Rails Across Russia - BETA Version

[OilCan]

This is a 1.06V BETA version.

The map is set in the 1880s Imperial Russia – the ending years of the massive empire. 35 years of play (1880 to 1915).

A gold medal requires the player to connect 6 key cities to Moscow plus connect a total of 75 cities across the map. And, there is a $200,000,000 CBV requirement.

The Trans-Siberian railroad is a stand alone part of the game; it is not part of the game goals.

Five AIs can be added into the game and there is an optional goal for PNW if the player wants to add a tycooning element to the game. The AIs have a robust boost during the first several years of play.

After several test runs I decided that China had to become part of the game, at least as a convenience to the player. The player has the option to purchase access to China but the resources in China are limited on purpose – I did not want China to become a make or break element of the game. Other cities outside Russia are also meant to be incidental to the game.

Any comments, suggestions or ideas to improve the game are appreciated. Highlighting of spelling errors is also appreciated.

(This map does not have a base color from google map satellite images. Google dramatically changed their google map options making it very difficult to now use the satellite images as a base for RT3 games.)

Note: BETA Version removed Feb 3, 2016

[Gumboots]

Sounds interesting. I'll give it a go.

What did Google do, exactly? Seems to me there is probably a way around it. When I was doing early experiments with the sat images I was using Google Earth, not Google maps. Have you tried that?

[OilCan]

Google Earth has a very different projection than the GIS maps I create for RT3 games. I tried Google Earth with the Alaska game and could not get the heightmap and images to match up. Google maps, on the otherhand, had a spot on projection which made overlaying them with an RT3 heightmap very easy.

Google changed their maps application sometime last year (maybe 2 years ago?). The newest map application uses the Google earth projection. They left a way to use the 'classical' (earlier) map application as an option. Saddly, they removed that option earlier this year.

[Gumboots]

Ah, I get it. So they used to allow cylindrical projection but don't anymore. Didn't know that as I've never used Google maps. It would have been useful.

It's still possible to get GE images to line up with heightmaps to a very high level of accuracy. The process is quite simple but can be a bit tedious. All you need to do is divide the map into suitable sized chunks, and tile the sat images together after distorting them to get the meridians back to a rectangular grid (like cylindrical projection gives you).

I did some test maps that way and it works very well. My box badly degrades map graphics with any save, so if I want to make a custom map I have to do it pretty much the opposite way to what you recommend in your PDF on the subject. Instead of constantly touching up the graphics and saving frequently, I need a solution which allows me to just apply all the graphics in one hit.

[RulerofRails]

Oilcan, I am sorry to hear about the change to Google Maps. Maybe there is another site that you could still get satellite imaging from. For example try this: http://mapper.acme.com/. If I understand correctly, for RT3 maps there is no need to have the best quality at ground level as we can only use 1024x1024 of graphical information for the overlay.

PS. Didn't get a chance to play the map yet.

[Gumboots]

That's handy. It's definitely cylindrical projection. For real accuracy you'd still want to correct the image width to suit the average latitude, but that's a no-brainer.

[Hawk]

Well, here's where I'm at.

I chose not to go for the PNW goal, but I'm playing around with it anyway, just for kicks and giggles.

I completed the Trans-Siberian in May of 1890 and that gave me the cash to connect to 3 more of the required cities, giving me 5 total.

I didn't connect to Petropavlovsk until 1895 when suspension bridges came available.

So far I haven't come upon and glitches or anything else peculiar, except I did get the message about cattle and oil at the same time, but I'm sure that was just a fluke due to the way I laid rail.

I haven't come across any obvious spelling errors, but I wasn't really paying that close attention to that. Sorry!

The way it's going I shouldn't have a problem connecting the other 35 cities, which means the CBV shouldn't be a problem either.

I did go full bore on the cattle offer and bought all 7 ranches, plus an already built meat packing plant in Irkutsk.
At the start of the scenario I invested in the logging industry, buying 2 logging camps north of Moscow and building a lumber mill in Moscow and buying a paper plant in Tver that came available soon after. I later bought a new logging camp near Murmansk.
That's all the industry I've invested in so far. I was more concentrated on laying rail. Now that I've got all the 'needed' cities connected I'll start looking into more industry while I'm working on connecting the other 35 cities.

The rest of the scenario should be a little more relaxing.

Oh yea! I'm playing on medium level in this go-around.

[Hawk]

There's a problem with the Gold. I got Gold in Oct. 1904, as soon as I connected 75 cities, but my CBV was only $119,000,000.

[RulerofRails]

I can confirm what Hawk said above. The medals aren't checking CBV. I fixed my copy before playing.

Only other thing I noticed isn't a mistake, but I think the PNW reward event looks better with a "$" symbol placed as text just in front of the opening bracket for Company Variable 1. Like this: ". . . has reached $[Player Variable 1]; which merits . . . . "

I started this one off between Moscow, St. Petersburg and Odessa. Because this map starts in 1880 the Furniture and Cheese that has already been produced at St Petersburg during the pre-game period is $0 at game start. In my game, the price fills in patchy during the first couple months of the game. The price jumps in one hit to over $100. As long as St Petersburg was in a later price break you could load a train normally and get a high profit. What I did was use haul-at-a-loss to force the train to load, and then once I had an outbreak I sent the train to a new destination which made the game recalculate the delivery price and I ended up with over 600k profit from that train alone. I focused on passengers. Here's a view of the book for the first 3 years.

I then relaxed a little, and missed the optimum time to start developing industry in force. In the above screenshot, I owned one Brewery, the rest of my industry profits are from Hotels and Restaurants. The AI did well and ended up buying the majority of the profitable industries and farms on the map. As you can see, I incorporated the AI near the center of the map into my tracks. I found the AI to be well setup, strong and profitable.

I didn't take the salary or any of the offers to transfer money to my personal account. Thanks to cash injections keeping the AI's share price for the most part below book value per share, mergers at unmodified share prices helped CBV slightly and gave me a good net worth. Here's a shot of the medal.

I know you put permafrost terrritories in the Alaska map, so you probably don't want to do a repeat. What about somehting simple? Make a hidden territory for the snow. Then increase track laying costs for this territory. This is a great map. Seeding is setup very nicely. Enjoyed it a lot.

[Hawk]

I fixed my copy before playing.

What did you do o fix it? I'd like to play this again but not with this issue.

I started in Moscow and went south to Tula then Kiev and onto Oddessa. Then went north to Valogda, Kern and Murmansk. I didn't connect to St. Petersburg until after that.
Once I got the bid for the Trans-Siberian I concentrated solely on that.

[RulerofRails]

What did you do to fix it? I'd like to play this again but not with this issue.

Go to each medal event and click on "Add New Trigger Condition"

Choose "Company Book Value" from the list of triggers. Put in the correct $ figure required for that medal without using commas. Gold is 200000000. The other settings should automatically be correct (use the >= symbol and "Combine with previous conditions using AND"), but check them just to be sure.

New line for either Gold Medal (with and without PNW) should look like this:

CBV trigger.jpg (6.78 KiB) Viewed 9565 times

I started in Moscow and went south to Tula then Kiev and onto Oddessa. Then went north to Valogda, Kern and Murmansk. I didn't connect to St. Petersburg until after that.
Once I got the bid for the Trans-Siberian I concentrated solely on that.

Even on Expert level the 500k bonus from connecting Moscow to Odessa leaves enough cash to shoot up to St. Petersburg. The port supplies some rich cargo opportunities, even if you don't take advatange of the first price jumps in the Cheese and Furniture cargoes that I explained in my last post. Here's how the demand spreads on my map. Nice pattern to be sure.

I concentrated on high value freight in the first year. The source was mainly the ports and some Milk and Textiles from Odessa. On this map I never stopped a loco in the station like I sometimes do while waiting for the demand map prices to become more favorable (get more profits). Excess trains became express haulers where I had bought some extra ones to capture initial profits. My analysis was that Murmansk didn't have enough cargo supply for a first year connection. It had a Meat Packing Plant with 2 ranches supplying it, but no port or other supply of immediately available high vale cargo at Kern or Valogda.

In the second year aside from starting up a line heading west from Vladivostok, I switched my focus to express. Moscow was my hub. I built the Hotel there that year. Up till the end of the game even with the first express reduction event at the end of year 7, this had returned about 150k per year in profits. Not bad when considering Hotels cost 100k to build.

I did break my rule on not issuing stock once. Just before the first screenshot in my last post (third year), I issued stock in the hope of capturing the $4.5M transcontinnetal prize that your screenshot showed. I was planning to use most of the bonus money to buy-back that stock right away. Turns out that you only get a $4.5M bonus if you complete the line between the beginning of 1886 and the end of 1895. I only received 500k which left me unable to buy-back all issued stock. I have suggested things to keep players like me from walking all over the map in the past. I like this, enables me to enjoy the map longer while playing an economically strategic game. Thanks, Oilcan.

[Hawk]

I added the CBV conditions to the medals and played again, on medium difficulty. I did not choose to play PNW and I'm glad I didn't as I only ended up with about $60M. I just barely made Gold without it, in Jan. of 1914.

I still enjoyed this scenario.

I did buy into the cattle challenge as well as the oil challenge. I only hauled over 25 loads of oil twice. I did not buy into the steel challenge. I did last time and it turned out not to be very profitable for me.

I did complete the Trans-Siberian challenge about 3 years after it was offered. Again I waited until 1895 to connect to the 6th goal city.

[RulerofRails]

I did not buy into the steel challenge. I did last time and it turned out not to be very profitable for me.

This event is setup to appear after you have hauled 40 Iron and 40 Coal. Depending on how much of the game has passed by the time you do this, this contract can be worth it simply for extra loads of Iron and Coal that you will have the opportunity to haul. Probably more profit per load too since higher production often means better price spreads.

Events that increase production across the majority of the map can generally be viewed as boosts to the nation's GDP. In other words, I can't see how they aren't a good idea unless you are close to a medal. Bigger economy means more chance to get a piece of the industrial pie as well.

Output for the Mines after the boost with the advantage of good prices was 3.8 for Iron and 5.7 for Coal in Boom times. This is close to double. Accounting for poorer circumstances, this means that you could manufacture 75%+ more Steel.

While playing I debated whether to buy the brand new Livestock farms I paid for. I hesitated for awhile, but eventually bought them as new opportunities for rail profits were decreasing . My strategy was to haul the Livestock away to a Meat Packing Plant I owned in Novosibirsk. I had a little more time to buy them as the price at the farms only rose after I had established frequent rail service with 3 trains devoted solely to Livestock. Still, I didn't wait too long and paid an average of 550k each. Yes, I built a station outside the city for this. I would have had more profit if I hauled to a closer Meat Packer, but I was using AI tracks at that point to reach Irkutsk where the other one was.

I had another station in the country-side to collect Iron which I delivered to Yakutsk. Only once it had arrived did I then build the Steel Mill which started production immediately.

Also, I only ever received the Oil bonus twice. I bought two trains with 6 cars wait-to-fill so they ensured a 10+ load count if they would arrive in the same year. I didn't even realize that there was a special bonus for hauling more than 25 in a year. The distance to carry the Oil is quite far. One could spend a lot on infrastructure to faciliate higher transport count for this goal. IMO, the extra 100k of player cash isn't worth over-supplying St. Petersburg for. An over-supplied destination means low train profits so this will eat into the 800k company cash bonus as well. Much better to put on some dividends if you want player cash (providing you have a decent stake in your company). If playing after 1900 when I could place an Oil Refinery in St. Petersburg and get profits from that also I would put more effort into it.

Well, that was longer than I intended. Glad you enjoyed playing this one. Oilcan has crafted another beauty for us to play.

[Hawk]

I had 8 trains set up to haul oil. 4 from Dudinka. 2 from Kheta. 2 from Tiksi.

I got an $800K bonus every year but it was only two years I got the over 25 load bonus, and extra $500K on top of the $800K, plus $200K in my pocket.

If I remember right I made the connections in 1890 and started hauling oil. That gave me 24 years of hauling oil. At $800K a year, that adds up to $19.2M, plus the extra $500K twice adds another $1M, minus the $2975K profit loss for all the trains over that time. That still adds up to a decent profit, unless I'm looking at it wrong.

[RulerofRails]

Sorry, Hawk. I didn't look at the event carefully enough to see the extra 500k company cash bonus. My bad. I also didn't pay close enough attention to the demand in St. Petersburg that is set high enough that there isn't too much danger of over-supply. I like the way that the warehouses serve as oil collection depots for the cities. On my play the AI had connected to one of the cities required for the Oil offer to show up. I was going to side-skip it completely to make a medal take slightly longer (no $5M bonus). Then in the last 4 or so years of my play I thought I may as well do it for the sake of testing. If I got the event this wrong, seems I didn't do that right either.

[Hawk]

OC generally makes sure the demand is high enough for events like that. I didn't really research it. I just took it with a bit of familiarity and comfort.

[OilCan]

Sorry for the long silence. I didn't mean to be gone for so long after posting a BETA version. November turned into a very busy, very hectic month for me. And now December is doing the same. I do not have enough blocks of free time to work on the final version of Canyon Lands. I should have sufficient time in early January to get my mind back into the game and complete the final version. After that, I will work on the final version of the Russian Rails beta.

I also have a much older game, Mozambique, which I have never released. I'll post that as a beta once I catch up on Canyon Lands and Russian Rails.

Thanks all for your comments and ideas.

[Hawk]

Yea, sometimes these holiday seasons can really eat into ones pleasure time.

[Gumboots]

Nothing wrong with having a bit more time for extra beta testing.

[Hawk]

This map is now available in the archives.

http://hawkdawg.com/rrt/rrt3/map_arch/r ... rossRussia