The Zany World of Baffania

[Wolverine@MSU]

There's a problem with the 20 Clothing event even in the latest version. It doesn't test against your company, so you'll never get it. That doesn't explain why your game is crashing. I'm past 1956 with no problems and on my way to Gold (provided the other events work as advertised).

p.s. to ProudCanadian: Ben and Jenny go to a wine "tasting" party, not a wine "tating" party.

[belbincolne]

I thought Ben & Jenny made ice cream. And how can anyone win if the clothing event doesn't work?

[UncleJR]

Well, this a bit easier. I was able to even get the 2nd territory open, though not in time to really do anything with it and get the 3rd opened up.

Still can't seem to get the PNW up to the high levels that the medals demand. Got bronze but seem to have a block as far as playing the stock market.

Did find that keeping an eye on the profitability of the competitors helps out. You don't necessarily need to take them over. I was making big money from them by buying a bunch of their stock and reaping their dividends. Still struggling along, but the PNW seems to go up a bit quicker.

One of these days I'll figure out the correct formula for this. I'm almost afraid to sink too much in during a recession as I really don't want the dreaded call from the broker because I'm in the hole for my account.

[belbincolne]

In this scenario Uncle I found that the CBV target was going to be much easier to reach than the PNW one - when my CBV was half that needed to get entry to Southampton my PNW was only about 10% so (having initially had my company sell stock to raise cash) I now got the company to buy back whenever I had more cash than I needed for new lines. Then bought myself fairly modestly only during any recessions and found this worked well. Once I'd got a decent percentage of the shares (about 25%) I started increasing the dividends so that I was paying off my personal debt and then making enough extra to keep buying more. After 47 years I'd got two-thirds of the company, and a debt of about a third which will be paid off fast with dividends set at about $1m pa.

Anyway I'm going to have to abandon this game (or rather its abandoned me) because its still always crashing in Feb 56.

[belbincolne]

Well I'm mighty annoyed because I restarted this time on Expert and was easily on target for gold but as Clothing wasn't counting I could not get into the final two territories (I'd carried far more than lumber so had about 10 years with oodles of cash so knew I was o/k to get into the penultimate territory = but of course don't know what the requirement for final territory would be). Anyway with 6 years to go all I had to do was increase my PNW a bit and I'd make Silver and then the game crashed again - and again so it looks like I've got the same problem as before whatever that was - although some 8 years later.

[Grandma Ruth]

I've just altered the event in the Editor so the clothing thing works OK. I have been having crashes, as well, not crashes exactly but "Windows has encountered a problem....etc". I just put it down to there being too much information, too many trains, etc and re-start again from the last Autosave. I have got to the end, though, many times - usually to lose but one time to get bronze and once to get silver. I'm trying again!

[proudcanadian]

I just sent an updated version to Hawk, fixing some spelling problems, and the problem with the clothing event. Still don't know why it's crashing though

Enjoy everyone!

[Hawk]

Give me a little bit and I'll get it updated. I'm kind of in the middle of something right now.

[Hawk]

OK! The new version - V-4 - is now available.

[Grandma Ruth]

At last! I've got Gold!

I did it on Hard (very rarely play Expert) and finished by November 1963, 53 years in out of 60. A few statistics: PNW was 126M, CBV was 201M, Industry Profit 240M, Company Cash 48M. I had 23 trains - all Northern 4-8-4 by the end, 150 industries and 24 stations.

I started a company with the absolute minimum investment, bought back the shares before doing anything else, then bought a farm of some sort (already forgotten what!). When the big money came along in year 3, I joined on to an AI railroad and got the money from them using my tracks as well as more industry. I ran with only two or three trains, didn't expand at all but concentrated on industry till something over forty years in. Then began to meet the access conditions for the different territories and running more trains to more stations, more industry, etc.

Everything worked fine, no problems with any of the events as far as I can see. I didn't find it boring, as the Proud Canadian feared, though I do enjoy industry and making money, etc, which not everybody does. Completely absorbing scenario, it's now 2 o'clock in the morning and I think I might go put the TV on and see how you've all got on with Super Tuesday!

Thank you, PC

[UncleJR]

So, how did it go?

[Gandar]

I played this yesterday and got zonked on the requirements for the last territory, of course I had stopped expanding some time before and didn't bother to save. So tonight I bought industry and I built track and merged companies boosted dividends and hit gold in plenty of time way before those darn green cats came out to play. Now I'm wondering can I do it any faster if I pull Hawkes trick and build autos........... mmmmmm

[Jeremy Mac Donald]

I played this tonight. Just got Bronze. I often felt I did not know where I stood in this scenario. Scenario objectives don't always seem to be in the ledger. For example there is a point when you need to haul clothes and lumber to South Hampton but nothing in the Ledger records the progress in that goal. At one point I was unsure if I had made a mistake and was hauling the wrong cargo and there simply is no way to check. I really felt a similar problem near the end when the requirements to go to the northern island are boosted. I was never completely sure what it was I was trying to do.

If you have a mission I think its best if there is some kind of indicator of what that mission is - either in the briefing or in the ledger. In some cases it makes sense for missions that are completed to be removed from the ledger to keep clutter down (and avoid confusing people as to what the current goals are).

I liked the scenario, though its a bit slow to start with (at least it has been with me as I've been doing an industry start the last couple of games). I'll probably try it again but keep a note pad around so I can write down what it is I'm currently trying to do.

[edbangor]

Played this one last night and really enjoyed it, even though I only got a Silver.

I have to agree with the last poster that the ledger needs to be updated as the gaols changed, so that, not only you can remember what you're meant to be doing, but have some idea how close you are - or aren't - to the goals. This is especially true for the last territory, as something is thrown into the mix that's never been mentioned before, so I had no idea how my industry profits were doing (not that there was actually time to do anything about it, but that's not the point!)

On the plus side, I found the comments about the 'script' to be hilarious, even if we never do get to find out, just what was in it.

Anyway, this is a great map, with lots of thought and imagination. Well worth playing.

Well done to proudcanadian..

[low_grade]

Phew! Only took 53 years, but Gold on Expert in my first attempt.

The start was excruciatingly slow, with $1100k and no bonds, what can you do?!? Well, not the best strategy, but wait a few months to earn just a few $$$, then issue stocks twice to get $1200 and build a textile mill. Fortunately though some cats got into a fight and I got a bonus that enabled me to go ahead in March with a textile mill, then buy the sheep farms around it, in the wilderness a bit northeast of Hollan. After probably 10 years of gradual industry development, I bought the AI from Hollan to St Joseph and started laying rails. Didn't get in quite early enough to buy the other two AI, but they each just connected two cities and then bought industries, so easy enough to just go around them. Quite a feat to keep goals changing and development of the map progressing for 30+ years, but as you can imagine, there were quite a few tedious years as well. A few challenging spots of terrain to the required connections, but overall manageable, though not often simple.

The only majorly annoying aspect of the play was the frequent spawning of competing industries. And I don't think it was just the timeframe, I'm guessing city growth is ramped up on this map. Overall though there are plenty of resources, and who doesn't like opening up islands like Pakesley and Milnet! Instant dump for the over-saturated furniture, clothing, meat and alcohol on the mainland! Milnet was stacked with $0k lumber that I hauled off for like $2M, lol!

I must admit I didn't really follow all the newspapers, but perhaps their intent was to keep me confused in my attempt at Zany Baffania??? Definitely worth a play, and don't be scared by the 60 year limit, took me maybe 4-5 hours.

[Cash on Wheels]

Everyone should play this map from start to finish! It's a rite of passage. Or the initiation into this site. Near the end of my one and only playthough of this map it became apparent that I would not achieve my desired medal G,S or B. I don't remember which medal it was but I going do what ever it took to get that medal. SO after asking for few bailouts and calling up the bigdog, Mission accomplished! I exited the game and put this Zany.gmp in the recycling bin. Empty it out, then closed the Recycle bin. Just to double check I made sure the RYC bin was empty. I may have gone as far bring up the command prompt to make sure there was no trace of the map left.

[RulerofRails]

You got me curious. . . .

[RulerofRails]

I tried to do a no-industry play of this with the 1.06 exe patched to restore price islands. Also I was playing with some test loco stats that reduced freight speeds (H10 @ 45mph) and a few of Gumboot's custom cars. I had a very slow patch in the middle, partly because my stock game was quite weak. I had built a couple medium stations and those were a liability because I couldn't upgrade them. When the later goals came up, you can imagine that in reality I had to heavy up on industries near the end. I bought one AI, another was hopelessly bankrupt and the final one ended up industrializing heavily. Together we owned virtually everything profitable on the map. Ended up with 5 years to spare.

I can understand the desire to bin it. It's almost as if somebody tried to come up with a story to fill x number of newspapers, and they ran out of ideas really fast. . . . . To make this into a running joke is one of the most annoying possibilities.