North South Corridor

[EPH]

Hi Ray,
I'm glad you enjoyed it! North-South Corridor is actually the 'final' name for GM&O. I decided to open it up and let the player have six railroads to try instead of restricting you to just one, so the 'Corridor' name seems a better fit.

You don't say which road you tried but from the description I'm thinking you took the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley - one of my favorites. The points are earned for having the 'most' passengers to or from a city, not awarded per passenger car. So if you delivered three passenger cars to New Orleans in a year and the Illinois Central delivered four, you would not get the 'TO' point for New Orleans that year. But if you hauled three passenger cars out of New Orleans, and no other railroad hauled as many, you would get the 'FROM' point. I hope that helps - let me know if I need to explain better.

I love the way you ran that last train for the finish line and I think you can claim a 'moral victory' for that one! Another trick is to change the routing from the red triangle (Normal) to the green up-arrow (top priority). That makes other trains stop and let you by first. Picking 'Ultra Cool' locos for passenger runs is a necessity here - something the GM&O did when it dieselized. They used Zephyrs and diesel streamliners and made quite an impact.

Did you use any of the special customizations for your railroad? Pressing the number '4' will move the camera to the top center of the map. Laying a piece of track in one of the 'Help' boxes and then exiting the track-laying tool will bring up instructions. The choices under 'Passenger', 'Freight' and 'Operations' will help your railroad out a lot!

Thank you for trying my scenario - I'm glad you enjoyed it and hope you continue to play it! Any suggestions for improvements?

[RayofSunshine]

Well EPH,

As I have played the GM&N, although with the title of NS Corridor, I want to let you know that I have all of CtoC, patch 1.05, and patch 1.06 installed. Don't know why anyone would also not have the 1.06, as most of the player created scenarios require it.

I was in the process of initiating your scenario, but thought that I would wait to see which title you will designate. Also the courtesy of letting you at least get the "readme" folder included, making the annoucement that the scenario program was now finished.

My last attempt missed the Gold, but I also did not get a notice that I was awarded the Silver. Don't know if you have a trigger to get the medals. That was the only "problem" which I encountered, and had only played it in the Medium.

But NO on the use of those 1-2-3-4 and 5 keys for help. I didn't take the time to get involved with them, and spent so little time trying to figure out their purpose. Will have to make an attempt of "trying", as I am sure that you put a lot of time into their creations. Guess I was just too anxious to just play the challenge of the sceanario.

You are correct with the region for the railroad Yazoo and Mississippi Valley. It seemed the most likely for the amount allotted to become a Chairman. I tried all the rest before making my decision.

I have enjoyed all of your creations. Well there has been only 1 creation which I believe was created by you, which I could not figure its incorporation to make any headway. I will have to check its title. But its creation of terrain and challenges were unique. When I find it, I will let you know, as well as give it a try again since I am sure that there are a lot of "strage" threads by this time.

thanks again for the info on the "passenger count" as well. Don't necessarily under stand its conception, but helps to understand the reason for the mathematics of it.


Ray of Sunsine

[EPH]

Silver, bronze and 'lose' only fire in 1951. Gold fires whenever you win it. I will check the medal results to make sure they fire correctly.

The 'points for most passengers' was taken directly from Lama's 'North-East Corridor'. If you haven't tried it, you should - it is a lot of fun. The idea is to give the player a steady trickle of points so that you know you're making progress but you can't win too quickly. The game doesn't allow me to test by total cars of cargo delivered, so I test for passengers only.

If you think of the title, you can let me know which game you mean and I'll be glad to offer any help I can. My scenarios include, 'Gilded Age', 'American Civil War', 'Getaway Special', 'Great Republic', 'Transcontinental', 'Japanese Miracle', 'British Miracle', 'Farewell to Steam' and - soon - 'North-South Corridor'.

Each time, I've thought, 'That's it - this is the last!' so I won't make any predictions. For a game as old as it is, RRT3 has held up remarkably well, I think.

[RayofSunshine]

Well EPH,

First, although I scanned all the scenarios thumbnails, I was not able to find the scenario of which I mentioned. I thought that I could recognize the scenario by its terrain, but guess not. However, someone in a thread made mention of a SCBC, which refreshed my memory of the scenario in question, and by the titles you mentioned, you are not the creator. Have not as yet went into the North American catagory to see who the creator might be. It is secondary at this point, although a very challengeing scenario.

Secondly, you mention to go play Lama's NS Corridor. Well, I am playing the only NS Corridor sceanio with that title, I believe downloaded from the Archives. SO, if Lama's has the title of NS Corridor, your scenario, although fashioned after the Lama's, is somewhat different? And will be realeased sometime this week as GM&N. Doesn't take much to get old men confused.

Now the NS Corridor which I have been playing, from your suggestion, I have done a little testing of the "option" selection of the 1-2-3-4 & 5 numbers. Just a test to see their purpose and will try to incorporate them when playing the scenario. A very interesting and different concept, so instead of the options only appearing once in other sceanarios, a player has these options available, at a fee, anything. Ingenious.

Just waiting for your GM&N to be released with the explanation text.

Thanks again for all your imput, creations, and imagination. I know that it not only takes a talent, but time and sometimes frustration.

Ray of Sunshine

[EPH]

If I said Lama had a NS Corridor, I was making a silly mistake. His is 'North-East Corridor'. I decided to call mine 'North-South Corridor' partly as a tribute to him. All of his scenarios are great - 'Baghdad Railway' is still one of the best ever made for RRT3, i think.

I'm winkling out the last few bugs but I hope to have 'North-South Corridor' (the new name for 'GM&O') to Hawk in a week or so.

I didn't think up the idea of using track laying in a territory to trigger an event (I think it was JayEff - someone correct me if I'm wrong, please) but I have found it very useful. As you say, it allows the player to trigger events whenever he wants them, instead of at some pre-determined time. In this case, if you don't like the results you have the option to turn it off.

The GM&O project (now 'North-South Corridor') actually went very smoothly, thanks to a lot of help with the map from MrScott and Wolverine. I had the thing in my head pretty much from the start, so it was just a case of putting the pieces together.

[Hawk]

The SCBC (South Central British Columbia) was made by JSS.

[RayofSunshine]

I hate to keep bothering your fellas. Should probably let you keep working at your projects, so that you can get them done.

NO EPH, it was I who made the mistake of given Lama's scenario title as North-South Corridor.

However, I tried a number of searches and yet have not been able to get any link. One link did manage to take me to some very old machinery, and also to the Mt. Washington Cogwheel system. Will have to rely on someone to give me """directions"""""""again""""

Don't know what I did to manage any nearly get a Gold in my 1st attempt. Even tried to the 1-2-3-4 number helps. Not getting ahead for revenue, in the attempt and to haul an adequate number of passenger cars. Too interesting not to keep trying.

Ray of Sunshine

[Hawk]

Ray - Those wood looking buttons under the word 'Navigation' on the right of the main page of the site are links. If you click on the one that says 'Railroad Tycoon' it will take you to the main Railroad Tycoon page. Then click on the logo that says 'Railroad Tycoon 3'. On that page click on the link that says 'RRT3 Map Archive'.
To find 'The Northeast Corridor', click on the link that says 'North America'. All maps are listed in alphabetical order, with the exception of the top 3 which are the 3 newest maps added.
The Northeast Corridor is listed in the 'T' section. 'T' being for The. It's actually on Page 5.

Alternatively you could click on the link that says RRT3 in the yellowish box on the left of the main page that says 'Site last updated...' (with the date). That will take you directly to the main RRT3 page.

If you found the Mt. Washington Cog Railway photos, you were in the 'Rail Photos' section. No maps there.
I honestly didn't think this site was that hard to navigate around in.

[RayofSunshine]

Actually Hawk,

There isn't any "navigation" problem with you website. I don't remember how I got to the particular site, but I was just curious to see what that Cogwheel Rwy was all about. And to get some pics of the machinery was more interesting at the time that trying to find Lama's scenario. I went to that "photo" site as just a search of curiosity.

I have a "favorites" for the Archives 2 and 3 as a shortcut when just in the initial stage to locate a scenario. There is a rare deceptive alphabetical arrangement sometime. Didn't think to try the "T" letter for Lama's "N"orthEast Corridor. Then again "The" North South Corridor" is under the letter "N".

Don't change anything as I believe that your arrangements of catagory are well found navigation wise. I just don't do well in searches on the internet either. Old age. ????

But I thank you for the info. AGAIN, and maybe I should keep notes.

Tried the NS Corridor again. It seems that all the New Orleans terminal have passengers only having destinations to cities that are not in my MEM-MSY region. Just managing 1-2 passenger cars a year is a bonus. Maybe old age, as I don't remember how I managed to just miss the GOLD in the 1st attempt. Guess I am repeating myself

BUT, it is too interesting a scenario to quit trying other methods.

Ray of Sunshine

[Hawk]

Sorry Ray. I got the impression you accidentally wound up in the Rail Photos section while trying to find a map and didn't know how you got there.

You are right though. The Northeast Corridor should probably be moved up in the N's.

[EPH]

After more playtesting of my own I've bumped all cargo prices by 5% and lessened the effects of the Depression. I also increased the number of points needed for a win. Unless I hear from Wolverine in the next day or so I'm shipping this one out to Hawk.

Um, Hawk - please file it under 'N' for North-South Corridor, when you get it.

I laugh because I have this argument with my managers at the theater all the time - they list movies alphabetically but leave the 'The' on the front, so everything gets indexed under 'T'.

[Hawk]

Um, Hawk - please file it under 'N' for North-South Corridor, when you get it.

Will do boss.

I still need to move the Northeast Corridor too but I've been busy working on a spread-sheet for a 3DCanvas plug in that helps making steps a whole lot easier.
Now I'm tired and heading off to bed. I just hope I can remember to do this in the morning.

[belbincolne]

As you said on my first attempt I bought the Alton so thought I'd give it a try south as you suggested with the NO. Could buy 100% of them and decided not to sell any (I had bought 15,000 of Alton and immediately sold 4,000) and pay big divs (around $100k as much as my directors would allow) and then buy in on either Alton or Yazoo. The latter seemed best and I easily managed to buy a majority of the shares - but couldn't raise enough money with bonds to buy them out nor had I sufficient income to grow.

I've just re-read your comments and see you built extra lines and a station so I'll try that now and see what happens.

Anyway from the testing viewpoint I've found nothing wrong at all.

[belbincolne]

Did that and it worked providing more cash but still not enough to give me enough bonds for a takeover so did it the other way round. Bought the rest of the shares in the Yazoo and changed companies - raised enough bonds to take over the LA and was then so profitable that I was able to pay off the expensive bonds I'd just taken out. I was helped by knowing the 1929 crash was coming so selling prior and buying back afterwards.

I was worried that this might lose me the points I'd already got but no so that was o/k. Trouble is of course that the Yazoo didn't give me any more territory so I bought into Alton and eventually was doing well enough to raise enough bonds to take it over (and again rapidly pay them off cos I was mighty profitable). My PNW was now cash rich so took over first the St Louis (?) terminal company and had enough cash still to keep buying shares in other companies so - if I'd had enough company cash I'd have been able to take them over too which should surely have brought me points in.

By all normal standards I therefor did a lot better than in my first attempt but only got (1 year before finish) silver so was nowhere near Gold. Trouble was I never got a point from Chicago either way. I built my own station there (I'd done this in my first attempt too but it was 100 % in the area) half in and half out of the territory and I wonder if this meant that the traffic to/from it didn't count? I'd taken every passenger enhancing "giveaway" so feel sure that I must have been carrying more than the other lines (Had passenger expresses to several towns from Chicago all running pretty full) or whether the relatively late entry into that territory was the cause.

My conclusion is that maybe you could up the Bronze/Silver requirements but Gold seems to be o/k. Incidentally this sounds as though I've only played the scenario twice - but I've had to restart each game several times (e.g. when I tried to get enough bonds for a takeover and found I couldn't - worth doing this in January so you don't lose too much time!) Anyway enjoyed re-playing it

[EPH]

Latest version does prohibit you from resigning... sorry to close your loophole but I wanted to stop some stock market exploits. All points are stored in Game variables, though they are calculated at the end of the year by a temporary use of player, company and territory variables.

Don't know what was going on with Chicago. As long as your station is inside the Territory of Chicago, all passenger loads carried in or out will help. A point is awarded if you carry the MOST passengers in, or out. Possibly another line was carrying more - the Nickel Plate (which also represents the Pennsy and the NYC) does a lot of business in Chicago.

I am going to up the Gold requirement by about a point per year, from 120 to 150, and increase the Bronze and Silver in proportion. That'll give us all something to shoot for in repeat games. The 'final' version will have a way to turn off the history dialogs, eases the Great Depression and permanently raises cargo prices 5%. That should ease up play a lot - which is why I raised the points for medals.

My latest play started with the Alton, but instead of concentrating on the Chicago-StLouis-Kansas City run I set most of my trains to Chi-Peoria-Springfield-St Louis, or Chi-Rock Island, or St Louis-Jefferson City-Kansas City. The 'short runs' seem to generate steadier income - and more of it - than the long hauls. That was a surprise. Another 'new' thing for me was running Atlantics with 4 or 5 passenger coaches (plus a diner) as early as 1926... was making 4 points every year, then more when I bought up the Yazoo and ran passenger Atlantics from NO to Memphis..

Sounds like you had a great game. Glad you enjoyed it! And thank you!

[Hawk]

It's now available.

http://hawkdawg.com/rrt/rrt3/map_arch/rt3_n_am.htm

And I didn't even have to worry about getting it in the right alphabetical order - yet.

[EPH]

Hawk, could you rename this thread 'North-South Corridor' or should I start a new one?

[EPH]

Your objective here is to build a rail network to serve some or all of the five major cities on the map: Chicago, St Louis, Memphis, New Orleans and Mobile. Victory comes from having 40, 75 or 150 points after 30 years for a Bronze, Silver or Gold Medal. You can earn a point by carrying the most passengers to one of the five cities, and another for carrying the most passengers from it, for a possible total of 10 points per year.

At the start there are 12 railroads on a map that covers the central portion of the United States. You cannot start a new company, so you will need to purchase stock in an existing company and take over as chairman. To be sure of winning a takeover battle you will need 51% of the stock. Once you have that, click the View Companies button (middle button on the left hand side; the picture is a man sitting at a desk with three lines in the upper left-hand corner) and double-click on the company you now own stock in. Use the 'Takeover' button to launch a takeover bid. I recommend the Alton, Yazoo & Mississippi Valley, St Louis Terminal, Mobile & Ohio, Gulf, Mobile & Northern, or the New Orleans Great Northern as a starter company.

Pressing the number 1, 2, 3 or 4 on your keyboard will move the camera to different views that you may find helpful. Number 4 allows you to select some or all from an assortment of options. You may customize your railroad with everything from air-conditioned passenger coaches to extra-large tenders. The costs and benefits of these are explained in the option pop-up. Selecting the option again will give you the chance to reverse the effects, but any cash you spent is lost.

As an example of how to use these, lay a single section of track in the area marked ‘Help’ and then exit the track-laying menu. This will bring up a brief explanation of what the other areas do. Laying a section of track in the area marked ‘Turn off history’ will turn off all dialogs that are informational only.

The logos in the pack will have to be installed in your User Extra Content folder; the F3 skins are not required but can be placed there also. The 'Readme' is a Word document called NS Corridor; it contains a lot of information and a short history of the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad.

This is a tribute to Lama's 'North-East Corridor' and the style of play is very similar. I hope you enjoy it.

[EPH]

IF YOU HAVE downloaded this you have a version that IS NOT PLAYABLE. Why? Because I had this great idea, and didn't check it out...

Please wait until Hawk gets the new version up and download it again.

Sorry!

[EPH]

IF YOU HAVE downloaded this you have a version that IS NOT PLAYABLE. Why? Because I had this great idea, and didn't check it out...

Please wait until Hawk gets the new version up and download it again.

Sorry!