Age Of Steam V-Pheonix Rising For Your Review

[wsherrick]

I just sent the last scenario in the Age Of Steam Series to Hawk for posting. I'm sure he will get to it as soon as he can. I hope everyone enjoys this one as much as the others and I egarly await your comments.
First of all a HUGE thank you for Wolverine for his invaluable testing and input. He is as much a part of the Age Of Steam series as I am. Wolverine.

[Gandar]

I really enjoyed this scenario. I did enjoy the rail and speed restrictions it made for an interesting change. I bow my head to you Mr Sherrick I was only able to manage a silver but let me tell you I am just itching to get back in there ,I have a couple of things to try and I am going for gold. Now a couple of little things,In the briefing It says 75/150/225M for medals but the status says 50/75/125M This was the cruncher for me I ended up a little shy on the company profits one more year and I would have had the gold. The only other problem I had was buying rail I kept placing a section of rail in the steel rolling mill but sometimes it would take a year for me to be able to purchase another 2 mill. At times I was building with the 5 rail sections that were given to be able to purchase rail, is there some little secret to it ?
All in all I had a great time thanks for a fine scenario .

[WPandP]

I played this scenario through yesterday, and didn't even get the bronze - I had a bad start, I guess. Anyways, I only missed the bronze by a small amount; I was $32k short of the $5 million haulage to one of my four territories. That was frustrating, but I knew I would be cutting it close, as I didn't even start serving that remote location until late in the game.

But here's what I need to report: I didn't lose the game! Year 37 came and went, then year 38, etc. I didn't check it in the editor, but it seems as if there is no "Lose" event, or if so, then it isn't set up properly.

Another thing I have to report is that the name "Phoenix" is misspelled, with the "o" and "e" swapped consistently. This shows up in several events, not just the game name, so it'll be tricky to catch it all, unfortunately.

I really enjoyed reading all the headlines, about how gas goes up to $500 a barrel, and how New Yorkers are cutting down trees in Central Park, a lot of fun stuff there! Now I just need to go back and try this thing again, and play a bit better than my shameful first outing.

One other suggestion I would make: add an event that, every month, adds a single track section to your pool. This would not be enough to circumvent the Rolling Mill (which is a cool feature), but would ensure that if you ever did accidentally spend all your allotment, you wouldn't be screwed for the rest of the game; you'd always have a section coming, so that you can buy from the Mill. And, the first time I used the Mill, I was shocked, because I just wanted to trigger the event to see what my choices were. To my surprise, none of the choices were to "do nothing", so I was forced to buy track that I really didn't need at the time. I would suggest taking out the 300-section purchase option and replacing that with a "No thanks, not at this time" button, in case players change their mind after triggering the event.

But this is really a terrific scenario, with a very genuine feel to it! I really hope that something like this happens in the near future, where a forward-thinking short line shows us all how to do it with steam.

[wsherrick]

I really enjoyed this scenario. I did enjoy the rail and speed restrictions it made for an interesting change. I bow my head to you Mr Sherrick I was only able to manage a silver but let me tell you I am just itching to get back in there ,I have a couple of things to try and I am going for gold. Now a couple of little things,In the briefing It says 75/150/225M for medals but the status says 50/75/125M This was the cruncher for me I ended up a little shy on the company profits one more year and I would have had the gold. The only other problem I had was buying rail I kept placing a section of rail in the steel rolling mill but sometimes it would take a year for me to be able to purchase another 2 mill. At times I was building with the 5 rail sections that were given to be able to purchase rail, is there some little secret to it ?
All in all I had a great time thanks for a fine scenario .

Oops! The 125/75/50 Million were the original goals, but I changed them to 225M/150/75. The first was way to easy for good players. No the Rolling Mill should give you a choice of rail amounts when you click out of the track building mode. This worked flawlessly in testing. If you choose AI players the Gold Medal goal changes. To get gold you have to have a greater lifetime profit than the AI competitors. You can have up to five competitors. These AI companies are pretty tough to beat.
If you play again your connection goals might well be different. There are five different sets of connection territories. I thought this would enhance replay value. I'm so glad you enjoyed it.

[wsherrick]

I played this scenario through yesterday, and didn't even get the bronze - I had a bad start, I guess. Anyways, I only missed the bronze by a small amount; I was $32k short of the $5 million haulage to one of my four territories. That was frustrating, but I knew I would be cutting it close, as I didn't even start serving that remote location until late in the game.

But here's what I need to report: I didn't lose the game! Year 37 came and went, then year 38, etc. I didn't check it in the editor, but it seems as if there is no "Lose" event, or if so, then it isn't set up properly.

Another thing I have to report is that the name "Phoenix" is misspelled, with the "o" and "e" swapped consistently. This shows up in several events, not just the game name, so it'll be tricky to catch it all, unfortunately.

I really enjoyed reading all the headlines, about how gas goes up to $500 a barrel, and how New Yorkers are cutting down trees in Central Park, a lot of fun stuff there! Now I just need to go back and try this thing again, and play a bit better than my shameful first outing.

One other suggestion I would make: add an event that, every month, adds a single track section to your pool. This would not be enough to circumvent the Rolling Mill (which is a cool feature), but would ensure that if you ever did accidentally spend all your allotment, you wouldn't be screwed for the rest of the game; you'd always have a section coming, so that you can buy from the Mill. And, the first time I used the Mill, I was shocked, because I just wanted to trigger the event to see what my choices were. To my surprise, none of the choices were to "do nothing", so I was forced to buy track that I really didn't need at the time. I would suggest taking out the 300-section purchase option and replacing that with a "No thanks, not at this time" button, in case players change their mind after triggering the event.

But this is really a terrific scenario, with a very genuine feel to it! I really hope that something like this happens in the near future, where a forward-thinking short line shows us all how to do it with steam.

Thanks so much for your comments. There is an event that kicks in if you accidentally use up all your rail. You get 5 sections extra to use at the Rolling Mill. I put in the instructions that you had to have at least 500 thousand to buy rail, but perhaps that isn't clear enough. I will check my lose events to see if I forgot to put in each category of checks in some of the triggers. Each trigger Bronze, Silver, Gold and Lose had to be put in there five times each as there are five different possibilities for connection goals. I'm really glad you liked the newspaper headlines. These might come true a lot sooner in real life than they happen in the scenario.
I will check everything and fix the spelling error and the lose events and send a revised version. I always seem to have to do that. It's a good thing that I have you all here to point out these mistakes.

[WPandP]

It sounds like you have it covered, with the "oops - here's 5 more" event, which I never had the occasion to trigger. However, I think an "opt-out" option as one of the choices at the Rolling Mill would still be a good idea.

As for the Lose Condition, since you have a hard 37-year deadline, all you have to do is one single event that fires if the Game Year is greater than 37. It will only fire if none of the other Win conditions have fired first; I believe that once you have won a scenario, you cannot lose it thereafter. In other words, I think it stops checking for game win/loss once that status is set, so the Lose event can just be the catch-all default if the player doesn't meet any of the various win conditions.

And, you should know that I point out these "mistakes" because the rest of the product is so OUTSTANDING and WELL CRAFTED, it seems a shame to permit such slight imperfections to endure. I wouldn't be reporting them, if I didn't care about the product. Your entire Age of Steam saga adds so much depth to the game, it's just invigorating.

Now, if only I could figure out how to win...

[proudcanadian]

Just finished this one, and Wsherrick, my hat is off to you. This was a great scenario overall, even though I only got the bronze. Come to think of it, this is the first Age of Steam Scenario in which I won any medal on the first try! Once again, great job, and thanks for these five great scenarios.

[Gandar]

Well I took the bait wsherrick and now I am playing against 5 AI and you weren't kidding when you said they were tough. I have restarted 3 times and the taxes are killing me, This last try I only built rail and stations no hotels or industry and I just got hit by 1.5mill taxes this is on misc income of 259k . I was able to ride out the previous 1mill hit but in the middle of a recession !!
My total profit to date is now down so low that next year I will hit negative numbers . Time to pull the plug and give this a little more thought before I try again.
You really did a fine job on this scenario

The problem I had with the rail was my own fault I didn't read the instructions properly, I had been staying in the rail mode and it must have been timing out or something, now I have put on the right glasses it seems to be working fine

[wsherrick]

Thanks again all for all the kind words.
Now you can win this game, but you have to use all of your skills. You are only taxed on your industry profits, not overall profits,yet at the same time you have to buy industry to have a good cash flow. You have to balance out your industry revenue with a strong railroad revenue.
It is also crucial to haul the rock, logs and iron to get your track improvements. You gotta do it, better track means better speed and lower operating costs. As a shortline you just can't throw money at the track, you just don't have it.

[Gandar]

On my last try I didn't build any industry at all and I was hit with taxes of 1mill and then 1.5mill and this happened half way through my change over to steam, I was making money but the taxes were putting me in the red.
So back to the mix of rail and industry, but how to minimise the tax hit thats the puzzle, well I shall have to give it another try.

[wsherrick]

Maybe if I send in a revision I should ease up on the taxes a little. BTW the AI's have to pay the same taxes the human player does. If everyone thinks it's too much let me know and I will make it easier.

[Gandar]

My problem is that like any member of the general public I am at a loss trying to figure out how the taxes are calculated. I have been playing on expert against 5 AI and it doesn't seem to matter which approach I take the taxes are just insane. When I mixed rail and Industry with industry income at 700k I was hit with 2.5Mill taxes then 2.5Mill then a free year then two years of 5.5 Mill I was able to keep going with my rail income compensating at the2.5Mill tax level but the 5.5Mill years killed me. So I tried building industry, enough to get a good bond rating and then selling off my industry which was a textile mill, so with no rail and no industry for two years I was being hit with i Mill a year taxes which went up to 1.5 Mill This is on NO income.
A little hint on how the taxes are imposed would be really helpful because right now I am completely bemused.

[belbincolne]

I'm more at a loss than anyone - I've given it 3 tries and at the end of year 1 the scenario crashes every time. Obviously not happened to anyone else so (after Whit or whatever this Bank Holiday is) I'll re download and see if it works then.

[Gandar]

I'm more at a loss than anyone - I've given it 3 tries and at the end of year 1 the scenario crashes every time. Obviously not happened to anyone else so (after Whit or whatever this Bank Holiday is) I'll re download and see if it works then.

This scenario requires the 1.06 patch, I read in another thread that a scenario that requires the 1.06 patch will crash when it saves if the patch is not installed.

[belbincolne]

I got the patch and re-downloaded and it still crashs

[Gandar]

Ok this is the answer that Hawk sent on the W & P scenario thread to someone who was having similar problems, they followed the instructions and it solved the save problem.

Installing the patch:

1. If you have Bombardiere's Loco Pack installed, uninstall it now.
2. If you have the Unofficial 1.05A patch installed, uninstall it now.
3. Run setup06.exe.
4. Read the license agreement and decide if it works for you.
5. When it asks for a location into which to install, supply the directory in which Railroad
Tycoon 3 is installed. (European users will have to type the full directory in manually for
now.) The installer will back up your RT3.exe before modifying it, and will copy
documentation into a Patches subdirectory.
6. Choose your patches. Clicking on the [+] boxes will expand selections in case you'd
prefer to install, say, just the European engines. By default the installer copies all new
engines, applies all patches to the executable and to existing engines, and adds
documentation links to the menu.
7. Click 'Install' once you are comfortable with your choices.
8. After installation finishes, click 'Close' to exit the installer.

I hope you can get it to play, its a different approach and its interesting, and when you do get it to work,come back here and give me some tips, 'cos I'm struggling.

[Hawk]

A revised version of Age of Steam-V Phoenix Rising has been uploaded to the archive May 2, 2008.

[wsherrick]

The revised version has an adjusted tax event. You are allowed more money in the bank before the taxes kick in. Also I added an escape choice in the track buying set up. So, let me know if this works better for everyone.

[Hawk]

It looks like you finally got logged in William. Glad to see it.

[Gandar]

Thank you so much for the revision, the game is still beating me up but at least it makes sense now. I did manage a silver against the AI but I was concentrating almost solely on rails so even though I ended up with net profits of 464 Mill I was 400 Mill behind the winning AI. So much for my cunning strategy of building rail and coming from behind, those sneaky AI players bought up all the industry and then bought steam locos too. Perhaps a combination of rail, Industry, and prayer yes thats the way to do it, I would try bribery but there doesn't seem to be an option for it.