not as much as Win 7 64 bit.

I have XP 32 bit with 4 GB of RAM, but it only utilizes about 3.2 GB.

[Blackhawk]

I tried it with black for the oceans, and it just gave sea level grass! I've tried all sorts of setting on the modifiers; on height I've tried everything from 0.0 - 1.0; on mountains I've tried everything from 0.1 - 1.0; and on smoothness I've tried everything from 0.0 - 25. Anyway, I'll give it another going over tomorrow, if I can't get it right I guess I'll just use the coast to coast map, and just change scenario details and news items.

You can then use the option in the editor to fill that sea level grass with water. I think there was an option for an area of all the same height can be made into water.

As for upgrading to Win7 I'd stick with XP rather than pay the costs of upgrading. If I had XP i wouldn't upgrade, if just for the reflections on the water in RT3 that most people lose with Win7. I think steam still works with XP, just not service pack 1 so Hawk you could still turn to the dark side

Robbo as far fans it really depends on your case and what sort of temperatures you are running at. If your CPU and hard drive have decent temps with only 1 fan then you're probably fine. If they seem to be running a little warm, then another fan might not be a bad idea. Of course if the fans aren't positioned properly a lot of fans might not work as well as just a couple well positioned fans.

[robbo316]

Oh, didn't know that. Maybe I am occasionally lucky then, I bought win 7 64 bit without really thinking about it. Thank god I got it right!

[OilCan]

Just an idea, but when you create the new map, set the Overall Height Modifier to 3 or more. This raises the base level of the land up uniformily and creates a sharp slope on the coast line, a dip from the land to the bottom of the ocean so to speak.

Redo with a higher modifier number if the coastline dip is not well pronounced.

Save your map.

Now fill the oceans with water. Select the paint tool. Select the ocean/river tool. Set the bucket to fill BELOW an elevation. Make sure the change color option is checked. Gently glide your cursor up from the bottom of the ocean to the beach. Click and fill the ocean. Made a mistake? Go back to your saved map and try again.

The Overall Height Modifier can be set from zero to 367. Typically, the best values are 0.5 to 1.5. In your case, you need a much higher number.

[Gumboots]

Another way to do it would be to divide the 200 years up into a series of shorter scenarios, kind of like The Age of Steam. You could have a "theme" associated with each "chapter" in the railroading history of the US.

I like that idea too. Much better IMO, because it breaks things into manageable chunks from the gamer's point of view and gives them a sense of accmplishment after each stage. Should also be easier to debug in testing.

[Blackhawk]

I would go no more than 100 years in a scenario, and even that is very hard to achieve. In Trainmaster it's a little easier to do because of the ever changing industry demands, but in RT3 I would think it would be very difficult to maintain interest for that long of a time. Breaking it up into segments is the best way to go.

[robbo316]

Trainmaster? Have I missed something here?

[Blackhawk]

Trainmaster is a mod for RT3. It is based off the 1.06 exe file so things like shipping at a loss are still available. It also adds a more complicated industrial system with a few different industries and cargoes compared to RT3 1.05/1.06. Ex. Instead of just being able to bring grain to a brewery to produce alcohol, in TM you need to bring grain and something to bottle the alcohol in like glass or aluminum. But as the years change the industrial chain evolves. A place may have accepted steel or glass to can its goods, but after a certain year it may only accept plastic or aluminum, which requires you then to find a new supply of plastic or aluminum for that industry if it is to keep producing.

[robbo316]

So, I could install that and run my mod through that version, yes?

[Blackhawk]

Version 1.05, 1.06, and TM are all independent of each other. There is a thread here on the forums about running multiple installations of RT3. Although some scenarios of 1.05 may run in 1.06 they won't run as intended. You MAY be able to make a map in 1.06 and before you start adding industries, take that same map and work on it in TM, but once you start doing version specific things to the map it won't work in another version.

Edit: Found the direct link to the forum thread on multiple installations: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2363

[Hawk]

I think it's best to start a map in TM that is basically bare, with the exception of cities.
In other words, no industries, no events, no industry weight settings. Nothing.

[sbaros]

Question for TOP spreadsheet experts
One of the network planning tools I need to use when investigating a map (perhaps not limited to RR Tycoon purposes) is the following one: I want to define a list of cities/locations with their x and y coordinates, and then apply a spreadsheet formula that will display next to each city the nearest located one, as well as its distance, calculated through the equation
SQRT((X1-X2)^2+(Y1-Y2)^2)
So the formula would have to run this equation along the whole column (obviously excluding the investigated city itself which has a zero distance), and then print the minimum of these distances it calculated and the city name to which this distance corresponds.
I made semi-manually an example of what I am seeking to do in order to show exactly what I mean.

Code: Select all

CITY	    	Coordinates				
		X	Y		Nearest City		Distance
________________________________________________________________________
Athrea		955	346		Klagensee		114
Ballindee	566	913		Brederen		84
Brederen	648	929		Ballindee		84
Diessendorf	44	80		Eberkamp		250
Eberkamp	227	251		Diessendorf		250
Einstuhl	760	728		Brederen		230
Friedhude	702	164		Neubruck		189
Hagueciennes 	21	997		Sherpenberge	 	247
Klagensee	908	242		Athrea			114
Neubruck	756	345		Klagensee		184
Orroux		445	34		Friedhude		288
Sherpenberge	 85	758		Hagueciennes	 	247
Vollelingen	921	911		Einstuhl		244
Zoetschaat	583	456		Neubruck		206

My most puzzling uncertainity on how to achieve this is whether it is possible through a conventional, single-cell formula or whether it dictates a Visual-BASIC piece of code

[Gumboots]

Should be possible with a standard formula. You can certainly get the minimum, although it would (I think) have to be done by running a column for each city, grabbing the minimum for that column, then applying the relevant city name (which I think could be done easily enough, but would have to check up on syntax). And if you use hidden columns for the donkey work you should be able to get a useful display format for the output.

Just wondering: how do you think this would be useful?

[RulerofRails]

I am by no means an "expert" at spreadsheets, .... also, I use Libreoffice. I have made some very long formulas for optimum engine lifespan and expanding into "predicted" mileage to find a "predicted" running cost. These are not ideal, but they do work when I limit to check for say 25 years. The way I did it, the formula is setup with 25 instances to check. To change the date range requires adjusting the length of the entire formula.

Because your data sets are of an unpredictable length, I don't think it would be practical to try to cram everything in one cell (I think you will have trouble fitting more than 50 cities into one cell). I would consider making a table that will auto-fill from a pasted set of cities,x,y. Make it say 200x200 (which map has more than 200 cities?). Then you can have an auto-generated list for the output. Can be done in an hour or less (without formatting).

As I said, I'm not an "expert" at sheets. I am also not familiar with other code types. If you know how to use basic, I would do that. Otherwise, perhaps you can try something like this http://postgis.net/windows_downloads/ ? Disclaimer: I never used it, but it's for real-world mapping. Personally, if I wanted such a thing spending an hour to make a sheet is probably the best use of my time, rather than learning something else from scratch.

[sbaros]

In the above numeric example, it would give me a hint that, unless cargo shippers and receivers were located particularly unfavorably, a good starter interconnected network would be to connect first Ballindee with Brederen, next Einstuhl and then Vollelingen, as I'd accumulate more profits to advance my track-building.
Generally, it helps to identify sub-sets of cities connectable to each other with relatively short stretches of track, until these sub-networks expand enough so as to become interconnected.
Of course such a table cannot constitute an absolute criterion for track-building prioritizing, but one can always revise decisions by returning to the last successful saved session whenever it happens to lead to loss-making decisions. At many cases the terrain will impose route lengths significantly greater than the straight distance. I'm thinking also of introducing a priority modifier that would take into account the size of the cities concerned along with their distance.
Another use for it is to weed out / merge cities too close to each other.
So, if I get it right, Gumboots suggestion is to build the full distance matrix for all origin-destination combinations and then hide it all to display only the cell with the minimum value and the corresponding column title (i.e. the nearest city name) ?
It is extremely easy as shown below, but I guess this makes it more complicated to add and subtract cities from the list, having to work on 2 axes instead of 1

[RulerofRails]

I made a sheet to find the nearest city in LibreOffice using a table. It can support up to 200 cities. All you need to do is paste in city,x,y data in the first 3 columns, the rest is automatic. No formatting, and it did take a bit more than an hour. Of course there were hurdles where functions didn't behave exactly as I wanted.

Nearest city finder, x,y.zip

(78.32 KiB) Downloaded 80 times

PS. When considering which connections to make in a typical game, the price heat map provides the most valuable information. At the most basic level, areas of industrial activity are probably the most valuable, the distance between the cities being in many ways less important than the terrain the railway must transverse. However, there are many nuuances. Are you playing as a sandbox?

[sbaros]

Not necessarily, but sometimes you have constraints regarding track-building and track connectivity either due to scenario limitations, or due to financial ones, or even due to perceived company policies. Anyway, if the spreadsheet's hints drive somebody bankrupt, he/she can ignore them at the next attempt.

[sbaros]

Thanks, I'll try to find some time later this week to install LibreOffice and look at the functions used.