The Alpstein

[Sugus]

An old wish has been fulfilled! Sugus has created a RT3 map concerning the Alpstein.

The Alpstein is a small mountain range in northeastern Switzerland. Especially as a hiking area, it is a popular excursion destination and the predestined peak is the SÄNTIS! By 1912 until 1939 existed a company called Säntis Railway, which had set itself the goal of connecting Wasserauen to the Säntis with a rack railway. This goal remained wishful thinking, only the line Appenzell-Wasserauen was operated from 1912. (Today people ask themselves anyway wondered why there was even a railway line to this little village Wasserauen.)

And now it is your job to complete the project that was then missed: By train onto the Säntis before 1940!

(EDIT: first upload removed, see below)

I hope you can enjoy it and am open for suggestions or even corrections.

BTW: It's a patch 1.05 map.

[Gumboots]

Mountains? That will make a change from Latvia. I'll check it out.

[Sugus]

Added some Pictures:

(EDIT: upload removed, see below)

[Gumboots]

Looks like a terrible place for a railway.

[Sugus]

Yes - it is really terrible to build a track up to the Säntis.
No wonder that they never did this job!

[Gumboots]

Ok, had a quick look at it. Your "GrpSee T" event has an error in it. Needs to apply the cash to a designated company.

You have every 1.05 industry enabled, and half of them aren't being used by any city or region.
I think you should start by deciding which industries you actually want to use.

Lakes could do with some wave blocking here and there.

[RulerofRails]

I finished a no industry play of this one. Was a bit more casual than normal. I ended up going right round the edge of the map before diving up the mountain. It was a really cheesy run. I had a stack (3 or 4 train fulls) that advanced to my rail head on the way round. Like an invasion.

I said ok to some 7% grades and a couple short 8's, but most of it was more sensible 6's.

I am curious about how you intended for the player to get passengers to the lake and the mountaintop. There are ways and means. What I am saying, is anything considered illegal/cheat in terms of how you are imagining the game should be played?

You might tell a bit from the picutre what I did. I wasn't too abusive either (one Hotel in each "tourist destination", no deliberate sabotage of surrounding express services, and definitely no bait-and-switch).


I agree with Gumboots on the unused cargoes. Those are a distraction IMO. As he said, there is a small error which meant I didn't receive the bonus after dropping off tourists at Gräppelensee.

There is something funny with the heightmap. There are some streaky effects all over the map. Low level roughness isn't a bad thing, can add interest to track laying. That said, there are some "funny ridges" especially those in the mountains that don't feel that good, IMO. I'm half-wondering if there may have been some distortion in the heightmap you used. The worst of it seems to be in the north-south orientation in-line with cell corners.


Here's some pics.

Setting darker colors might help to illustrate better.

I say this to suggest that a bit of smoothing in the worst spots would IMO be a good improvement.



I saw the Crocodile on this map. This is Switzerland right? It might be fun to put some incentive to electrify after it appears. I say "incentive" because distances here are quite vast for an RT3 map, so average cost of city-to-city track is even higher than usual. When I did some "research" into electric viability my conclusion was that unless there is a high volume, low revenue situation, electric was only worthwhile in economic terms if there was a reduction in the cost to electrify. Aside from the vast distances, this map isn't using that many of the cargoes, which leaves me to distinguish it as "lower than average" volume.



Another note: the scale here is such that I couldn't stand playing until I set my camera to "Free - Any Angle". I simply couldn't zoom out enough (1.06 zoom level is much better for 1024 size maps). I have avoided this setting generally as being a bit too fiddly for general use. A negative of using this setting was some small glitch moves especially around mountains and when the view is near the edge of the map. When I try to move a little the camera doesn't just move, it jumps a bit. But, I did get more used to it as I went. I'm ok with it on the overall.

[Gumboots]

That's the only camera setting I ever use.

[RulerofRails]

Yeah, I know. Maybe I just don't know how to use it properly. I wish there was a way to separate camera height from camera rotation. When I adjust one via mouse I have a lot of trouble being precise enough not to affect the other. I know I can adjust rotation via keyboard with no effect on camera height, but is there a keyboard adjustment for camera height?

Lately, I've mainly been using the keyboard for pause (set it to space bar). But maybe I need to try to adapt. Maybe go back to navigate with keyboard and pinky on the spacebar. How do you use the keyboard?

[Gumboots]

I rarely use the keyboard at all, and do most things with the mouse. Shift+E is about my only common shortcut. Oh, and F9 for full/partial screen.

[Sugus]

Thanks for the hints. I will (not immediately) check the incorrect event and maybe look for possible improvements.

But: You should not take the map too seriously, because it is only meant to be fun. If you look at the enclosed pictures, you can see immediately that the construction of track-bound railways really makes no sense here.

[RayofSunshine]

Wow Surgus,
This sure sounds like a scenario of which a person has to be a mountain goat. Normally I hesitate on such challenges as I have a hip problem, and don't walk too well on the sides of hills. BUT, every creation deserves an attempt, and thank you for your talents of imagination.

[Sugus]

Corrections done! Here the new version:

English

The Alpstein.zip

(4.65 MiB) Downloaded 489 times

German

Der Alpstein.zip

(4.65 MiB) Downloaded 468 times

[RayofSunshine]

First off Surgus,
I viewed all the jpeg pictures. That certainly is a beautiful country. Well, maybe for a mountain goat. But the scenario mountains are not that insermountable. (?)

I sort of ran into a problem with that "bathing" at Grappelensee. Being that it has not been indicated with a "star", the name of any depot is that of St. (something). And any city of the map, doesn't show any tourists "wanting to go there".

To this point the only "revenue" is that of cargoes being hauled. That being the case, I did not receive the $2M, and probably because the depots which I tried in a number of locations, are not that of Grappelensee.

Need a comment and help.

[Sugus]

You only have to build some hotels and restaurants near the lake - and also in the near cities … and than be patient.

[RayofSunshine]

So Surgus,
I therefore am to assume that the location name of Grappelensee is not necessary as a Depot, and the name of Alt St. Johann will be acceptable, or at least recognized to meet the challenge for tourist attraction.

[Gumboots]

Grappelensee is a territory, not a city. It may be a good idea to have a place name indicator for it.

[low_grade]

First try, gold on expert in June 1928. Very fun, rolly terrain! Made me go the long way around most times, one big tunnel at a 6% grade down from Santis to the north, eventually. As it is, a fine exposition of the terrain and riches of this corner of Switzerland. As a strategic challenge...

I'd like to see some houses at least in the mountain towns. Maybe stadiums where tourists are demanded to simulate centers of attraction and demand pax naturally? I built 61 hotels in Santis to generate tourist demand, I hope that's not what's intended...

Generally, the map is devoid of detail. No events. A boring, simple, quick map, with the only redeeming feature being the nice rolly topology and vast distances to produce unusual price gradients ripe for the exploiting, kind of fun.

Disable purchasing industries and issuing stock, and tone down resource density. But boost coal and make sure a steel mill or two spawns, goods is dead on this map, or disable them all. Paint the map up a bit. Add details about seasonal festivals or ski season etc. Bring this map to life a bit, and we have a winner.

[RayofSunshine]

I believe that the scenario cheated me The Gold notice popped up in 1929, with only 3 of the 10 required for Santis.
I did have a couple of tunnels, but of most connections, I just went up the hill/mountain, or found a way to go around the obstructions. The mountains were not as bad as those in the jpegs. Good creation Susgus.

[sbaros]

Today people ask themselves anyway wondered why there was even a railway line to this little village Wasserauen.

For clarification, the line still operates, it wasn't abandoned in 1939.