Reconstruction

[EPH]

*Corrected version (5/4/2014) now attached*
Fixed error with gold condition for Connections challenge

This is something I threw together this week using the 'South East USA' map as a guide. Since you have the option of starting in 12 different states (and there are other options that come along later) I think it has high replay value. The map itself is nicely done - no really bad gradients - though a little dark.

The cargo options are expanded. I know the Furnace consumes Rock and Ore from a Quarry and produces Ceramics and Ingots; a Machine Shop consumes Ingots and produces Machinery. Let me know if this is interesting or should be taken out.

Please be aware it is a 1.06 map, and this is the Beta. If you play it, let me know what you think - and what needs correction or improvement.

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Edited to remove the beta test zip.

[AdmiralHalsey]

I'm guessing this is based in the reconstruction period after the Civil war based on the title of the thread. I will be giving this one a go for sure.

[RulerofRails]

This is very good for something you just threw together! I started in Arkansas and had a bad start, half-way through track laying I decided to build a Textile Mill and didn't finish my track laying. I thought, oh well, I will play on, anyway. Enjoyed all the events and history. I took the option for no service towers. I decided to do the Oil/Diesel hauls for Gold and got this message when I had delivered 30 loads of Oil.

Reconstruction Oil.jpg (17.81 KiB) Viewed 18912 times

It seems the status page counter may count oil in both messages? The event for Gold fired as soon as I made the real diesel haul. Other than that no problems to report and I can see the potential for replay value.

[EPH]

Yes, the time period is what American history labels 'Reconstruction'. The attraction for me was the same as for 'Japanese Miracle' - a devastated economy, destroyed factories, ruined railroads and the chance to make a fresh start.

One way to quickly generate a scenario is to clone events and modify them as needed. Of course then you have to actually modify them... and get it right... which I didn't do in that case. You are correct that the Diesel Loads line on the Status page shows Oil (like the line above it) instead of Diesel.

I will put out a revised version (or versions) as you folks report back. Thank you for your help - and what a speedy response!

Picking a good starting location is critical... some places (like Kentucky and Missouri) may just not be possible except with a very favorable start. My last 'go' I started in Alabama, and managed a win on moderate difficulty by 1895. But the person who writes the game knows how it is 'supposed' to work and tends to play only that way... I do suggest building at least some industry early on and buying up the associated farms/mines. Buy access to at least 1 other state early on (when it is cheap) because access costs multiply as time goes on. Also - brace yourself for operating for years with high debt and high interest... but by 1880 or so you should be rolling. My last few years I was making $5 million a year or more profit and buying access to a state every other year.

The AI players are nothing but a nuisance. Let me know if they should be given some bonuses early on (or protected from a death-spiral), expanded, eliminated or what.

Happy gaming - and 'Thank you!' to everyone who helps out.

[RulerofRails]

My pleasure, and really you are the who should be thanked for putting it together! I just gave it another whirl starting in Kentucky seeing you said it is harder. I didn't really start there though as I bought into Tennessee and built a Textile Mill in Memphis. I then decided to go the industry-only route until I had bought all the access rights. I think I had bought half of them at 500k in '73, and then picked up the regularly priced others for 1M (expensive for 3M). My lack of patience set me back when I should have waited for newly seeded industries instead of placing them in less than ideal conditions. I took the Passengers to Florida challenge. Worked perfectly. Finished up mid '87. Don't know if you want to prevent play like this? If you do, maybe increase the original territory access rights a little to prevent buying into another state and planting an industry there. You could also make the price of access rights rise sooner if you make too much from industries. 2M industry profits or something like that.

I didn't see an AI company actually go bankrupt. A couple of them seem to pick good routes and make a little money the others just sit around burning cash. Often they build small stations, whether this is due to more expensive stations or simply small towns, I don't know. Later in the game these small stations don't cover much of the towns. For me the AI are fine as the nuisance they are, but it couldn't hurt to give the weak ones assistance.

[EPH]

Well, if the player wants to forego the pleasure of running a railroad I suppose I should be OK with it, but you are correct that it is behavior I think should be discouraged.

One way would be to simply check for track laid after 10 years (or after industry income reaches that $1,000,000 level) with a gentle warning that the player should get busy... and follow it up with events that decrease mine/farm/factory production until the player says 'Uncle'. :) Another way is to have an event for each territory that increases access cost as the player buys access to it. Hmmm.

My first draft had the access rights start at $1,000,000 but that and the sparse, depressed economy left me nowhere to go. So I lowered them to $500,000 at start with regular increases in price.

In my last play-through I found an early concentration on industry and a mid-and-late game focus on railroads paid off. I was too broke after buying access and laying rails to build much industry.

Settings prevent the AI companies from declaring bankruptcy but some of them max out their loans and just keep going farther into debt. I could add an 'end of year' event to put the ones in the red back into the black.

Thank you for your comments - very helpful. Anything you'd like to see added?

[RulerofRails]

I am not sure that solutions involving checking for track are the way to go. It is easy to plant track and run trains without hauling across territory borders. Maybe a combination event that checks for say 2M industry profits and checks to see whether a certain number (maybe 3?) of cross-border events have fired. Is that possible?

I like the way that territory access rights increase based on haulage. On my first play, once access rights rose to 2M I feared I may never be able to afford the last one if they always increase one by one. So I stopped expanding and saved up the 25M or so I needed to scoop them all up. A one by one approach would be a good idea (maybe on another map), but the current approach is really good and an event to stop industry exploitation to buy them all at once should make it great.

To prevent a player from buying into a new territory with their start-up money and still be able to build an industry, I can't see another way than to raise original access rights. Maybe start them at 750k if 1M is too much? The choice of territory to start in is not so much of a choice if you can jump borders straight away.

[EPH]

I am substantially reworking this one to make it easier in the beginning and hard at the end, so anyone playing this should please throw out the version you have and wait a day or two for the new one.

I have added an event for each territory; each time you buy access the counter goes up and when it reaches the next level the access costs go up. Game design idea is to keep expansion slow by making it more expensive, and so encourage the player to invest in developing what he already can access. After hauling 10 loads in a territory you still have the option to increase production of a certain resource.

The opening economy is sparse and depressed, but the growth over 10 years is pretty rapid. I am still fiddling with the resource salting to make it possible to start in 'most' states. LA, MS, AL, GA, FL and TN should all be good bets.

Anyway, I will have a new version up in a few days.

[EPH]

Okay, that didn't take as long as I thought it would. I have changed the downloadable file in the first post to the new, improved Beta version.

I've played this out a couple of times with decent results - I have save-games of a start in Mississippi and a start in Florida if anyone wants to see them. I had a good game going with a start in Virginia - mostly running a railroad and not buying much industry - but ran afoul of some things I corrected in the new Beta. So that's 2 1/2 games going for the gold...

Since this one starts SO slowly, you need to be aggressive about buying/building what you can and being patient when there isn't much money coming in (or loans available). Around 1876-1880 the economy will turn and the growth from the first 10 years will start adding up. At that point you do have to pick a 'challenge' but you have 20 years left to make it... hardest one I think is the passengers. Give me some feedback on whether or not this needs to be changed.

I hope you enjoy it!

[AdmiralHalsey]

Yes, the time period is what American history labels 'Reconstruction'. The attraction for me was the same as for 'Japanese Miracle' - a devastated economy, destroyed factories, ruined railroads and the chance to make a fresh start.

One way to quickly generate a scenario is to clone events and modify them as needed. Of course then you have to actually modify them... and get it right... which I didn't do in that case. You are correct that the Diesel Loads line on the Status page shows Oil (like the line above it) instead of Diesel.

I will put out a revised version (or versions) as you folks report back. Thank you for your help - and what a speedy response!

Picking a good starting location is critical... some places (like Kentucky and Missouri) may just not be possible except with a very favorable start. My last 'go' I started in Alabama, and managed a win on moderate difficulty by 1895. But the person who writes the game knows how it is 'supposed' to work and tends to play only that way... I do suggest building at least some industry early on and buying up the associated farms/mines. Buy access to at least 1 other state early on (when it is cheap) because access costs multiply as time goes on. Also - brace yourself for operating for years with high debt and high interest... but by 1880 or so you should be rolling. My last few years I was making $5 million a year or more profit and buying access to a state every other year.

The AI players are nothing but a nuisance. Let me know if they should be given some bonuses early on (or protected from a death-spiral), expanded, eliminated or what.

Happy gaming - and 'Thank you!' to everyone who helps out.

Why would Kentucky be such a hard place to start? The state was Neutral(or at least tried to be) during the war. Sure there were a a few battle but after Perryville in late 1862 the state was controlled by Union forces for the rest of the war.


Edit. Ok I forgot Kentucky only has two cities in this map.(Should be three though since Paducah is a Kentucky city.)

[EPH]

Yes, I agree with you... Kentucky got off relatively lightly other than suffering a fair number of inter-family homicides. Because Kentucky stayed with the Union the effects of the Emancipation Proclamation passed her by, so it was only after the war that laws freed the slaves. The labor of those slaves was crucial to a couple of Kentucky industries, however, including hemp for rope and sacking.

Honestly the reason is just what you describe - there isn't much of Kentucky on the map and most of her population, wealth and cities lie north on the Ohio River. I do know that Paducah is a Kentucky town and I'm not sure why the original map-maker moved Kentucky's western 'tail' to Illinois.

If you like I could create the city of Cairo as a railhead to the north and move Paducah back to Kentucky... I just don't think that will help much. If I had the money to connect from Paducah to Somerset I'd buy access south and go to Memphis instead. In fact if I was going to start in Kentucky, I would not. Maybe I should give the player a large bump in cash, as I did for Missouri. Let me know what changes you would like.

My advice on this one is to look over the starting map pretty carefully and go to a state where resources already exist. A previous game I started in Mississippi with a distillery in Gulfport and a textile mill in Meridian, then bought access to Louisiana and connected my first railroad Gulfport-New Orleans-Baton Rouge-Jackson-Meridian. Then I bought access to Tennessee, connected to Memphis and built more industry... At that point I was in solid financial shape despite a lot of high-interest loans.

[AdmiralHalsey]

Honestly there isn't much you could do to Kentucky to help it. Maybe add a a few half star cities to fill it out a bit. Adding Cairo as a railhead would be nice as I could try to recreate the Illinois Central route to New Orleans from there.

[RulerofRails]

EPH, I just had a chance to take a peek at the latest version of the map. Decided to start in Florida this time. Haven't gotten far with it yet. In the mean time, here are some of my ideas about this map I had while doing normal life things. Please don't feel obligated to use any of them, unless you like them/feel they improve the map. I thought about Kentucky and Missouri, and, even though it would limit starting options, they could always be expensive states that need to be connected last. I doubt that it will be easy to balance the map so that they are not significantly harder options if a player should decide to build up rails there without jumping borders. Edges of maps tend to suffer economically with cargo demands in the best cases. Also seeing these states are only partial and they had less reconstruction than the others this may make some sense.

I like the 1.06 cargoes. I am not saying that you shouldn't use them, I just want to point out the gaps the 1.06 cargoes and industries have. Warehouses can be used to fill these gaps. In this time period Crystals have no use whatsoever. Demanding them in a warehouse as a conversion to Goods or just as a demand are the most basic ways to use them. In the OP you said that Ignots becomes Machinery. This is partly true, but Machinery has a 3-input recipe that requires 1 Ignot + 1 Steel + 1 Oil = 3 Machinery. This is really complicated and the effort required to make them is not really worth it. If you want you could always have a warehouse recipe to make Machinery straight from Ignots. Otherwise even a demand-only in a Warehouse would help to stabilize Ignot prices on the map. (I don't know if you are aware, but over in this long thread there are some proposed fixes for the 1.06 cargoes/industries: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=3641. Currently, lack of ideas/feedback on what are the best fixes for the 1.06 cargoes is slowing any meaningful progress. If you have time, any ideas/your views would be appreciated.)

Now for running my railroad.

[EPH]

Well... I added Cairo, moved Paducah to the south side of the Ohio River and added Bowling Green. Then I decided to tackle starting the game from Kentucky.

I had the easiest time of it I've ever had while playing this scenario. Started with a brewery in Paducah to take advantage of the grain produced by the warehouse, then bought access to TN and built a textile mill in Memphis. A railroad from Memphis to Paducah came next, then an extension through Nashville to Bowling Green and Somerset. With steady profits I was able to borrow a lot, enter Mississippi and build lumber and paper mills in Tupelo. Once those started producing I steadily worked my way down through Cleveland and Jackson to Gulfport, where I built a distillery. Louisiana was next - right after picking the oil challenge - with connections from Gulfport to New Orleans, Baton Rouge and back to Jackson. Those profits, saved up over two years, let me buy my way to Cairo and deliver the oil.

Next was a very expensive line from Nashville to Chattanooga (I got lazy and used tunnels). Built a steel mill there, bought access to Georgia and went to Atlanta and Savanna. With my 4 connections in hand, all I had to do was build an oil refinery (Baton Rouge) and deliver the diesel to Cairo. Gold medal in 1894 (or 95 - I don't remember).

So... Kentucky is a viable starting position.

I'll wait and post the new version later.


Some good thoughts on 1.06 cargos - I haven't even tried to use crystals since I can't imagine what they would be used for in the 1860-1900 time frame. I've run into exactly that frustration with the machine shop - you need oil and steel as well as ingots to make it work and frankly it is too hard to get all 3 in one place. Plus the machine shop is extremely expensive... I'll play around with your suggestions. I like the quarries and ore mines and the furnaces are OK.

[RulerofRails]

I should have pointed out that it is likely that the Furnace will get choked up with Ore that can't be converted profitably if Ignot demand is not improved. Making the Furnace only convert one cargo is a change at the top of the list of those proposed.

Forgot to say, thanks for sharing what you did about the 1.06 cargoes! One proposed fix for Crystals is to remove them and replace them with Silica involved in making Glass and possibly Electronics. I don't want to drag this thread off-topic so will try to keep stuff irrelevant to this map over there. By the way, Blackhawk is currently looking after the project so the first 6 pages or so are not that relevant anymore. Broader consensus on changes and new ideas would be great. Ok, now back to my game and thank-you!

[EPH]

I decided to delete the machine shop and add a warehouse that converts ingots to machinery.

The machine shop would be usable if 1) it was cheaper and 2) it worked by turning ingots to machinery with additional output if oil or steel was available.

[AdmiralHalsey]

So when can we expect the updated map?

[Blackhawk]

Currently I've been meaning to make time to look at this map and Ned's Cold War America map. I finally got this loaded up, I took Missouri for the challenge. I'm not very far in, but I bought access into Tennessee and Arkansas right away and build a textile mill and bought up some of the farms. So far it's providing decent income.

Anyway, to further comment on RoR's comment about ingots and them stacking up. While I haven't gotten very far yet, I see there is a lot of ore on the map. Using a warehouse to convert ingots directly to machinery will help with that. Another thing that may help would be using the possible small patch to 1.06 buried in the thread RoR mentioned, which slightly changes the price of ceramics/concrete, but also adds ingots as a demand at churches. This helps increase the demand of ingots in general on maps.

[RulerofRails]

Ok, finished playing from Florida. Connected Palm Beach to Tampa with a Distillery half way between to start the game. Went light on industry by my standards. About 50% of book value at game end. The only industry I owned outside of Florida were 2 Dairy Farms that I bought for around 400k each using up the initial 500k access fee in North Carolina early on and a Steel Mill and two Tool and Dies in Birmingham as I chose the Steel challenge (BTW, plenty of mines supplied to make this challenge easily). Basically cruised for most of the game. Realized that to win starting in Florida with the Steel option only requires access to 5 of the states. Had a T-shaped network with a more or less direct line running from Ocra up to Nashville. Then the cross on the "T" running from Memphis virtually straight over the mountains to the East Coast. Had spurs running to Mobile and Atlanta so nice simple layout.

The AI are much more healthy in this version. They were all moderately profitable and 3 did quite well. As far as difficulty, I always play on Expert. Obviously more start money makes the game quicker, it also makes it easier to start in another territory at the beginning. This play I cruised really comfortably to a win in '92 without any aggressive moves. I prefer the older more difficult start, but difficulty is entirely up to you. I wasn't trying to use an industry strategy so can't report too much about the new territory cost events. However, from what I could tell they worked correctly. Looking forward to trying the updated version when it's ready.

@Blackhawk, Congratulations on 1,000 posts!

[EPH]

I suppose my only concern now is whether the tweaks have made the scenario too easy. Of course I've been playing on Medium, not Hard or Extra, so that might be why I think that... Also, when you play a scenario a lot you get used to its little tricks. But I think the question for you gents is whether or not it is too easy now...

If anyone can think of something to keep the player occupied all the way to the end, please speak up. I did reduce the number of connections needed for Gold from 5 to 4; changing that back would force the player to connect to two ends of the map instead of one. I noticed that I mostly quit buying industry once I start buying access to multiple states. Increasing the Industry requirement might not suit people who like a 'rail' game, and adding another 'haul' requirement (say for furniture) might not go over well either... What do you think?

I will post the newest revision this afternoon.

Thank you all for your help! I think this one has a lot of replay value... so far I've run a different route every time I've played, and that's a good thing.

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Okay - version 4 is up on the first post of this thread. Access costs get increased more and 5 connections required for Gold. Let me know if it is too much.