Zambu Email - BETA

[OilCan]

Attached is a BETA version. >> *1.05V * <<

The premise is that a junk e-mail actually turns into a real railroad that the player must then build into an empire.

This is a pure PNW game (sorry Hawk) in which the player inherits a financially failing sightseeing railroad - located in a fictional African country. The player starts with ZERO money - no cash, no stocks, nothing but a tiny railroad.

There are 4 optional AI. I suggest adding some AI in order to reach the PNW goal.

Some patience is needed at the start of the game as the story line opens a choice of options for the player within the first 6 months of the game. I make GOLD on only about half of my attempts.

Any feedback, comments or suggestions are appreciated.

Note: BETA Version removed on April 5.

[Shamough]

I was vacationing on Mars and I was half way up Olympus Mons when I got the eMail. Nothing to do but hike back to Earth and check it out. UGggg! Found an old printing press and printed up 1000 shares of junk stock and sold them to Leland Stanford for his railroad stock collection. Now I have the wherewithall to hike out to Jupiter and claim the moons. A couple more thousand per share and I could have hiked to Saturn and claimed the moons there too.

Back to Mars ... I still have Olympus Mons to climb.

[RulerofRails]

Nice to have a new map to play! I like Africa, so this map appeals to me a lot. Thanks, Oilcan!

I gave it a first attempt to get the medal in 2017 (single company, 2 AI). My choices near the beginning turned out pretty well, because I had connected over 20 cities in the first year and stretched track across the map. My recent plays of North-South Corridor kept me sharp when looking for available cargo to haul, so this helped my start. I don't know exactly what to comment on as I think a strategy delineation would give spoilers, but I like the choices and options available.

When I get a chance I will play again to try out some different options. Couple things I noticed:
1. The pre-built station in Nkoda is named "Mudzi", yet there is a town called Mudzi a few cities left along the coast. This slightly confused me when setting up one train's route.
2. The first engine offer had "ever" when I believe "every" was intended.
3. The access to Nyika Game Reserve was granted to me pretty early, but then when I hit 100M PNW, I got the option to buy the rights that I already had. But maybe this was a trap/intentional?
4. If you really want the player not to get the benefit of hauling the Military cargoes, maybe you should cut production. I made a fair bit of money hauling them without putting a station in either of their special territories. This way I didn't annoy anyone too much. I didn't check the editor yet, and want to discover the different paths beforehand. If there's a reason, please ignore this.

ETA: Played the path of selling the original company and then starting a new one which I stuck with. Selected 4 AIs also. I thought these things would make a medal slower, but armed with some knowledge from the last play, once I setup a good coastal start, it was pretty smooth sailing. In fact I think that there may be too many tourists for the World Cup. I hit 12M profit in the third year because of them (only built one Hotel/Restaurant per connected city), and never looked back to end up with 215 PNW at the beginning of 2014. Will try another attempt, this time playing on longer for the fun of it so will keep expanding the company further until I exhaust all options and then turn up the dividends and see what happens. I thoroughly enjoy strategizing on the best time to get into the industries. Loving it!

[RulerofRails]

Zumba 1Bn.jpg (93.39 KiB) Viewed 16674 times

I wanted to play for longer, so I upped the medal requirement to 1,000M. Once again, single company, with 4 AIs. This time I got a possibly poorer seed with no Auto Plants and only one Recycling Plant on the map. Also, no lumber mill in the north-west territory and only one Chemical Plant on the map. More opportunities to make Alcohol when industry became worthwhile, and a couple extra Cotton farms, Coffee farms and Logging camps were the silver lining. Nonetheless, I had to pinch a bit more to find revenue near the start so was slower out of the gate. By year 15 I had finished the expansion phase and settled into paying out dividends (finished with 638M personal cash). CBV was around 360M. So returns and dividends were high enough to put share price slightly above book value per share near year end in a normal economy.

Probably because I was mainly watching for new industries or checking for new industries most of the time the game was running, there seemed to be a few fires on the savannah. But I checked and there were only 15 so I guess that's not too many. I think I lost an engine once because I had put a service tower where its tail was hanging into the danger zone while it was filling with sand. Otherwise, my routes didn't lose very much in each "fire", so just a quick rebuild and everything was ok. If I start thinking about this too much, a suggestion would be to have a choice to lay steel sleepers along this line at a cost, available a few years after Coal is discovered as the player should be making some steel.

After looking through my books, rails (incl. Hotels etc.) gave only 279M lifetime profits compared to 509M from industry. Fuel costs were a massive 290M. I received seven engine options. Didn't really need them, but went max accel./speed for the fun of it. 100 trains were good for 4,700 loads hauled in the last full year I was playing. I don't know if there is an efficient way to play 30 years here without doing one engine replacement. No doubt, better strategy choices can be made (keep costs down) to find more profit in rails. Thanks for some more enjoyment from this one!

PS. One small thing I noticed: the "All cities connected" message appears when you connect the second last city instead of the last one.

[RayofSunshine]

I guess I play to conservative, as I have 6 cities connected, and engines setting at 4 of them "waiting for cargo". But seeing that Rulerof Rails got the Gold, and connecting 20 cities in year 1, I will have to try his system to see what the results.

Don't believe a problem with only the PNW being the requirement, and althought there are some "mountains", there is a good selection of engines to curb the incline problem.

That being said, where to you get the imagination for all these scenarios?
But keep up the trend, as they are very interesting.

[RulerofRails]

Ray, if you don't sell/leave the Great Zumba Incline you can take out maximum bonds in the first year for 9M capital. This is a strategy decision because if you leave and start a new company you can get the full 10M bonds plus another million cash from company start up {extra 2M capital}, but you will have to wait till at least the second or third year to run up full bonds, so you can't access the capital until a bit later in the game. In my plays I found that with careful management I got a slightly better result (my second attempt) by selling/leaving the Great Zumba Incline, but more effort is also required to buy up your shares leaving you with a little more margin so until I got the medal once I would stay with the Great Zumba Incline. There are some connection bonuses including those for 5, 10, 20 ... cities connected which I also collected to connect 20 cities. Because of the imminent world cup which you should try to capitalize on with Hotels and good passenger service, there is a real advantage to coming out of the gate hot. Initially I look to the ports and also other cargo on the coast to try to make initial hauls for maximum profit, then use this profit to cater to the high influx of passengers. The higher revenues you make the quicker you will increase the economic level and hence all industry production which means there is more for you to haul and industries become worth buying/building sooner. I tend to haul the Ammo and Weapons in the first year as well (be careful when placing the collection station so you can harvest maximum initial loads). When you do this you get a choice, but I will leave it for you to discover and enjoy. Wish you a great success on this excellent map!

[Wolverine@MSU]

If you stay with the Zumba Incline Railway, ditch the trains that are pre-set; they're 79 years old, and the maintainance charges will eat up any meager revenue they may generate. Take out the bonds when offered the low interest rate (I maxed them out even though the last few were at 6% instead of 5%) and use the money to connect all the coastal cities and the Ammo/Weapons source to the sink (other military base). I also extended a little bit to get the lines to the adjacent (or in-line) cities so that return trips weren't empty. First time around got Gold on Expert in 17 years with pretty lax attention to maximizing PNW; this time I'm going at it with a vengance.

Nice map and good story. It's pretty easy if you're an experienced Tycoon, especially if you have all 4 AIs and milk all you can out of them before taking them over. My only suggestion would be to "pro-rate" the credit rating increase at the beginning based on difficulty level, i.e. make it more expensive (higher interest rate) for Expert level and proportionally less for lower levels.

I saw the "Mudzi" mis-naming too.

[RayofSunshine]

Well RulerofRails and MSU,
After I finished my last post, I basically did what both of you suggested. Max out the bonds when they were offered at 5% with a few at 6%. Then for the next number of years, I paid them off periodically when revenue was adequate. However, I didn't switch out the pre-set engines for a number of years, which, as you indicated, were high on maintenence.

Any way, I managed to get the Silver, and missed the Gold by $3M, due to the economy going flat into Recession for the last few years. And I only managed to get 50 cities connected.

I had a few faults, which could have been a compute problem, but also in the programming. The 1st was that of a low cost Aluminum Mill, which disappeared just as my Bauxite arrived. Hence my purchase was dbl to buy from menu. Another was that of the Refuge,of which I believed I had paid the $1M, but never got access. Being that there wasn't any farms, I don't know if it is part of the "hidden" goal, which OilCan sometimes incorporates. And naturally, I had an AI start up another railroad, with the chance of any stock.

Over all, I had an enjoyable time of play, as I usually find with OilCan's creations. And although he knows I don't particularily like mountains, his scenario terrains usually have some more gentle sloping conditions, so as I can work around the greater inclines. I have not been able to master his new "Editor" program to "level" or "cut through" those mountain obstacles.

It believed that it was mentioned the possiblity of 4 AIs. I only had 2 in default. Will try using the 4th on my next attempt. They could help with the PNW which alluded me on this attempt.

I know that the members will love playing this one. Another great scenario.

[Wolverine@MSU]

Another was that of the Refuge,of which I believed I had paid the $1M, but never got access.

There's an error in the "Chioce" event that gives access (PNW 100). The effect for Choice 2 should be "Set PLAYER variable 3 = 1" not "Set GAME variable 3 = 1".

[Hawk]

PS. One small thing I noticed: the "All cities connected" message appears when you connect the second last city instead of the last one.

I checked that and the event is set to count 55 cities, but a quick city count turns up 56 cities.
I'm trying to pump up the kahones to play this map.

[OilCan]

All - I greatly appreciate the helpful comments from the Beta tests. It is truely amazing how RoR & Wolverine can find ways to turbo boost any game they play - ways that I would never think of. With all due respect, I have to consider RoR's and Wolverine's game tests as being the ultimate maximum, the fastest possible that players could achieve a game's goals. That helps me gauge the game for the rest of us.

[RulerofRails]

Zumba 2012.jpg (99.53 KiB) Viewed 14427 times

Have given this one two more runs (both 4 AI), one using Red Devils (2017) and the last with diesel for a ten year medal (2012). The way the Football event affects the game is genius. It naturally favors the route that seems more difficult! I am really impressed. When I looked into the editor to see how simple the trigger was, I can only say that's amazing how natural it seems.

While I do try to play for the quickest time, I also play under personal restrictions that keep the game and strategy alive for me, as you know. I don't tend to enjoy founding extra companies where I will need to jump chairmanships between different companies and haven't here. Consequently, I don't believe I found any "maximum possible" on the map. My general strategy so far has been to build my company book value up until around 130M (profit should be around 20M a year) and then put almost all profits into dividends (makes CBV 150M including 20M cash) to push share price up and over the 200M mark. To try to go quicker I streamlined the start and stopped investing earlier (CBV: 113M) while trying to make sure more of those investments were prime (20+% ROI). Got an improvement to Prosperity and that was enough to cross the finish line in 2012.

This time I decided to leave some of the AI alone instead of merging them. By leaving their areas of the map unexploited I hoped to benefit from their endless cash infusions. I did make a mistake and bought them out too fast (price too high), this used 5M of margin up and wiped out all the gains to PNW that I could have received. Wolverine, I would be interested what techniques you end up using for "maximizing PNW".

There's an error in the "Chioce" event that gives access (PNW 100). The effect for Choice 2 should be "Set PLAYER variable 3 = 1" not "Set GAME variable 3 = 1".

I believe the issue here is actually a conflict with the "Transfer Cash$" event which uses Player variable 3 if you choose no assistance (I always do). The event that gives access needs to check for Game variable 3.

Is there a reason why the Zumba Incline Railway's steamers are so old? They are no good for anything and I also just ditch them immediately. Maybe it's possible to allow those locos in a different time period by using triggers of "when station/track is placed" so the game doesn't need to be un-paused as they could be disabled again in the same way? Just a thought.

Ray, well done, almost Gold! Yes, this is a very fun map. I also had the first Aluminum Mill and a couple of Bauxite mines disappear when I was playing a little slower with Red Devils. I hauled what I could, but the prices equalized before I had hauled the 21+ the editor said is necessary for the second one to be built. So I had to the do the same thing, build a new one, only for a rival (the second one) to spring up the next year. I also recommend buying the iron mines as they are the limitation on Steel production when Coal is discovered. I think these things are acceptable within the game's limits, they just can be slightly annoying.

[RayofSunshine]

Well ROR and MSU,
I don't have that talent to get medals in 12-17 years, but have a lot of fun in the play.

Now I did switch out the early engines, and did max out the bonds in the Expert level. This time I played with the 4 AIs, and got a surprise. Unlike the $5.50+ dividends of the AIs in the Medium level, the tops in the Expert level only reached $1.05 or there abouts. Really made a difference on my PNW, and again, missed the GOLD.

This time instead of buying an amount of farms and industry, I only bought the Bauxite Mines, and able to buy the Aluminum Mill before it disappeared. To help with the CBV I also bought the T&D enroute to the Mines, and let the AIs do the buying of the rest. I got them any way, so to speak, when I mergerd.

Seeing that there isn't any other new scenarios, I will give this scenario another attempt. At least before OilCan desides to make some changes.

[OilCan]

Is there a reason why the Zumba Incline Railway's steamers are so old?

I wanted them to be relics that not only drained cash from the company but also something that an astute player would recognize as being a problem.

[RayofSunshine]

PS. One small thing I noticed: the "All cities connected" message appears when you connect the second last city instead of the last one.

I checked that and the event is set to count 55 cities, but a quick city count turns up 56 cities.
I'm trying to pump up the kahones to play this map.

Take a whack at it Hawk, I believe that you will find it of interest, even though you have a "fettish" about PNW senario.
The only problem I found was that of the city Nkoda is shown in the listing as Mudzi, with Mudzi being a city far to the West or left on the map.
Well maybe another question, as I don't know the reason to gain access to the Wildlife Refuge.

OH, and I find a problem to get the Editor to acctivate the bulldozer to leveling "canyons" through the hills. Tried a couple of different times. I am using the 1.06 and have a problem with the "building structures" to be usable, unless I use the 1.05 patch.

[Hawk]

OH, and I find a problem to get the Editor to acctivate the bulldozer to leveling "canyons" through the hills. Tried a couple of different times. I am using the 1.06 and have a problem with the "building structures" to be usable, unless I use the 1.05 patch.

Are you trying to use the Bulldoze tool in the game?

bulldoze1.jpg (26.08 KiB) Viewed 13741 times

That won't do it. It doesn't do anything to land/terrain. You have to go into the editor using Shift+E and use the Land Height tools in the editor.
Once in the editor click on this button,

land1.jpg (10.65 KiB) Viewed 13741 times

then play around with these options to adjust the terrain.

land2.jpg (51.92 KiB) Viewed 13741 times

[RayofSunshine]

Well, thanks for the info Hawk. But as I have mentioned a few times, I don't get much satisfaction with the Editor. However, it does help for a person to use the "correct items". Guess I need to do a lot more practise.
I did try the system on a couple of other senarios without much success, but then again, it takes time and patience. Plus practise.
Still waiting for the answer, as to why the Wildlife Refuge has any bearing on the game. Got the Gold in Expert after the 3rd attempt, but this time didn't "invest" in procuring the Wildlife Refuge, as it did seem necessary in the firt 2 attempts.
Also, as the bonds of $3M were beyond the deadline date, and the engines had not yet reached 20 years, I ignore trying to update, or pay off the debt.
HOWEVER, I am not the Tycoon as MSU and RoR of getting the Gold in half the allotted time, I did manage the Gold in squeeking under the gun in the 34th year. BUT that is all the game requires, and I enjoyed another of OilCan's imagination and talents.

[OilCan]

Well maybe another question, as I don't know the reason to gain access to the Wildlife Refuge.

The wildlife refuge - or game reserve - was created to be an obstruction and force the player to build bridges across either the lake or the rivers. Later in the game, the player has the option to buy rights across the game reserve and create new routes for cargo flow.

[RayofSunshine]

Okay OilCan,
As that was partially my reasoning, mainly to lay track for "cargo flow". I didn't think about the idea to build bridges across the lake.
With that said, I was not able to get access to the Wildlife Refuge. I paid the $1M, but not get the benefit during 2 attempts. Could just be one of those glitches which seem to occur in a few of the scenarios.
But at least I know the purpose.

[Wolverine@MSU]

Ray: There's an error in the event. Look earlier in this thread for the solution. My answer was wrong, but Ruler of Rails set the record straight.