The following text is a compilation of what was salvaged from the old Gathering Forum. It contains postings from several different people.
Thanks goes out to Wolverine for putting this all together.
Hawk
Mississippi Valley
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Spent the day goofing around with a scenario. You are trying to connect Memphis, Indianapolis,and St. Louis to the north.
I started in the north and hooked up Chicago, Detroit, Rhinelander, Milwaukee and a few others, Last cpl years I went on a blitz of bonds and building; hooked up the remaining ones in the south. I got credit for all the northern connections; incl Minn. which I did on the last turn.
The game gave NO credit for adding Memphis, St. Louis or Indianapolis. I am the only RR in those towns; I'm built thru the center of town in fact. Lost scenario for failing to connect!?
Seems to be a bit of a bug in the assessment routine
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Did you build a station in Memphis? Also, when placing a station, the town name will say "(Connected)" as you move the mouse around to place the station.
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I am built dead centre of town (track and station); when holding the cursor over the town it says "connected". When I go to the vc screen, I am told those town are not connected.
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Most likely is if you saved the game, go back over the track you built and you'll find a break somewhere. The easiest way to check for a break is try and run a train from say Chicago to Memphis. If there's a break you'll get a message saying the route's not vaild.
Mississippi Valley
I tinkered this map mainly to fix the city connection events. Here is the summary of changes. As many of you know, I have seen that ridiculous price increases can ruin the the execution of the cargo flow / business model, so they are reduced in this map.
1. Changed city connection events one time only to one time per company. Now you don't automatically lose if another company makes the bronze connections first.
2. Text was edited for clarity and grammar.
3. St. Louis World's Fair now affects production only in the St. Louis area, but the effect is much more pronounced.
4. WW1 troop mobilization lasts longer because the troops still have to get home.
5. Added a trigger for Teapot Dome (there was none).
6. Reduced production and price increases for the Gold, Silver, and Charlotte connection events, and the Gamewide Loads Hauled event.
The fixed map can be downloaded here.
This is a fabulous map for beginners to grow their company really big.
1. Changed city connection events one time only to one time per company. Now you don't automatically lose if another company makes the bronze connections first.
2. Text was edited for clarity and grammar.
3. St. Louis World's Fair now affects production only in the St. Louis area, but the effect is much more pronounced.
4. WW1 troop mobilization lasts longer because the troops still have to get home.
5. Added a trigger for Teapot Dome (there was none).
6. Reduced production and price increases for the Gold, Silver, and Charlotte connection events, and the Gamewide Loads Hauled event.
The fixed map can be downloaded here.
This is a fabulous map for beginners to grow their company really big.
Re: Mississippi Valley
I have always liked this scenario just the way it was made. Once I got so I could consistently get gold using my best strategy, which started with linking Detroit to Toledo, I began to think up ways to make it more challenging. One method is to confine all of my business to one state until I have every city in that state connected, then I can build anywhere. So far have have gold medaled West Virginia (not too much more difficult because West Virginia only has two cities in this scenario), Iowa, Kentucky, and Wisconsin. Illinois and Missouri have evaded me so far. I have not tried Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota, Tennessee, or Arkansas.
Another challenge is to start by connecting Indianapolis to Louisville, a rather expensive connection, then build from there. I also like to try starting a company, wrecking it, then buying up majority interest in an AI, taking over that company, and try winning with that. Another method also involves wrecking my start-up company, but this time battering my net worth down in the process, and trying to win with whatever I have left.
Connecting with AI can be very profitable in this scenario. One time, when I was confining myself to one state, I had one AI connected with Toledo and another with Detroit once I finished my restriction. Right away, I connected Detroit with Toledo, connecting those two AIs, and made out like a bandit. Another good connection to make between two AIs is Chicago and Milwaukee.
I will admit there are some things about this scenario that I would change. For example, the payoff for connecting with Charlotte is too lucrative, making the scenario too much easier to win. Also, Dubuque is on the east side of the Mississippi River on this map. Every true-blue Iowan knows that Dubuque is on the west side. Finally, there are some small cities on this map that are located near larger cities that are not used. An example is Unionville, Missouri, which is located close to Kirksville.
I think I will try your version of this scenario sometime. It will be interesting to find out how much about it is different, particularly if it is much more difficult to win.
Another challenge is to start by connecting Indianapolis to Louisville, a rather expensive connection, then build from there. I also like to try starting a company, wrecking it, then buying up majority interest in an AI, taking over that company, and try winning with that. Another method also involves wrecking my start-up company, but this time battering my net worth down in the process, and trying to win with whatever I have left.
Connecting with AI can be very profitable in this scenario. One time, when I was confining myself to one state, I had one AI connected with Toledo and another with Detroit once I finished my restriction. Right away, I connected Detroit with Toledo, connecting those two AIs, and made out like a bandit. Another good connection to make between two AIs is Chicago and Milwaukee.
I will admit there are some things about this scenario that I would change. For example, the payoff for connecting with Charlotte is too lucrative, making the scenario too much easier to win. Also, Dubuque is on the east side of the Mississippi River on this map. Every true-blue Iowan knows that Dubuque is on the west side. Finally, there are some small cities on this map that are located near larger cities that are not used. An example is Unionville, Missouri, which is located close to Kirksville.
I think I will try your version of this scenario sometime. It will be interesting to find out how much about it is different, particularly if it is much more difficult to win.
Life is not fair, but it is still good.
Re: Mississippi Valley
My game is back up and running! I feel like celebrating! I don't know if my wife and kids are happy for me, or down because it is going to start taking up more of my time. First thing I did was try this scenario on expert level. Started with the Indianapolis-to-Louisville connection and got skunked! I must be out of practice.
Life is not fair, but it is still good.
Re: Mississippi Valley
Hello,
first of all, please, forgive me for my english, i'm posting from Italy.
I'm not such an expert player of RT3 but i think i can manage basic tactics for reaching game objectives (and i've already lurked some interesting thread of this board). But it seems i can't get gold in "Mississippi Valley", and i'm playing at "Medium" level...
It looks simply impossible to me to gain 15 million in PNW. I tried to concentrate only on industries cause i know they are fundamental when you want to generate cash and to increase stock value (the only source of PNW, as for what i know) but in a few years every industry starts loosing profit, and so my salary and stock value rapidly collapse.
Just for learning i tried to run all 25 years without building railroads/stations, just buying profitable industries every time i had enough money to invest and, even like that, i couldn't reach even half of the PNW required!
...is there some kind of "secret" to get rid of this scenario? Am i missing something?
Thank you in advance!
first of all, please, forgive me for my english, i'm posting from Italy.
I'm not such an expert player of RT3 but i think i can manage basic tactics for reaching game objectives (and i've already lurked some interesting thread of this board). But it seems i can't get gold in "Mississippi Valley", and i'm playing at "Medium" level...
It looks simply impossible to me to gain 15 million in PNW. I tried to concentrate only on industries cause i know they are fundamental when you want to generate cash and to increase stock value (the only source of PNW, as for what i know) but in a few years every industry starts loosing profit, and so my salary and stock value rapidly collapse.
Just for learning i tried to run all 25 years without building railroads/stations, just buying profitable industries every time i had enough money to invest and, even like that, i couldn't reach even half of the PNW required!
...is there some kind of "secret" to get rid of this scenario? Am i missing something?
Thank you in advance!
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RulerofRails
- CEO
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- Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2013 1:26 am
Re: Mississippi Valley
Welcome to the forum! 
The simplest way to get PNW goals is to buy on margin as early as possible. I assume you are doing this already, and your problem is with maintaining company profits so you get a margin call. (If otherwise, let me know.)
You should be able to tell why the industries you bought aren't making a profit. Either, they are not receiving any resources (doesn't apply to farms) or the cargo they produce has a weak demand. By viewing the industries and the price map for their demanded and supplied cargoes you can see what is going wrong.
My
on this one is that the seeding on this map is high. This means that new industries appear on the map really often. What can happen is that the new industries are closer to the resources they need than the old ones, hence the older ones go broke. To help get around this, you can build industries in the country that are right next to the resources they need. For example, a cluster of 3 logging camps can be a good place for a Lumber Mill. This works better for some industries than others, but make sure not to build too far from cities, and take care around the edges of the map and in hilly terrain. When resources are sitting in a stack at $0 this can give you great initial profits, but try to buy up the resources when you can or they may disappear as they will be running at a loss.
This is the map that I "discovered" that farms are cheap when they are seeded mid-game. Looking for new Dairy and Cattle Farms every 6 months or so, (Use the Milk or Livestock price map overviews) makes this scenario really easy. If you catch them really quickly you can pay 400k for a farm that will make you 200 or even 300k (if it has Corn and has a high demand) every year.
Another thing to remember is that there are lots of passengers available in this time period and this map seems particularly rich in them. This means that this map isn't one I would try to do industry only, especially on Medium where rail revenues are higher. It takes a little while for passengers to build up, so I would split your investment between rails and industry at the beginning (buying cheap farms when available should be enough). Once you get 10-15 cities connected building rails and buying enough trains on the routes the passengers want to go (do this in December as passengers build up slowly during the year before some disappear at year end), you will make more money than you could building industries and almost as much as you get from buying those cheap farms. GOOD LUCK!
The simplest way to get PNW goals is to buy on margin as early as possible. I assume you are doing this already, and your problem is with maintaining company profits so you get a margin call. (If otherwise, let me know.)
You should be able to tell why the industries you bought aren't making a profit. Either, they are not receiving any resources (doesn't apply to farms) or the cargo they produce has a weak demand. By viewing the industries and the price map for their demanded and supplied cargoes you can see what is going wrong.
My
on this one is that the seeding on this map is high. This means that new industries appear on the map really often. What can happen is that the new industries are closer to the resources they need than the old ones, hence the older ones go broke. To help get around this, you can build industries in the country that are right next to the resources they need. For example, a cluster of 3 logging camps can be a good place for a Lumber Mill. This works better for some industries than others, but make sure not to build too far from cities, and take care around the edges of the map and in hilly terrain. When resources are sitting in a stack at $0 this can give you great initial profits, but try to buy up the resources when you can or they may disappear as they will be running at a loss.This is the map that I "discovered" that farms are cheap when they are seeded mid-game. Looking for new Dairy and Cattle Farms every 6 months or so, (Use the Milk or Livestock price map overviews) makes this scenario really easy. If you catch them really quickly you can pay 400k for a farm that will make you 200 or even 300k (if it has Corn and has a high demand) every year.
Another thing to remember is that there are lots of passengers available in this time period and this map seems particularly rich in them. This means that this map isn't one I would try to do industry only, especially on Medium where rail revenues are higher. It takes a little while for passengers to build up, so I would split your investment between rails and industry at the beginning (buying cheap farms when available should be enough). Once you get 10-15 cities connected building rails and buying enough trains on the routes the passengers want to go (do this in December as passengers build up slowly during the year before some disappear at year end), you will make more money than you could building industries and almost as much as you get from buying those cheap farms. GOOD LUCK!
Re: Mississippi Valley
Thank you for your welcome and your kind reply.
Yes, i'm buying on margin but always trying and keep my debt lower then my purchasing power, so i don't get any margin call.
I use to build industries right near needed resources, usually at the geometric center between 2 or 3 of them. Due to low cash i start with cheaper industries like Paper Mills and Distilleries. With the initial budget, in fact, i can only get a 200/250K profit per year (building a single Paper Mill or buyng a Dairy Farm or a Logging Camp plus a couple of farms), so i have to wait for at least 4 years (doing nothing) before i can build another industry.
But the problem starts some years after, when all industry profit decreases: if a Paper Mill generates 150K in its first years, then it generates only 50K or 60K. Upgrading improves only in some cases and only for a short time so i have to do it carefully.
When i tried to start the scenario building rails and setting trains, things seemed even worse, as i rapidly went out of cash.
Now that you told me about farms and passengers i have more input to try again this scenario, so i sincerely thank you for your suggestions.
Yes, i'm buying on margin but always trying and keep my debt lower then my purchasing power, so i don't get any margin call.
I use to build industries right near needed resources, usually at the geometric center between 2 or 3 of them. Due to low cash i start with cheaper industries like Paper Mills and Distilleries. With the initial budget, in fact, i can only get a 200/250K profit per year (building a single Paper Mill or buyng a Dairy Farm or a Logging Camp plus a couple of farms), so i have to wait for at least 4 years (doing nothing) before i can build another industry.
But the problem starts some years after, when all industry profit decreases: if a Paper Mill generates 150K in its first years, then it generates only 50K or 60K. Upgrading improves only in some cases and only for a short time so i have to do it carefully.
When i tried to start the scenario building rails and setting trains, things seemed even worse, as i rapidly went out of cash.
Now that you told me about farms and passengers i have more input to try again this scenario, so i sincerely thank you for your suggestions.
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Wolverine@MSU
- CEO
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- Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 2:14 pm
- Location: East Lansing, MI
Re: Mississippi Valley
Another tactic is to use Bonds to finance industry purchase. The trick is to make sure that your "return on investment" (ROI) is greater than the interest rate on the bond. At the beginning of almost all scenarios, you can only take out one $500k bond, usually at 10% or more interest rate. If you use it to buy something with less than 10% ROI it's a waste of money and you are doomed. As RulerofRails pointed out, the output from industries has to flow (or be taken to) somewhere with higher demand in order for the industry to maintain its profitability. If the Logging Camps and your Lumber Mill are far-removed from the demand centers, the Mill will gradually lose profits until the Lumber gets to the high-demand spots. After Furniture and Toy Factories come into play, placing one next to the Lumber Mill will increse Mill profits, but unless the Furniture/Toys are carted away, their profit levels will also drop.
It sounds like you have the idea right, and most of the time it works very well. You can also issue stock to increase Company Cash for investment, although doing so will decrease PNW. That's usually OK at the beginning of a game, where the goal is usually fast Company growth. Even when PNW is a goal, I almost always issue two rounds of stock and as many bonds as I can every year for the first few years. With wise investment, your Company Book Value and Stock Price should grow quickly; I've had times where the stock split 2 for 1 or 3 for 1 for the first several years. If you get lucky and the Economy goes to Prosperity and then Boom, you can refinance the bonds, and get an even better ROI from them.
I don't remember the details of this particular scenario, but it could be that things are such that it makes it difficult to get a good start.
It sounds like you have the idea right, and most of the time it works very well. You can also issue stock to increase Company Cash for investment, although doing so will decrease PNW. That's usually OK at the beginning of a game, where the goal is usually fast Company growth. Even when PNW is a goal, I almost always issue two rounds of stock and as many bonds as I can every year for the first few years. With wise investment, your Company Book Value and Stock Price should grow quickly; I've had times where the stock split 2 for 1 or 3 for 1 for the first several years. If you get lucky and the Economy goes to Prosperity and then Boom, you can refinance the bonds, and get an even better ROI from them.
I don't remember the details of this particular scenario, but it could be that things are such that it makes it difficult to get a good start.
Re: Mississippi Valley
Hi Wolverine, thank for your suggestions too.
I recently became very careful in issueing bonds, cause i learned in other scenarios they can eat all your profit. In fact i tried to play Mississippi Valley without issueing any bond, or issueing only one single bond at the very beginning.
I found interesting your advice about carrying industries output to demanding places: obviously i knew about this basic aspect of RT3 (it is probably the main concept of the game) but i saw many times this not affecting industries profit in scenarios with economic objectives, so i tended to neglect transports in such scenarios.
For sure i will use all of the inputs you (both) gave me in this thread!
I recently became very careful in issueing bonds, cause i learned in other scenarios they can eat all your profit. In fact i tried to play Mississippi Valley without issueing any bond, or issueing only one single bond at the very beginning.
I found interesting your advice about carrying industries output to demanding places: obviously i knew about this basic aspect of RT3 (it is probably the main concept of the game) but i saw many times this not affecting industries profit in scenarios with economic objectives, so i tended to neglect transports in such scenarios.
For sure i will use all of the inputs you (both) gave me in this thread!
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RulerofRails
- CEO
- Posts: 2061
- Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2013 1:26 am
Re: Mississippi Valley
It is possible to win this one without using bonds, but it is a lot easier to use them. Starting a game is the most important place to pay attention to ROI. I am talking about building industries here, but finding those already on the map that are about to become profitable can be good strategy too. These can be snapped up at a cheaper cost. This isn't the best strategy here, as this likely means that there is some distance between the industry and its supply resources, which makes it vulnerable to a new industry that appears in a better location, as we discussed earlier. Oil is an exception here. In this time period the demand is low, so the Oil Wells can be snapped up at game start for a cheap price. There will sometimes be other opportunities like this, so keep an eye out for them. An established industry at full production that has been nicely profitable for the last couple of years will end up costing enough that it will be about 9% average ROI. Don't use bonds to purchase industries like this, look towards new or improving industries. You should find more solid (ROI >15%) industrial opportunities than you can issue bonds to pay for.
To work out the ROI from your rail lines, is more tricky. But, you should be only connecting to (or toward) places where (A) you get a decent supply of the processed cargo types (Meat, Alcohol, Clothing, Goods, Lumber, etc.) or (B) an abundant supply of the cheaper resources (Coal, Produce, Grain, Oil, etc.). Studying the prices of the various cargoes gives you an idea of how much profit it is possible to make by hauling them. Milk and Livestock are expensive enough to be worth hauling in smaller amounts than the other resources from the farms. To make the best profit from rail, timing is the key. Prices on the map change dynamically, and identifying the short-term, nearby supply-demand discrepancies takes a little more skill. Some people say they only build rail lines to support their industries (hauling cargo away to keep demand there as high as possible), but passengers are not to be ignored in the earlier periods. I decide whether to start with a rail or industry start depending on how much cargo is immediately available for me to haul. If there is not a great supply or cargo, it's not worth it here except as a measure to snag a starting location for later thus preventing the AI from starting there.
Investing in the stock market is another thing that requires skill. If you look around the forums, you will find more tips. Main thing is to have a healthy company to invest in (increasing profits every year). The better company you are running, the easier PNW goals become. The key to buying on margin is to use up all your margin in the second half of those years that profit is rising way beyond that of the previous year. This should be almost every year near the beginning of the game. Buying on margin inflates your share price, which makes your PNW and purchasing power rise. This is good, but I am wary of buying on margin once share price is double that of book value no matter how fast your company is growing.
Hawk, JayEff's link is dead. Is the version in the archives corrected by him?
To work out the ROI from your rail lines, is more tricky. But, you should be only connecting to (or toward) places where (A) you get a decent supply of the processed cargo types (Meat, Alcohol, Clothing, Goods, Lumber, etc.) or (B) an abundant supply of the cheaper resources (Coal, Produce, Grain, Oil, etc.). Studying the prices of the various cargoes gives you an idea of how much profit it is possible to make by hauling them. Milk and Livestock are expensive enough to be worth hauling in smaller amounts than the other resources from the farms. To make the best profit from rail, timing is the key. Prices on the map change dynamically, and identifying the short-term, nearby supply-demand discrepancies takes a little more skill. Some people say they only build rail lines to support their industries (hauling cargo away to keep demand there as high as possible), but passengers are not to be ignored in the earlier periods. I decide whether to start with a rail or industry start depending on how much cargo is immediately available for me to haul. If there is not a great supply or cargo, it's not worth it here except as a measure to snag a starting location for later thus preventing the AI from starting there.
Investing in the stock market is another thing that requires skill. If you look around the forums, you will find more tips. Main thing is to have a healthy company to invest in (increasing profits every year). The better company you are running, the easier PNW goals become. The key to buying on margin is to use up all your margin in the second half of those years that profit is rising way beyond that of the previous year. This should be almost every year near the beginning of the game. Buying on margin inflates your share price, which makes your PNW and purchasing power rise. This is good, but I am wary of buying on margin once share price is double that of book value no matter how fast your company is growing.
Hawk, JayEff's link is dead. Is the version in the archives corrected by him?
Re: Mississippi Valley
I corrected the link. That link was to the page before I re-did the site. Yes, it is his fix of the default Pop Top map.RulerofRails wrote:Hawk, JayEff's link is dead. Is the version in the archives corrected by him?
Thanks for pointing that out.
Hawk
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RulerofRails
- CEO
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- Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2013 1:26 am
Re: Mississippi Valley
frk, I recommend using the version in the archives. The problems you are seeing could also be due to the price increase events which, because of a game bug, mess up the economy. Prices keeping going higher and higher in a spiral. While theoretically industries should make more money, when prices go too high industries will lose most of their ability to attract resources so they will produce little or nothing. This is a special circumstance (something different from other maps), so is more likely to be the issue than any of the more common company management stuff I posted about before. I didn't play it the way JayEff fixed it, but he knows his stuff, so I am sure the map will work better for you.
Re: Mississippi Valley
First of all, let me warmly thank you all for the great amount of useful indications you gave me!
I got the gold, at last, but it wasn't easy: i only managed to get it in August of the very last year! It was vital the advice of RulerofRails about new farms and ranches wich appear during the game. Buying a new industry almost every year was the only way for keeping stock value increasing/splitting and rising PNW. Even like this the cash flow was just enough to buy the new industries and at the end of the game i had to issue several bonds just to build required connections.
I also appreciated very much any other advice from all users who kindly reply to my question and be sure i will use all of them! Thank you very much!
I got the gold, at last, but it wasn't easy: i only managed to get it in August of the very last year! It was vital the advice of RulerofRails about new farms and ranches wich appear during the game. Buying a new industry almost every year was the only way for keeping stock value increasing/splitting and rising PNW. Even like this the cash flow was just enough to buy the new industries and at the end of the game i had to issue several bonds just to build required connections.
I also appreciated very much any other advice from all users who kindly reply to my question and be sure i will use all of them! Thank you very much!
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Wolverine@MSU
- CEO
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- Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 2:14 pm
- Location: East Lansing, MI
Re: Mississippi Valley
Have a look at these two topics for tricks in identifying newly-spawned industries/farms etc.:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=327&p=2189&hilit=+n ... down#p2189
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1886&p=18044&hilit= ... own#p18044
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=327&p=2189&hilit=+n ... down#p2189
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1886&p=18044&hilit= ... own#p18044
Re: Mississippi Valley
That's really interesting, thank you!
I'm starting to understand that RT3 can be played at different levels of "depth", i'm really impressed by the knowledge you guys reached and shared on this forum.
I'm starting to understand that RT3 can be played at different levels of "depth", i'm really impressed by the knowledge you guys reached and shared on this forum.
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RulerofRails
- CEO
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- Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2013 1:26 am
Re: Mississippi Valley
Wolverine, I read your tips and they are good. Been awhile since I used this strategy, so decided to play with it a little. I ended up assigning a camera view (Shift+0) to the very first industry in the game's list (first one after the newest industry). This way with "0", selection of the industry, and "Pg Up", it's really easy to find the most recent (newest on the map) industry on the list. This removes the need to assign any new camera views often. The drawback is that this "first" industry might disappear, but that can be ensured against by using another camera view on one of the subsequent ones that seems profitable and likely to persist. You are obviously proficient at using it, so no need to change. If I can make the process a little faster/simpler for beginners that's great. Maybe I am just being a little too precise though. 
With this tweak, I might start using this method more again. Lately an occasional yearly search for new Dairies and Ranches has been the limit of my endeavor. For the PopTop maps this is a great strategy. For many of the others, developing the unused resources (including rails to balance demand) on the map seems to give me a slightly poorer result with less effort expended. Always a good strategy to have in the arsenal, though, especially for early years on the leaner maps.
With this tweak, I might start using this method more again. Lately an occasional yearly search for new Dairies and Ranches has been the limit of my endeavor. For the PopTop maps this is a great strategy. For many of the others, developing the unused resources (including rails to balance demand) on the map seems to give me a slightly poorer result with less effort expended. Always a good strategy to have in the arsenal, though, especially for early years on the leaner maps.