Express D'Orient

[EPH]

Blackhawk, the issue you remember was in British Miracle and concerned the location of the Copenhagen station. Deleting it and re-creating it solved the issue.

As far as I know there have been no problems with Express D'Orient. Please let me know if I can help in any way.

[Blackhawk]

The easiest way to avoid it crashing at this point seems to be to just cut your connection to Constanta towards the end of January. Then once February comes around, reconnect and continue the scenario. I ran it til the end of the scenario and it didn't crash again for me after that, although I did not add any additional track or make any other changes. Just be sure to save often in case it pops up again.

BTW - be sure to connect Istanbul at the end with your own company station to get credit for the connection.

[bmheron]

thanks all! yep, thats where it was crashing a few years earlier. I deleted track and then reconnected to Constantana. so that must definitely be it. ok will do that.

Yea, Im still sort of a newbie here and your point about Istanbul I'm aware of. The goal says to connect to istanbul and I've learned in the past with other scenarios that I need to connect with my own track and station (cant connect using anyone else's track). so thats why you'll see my running my own track to istanbul (kinda ugly).

In fact, this is my first run at this one and im not proud. doesnt look like i'm gonna get the gold and will have to try again.

thanks for your help all. will give it a try and let you know what happens.


EDIT: update, it worked just fine! For some reason it did not like my connection. I bulldozed a small section of track then rerouted my own line to "constantana junction". no more crashes. and somehow pulled out the gold in April of 1913 with my crazy scheme. cool!

[Blackhawk]

You actually don't need to use your own track all the way down to Istanbul. While that may be the desired intent, there is no way in the scenario editor to check and make sure the entire route is connected by only your track. You could create a spur off AI track and place your own station in Istanbul and that should work.

As for other scenarios and connections. It can vary. It really depends how the scenario writer coded the "check" to see if cities are connected. Sometimes you can just connect to any station in a city, if it only tests if the cities are connected. But if it tests if the company has connected the cities then yes, you'd need to build your own station.

[bmheron]

ah, thanks for the clarification. I had no idea and never wanted to risk it.

[EPH]

You do need your own stations, but as Blackhawk says you do not have to run your own track all the way. Historically the Orient Express ran over other peoples' railroads, but in-game I get frustrated with trying to work around clogged-up AI track that runs at crazy grades - and then having to pay for the privilege.

Not sure why you had that problem with Constanta. RRT3 can be fickle.

Glad to hear you got the gold! Austria-Hungary is an easy start for this one but Romania is a lot of fun (especially if you like to industrialize). I hope you'll try it more than once.

I had a lot of fun working on this one and hope you have enjoyed playing it.

[Gumboots]

It is a very cool little scenario. The various starting options are well worth trying. The bug with track near Constanta must have just been a random game engine glitch since I've never had it happen either.

[Blackhawk]

Well I figured I'd give this one a try since it was one of the active threads on the forum. It's a fun map, although I found it to be pretty easy.

I started in Serbia. Found a couple diary farms and a coal mine to buy. Let the money roll in from that to buy the steel mill with some bonds. I then placed a tool and die in Belgrade. As I was now starting to run out of raw materials in Serbia I bought into Bosnia. I could have tried a lumber mill in Belgrade, but there was a lumber mill in Resita which eventually upgraded itself and I didn't want to wait through a couple years of losses as demand shifted, interestingly despite high demand this mill later vanished. In Bosnia I bought a diary and later a lumber mill in Banja Luka. I then bought a textile mill in Belgrade which was finally getting supplied.

It's now 1887 and I build my first piece of track and a locomotive hauling steel from Belgrade to Bijelnina where there is another tool and die. After that starts getting supplied I bought it. I now get that message that I'm supposed to be building an express route. So I bought a Duke, and hauled a couple cars between Bijelina and Belgrade.

At this point it was getting late and I figured I'd mess around and just take out a lot more bonds and buy into Austria-Hungary for the heck of it even though I wouldn't have much money left to build anything, see what happened and then go to bed. Turned out that it worked better than expected and I kept playing until I finished the scenario. I started off small and connected some AI tracks together and then connecting Gyor and Budapest. Eventually over the years I worked south with this line through Kecskemet, Szeged, Novi Sad and connected to my line in Bijenina. While in Austria-Hungary, I took advantage of all the raw materials and built a paper mill, brewery, distillery, furniture factory and probably more.

I bought in to Romania in 1895 and connected Bucharest and Alexandria so I could get the mail goal taken care of. I then expanded this line to Craiova.

Now it was a matter of looking for good places to add industries and stock pile money. Once I got what I thought was a sizable amount of money I bought into the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria. I built my station outside of Istanbul and started hauling away coffee. I also had weapons ready to send to Istanbul from Novi Sad. The AI had a horrible looking piece of track which was slowing everything down just north of Burgas in the mountains. The track almost took a 90 degree turn and then straightened out again and went up hill so all the AI trains were delayed here, which would lead to a big delay if I tried to get through it. So I built off from the AI route at Plovdiv and just built a tunnel right through the mountains and connected to Alexandria. I'm not usually a big fan of using expensive tunnels, but I had the money to waste and didn't care about profitability of the line as I only needed to finish this haul and then I'd win the scenario.

I managed to get the gold on expert in 1905. I probably could have gotten it sooner had I been more awake and active in my decision to buy into Austria when I did. (and if I didn't get one of my locomotives nearly stuck near that 90 degree turn on the AI track) My actual hauling of cargo was rather limited in this game. I made more money from AI trains on my track than I did with express revenue, and only a couple million less than my lifetime freight revenue. I only had 13 trains total. 4 of those were just for transporting the coffee/weapons, those were P8s. I had 1 Consolidation (the first engine I bought), 2 Dukes which I later upgraded to S3s, and the rest were S3s. And I went with the increased speed option, although I was tempted to go with the increased acceleration. I know I could have made more money on hauling express/freight, but I didn't want to worry about having too many break downs and worry about train interference slowing down my express trains.



A couple things to mention: I tried hauling the coffee to my spur stations in Vienna, only to realize it needed to go to the AI stations in Vienna and Istanbul because my stations were outside of the city zones. I might have given a warning about that or increased the size of the zone to include more area around the city.
The other thing is that the Express Speed Raised event tests in 1895, but the message itself says "1890 is the last year for patience. As of January 1, 1891, you need to hit 25 mph..." It would seem to me that the dates are incorrect in either the event tests too late, or the date in the message saying the express speed is increasing needs to be changed.

Overall a good scenario with replay value with the many countries to choose from. The hauling goals were rather easy as long as you had enough revenue coming in to pay for the connections.

[EPH]

Glad you enjoyed it, Blackhawk! I particularly liked the part where you said, 'Just one more minute..." and stayed up until the scenario was over. Not that I've ever done that, of course...

My inspiration for this one was the old 'Baghdad Railway' scenario, which was always a lot of fun (and is now sadly unplayable under 1.06).

You are right that this one is not particularly hard. It is busy, though - lots of things for the player to do, what with connecting through multiple nations, delivering mail, keeping express speeds up, and delivering the coffee and weapons. My biggest problem when I play it is that I get sidetracked with building an industrial/transport empire and lose sight of the victory conditions! Since it isn't really a hard map it is possible to wrap it up in 1905 or so, as you found - though I have been known to lose track of my express speed requirement and spend every last year trying to squeeze out a victory.

My preferred eastern route goes south from Constanta along the shore to Varna and Burgas, then over the hump to Kirklareli and overland to Istanbul. But I've used a direct tunnel from Alexandria too... nothing too good for the Orient Express! In real life of course the OE used other people's track (and complained a lot about the quality in Romania and Bulgaria, as I remember).

I'll take a look at the wording of the event. It may be wrong or it may be that you hit it every year until 1895 - not sure. In any case I doubt I'll be posting a corrected map - I've never bothered to set up the separate login-thingy for the library.

Thanks for your comments! Glad you enjoyed 'my' scenario!

[Hawk]

My inspiration for this one was the old 'Baghdad Railway' scenario, which was always a lot of fun (and is now sadly unplayable under 1.06)

The Baghdad Railway is a 1.05 scenario. If it doesn't play in 1.06, just play it in 1.05, although it should play in 1.06. Just maybe not as intended.

[EPH]

'Baghdad Railway' runs for about a year and crashes, every time. It is a 1.05 scenario. Maybe I'll have a look at translating it for 1.06.

[Hawk]

Did you install the sounds for that map? I didn't think it was mandatory, but maybe it is.

[EPH]

No... I used to play it in 1.05 without the special sounds. I think if you install those they over-write the defaults for everything, meaning you get those sounds in every scenario.

[Hawk]

Yea, I think you're right about that.
I was just trying to think of something that might be giving you problems.

[RayofSunshine]

Huuum. Well I don't play any scenarios in the 1.05 patch. That might be the reason for some of my problems with "some" of the 1.05 patch scenarios. However, I didn't have any problem with the Bagdad Railway. But not realizing that it is a 1.05 scenario, I will put it into the 1.05 folder, just as a reminder if I ever have a problem when playing it in the 1.06 patch.

[Gumboots]

Played this one last night. The first actual RT3 scenario I'd played through in ages. I've been so into making stuff for the game that I haven't actually played it.

So ran through this one, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Which reminds me why I wanted to make stuff for the game. The new Mogul is great fun in this scenario, and the extra skins mean you can colour-code your routes for easier recognition.

Anyway I clocked it in 1899, although the Gold event didn't fire until March 1900. I haven't looked yet, but I'd guess it's only checking quarterly and the order of checking is wrong. Which would be an easy fix if anyone wants to do it.

Since this is such a good map for general testing I may recode a second version, without the increased pax and mail production, just to see how express and hotel profits pan out with things set to normal. With the +25% pax production given by this map, hotels end up being a gold mine.

[Hawk]

Anyway I clocked it in 1899, although the Gold event didn't fire until March 1900. I haven't looked yet, but I'd guess it's only checking quarterly and the order of checking is wrong. Which would be an easy fix if anyone wants to do it.

The Gold event is at the top of the event list and is set to check at the end of the month.
There is 4 company variables and a game variable in the condition list, but I don't know what those conditions are checking for. Maybe it's one of them holding off the event.

[Gumboots]

That could be it. I don't remember getting problems with it before, so it may be some specific combination of variables (as in the order in which you do things). Just guessing there.

[Hawk]

It was probably the express speed condition that got ya'. You have to meet/exceed it for 15 years starting in 1885 (20 mph from 1885 to 1895 - 25 past 1895), plus meet the mail and weapons conditions.
It mentions the express speed condition in the briefing, but not the years.

[Gumboots]

Oh I'd already clocked that, and got the newspaper to prove it. Unless the events for Gold aren't cross checking properly with the events for the newspaper and the status page, because according to both of those I'd already passed the speed goals.

Anyway I had another crack at it and did it differently this time. I was doing a Romania start, just because Romania is a fun way to start, but decided to go minimalist on my network and see how fast I could push towards the goals. It ended up taking longer than the last play, because I muffed the first few years. I thought I'd go more rail than my usual industry-heavy start, but it's not worth just hooking up Bucharest to Calarasi. It needs the full run from Bucharest to Constanta before it becomes worthwhile. Once you have that it's a really good earner, but for a shorter run that can be built in combination with some industry purchases the Galati to Bacau run is a better bet in the early stages.

Since I already had a good base in Galati by the time expansion into A-H was on the cards, and was hauling iron in from up the river there, I decided to go to Vienna over the range from Bacau to Brasov.

Come to Hotel Brasov. Have wonderful view of coal mine.

And from there I went along the river valley to Szeged, then straight to Budapest and on to Vienna. I found a loco would just barely get from Szeged to Sibiu without needing a water stop. It'd run out of water a few yards from the station and just cruise in that last little bit.

Then for the other end, since I had Galati connected to Constanta I went around the coast all the way, hugging the water's edge, to Istanbul. This was another thing I hadn't tried before and it worked really well. There's one fairly short stretch where it needs a bridge, but most of the way it's just a flat run. The track laying required is tricky, but fun, and that route makes for great train rides.

The other thing about it is that a barracks often seeds in Varna, so if you are making weapons in Galati (good place to do it) and running trains to Constanta (because you would anyway) the weapons naturally make their way to Varna, and from there to Istanbul. No special trains required. I let the weapons goal take care of itself. The only special trains I used were the two from Istanbul to Vienna for the coffee goal.