The Zany World of Baffania

[proudcanadian]

The peninsula event is set to trigger in 1915, I know that. It still puzzling why it simply would not show up.
You need to get access to Peninsula first in order to get the task to connect to Southampton. Of course, If you never saw the message pop up, then that isn't much help.

As for the zany messages, well that's the point! They really aren't supposed to affect gameplay much, and they're just there to provide a storyline while you play.

If you're missing events then it won't be much fun at all. funny why no one else has complained about this...

I'll look at things on my end. Anyone else have these problems?

[belbincolne]

Amazing isn't it - the next time I try to take an AI over it succeeds so I connect to the next state - no tasks ever arise - I connect to the next state - no tasks arive. A few years later I pay a fortune to go north over the water and connect to the third required city and then I realise that (although its not in the Almanac) I also require to connect over some $7m of sea way down south plus a huge PNW. So I work even harder on PNW with the result that I've now over-reached myself and I'm going to be sold off plus although I can keep a reasonable amount in the black it seems unlikely (after 43 years) I'll ever get the roughly $8m to make the final connection so it looks like I'll have to start again

[Grandma Ruth]

Just briefly, I'm not having these problems. Don't understand why the first event wouldn't show up, the others of course depend on your success. I'm surprised you can get access via the AI's, I thought you didn't get their access rights even when you took them over. But maybe I'm thinking of RT2. There are still some little glitches we didn't pick up, but haven't time to go into that just now. I though the surreal storyline was fascinating - if unlike the home life of our own dear Queen!

Edit: You wouldn't get the subsequent events showing up because you wouldn't have done what was necessary, even though you've got access some other way.

[Grandma Ruth]

Well, I've looked at the events and the territory thing is really my fault for which I apologise to belbincolne and especially to the Proud Canadian as I gave some wrong advice.

I never thought about the AI companies when I suggested a fix for the territory events. However, I am attaching a screenshot of one that works!! You don't need to change the effects screens, just the conditions screens.

Hawk, this happened because the PC and me were exchanging PM's because I thought it was better than discussing the events in the forum, which might spoil it for anyone who stumbled across it before playing the game. If it had been posted, somebody else would, I am sure, have checked it and spotted the mistake.

So, this is a long-winded way of saying, when you have the time, what do you think about a "Nuts and Bolts" section a bit like "Letters to the Editor" but concerning particular scenarios? Then anybody who didn't want to know could keep away from that bit.

[Grandma Ruth]

They should both be LTD. I didn't notice a problem playing though, it all seemed fine to me.

It gave me a problem, I was until I realised it had taken me longer than a year to haul whichever it was. By this time I'd hauled about 50 loads and getting

Now I'm just making sure I do it within the year !

[Grandma Ruth]

connect to the third required city and then I realise that (although its not in the Almanac) I also require to connect over some $7m of sea way down south

Just quickly as real life is intervening again! The DH/Indiana connects=false event is wrong, it is testing for True. This will fix it.

[belbincolne]

Come on GR - it's absolutely p...g it down plus howling gales - the only thing to do is play (No - fix - so that you can re-post it again ) RT3 - although I'm now in the middle of a new Tropico scenario instead.

Was supposed to be climbing Pendle today - glad I've got a sore throat Great New Year weather to date

[proudcanadian]

Well, looks like I'll have some more work to do, I'll try to fit it into my busy schedule

[Grandma Ruth]

Belbincolne, it's fine and quiet on the right side of the Pennines! Enjoy your day in!

PC, sorry about this! I do hope we've managed to pick up all the little problems now.

[Wolverine@MSU]

I managed to take over one of the AIs and got instant access to all territories. Two of the AIs were bafoons; ran their companies tens of millions of dollars into the red. Is it a glitch in the patch that allows them to do this or was it possible before. One company was declaring bankruptcy every couple of years.

[Grandma Ruth]

Wolvie, see above - the AI thing was a mistake due to my poor advice but hopefully can be put right. I thought the AI's were supposed to be smarter with the patch but here's another thing that puzzled me - how do they manage to get into debt? I deliberately took over one of the failing ones to see and there were no bonds outstanding. (I thought maybe the prohibition on bonds didn't apply to them.) Maybe someone with a knowledge of the inner workings can tell us!

[Wolverine@MSU]

So, after getting hosed in this one yet again, I'm going at it with yet another strategy. After a dismal failure the first time around, I went back to an earlier saved game and started playing based on my observation that my railroads were giving about 24% return on investment whereas the industries I had bought were only returning about 16% or so in the best of times. I concentrated on building railroads and hauling stuff to locations far and wide, ocassionally scanning the newly built industries for bargains and building my own where they would turn a handsome profit. Well, I failed the PNW goal by a long shot. Despite buying back all my outstanding stock, and paying myself ludicrous dividends, I couldn't get the stock value up to a level that would give me $200M PNW.

At the end, I had a closer look at the ledger and made some interesting discoveries. While indeed, on a yearly basis, the railroads were giving a better return on investment, when I used the Lifetime numbers, a different conclusion was drawn. After the 60 years, I summed my lifetime revenue from freight and express and divided by the sum of my lifetime investment in track, stations, trains, train maint., station maint, engine maint, and fuel ( I didn't factor "Overhead" into the equation because I didn't know how to apportion it between trains and industry). To my surprise, the totals were very nearly equal; I had earned an amount approximately equal to what I had spent (actually it was a little less than what I had spent). In contrast, my lifetime earnings from industry were about 2 1/2 times what I had spent. After thinking about it, it all started to make sense: you only buy an industry once, and continue to reap profits throughout its lifetime, whereas trains need constant "feeding" and additional investment to keep them running.

So now I'm going back to that same earlier point with yet another strategy. I plan to invest almost all of my profits in industry, and only run enough trains to haul the stuff my industries make. I'll provide an updated report when I finish the game, hopefully this time with a Gold medal in hand.

[Grandma Ruth]

Best I've done so far is Industry Profits $252k, CBV $202k and PNW $107k. Just can't get the PNW, either - I've tried starting with minimum investment and getting 100% of the company within a couple of years, I've tried buying stock in other companies, I've tried taking over the other companies - nothing works. I had the bright idea of concentrating completely on industries and making money, not doing any of the connection events until really late on in the scenario, over fifty years in, and that was when I got my best result but still not good enough even for silver!
I'm going to go back to a saved game and have another go at getting the stock prices up.

[belbincolne]

Yes - think the PNW target is way too high. The others probably relatively straightforward but - barring some incredibly lucky seed or something - I can't see how anyone will be able to get anywhere near the PNW target. Will have a go again but busy today - and GR it's still p..g it down here and I refuse to believe your bit of Yorkshire is any better

[Grandma Ruth]

Well, it's not been so nice today but I swear it was mild on Sunday! I don't get the PNW thing at all. Logically if you own 100% of the company, shouldn't your PNW be the same as CBV? (This is why I'm a socialist - I can't understand capitalism!)

[WPandP]

GR-

PNW might be different from CBV because for someone that owns 100% of a Company that is worth X, that Company is an Asset to them. From this asset must be subtracted any Liabilities carried by that person. Now, the in-game player doesn't necessarily have any overt liabilities such as a mortgage or credit card debt, but you do accrue an effective liability in that you acquire the company stock by outlays of cash. If you never spent a dime and acquired all 100% of stock, then perhaps PNW would equal CBV.

Or, maybe PNW can't equal CBV because the friggin' socialists have imposed a capital gains tax and income tax that affect the rich tycoon far more than they affect the company...

[Grandma Ruth]

[proudcanadian]

I finally got around to fixing the problems, and I sent V3 to Hawk.

thanks for your comments and enjoy the improved version!

[Hawk]

Version 3 is now available.

[belbincolne]

Very annoying - I'm in 1956 (year 47) and have hauled the 20 loads lumber and must be about to reach the 20 in clothing and - three times - the game's crashed at the same point so seems unlikely that I'll be able to play on. Anyway I'll leave it for today and see if it works tomorrow.