Hawk & Badger Railroad Forum

Good map and interesting idea behind this scenario. Gave it a try on Normal and got Silver. Its not my favourite type of scenario as I don't like micro-managing cargo - particularly when there's as many different ones needed as here. Think I got my strategy pretty well right from the outset but maybe not - I'll give it a try with an Industry start next to see if that does better.

Hope this will wet other players appetite and look forward to their views.

I was wondering when someone would step up and give some comments. I'm not much of a micromanagementophile myself, and it took me several tries to settle on the most efficient way of delivering the cargoes. One advantage to playing on Expert is that you can build the industries where you need them (not that you can't in easier levels too) and then run dedicated trains to the Canal Zone when the time comes. Did you install the customized Win and Lose videos?

No didn't. Very busy right now so took me several days to play and thought it might take me too long to do it

So I just did my first try at this and I am very, very impressed. I even swapped out the video's for the win and loose condition. I've only really seen the win condition as I have either restarted or won a bronze so far. I love the little historical interludes that were included with the scenario but I there was none to tell us when the Canal was done? I now know all sorts of things about the canal except when the thing was actually finished!

I usually hate 'point'** type maps but I want to particularly commend you for how well organized and easy to follow yours was. It updated every year - told me exactly what I had done and even made it clear what I needed to do. This might be the first 'point' type scenario I have played that I can say that I really enjoyed.

** By point type maps I mean any scenario thats tracking 'victory points' in some manner.

Try #3 also ends in a friggen Bronze. This is a pretty tough scenario. Still I think I know a way to get myself at least in the running for silver. In that last attempt I had the 'Biggest Traffic jam in History' at Panama City - they'd be backed up for miles - it could take more then a year for a train to travel that last little bit and actually unload. I'd be stairing at the expanded train view and it'd be 'waiting for track to clear' for 30 odd trains. Next time I'll have half the trains go to a different station in the Canal zone. In fact I might use 3 stations just to keep congestion to a minimum.

I noticed what belbincolne means by micromanaging the trains as well. It seems to me the optimum method of trying to deliver cargo is to send the trains out with one extra cargo above the minimum quota (1 extra in case the train is late - it'd still have quota even if the quota happens to rise by 1) and that means going through every single train that has a custom consist bound for the Canal Zone. In my last game that was Trains #19 through #51. Thats a lot of trains to change the consist on every two years. Still I don't mind it that much in this scenario - but I'd hate to see this sort of thing become a common scenario feature.

Jeremy Mac Donald wrote:I love the little historical interludes that were included with the scenario but I there was none to tell us when the Canal was done?

Although the exact date of historical completion isn't mentioned per se, if you make the deliveries on time (by the end of 1914), a message should appear to say that the Canal opened on-time. If you don't make them until 1916 (the originally planned completion date) the message tells you that the Canal opened in 1914 and that you will not be able to earn a Gold medal. I forget now what it says if you miss even the 1916 deadline (I'm at work and don't have access to the map).

Having at least two stations in the Canal Zone is almost a necessity; one to handle traffic from the north, and one for traffic from the south. I also connected both stations to each "conduit" so I could utilize both stations from both directions. As traffic increases, you need to double-track to keep congestion down.

Glad you like the map and the scenario. I had intended to put in a few more messages during the construction years to track the historical progess, but got busy with other things and wanted to get this one off my desk. If there are enough comments to warrant a re-release, I will update the scenario and resubmit it.

If you want to have a peek at the "Lose" video, just use a cheat code.

Yes - if I ever get time to replay (now off on hol) shall connect one town south and the other north. Then double line. Then build another station south - double lined to most important producing centres and - maybe another north. But still hate the thought of all that micro-managing.

Oh this map drove me

I thought I had it sussed.
Connect up all the source material you'll need. Then build a station just outside of the canel zone (while you can't get in) and build all the industries you need there.
Once the canel opens, ship everything in. Simple?
Well no, as the two canel stations (later four) lost interest in those shipments and would only take them from further away.
Anyway, I got really, really, REALLY close to a silver... but didn't.. Maybe next time. (When I'll organise my track better to)

I tried 3 times and always got bronze, i think Gold is quite impossible, as soon as you must pay 1100 dollars/year for 10 years to guarantee your access to Colombia (that is fundamental in this scenario)...got to do some other tries, im not in micromanagement too, too much deliveries to do, that is too much trains...btw an interesting scenario

Well Fellas,

It appears that the rest of you are not having much more success for the Gold than me. After a few attemps, and I do mean """"attempts""", I have found problems with all of them. Eithere shortage of revenue, congested depot, and especially that fee for Columbian access. I believe that this is the most challenging scenario which I have tried to play. Great historical agenda, and the chronilogical up-to-dates on the progress of a player.

Really a magnificent concept of imagination in creativity.

I started this scenario, but gave up early. Indeed it seems to be a bit too heavy at micro-management to be enjoyable.

This is a great scenario to my liking with a good level of difficulty. It requires careful traffic management and route planning to deliver to the Canal zone the 150 loads of supplies needed each year for maximum points. The events and scenario layout are excellent also.

Strategy I was using can be seen in the save below, but basically it was a 6-car setup to ensure 2 trains could make the yearly delivery. I earned full bonus points in 4 of the years I was playing, but had a little problem with Machinery production. Steel was also a little tight, and Oil had a mind of its own to re-ship back to Venezuela. Next time I will build a dedicated Machinery production area away from the ports as they seem to drag Oil away from the Machine Shop demand. I had spaced service facilities on my main lines. In Boom times the sanding tower on the southern route was processing 42 trains per year for a couple of years. After the trains had serviced, I would stop those trains which had cargo whose bonus quota had been met for the year.

Basically, I was trying to hone my skills and put in a decent effort to get a high points haul in a short time. I earned enough points for a Platinum medal at the beginning of 1912. I then had to wait for a medal till the Canal had been constructed. At the beginning of December 1913 I got this message: I think this might be a bug? I looked in the editor, but couldn't see a reason why this should happen. Maybe it is a problem with my install? Here's a saved game from just before it happens, if anyone wants to try to figure out what is happening. The only extra I have is Blackhawk's new Quarry skin. Otherwise this is a plain 1.06.

Merged with the existing thread.

Hawk wrote:Merged with the existing thread.

Obviously I didn't look hard enough. Sorry.

I think you need Blackhawk's Quarry to open it. Here it is.

RulerofRails wrote: Obviously I didn't look hard enough. Sorry.

No Problem.

From what I can see it is an interesting way to code the event using a territory variable. I see an event at the top of the list setting Cuba's territory 1 variable to 5,000,000. But for some reason your Cuba's TV1 was something like 305,000,000. The only other event I saw that changed Cuba's TV1 was the event that increases it by 5 million every time you meet that goal and get another point. I may have missed an event where Cuba's TV1 gets changed, but what it seems like it is supposed to do is appear and give you a point when you your PNW is above 5mil. Then a following event raises that to 10mil, 15mil etc etc and you get a point each additional 5mil in PNW.

You may want to restart the scenario and check the editor and see if there is any value given for Cuba's TV1 after 1 year in. Or check some of your older saves and see if the value changes at some point. It should remain 5mil until your PNW is above that. After that I should be raising gradually. I don't think there was any other requirements on the event other than your PNW increasing.

I only took a brief look at it but it could be possible one of the other events writes something into Cuba's TV1 and that made this event act oddly.

Ok, the reason Cuba's T1 is 305,000,000 is that in the previous Boom times my maximum PNW was a little more than 305M. The event works correctly up to this exact point where as you will notice it is reset to zero. Hereafter, it starts at zero this time (originally it started at 5,000,000) and then gave me a second set of PNW points. By the time Platinum was awarded in October of 1914, that was an extra 40 points or so. Current PNW was a bit lower but if I play on I can potentially receive 62 erroneous points when the economy improves again. I seem to be hitting a max profit of around 30M on this map, while not realizing the full potential in some places because I had special industry for the hauling goals and wouldn't run trains on some routes to try to keep the map demands clean and pointed in the right directions. I achieved the 305M when I increased dividends to pay off my debts. I started to hatch a plan for next game that after expansion is mainly over more legitimate points could be obtained after a peak of around 300M PNW by then sacrificing that PNW and issuing stock. This should give an extra 15 to 20M (3 or 4 points per year). Then this happened.

Ok, enough of being a strategist. The save is from just before the exact point when Cuba's T1 is reset. You can check before and after. I also scanned the effects of all the events and didn't see any re-set for T1. I am guessing this is a side effect. Would you say an event would need to be triggered for this to occur, or could processing also cause it?

I'm guessing it might just be a glitch in the game that is causing this cause as I don't see any event that would reset it to 0. It was said that sometimes the game gets confused when large numbers come into play. Combine that with an event that checks weekly and has to use larger and larger numbers, it wouldn't surprise me if this was just a bug in the game.

Ok, I did the process of elimination on the events and I realize what is happening. When the Columbia access choice came up, I chose the 1.1M fee for ten years. The effect of this is that the T1 for Columbia is set to 1 for 10 years. For some reason when it is unwinding through the temporary offset event it is taking out the T1 for Cuba as well. I am assuming that all the T1s are being reset. Has anyone had a problem like this before?

To point out the obvious a fix would be to make a new event that simply sets Columbia's T1 to 0 in December 1913 if it is equal to 1 or maybe it doesn't even need another second condition just the date? (This is learn-as-I-go stuff for me.)

On my earlier plays, I had chosen the 10M lump sump. That's why I didn't get this problem. On the subject of the map, I was a little tempted to try to start a second company when the panic hit. It is out of character for me to mess with second companies, so I let it go. The stock market foolery isn't for me, I simply don't enjoy strategies that depend solely on mouse clicks in the various menus. This kills the game as it gets old really quickly, I don't see many of these types of players hang around for that long.

An industry start is a no-brainer when playing on Expert with a Meat Packing Plant being my go-to start. Timing the transition into some rails is a question of where and how much. Getting the timing right for maximum ROI is an excellent challenge of anyone's tycoon skills. Wolverine, I notice that you made the demand for Machinery 3,200 per year in the Canal zone warehouses as opposed to 200 per year for the other cargo types. Can you remember the experience you had that caused you to do this?

RulerofRails wrote:Wolverine, I notice that you made the demand for Machinery 3,200 per year in the Canal zone warehouses as opposed to 200 per year for the other cargo types. Can you remember the experience you had that caused you to do this?

Not specifically, but it may have been to get a liitle more turnover or demand for machinery in the Zone. Once you get demand starting at other places on a map, it takes exponentially more demand to attract a particular cargo to a particular place.