Gibraltar Express: reviews/testers wanted

[Hawk]

shippers/people want direct access to their final destination, rather than having to ship to a city and then find another mode of transportation to get to their final destination. If you don't connect to the cities, you'll have to offer them incentives to still use your railroad. --> So either you can have reduced cargo/passenger production, or maybe your company pays for passenger's connecting modes of transportation, so at the end of the year, a portion of the passenger revenues is deducted from your company. Ex. I made 300k from passengers, but 1/3 went to the cost of making sure the passengers were comfortable enough on their long trips, so at the end of the year I get "fined" or have to pay 100k back from my profits.

Now that just doesn't make a bit of sense in a government controlled environment.
They don't care if your travel was good or not. They got your money and that's that. (Oh! Wait a minute! That sounds like the corporate environment too?)

Miners/drillers strike --> coal/diesel becomes more expensive, the government decides how to ration out the reduced amount of fuel --> Fuel costs are increased.

Now we're gettin' back in the swing of things.

Possibly something where larger railroads are trying to put the smaller railroads out of business:
Larger Railroad lobbies the government for a yearly territorial access fee, which they will be able to pay easily, but might cripple the smaller railroads. '
or
Locomotive manufactures are running behind in all their orders for new engines. Preference is given to the largest railroad companies who place the biggest orders. If you want a locomotive on time you'll now have to pay more. --> Increased engine buying costs.

That sounds like real life.

[brunom]

Miners/drillers strike --> coal/diesel becomes more expensive, the government decides how to ration out the reduced amount of fuel --> Fuel costs are increased.

Incorporated. Engine fuel cost +1, engine maintenance +15%, effects lasting for 11 months.

Possibly something where larger railroads are trying to put the smaller railroads out of business:
Larger Railroad lobbies the government for a yearly territorial access fee, which they will be able to pay easily, but might cripple the smaller railroads.

Too complex to code, would involve setting and checking more game variables, thus multiple events coding, and I want to keep this to simple "one line" events.

Locomotive manufactures are running behind in all their orders for new engines. Preference is given to the largest railroad companies who place the biggest orders. If you want a locomotive on time you'll now have to pay more. --> Increased engine buying costs.

Incorportated - Engine cost +20% for two years.

There is now a list of 12 events of this kind that can be triggered... I want 20. Once we reach that minimum, beta_02 pops in here!

I haven't placed any trees yet, though. The map is big and going back to paintbrush mode isn't exactly exciting me..
Hawk, that joke on government controlled weather was hilarious... guess you voted Obama

[Hawk]

Hawk, that joke on government controlled weather was hilarious... guess you voted Obama

Are you out of your mind?
I may joke about Socialism but I don't want any part of it.

[Wolverine@MSU]

I may joke about Socialism but I don't want any part of it.

So will you refuse to accept any Medicare payments you might be entitled to someday? Will you keep off the Interstate roadways that were constructed with tax dollars and mostly maintained through gas taxes? Will you not utilize your public libraries, police/fire services, unemployment compensation, or any other government run programs? Sometimes we forget how many of the things we have come to expect from society/government are funded by the populace.

I'm not trying to get you riled Hawk. I too think that maybe sometimes the government wants to stick its big nose in everyone's business more than it should.

[Hawk]

So will you refuse to accept any Medicare payments you might be entitled to someday?

More than Likely. I sure don't want the government handling my medical care, and as for SSI, if it's still around when I become of age, I'll most likely let the government keep it. The way their spending our tax dollars on ignorant and frivolous trivialities to further they're socialist agenda, they're going to need it a lot more than me. Besides, that will help keep me a little more under their radar.

Will you keep off the Interstate roadways that were constructed with tax dollars and mostly maintained through gas taxes? Will you not utilize your public libraries, police/fire services, unemployment compensation, or any other government run programs? Sometimes we forget how many of the things we have come to expect from society/government are funded by the populace.

I'm 59 years old and have never, nor will I ever, file for unemployment compensation. As for driving on roadways, police, fire, etc., that's what our tax dollars are supposed to be used for. Not for the demoralization and implementation of a nanny state.

I'm not trying to get you riled Hawk.

I know. Just plain ol' conversation.

[brunom]

Government handles my health care and it's fine. No private or semi-private scheme covers for half of what the government health care covers here in Portugal and they are all much more expensive. Only folks I know who go for private health care are those who want to have their babies in posh new clinics - but those clinics warn right on entrance that if something goes wrong, they move you to public hospital on public costs.

Anyway this gave me an idea for another event
Health Care reformists passed replacing government health care by employer financed health care -> overhead costs go up by 40%

one more in the list! yeay!

[Hawk]

Well there ya' go. Wolvy and I gave you another idea for events.

[brunom]

Hey again

Added over 15 possible events to make life difficult for people without "political influence" (means people who won't connect cities). Also reviewed a few other details and played game through a few times.

All seems well, but I have choice to make:
Trees aren't placed yet, since the game map is already so big, trees will make it heavy on the graphics engine. Should I leave it like it is or plant away?

This is really all that is between current version on my computer and a public version for Hawk to archive.

B

[Hawk]

There's probably not a lot of trees in Northern Africa anyway so maybe just plant a few around in Spain and Portugal, just to give the illusion of forests.

[brunom]

Will plant then, if "master" says to

South Portugal and central/south Spain are pretty treeless as well, anyhow. (But Morocco has forests, mind you )

Expect that version soon then, Hawk...

[RayofSunshine]

Well Brunom,

I have returned from my trip to Colorado to look at intended houses. Now there is the place which has T--R--E--E--S. Now that was over a week ago that you had mentioned the lack of trees in the scenario. I thought by this time you would have completed that project. LOL

Didn't know that you had not finished the Gibraltar BETA, so started on the Eteopia BETA. I don't know how much help in testing, as my cataracts don't give me much vision during the "night" phases, and especially in the dark green areas. It is also a chore to distinguish the heights and ravines, so I waste the real time until the sun comes up. Storms don't help either.

But it looks like you have both of the scenarios under control for finishing them. Now I hope that you will take off some time for the "beer and peanuts", and relax.

[brunom]

Eheh

Completed two projects actually. Gibraltar and Ethiopia (which is just about ready).

Yep, as I said, Ethiopia is a poor paint job - will have to dedicate some time to detail now. I also messed up the map early on, filling it with ocean up to 700 or 800 - after correcting that, the texture went all wrong, and that is quite visible when you zoom in.

Good to know you're back. Better yet to find out there are still some trees in Colorado - hope you fellas didn't dry up a river to water them though

B

[Georgije]

Hello everybody, i'm new here :)

It's nice to see there are other people in the world still playing this old game :P


And now for the map: I think it's awesome, it was very fun to play. I was done connecting everything by the year 1900, but then i was too lazy to deal with the steel and diesel conditions because there just isn't enough demand. Maybe i was just a couple of decades too early.
A little bit of constructive criticism: If this is supposed to be a big islamic empire, why are there churches everywhere? Maybe you should try to use the oriental building style. But that's not a game-related problem, just a little observation, the map is still great.

[Wolverine@MSU]

I met all the conditions for Gold but was not awarded the medal. Upon inspection of the Events in the Editor, I noticed a couple of problems. The check for delivery of Steel (gold tester 1) isn't set for the Fez territory, it's for Oran territory; no wonder I didn't get credit for this one. The Diesel to Cordoba event (gold tester 2) is checking for Oil delivery instead of Diesel. Also, all of the Medal Checks (GOLD, SILVER, BRONZE) are checking "all companies" and should be "on screen player's company only". This was with the "final release" (GibralterExpress) and not the beta version.

I wound up double-tracking to get the 8,000 miles of track after other goals had been met. An interesting thing happened that had me stymied for a while. I looked at the Ledger, and saw that I had 6003 miles of track. So I used the track-laying tool to double-track a long stretch, and when I went back to the Ledger, it showed fewer miles of track than I had before. It wasn't until I exited the track-laying tool, and then looked at the ledger that I saw more than 6003 miles of track. Strange way of counting track laid, but track miles DECREASE as you are upgrading a section of single track to double, but the miles get added on once the track-laying tool is closed. Go figure

[brunom]

Heya

Good to know people are playing, hope you guys enjoy playing it as much as I enjoyed creating it.

About using "clapboard" architecture instead of "oriental" architecture. Nice eye for detail, Georgije.. but it was actually on purpose. Iberia was a caliphate up to 1100 approximately. It was culturally developed, and for most of its time, independent from arabic islamism. It also had an autonomous and vibrant jewish population (western jews, or sephardites).. I just thought that in an alternative history those cultures would develop a style of their own - and clapboard is the cleanest one. Still, going on oriental style would have been a fair choice too, I guess.
And about "being lazy" to go for gold.. those gold objectives are a big leap and their purpose are to separate hard-core veterans from those (like me) who just love to connect cities -at least in that sense they are working as they should - but I guess you read wolverine's comment by now - even if you hadn't been lazy gold wouldn't be triggered.

As for the poor programming on the gold medal.. It had to be wolverine spotting it..
Apparently the gold conditions still have traces of the first beta versions, which means I changed the ledger in the final version, but not the "gold check" conditions - Oil to Cordoba and Steel to Oran were the original goals, then those got changed to become a little "easier". Unfortunately, I am not on my computer now and will not be until almost September, therefor, a revision of the scenario will have to wait.

Overall, Wolverine, what were your impressions (other than the shameful bugs!) ?

B

[Wolverine@MSU]

I ran into another problem in a restart of the scenario. I chose Leon as the starting territory and was supposed to get a lower buy/build industry cost, but it doesn't seem to be in effect as stuff still costs the same as what it does normally. It also didn't trigger until one of the AIs started a company. Check the trigger conditions; I suspect it's the same thing as the others (All companies instead of On screen player's company).

[RayofSunshine]

Well Brunom,

I believe I was wrong with my opinion of the scenario to be complete. I did not run into similar problems as Wolverine, but then, I don't go into the Editor to "look for trouble" so to speak.

Now Wolverine is master at this type of 'testing" and can track down the problems or bugs, of which I can detect, but not give a solution. My computer capabilities are "turn on and turn off".

Well, just try and enjoy your summer vacation. Ocean breezes, beer, chees, and crackers. It will all "come to a head" before you have to get back in the classroom.

[brunom]

Hi folks

After some nice but exhausting holidays, I managed not to forget there were some minor revisions needed for this scenario. Done them, sent the new version to Hawk, all good!

This post was basically make you guys notice that revised version once it gets uploaded.

Cheers
B

[Hawk]

The revised version is now available.

[brunom]

Hi fellas

In early August I submitted Gibraltar Express to this archive. After coming from holidays I also revised it a little bit and posted an improved version.
I just re-read the reviews/beta-testing posts and wondered if, with around 250 downloads, a lot of people have played the scenario already...

So, have you? Where did you start? How did you play it? What medal did you get?

Cheers in advance for all strategies posted!
B