Over the Carpathes

[brunom]

Thanks Hawk.

It took a while as I was busy and messed up the upload, but that's it.
Currently, Europe: 50 maps, North America, 89 maps.... that's a lot of work to do.. a lot of work to do..

B

[Hawk]

Currently, Europe: 50 maps, North America, 89 maps.... that's a lot of work to do.. a lot of work to do..

B

Well get busy! What are you waiting for?

[brunom]

I'm waiting for a "painter and planter".. I posted the job opening a few times before .. eheh

I am no good at and take no joy in painting the map and planting the trees. It is, for me, a long do-do-do-undo-undo process and I postpone it more often than not.
If I could team up with a proper artist, we could make new maps every other week or so.

(not that I have 49 ideas for maps... but I have some)

B

[Hawk]

If I had the time, I'd be more than happy to help, but with all I have going on I just couldn't devote enough time to be of any help.

[arop]

At least 2 more European maps are underway from my hand: Crete (now beta 2) is almost ready, and Finland (pre-beta2, with some help from Thietavu, needs correct spelling of Finnish citynames and some historical events). Another map, Portugal (never finished, waiting for win conditions and some historic events, has never been tested)

[brunom]

We'll get there, arop.. we'll get there.
it's more or less 25 maps for each one of us

[joost]

Hi Brumon,
played it and liked it a lot, thanks. No bugs or crashes to report.
It's a great map, resources are nicely balanced, the territory boders and requirements for expanding are just right. I very much liked the depression of 1873. It's too early in the game to have expanded so much that you'd go bankrupt because of it, which is pretty useless. Instead it forces you to be patient and make sure you have everything set up for a breakthrough once the crisis lifts, which was an interesting change for a head-over-heels player like me.
It was enjoyable to play throughout, but I was a bit puzzled by the winning requirements. It just took timely investment in the required goods and running a train with a loss here and there to make sure they arrived at the right place, but that's it. What I like most about other scenario's you wrote was that the goals were hard to reconcile, which forces you to play on two chessboards so to say. I missed that here. Maybe a lifetime profit or a lifetime train profit requirement would do that trick.
Also, the AI was very subdued, they didn't bother me and I didn't bother them. I actually found their track pretty useful.
thanks for all your great maps, cheers,
Joost

[brunom]

Hi joost

I'm glad you liked it. The original idea of the Galician Railroad was slightly small for a scenario, and that's why I included the service into Hungary and from there the whole "deliveries to key cities" medal targets. The scenario was a little troublesome to test and, as always, quite boring to paint (although I did improve my technique to paint agricultural plains).

I wonder, however, if you played it in 1.06... It is intended to be 1.05, and you should not be able to haul at a loss. That makes attaining the goals much easier... easier than it should be.

Yes, the AI is present just for historical accuracy, it isn't intended to be a worry for the player.
Thanks for playing and commenting, I'm uploading two more scenarios as I write this, maybe you'll enjoy them too.

Cheers
B

[joost]

I wonder, however, if you played it in 1.06... It is intended to be 1.05, and you should not be able to haul at a loss. That makes attaining the goals much easier... easier than it should be.
B

Oops! you got a point there. I'll return that gold medal
How do I play in 1.05 when i've 1.06 installed? just temporariiy uninstall it or is there a smoother trick?
cheers,
j

[Blackhawk]

The smoothest trick would be to have multiple copies of RT3 for the different versions you play. I have 4 copies installed 1.05/1.06 and 2 copies of TM based on different versions.

This thread should be helpful in setting up multiple copies. http://www.hawkdawg.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2363

I think there was also an uninstall file that came with the 1.06 patch, but I'm not sure if it works successfully in getting you back to a good copy of 1.05.

[brunom]

Multiple installations is the way to go, yep, do that joost.

Also, all my scenarios (to this day) are for 1.05 so you have been playing them in untested and not-designed-for conditions... Normally, 1.05 scenarios are easier when playing them in 1.06 ...

B

[OilCan]

I played this game for my first time this week.
After 2-3 years of play, I decided for a restart with some adjustments via the editor. I added sheds and towers on the AI lines as well as trains for each of the AI, one for each station they already had. This gave the AI a good start which I believe helped them - and it made me feel better knowing that their trains were not suffering. I added sheds and towers to the line for which I was to manage as well as 4 trains to my company - just enough for a shaky start.

I completed phase one (6 consecutive years of profit and connect two distant cities) within 8 years. The long depression was then underway, so there was little choice but to sit it out. Once it broke, then I began an aggressive build up in industry plus custom consists to target cities to complete phase two. (This is a rails first game, industry second.)

Money came easy once the industry base started cranking. I took over only two AI: one was in the way and the other gave me access to two large territories. Two AI chairmen often bought into my company which kept me busy making sure I had the majority # of shares. I stayed off AI lines, paralleling them if I had to.

Unbelievably, it was reaching the mail haulage quota that was my final hurdle to gold; not furniture or goods. The medal came with about 20 years to spare (there is a long time frame for the game - much of which is taken up by a long depression).

A very much enjoyable game. Also very much a hauling game. There is some strategy required for building the correct industry and expanding rails where they would be of most benefit to win the game.

[RulerofRails]

Unbelievably, it was reaching the mail haulage quota that was my final hurdle to gold; not furniture or goods.

That's quite interesting, I looked at the map and tried a game (never tried it before either.) The make-up of this map with the cities can give great express revenue. Over the first 15 years I had roughly $100M from Express revenue.

I didn't edit the map before starting but used my companies' cash to build up service. I used Shift+E and Ctrl+Left Mouse Click on the AI players to build up their service as they had the cash. Sounds like the way you adjusted it will give the AI a far better start, making them better competition. The Hungarian one is a bit weak for sure. Personally, I didn't feel I needed an advantage (such as extra engines) for my own company. But the help for the AI is a great idea.

From the start, I connected to Saint Polten and had enough money left for 3 Cramptons, all hauling Iron and Meat from Vienna and Saint Polten towards Brunn. I put on a few more engines as the year passed and ended the first year with $411k of profit. Then I paid attention to the demand for Meat seeing there is plenty of supply with a station in Trenschin, followed by a connection to Iglau. I was building up the service and adding Hotels to the existing network, but I had used up all demand in that portion of my network. I had built a small branch line to Nowy Sandec using the AIs CRACOW station, but I then had enough bond capital to build my own track through Galicia, joining the AI track just before the service facilities (respectable distance just outside Cracow). Then I was hauling all Meat available to Cracow with a price differential averaging $50-60k per load. 2nd year profit $1.1M. 3rd year profit $2M.

I built a Hotel in every city. The thing with passengers is that they build up in the unconnected towns surrounding your network. In terms of express revenue, it's far better to make a nearby connection than try to extend across the map. Larger Cities are better, but this will nevertheless tend to result in a branched pattern. This must be balanced against freight potential which is normally better traveling in a single direction across the map. Hotels are completely necessary.

I explained my trick before, but upon a new connection check out the best place where overall revenue for the combined Passengers and Mail will be highest. Now buy a train (good passenger appeal so Crampton, then later Duke) with the consist flag set to "Any Express." After the train has loaded, go into the consist manager again. Change the switch to "Any Cargo." If the train is full add a Diner. If the train isn't full, exit the consist manager and unpause the game for a split second to let the train load a few cars of freight. Then return to the consist manager and add the Diner. There is no fixed rule on how soon after connection to build Hotels, but the destination for this train should definitely have a Hotel. A second train is most often necessary to haul the initial freight. Perhaps the freight is wanting to go to the new destination instead of originating there.

Express revenue has big potential on this map as it does on most maps in the 19th century. Really paying attention to Express revenue can give far better returns than industry on maps like this. Return from freight tends to be short term and hence takes some skill (comparable in a way to margin buying) to keep consistent. But revenue from express is far more consistent and I believe that even the newer players are going to be able to consistently to beat 10% bonds with this.

The need to haul Furniture means that this map likely isn't completable before the end of 1884 (end of year medal check). The reason for this is that even though Furniture appears in 1880, it takes about two years before Furniture price rises enough to make Furniture Factories profitable enough to allow decent production levels. Then time must be allowed to make the hauls. In my play, I finished the hauls in January 1886. However, I goofed a little with my Lumber Mill placement. In fact that was the first industry I built/bought in late 1877 (didn't bother to buy cheap newly spawned mines/farms). The problem was that it was on the cell adjacent to the station's cell, but I built it up uphill from the station and after the build the gradient was too steep meaning demand built slower than normal. Should have placed it on the other side of the station. I also had a personal rule to not build any countryside stations.

The hauls are easy and fun to make. What I did was to load the train while I watched it, using auto consist but selecting the cargo type I wanted. After loading sometimes I then switched back to "Any Cargo" if I wanted to fill the rest of the train with other cargo. Whether I did that or not, I would make sure that upon leaving the initial station the train was set to "Any Express". This way I didn't need to keep track of the haulage trains. They weren't optimized express route, but maybe they hauled a few extra loads. My main Furniture production was in Nowy Sandec. Alcohol in Szolnok and Goods (built a Steel Mill) in Pressburg.

I enjoyed the recession event and managed to just get by without a margin call. I had to spend a million or so on stock buyback. Had about 50% ownership in my company which I maintained throughout the rest of the game. Thankfully, I had managed to max out bonds before credit rating dropped. The good part of the recession is that track laying is cheap. Of course, I didn't dabble in multiple companies, but I see that option is open and thankfully only one AI chairman started a second company on my play. He didn't start with majority ownership, so this worked out well.

This is a good map. Thanks for the recommendation.

[low_grade]

Hmmm... I'm just starting this and it seems really easy... and then super hard.. but nobody else had the same reason why. On start, I buyback a share of stock, then sell my share, then start a new company with $4400k. Guess what? The new company already has access to Hungary, so I don't need to bother with the early unprofitable connections. I build a massive, immediately profitable network in Hungary, making sure to connect to AI networks in Cracow and Pressburg. And then the 0 economy hits, oof. I'd over extended with margin buying and had to do stock buybacks, and then got caught in the red...

In general, I don't like being stuck with premade track and less-than-large stations, but I'm surprised nobody else mentioned starting a new company at the beginning. Well, I'll try to make it work, starting anew, and more focused on pax, and aware now of the brutal 10 years coming. Max out bonds before 1973? We'll see... In my previous play I had my credit extended to just $5500k before 1973. 1886 as the goal... that's going to be tough!

[RulerofRails]

When I said that I didn't dabble with multiple companies, I meant that the possibility to start another was there, but I didn't use it. My thinking is that a lot of map makers haven't understood the many loopholes that letting the player start extra companies opens up. Therefore, I assume that sticking with the first company will help me experience the story better. If the author wanted you to start with a bigger company, why didn't he set up the company that way? But that's my opinion.

About maxing bonds out early. I don't remember off-hand, but it's likely that the economy went up before the recession. Also the strong express revenues helped to grow CBV and reach whatever targets that allow credit rating to rise (I haven't tried to test it scientifically, if I had all the time in the world. . . .).

I don't mind pre-made track, but the smaller-than-large stations also cause me to go: Why? Maybe they looked right to the author. Because I'm always building Large stations, they don't look right to me. And obviously the catchment is also not there.

I'm trying to think of other quality (IMO) maps that might be interesting and good for a strategic challenge. Of course, you may have seen them already:
Gilded Age, Transcontinental, Denver & Western III, and SCBC (South Central British Columbia). All are NA maps, the last two are involved, having many prebuilt AI companies, sure to take more than a couple hours to complete. I started one a few months back called: Building to the Great West. Well, it was in between testing stuff. I managed to pull myself away from it half-way through and haven't gone back to it yet. It looks like an epic map, I just didn't see the ending, so I recommend with caution.

[low_grade]

I'm still futzing with this one... Question. How do I in the editor take control of another company to place service stations? I succeeded in taking over one company by ctrl-doubleleftclick (I think...) on the company in the View Companies list, but then wasn't able to take back control of my own company or any other company...

[RulerofRails]

The method I used was to go to the Stock Market, then Ctrl + click on the player who is chairman of that company. This way you have complete control. Afterwards, just use the same method to switch back to the original player.

[low_grade]

Well, I did it, as intended. $800k profits first year, only $150 next year, but access to Hungary by 1875, focus on pax, hotels everywhere, very skimpy on frills, holding off on cabooses, service sheds, double track. $5M in bonds at 9% when the recession hit. Eventually played/manipulated the stock market and bought all AI's/reduced all other tycoons to paupers, relatively, I ended with PNW of $46M, Henkel at $8.5M next closest. No debt for me or company. Didn't really integrate the last two AI's, just bought them because. Had 160+ locos running at the end. All auto-consist. Extras running between all CAPS stations. Without any special attention to haulage goals, gold on Expert end of 1894. So not a 16 year win, but 24 years with a relatively hands-off play style feels pretty good! Last 10 years were about 20 minutes of running on superfast with little interaction, first 16 years about 8 hours of at first very careful direction, gradually moving to regular routes. Fairly heavy industry investment once profits were over $10M/year, 1880+, all to develop the haulage cargoes.

At start I took control of the other AI's in the editor and gave them all service with issuing stock and a bond or two, and wow what a difference that made for them, all very profitable, hard to take over, other tycoons well funded... Really should have been set up this way...

[Gumboots]

Took a look at this one, and the pre-laid track everywhere looks like it was laid by the AI. It really needs the whole lot re-laid before playing. It'll be bad enough anyway by the time the AI's do their bit, so no point starting with sub-optimal track.