Galicia, map to test

[brunom]

I also gave it two tries yesterday, attempting alternative starts to the ones I had used before (following Moggie's report on "balsing royally" :

Both were on expert level and on both I failed to get any medal. I'd sum up from this experiment that you really need to find the best start and be on your toes all the time. Which means... good luck Belb, it's doable but difficult.

B

[brunom]

Final push for a decent paint job and here it is. A proper Release Candidate. I think everything, absolutely everything, works as expected now.

Please comment on paint job and also report your LOSS/BRONZE/SILVER/GOLD story. It's your comments that keep me creating.

Spending a lot of time in the editor also convinced me to ease up the scenario a little bit:
- Penalty for not connecting Ponferrada on time is cut from 4x initial price to 3x.
- Asturias connection is now recognized once the network reaches Navia or Cangas de Narcea (instead of the ludicrously far Cudillero)
- Farm/mine output has a small annual increment, which will allow for a less shameful industry performance towards the second half of the game

If nothing is reported wrong with this scenario, I will send it to Hawk for archiving in a week or two.

Cheers
B

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[Moggie]

! Found an error on the release candidate. The check done on the Ourense - Braga connection is faulty. It checks against a town called Noya . Noya is ID 80, Braga ID 39. The briefing instructs the player to connect Ourense and Braga.

[brunom]

Absolutely well spotted!
I shifted the city of Bragança slightly westwards, closer to real location - this included deleting the old city#80. Then that slot was taken by Noya, one of the few small towns I added later. Note that Gold requires Baiona to Braga and Ourense to Bragança (Braga and Bragança are two different cities).

Of course, it didn't occur to me to check the gold conditions, since I hadn't changed them.

Many thanks Moggie - that's one glitch sorted.

Release Candidate no.2 is attached, but I won't remove RC1 just for now, so that it remains clear for everyone that the two files are slight different versions.

... once we have this scenario finished, there is another region called Galicia which makes a nice scenario: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galician_R ... rles_Louis (I'm already working on it and will open thread right after this one is done)
B

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[Moggie]

Oh yes, in my post I wrote Braca where it should read Bracanca.

[belbincolne]

For some reason hadn't seen above posts so have just played original 'final' version on Normal. Only flaw was that I didn't get Gold when i should have. The scenario is now VERY much easier. I achieved the target many years early but forgot to make a note of the date but it was even before I had to connect to Pontefredra. I did find that buying producers (corn / logs) was highly unprofitable but (after I'd 'won') I tried a lumber mill and Furniture both of which were highly profitable - dont know if they would have been earlier in the game - may give it a try next time. Oh and I played it in 1.06.

Will download the latest and give it a try on Expert.

[belbincolne]

Well raining here so retried and got Gold on Expert end 1892 11 years early which shows that it is very much easier. Of course I know how to go about it now and I was in 1.06 though I dont really think that should make much difference. I found that Industry was reasonably profitable but not incredibly so (just under 15% return) but useful steadier.

If you want to make it a bit harder I would change Cangas back to Cudillero (and add in Ortiquera?) and in Portugal go to Braganca & Macedo. (Obv iously) enjoyed playing it as its a nice, interesting, scenario

[brunom]

I hear you Belb. I am also about to win Gold in a trial game of this scenario easily - which makes 2 of us. What do the other folks have to say? Moggie, Ray, others?

There's a few things that can be done to increase the level of difficulty.. namely, making track just an inch more expensive, reduce farm/mine output, increase overhead costs, etc..
Placing the Asturias link back to Cudillero is a possibility too.

Of course, knowing the map well because of beta-testing it also helps a lot, just as it does knowing history and the real life network.

ferrocarril_galicia_0.jpg (51.96 KiB) Viewed 8248 times

(Funny that the "real" tycoon would have failed even BRZ medal, as Baiona isn't connected to this date, and that link to Asturias is served by another company)

I added this map to launch a question - where abouts did you lay track to reach Ponferrada - straight through the mountains or snaking close to River Sil?

[belbincolne]

Main rails very similiar to yours - exactly to Ponferada. but to get north I just went through the mountains from midway to P.. - didnt bother with Ortiquera (thats what playing it often does!)

[brunom]

That's not "mine" - that's real-life existent railways as we speak.

There are plans and/or work in place already for two new routes, they will both be electrified tracks for high speed trains: A Coruna-Valença (part of a main line that plunges deep south into Portugal) and Vigo-Astorga (part of a direct fast link to Madrid).

As a side note, (rather interesting), because Baiona was never connected in real life, it was Vigo that developed a lot and is now the second largest city in Galicia. This would happen more or less in the same fashion in the game, if the player also failed to complete the line to Baiona.

B

[Moggie]

In one game I laid track from Ourense to Monforte de Lemos and then through the mountains to Villafranca del Bierzo keeping height differences as low as possible. Then I simply steamrolled through the Cantabricos to Cudillero. In another game, where the Asturian goal was Cangas del Narcea I connected both Cangas... and Villafranca... from Baralla that was connected to Lugo.

[brunom]

So, this is it.
Beta period is over.
I have made it a little bit harder again, just a notch easier than the first version and it is good to go.

I am happy with the coloring (as happy as I would ever be, being the poor paint splasher that I am). There are no standing bugs, complications or details to sort out. The scenario was tested and reviewed positively.

A nice zip folder, packaged with a readme, a historical map of the region and the scenario file itself arrived in our hosts inbox as I write.
All versions in this thread have been deleted.

Next chapter: the Austro-Hungarian Galicia - check it out.
(funny that there are two regions in Europe under the same name and both give excellent 1870 scenarios)

Many thanks to all, once again.
B

[Hawk]

It's now available in the Europe section of the Archives.

All versions in this thread have been deleted.


B

Thanks Bruno.

[brunom]

Yeah, no worries.

I gather server space is always a concern...

By the way, did you like the touch of a historical map in the package? I know it's a rather big image, but I just love it.

I found that and MUCH MORE on http://www.davidrumsey.com/view.html - which has now become my favorite pet-site in the whole www space.

B

[Hawk]

I liked the addition of the map in the zip, although I did resize it to add in the slide show on the download page.

[RayofSunshine]

WOW, Brunom and Hawk,
Those are some of the most interesting collection of maps which I have ever seen. I did download 1 of them, just to see if I can get a good print out. Seeing that they can be "purchased" I was surprised that they could be downloaded.
Thanks for the web site, as I believe a number of the members will find them of interest.

[Sugus]

Did it just now! (Played the version from 18.11.11 (european notation ))

And - first of all: Galicia was a pleasure to play! brunom

In short my way on getting Gold in early 1890 (simply for helping brunom to "analyze" his exciting creation and - also - using upper case letters to mark the cities being relevant to reach medals):

1870: SANTIAGO - CORUNA (I knew that this would be a good starting point from earlier tries )
1871: Ordes
1872: Betanzos
1873: Padron, Vilagarcia (economy goes down)
1874: PONTEVERDA
1875: Vigo, BAIONA
1876: Guitiriz, LUGO (economy goes up)
1877: Baralla, Sarria, Chantada, OUREUSE
1878: Monforte de Lemos, Quiroga, O Bacro
(now I forced any train to have a Duke!)
1879: got access to 'Castille and Leon'
1881: PONFERRADA, Villafranca del Bierzo
1882: Astorga (from my point of view the connection to this city is a MUST --> great earnings)
1883: got access to 'Asturias' (economy goes down)
1884: (economy goes really down)
1885: Cangas de Narcea
(now waiting to wait for the $6 million for Portugal)
1886: (economy seems to go up)
1887: O Porrino (economy really goes up)
1888: got acces to 'Portugal'
1889: Valenca, Ponte de Lima, BRAGA
1890: finally did it to ... (of course, you know it )

As you can see due to my comments above, it's a so called "fulfil connections only story". No offence, brunom, your map would be more challenging, if you'd specify some additional targets like "haul x loads of y to z", "reach a LIP of x" or -absolutely not my favorite - "get a PNW of x".

Nevertheless, brunom, go on this way on delivering interesting scenarios!

[low_grade]

Again, really liked the terrain. But nothing required over 3 grade really. And yet nothing was perfectly flat. So went with an initial couple of DX Goods and then right to Dukes for everything else for the rest of the scenario. Only a couple of "events" to spice the scenario up which were easily dealt with. Neat reduction on resource production, but ports kind of made that point moot (though it did shape routing strategy - first on coast, then to interior.) Despite announcement that town growth would be zero, there was still enough population around to drive passenger traffic and resource/product demand.

Finish was too easy once decent income/industries were developed after 1880 furniture/toys/cheese. A redo of this map with gold coming not only after connections but after some resource hauling goals/passenger traffic and maybe CBV or something like like might make it more challenging/enjoyable... As it was, gold on Expert in 1892 when scenario was set to go until 1903...

[low_grade]

Working through the European maps, I tried this one again, it's an attractive, rolling landscape, very nice for spotting routes up and down that require only 2 grades. I swear it's possible do do it all 2's, but sometimes I was lazy and allowed myself 3's, especially after Dukes. It's rare for me to use the DX Goods, but I had 50 of those little chuggers going before 1880.

This time I ignored industry. Well, I tried to, but when I connected to Ourense and was examining local cargo, I noticed that a Meat Packing Plant had just popped up there, in the middle of 5 cattle ranches, and could be had for a steal, though it was already pulling the cattle its way... but that and the 4 closest cattle ranches plus hotels were my only industry. Certainly an all rail start. A Coruna to Ferrol and then up to Lugo.

I abused stock issuing, but had a quite profitable venture going as well, $36M lifetime, $5-$7M the last few years. Mostly freight hauling, 2-to-1 over express, and industry just an eighth of freight. Gold on Expert in Feb 1885 this time.

[TheBonobo4]

Just tried this scenario. A fun one, but simple. Got Gold on Expert on first try. I don't know what my Lifetime Industry Profit was, but I only bought Hotels, Post Offices, Restaurants and Taverns, I didn't buy any farms or big industry. I had Silver by about 1885 and Gold in 1892. I never had a dividend, bought shares in my own company (but never on margin), neither AI company showed up. I started by connecting Lugo to A Coruna, then down to Santiago, then Baiona, then Lugo to Ourense for the 6 provincial capitals. Then worked on connecting A Coruna to the northern town in Asturias needed for Silver. Then connected to Castille and Leon for the Bronze (and thus Silver). Then waited a few years, bought into Portugal, connected Ourense to Braganca, then finally Baiona to Braga. All in all I had around 4,500 miles of track.

Also, I used Iron Bridges (no Stone or Wood), and started with DX Goods locomotives, then Dukes when they became available. Bought a few Stirlings early on, then upgraded them to Dukes when I realised how bad Stirlings are at even the slightest of hills. A bit of a mistake on my part!

Once I got into Castille and Leon, I connected the required city to the town East of it, and bought two DX Goods, one to go A to B and the other B to A, both making good profits. By the end, I upgraded both to Pennsy H3s, at which point there was probably only enough cargo for 1 of the 2 trains, so maybe 1 of the 2 could've been retired.

Most track was pretty shallow, some 3 percent and occasional 4% areas. I didn't put in too much effort with track grade optimisation, but I didn't do as the AI do either and build track in a straight line with horrible gradients!




Oh, and shouldn't this thread be linked to the map page in the archive?