Alaska - 1955

[OilCan]

Here's a shot of my track, for whatever it's worth.

I'm always interested to see the pattern of how other players build track. For example, you did not connect to Kodiak Island and this interests me.

Are 80 cities for Gold too many cities? - It's definitely doable, but near the end it was a bit of a routine to achieve and a lot of trains weren't very profitable. I had time to connect more, but maybe you could throw a couple more 'Got'chas' in there to make it a little harder.

That's a good idea. Shamough has offered several ways to add Got'chas.

Is there something missing that could be added? - I mentioned in a previous post about making a territory for the Arctic Circle. I did find this scenario not quite as involved as some of your others.

I'll make the arctic circle visible. I'll probably be adding in other visible territories for discontinuous permafrost (surface melts and refreezes seasonally). I too have it in my plans to visit Alaska someday.

One final thought: There should be more snow.

Yes. After copying the google earth image I realized that the snow is missing except on the high peaks. But where to add it? It'd be nice if RT3 had a option to turn off the night-day cycle and use a 4 season cycle.

[Hawk]

For example, you did not connect to Kodiak Island and this interests me.

The cost of building the suspension bridge is what deterred me from connecting to Kodiak Island. I didn't think I could recoup the cost just from hauling meat.
I did build the suspension bridge in my saved Gold map and connected to the Kodiak docks and it cost me about $5,200K.

Bridge.jpg (36.34 KiB) Viewed 4828 times

Yes. After copying the google earth image I realized that the snow is missing except on the high peaks. But where to add it? It'd be nice if RT3 had a option to turn off the night-day cycle and use a 4 season cycle.

I don't think the snow ever melts above the Arctic Circle line, does it? Even if it does, as far as RRT goes, that would be a good place for it.
Yes, it would be nice to have actual seasons, but alas - we don't.

[OilCan]

Thoughts & Suggestions:

Blizzards force trains to run at 10% speed and last for a few days each winter.

All engines should have 10-20% surcharge added to their purchase price to WINTERIZE them.

Track maintainence should go way up in the winter and spring.

More good ideas. You will see new permafrost areas appear on the map which will require much higher maintenance fees and track building costs. I can easily add blizzard events. I initially wondered about increasing the price of engines, just because they have to be shipped in - but the winterizing adds another reason to increase their cost.

Once oil is discovered on the North Slope toss in 2-4 warehouses in Seward and Anchorage and another 2-4 in Fairbanks to supply LOTS of machinery for the oil fields. Add a new port in Seward and Anchorage to supply additional machinery.
Toss in about 10 warehouses with demands for machinery in and around Deadhorse (Prudhoe Bay).

This is the only game map that I have made in which I have made use of every available warehouse/port recipe. There are none left. I could delete one of the greenhouse recipes and use that as a DEMAND for machinery and then increase production of machinery at the ports by, say, 300%.

In my opinion trying to connect every iglo in Alaska is a waste. Most of these small towns live off of 3 to 5 truck loads of goods from Fairbanks yearls ... that's only about one boxcar of goods.... It is litterly easier and a lot cheaper to grade a small landing strip and fly in most goods.

You are probably right. But for this game, this is where reality and fiction blurr together. The towns have to have a demand for more than 2 box cars per year to support the central theme of the game: spreading a rail network across Alaska.

Barrow is a Northern Airport hub and needs a constant supply of AVGAS and JET FUEL.

Each house has a demand for diesel; there is no way for me to increase that. And I can't add a warehouse that demands diesel since all the warehouse recipes are in use.

Many thanks for the helpful comments. The revised version of the map will probably not contain all of your great comments, but many of them will appear.

I'm thinking that I might need to run it by as a BETA a second time after all the changes are made.

[Hawk]

I just edited my previous post while you were posting.

[Shamough]

Produce and Sugar warehouses are pointless. They would demand power 24/7/365, it would be a lot less expensive to ship in fresh produce and sugar from the lower 48 and the rest of the world.

This would give you a high demand source and demand wharehouses to support the North Slope oil boom.

[OilCan]

I don't think the snow ever melts above the Arctic Circle line, does it? Even if it does, as far as RRT goes, that would be a good place for it.

I'll paint in snow on the higher peaks of the mountains as well as some within the arctic circle. I looked at web pics from within the Alaska arctic circle and lots of them show little to no snow - except on the high peaks.

[Shamough]

Suggestion:

Increase population when a RR is connected to village in a territory. There are 25 territories available. Divide Alaska into twenty geagraphic areas with 2-4 towns each. Whem a RR is connected to a town in a territory ALL of its towns get a boost for the next 5-10 years with additional houses, hospitals, and everything else that creates supply and demand within a community. (When people can easily move about and their perceived needs are met, they are more apt to move into a new territory from the lower 48.) (You will always have the people who like to live OFF-THE-GRID ... however they DO like having the ability to get to towns when necessary.)

(The Alaskan RR is the only operating RR today, (that I know of), where a person standing besides the tracks creates a depot. And YES the train will stop even if the person is armed!)

• Church (Yr 2-3)
  Cinima (Yr 4-5)
  Commercial Building (Yr 4-6)
  Department Store (Yr 2-4)
  Hospital (Yr 1 ... clinic)
  House (2-3 per Yr for the first 10 Yrs)
  Retail (Yr 2 & Yr 8)
  School House (Yr 1-2)
  Warehouse (Consumer goods except Alcohol which is banned in all native communities.)

Adding these into the game gives it a viable and valid reason to connect all of the villages.

Hans

[Shamough]

Thoughts & Suggestions:

Blizzards force trains to run at 10% speed and last for a few days each winter.

All engines should have 10-20% surcharge added to their purchase price to WINTERIZE them.

Track maintainence should go way up in the winter and spring.

More good ideas. You will see new permafrost areas appear on the map which will require much higher maintenance fees and track building costs.

Make the PERMAFROST areas SWAMP so track is layed using causways or bridges. Maintainance is minimially increased during the winter.

I can easily add blizzard events. I initially wondered about increasing the price of engines, just because they have to be shipped in - but the winterizing adds another reason to increase their cost.

This is the only game map that I have made in which I have made use of every available warehouse/port recipe. There are none left. I could delete one of the greenhouse recipes and use that as a DEMAND for machinery and then increase production of machinery at the ports by, say, 300%.

Use the Sugar and Produce Warehouses.

300% is way too low. 3000% is closer. It would actually pay to run double tracks from Fairbanks to Deadhorse once you have a viable low grade route set up. And from Fairbanks to Anchorage. 99% of the traffic TO Daedhorse would be Machinery and less than 1% of the return traffic would be anything other than empty cars and possibly oil. (Oil until the pipe line is complete.)

Thousands of truck loads of machinery goes North to Deadhorse each winter, when the Ice Road is vialbe, and 99.9% of those trucks DEAD-HEAD coming back to Fairbanks.

[RulerofRails]

I intend to give this a go with steam power. With electric power the oil route was profitable (with the bonus) while deadheading the return journey. (Do you guys have some links why electric power wouldn't work in Alaska, while it does in Siberia and Scandinavia? Maybe in the Conference Table section to avoid going off topic. Thanks!) I suspect Steam will be unprofitable. I realize you probably tested this, so I am doing it for my own "research" and fun with different strategies available.

Machinery to the oil fields seems a good idea to me. A thought I had: currently most of the industries only demand 0.1 Machinery per year. It may be necessary to have a smaller DEMAND as well as the supply in Valdez and Anchorage to keep the Machinery from migrating heavily over water. This would give a stack to draw from, but would cut into potential profits. The other option is to leave it up to strategy for the player as the Cannery has a demand for Machinery which should make a stack. I love the Greenhouses, but if one has to go, my choice would be the Sugar one. Reason: some types of fruit such as Strawberries, Grapes and vegetables such as Tomatoes, Peppers, Lettuce, and Cucumbers can be grown in a compact space and are regularly grown in greenhouses. I never heard of Sugar being produced in a greenhouse as I believe that requires much more space, but maybe that is done too? After a quick Google search, I found that there is a year-round geothermally heated greenhouse at Chena Hot Springs Resort. A study into applying this principle with normal fuel heating.

The Canada label is misspelled and I forgot to mention it. Also, I have been thinking about connecting to the smaller towns with no industry or resources. Overall, I am glad to learn some geography even if this skews realism a bit. RT3 has been responsible for lots of the geography I know. In case you are interested here's my original instincts with routing. The AI is to blame for the mess near Fairbanks. (I made new low-grade routes but left the original track, I just bulldozed one section so trains wouldn't run on it.)

Alaskan Electric Routes.jpg (10.19 KiB) Viewed 4734 times

[Shamough]

Well I've tried EXPERT 3 times so far ... profits go to hell in a hand basket at about 1969, (Economy slips a point). Just when I need to buy 30 engines and double track from Deadhorse to Valdez to transport oil.

I connected by 1969 Deadhorse and the other three Northern towns down to Anchorage/Seward/Valdeez. and then watched my expenses reduce my income to less than nil.

When oil was discovered I grabbed all available engines and started oil runs ... was able to buy 2 and rerouted 3.

I had 5 trains moving oil from three large stations in the oil field by visiting them sequentually and then head to Valdez. Trains picked up goods in Valdez, Anchorage and Fairbanks when heading back North. Near DEADHEAD from Deadhorse to the first oil station.

Oil demand is way too low in Valdez and even with the $400,000 for 8 cars I'm loosing tons of $$$.

By 1977 I'm ~$4,500,000 in debt

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When the pipeline is complete BP should stop paying the bonus for cars of oil.

My investors have started using my stock as toilet paper. I seem to have picked up a huge bullseye target on my back ... and my Alaskan investors all carry rifles with high power scopes. ... I heard some of them saying that they were going to shoot the feathers off me after I was tarred and feathered. Another groop of investors wanted to draw and qwuarter me. Finally the state of Alaska passed a resolution: I was banned from the state and headed back to the lower 48 where I opened a parking lot in the middle of Death Valley.

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I noticed that my OIL trains (set to HIGH priority) kept stopping for some of the rest of the trains which were all set to NORMAL priority.

IRL you'd expect to make 2-3 trips a month even in the winter. ... I get less than one, one way, trip a year in RT3. Each car load of oil needs to represent 10-15 car loads of oil and the value to transport said oil should reflect that. IRL you'd probably run 2 BIGBOYS pulling 80 to 100 cars of oil.


Hans

[Hawk]

I experienced a similar situation. Hauling all that oil turned out to cost more money than it was worth.
That's why on my second play of this map I ignored the oil offer.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had 11 trains hauling oil, and most of them were losing money. The couple that did make a profit made a very small profit. Not enough to compensate for the loses of the others.

[OilCan]

Suggestion: Increase population when a RR is connected to village in a territory.

This would be way, way more event writing than I want to get into. I believe that RT3's default way of growing cities is suitably appropriate for this particular game. Your suggestion of tailor growing a city would fit very well into a TrainMaster game.

[OilCan]

Make the PERMAFROST areas SWAMP so track is layed using causways or bridges. Maintainance is minimially increased during the winter.
Use the Sugar and Produce Warehouses.
300% is way too low. 3000% is closer.,,,Thousands of truck loads of machinery goes North to Deadhorse each winter, when the Ice Road is vialbe, and 99.9% of those trucks DEAD-HEAD coming back to Fairbanks.

Permafrost is not swamp. It can be swampy when the active layer melts, but most areas are not. North of the Arctic Circle the permafrost is permanently frozen hard as a rock. South of the Arctic circle it is hard as rock in the winter only becoming soft in the short summer. Near the southern coast it is too warm for permafrost and this is where one, indeed, finds places of swamp.

The Russians have made some great advances in building train track on soft permafrost. I have incorporated some of that into the game.

I have kept the produce greenhouse. After researching Univ of Alaska material, greenhouses are a common and profitable means of growing veggies and such in Alaska. The produce greenhouse simulates this very well.

I have added a warehouse at Prudhoe Bay (Dead Horse did not appear until the 1970s and it still remains unincorporated today) that demands machinery plus other cargo. Again, this game's central theme is about building an expansive network of rail across Alaska, not about supporting the oil industry. If a player opts to ignore the oil deal, they will be able to achieve the medals without penalty.

[Hawk]

Adding demand for machinery at Deadhorse might make the oil offer more attractive.

[OilCan]

With electric power the oil route was profitable (with the bonus) while deadheading the return journey. (Do you guys have some links why electric power wouldn't work in Alaska, while it does in Siberia and Scandinavia?

I have become convinced that electric lines would work in Alaska. I looked at Russia and China electric rail systems and neither restricted electric from their icebox areas. Russia has an extensive electric rail system which they are very fond of and it seems to work very well. China keeps expanding their electric rail network. Other sources said that electric rail has higher upfront costs, but trains perform better in snow/ice conditions and long term maintenance is same as or cheaper than steam & diesel. I will keep the electric choice for this game.

[OilCan]

Oil demand is way too low in Valdez and even with the $400,000 for 8 cars I'm loosing tons of $$$.

Yes, I'm realizing that. I started it at $30K per load and then upped it to $50K per load. I'm thinking that $75K per load is a better mark - that would be $600K per 8 cars.

My investors have started using my stock as toilet paper. I seem to have picked up a huge bullseye target on my back ... and my Alaskan investors all carry rifles with high power scopes. ... I heard some of them saying that they were going to shoot the feathers off me after I was tarred and feathered. Another groop of investors wanted to draw and qwuarter me. Finally the state of Alaska passed a resolution: I was banned from the state and headed back to the lower 48 where I opened a parking lot in the middle of Death Valley.

[OilCan]

Adding demand for machinery at Deadhorse might make the oil offer more attractive.

I agree. Valdez now imports machinery and a warehouse that demands machinery (plus other goods) now appears near the oil field. Machinery production has been increased so all the ports bringing in machinery will double their import amounts. One has to be careful not to flood the map with machinery and plunge its price.

[Shamough]

Make the PERMAFROST areas SWAMP so track is layed using causways or bridges. Maintainance is minimially increased during the winter.
Use the Sugar and Produce Warehouses.
300% is way too low. 3000% is closer.,,,Thousands of truck loads of machinery goes North to Deadhorse each winter, when the Ice Road is vialbe, and 99.9% of those trucks DEAD-HEAD coming back to Fairbanks.

Permafrost is not swamp. It can be swampy when the active layer melts, but most areas are not. North of the Arctic Circle the permafrost is permanently frozen hard as a rock.

That's what the construction crew thought too. Problem is that during June, July and Augast it becomes very warm during the day.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadhorse,_Alaska

The initial roads north from the Brooks Range all turned into goo during the summer. Yes there was PERMAFROST there but it was about 4-6 feet down. Alaska finally came up with a solution ... add 3-6 feet of gravel on the PERMAFROST, soak it with lots of water when cold enough to freeze. During the summer months the Dalton is open for traffic as a gravel road that sits atop frozen PERMAFROST and insulated by the gravel from warming enough to cause problems. (Going 'off-road' during the summer is very hazardous ... even North of the Brooks Range. And then there is the state airforce ... mosquitoes, gnats and biting flies.)

Hans

[Hawk]

Adding demand for machinery at Deadhorse might make the oil offer more attractive.

I agree. Valdez now imports machinery and a warehouse that demands machinery (plus other goods) now appears near the oil field. Machinery production has been increased so all the ports bringing in machinery will double their import amounts. One has to be careful not to flood the map with machinery and plunge its price.

Looking forward to the next 'beta' version.

[Wolverine@MSU]

I just started this one, but with all the comments and suggestions I'm wondering whether I should wait until a new beta emerges. Will there be one coming?