Gave the latest version a play, and enjoyed it a lot. I really like the Alcohol haul for cheaper tunnels, that's genius setting up a strategy choice of whether it's worthwhile to try to head there first for cheaper tunnels or just fork out the big bucks for them to get the traffic flowing. The other events add spice as well. Only bad thing was that it was over too soon.
About my test play: I focused on industry for the first two years and then started laying some track in the third year. Here's the routing I used. After 5 years of running trains I ended up (end of year 7) 34 loads shy of the 2,000 for the medal. I limited myself to 80 trains. The first trains are so cheap, from a breakdown perspective it's currently worth replacing them quite often. I agree with Wolverine that passengers are insane on this map for some reason. They could be reigned in for sure. I think I may have chosen the wrong strategy as well. Going for an industry start may help to put more cargo on the map, but those passenger numbers are so high and the track and engines so cheap that going straight into rails will no doubt be faster. The only drawback is that some resources might disappear when you are busy with rails. So maybe a mix, but rails needs a big investment at the start to get 4 or 5 cities connected, so maybe some industry in the second year then. Ideas.
- Gondor routes.jpg (15.76 KiB) Viewed 6503 times
If I would suggest something it's to vary the amount of player cash depending on the difficulty level. Expert level could start with $80k personal cash, the minimum to start a company, a bond is still available for a safe-strategy industry choice of Textile or Paper Mill (or even Lumber Mill if you issue stock) which should give a decent first year of 300-400k. Going straight to rails may be a little worse in the short term but will give a leg up on the haulage goals which should give a medal faster. Setup three events to fire at scenario start that check for difficulty level that take different amounts of money away from the player for the different levels. The event for expert should test for Difficulty level=3 (Expert is 3, Hard is 2, Medium is 1, Easy is 0) with the effect to subtract $170000 of player cash.
There are a few spelling mistakes I saw. The worst one is likely the "diary farms" boost that the King of Rohan offers as a reward. Also, I am sure you will know how to paint the map better the second time, but it is possible with the gmp2bmp tool or with a hex editor to take the colors from the old one. If it helps for me to check the spelling I can do that, and I can find the links for the painting transfer or help out with that. Let me know. What can I say, I am a fan of smaller maps with clearer strategy choices. Good job!
