(a Eng) Balkanika

[RulerofRails]

I like this idea. I think it's good to have a target that isn't fixed, no "I did enough approach", but rather strategy, if you do better you gain more, worse you lose more.

Good point that the smaller cities have less potential and are in trickier terrain. Maybe you could tie the size of the reward/penalty to the number of cities connected?

[Gumboots]

I've just been giving it a bit of a trial run. When you buy access to Romania, the express target kicks off at the end of that year. This gives you get a whole year to meet the target the first time around. At year end it counts the number of connected cities, multiplies that by 8 to set the lower limit, then saves that as a variable. That's the number of loads you need to avoid the fine, and you have to haul them at 25 mph or faster. Next step (same event) multiplies the number of connected cities by 10 and sets that as another variable. If you beat that number you get a bonus, as long as you haul them at 30 mph or faster.

The fine and the bonus are the same amount: $50k per connected city. This starts adding up rapidly. Even with only four cities connected there is a $400k difference at year end between getting fined and getting a bonus. By the time you have ten cities connected the difference is $1 million. There's a fairly wide range in the middle where you don't get a fine or a bonus, but it's fun to chase the bonus if you like optimising express. If you don't like optimising express it's still fairly easy to stay above the lower limit for speed and loads so you can avoid the fine.

You could just buy and build a lot of Romanian industry until you get established. Since the express target is calculated from cities connected, if you don't connect any you won't be penalised. So if you wanted to do industry-heavy Romania for a few years, that's still feasible. You could also place stations in the countryside to avoid city connections. That would circumvent the express target too. However, as soon as you connect any cities anywhere on the map you will be up against the express target if you already have access to Romania.

If you go the other way and start in Greece, then go to Bulgaria, you should have an established network by the time you buy into Romania. Bulgaria is quite lucrative on this map, and going from Greece to Bulgaria first gives half price access to all subsequent territories, which is a handy thing to have. The catch is that as soon as you go into Romania that will trigger the express target, and the entirety of your established network will be used to calculate the loads required. So if you're going that way you'd want to make sure you had things worked out for a decent express service before you opened Romania up. Otherwise you may get clobbered.

The best way to keep ahead of the bonus is to do your new connections early in the year. That way the required express loads are calculated on the previous year's number of connected cities, giving you an easier target to beat and more cities to beat it with. The catch is, naturally, that those same new connections will be used to calculate loads for the following year.

It all adds up to quite a bit of fun. It's early beta yet, but the idea has promise.

Edit: Obviously the same idea could be used for haulage of multiple freights too. Since I'm tallying mail+pax+troops for express, you could easily do a "mining industry development" scenario where you had to haul a total number of loads of iron+coal+ore, for example, with the split between them left to your own discretion.

[Gumboots]

Ok, I played it right through to a medal. It seems to work. The bonuses are consistently achievable once you get going. Pax traffic takes a while to wind up, so a Romania start becomes trickier with the added express events. You're likely to be hit with some fines if you go straight into rail in Romania. It's still playable, but becomes more of a challenge. The express bonus events definitely make the game a rewarding exercise in express optimisation, if you want to get into it.

I just realised my 1.06 is still using Lirio's loco stats. Having checked, I can see it would still be playable with default stats. The main difference is that the Atlantic is very useful on flat ground with Lirio's stats, while with default stats the same position would probably be taken by the Class 500. I must say that, at least in this scenario, Lirio's stats do a better job of making the express roster interesting. The S3, Class 500 and Atlantic all have separate strengths and viable uses. The one level boost to reliability for the Class 500 and Atlantic makes a big difference too.

I have noticed a few things that could be improved. The map has the Auto Plant enabled, but the only source of rubber is ports, and they are set to produce Rubber in exchange for Goods. Since that conversion is never profitable the ports rarely make any Rubber, so the Auto Plant and Tire Factory are effectively wasted slots.

OTOH there is Oil and Steel available, but the Machinery Shop isn't enabled. This is a map where running one or two would be viable and would add some interest. I get the impression that this map had the economy designed under 1.05 and was then altered to 1.06. None of the 1.06 industries appear to be enabled, and some probably should be. Some 1.05 industries could be removed too.

Lifetime industry profits of $200 million are easy on this map, without going anywhere near the existing 35 year time limit. I think it could be cut back to the standard 25 years. The only thing that might give it a 35 year timeframe is if you included WW1 in the scenario. Obviously that would totally change (read: trash) the economy for a while.

Anyway the map itself is fun in terms of scenery and train rides, so I think it's worth persevering with.

[RulerofRails]

I hope you didn't base too much on my comment about going into Romania at the start. Doing so is very aggressive. Such thing as a rail start in Romania is possible with some specific seeds (the one I was looking at had a good Milk->Dairy Processor supply run) to give a competitive completion time, but with a lot of others it's an idea to give yourself a hard time.

The thing I didn't forsee until I tried it was that your CBV goes too low to issue bonds in the second year, even after a profitable first year. I am issuing stock at the start of the game (after I sold off my stock) to give a starting CBV value of $396k. If I sacrifice some PNW (issue after buying as much stock as possible, sell off personal stock afterwards) I end up with CBV value of $468k. Still very low. The idea with selling off the stock is that after purchasing Romanian rights and taking the game off pause for a tad is that you can pick up majority of ownership in your company for a song. However, the CBV is just too low for the credit rating calculations.

Unless you have a very strong, short run lined up (favorable seed), this option will end up slow. I actually don't believe it was the "easy option" to begin with. The difference of even 500k in purchase price for access rights and therefore CBV make Jugoslavia and Bulgaria better targets for rail starts. Some seeds have Steel production in Jugoslavia which together with Lumber and Milk in the Nis-Pristina-Pec area can give a solid first year (not good for all seeds though).

[Gumboots]

I hope you didn't base too much on my comment about going into Romania at the start.

Not just yours. I read some other comments about it earlier in the thread, and I've tried it myself. As you say, it works for some seeds. If Romania is looking good and Greece is looking like crap, starting in Romania could be a sensible option. Although I'd probably go for an industry start when doing Romania.

Anyway, that gave me the idea for the express bonus events, which I'm finding I like quite a lot.

[low_grade]

Well I've been playing a few scenarios lately, and this was one of them. Gold on Expert in early 1913 first try, without paying very close attention. Even in Depression the geography maintains price gradients that keep the cash pouring in from freight. I guess I tried the rather obvious start, though I didn't cheese it 100%. Refinery in Larissa and buy the wells. Lumber Mill in 1896 in Larissa for the logs coming down. Issuing stocks and bonds to the max. Steel Mill up the hill from Kalampala in the middle of 2 coal mines and 3 iron mines in 1897. Buy the logging camps and mines. T&D in Larissa in 1898, and start my rail, running from Larissa to Kalampala and up the hill to the Steel Mill and the logging camps. That's where I missed the biggest cheese, instead I could have bought into Yugoslavia or Bulgaria and started rail where it would be much easier. But, I like to roleplay a little bit, and I think it was intended for the line to be started in Greece. Just not Athens, lord no.

Before venturing out of Greece by rail, I did buy into Yugoslavia and invested heavily in industry for some years, then finally started working my way up to Belgrade, connecting along the way. By this time Goods and Diesel were so cheap in Larissa that I was getting $90k per load. I used P8's as cheap reliable mountain chuggers, then Class 500s for speed in the flats. Found a way through Nis to Sophia and from there colonized the rest of the map, you know how it goes. Oh, and Orcas... I still used them, though.

So, as is, easy map. But, it was pretty enjoyable. The dramatic terrain and price isolation was neat to take advantage of all over the map. And throughout the early years, I didn't use tunnels or unnecessary bridges to smooth routes, and I could always find a way to expand without going over a 4 grade for more than a segment or two. But I've never had to analyze a town so carefully when considering where to lay track, how to approach, where I'm going next, it was an interesting challenge in its own way.

Some thoughts if you're tweaking it, Gumboots, because I do think it's a pretty interesting map. Don't allow buying into other countries until your company has rail, to force a Greece start. I wouldn't use speed goals here, as it would further discourage exploration of the mountains, which is kind of the best thing about this scenario. Also, maybe add a medal goal tied to loads hauled in Greece? Or would that be too cruel? I like the PNW goal as %CBV. It felt cheap and easy to issue stocks for $8M to win the game... Granted I was bringing in over $20M/year so that was only a few months sooner, but it adds up over the course of a game if you can issue stocks with impunity.

[Gumboots]

Found a way through Nis to Sophia...

This was the route taken by the original Orient Express, when it first connected to Istanbul in 1899.

[Jeremy Mac Donald]

Found the map fun but not to tough if you follow the designer's advice start in Lamia where the oil is.

[Gumboots]

The oil doesn't always seed there, and when it doesn't you need to find another approach.

I agree it's not particularly difficult though. There's always some way to win.

[sbaros]

Perhaps some fellow members would like to participate in the further development of my base map here? https://rrtycoon.blogspot.com/2020/11/t ... n-map.html
Problem with the download solved: The correct, updated South Balkan map is there .