Alaska - 1955

[Hawk]

Well, I doubt I'll make Gold on this run, much less Platinum.

Alaska.jpg (49.96 KiB) Viewed 6244 times

I'm just spending too much time watching trains.

[Shamough]

I'm just spending too much time watching trains.

You need an option to turn OFF WIN/LOOSE and just play with the trains. BUT you'll run into monetary problems if you don't have a good Industrial foundation to draw on.

If you want you can play an unlimited game by:
Go into the EDITOR and UNCHECK the trigger box at the top right for the following EVENTS:
PLATINUM, GOLD wP, GOLD noP, SILVER, BRONZE, & NO Win.
This will allow you to keep playing after the deadline and the game will continue to TRIGGER normally.


Hans

[Hawk]

You need an option to turn OFF WIN/LOOSE and just play with the trains. BUT you'll run into monetary problems if you don't have a good Industrial foundation to draw on.

If you want you can play an unlimited game by:
Go into the EDITOR and UNCHECK the trigger box at the top right for the following EVENTS:
PLATINUM, GOLD wP, GOLD noP, SILVER, BRONZE, & NO Win.
This will allow you to keep playing after the deadline and the game will continue to TRIGGER normally.


Hans

That would be a little too simplistic. As I said in this post:

The goals just give me something to strive for.

Besides, if I wanted to make this map easier I would change a lot of the events, but that's not what I want. I prefer to play the map as intended.
I started again. This time I got a much better seeding. I might have a fighting chance this time.

I know you haven't been around long but I did have a couple maps on the site so I do know little about the editor.

[Shamough]

I know you haven't been around long but I did have a couple maps on the site so I do know little about the editor.

The advice wasn't solely for you. Some NOOBIES may also like to just play and watch the trains.


Hans

[RulerofRails]

Hans, interesting strategy and advice. Definitely different to the way that I have played the scenario. I never put Canneries at the ports in any of my plays. I only built a maximum of 3 upgraded Canneries on the map at connection hubs (cities serviced by many trains). However, I did build enough Produce Greenhouses to use up most of the Coal on the map with a Distillery next door. I was focusing more on haulage especially the Weapons and Ammo routes. So far I have always started with rails, and except for the buildable warehouses there is no way that industry can match the short term profits available from rails. This initial profits should be enough to unlock most bonds in an initial expansion on the best routes, then I expand into the industries.

I can confirm that warehouses are hard-coded for price at 700k (I am not sure why the first one is 600k). They will always be cheap compared to the other industries. This does make them liable to exploitation and the Tannery will probably make more money if it isn't supplied with any Livestock at all! I had one seed in a town and it was making better money than those I built next to ranches. This was in the first beta, BTW. I am playing Big Valley as time permits, but will try the new version here soon. Oilcan did mention he was adjusting the warehouse balance.

Generally, I view exploitation as a hole in strategy of the game. Exploiting the warehouses may mean that a no-holds-barred 15 year attempt is possible on a map like this except for the Oil requirement which one must wait for. The oil requirement adds a balance to the game and means that most of the potential advantage from exploitation is mitigated (with a 200M Platinum profit level which is attainable without any exploitation). I like this, and from what I saw in the first beta this is a good compromise on this issue. Will know more when I play this. Hopefully soon, but should be this week.

[Shamough]

Generally, I view exploitation as a hole in strategy of the game. Exploiting the warehouses may mean ...

Actually It was OilCan that suggested the placement of Canneries at the fishing ports ... intro notes.

Interesting ... I completely overlooked placing Distilleries next to the Produce Warehouses ... by the time I placed the Warehouses it was time to start laying track in earnest to get ready for the oil boom.

I also overlooked running Ammo and Weaps from the supply ports to the various bases ... I think I need more SLEEP or a new brain.


Hans

[RulerofRails]

Actually It was OilCan that suggested the placement of Canneries at the fishing ports ... intro notes.

Sorry to call it exploitation then, I need a new brain too after overlooking something like that! As I said with the balance part, I think it works out pretty good whether a player uses the warehouses more aggressively (maybe I shouldn't have said exploitation as that is just an opinion, building any industry available is a legal strategy after all). Well done on your medal, BTW.

[Wolverine@MSU]

So I'm playing along and at March 1964, the game freezes. The cursor moves around but on my home computer I have to do a reboot (press the reset button on the front of the computer; Control-Alt-Delete doesn't bring up Task manager). The only thing I see in the Events is the Earthquake and even if I change the date to March 1994, the thing still freezes. This also happens on my computer at work. I've attached a saved game from right before the crash.

Any ideas? It seems others aren't having this problem. What else happens in March 1964? New engines available? New buildings?

Help

[Shamough]

Are you running RT3 V1.05 or RT3 V1.06? Map needs RT3 V1.06.


Hans

[Hawk]

There's some discussion about earthquakes and RT3 crashing in this thread.

viewtopic.php?p=30967#p30967

[Wolverine@MSU]

Are you running RT3 V1.05 or RT3 V1.06? Map needs RT3 V1.06.Hans

1.06

[RulerofRails]

Wolverine, I think the problem is one of the AI trying to build new track. I got the same crash on my system except I could save it with Ctrl+Alt+Del. I tried different things, but the earthquake trigger is for the end of the month. This crash is at the beginning of that month. What I did was merge the AI together and use all their cash up on some industry and the game got past this point without crashing. (If you want them to expand you could always build their track for them.) The earthquake fired without issue at the end of the month. Fingers crossed you will see the same result on your system and you can get back to railroading.

ETA: Congrats on 1,100 posts. Imagine this is my 400th! Wew!

[Wolverine@MSU]

YEP-The Ai was the culprit. I went into the Editor and Liquidated the AIs and all is well with the world. I got the earthquake at the end of the month as promised. Thanks RoR .......would be interesting to figure out what the AI was doing to cause the crash .

[RulerofRails]

That's great. I always suspect track building. A quick test by turning on limited track building and giving everyone -1 confirms this. This reminds me of the first TM campaign scenario where I had a good attempt going, I wanted to keep the AI (my previous company) strong and healthy for the economy, but had to spend its money for it as any attempt to build track would end in failure and a crash like this.

[RulerofRails]

I just got through playing the beta2 version. This time I played without AI and used diesels which is probably the easiest choice. Easy enough for 200M company profits at the end of 1971. I was one Oil train short of having 50 loads when I reached this goal. I was using GP35s for the Oil route (almost exclusively F3s on general service) running on the most direct route I could find. I had built a line down the mountain pass directly into Valdez to get to the machinery pretty early in the game. The Oil train arrived in March 1972, a DDX may have gotten there a bit faster, but that's about the limit to get the oil hauled. Enough time to have a fun scenario. Had a great time!

This play I didn't have a sensible use for Logs or Livestock at the beginning (they were stacked red). Maybe this was a one-off seed, but I remember seeing a Lumber Mill in Fort Yukon and a Meat Packer at Dillingham on my last couple of plays with the previous beta. I didn't see too many Furnaces this time which is good. I used three Tannery & Furs (placed over 2 farms) in lieu of Meat Packers and Canneries. I did try to focus on rails, but ended up with around 120M of profits due to industry and the rest from rails. I lost a Dairy Farm and Dairy Processor located between Willow and Curry in the earthquake and on a slumping economy got a 7M profit vs a 17M the year before. It took me a while to figure out what had happened.

I noticed that the second page on the ledger has some left-over information from another event on it. Also, silver looks like the color of platinum, that's why Wolverine used the Silver Medal for its color in his scenarios. Up to you though. I am not sure what you have tried with adjusting the Tannery & Furs warehouse, but it seems like Livestock stacks up faster than it can be used. I think it is running into profitability issues with the conversion especially in poor economies and since I am building them in the country over the farms. I don't know if reducing the price of Livestock a little even just 5% and increasing the price of Clothing a corresponding 5% would help this without ruining the game with the dreaded price spirals.
Everything else looked good to me.

[Wolverine@MSU]

The event that actually gives the 50% reduction in Track/Train maintainance after connecting the military posts is set to fire once. Because it is of limited duration (-50% for one year) it needs to fire every year. I see that it's set to trigger at the beginning of each year, so if you make the connection at the beginning of the year (I do a lot of track building on pause at the beginning of the year), the subsidy won't go into effect until the beginning of the next year. It would make more sense to have the subsidy permanently granted as a one-time Effect of the actual connection event, tested at the end of the week so it triggers close to the beginning of a year or shortly after the connection is made. That would also free up the Company Variable 4 for another use if needed.

I've played through this several times, with different starting conditions (4 AI vs. none). All seems OK except the subsidy event. When playing with the 4 AIs, I've done my usual "pump-and-dump" with them in the second or third year, let them crash, and buy back a controlling interest. Then I fix their track, let them recover, and use them to build the track network while my own company just builds industry. Only after there's a lot of track on the map, and making the military connections is easy, do I take them over and start running the rails as my company. Even with the subsidy, I've found that rails don't give anywhere near as good of a ROI than industry, although there's only so much industry on the map to buy or build, so at some point you have to bite the bullet and build rails, particularly when the call for oil hauling is made.

I had no trouble hauling 200 loads of Oil down to Valdez, and was able to amass considerably more than $200 M in profit. I had all conditions met for Platinum in 1974, but held off on connecting the last city to see how much I could do before time ran out. I suggest upping the Oil haul requirement to 100 loads instead of 50. Even though the trains themselves were running into the red hauling Oil, the $75k per load payment more than made up for it. Since this is a cash payment per load, I don't think it counts toward Company profit. In fact, one needs to change the traditional strategy when CBV is a goal, to maximize revenue and minimize costs, when Company profit is a goal.

[OilCan]

I noticed that the second page on the ledger has some left-over information from another event on it.

I could not find any left-over information in test runs of Beta2. If you still have a saved game showing the text, please post a picture of it.

Also, silver looks like the color of platinum, that's why Wolverine used the Silver Medal for its color in his scenarios.

Good idea.

[OilCan]

The event that actually gives the 50% reduction in Track/Train maintenance after connecting the military posts is set to fire once. It would make more sense to have the subsidy permanently granted as a one-time Effect of the actual connection event, tested at the end of the week so it triggers close to the beginning of a year or shortly after the connection is made. That would also free up the Company Variable 4 for another use if needed.

Thanks for catching this snafu. The event should not be one time only. I'll fix that. I'll leave it as a year by year event. There was a reason I did that after tracking the costs in several test runs -- and I can't recall right now what the reason was.

I suggest upping the Oil haul requirement to 100 loads instead of 50.

An increase is needed. It seems that the other beta testers would agree.

[OilCan]

Thanks for all the helpful comments. I will try to send in a final version to Hawk this week.

I've been away from RT3 trying to hunt deer - with no success. It is my second season to hunt and participate only at the urging of my oldest son. It has been a very good rest for me and the deer were certainly safe from any hunting that I attempted.

[RulerofRails]

Alaska second status page.jpg (77.7 KiB) Viewed 5956 times

Here you go. This is what I was seeing. I don't know if it was visible from the beginning as I only noticed it halfway through and this shot proves it is still there at the end.

Another thought on this one. If you want to decrease the profitability of the Hides Warehouse a little more (I am happy how it is or with a decrease, your choice) you could decrease Medicine production. As the Pharmaceutical Plant could realistically have half it's current production and still seldom run at full production, there is plenty of room to do something without consequences.

ETA: I just checked, and the second status page isn't visible at game start. BTW, Glad you enjoyed your time outdoors!