Central America - BETA Version

Discussion about reviews and strategies for user created scenarios made for RT3 version 1.05 and earlier.
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OilCan
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Central America - BETA Version Unread post

The idea for this game came about after I played ‘Scandinavia’ early this year.

This is a BETA Version, 1.05 V although will play equally well on 1.06V.

Game starts in 1890. The player must build a railroad through all seven Central American countries, connecting each capital, plus build a CBV of $100M and end with no debt. Gold: 25 years / Silver: 30 years / Bronze: 35 years

Start in Mexico or Columbia. Buy access to other countries.

I did not want the player to cherry pick the countries with the richest resources early in the game, so access to a neighboring country is much cheaper than a further away country.

Any comments, edits or additions to improve the game are, as always, welcome.

Note: BETA Version removed on August 23, 2015. Final version sent to Archives
Last edited by OilCan on Sun Aug 23, 2015 5:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Hawk
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Re: Central America - BETA Version Unread post

Yaaay!!! !**yaaa Finally a map for us dummies. ^**lylgh
All you expert players will probably find this one a bit too easy.

I played this in 1.05 on medium level difficulty.

I didn't make Gold on my first attempt. I probably could have if I didn't waste 12 years in Columbia trying to build a textile and meat industry.
I was $5 mil in debt when I finally moved into Panama, but I soon paid all the bonds down and never took out another. I did have to take out a few more bonds after the no bond offer, but I was out of debt shortly after that.
Here's where I was at the end of the 25 years (Jan. 1916).
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Here's where I ended up in March of 1917.
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I didn't play out until year 30 to get Silver.

I'll definitely play this again. I really didn't see any issues to report, but then I'm not as attentive as others. :mrgreen:
Next time I think I'll start in Mexico.

!$th_u$! OC. :salute:
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Re: Central America - BETA Version Unread post

Here's my track, FWIW.
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OilCan
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Re: Central America - BETA Version Unread post

Hawk wrote:Here's my track, FWIW.
Nice. I like the way you wove your track through the mountains of Honduras.
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Gumboots
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Re: Central America - BETA Version Unread post

I'll take a look at this one tonight. It's about time I played another game. !*th_up*!
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Re: Central America - BETA Version Unread post

OilCan wrote:
Hawk wrote:Here's my track, FWIW.
Nice. I like the way you wove your track through the mountains of Honduras.
I ended up with a very small section of 6 grade. A little bit of 5, but mostly pretty good terrain for running track.
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Re: Central America - BETA Version Unread post

I did a bit better this time. Still on medium difficulty but in 1.06 this time. This time I started in Mexico.
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Gold Track.jpg
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I think this scenario really needs some more events to add some of your 'spice' to it. If I can get Gold that easy, even on medium, it's a pretty easy scenario, but fun. I did enjoy it and will most likely play it again.
As you can see, most of my CBV was from industry. I'd like to try it with more track and trains.
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Re: Central America - BETA Version Unread post

I'm just taking a look at this. You have a typo in several places. The country is called Colombia, not Columbia. ;-)

Haven't really started playing yet as I've just taken a Mexico start to see how it went. It turns out that Mexico is a gold mine, at least on this seeding. With the good credit rating and low interest rates at the start, combined with plenty of industry and rail opportunities, I should be able to kick things off easily.
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Re: Central America - BETA Version Unread post

Ok, played to January 1901 so far, on Expert. Should crack it easily enough. CBV is already up to $40 million and there are 14 more years left.

I haven't issued any stock. In fact I bought some back, and have been paying out a dividend of around 10% of profits. I was thinking of going for a majority shareholding so I could have some fun with extra companies, then found out I can't start any. :-P So I'm sitting on about 38% holding now and just paying down personal debt. Am also holding $10 million of bonds at 5.8% average interest rate, but will pay those off later once I run out of other things to do.

Seems like a cruisy game, at least if starting from the Mexico end.
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Re: Central America - BETA Version Unread post

As I stated in a previous post: :mrgreen:
Hawk wrote:Yaaay!!! !**yaaa Finally a map for us dummies. ^**lylgh
All you expert players will probably find this one a bit too easy.
Even I think it's a bit easier than it could be, and I'm as far from expert as one can get. ^**lylgh
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Re: Central America - BETA Version Unread post

Yes after playing a few more years I'm inclined to agree. Generally a good map. Buildable, even for people like Ray who like easy grades. Well scripted. Good spread of industry. However, I think it ends up just being a connection game, with little else of note. Given the map economy, the CBV requirement is pretty much guaranteed within the 25 year time frame. I think it really could do with a little extra.

As one example, perhaps change access to the last country (either Colombia or Mexico depending on where you start) to have it so you still can't purchase access, but have to gain access by merging an existing AI company that is restricted to that country. That would give a need for long term planning rather than just running connections, because you'd need to play the stock market as well as building up your industry and rail.

Incidentally, I'm finding rail does very well on this map even on Expert setting. My industry/rail mix is biased towards rail, although obviously I still have a solid base of industry.
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Re: Central America - BETA Version Unread post

Got it without trying in August 1906. It gave me Gold even though Cartagena was not connected to the rest of the network (it was only connected to the town up in the hills behind Medellin, along with a couple of intermediate towns).

Is this intentional? I expected that Cartagena would have to be connected to the network (ie: to Medellin, or at least to Panama City, and up to Victoria in Mexico). Not that it matters much.

Anyway, given that I had spent stacks on stock buybacks and dividends this time, and given that I've now looked at Colombia and can see the profit in getting down there asap, I think if I just went for it a <15 year result would be possible (ie: Gold in late 1903).
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Re: Central America - BETA Version Unread post

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Got a little time to try this one out. Good map !*th_up*! . I started in Colombia. I took the more challenge option to not issue stock (nice touch :salute: ). This time I didn't re-route/stop a train, so wasn't using my trick of stacking some cargo at any leading edges of expansion. Also, I had a depression late-game in 1900 and the economy had just hit normal economy by the end. I also never replaced an engine, I made the call that there probably wasn't enough time to make up the CBV hit I would take. As there are plenty of cities, my strategy was focused towards passengers, so routing was arranged for this, hence giving away opportunities to route for more consistent industrial profits. Until I made the connection up to Mexico, my industry investment was below 15M. (Resulting revenues. Express:71M; Freight:85M; Industry:44M). Visible is the climb up to San Marcos, a fair bit of 4% grade, but no more. I avoided any areas of the map where I would have needed 6% grades, and only had a few cells of 5%.

I abandoned a previous play of the first two years because my station placements were wrong. I had bought a Tool and Die in Sincejelo but I placed the station in Monteria closer to the Tool & Die there. :oops: Surprisingly, I should have stayed with that play as better Brewery and Textile Mill seedings resulted in a 2M first year vs. the 1.5M in the play that I completed. Both times I bought the Dairies and Oil Wells to start the game in addition to laying some rail. (Are the placed Dairies purposely for the player to buy? Otherwise, I don't see why this should be done this way seeing both Mexico and Colombia get Dairies. This gives the player an early leg-up.)

For me this is more than just a connection game. There are a great deal of decisions to make on timing growth as far as expansion into new territories and how far to develop each country before going on to the next one. Getting 20 bonds issued before before the end of the second year is a no-brainer. The first access rights (1M) may be bought without impacting your credit rating enough to foil this plan. The more expensive access rights should probably be bought only once you hit 20 bonds. Each time you need to save for access rights will flat-spot the growth curve, so care needs to be taken to minimize this. But, there are so many smaller details to improve further. . . . :idea:

Gumboots, I don't see your point on getting to Colombia earlier (Did you wait after receiving access rights?). I had thought to skip some countries once suspension bridges were available, but realized as the game progressed that this wouldn't help the bottom line.
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Re: Central America - BETA Version Unread post

No I didn't wait after receiving access rights. What I meant was I think it would be advantageous to charge through the intermediate countries as fast as possible, since by the time you get to Colombia it will be a gold mine. Some of the other countries aren't as potentially lucrative, so flat spotting growth to get through them quickly is probably the way to go. Should more than make up the difference once Colombia opens.
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Re: Central America - BETA Version Unread post

I checked the events. The game is coded so that all 7 capitals must be connected before you are granted access to either Mexico or Colombia. So, it's impossible to skip a country completely. It's just a question of how much you develop it. I am about to try a Mexico start, and it may be that things look different going the other direction. I noticed the ports were near the southern borders, so this may be slanted to help (or maybe unplanned) the Colombia start, as I tend to believe that there may be a little more money available early when starting in Mexico. Will see how it plays out.

Oilcan, I noticed that the label for Guatemala is misspelled "Guatamala" on the map itself.
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Re: Central America - BETA Version Unread post

RulerofRails wrote:I took the more challenge option to not issue stock (nice touch :salute: ).
Stock? Boy, did I misread that offer. I had it in my head not to sell bonds. :oops: And I thought I was doing so good. !hairpull!
I guess that would explain the need for 20 bonds. ^**lylgh
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Re: Central America - BETA Version Unread post

Hawk wrote:I had it in my head not to sell bonds.
That's ok. Foregoing bonds will add challenge as well. I didn't try it, but no bonds probably makes the game slightly harder/slower than not issuing any stock. Good job!
Mexico run.jpg
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Here's the result of my start in Mexico. I must say that the economy was kind to me. Most of the time I was in Boom. My start was average though, 1.3M first year profit, so I only got 16 bonds out before the credit rating returned to normal. This was caused by the seeding being such that there was no industry that was running at even half-capacity in Mexico at game start except for the Tool and Die in Tacopalca. There was also only one barracks in the northern part of the map, the next one was out of reach in Zacapa. The flip-side of this situation is that I got to develop industry the way that I wanted which ends up being more efficient until the game eventually seeds those industries later on. For example, a Textile Mill in Tacopalca was a first year investment. The port in Belize City was drawing Logs out to sea, so I setup a Lumber Mill on the next cell inland in the resource stream. Upgraded, this was a good earner (7.7M during the game). There was a Furniture Factory next door as well, eventually I bought it, but output was split with the port so the port didn't upgrade until late 1898. I got a year and a half of double output! For me the Steel opportunities on this map are quite limited and one would have to be careful to stock the Coal ports with Clothing and a little Goods so they could upgrade before there would be enough Coal to make a Steel Mill a good proposition as unless custom consists are used I always lose some Coal to the domestic market. Problem is that there isn't enough time to make this strategy any good in the context of a win.

Once again, I didn't use the stacking technique. I went to Belize in the second year. I waited to get 20 bonds before purchasing access rights to Guatemala late in the third year. Early in the sixth year, I reached El Salvador. I bought the Coffee Farms. Profits were 10M that year. The seventh year it was time to develop Honduras. I skirted around the lower desolate/hilly section in the middle this time. I didn't use the trick of looking for new industries, but managed to snag some that I just noticed anyway. One of these was a Brewery that was just becoming active in Puerto Cabezas. I noticed it then had to quickly save for Nicaragua access rights. I snagged it for 1.9M. It was good for about 3M of profit by game end. Then it was a rush to expand rails into Nicaragua. By now I had tons of money and wasn't trying to time anything (wait before making a new connection so the new city can serve as a future virgin demand area). I connected all the towns down to Rivas in one go. I then sent trains to wherever there was a current good demand. I also connected out to Bluefields, so was still doing some development. Even once I entered Costa Rica I took the time to connect to Limon before saving for access to Panama. I bought some Produce farms this time. In the early tenth year I reached Panama City and so got access to Colombia. With my only unconnected track placement I started a new line from Cartagena down to Monteria mainly because there was a stack of 11 Steel at the idle Weapons Factory in Monteria that was just about to start drifting overland back to Cartagena and out to sea. I needed to catch the Steel before it left the city limits of Monteria as I was playing without out-of-city stations. I hauled it to Cartagena at 50k per car. By the time the trains arrived there I had connected up to the main railhead in Panama City. I bought new trains to send it to Golfito in Costa Rica which was the closest good demand for Steel. Only one of the trains arrived just before the medal though. The profit at time of arrival was 58k per car. I had made sure to get a little money from Weapons to the Barracks in Yaviza as most of the Cartagena supply was just drifting into the open ocean on those flimsy barges for a multi-year journey. This highlights the fact that anywhere near a win you need to think short term. I hate to think that I play even the last year of the game unsustainably, and make efforts to avoid it. In the golden age of steam it's pretty safe to buy new engines even if 75% of their profit will come from the initial trip as express will provide enough traffic to keep them earning above break even (as long as one doesn't get too carried away). Visible in the screenshot is my connection down from Tegucigalpa which is a steady 4% grade (nothing above). I made the decision to build this as the alternative to building a second Textile Mill next to the existing one there (I didn't own the mill). There was a 40 car stack of Wool and the price difference down the hill was 22k. I bought 4 new trains for this haul spreading the deliveries among the three nearest towns so that the trains would also give a decent profit in the long term. The math is that this would give 800k or more within a year, whereas the Textile Mill there would make around 500k that year and cost slightly more. That's a good example of trying to go short-term versus long-term. Mucking with selling industries is something that I never stoop to do, even so sometimes I will build my final industries in a location that in the long-term would only give relatively unexciting ROI (for example 5%) without further development which I would likely do if the game continued. However, I try not to exceed resource supply, for example upgrading for that extra little bit of short-term profit when there isn't enough resources to sustain that industry.

This time the revenue split was Express:51M; Freight:81M; Industry:51M. I bought more trains this time ending with 170 (last play was around 140). I didn't even get to buy a P8 as I was already paying off bonds by the time that they arrived. Even though the initial profit from Mexico was lower, this run is considerably faster than the Colombia start, and even though I had some hindsight to draw on, I am pretty sure that Mexico is easier/faster. Without taking the challenge, by issuing stock a 10 year medal is likely. In this game I ended with 100% ownership with personal debt of 30M (almost half of that was interest costs). The slightly slower first two years gave me more opportunity to extend into margin before things got ugly expensive. If I was to end without personal debt, I would need to spend just over one year paying it down. If this was a condition, the smart move would be to use bonds and the book value reductions of access rights to purchase most of the stock in the first couple of years.

Panama City must be connected before gaining access rights to Colombia. When playing I didn't "feel" it would be faster to make a bee-line/burn-track through Costa Rica and Panama and not take some of the easy initial connection money on the way. That doesn't mean that I am correct though. Let us know if you can manage to find a strategical advantage by doing this.
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OilCan
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Re: Central America - BETA Version Unread post

Hawk wrote:If I can get Gold that easy, even on medium, it's a pretty easy scenario, but fun.
Finding the right level of difficulty when creating a new RT3 game is probably the hardest thing for me. I know the map and game story so well that I can't judge the real difficulty on my own.

That said, I did know that this would be a relatively easy game, maybe too easy for experienced players.

I may shorten the time span required for each medal. That will add some challenge, but the game will still remain more towards 'being easy' than 'being hard'.
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Re: Central America - BETA Version Unread post

Gumboots wrote:It gave me Gold even though Cartagena was not connected to the rest of the network. Is this intentional? I expected that Cartagena would have to be connected to the network (ie: to Medellin, or at least to Panama City, and up to Victoria in Mexico). Not that it matters much.
This was an oversight in the medal events. The medal events, as now written, do not require a connection to the port. I'll add that in.
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Re: Central America - BETA Version Unread post

(Are the placed Dairies purposely for the player to buy? Otherwise, I don't see why this should be done this way seeing both Mexico and Colombia get Dairies. This gives the player an early leg-up.)
Yes, they are placed there for 'an early leg-up'. I purposefully never took advantage of them in my trial runs and did very well without them. I should probably let them seed in randomly. It seems that the player really does not need much early aid.
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