Birth of a Nation (CA01)

[nedfumpkin]

I figured this should get its own topic now. As I write, I just at the point where I have built things up to the point where I can jump over the the GT and leave a very profitable company. Too profitable because it is at 16 million by 1847. The GT is in bad shape and has a poor credit rating. So I think some strategy is called for here.

I need to build up some industries in Canada West, so I am going to sell off the industries in Lower Canada and build new ones where I need them. Then I am going to sell them with the hopes of buying them later at a discount. Or, at least I can make it so that industries in the west can flourish.

I'll try some different strategies, and post them.

[nedfumpkin]

Since I mesed up some territory accesses, I've re-uploaded the map and there are some new changes.

To make the AI RRs a bit more sucessful, I put a few more industries where they will lay their track. They will at least have something to haul now and shouldn't tank too badly.

Another change was to the ports in Montreal and Quebec City. I made them demand hides in exchange for other stuff. This will represent the fur trade; originally I was pushing textiles to do this. The main reason is that for some reason the price of hides at montreal was very high, and they were collecting there despite no reason to. Now at least the hides will be consumed.

[Wolverine@MSU]

How long until this version gets changed? It's a little annoying to start a scenario, and then the next day find that a new version has been posted. I can understand the need to update if there are major flaws in the events that prevent the game from executing properly, but daily revisions make it difficult to get very far into a scenario before all is for naught.

Please don't take this as a harsh criticism Ned. I am amazed with the development of Trainmaster and appreciate the time you've dedicated to bring the game to market. Given the entirely new economic system, I'm not surprised that it's taking a while to adjust scenario creation to the new reality. When things get close to completion, rest assured that I will revise the documentation as necessary. I know it's probably way down on your list of things to do, but I find the industry detail panel, showing inputs and outputs, to be unusable most of the time with icons overlapping (I can live with them being out of the box). I realize this is probably not going to be an easy thing to fix, but it has the potential of turning people off to the whole thing if they constantly have to keep referring to paper documentation for inputs/outputs and demands for industries. At the present time, I don't have any suggestions for a "work-around", but I'm not very saavy about how the RT3.EXE file is structured.

One last question: I've been playing with straight 1.05 and not your modified RT3.EXE. Except for the Rubber Farm problem in Ruth's map, I haven't run into any glitches by using 1.05. Am I OK doing this, at least for the time being, or are there things built into your modified RT3.EXE that I need to be using?

Thanks again for you your effort in giving RT3 a whole new life.

[nedfumpkin]

I am the first to agree with the daily revisions on maps, and I really do apologize. I am testing so many things on this map that I am loading it an trying different approaches all the time. Only fatal flaws, like territorial access would have me post a revision and that was the case here. I thought I had checked everything twice, but misread the events - my bad. But in all actuality, the map will work and isn't impossible, just more difficult and different than what I want it to be.

Part of this is that I am working on campaign maps, but as scenarios first for testing. So I am trying to hold back a few things until the end in order to make it slightly different as a campaign. Now, all the things that I was holding back on are in the map, with the exception that when you take over the GT, your credit rating will increase.

One of the problems I am running into is that I am still testing out the cargo system, and as you can imagine, it takes a lot of time, and it has to be on a playable map. I can't complete a map until I have other things worked out, and so it adds to the length of time it is taking. Can't get others to help me until I get a playable map. So around in circles we go.

Usually I won't upload a mpa until I have played it all the way through and achieved gold on expert level. But for now, I am doing the best I can with what I've got.

The 1.05 exe will keep working until the beta version. The changes that affect things are the campaigns mostly. I'll let you know when it is no longer possible to use the 1.05 exe.

One thing I want to point out is that the industry display is at the TOP of my list. It is my first priority right now and I haven't been able to figure out how to fix it. I haven't stopped trying, and will not stop until I figure something out. If it really comes down to it, I may just end up splitting some industries into two (or 3 for that matter), but that is a last resort.

So as it stands, I apologize once more for having had to make some changes to the map. When I tested the terriroty access the first time, it worked under the conditions for the approach I was taking, but the next time using a different approach things didn't work right. (and just think...I only have 14 more maps to make. )



PS: I've strated this scenario and played it for at least 5 years about 35 to 40 times now. And....despite this being the second scenario I have written on this map, I have never really like it. The geography is all wrong, and the map is too small for the area covered. As far as the cities on the map in Ontario and Quebec, I have been to every one of them except for the northern towns, so I'm familiar with the geography and the rail lines in real life. But, it would take me too long to make a new map, so I am going with what's available.

[nedfumpkin]

So here's the initial strategy....

Make your first connection from La Prairie to St. Jean. Use medium stations and only put a water tower. Put min 1 on the St. Jean, run back empty. (max is 6 and a caboose)

Next bridge the north shore from Montreal to the Lumber Mill near St. Jerome. Use medium stations, and run min 1 both bays. If you can, put your water tower.

When you get the investment return, branch to St. Jerome, medium station, min 1 both ways. (start your trains away from Montreal)

When you can afford it, upgrade to alarge station at Montreal.

Next connect to the logging camp north of the lumber mill. Copy your mill train and have it run an extra leg up to the logging camp.

Next connect St. Hyacynthe to St. Jean and La Prairie in a T. Put a large station if you can afford it. Run 2 trains in ABC-ACB.

Now put in the maintenance sheds. Till now it is cheaper to replace a locomotive than to service it.

Industries depend on what spawns. A paper mill has been coming up a lot for me. This feeds the flour mill beside the Lumber mill. So a bakery at Montreal is cheap and makes money. A textile mill will gush cash but is pricey at $1.6 mil. A tannery will work well if placed in the right spot.

If you can buy the flour mill for 500K then grab it, otherwise as soon as an industry makes a buck, its prices skyrockets. It's cheaper to build than buy in many cases.

Once you've got that, connect to Trois Rivieres and Joliet. This will give you the Norris and access to Eastern Upper Canada.

Next connect to Quebec City. This is all the connecting should you make.

At this point you should reduce all the bonds, and dump out dividends until you have more that 1/2 the stock in the STL&C. Getting control of the GT is easy because Hincks bites. But you want to get as much cheap stock before you take over as you can.

Then jump over the the GT, and build it up.

[Wolverine@MSU]

I started the newest version last night and finished this morning (with a short break for sleep). Got Trainmaster on Expert by 1848. It's now almost too easy, but that's not an issue. As far as the gameplay, it worked fine. I started as before, connecting St. L. to various cities around Montreal, built a Textile mill and bought stock. Also bought into GT early on and got controlling shares in both companies. Then jumped back and forth, with a primary goal of strengthening GT by connecting to Hamilton and Toronto, and leveraging bonds to build duplicate industries right next to the really profitable ones, which were out of reach cost-wise. The Glass Factory and Distillery were cash cows, and I later built a Textile Mill in London to sop up the Wool and Hemp from nearby towns. On the St. L. side, I expanded up to Quebec City and down to Kingston, and bought back a lot of shares with excess profits. Both St. L. and GT had about equal CBV, and I tried to keep them on a par with each other, but favored GT since I was eventually going to need it to take out St. L. After an economic downturn, I bought out the other two lines in the US, had St. L. merge with them, then sold off a whole bunch of St. L. to drive down the price so that GT could merge with it. I had previously extended GT to Detroit (actually Windsor with a large station) and Kingston, so at merger time I had the Quebec C. to Detroit corridor done. After a short time of building cash, I connected to Boston and voila, game over. I did notice that one of the AIs started another company in the US, but I won anyway. The instructions say to be the only RR company, but it's probably to be the only RR in Canada.

There were a few typos in the dialogs etc. But the events seemed to work OK. I took the telegraph offer all the way. Territory access seemed to work fine; I didn't get US access after St. L. bought out the Yanks, only after GT merged with St. L. I'll go back and delay the Boston connection to see what other events transpire between 1848 and 1867 and also go back and nitpick the dialogs, newspapers, etc. for typos and such.

Thanks Ned.

[nedfumpkin]

Thanks a lot for the info. I got nailed on a margin call last night so I never got through. I might make a change or two to make it less easy but then again, this will be the first campaign map so it shouldn't be too hard I suppose. Probably just remove the effect of reducing your stcok price on start up, and only give 1 credit rating boost when changing companies instead of 2 levels.

I susepct what happened was the being the last compant triggered the event to say you were the only one and then the new company was created. Should probably put the same condition in the gold since the prior event affects the ledger as well as the gold condition by using a variable.

The telegraph investment would give you some personal cash, and I think it was just coming up when you got gold.

Typos are the monkey on my back. Comes from being half blind most of the time. Takes a long time to find them for me so pointing them out is never ill received.

Again, thanks for playing the scenario, and all your help.

[nedfumpkin]

I've made some changes that will circumvent your easy win Wolvy.

I made it so that you only get one credit point increase when you take over the GT. I also made the siging bonus com from the company cash, and the stock price goes up 10%.

But...one you have taken over the GT you can never leave. Just like the Hotel California. If you leave, game lost.

Also fixed the late coming company glitch.

This should make it harder for the quick win. I think it can still be achieved (quick win), but will be much harder to do.

I'm not going to upload the new map until after it is completely finished, painted and a campaign scenario.

[Wolverine@MSU]

Sounds good. I'll let you know (by PM) of typos after I finish playing through.

It looks like there are some cargoes that are not used in the game (bauxite comes to mind) but it may be that they are needed because of othe industries. I'll have a look at that too.

Not being able to return from GT after the initial takeover will definately make it more challenging.

You may also want to force the Detroit station to be in Detroit (make in invisible territory) instead of being able to use a large station in Windsor that reaches into Detroit.

[nedfumpkin]

I look forward to the PM since I keep looking for typos but don't seem to be finding them.

I think all the cargo can be used except for bauxite. I originally put it in for the Aluminum mill but totally forgot to add any mines or warehouses. I'll take baxite and aluminium out. I'm not sure when the Quebec aluminum industry got its start, but I don't think it was that early.

I thought about the Windsor Detroit issue, but with that, I figure that a large station would suffice to connect both, and the extra 500k to bridge the river wouldn't have any real impact on the game so I never gave much thought to it. As with this, I'm not sure when the bridge was completed. So it may not have ever appeared when the game started.

This is one of the reasons I made the St Lawrence a lake south of Montreal. There were plans for a bridge as early as 1850, but it never got constructed during the period. The biggest problem was that they had to allow ships to pass under it. The Quebec bridge was 1880s, and that one fell down.

[Wolverine@MSU]

The Ambassador bridge was completed in 1929 and the tunnel under the river in 1930, so both a bit too early for your scenario. I should be through the rest of the game in the next couple of days, so I'll let you know what I find.

[nedfumpkin]

Thanks, I am hoping that by Monday I can have the map painted and finished once and for all, and I can move on to some other things.

I just came up with a brainy idea, if someone has tried it feel free to let me know if I am wasting my time.....

The 1.06 exe is created from the patch modifying the 1.05 exe. What if I were to modify the 1.04 bete exe, or the TM exe? Would it work? I could try to convince the patch that the TM exe is the 1.05...

Then we could have drop shipping which I am not all the keen on since we have Rail Yard structures, but more importantly the operators for use in the events, the pause on ledger, and other things in the exe.

So I am thinking I might tinker with that this weekend.

[JayGould]

Patching the 1.04 beta exe with the 1.06 patch changes is possible. An issue that you will discover is that the addresses (locations within the exe) for the 1.06 changes may be different or may not exist. The actual patch code to make the desired change may need to be different because the 1.04 beta exe may use a slightly different method of coding a feature. It would require a lot of work and testing to reapply all the 1.06 patch changes to the 1.04 beta exe. Not as much effort as the original determination of the 1.06 changes, but perhaps more effort than anyone has available to get it all done. It may be possible to make the most desireable changes a few at a time as the specific details are determined.

[nedfumpkin]

That's what my plan is. I'm almost finished with the boxcars, and then I will take a closer look at things. My attitude is anything that can be made to work will be a bonus, if not then I won't lose much sleep over it. It's also something that can be accomplished over time without any effects on the work done to date.

[Blackhawk]

I'm not sure if the typos were fixed or not, but I played the map a day or two ago and skimmed thru the map in the editor tonight to see if there were any I didn't catch while playing.
EUC Access 2: "Youve" should be You've
GT - "increase" should be "increased"
King is dead - "ascends the thrown" - probably should be "ascends to the thrown"
Industry 10/20/30/40 - It says you get a bonus for having $10million in profits, but then the last line says you get another bonus if you make it to $10million in profits. Except, didn't you just make it to $10 million in industry profits?
1841 and 1841a - "travelling" should be "traveling"
1848 - there's a comma instead of a period at the end of the message

Other things that happened while I was playing a few days ago (Some of which I think you may have already worked on)
- I bought out all the companies, but didn't win, instead a month later another company popped up and I had to buy them out.
- After I bought out all the companies, the back page of the ledger went blank. (Just like it did for me in Persion Electric)
- The ledger said I was in control of a different company and that I must absorb the St. Lawrence when I was actually controlling the Grand Trunk and had already taken over the St. Lawrence.
- I built a bridge between Brockville and Watertown which apparently didn't register or something, as I tried to sent a train between the 2 cities and was told they were not connected, and was told Toronto and Montreal were not connected. So I figured I'd try to demolish the bridge and try again. But each time I tried to demolish the bridge, the game would crash. So I ended up having to make a second bridge over to the side of the first bridge and that time the connection actually worked.

Overall it was a nice map. I may have "cheated" in a way in that once I knew I had to switch railroads, I sold off the brewery from the St. Lawrence line as it was their main source of income and used what money they had to buy back stock. After doing that they were easier to buy out a few years later. Hopefully this post was useful, if I just reiterated things you already knew about, sorry.