North South Corridor

[EPH]

I'm coming along on the map for the GM&O scenario. Based on Llama's North-East Corridor, this models the creation of the GM&O from a number of poor short-lines and runs from 1917 to 1947 (those dates may change a bit in the final edition). The goal is to buy or build a link from New Orleans and Mobile to Chicago. A number of lines will be on the map, including parts of the Rock Island, Southern, Illinois Central, Yazoo and Mississippi Valley and so forth.

The player will need to purchase stock and take over one of the available railroads to begin the game. In North-East Corridor' Llama has no tycoons running any railroad. I'm going to try starting the game, going into the editor, resigning every tycoon and see if that works - if anyone knows how he made that happen please let me know.

The painting is done, the territories and regions finished and the economy seems to work. I need to add a few territories around some key cities and then it will be time to build the various company railroads and try it out.

Sure widh I could get water to run downhill, though. The river junctions and feeder streams seem to confuse poor RRT3.

[JayEff]

EPH, it was all done with one player. Lars would have started one company, built it, resigned, and started the next one until they were all there.

[EPH]

Thanks, JayEff. I haven't started laying track - still doing the research. But I will try the method you suggest.

Part of the problem is figuring out which of the 24-something railroads in the region I need to include and which can be done without. Another is researching who should own the stations, since so many railroads shared terminal space. I am trying to preserve the St Louis Terminal RR, but not sure how that will work out.

Another issue will be balancing the economy in a very difficult period. To avoid the issues raised by WWI, and the government takeover of the railroads during that time, I'm planning to begin around 1920. Many of the railroads failed or survived only with extreme difficulty. From my reading it seems the GM&N was relentless in its pursuit of new business but took good care of its track and employees as well. That's going to be hard to model.

The final decision is victory conditions. Lama used points for hauling passengers into the major cities and I may have to do something of the same. Any thoughts on this?

[EPH]

Okay, so I have one player. I start up the company, set the company cash up to $20 million or so and start laying track for the Illinois Central. I get as far as I can go without other companies on the board and I resign. I can now reset my personal cash and start another company.

But I forgot to double-track some of the IC mainline. No problem, I'll just click on the company (or double-click or control-click or something) to regain control as I did in British Miracle...

... and it doesn't work. So it looks like I'll have to give myself enormous amounts of money, buy half the stock, hold a chairmanship election and then patch the track... and then do this ALL OVER again more than once for EACH of fourteen companies, all the while hoping I NEVER lose an election while watching the stock price bob around like a yo-yo?

Tell me please there is an easier way. Can't I set up multiple players and start companies for them, then make them resign and delete them from the player pool when I'm done laying track? British Miracle was nothng like this.

[JayEff]

Having multiple players then deleting them to start the companies would work too.

Or you could use a cheat to give your player oodles of cash to buy up stock and take over.

In the latter case though, I expect the game will start with wonky stock prices. This problem does not exist in NE Corridor, so now that I think about it, Lama probably did it the first way.

But this price imbalance is common in scenarios with pre-constructed railroads (e.g. Ned's War Profiteers, my Of Men & Seals) and scenarios that start with a large cash windfall option (Prince of Steel, Colonial India). If after constructing these railroads and / or fiddling with company cash, you see large differences between book value and share price, try setting the game for negative growth, taking it into game mode and running it for a month. Then toggle back to editor mode, set the correct growth rate and save the game.

[Canadian Viking]

EPH, I love your idea! I am working on a scenario of the Lackawanna in it's early days, and I am trying to do some of the same things you are. Since I'm just a little further along in the process than you are, I'll share my technique in hopes it may help. However, I'm not far enough along to have tested it very thoroughly, so reader beware!

I wanted to include the historical railroads that surrounded the Lackawanna. Some of them were competitors, some became partners in rail traffic, and some were absorbed by the Lackawanna as it grew. RRT3 allows only 16 players (chairmen) in the game so after coming up with a list of about 24 significant railroads (there were many more short lines) in existance in that part of the U.S. in 1855, I made difficult choices to pare that list down to 15 plus the Lackawanna. I matched up as best as possible 15 chairmen to each of those railroads, and made each of those 15 chairmen mandatory for the scenario.

Then in the editor I would control click on a chairman to control him, and then create his railroad and choose it's logo. Then in the editor I would add $500,000 to his company cash, and purchase a $500,000 bond to give the company yet more money. Next I would start laying track and building the stations, maintenance sheds and water towers needed for his line. When money got low, I would save my work if I was happy with it thus far, and then increase the company funds as I had done at the beginning. If a company was well financed and prosperous (like the New York Central), I would add cash faster than I added bonds. If the company was weak financially (like the Erie), I would add bonds at a faster rate than I added cash. In some cases I also sold additional shares to dilute the share value somewhat.

This has worked very well in terms of getting the separate railroads on the map. The share values of the different companies do make major adjustments at the start of the game. I have run a couple tests of the game start-up, but only for the first two years. So far it looks like this will work.

I now have about 95% of the track laid. Finishing the Erie will be extra tricky because several smaller roads connected to it, and I have to figure out who owns the station, or if each railroad should have its own station, in the city where the connection is made. I also test (without saving) to make sure that track connections which were built later historically, and which the scenario player may want to duplicate, can be built and look good.

I've done lots of research and have tried to make things as true to life as possible. Sounds like you are doing the same. I'ld suggest making the St. Louis Terminal RR a separate company to which the GM&O can connect but does not need to control.

Maybe something I've posted can be of use to you. Good luck with your project!

[EPH]

Thanks! I've got 14 companies in the game now and I'm agonizing over whether I 'have to' have the Frisco and the CRIP... I'm seriously worried that this thing won't run or will have mass bankruptcies. The map looks like someone dumped a bowl of red spaghetti on it! The game runs from 1920, when the government handed back control of the railroads, to about 1950 (since the GM&O bought the Alton in 1947).

I've colored the map, put in the economic regions, added the ports/warehouses. I set up 15 players (14 assigned for companies plus Isaac Burton Tigrett). I ctrl-click on the player in the stock display area, start a company, set company cash to $20 mil or so and set up the stations, track and service towers. Then I reset the company cash to anywhere from $1 mil to $250k, have the chairman sell off his two shares of stock and go to the next one. When I'm done I'll go down the list resigning AI players from their companies and I'll delete all the AI players from the setup list. Under 'special conditions' I'm going to prohibit starting a company, so 'Tigrett' will be given enough cash to buy his way into a small or medium-sized company.

Then we'll see how long it takes the AI companies to go bankrupt. The IC and MoP are monsters and the Southern and Nickel Plate should be strong also. Putting together the historic GM&O should only require 3 purchases - the NOGN, the M&O and the Alton. I'm going to set up the victory conditions for passengers delivered to/from Chicago, St Louis, Memphis and New Orleans.

The territories will be purchaseable but at a very high price. Mostly it will be cheaper to buy into a little road that already has access. Chicago, St Louis, Memphis and New Orleans have their own territories, and there is a territory along the lower Ohio, Missouri and Mississippi Rivers that prohibits bridge-building until after 1930. That will help preserve the 'monopolies' of the IC Cairo bridge and the St Louis Bridge & Terminal Company. Plus there really wasn't a way to build over the lower Mississippi before the early 1930's.

The map runs from Chicago to New Orleans, Houston and Kansas City to Columbus OH. The current list of companies is:
1) Illinois Central
2) St Louis Terminal RR (connected to by almost everyone either from the east or the west)
3) Southern Railway
4) Louisville & Nashville
5) Frisco (maybe, probably not)
6) Missouri Pacific
7) Chicago, Burlington & Quincy
8) Chicago & Alton
9) Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific (maybe, probably not)
10) New Orleans Great Northern
11) Yazoo & Mississippi Valley
12) Nickel Plate (given an extension to Columbus/Cincinnati because someone had to...)
13) Mobile & Ohio
14) Gulf, Mobile & Northern

[EPH]

Keep me posted on your progress and your pitfalls and I'll do the same here.

That Lackawanna scenario sounds fun. Just beware of the 'scarlet woman of Wall Street'!

[EPH]

Okay, having players start companies and then resign... works! My sole remaining player can now buy stock in any company he likes and call for a chairmanship election. So I am now moving ahead with playtesting, having 'llimited' the game to 'only' 12 companies. Events will be put in last, and there will be numerous options for the player (air conditioning, Pullman service, large tenders, etc).

Here's a piece of trivia for you. Isaac Burton Tigrett was a banker in Jackson, Tennessee who took over a timber-hauling railroad from receivership in 1920. By 1947 it was the 7th biggest railroad in the US, the profitable Gulf, Mobile and Ohio. Does anyone know what Tigrett's descendants did with the money?



IB Tigrett III is the proud owner of a couple of restaurants - the Hard Rock Cafe and House of Blues chains.

[EPH]

Here's a word to the wise... once you have all those players resign, you can't go back.

So guess what?

Yep. Had to go back about four versions and re-do everything. Now I'm keeping a 'final' version that still has 12 players and generating the playerless 'real' version when I want to playtest it. Where I am right now: map is done, companies are built (unless I missed another service tower/train shed). Most if not all of the events are in and I'm testing/tuning it now.

There may be too much or too little on the map in the way of resources; only some playtesting will tell. Certainly I am going to contract things a bit during the Depression. And I'm not sure the victory conditions as presently written are winnable. So I am asking for volunteers...

Of 12 companies on the map it is possible to take over 6 at the beginning. As far as I can tell they are all playable... my last playtest involved taking the St Louis Terminal and Bridge Co to greatness by merging to the New Orleans Great Northern, the Alton and the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley... that terminal can be a small but steady CA$H COW since it is probably the busiest station in the game.

This one is going to be fun, I think, but long runs mean you have to be careful with your resources. There's lots of replay value, given there are so many different ways to go, and there is a control panel that lets you implement 8 different strategies from airconditioning your passenger coaches to improving fuel economy.

[EPH]

Okay, folks - I've gone about as far as I can go playtesting it myself. If you'd like a chance to help, please lt me know and I will get it to you.

It's fun, it's big and it does keep you busy...

[belbincolne]

If you email me a zip I'll give it a try

[Hawk]

If it's under 10 MB you can attach it to a PM, or a post.

[RayofSunshine]

EPH and Canadian Viking,

Both of your scenario creations sound to be very interesting and challenging. Don't have too much luck with BETA stages, as any bug screws up my system. Not much of a Tycoon either in complicated scenarios, but will give GM&N a try as I love to play.

Ray of Sunshine

[EPH]

Thanks, folks! I appreciate the interest. I am working on a 'readme' file as some of the game mechanisms could use a bit of explanation. This one is based on Lama's North-East Corridor, so if you like that one you will probably like this one. I'm undecided between calling it 'GM&O' or 'North-South Corridor' since there are at least 6 different companies you can ride to victory.

I manage a theater and have to work all weekend, but I should have something for you early in the week. It runs under 'Coast to Coast' and the last PopTop patch (1.05 I think).

[EPH]

I've decided to call it 'North-South Corridor', a tribute to Lama's North-East Corridor that started me thinking about this one.

The zip file contains the current version of the game map, a number of required logos, a set of new skins for the F3 streamliners and an extensive README as a Word file. With all that it weighs in at 10.6 megabytes, so I am reluctant to send it by PM or post. Please PM me with an email address and I will ship it off.

[belbincolne]

Given this a play to Gold. No problems at all in gameplay and quite enjoyed it (as I won) so apologise if my comments all appear critical.

Found it very complicated. All those lines and no way of knowing who owned which until you'd taken a company over and then you at least knew something. I know there's a lot of info about this in the ReadMe but this also had my head swimming with all that info.

The historical messages that regularly come up. Hard to understand if they're just for interest or have any importance in the game. As the former seems to be the case after a while they get irritating - and if you play again will be very annoying - I'd suggest a button to turn them off as is available in several other scenarios.

Gameplay proved a lot easier than I'd expected. Take over a second company in an area you've no access to and try to only run trains on your own lines and between your own stations. Build a couple of extra ones so that I could do this and at some quite late stage start to run expresses for the passenger targets. Got gold this way in 42 8 years early.

The implication is that you get a point for every passenger car but this isn't the case - and it seems that if you get one train with a full passenger carriage you'll get the point so there's not much point to running several trains to (say) Chicago when one will suffice. I never got more than 1 point per town so assume you cant - think that needs making clear. However they were profitable so didn't matter. There also seemed to be some cases where I didn't get credit for trains (Chicago in particular) but when I put a train from Gary to a different Chicago station it counted every year - even though it was totally on a line I didn't own between two stations I didnt own either.

If there's anything you want to ask just do as I'm sure there's a lot I've forgotten.

Anyway t'was fun

[EPH]

To see who owns what you can look at the icons over the service buildings, stations and trains. Unfortunately, selecting a new company in RRT3 doesn't show you their track. I wish it did, but those are the game mechanics. I agree that the map is complicated - it looks sort of like a plate of steel spaghetti to me, but I left at least 5 major railroads out to get it down to this!

I can set a trigger for the historical messages 'I think' but all of the game, company and player variables are in use. I will see what can be done. There are only six messages about Tigrett.

Yes, the name of the game is merge and combine. Points are awarded to the company hauling the most passengers TO and FROM the five major cities, so you can earn as many as 10 points per year. That is stated in the briefing. For smaller cities you can easily dominate the passenger trade; for St Louis and Chicago it will take more work. I am thinking of adding a requirement to own the stations in three of the five cities; alternatively I could raise the point score for Gold. What say you?

I've usually managed to win by 1945 or 46, but I concentrate on building my company for the first 15 years. In my last effort I took the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley, bought the NOGN, built my own station in Memphis, laid my own track to Houston & Mobile and then went up the west side of the Mississippi River to St Louis. I bought the Alton very late in the game and still won in 1946; played on for a bit to buy the Southern, which was fun.

You don't say which railroad you took; I assume the Alton? Try the railroads in the south, if so - they're a little harder.

Glad you enjoyed it and thank you for playing - I hope you'll want to try it again later.

[RayofSunshine]

Hey EPH,

I downloaded the NS Corridor from somwhere, and not exactly sure from where, however it might have been from a IM inbox, which is not available anymore.

With that being said, and someone else had created a proto type as NS Corridor, is it a different scenario, and that the new one will be named GM&N?

NS Corridor is moving along ""slowly"" as the revenue gets ate up faster than being able to accummulate it. And even though there is a number of passengers waiting in the depot, they don't seem to have any definite destination, so are still sitting there after the trains pull out in different directions.

Ray of Sunshine

[RayofSunshine]

Well EPH,

I hope that your GM&N is as interesting as the NS Corridor. Really enjoyed playing it.

Took a little time to catch onto the scheme of things, but managed to make it to the end and just missed the GOLD.

Actually, after the notice to decide if my intention was for freight or Passengers in 1946, I started to switch to the attractive U1, which did not much increase the passenger load. It was then that I decided to incorporate the Daylight. Being that I was in the Memphis to New Orleans corridor, I placed the Daylights at both ends and selected a full consist of Express. Carrying 5-6 passengers, I also set them to priority.

Havng also purchased access to Mobile, and had run tracks to a couple of AIs locations, I set up my own depots. Getting closer to the final months, I again set up a couple more Daylights into these depots, setting them for full Express, with a priority.

During the later months the economy switched to Prosperity and the last month to Booming. Didn't help much, as I had already set my engine consists, and was setting them to "0" and let them start with whatever Express was loaded.

But my count was still short. 113. However, during the last year, my Dalight at Memphis started "out of the gate" with 7 passengers and 2 mail. So clicking on the "watcher" icon, I followed it just ahead, and demolished the number of water/sand and maintainence sheds. It wasn't long before the gauges were pushing the danger mark. But I was not to get the GOLD. An AI had a maintainence shed at the doorstep of the New Orleans depots, and I wasted the last month getting """oiled"".

Now I did find some mathematical dicrepencies, ""unless"" I am interpreting the remarks incorrectly, which wouldn't be the 1st time. It was my assumption, that passenger hauls were credited for both "to" and "from" those depots designated. Just playing the scenario, I only noticed it a couple times in default of the amount count which I believed a higher number. But it was a lot of fun and interesting.

SO, bring on the GM&N.

Ray of Sunshine