1954 Royal Tour (1.05) - now with extra disasters!

[belbincolne]

Over the years I downloaded evey custom item and ran them on XP. On Windows 7 it is hard to remember what I'm doing as I've had so many tries at getting 1.06 to work but I'm sure I have never deliberately put in any extras and the User Extra Content box is empty. I cant see any unusual items in the trains, building types etc boxes either. I reckon we're getting rather off-topic here and maybe Hawk should delete a few items as it seems unlikely we'll ever find out what the problem is.

[RayofSunshine]

Well RulerofRails,
I don't know what the error <ult_Body.3dp> would pertain, but I have the same problem with the Building Structures. What I have done to be able to check the "custom" folder, is to "back up" all these imputs. Then I can use them to compare. But like I mentioned, I don't know what that error does pertain.

[low_grade]

I tried this one the other day, and with only a few years to spare, I had little chance of making even bronze...

Ouch! I'm going to have to concentrate, apparently! Well, finally got back to it and gave it my all. Aggressive but careful. My first play I tried to hold off on 13%+ bonds, this time I took them as fast as they were offered. Started by buying a textile mill in Wellington and a brewery in Moree that were just getting supplied and upgrading. I didn't bother building my initial network to feed them, started out of Sydney instead. I was already cruising when the economy come back, and had a rather quick run to the end, gold on Expert in March 1948!

Let's see, I ran only H10's, boring but dependable and fine with grades. Wasn't too too careful with track laying as a result, grading up to 5 without concern if it shortened the distance.

I was a bit worried that I had quickly put myself $2M in debt in order to keep buying shares. But by 1938 or so I was able to hike the dividend up and buy back a few shares and gain control of my company in a good personal financial position. In 1944 I started the Queensland company, selling many shares of my original company to get $4M in personal cash to put against $3M from private investors. $7M was enough to build the entire Queensland network with hotels, but no other industry. Still, $4M profits that first year! Took control again in 1945 and 1946 on pause to build/buy industry. Had gone back into personal debt when I bought back enough shares in my NSW company to take it back over. Profit on that side was over $7M per year, and finished with $73M profits. I could have shaved some time off, as the last year and a half I was just paying dividends to erase personal debt while paying off the bonds finally, but I should have just issued stock to pay off bonds while selling enough to erase my personal debt, since I didn't need to change companies again...

I had some very profitable industries, including an Aluminum mill and a couple well supplied T&D's, a couple toy factories, too. That brewery in Moree made $700k/year the whole game, somehow alcohol didn't collapse even though it took me so long to get my network there. Had some industry misses, too, though. Sucks when another steel mill pops up and steals all your iron... Overall LIP of $54M, freight $60M, express $25M.

As has already been noted, well put together scenario! Made me think, but so long as I paid attention, not too hard as it turned out.

[Gumboots]

Glad you liked it. And yes, that was the idea of it. Fun, not that difficult, but requiring enough thought to be interesting. I have been thinking that I should drag it out for another go myself. I haven't played it for ages.

[TheBonobo4]

I'm having a great deal of fun with this map, though I'm only on my first play through on medium and it looks like I'll only get bronze or silver, so I'll need to think of a new strategy. Though I love the Australian sense of humour, for example in 1939 the newspaper saying some jokers have started shooting at us!

[Gumboots]

I had a bit of fun with the newspapers.

[TheBonobo4]

So I'm a bit stumped by this one. I have just finished my first full play through, on Medium, and I had met the Bronze goals but not Silver by the stated game end of April 1954. I was in charge of the NSW company, the Queensland company under the management of the no chairman AI was incredibly profitable, making around $2M a year somehow, I had a low PNW of around $500K, few shares (I had to sell a load to meet a margin call since after I took over the NSW company a recession hit and I couldn't take them back immediately due to not enough shares/votes, so the AI kinda screwed my company a bit), no company/personal debt (I managed to sell off all $10M of my bonds in time). The only thing I missed for Silver was I was around $2M in profit short, and I actually did hit $40M profit by end of 1954. The scenario however did not end in April 1954 to give me the Bronze, so I thought it might end in December 1954, and maybe I'd get Silver. Well, the scenario did end in Jan 1955, but it gave me no medal. Is this some bug, or hidden goal, or is it simply a case of Gold Medal or nothing?


Short version: I managed the NSW company by April 1954, I had no company debt in the NSW company (I'm guessing Queensland had bonds thanks to the AI), I had positive player cash and PNW, I connected 24+ NSW towns (and all Queensland towns), I reached more than $12M profit with the Queensland company, and $38M in NSW by April 1954, $40M+ by Jan 1955.

[low_grade]

I can't see anything in Events which would cause Bronze and Silver to fail to trigger... in Apri 1954, but yes oddly you get to keep playing through the year before the Game Lost notice will appear. You did connect Canberra to Brisbane, right? Through Wallangarra as intended?

Also, I found an easter egg while peeking under the skirts of this scenrio for the first time, tavern revenue is up 900%!!! So if you're having a hard time at work, try investing in taverns, lol!

[TheBonobo4]

I can't see anything in Events which would cause Bronze and Silver to fail to trigger... in Apri 1954, but yes oddly you get to keep playing through the year before the Game Lost notice will appear. You did connect Canberra to Brisbane, right? Through Wallangarra as intended?

Also, I found an easter egg while peeking under the skirts of this scenrio for the first time, tavern revenue is up 900%!!! So if you're having a hard time at work, try investing in taverns, lol!

I had hotels etc in pretty much every city, but admittedly maybe I needed yet more industry. And yes I had them connected up. I don't think I have a save from the point at which the game ends in April as I played on until I met Gold, which was around 1959, so basically I would have needed 5 more years to get gold and only around 9 months more for silver. But yes I had the connection through Wallangara, it's the only place that's possible thanks to the Dingo Fence!

Could it be possible that it didn't detect it properly as 2 different companies ran track in the Wallangara square? The NSW one had the station and then the Queensland one ran track out of there towards Warwick and Brisbane etc. Like I said I had all Queensland town's connected so that shouldn't have been an issue.

[Gumboots]

Well, the scenario did end in Jan 1955, but it gave me no medal. Is this some bug, or hidden goal, or is it simply a case of Gold Medal or nothing?

Bug. I checked the coding on this one and the lose event was set to fire annually, when it should have been set to check monthly. So I've fixed that now, and am double checking for any other glitches. I can't see any problem with the Bronze event though.

Short version: I managed the NSW company by April 1954, I had no company debt in the NSW company (I'm guessing Queensland had bonds thanks to the AI), I had positive player cash and PNW, I connected 24+ NSW towns (and all Queensland towns), I reached more than $12M profit with the Queensland company, and $38M in NSW by April 1954, $40M+ by Jan 1955.

Queensland company debt doesn't matter. It's not part of the medal conditions. Bronze requirements are very simple, and the coding appears to be correct (as far as I can tell at the moment).

[Gumboots]

But yes I had the connection through Wallangara, it's the only place that's possible thanks to the Dingo Fence!

Could it be possible that it didn't detect it properly as 2 different companies ran track in the Wallangara square? The NSW one had the station and then the Queensland one ran track out of there towards Warwick and Brisbane etc. Like I said I had all Queensland town's connected so that shouldn't have been an issue.

It doesn't matter about the two different companies. It's only checking for city connected to city, not company connects city to city. The same coding is used an the Silver and Gold events, and works in those.

One thing I may do with this map is use bmp2gmp to throw a new base image on it. The existing one was badly corrupted around coasts and rivers, due to the pre-Voodoo graphics corruption bug when doing multiple saves on WIP maps. It would be pretty easy to do an update with clean graphics now.

[TheBonobo4]

I did get the newspapers to say that Sydney was connected to Canberra and Brisbane, so I have no idea why bronze wasn't given.