Reviews / Reports of Building to Buffalo

[Canadian Viking]

this map screams to be used more with the wealth of small cities and history on it.

Yes, indeed. I have played 20 games in my testing process and haven't tried all the routes yet. I'm not an artist so the map is no prize-winner in its coloring, but I think the map's geography is great. The valleys and mountain ranges match reality. I would love to include more small towns, but the game limited me to 128. So I have sprinkled houses, usually in pairs, in places where I wished I could have added other small towns. Build a station there and the place will grow, especially if there are nearby cargos that will come there.

I hope some people will explore the map by building lines, even though those are unlikely to win them a medal. For example, you could play the game by building the New York, Ontario & Western! Some key towns are on the map and others are marked by pairs of houses. The route is there (a railroad atlas or map off the internet may help you find it) and 3 of the 4 tunnels on the prototype can be built on the map.

My revision will also include the route of the Ulster & Delaware (later taken over by the New York Central) which went through the heart of the Catskill Mountains from Kingston to Oneonta. Great scenery there, but not much money to be made. (One of my hopes for any future RRT4 would be an "industry" of a resort - which would attract passenger traffic. Something like the Greenbrier, Old Faithful Lodge, or Banff Springs Hotel.)

Has anyone built to Altoona, PA and discovered that you can recreate Horseshoe Curve followed by a lengthy Gallitzin Tunnel?

Before I started this project, I had never even heard of the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania, but it was the route that allowed the New York Central to build into the heart of western Pennsylvania coal country. Look for it heading north, starting between Williamsport and Lock Haven. Have fun Building to Buffalo!

[Canadian Viking]

Tycoons, I have sent version 2 of Building to Buffalo to Hawk. Thanks to all who posted about their experiences with the game so I could correct mistakes and improve what I hope is the final version.

Game play changes from version 1
1. The Silver Medal requirement has been raised to $30 million in Company Book Value, from $25 million. (This then also applies to the Gold medal requirement.)
2. After the first year, a query will ask if you want to receive the newspaper regularly. Answering "No" will reduce by over 60% the number of newspapers that pop up.
3. The cities in southern New York (from Binghamton west to Salamanca) have had their industrial possibilities increased.
4. Track allocation has been added for the years after 1861 for those who want to continue playing past that date.
5. The "Spring Mud" events which some years will temporarily increase the cost of building track can now appear when the game is played on Normal difficulty.

Other changes
1. The port territories in New Jersey and New York have been enlarged slightly to ensure that all rice loads hauled to those ports are counted by the game.
2. The wording of several events was condensed or improved, particularly the "Lose" event.
3. A conflict caused by Company Variable Event #3 accidently being used to record two different types of accomplishments was fixed.
4. When an Atlantic port is connected to Buffalo, only one newspaper report will pop up, rather than one report for each port connected.
5. The routes of the Ulster & Delaware Railroad and the Delaware Northern Railroad have been chiselled through the Catskill Mountains.
6. A few more villages (pairs of houses with no city name) have been added to the game.
7. Pressing the numbers 0 through 9 on your keypad will show 10 key locations on the map.

Hopefully these changes are all improvements that will increase the fun of Building to Buffalo. A Happy Canadian Thanksgiving Day to all of you! :D

[Hawk]

Version 2 is now available in the usual place. :D

[JayEff]

Canadian Viking, congrats on a great first scenario! I played version 1, from Baltimore, then from New Haven. I will stick to comments that likely still apply to version 2.

1. Pillaging is too easy. I finished January 1830 with $2 million PNW by starting companies, destroying them, then short selling them. You could write some events, or check off some special conditions that will put a limit on it.

2. Perhaps limiting the player to only one company would help. I started a wholly owned company at each end of the route, so I had more flexibility for route expansion. I don't know if it is supposed to go this way.

3. The cost of territory, and the rewards for missions is so small that they are not really relevant. Perhaps both could be doubled?

Well I have just downloaded version too, so will give it another shot.

EDIT:
Ok, I see the territory prices are higher after you make a choice.
This time in version 2, I chose Philadelphia to Erie. The loads to Erie were not counted. I had to connect to Buffalo and take the coffee there.

[Canadian Viking]

Thanks for posting, JayEff. I appreciate the compliment.

1. Pillaging is too easy. I finished January 1830 with $2 million PNW by starting companies, destroying them, then short selling them. You could write some events, or check off some special conditions that will put a limit on it.

I'm sure you are right about that. I've never explored that play style so I don't understand it well, and consequently I'm probably in a poor postion to know how to prevent it. I short sell 1 or 2 AI railroads that look weak in the beginning, and that's the most I've ever tried along that line. I can check out the possibilities on the list of special conditions to see what options it gives me.

3. The cost of territory, and the rewards for missions is so small that they are not really relevant. Perhaps both could be doubled?

The cost of territory is intentionally small. The idea is that you do have to spend to get legislative approval for your company to operate in each state. But that was not terribly expensive in 1830 dollars. I didn't want that cost to be too large right at the beginning of the game. However, I will consider increasing the NY cost, and maybe the PA one too. New York legislatively created extra costs for railroads in the early years. At first, railroads in the Erie Canal zone were not allowed to carry freight except when the canal was frozen! And then when freight was allowed, the railroads were charged a special tax which went to the canal because they were competing with it!

The territory prices go up if you choose the Pennsylvania or New York options because those state politicians don't want you building into other states.

I think you are right about the size of the rewards being too small. I was thinking in 1830 dollars again, but since the rewards aren't received until 15 or 20 years later, I should have thought in 1850 dollars.

The Phil. - Erie challenge is a good one. The coffee loads to Erie are not counted by design. The game's objective is still to build to Buffalo, which was the preferred port of businessmen. Building to Erie is a political objective which usually delays your building to Buffalo. So it is an extra challenge to try and do both things within the time limit. However, Erie does offer rice loads which can be hauled to Philadelphia and count just the same as rice from Buffalo.

[belbincolne]

Played the new scenario very fast on Expert and got Bronze. Unfortunately the AIs only opened in areas totally useless in getting from NY to Buffalo. One (north of NY) was more or less bankrupt and I'd wasted quite a bit of cash getting into it and had to by-pass it anyway. Then it sudenly expanded and became hugely profitable when (a) I'd not got enough stock to Robber Baron it and (b) it was too late to use it's lines anyway. Should have sold out then and taken the profit but hung on cos I expected it to keep expanding. However my by-pass line must have taken a lot of its profit and its share price dropped. Ah well - I've never liked the Robber Baron strategy anyway :o

Found no flaws - Rice counted properly. And your objective of making the scenario playable countless different ways has certainly worked - hugely enjoyable. :P :P

[besterik]

1. Pillaging is too easy. I finished January 1830 with $2 million PNW by starting companies, destroying them, then short selling them. You could write some events, or check off some special conditions that will put a limit on it.

My experience is that pillaging is no longer fun, after you've done it some times and has won the maps easily. I mean, you can use cheat codes if you want it really easy, so the best thing is to just put a note about not using Robber Baron-tricks in the description or something, if you really don't want people to use it.

[Orange46]

I finished my first game over the weekend and got the gold with 10 months to spare. I liked the map so much, I started a new game, this time from Baltimore. My first two attempts failed, since I was waiting for the Baltimore offer. Each time it came up, another RR jumped in and built between the two cities I wanted, so on the third try I just bribed some people in MD and started building. I spent the first 10 years or so building first to DC and then a little ways up north, followed by a big push to New York, to build up my finances. I decided to leave the short lines alone, building non connected stations to bypass the short lines in 3 coastal cities between Baltimore and NY. Once in NY,I had the cah to start building tunnels and valley bridges to get up north. Around 1845 I reached Buffalo and everything looked good except for my net worth. It was abmissmal. Maybe I should have bought out some overpriced short lines to transfer compnay wealth to myself. Well, it's never too late to try. I made a few pennies doing buyouts of cash rich companies and kepy my book value over $25 million, but now with 2 years to go and all cargoes deliver, my own worth is way under $10 million. I thought i was going to settle for silver, but then a boom came and I started buying up my remaining shares like crazy, and before I knew it, I ran my worth up to $30 million or so and got the gold, with a couple of months to spare. Thanks for checking for gold each month, as my net worth would have crashed quite severely if I had to wait for the year end. (I've lost gold in other scenarios when I pumped up my stock too soon.)

I guess I'll have to download version 2. Good Scenario.

[Wolverine@MSU]

My first two attempts failed, since I was waiting for the Baltimore offer. Each time it came up, another RR jumped in and built between the two cities I wanted, so on the third try I just bribed some people in MD and started building.

This happens to me too. I usually spend the firat several years building industries and let the AIs build where they may. This time around I chose the Baltimore option, let the AI build there, but bought stock in them and then merged.

[Canadian Viking]

No one has posted on this thread for a couple months, so I take that to mean there are no significant problems in the game. I did mean for the game to be played without resigning as chairman or starting more than 1 company, but I did not remove those options in the editor. Rather than force those limitations on you tycoons, I'll leave the game as it is, and just encourage you to try it without those strategies. Some of the robber baron tactics which RRT3 allows were not yet thought of in the 1830s & '40s, so they aren't historically appropriate for this game. Have fun Building to Buffalo!

[steelm]

I've played this scenario on expert a while ago. Following the path of the Northern Central Railway (Batlimore-York-Harrisburg-...) I won gold at 1848.

My revision will also include the route of the Ulster & Delaware (later taken over by the New York Central) which went through the heart of the Catskill Mountains from Kingston to Oneonta. Great scenery there, but not much money to be made. (One of my hopes for any future RRT4 would be an "industry" of a resort - which would attract passenger traffic. Something like the Greenbrier, Old Faithful Lodge, or Banff Springs Hotel.)

There are passenger demanding buildings in RRT3:

Pass.... Mail......Building
5.........0.........Stadium
3.........0.........Church
3.........0.........Cinema
3.........0.........Department Store
2.........0.........Hotel
2.........0.........Museum

This list is from the old H&P web page.

/cu Steelm

[Canadian Viking]

Thanks for the tip, steelm. I did plant a stadium in Saratoga Springs to try to simulate the major resort there. But I didn't think of trying one of the other buildings you list to accomplish a similar thing on a smaller scale in other places. The multi-story hotels would look strange in the mountains, but I'll check out the other buildings for any future revision. They might make adequate substitutes for a resort lodge.

[WPandP]

(One of my hopes for any future RRT4 would be an "industry" of a resort - which would attract passenger traffic. Something like the Greenbrier, Old Faithful Lodge, or Banff Springs Hotel.)

You know what? We can add this to RRT3!

Actually, I have been wanting to come up with a way to use the Museum's wonderful shape, and reskin it as some other type of building. This is just what the doctor ordered! Just like I created the Cereal Company, I can create a Resort as a new industry, one that would be player-buildable. However, it will suffer from the same drawback as the Cereal Company, in that it won't be enabled by default in your existing scenarios, so that means you'd have to go into the editor and enable it before playing.

What other things might a Resort demand and/or produce? I think it should have House-style DemandOnly for things like the foods and perhaps toys and furniture, also clothing. Not a lot.

Anyways, this is on my longer-range planning at the moment. Just wanted to say that this is indeed possible.

[Hawk]

What other things might a Resort demand and/or produce?

Alcohol. Lots of alcohol.
I can't think of anything a resort would produce other than a lot of passengers and a small amount of mail. Maybe garbage too.

[Canadian Viking]

From personal experience I can say that resorts produce passengers and garbage - lots of garbage (including Hawk's empty beverage containers )! They also need either logs or coal to heat the place, unless they are in a place with a year-round warm climate. They do attract and produce some mail, also. (The staff attract the mail and the vacationers send it.) And they definitely attract food, clothing and toys.

WP&P, your idea sounds very cool.

[KevinL]

Sounds like my Disneyland warehouse I made a month ago. It demands passengers, toys, clothes, and goods.

[Grandma Ruth]

I've come to this party a bit late, I see! Excellent game I really enjoyed - I was disappointed in not being able to play Building to the Great West so tried this instead. Very impressed.

So far I've got Silver on hard - just couldn't get the PNW and Book Value in time. I had no problem with the cargoes, but I took the precaution of starting the NY to Buffalo cargo (I've already forgotten what it was!) before I had completed the connection.

I didn't wait for any encouragement, just went straight from Brooklyn and NY up to Albany on to Syracuse and due west - connecting all the towns along the way. The only use I made of the AI's was to join up to their tracks in the hope they would use mine and pay me for it. I had some industry but probably should have started earlier and had more.

I have got the 1.06 patch but I promise I didn't cheat - I didn't haul any cargoes at a loss but carefully only took them when they wanted to go!

Well done!

Later: Now I've got Gold on Hard - just used the same strategy but got more industry and sooner. Also I took over an AI just for fun and to take a little track on the way. Excellent scenario - can't wait for the Canadian Pacific!

[EPH]

Just wanted to let you know I've had great fun with B2B. I especially like the many options, though I don't know what most of them mean.

Good work!

[Canadian Viking]

It is always a pleasure to read that others have enjoyed a scenario I've created. But to get applause from another very accomplished scenario creator - that is especially meaningful! EPH!