Made in America - A Cold War Story.

[nedfumpkin]

I've started to work on this map, which is going to be a campaign map.

Originally I had planned on doing this on Mr Scotts Anthracite map, but for some reason it wasn't working in TM. So I am using one of Mr Scotts Penssylvania maps. At this point it is essentially a base map with no set goals, or events for the most part.

There are two events that come as a coded message, and if you read the numbers backward, it is the secret location of CIA warehouses.

I'm uploading it now so that ifanyone wants to play around on the map and see what you can do, then report back, it would be interesting. Keep in mind that this is a campaign map, so it should be played on hard, not expert.

This is actually the scenario idea that got TM started. It is a spy story where there will be two possible outcomes. It starts in 1946 and end with either the fall of the Soviet Unionin 1980, orSomething else.

You start with 2 million, and your credit rating is AAA. You can get 20 bonds right off the bat if you want to. You have AI companies who will be aggressive. There is no stock market, no mergers possible.

Your purpose is to generate funds for CIA black ops. You will have tasks to accomplish. You are a cog in the military industrial complex, so prepare for Korea, Cuba, Viet Nam, Central America, etc. At least in the final version.

There is also going to be coded messages to be cracked. Intrigues, cloak and dagger. Oh, and Amish people too. :)

But for now it is just a map with potential. I have to play it a few dozen times and tweak it so that it works and set up all the events. The focus will be to supply weapons, ammo, and missiles. Currently there are no electric plants on the map. There will be two events to add nuke plants based on actual plants in PA, but for now just build them.

If you think the map needs something to make it work better, say so. It uses the Consolidation II, but you can play without it.

[AdmiralHalsey]

Or something else eh? Are there multiple something elses or is it just one?

[RulerofRails]

Looking good! I just gave it a little test spin. Forgot to play on Hard instead of Expert and I wasn't able to meet the 1950 haul condition, my bad. I always like a map where it will be unlikely to get the goals on my first play. Well done!

Well, I started 5 or so more times working on a strategy to get the 1950 haul and I have one, but it isn't sustainable for my company or repeatable every single time (seed). This gives me a good idea of how much I have to learn about TM. (Please don't share your start strategy on this one yet, I still have some more ideas to try.) The latest start I have tried to build a robust supply chain towards expansion into more military cargoes at the expense of meeting the immediate goals.

I didn't play past 1955 yet. I think that this map will be a good challenge with all the logs, bauxite, and mines located in the mountains. Along with the competition from the AI which seemed robust to me, as you intended. Unfortunately, I often play for the goals, so I may not be that much help with what is possible on the map. I will try to make some Rubber, Aluminum, Autos, Missiles, and Isotopes on my current play. Keep up the good work! (FYI: I am using steam engines.)

[RulerofRails]

I made a fresh start and was able to get the 1950 goal more safely. I don't want to give suggestions that will steer the map in a particular direction as that may kill the originality of your plans. So please take what I say with a grain of salt.

First thing, this may be covered with the caution given about too many bonds, but I would give the player a heads up that they have to meet this goal in 1950 from the start of the game. So far, the only way I have been able to get the goal is to plan toward it right from the start. The caution you gave wasn't enough to stop me from taking out all 20 bonds before un-pausing the game in all my attempts. My current style with TM is to use industry profits for most of my revenue and setting up train routes to serve my industries as their first priority. (This is especially true on this map where for testing difficulty I have been using the N&W A 2-6-6-4 steamers with fuel costs often over 100k per year.) I am not pretending or suggesting this is the best way to play TM. I also have some way to go to really understand and get the Food/Beverage cargoes working at their potential. I discovered how useful the Flour Mill can be on this play. I also realized that Coal and Chemicals are very precious cargoes in TM. You can never have enough of either.

I played until 1978. I got two Missile Plants operating, but the one I built near Clearfield wasn't able to make a profit as their is nothing demanding Missiles west of the mountains. After a few years I replaced it with an Industrial Assembly Line. I didn't build the Nuclear Plants until I was trying to spend money so I didn't go over the $5 million threshold (I still did 3 or 4 times). I realized that you probably meant to build them in the editor. Are you planning to have the event to place them a few years before the Uranium warehouses appear? Nuclear Plants take a long time to construct and I would personally prefer to have them running so that the Uranium doesn't show up on a "blank" red price map. I noticed that the lower price compared to RT3 makes Uranium "migration" much slower in TM.

I am guessing that you are planning to give the AI different advantages later in the game? The AI in TM don't seem to do very well on a map like this with few naturally profitable industries. They don't have a clue how to supply their industries. In this play they ended up with piles of cash. A couple of them had over 90 million, but only Reading Railway earned more overall profit than the interest it received on money it held (it was the only one that connected to my track). It was by far the highest earner but didn't get above 2.5M profits in a year. My strategy for running a tight, industry-based network may have discouraged them from laying too much track (competition mode) in the mid-game period. They didn't really do that much in the game except get in my way from time to time.

I don't have an idea of how to answer what is possible on a map like this. This is TM and there are so many industries that may be arranged in countless different combinations. I would say ANYTHING is possible! So far I am loving this map, good difficulty, worthy of the name TrainMaster. I will probably play this again for fun awaiting a newer version. Thanks!

PS. I never noticed before, but dealing with more custom consists made me realize. In a train's consist page the names of the cargoes that are presently available in the station are faintly highlighted in yellow. Whereas, the cargoes not currently present are a light inactive gray.

[nedfumpkin]

Thanks for the input.

I did have events set to build nuke plants to coincide with the warehouses, actually based on real nuke plants, but that was in the previous version of the map. So they will come.

I am debating on whether to make the intial arms cargo a 2 step event. Basically, if you make the first haul, then you get a second haul requirement before the end of the Korean War, if you don't make it, then you have until the end of the Korean War to make the second requirement. The effect wouldn't really be noticed. There would be other tasks similar, and more difficult, the outcome having an impact on the end of the scenario.

The AI serves no other purpose than to be an annoying obstacle. This is why you can't merge with them, and they get cash to prevent them going bankrupt so they keep being annoying. :)

But I willset an event to keep the ai cash from getting too high.

[Wolverine@MSU]

I just started this one and played a couple of years with a similar play-style as Ruler, but I've been stymied by the fact that there is no Rubber available on the map, nor (as far as I can tell) a reasonable supply of the other materials to make Machinery. Was it just a bad seed? I got the request to haul Ammo & Weapons, but don't seem to have the means to manufacture either. There is a Weapons Factory on the map, and I have to build the Munitions Factory, which is stretching my bond-issuing capacity close to the maximum. I've set up a reasonably profitable set of rail lines, supported by a couple of well-supplied industries, but without Rubber, and hence Machinery, I'm at a loss.

[RulerofRails]

The AI serves no other purpose than to be an annoying obstacle.

I have no problem with this, just pointing out that they weren't very aggressive if that was your intent.

A second step for the haulage requirement sounds good. If you don't have an effect for it, maybe you could make it something distracting (unrelated to the goals) out in the west or deep in the mountains to keep the best players on their toes trying to chase something that may not be that worthwhile. Maybe add a Brewery or Distillery or something like that.

without Rubber, and hence Machinery, I'm at a loss.

Don't forget that you can build a Rubber Factory in TM. In this time period it requires either Gum or Plastic along with Coal and Chemicals to make Rubber. I built one next to my Steel Mill in Harrisburg. Then just place the Electronics Factory on the same cell as the Machine Shop and you will have Machinery in no time. However, you don't need Rubber to make Weapons or Ammo. BTW, there is already a Munitions Factory in Chambersburg, the next town a decent distance to the southwest of Harrisburg.

[Wolverine@MSU]

Thanks Ruler, I forgot all about that. Back to the drawing board with a restart.

[nedfumpkin]

I had though about putting in a rubber plant, but chose to go with gum instead because there is a candy factory in Hershey. If you build a rubber plant in Philly, it should produce rubber quickly if supplied with coal since there is chemicals across the river.

As much as possible I have tried to make this map represent Pennsylvania in the 1950s. Of course, I've had to make adjustments for game play, but the resources/agriculture are basically how they appear.

[RulerofRails]

Thanks Ruler, I forgot all about that. Back to the drawing board with a restart.

Don't worry same thing happened to me. I even peeked in the editor before I figured it out.

[Wolverine@MSU]

So I've gone several years into this one and restarted several times with different strategies. I can't for the life of me figure out how one is supposed to make Ammo and Weapons with only a couple of years notice. Since one would likely have to build Rubber and Electronics factories, as well as a Munitions factory (the Weapons Factory was already there), and given that the Steel mill in Harrisberg will take a couple years to get up to speed, it seems that the first goal (request for Ammo & Weapons shipments) is virtually impossible. Did you manage to do this Ruler?

Maybe I'm putting too much money into industries at the beginning, and not enough into rails, but I see huge profits from the ones I've built and doubt that I could get as good a ROI from rails. I've built a network centered on Philly (maybe that's where I've gone wrong), and later stretched out to Harrisburg for Steel.

Any suggestions, or should I keep plugging along?

[RulerofRails]

So I've gone several years into this one and restarted several times with different strategies. I can't for the life of me figure out how one is supposed to make Ammo and Weapons with only a couple of years notice. Since one would likely have to build Rubber and Electronics factories, as well as a Munitions factory (the Weapons Factory was already there), and given that the Steel mill in Harrisberg will take a couple years to get up to speed, it seems that the first goal (request for Ammo & Weapons shipments) is virtually impossible. Did you manage to do this Ruler?

Yes I did. Look carefully on your map to see if there is a Munition Factory in Chambersburg. Every time I have loaded the map I have seen it there so suspect it is placed. Chambersburg is a little way to the Southwest of Harrisburg in a sort of broad valley. Don't try to make Rubber at the start. This requires a good supply of Coal and Chemicals and the cost of developing them is too high. All you need to find is a bit of Steel and a little Lumber. I built a Lumber Mill next to the Logging Camp north of Allentown to get the Lumber. Some seeds the Harrisburg mill will produce the small amount of Steel needed without help. Others it is necessary to make a small spur to collect a load or two of Coal. If Iron is in short supply connecting out to Chambersburg earlier might work as their is often some Iron Mines out there. Keep in mind that when playing with these small amounts of cargo it is easy to lose them to another building or have them loaded on another train.

The way I did it was to max out bonds and build most of the track I need right at the start. (My general layout was a lying down t-shaped line from Harrisburg to Trenton with the cross of the "t" connecting Philly and Allentown into the system. Later I would extend the line from Harrisburg to Chambersburg and build a spur to the Lumber Mill I built and if necessary one for Coal running a short distance north of Harrisburg.) I bought 2 big steamers for my line, then invested all the rest of the money in the best ROI industry I could find. I agree this isn't going to make you rich quickly as the industry profits will be cut into for the debt funded rails (unprofitable) and the 250k profit squeezes a little more, but you should get the goal. My funding was so tight last play that I sold my Lumber Mill to connect to Chambersburg. Using diesel should be easier, all those water stops really kill profit potential on the steamers.

This is a tough challenge. I would suggest that a player on Easy or Medium difficulty levels should have a small supply of Lumber to help them out. Some seeds with Iron far away may be not winnable with this strategy, I am not sure yet. I am always trying to improve my strategies and am thinking about trying to build a Flour Mill on the same cell as a Farm and Textile Mill as they can give initial profits of 50% ROI. Connecting to the farm in the path of my line may be a good move too. I forget if I used some small stations. In the appropriate places may help with this map too. Talking about it makes me want to try it again! Hope this gives you some ideas. If something I said isn't clear just ask. Best of luck!

ETA: Just tried this goal again and I had an easier time than I expected. Flour mills and connecting to Farms on the route are a winner. The little bit more profit makes a big difference. Remember to play this on Hard too. This play the coal situation was really bad. There was only one Coal mine near Portersville and that was one of two below Hazelton. I connected to the one near Portersville right from the start and bought an extra train to wait for two full loads of coal. Iron was good so I was able to get the goal with a full year to spare and may have been more if not for a breakdown.

[nedfumpkin]

I'm going to try to place the steel mills again and see if I can't get them to display as earlier. For some reason they show up as built in 1946 instead of earlier. This is why they aren't already producing steel. Not sure why this is.

The first goal of hauling ammo and weapons is somthing I want to make as being achievable one in ten tries. I want it nearly impossible to accomplish, however, I think I will strategically place some 'assists' and possibly decoys along the way. I want to have a few tasks like this, where it will change the outcome of certain things.

Been busy with spring yard work this last week, so I hope to have something this weekend.

[RulerofRails]

Ned, I think that the weapons and ammo goal is possible every time already. A bit more knowledge of TM helps a lot with this. But the surprise factor of the message coming up with very little time to spare and most players probably having used up their bond capital at this time makes it very very unlikely that a player will get this first go. I would say 1 in 100. Maybe their is somebody who really knows how to get instant returns on investment from TM (not me). If you plan for it from the start it is possible every time, I would give the assistance for players on the easier difficulty levels. Of course, once you make other goals this may change everything. Waiting eagerly and I hope not impatiently for the next version!