The U.K.T.M. Project

Topics on how to write scenarios for TrainMaster.
User avatar
Blackhawk
CEO
Posts: 1112
Joined: Thu May 21, 2009 2:34 pm

Re: The U.K.T.M. Project Unread post

dazzharvey wrote:got a quick question, does anyone use slow date on any scenario? if so i noticed it asked for a number to be typed in, how slow does it go and how would this affect a scenareio of 20 Years?
Slow date was used in the Japan Quakes scenario and I think one other scenario as well. You had the futuristic train and had to spread the bio-accelerator spray.

I once tried experimenting with it and still may in the future if I ever get back to a scenario idea. I believe a year = 12 hours in slow time. So there are essentially 2 "years" in a full 24 hour day (AM and PM). My guess would be rather than take the time to program 24 hours to equal a full year, they just figured let's change the "name" for what's being counted. Rather than 12 months we'll count 12 hours. That way the programmers wouldn't have to do extra work in programming for 24 hours and how to test things over 24 hours rather than just 12.

I would have preferred the slow time go like RT2's and go by days rather than hours but unfortunately slow time in RT3 is in hours rather than days.

It would take a very long time to get 20 actual years in a scenario put in slow time. However, a scenario programmed for 20 years and then played in slow time would last 10 days, I think.
User avatar
Moggie
Conductor
Posts: 206
Joined: Sat Feb 27, 2010 4:27 am
Location: Riihimaki, Finland

Re: The U.K.T.M. Project Unread post

That would be the Greenland scenario, the last one in the RRT3 campaign I think....
Moggie
Dogs have masters, cats have staff.
Trainmaster's own Skimbleshanks :)
User avatar
dazzharvey
Hobo
Posts: 48
Joined: Wed May 04, 2011 5:16 pm
Location: Scotland

Re: The U.K.T.M. Project Unread post

I can remember the greenland one barely, you had to spray your solution (oo-er) over greenland to make it fertile.

thanks for the numbers blackhawk, those numbers sound about right, was just experimenting because the 20 year scenario seemed a bit short at first, maybe i might extend it to 30 years, also with one of my maps has partially prebuilt railways on it, is there any tricks i could use to spawn industries quicker, i load up the game and sometime uranium (for example) there at the start of one game and sometimes its not there until 5-6 years into the game, i noticed some maps have small regions dedicated to resources, does that encourage them to spawn quicker or do i have to play about with the spawn trigger in events?

i suppose im just looking for a balance to have some industry goods ready for as soon as you start the game instead of waiting for things to appear or build up, in reality - modern day would have a pile of coal ready to ship to the power station, not wait a year to ship a few wagons

hope i make sense, i confuse myself easily when i skip lunch (blame the diabetes)
User avatar
Blackhawk
CEO
Posts: 1112
Joined: Thu May 21, 2009 2:34 pm

Re: The U.K.T.M. Project Unread post

dazzharvey wrote: thanks for the numbers blackhawk, those numbers sound about right, was just experimenting because the 20 year scenario seemed a bit short at first, maybe i might extend it to 30 years, also with one of my maps has partially prebuilt railways on it, is there any tricks i could use to spawn industries quicker, i load up the game and sometime uranium (for example) there at the start of one game and sometimes its not there until 5-6 years into the game, i noticed some maps have small regions dedicated to resources, does that encourage them to spawn quicker or do i have to play about with the spawn trigger in events?
Using the event trigger to specifically place industries is one way to make sure some spawn around a certain time. If you also use the regions to spawn specific industries you may have more control over them as well. If you use a smaller region and only focus on 1-2 industries in that area then you can control more of what appears, rather than if you use a large region and say you want these 6 industries to appear then you may end up with a lot of 1 industry and none of the other industry. You have to look at the region/city density and those numbers will usually give you a decent idea of how many total industries will appear at the start and over time. But again if you're using a large region with say 5 industries selected to appear and the density says 10 industries will appear, you may end up with 10 of the same industry, you wouldn't necessarily get 2 of each industry. (It's unlikely that would happen but depending on what percentage the sliders are set at and things it is not necessarily a guarantee an industry will appear)
i suppose im just looking for a balance to have some industry goods ready for as soon as you start the game instead of waiting for things to appear or build up, in reality - modern day would have a pile of coal ready to ship to the power station, not wait a year to ship a few wagons

hope i make sense, i confuse myself easily when i skip lunch (blame the diabetes)
In addition to using game spawned industry, you can hand place some industries on your own and that should help have some cargo right to go right away as well. You can set the date of the scenario a few years earlier than you want it to actually start, then save it, and then reload it again in the editor and you'll now be working on that date. Then place some industries in this year, and then go back and change the year you want the scenario to start in again. Now you should have some industries that should have been running for a couple years before the game started so there would likely be a load of coal at a coal mine rather than having to wait for one to appear.
User avatar
nedfumpkin
CEO
Posts: 2163
Joined: Sat Feb 16, 2008 9:16 pm
Location: Hamilton - Canada

Re: The U.K.T.M. Project Unread post

I recommend against spawning industry. Mines and logging camps okay, but not industries. I also do not recommend spawning agri-communities. These are essentially small rural towns.
If you look at the Deadwood map I am working on, this shows pretty much everything being placed at either map creation, or via event during game play, it's more work and tedious at times, but it is how TM was designed.

Something to remember about placing industry during map creation.... check the map year in the editor, and keep in mind your start date. If you place an industry in the editor with the same date as the start date, then the industry will have no history. The game will go back three years from the start date of a map. Industry that is placed at earlier dates will have cargo flowing to it and profits, new indsutry will not.

I tend to place indsutries at various times, and I do this by back dating the map, saving, placing the industry, then saving, then changing they start year, saving, and placing more industry, etc...
User avatar
dazzharvey
Hobo
Posts: 48
Joined: Wed May 04, 2011 5:16 pm
Location: Scotland

Re: The U.K.T.M. Project Unread post

Just downloaded the deadwood map, gonna comb through it tomorrow morning and see for myself whats what, I would do it now but it will soon be midnight and got to be up early tomorrow, thanks for the info and the advice guys, :-)
User avatar
dazzharvey
Hobo
Posts: 48
Joined: Wed May 04, 2011 5:16 pm
Location: Scotland

Re: The U.K.T.M. Project Unread post

Had 3 copies of TM running side by side all windowed, had my map had deadwood and had china map and was comparing them, managed to cope no bother until my brain got an information overload and took a couple of days tho, off to go to Edinburgh for the comedy festival, I also just bought railworks 2 as i see theres a free upgrade when new one comes out and got a new civ 5 scenario thought id give it a try, sorry if im slacking off from working on the map, I will get back on it as soon as i play this a couple of times :)
User avatar
Hawk
The Big Dawg
Posts: 6503
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 10:28 am
Location: North Georgia - USA

Re: The U.K.T.M. Project Unread post

dazzharvey wrote:I also just bought railworks 2 as i see theres a free upgrade when new one comes out
My other web site might interest you. :mrgreen:

http://railworksamerica.com/
Hawk
User avatar
dazzharvey
Hobo
Posts: 48
Joined: Wed May 04, 2011 5:16 pm
Location: Scotland

Re: The U.K.T.M. Project Unread post

nice one, thanks :) i signed up to railworks forum aswell, had serious audio issues when i downloaded railworks on steam, it decided to replace all my drivers for my behringer midi desk so had to reset them all, and reload my asio4all software, it initially just affected civ 5 and rw2 so i uninstalled all my steam games but then it started messing with all my other games including RT3 TM etc, got it all working again thankfully, I hope theres no download limit on steam because im planning on moving all my games back to my 2nd pc, my next big thing is to get my 2nd pc back up and running again but with new parts, this one im using now is an athlon x4 with 4 gb, old graphics card 1gb ddr2, 2.5TB storage and my midi setup for DJ work, it does get me by on the games but when i built this i had the music studio in mind

my next machine (aiming for getting all the parts by october/nov) athlon x6 3.3ghz 1100, 8 gb ram, basic sound card 5.1 and 1gb ddr5 ati graphics card running at 900hz clock speed

if you have steam then feel free to add me on there (dazzharvey)

cheers guys :)
User avatar
Hawk
The Big Dawg
Posts: 6503
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 10:28 am
Location: North Georgia - USA

Re: The U.K.T.M. Project Unread post

I saw that you registered, and you've been set up.
dazzharvey wrote:if you have steam then feel free to add me on there (dazzharvey)
I'm not sure what you mean by that, unless you're talking about that friends stuff. If you are, I have all that 'cloud' crap turned off in Steam.
It's bad enough I have to be connected to the 'cloud' to play the game (yes, I know you can set it to off-line mode, but that's not the point). Then they want me to actually become a cloud participant? I don't think so. :evil:

I personally can't stand this Steam thing, but I was given RailWorks by the CEO of RS.com so I kind of felt obligated to install it. I would never actually give Steam any money.
Heck, my RW install is still default. I never run it.
Hawk
User avatar
dazzharvey
Hobo
Posts: 48
Joined: Wed May 04, 2011 5:16 pm
Location: Scotland

Re: The U.K.T.M. Project Unread post

Aye man :) I'm in agreeance with the cloud nonsense, I just have no friends (awwwwwww) on there and thought i'd see if anyone here was on it, I got the game really cheap with the offer to get the new upgrade and thought id try it, not bought any add ons for it and I doubt I will, if i got them all it would cost just shy of a £1,000 - i dunno what that is in new money but I can buy a beast of a computer for that kind of money
Kiev the Great
Hobo
Posts: 18
Joined: Sat Apr 10, 2010 6:18 pm

Re: The U.K.T.M. Project Unread post

I don't know if anyone would be interested, but I'm just playing around with a map of the UK for TM. I was doing it for myself, but I might share it. Just wondering if there's anyone still here to play it!
User avatar
nedfumpkin
CEO
Posts: 2163
Joined: Sat Feb 16, 2008 9:16 pm
Location: Hamilton - Canada

Re: The U.K.T.M. Project Unread post

Yep.
User avatar
Hawk
The Big Dawg
Posts: 6503
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 10:28 am
Location: North Georgia - USA

Re: The U.K.T.M. Project Unread post

Zip it up and attach it to a post. Let's have a look at it. :salute:
Hawk
Post Reply