What is the deal with agri-communities?

[Optimizer]

I have taken a first look at Trainmaster, and got many first impressions.

First: What is the deal with agricultural communities? They seem overly complicated. Why don't you just keep the farms instead?

[nedfumpkin]

They aren't really...and I've explained them in a lot of detail in some threads, but due to a lack of time, I can't re-visit that now. Maybe next weekend.

[edbangor]

The agi-communities do look confusing at first glance but once you get used to them they are a lot of fun to work with, as they give a much bigger balance of the basic things available in TM.

As for being complicated... well TM is noted as being the 'expert' version of RRT3...

[Blackhawk]

One thread that discusses them I think is at: viewtopic.php?f=72&t=2192&p=20965&hilit ... ity#p20945

I think essentially they are supposed to represent a small farming town and produce multiple cargos while creating a demand for several cargo types as well.

The three plus one main agricultural communities are basically small towns and should be associated with a city on the map. This city itself should have the population set accordingly as a small village. This is why these should be placed rather than spawned. They produce a wide variety of cargo and have the same needs as would a small village co-op.

<-- from the above link.

The most confusing thing about them is probably that you can't easily really read what it puts out and what it demands because all that information does not fit and it overlaps. Eventually a final guide to TM industries would likely alleviate that problem. (Especially with the apocathery which is difficult, if not impossibe, to read as well)

Overall once you get used to them they're alright overall. I do miss having a specific type of farm at times. And I do think the Dairy farm should put out more than just 1 load of milk a year. [In my scenario I'm working on, I put a warehouse next to a couple dairy farms to supply the level of milk I needed without over supplying other farm related products]. I also do not like that the bio-corn farm is a buildable industry, (in the scenario I'm making being able to just put down a corn farm makes meeting the victory conditions far too easy, consequently I'll likely have to create an event to place the corn bio farms that I want down, and then turn off the industry). [On a sidenote, oddly the house on the rice patties has recently appeared for me... then disappeared... and reappeared etc... at least I see it sometimes now]

I think the communities are a nice way to show various farming cargos in one place. But they are sometimes frustrating when you are trying to focus on just 1 specific farm related output. However, in those cases I've just added a warehouse nearby a farm for the extra output I desired of my specific cargo.

Finally, I think a good way to learn TM would be to go to the editor and place the industries and see what each demands and puts out. (Until there is some final documenation on the industries). And then play a scenario like the Persian Electric Scenario to learn how everything interacts.

[nedfumpkin]

The design of the agri-communities took into account that the individual cargos supplied by them go be adjusted through start-up events. Rather than use a warehouse, put a start up event to increase the production of milk by 200% and you will double it. You can also lower production of other cargo.

It is looking a lot like I will be able to return to TM on Saturday, for a while at least. I'll be posting a ton of stuff that I wasn't able to finish off...first thing will be documentation.

[Blackhawk]

I forgot about possibly using an event to increase the amount of output for a argi-community. I have already used some similar events so I'm not sure why I didn't think of that as a possible fix as well. Thanks for the tip.
It'll be good to see you back working on TM again, the TM forums are kind of slow without you around as much. I may be able to put out a beta of my map within the week, but then I'll largely have take a month off and won't really be able to work on the map as much as I would have liked. I guess a beta will depend on if there is demand for a beta map or maybe I'll just wait til I think it's more finalized.

[Optimizer]

Thanks, I believe I got a better grip of the idea now.

[nedfumpkin]

BH: I can assure you that maps are in demand, even as beta's, and beta maps are good for finding bugs, etc. I really, really miss working on TM, but what is distracting me is much too important not to be focused on it as much as I am.

But after working on it since sept 08, and to be so close to having it finished....argh!!!

Optimizer, the more you play TM, the more it will make sense to you since it is more like real life. Once a bunch of maps have been made that show some of the cool features, you'll see that it is an entirely different game, and that's the biggest hurdle to overcome, it is way different than 1.05/1.06, and that takes getting used to.