Gilligan's Isle - Beta

[OilCan]

This is a crazy little game that I have been working off and on again for about 2 years.

The whole premise is the 1960s TV show of Gilligan's Isle - except this time with a railroad.
(For our European friends and anyone born after 1985, Gilligan Isle became a US icon of an era of early TV comedy. An insanely silly show with the same plot twisted different ways each week. And a theme song which never leaves you. For us old codgers, the show's title is enough to bring out a chuckle. There are several websites about Gilligan's Island, but here's a good one: http://www.gilligansisle.com/ )

This is a 1.06V. It is a connect and haul game. Money is, of course, meaningless on the island, but RT3 does a strange thing when you disable all money related things: it puts the player into sandbox mode. There is no cargo demand so trains will not haul what you want them to. All kinds of different cargo magically appear on train consists. Industry does not need raw resources. Because of this, I had to keep the money related things but tighty control them. Not the effect I wanted, but there was no other way.

The goals are point based: the player gains points for accomplishing various tasks.

I would be very interested in hearing opinions, comments and suggestions to help improve the game.

Note: Beta removed on Oct 14.

[Hawk]

I probably won't get a chance to play this for a day or two, but I did load it up in the game and so far I like what I see.

I could hear the melody in my head as I was reading the briefing.

[gismoskip]

I probably won't get a chance to play this for a day or two, but I did load it up in the game and so far I like what I see.

I could hear the melody in my head as I was reading the briefing.

my 55 year old dad talks about that show. lol. i might want to watch it sometime, being the new generation . . . . . also, i will try the map. nothing is too weird for me!

[Wolverine@MSU]

I could hear the melody in my head as I was reading the briefing.

It would be really cool if there was a way to make the game play a specific "song" at the beginning. Unfortunately it would probably require a coding change in RT3.EXE so it wouldn't work without replacing the "stock" RT3.EXE with the modified one.

[Hawk]

I think I've found one minor glitch.
I've connected all 4 Watubi villages and have a 3 trains running from the main village to each of the other 3 villages, but the status page still shows as unconnected.

I may not be doing as great as some will do, but I'm sure having fun reading all the messages and thinking about the show while playing.

One other trivial thing: Once the Watubi take their first train ride, maybe you could wait a week or month before saying how much they enjoyed the ride.
Just a thought.

---

Edit 1: Never mind about the Watubi connection. I just didn't wait long enough.
It's all good now.

[Blackhawk]

I suppose for those that are adventurous they could always find an mp3 of the theme song and put it in the folder with all the other RT3 music. And if you really want to go crazy, take out all the other music and just put the theme song in there and it'll likely keep repeating

[gismoskip]

I suppose for those that are adventurous they could always find an mp3 of the theme song and put it in the folder with all the other RT3 music. And if you really want to go crazy, take out all the other music and just put the theme song in there and it'll likely keep repeating

lol. "that'll drive me crazy!"

[Hawk]

Well, I might make Silver but I see Gold as a bit out of my reach.

[Hawk]

By Golly!! I did make it.

I don't think I got the extra attitude point from the Headhunters though when I blew up the castle.

All in all this was a fun map.
Fun enough to play again.

I didn't really see any problems with it, other than what I mentioned a few posts up - and - the event about devotees to Sacred Island doesn't seem to do very well. I had enough track available to build to the island as soon as I got the message. I ran two trains between the village and island with custom express and you see how many I hauled.
I had the trains set for a minimum of two cars and most of the time they sat waiting for more cargo.

[OilCan]

Thanks for the comments Hawk.

I'm not sure why the devoted passengers didn't want to ride your trains. In my test runs, it was never a problem. They started off slow, but soon trains were hauling passengers from all the villages, especially from Mfusi village. Sometimes, in a game, if I see that trains are waiting and waiting, I will send them on with half a load. Seems to prime the pump for more cargo.

The ability to build over the coral reefs was a very late addition to the game. I'm not sure I like it. Did you find it helpful?

Were you able to make the two 1-year only haul requirements: 10 logs the first year and 15 livestock in 1972?

Was the game message about building second stations clear or confusing? Did you build second stations?

The limited track was supposed to slow the pace in track building, but not too slow. Did you find the amount of track per month too low?

You can only get a maximum of 4+ in headhunter attitude. Maybe I need to make that clearer to the player.

[Hawk]

I'm not sure why the devoted passengers didn't want to ride your trains. In my test runs, it was never a problem. They started off slow, but soon trains were hauling passengers from all the villages, especially from Mfusi village. Sometimes, in a game, if I see that trains are waiting and waiting, I will send them on with half a load. Seems to prime the pump for more cargo.

I only ran trains from the main village to the Sacred Island. Going by the message, I didn't think passengers from the other villages would count.

The ability to build over the coral reefs was a very late addition to the game. I'm not sure I like it. Did you find it helpful?

It wasn't really helpful because by that time the route had already been established and I'd pretty much double tracked the whole map. . All it really did was make a few loads quicker to arrive. Maybe if the reefs had been opened sooner.
I think by that time all I needed was the Goods delivery to finish the four. There might have been one more of the four needed. I don't recall exactly. I probably would have made that anyway with the old route, before I built across the reef.
The reef on the south, near the iron and coal, never was an issue for me. By the time the reef was no longer protected, that one really didn't matter. Even before it was no longer protected, I didn't consider that reef a problem.

Were you able to make the two 1-year only haul requirements: 10 logs the first year and 15 livestock in 1972?

It took me 4 tries at the first one to finally make the haulage requirement. That one was a bit tricky and took some cipherin' to figure out.
I didn't make the second one with the livestock. That one seemed a bit impossible to me so I didn't even give it much thought. I actually built a line for the corn first, then got the message about the livestock. By that time I didn't have the track available to even attempt it. Even if I had gone straight to the livestock first, I don't think I would have made that one.

Was the game message about building second stations clear or confusing? Did you build second stations?

Yes, that was clear enough. I'm definitely going to remember that when I play it again. I won't wait so late in the game to do it next time.

The limited track was supposed to slow the pace in track building, but not too slow. Did you find the amount of track per month too low?

It wasn't really a hindrance too much. There were times I found myself speeding the game up to get more track sooner. Other wise there was nothing to do but watch the trains go by. But that was only for a month or three, occasionally. Once or twice as much as a year though. I don't think that should be changed.

You can only get a maximum of 4+ in headhunter attitude. Maybe I need to make that clearer to the player.

It's quite possible you made that clear and I just forgot. I've always had a problem remembering all those messages. I often find myself going into the editor to re-read a message.

I will admit, the troops events had me on the edge of my seat wondering if I was going to make it. That really livened up the scenario near the end.
I liked this one so much because there was always something to do. Never a dull moment, except for the few times I was waiting on track to become available, but that wasn't too often and actually gave me a minute or two to catch my breath.

Great job on this one.

Oh yea! Did I mention? I played this on Medium difficulty. To be honest, with the money aspect of this scenario, I wonder if it would be that much different on a harder level?

[RayofSunshine]

I have to admit that Hawk is a better and more intelligent person and player than myself, and his comments and awards prove it. With that said, I have yet to get my 1st engine. LOL

The contents say that they are free, as money is not a necessity. And considering that there is only $1000K, the engine cost is $2750K. Without any bonds, or stock, I have yet, as mentioned, a need for the 1st engine.

Just a little slow in thinking. Can't really blame it on old age.

[Hawk]

the engine cost is $2750K.

$2750K? Something isn't right. I just checked this by starting the map new and it shows the Firefly is only $770K.

[Wolverine@MSU]

OK, so here's a stumper: I loaded up this scenario on my home computer and after laying track and building stations, I go to buy a loco, and the only one that shows up is the Fairlie. When I click and buy it the game crashes. On my work computer it plays just fine (Firefly shows up). On home computer, even if I uncheck all engines in the Editor, the Fairlie shows up and the game crashes when I try to buy it. The only way I can get the Firefly to show up is to remove (or rename) the Fairlie.car and Failrlie.lco files; the game then correctly uses the Firefly and I can buy it with no problem. So what gives? Is it a problem with the RT3.exe file? It's strange that it would behave properly at work, but not at home. I assume no one else has seen this since there hasn't been a mention of it in this thread. I looked at the Fairlie .lco and .car files and don't see anything suspicious there; even copied them from my 1.05 installation to 1.06 (the files in 1.06 had different dates compared to 1.05) but that didn't solve the problem.

[Hawk]

That's weird. I have both the Fairlie and Firefly installed and I always show the Firefly every time I start this map, and it's always at $770K.

I had a look at this in the editor and the Fairlie isn't even one of the choices in the locomotive list.

I would add that I have never seen the Norris, Adler or the Planet show up as a choice in game. Only the Firefly.

[OilCan]

There seems to be something odd with the train selection - both Ray of Sunshine and Wolverine have reported strange happenings. I don't have an explanation for why the engine cost for Ray of Sunshine is so high, nor why the Farlie shows up as a selection for Wolverine. When odd things happen on my RT3 game (like weird graphics), I do a fresh install and that takes care of the problem. I'm not sure if that would help in this case.

The Norris, Adler and Plant are checked (X) in the loco list, along with the Firefly, because I compared all 4 of them on an early test run. I decided to use the Firefly, but forgot to uncheck the other locos in the list.

[RayofSunshine]

Taking your advise Oilcan,
I deleted the old download, and rebooted the system. The result? You mention that you have made the decision for the use of the Firefly. That might be the reason, as in both the early download and the later one, I get the
Royal Hudson 4-6-4 engine. LOL

[Blackhawk]

I haven't gotten too far in this scenario yet but so far it seems to work fine for me with the correct locomotive. There is 1 event, after you haul 20 loads of fruit, the message says if you haul 10 fruit per year you get more track and you may have even hauled enough this year already. Except the event to check 10 loads/year is LTD produce > 20. Should that be LTD produce >= 20 otherwise an extra load beyond the initial 20 is required?

[Wolverine@MSU]

Taking your advise Oilcan,
I deleted the old download, and rebooted the system. The result? You mention that you have made the decision for the use of the Firefly. That might be the reason, as in both the early download and the later one, I get the
Royal Hudson 4-6-4 engine. LOL

I deleted the old version of the game and re-extracted it. Started it and lo-and-behold, the Firefly came up as the only loco. But then I remembered that I had removed the Fairlie loco files, so I recopied them back and then started the scenario again. This time, instead of getting the Fairlie as the only engine, I got the Class55 Deltic as the only available loco. When I renamed the Deltic loco files, the Firefly showed up as expected. Even bringing up a saved game from when the Firefly was used, I get the Firefly correctly for previously purchased locos, but the Deltic as the only purchasable loco.

[OilCan]

Very odd! I have no idea why the Farlie or the Class55 Deltic shows up. We are getting closer to Halloween...maybe there's a spook or gremlin loose in your PC?

(And to Blackhawk, I'll double check the fruit events.)