Buildings/Industries

[sbaros]

Well. it is its occasional nature that puzzles me, because it doesn't always happen on that PC. I'd say about half the time. Besides, the installation is a precise drag & drop from the USB stick, which works perfectly everywhere else.
Naturally, it doesn't occur in my developing Trainmaster version, since there is no rock altogether.

[sbaros]

While testing the early 20th century behaviour of my South Balkan base map and the military car repaint throughout the past fortnight, I came across additional industry discrepancies, some of which I was able to tackle using the available hex edition instructions:

• Medicine factories appeared long before medicine was available as a cargo at all. With as many as 7 of them generated on the map, valuable slots were wasted to a degree that the whole session was garbage. I corrected this so that Medicine factories would start around 1915, together with their product.
• Later on, I saw biodiesel plants starting appearing from 1921 on, yet producing absolutely nothing. Another waste of slots! After some research on the subject, I found out that despite some very early patents, biodiesel was completely negligible until very recently, so I changed its start date to 1990. Still, there remains something else to be addressed: It is reported that biodiesel rarely consitutes a standalone fuel; it mostly requires mixing with conventional fuel. So, a more correct solution might be to require 1 part conventional diesel and 1 part corn -or whatever plant is considered appropriate- to create 2 parts of diesel. In other words, biodiesel from corn would not replace conventional fossil petrol, but rather multiply it.

Various building modifications may cause behaviours that are desirable for some scenarios and undesirable for other ones. I am not sure how everything should be organised in every detail. As a general remark, I'd like pointing out that there could be a central download hub, where the standard, "officially" recommended versions of everything can be found, together with explicit "ReadMe" stuff that describes how each building behaves in every era. I'd be glad to assist. Now, a definition of "official" stuff may be obscure, it probably relies on the website management and the decisionmaking process. Certainly the "standard" edition of any industry should not let it appear before its very product becomes available. At any case, it is essential for users to be made aware of what exactly each version of any element does and decide if it suits him/her.
In addition, many more industry variants will be required for special purposes. Let's look at my case: When I started the South Balkan base map about 5 years ago (not counting some earlier unsuccessful attempts) I was unaware even of the "Coast to Coast" upgrade and of all the parameter changes a user can make. A striking thought I had yesterday during the latest tests was that specific heavy industries were introduced considerably later in the area (actually in the whole former Ottoman Empire), like steelworks, aluminum processing and automaking plants, sometimes by more than half a century. This means that:

1. their start dates in RR Tycoon should be accordingly modified, if a degree of accuracy is desired
2. their essential products should be imported in the meantime through ports and frontier warehouses

Otherwise, my base map would work unrealistically between 1850 and 1960, as would any underdeveloped country scenario if the default industry start dates are left unchanged. However, if I managed a similar website I would upload this modified stuff only at a place where its functionality would not be confused about, probably at the designated space where the scenario itself and the accompanying RT3 language file would be available.

It is essential to point out to users that the decent development of any individual map will require a dedicated cloning of the RR Tycoon master folder with its own customised DATA content.
ADDENDUM: I managed to modify the Bio-Diesel Plant.bca accordingly and I attach here my proposal. This is my first attempt for production process modification.

BuildingTypes.rar

(907 Bytes) Downloaded 105 times

[Gumboots]

Trainmaster buildings aren't intended for use in standard RT3. They're not balanced for the rest of the standard economy. They're only meant to be used in Trainmaster.

[sbaros]

on a certain desktop PC of mine under Windows 7, it may happen that quarries produce only crystals, no rock! And rock in general is absent from all lists. It occurs about half the time with that specific PC, but never on any of my other machines (even the ones running Windows 7 too). However, when I save the session and reload it on another PC, rock miraculously re-appears, as if nothing had happened.
Whenever the bug occurs, furnaces also omit rock from their cargo acceptance list. However, both rock by-products, ceramics and concrete still appear. If you have a port directly delivering ceramics, they will be shipped to an appropriate concrete plant.
It happens only with the South Balkan map, not any other one!
Some bugs seem to be related to the hardware employed

I conducted some more thorough observations. For a second time, I dragged and dropped an entire "DATA" folder from a known properly working installation to the problematic one. The problem persisted however. I realized the bug only occurs when you load a session saved and transferred from another computer. It never occurs when you start a fresh scenario on the affected computer itself.
This specific computer (a HP/Compaq Pentium 4 from around 2004) has more or less simultaneously developed other strange behaviors as well, never encountered elsewhere, such as:

1. It refuses to run AutoCAD_2007 after a driver upgrade, requested be the computer itself to improve AutoCAD performance and functionality! Ever since, I am forced to run AutoCAD on a nearby PC under Windows XP (where it runs flawlessly).
2. Whenever I save a skin in Corel PhotoPaint with a different filename ("Save As" command), it begins an almost endless loop opening dozens of "Save As" dialogue boxes, before actually allowing me to type the desired new filename. Occasionally, Corel will crash altogether.
3. Several disabled Notepad++ functions, most notably the "Open in default viewer option"
4. Strange McAffee messages when performing common file operations (although McAffee was already there before the other problems began).

Perhaps the antivirus hates rock transferred from other computers? Wants to simulate a "rock miner strike" ? I can comprehend that certain routines from various software may be intercepted by over-protective "safeguards" and have their functionality reduced, however I cannot see how this can have an impact on the subject discussed here.

[sbaros]

This is a quite awkward beginner's exercise in 3D building creation, utilising the Dairy Processor skin. Along with the Victorian House Foundations , I think it is one of few user-created Buildings featuring "kitbashed" geometric shapes with altered dimensions and texture mapping (perhaps Michael's Cereal Co. is another example of this). Most others seem to be simple re-colourings of bitmap skins with no new geometric forms added (correct me if I am wrong).
This was a project pending since I expressed the general idea, and it saved me a dedicated warehouse "recipe" slot. Needless to say it is applicable in all Tycoon editions.
It is uploaded here rather as an incentive for further steps towards building components development. I apologise for still being clumsy at manipulating DDS skins.

[Gumboots]

Umm, I don't get it. Why would you want to convert logs to coal?

[sbaros]

in some areas charcoal is produced from wood
https://flyfishingwaters.com/canyon-cre ... oal-kilns/
http://www.fao.org/3/x5328e/x5328e07.htm
https://greenpower.equipment/launch-of- ... indonesia/

[Gumboots]

Ok. I'm just wondering how it would be used in the game. I think the only industries that demand coal are steel mills and power stations, neither of which run on charcoal. Houses also demand small amounts of coal in some eras, IIRC, but is that enough to make this new building useful?

[sbaros]

It is also usable in metallurgy
https://piroliz.org/clients/articles/20 ... 7&lang=eng
I am just experimenting at present, but I guess kilns will only prove feasible in scenarios with poor coal reserves and abundance of wood

[Gumboots]

Fair enough. Experiments are worth doing.
I've been wondering how to update the RT3 economy for the 21st century. It is really designed for the 19th and 20th, and the 21st is going to have some fundamental differences in industry and technology.

[sbaros]

Trainmaster industry warning was rather a false alarm and therefore removed

[RulerofRails]

The Flour Mill in default TM is not upgradable for me. There is a flag for this in the footer.

Code: Select all

FOOTER   (169)
--------------
000 (-169)	:     4	:   int	: buildable (? is a fertilizer factory not-buildable ??)
004 (-165)	:     4	:   int	: buyable (? why hotel, post, saloon, restaurant, ... ??)
008 (-161)	:     4 :   int	: upgrade price?
012 (-157)	:     4	: float	: q2  (0 or 0.5 or 1)
016 (-153)	:     4	:   int	: upgradable ?
......................

From what I can tell this is more like a "byte": a no/yes, 0/1 flag. Not a 4 digit integer as pjay suggests.

If this value is 0, then the building can never be upgraded by the player or the automatic game processes. I wonder what happened to your file, are you sure that it is original? On mine I have a date: 11/28/2009.

[sbaros]

Rephrased 15/09:
Most probably you are right ! I must have changed that myself to PJay's instructions months ago, when I thoroughly revised the production process of the Flour Mill. I think I intended to take care of the upgrade soon afterwards and then forgot it completely.
Well, if anyone wants to make it upgradeable as well, here is the "kit", together with a sub-base for rough terrain.

[sbaros]

I removed all input apart from paper. I think the rest were too insignificant to be included. Any suggestions ?