RulerofRails wrote: ↑Sun Jul 26, 2020 10:05 pmOk. My take on the seed you sent me is that it's a good seed for no bonds/industry play.
Yes, but you'd say that about a blank map. Mere humans struggle.
Something that's "sub-par" about this seed is Lumber. It pretty much necessitates going to Goulburn. But in fact my plan is normally to go to Yass as the first expansion. The leg up through Picton needs some saving, but there are enough "steps" on the expansion that you aren't hard-saving for 3 or so years like if you try to link Newcastle and Parramatta early on ($3M+ cost).
Ok, I agree with that assessment. I found the same thing. Goulburn was the easiest way of getting track bonuses early in the game. However, I did end up finding some other dodges that allowed (very lucrative) expansion out to Mudgee before Goulburn, but that was with the use of bonds.
*Actually I only got Bronze because I diverted some Goods bound for Wellington to Bathurst and they arrived in Decemeber of the final year. The Silver medal didn't get a chance to be checked.
That's odd. It should check at the start of year 25. That's when Bronze checks too, but Silver checks first. So if the loads arrived in December of year 24 they should be available for a medal trigger at the start of the next year. I'll take another look at the scripting and double check everything.
I did a second start and made use of the land-locked trio of cities above Penrith. This area is good for express and also is a properly isolated demand location unlike everything else that is linked. Some good short-term haulage revenues there for Milk, Alcohol and Clothing.
Yes, those are a good early move, on just about any Sydney start.
However in this start, I didn't get a Lumber Mill appear in Bendigo (had it my "Silver" run) and the one in Rylstone disappeared.
Bendigo is in Victoria.
Did you mean Mudgee? That's one usual place for a mill out that way.
At that point I decided to develop the Newcastle area. It's a little tight, but I think it's probably possible to stay with the haulage quota for 5 or so years with the right strat provided you don't get a drought. On my silver run with the Newcastle start there is no way to meet the haulage in the 3rd year onwards.
For RC6 (which should be "final except for eye candy") I added in fourth haulage bonuses for each cargo. So 10/20/30/40 Wool instead of 10/20/30 as before, and similar for Lumber, Steel and Alcohol. My reasoning was that this would allow catching up on track later, without having to go nuts on bait and switch or "shunters", while not affecting the early years. Once you have a developed network it's not hard to haul 80 Lumber in a year. If you've had a good seed and a good economy you will be ok for track anyway, so these changes won't make much difference, but they should help if there have been severe recessions or depressions and several droughts.
My company ended up at $40M CBV. Overall Engine Maintenance and Fuel cost were about equal. Individually they were less than Overhead or track maintenance. Engine of choice for most of the game was the 6N. Mainly the acceleration is swaying me. If the 17 Class had comparable acceleration I would consider it, even though it's slower, more expensive to buy, and maintain. With equal accel, fuel cost can be more of a consideration. The haulage quotas are making most of the network higher than normal volume.
Yup. Fuel cost for me tends to work out around 60% of overhead in the mid to late game.
Re the 6N: I tend to use it a lot too, which is not that good historically since there were only a couple of them, and used in a limited area. Having a fleet of them running all over the state is a tad bonkers, but with the possible stats I could get and the need to make it distinct from the 1 Class (and the fact that they were early dedicated freight haulers) I settled on something that seemed to be the best balance. Maybe I should increase the fuel rating in an attempt to restrict its range somewhat.
But yes, there would be a case for increasing the 17's acceleration by one level. It's a good unit on longer runs where it gets a chance to wind up, but not so good around the Sydney area. When given a chance to get going it will easily match the 6N in terms of actual speed with a freight consist. Nominal top speed is lower, but it doesn't lose any even with a heavy load.
As an aside, I ended up using the 17 Class for pax and mail quite a bit too. This was with managed/randomly routed trains that just took the best load from where they were to wherever was next best. Sometimes they'd dump a load of freight, prices hadn't had time to adjust, but there was a stack of pax sitting there looking for a train. In situations like that, using the 17 makes sense. Prices are down, but haulage cost is cheap, and it counts towards the yearly loads quota (the 17 class actually were used for pax on branch lines).
The setup here is interesting when considering rails ROI. And that's to say I probably don't have it right. If you make many shipments in an effort to stay with the haulage quota, these will be at low value. You can over-do it I'm sure, but what is the right amount? I would proposition that it's just under the limit of needing double-track. But there is more to consider: lots of haulage = not much production from factories, and in the long run that is not good.
I tend to double track some areas anyway. Holding onto the yearly loads quota is an interesting challenge for me, and it can be done, and it can be done with consistent annual profits in the $3m-4m range later in the game. I had no trouble meeting the quota until the mid-1870's, although it was getting tight by then and a depression could have nobbled it.
Obviously rails ROI is decreasing as the game progresses since track cost is constantly rising. Past the middle of the game and for the farther, lower grade connections, ROI is dropping below 5% according to my estimates. Compared to good industry (25%) which is net positive after 3 years...
I've been using some hotels and taverns (maybe a dozen of each) and some post offices, but apart from that I've been using very little industry. One T&D in Sydney, a couple of just-seeded farms later on. That's about it. Although I did build and upgrade a Textile Mill in Sydney late in the game, but really that was only to boost the Wool price gradient out west to haulable levels.
And then to consider there are some seeds which are quite slow to start. . . . Those aren't going to be possible with special conditions. But it's better to have something tough than easy. I'm doubtful more than a handful of people play the game this way.
I added a no-bonds option at the start of the scenario. You get -6 on your credit rating, but you get an extra $250k to start with (standard cash is back down to the original $990k, no-bonds cash is now $1,240k). It also disables the Montefiore events, so you won't get dialogues that aren't any use to you.
I did a different route down to Wollongong. . ... When you are low on cash the schemes start.
Oh good. I'll add some extra poison.