Italian Toymakers - Beta

[Wolverine@MSU]

How about these conditions for "Single Comany" event:

Test against all companies (Radio Button)

Force test against Companies is True
AND
# of Companies = 1


The only way this wouldn't work is if the Z and ISR were taken over by creditors, which is unlikely given the constant (monthly) setting of Company Cash to these two companies by event.

Event Debugger screen can be very helpful except that it has limited display range. With lots of events and modifiers. you won't be able to see them all.

[OilCan]

I thought about that...but the problem is that there is a fair chance that a player may not take over the Z company, then the company = 1 does not work.

If I get some time, I'm going to create a small dummy map and test some possible events to detect when ISR is taken over.

BTW, my wife has become stuck on the idea of driving the shoreline of Michigan's mitten as a vacation. I'm guessing that you are a Michigonian and know your state fairly well. Would you give a shoreline drive a thumbs up or thumbs down?

[Wolverine@MSU]

I thought about that...but the problem is that there is a fair chance that a player may not take over the Z company, then the company = 1 does not work.

I forgot that one doesn't have to take over Z to get Gold. In that case you can just use the following:

Test against "AI Companies only"
Force Test Against Companies is TRUE
Company ID=2
There is a company with ID is FALSE


Since Company numbers never change, when ISR gets taken over (or liquidated) there is no longer a Company with ID = 2.

BTW, my wife has become stuck on the idea of driving the shoreline of Michigan's mitten as a vacation. I'm guessing that you are a Michigonian and know your state fairly well. Would you give a shoreline drive a thumbs up or thumbs down?

A definate thumbs up. If you could do it during the Fall, with the color-change, it would be spectacular. Depending on how much "sightseeing" you do along the way, it could take from 3 days to a week or more. There are lots of lighthouses alng the way, and the west shore is really nice with bluffs and sand dunes along a large portion of it.

[OilCan]

Wolverine:
Again, thanks for the info. I made a small trial map yesterday during my lunch break and tested the events. I think I have it figured out now. I'll try to get all the changes made to the game early Sat morning, before the boss, I mean my wife, gives me a hammer and sends me to work in the bedroom. I made her happy by telling her that next fall we would drive the Michigan shoreline.

[Sugus]

First of all: Italian Toy Makers is a really great scerario.

But of course, I'm too stupid to get any medal ... if there wont be this hard condition concerning the "5 times missed to haul 4 loads of toys to Venice". (Would you - please - change it to 7? 9? 12? - I don't know where the optimum limit should be.) I my first try (on normal) it seems to develop fine until - around 1954 - the required switch from lumber to plastic takes place. At this moment - BTW: a really great "Italian" idea concerning the "too many money" - I was successful to connect both Marsula and Agrigento to Bari (related to oil), but I had no chance to haul enough plastic from Bari to Milan to avoid additional penalties; had (only) two till this point. But now: 3 - 4 - 5 in sequence and obviously "good bye, Sugus"

Detail: Even though I connected both Marsula and Agrigento to Bari immediately, I'd been informed, that I didn't!?! So I layed an addittional track parallel to ISR's one, as shown in

and the order to complete these connections disappeared. Are there events unfortunately restricted to the players company?

At this moment I don't know, how successful I would do it concerning the takeovers ... but I'm too far from that with the current version. So, I'm waiting for a "Sugus enabled" one ...

[OilCan]

Sugus:
Maybe I've made the game too hard...it is fine line between hard and too hard and it is possible that I crossed it.

I know you are skilled player so I hope my hints will not offend you -- you probably did these.
Set up special stations for the toy making factories in Milan and deliver lumber/plastic to these stations only.
Look for other lumber sources on the map to haul lumber from
Get off the ISR line as quickly as you can by building your own track - look for places where you can create shortcuts in the ISR line, then keep expanding from there with your own line.
You may have to stop some toy trains from delivering if you make the quota one year and hold these trains until the next year.
Be ready for the wood/plastic switch and get some trains moving south before it happens.

That's enough for now.
I'll check on that Bari connection thing.

[Sugus]

THX OilCan

Some fine hints, which I'll apply when I'm going to play this scenario again.

[Wolverine@MSU]

You may have to stop some toy trains from delivering if you make the quota one year and hold these trains until the next year.

Yes, this is almost a necessity. Although it means some micromanaging it is the best way, at least early on in the game, to make sure you meet the quotas. I had trains wait in Milan until they had 5 loads (or at least until the fourth car was 100% full) and if the 4 toys had already been delivered to Venice, I stopped this new train just outside of Venice until the start of the next year. Also, don't let the toy deliveries to Rome wait too long or you'll never make the quota needed for the Gold.

[low_grade]

Got about 8 years into my first try and aborted... Yup, gotta micromanage those early toy deliveries. Made the first half of the scenario really slow as there were 8-10 locos I was keeping an eye on. Right at the start I noticed the Serbian company was really cheap, and that I was full owner of mine, so I sold 15k shares and bought into a majority in the other. I went electric from the start on my own lines, not the lumber/toy routes, though I electrified and doubled a bit of ISF's track, too. Then I started building parallel lines, though reading above I see that there was no chance of stealing enough of ISF's business to drop the share price for a cheap merger down the road (it ended up being $20M.) After about 1963 I completely stopped micromanaging, and it worked out. I only missed toys to Venice once and made most of the other targets, and then in the last few years when I was trying to push toys to Rome I deliberately missed another shipment to Venice, but at that point I could have missed all the rest and been okay.

I probably should have passed on the Corsica business as it came back to bite me and I really didn't need it... I already owned a 1/3 share of ISF. I bought into Africa and hauled oil out, but there should have been a port so oil could just flow over to Sicily, or at least for the price gradient over water. As it was oil remained at $0 in Africa the whole game and so the three wells there didn't produce much. I bulldozed a T&D next to Bari and regretted it as plastic prices dropped to about even with the price of oil and so production dropped, and one factory disappeared. Actually, the Aluminum Mill in Corsica disappeared! I had to go into the Editor and add one.

Overall a very creative, well thought out, and well polished scenario! A further challenge, if the scenario isn't hard enough for you, go for 100% ownership of your company, too! Otherwise stock issuing can make the scenario a bit too easy, as usual.

[Gumboots]

As I'm going through the archives, re-coding the pages, I'm noticing various scenarios I'd like to try sometime. This one looks like fun.