initial companies

[Llewelyn]

OK, made a pig's ear of my scenario I'm working on.

what I wanted was to have 3 mandatory players, 1 human, 2 AI, with 3 companies already started. The AIs are fine - switch control to the AI chariman, start company, lay first bit of track etc., then switch to the other AI and do the same. The player (#1 player in the list) is broken. I did succeed in starting a company in the editor, and having the #1 player as chairman. however, when I start the game in player mode, he's not chairman of that company, it doesn't have a chairman, and, unless I give him loads of money he can't take over. In any case, I don't want to have the #1 player take over, I want him to be already chairman at the start.

I then liquidated that company and now it just says "you are unable to start a company". I could easily enough remove all the players except #1 and re-do but that doesn't solve it. The human player doesn't HAVE to be #1, except I'm not sure that #1 player can even be set as AI only.

Now, there are scenarios around with the player company already running and player as chairman, so how is it done? And, can I get that to work in what I have, I'm definitely not starting building the map again!

edit - the "can't start a company is, I think, because although the other company is liquidated, the game (in editor mode) still thinks it's there. It doesn't show up, but it seems to be there. I think the problem started with company ID #1 which I obviously created and got rid of at some point, as the 2 AI companies are ID#2 and ID#3, although there is no ID#1 showing.

edit 2 - worked around it by creating the company I want and having a start-of-scenario to assign player control to it. Dunno if that's how it's supposed to happen and I still have ghost companies in the game so that the IDs are now 2, 3 and 6.

[OilCan]

It sounds like you found a solution. I've made the same mistake before and was left with 'invisible' companies.

Should you wish to set up the same type of player arrangement in the future, here is how to do it:
This is for game stories which force the human player to become the Chairman of an existing company rather than being allowed to start a new company at the beginning of a game.

--Save a backup of game
a) Keep game paused the whole time.
b) Make sure the human player is selected as the on-screen player (go to stock market and click on the portrait of the human player).
c) Start a new company.
d) Invest at the default settings to keep stock prices low. The exact percent ownership will be adjusted in (k) below.
e) Name the company and give it a logo.
f) Set up territory access rights
g) Add to company cash through “Set Cash”. Add a zero to provide $11 million.
h) Build the track, stations, service towers and maintenance sheds. Place stations near city center marker.
i) Buy trains (or trains can be controlled through events).
j) Hand place industry and buy it for the company.
k) Buy up stock to reach the percent ownership for your game story. Use Cheat code ‘fat cat’ to add $1M money to the Chairman to buy stock. Don’t buy back stock with company money.
l) Set the company cash to ZERO for start up with “Set Cash”. Use an event to reset the company cash amount for the company at the start of the game. Also reset the amount of player cash through event at start of game.
m) Save. Test.

[Blackhawk]

As you've learned any time you start a company that company's ID will always remain even if the company is liquidated. Which is why your AI's started at 2 and 3 instead of 1 and 2. It's not really a big deal, but it is something to keep in mind for when you create events that might be specific to a certain company.

[SteamTrain]

It has been several years since this question was last raised. Does anyone have a new solution yet. These "ghost" companies are troubling to me if I try to reuse an older scenario map in a newer scenario. I understand the previous suggestions and have basically followed that path in the past but I really would like to delete the old companies completely and restart at Company ID #1

[Wolverine@MSU]

I suspect that when companies are stared, either AI or player, space is set aside (or created) in "databases" that get saved when the scenario is saved. So when you reload it into the editor, even if you liquidate a company, it's "databases" are still there, they just don't do anything, and the game engine has no way to delete them. The only way I see to avoid the usurpation of Company IDs would be by figuring out a way to add track and stations etc. without having to start a company, a sort of "temporary sandbox mode".