Philippines for 1.06

[Cash on Wheels]

Latest creation fresh out of the editor. This beta covers The Philippines and some parts of Malyaisa. Unlike the previous three maps I've released (Bermuda triangle, Cold War Colorado, & Madagascar this one is a little easier on the soul.

MOstly looking for feedback with how well and how fast you did.

Philips-readme .txt

(541 Bytes) Downloaded 368 times

BETA reMoved

[Hawk]

Was there a reason to include the Bermuda Triangle map in this zip?

[Cash on Wheels]

Was there a reason to include the Bermuda Triangle map in this zip?

Nope, I was wondering how it got n there. Turns out 'maps' is 4th down on the list. B Tri is the forth map down also.

Mystery solved

[RulerofRails]

Gave it a play starting in 1990. Didn't issue stock. Focused more on rails for a $1M first year, turned out to be a bit of a chore finding good price differentials (with price islands enabled) given the watery nature of the map and the way that supplies from a port are almost as likely to drift out to sea as come onto land. I thought that it was a bit hard to pick up supplies from the twin ports (San Fernando and Manila). But that's probably because I have a personal rule of one station per city. Gives you an idea of which seed type I played. Looked quickly at the another one, without the San Fernando port the start may be a little slower, but obviously perfectly doable in the time given.

The connection to Sabah notice needs to be One Time Only.

Did you try to have the second Status notice testing whether "There is a player with ID is TRUE" AND "Player ID = 2". If you do that, it will only appear when there's an AI player. Don't know if you want that though?

A question: Did you purposely place some of the industries in 2016? In the case of the Port in Manila, did you find that it helps it not to upgrade? (I never had spare finances to get Alcohol produced.)

ETA: The tunnel is thanks to the AI company. Not sure the chance of that, but this kept him weak. Used it for the resource runs even before I bought him out. Waited till he declared bankruptcy and then pulled the trigger.

[Cash on Wheels]

Gave it a play starting in 1990. Didn't issue stock. Focused more on......

RoR you smashed this one as expected. I thought about moving gold to 18 years or less and making the Sabah connection even ealier for gold.( or move object cargos to Sabah!) The AI builds between those to cities every time. Looks like I need to bring back the National Forrest Territories to stop it! The co. check is to discourage the player from starting 2 companies. Also if "disable Players from starting multiple cos." is checked does that stop the AI from doing it?

This is one of my saved plays of the near beta version, normal. issuing stock!

I like your idea of not connecting San Jose directly to Roxas City. $aves for other use.

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A solid auto consisted rubber train!

[RulerofRails]

Industries take at least 3 years to make the investment back (would really need 33% ROI for that, not too easy to find that). I used bond money to complete the line down to get the hauls going. I was then a little cash-strapped, but I tend to believe that it probably still turned out faster than a more industrial approach which would have ended up with higher CBV, but the hauls would have started later. Who knows, it's probably closer than I think. . .

With all the water around, getting the most from the price gradients is more complex than usual. IMO, 20 years is about right for a medal that most players can get. Moving the transportation goal to Sabah would be interesting, I liked the balance on this one where Sabah was a major connection that I could work towards after I had the hauls setup instead of playing a waiting game for them. Maybe it would be ok, but potentially there's more risk of waiting with little to do.

Also if "disable Players from starting multiple cos." is checked does that stop the AI from doing it?

Yes. They can then only start one company. But I don't think it makes a difference if he builds the tunnel because he probably wont have the PNW to start one anyway. Without price islands he would surely have done a bit better, so maybe he could then.

I certainly made use of the tunnel he built. It's not an ugly thing and probably one of the most sensible tunnels I've ever seen the AI build. One solution would be to make an event to test if the AI connects those two cities and give him some cash so he isn't in debt because of that. I always feel sorry for the AI, they could use some hand-outs.

[Cash on Wheels]

I certainly made use of the tunnel he built. It's not an ugly thing and probably one of the most sensible tunnels I've ever seen the AI build. One solution would be to make an event to test if the AI connects those two cities and give him some cash so he isn't in debt because of that. I always feel sorry for the AI, they could use some hand-outs.

I have that route & a few others blocked by a national park. So now the AI will start in the upper island now. Second beta with 2 AI now needs to be release tomorrow. This is a map I never intended to release. So I do not want to start scripting more events. That will snowball!

[Cash on Wheels]

Beta removed 01/03/18

[RulerofRails]

Played again. This time used a seed with no Port in San Fernando. On the plus side had one in Dagupan. Also had a good Lumber Mill there. Bought that and the only Dairy on the map and then connected Manila to Dagupan and had to issue stock (only time I did) in order to buy a QJ to run on the line (stuck with Steam-only theme). This play there was no Electronics Plant on the map at game start. Had to wait till May 1995 when one seeded in Cotabato (convenient location really). Before that I was sure that this play was going to be slower. Had a Steel Mill in Iloilo from game start, so my mainline ran down the LHS this time.

Just to be different I ended up bridging down to Sabah on the North side of the Sulu Sea. In hindsight I think this was a poor decision as there was no cargo to speak of and I couldn't avoid building one Suspension bridge instead of my favorite wooden ones. Also, I stubbornly decided to build a Distillery in 1991 to try to upgrade the Manila port, even though I knew it's ROI wouldn't be stellar. I think Dye is required really as the modest amount of Alcohol produced was reluctant to go to the port instead of the city. Also, my trains were too eager to carry it away. That was a fail.

I also double-tracked too much of the main-line (should have just done it near service facilities). I bought some Red Devils. I'm still unsure whether they were worth it since they were making comparable profit to the QJs (admittedly on poorer runs, but they were only running for 2-3 or so years so probably didn't see a good return on the extra 300k investment). Anyway, hauls were done around Sep.-Oct. 2000. But I didn't have enough cities, so did nasty connections (small stations) to finish as quickly as possible after that. Had to go till Jan. 2001. Which even after the drama turned out slightly quicker, which it should have been seeing I know what to expect now.

About the AI:
I chose to start with 2. Only one started a company with this crazy tunnel build (shot taken after the medal):

He lost money, consistently. He went bankrupt sometime mid-game. But he still had about $2M debt at 15% interest. So I decided just to keep majority ownership and merge him last minute to boost my city count. He was liquidated the beginning of 2000. There goes that plan, which is partly why I just did "burn track" for the last couple connections.

Note: Could do with a quick spell/grammar check before the final release. Check the briefing. Also, is "Dimonds" meant to be "Diamonds", or is it "artistic license"?

ETA: Just remembered I saw a warehouse in Butuan without any supply/demand recipes.

[low_grade]

Fairly lazy first attempt, starting with all the Dairies and a few other resources. Spent 1993 just saving up, had $8M in Boom and ran the line down to Davoas or whatever. Got autos going down there to increase Electronics demand (still not much of a gradient even after bulldozing all the Retails up north...) $15M in burn track to get gold on Expert in March 2003, Malaysia never came into play until I'd saved up the last year and made my electronics quota. Interesting puzzle maps you make, for sure! But very easy. Went with the 200k diesel to begin and upgraded to the Genesis when it became available, had loads of cash to spare.

Can probably remove wool and textiles, as they never came into play, not enough wool. Did make some decent profit on poorly supplied Lumber Mills, and bought a couple furniture factories once I had them supplied. Bought the Steel Mill once I had it supplied. Did do Alcohol from the Sugar farms (2) way up north. Wasted $5M+ bulldozing newly seeded industries which annoyed me, that's how flush with cash I was. Economy climbed to Boom within 3 or 4 years, back to Normal by year 7 or 8, back to Boom for the end.

So, what can you do to make Malaysia relevant? One thought was another quarry. Then boost goals to 100 Steel+60 Electronics. Should make it a 15-18 year game then. And sprinkle in a few events to tank the economy, it'll reward getting a solid setup with cheap railbuilding, while still keeping profits from getting too high. Might be interesting to boost waste production, if that's possible? It's funny to watch it floating on the ocean, where so much of it actually is... But also it's not an easy map for profitable recycling as is, so probably either boost or get rid of waste.

Maybe increase loco prices to reflect the need to import, or reduce options?

and @RoR he used blank Ports just to get cargo flowing into the ocean, and looks like you spotted one seeded as a warehouse. Also on that subject, water flow of cargo didn't really come into play I don't think, not too much.

[Cash on Wheels]

Fairly lazy first attempt, starting with all the Dairies and a few other resources. Spent 1993 just saving up, had $8M in Boom and ran the line down to Davoas or whatever. Got autos going down there to increase Electronics demand (still not much of a gradient even after bulldozing all the Retails up north...) $15M in burn track to get gold on Expert in March 2003, Malaysia never came into play until I'd saved up the last year and made my electronics quota. Interesting puzzle maps you make, for sure! But very easy. Went with the 200k diesel to begin and upgraded to the Genesis when it became available, had loads of cash to spare.

Can probably remove wool and textiles, as they never came into play, not enough wool. Did make some decent profit on poorly supplied Lumber Mills, and bought a couple furniture factories once I had them supplied. Bought the Steel Mill once I had it supplied. Did do Alcohol from the Sugar farms (2) way up north. Wasted $5M+ bulldozing newly seeded industries which annoyed me, that's how flush with cash I was. Economy climbed to Boom within 3 or 4 years, back to Normal by year 7 or 8, back to Boom for the end.

So, what can you do to make Malaysia relevant? One thought was another quarry. Then boost goals to 100 Steel+60 Electronics. Should make it a 15-18 year game then. And sprinkle in a few events to tank the economy, it'll reward getting a solid setup with cheap railbuilding, while still keeping profits from getting too high. Might be interesting to boost waste production, if that's possible? It's funny to watch it floating on the ocean, where so much of it actually is... But also it's not an easy map for profitable recycling as is, so probably either boost or get rid of waste.

Maybe increase loco prices to reflect the need to import, or reduce options?

and @RoR he used blank Ports just to get cargo flowing into the ocean, and looks like you spotted one seeded as a warehouse. Also on that subject, water flow of cargo didn't really come into play I don't think, not too much.

I had to do some serious landshaping to this island. If it were as is, cargo would be everywhere or stuck on islands. Sabah will be fixed and national parks will be extend. I've got better maps to work on!

[low_grade]

If for nothing more than helping there to be price gradients across islands, the ports are still a good idea, they just weren't central like Cuba, is all i was saying. More maps?

[RulerofRails]

If there were no ports, prices in some places would collapse. This would mean higher rail profits in general and somewhat lower conversion industry profits. For sure they aren't critical to the task at hand like they were in Bermuda Triangle.

[Cash on Wheels]

If there were no ports, prices in some places would collapse. This would mean higher rail profits in general and somewhat lower conversion industry profits. For sure they aren't critical to the task at hand like they were in Bermuda Triangle.

I had a play that did not seed a furnace anywhere. So for fun, i put one on the quarry island. It made money for a few years then prices for ceramics collapsed because it only had a rail connection. (no land or port connection). Pulling ceramics out of there was big $$$. No real effect on the game. Once I plopped an electronics plant on the same island, same result. Over time Electronics prices collapsed. So every electronics train leaving was making $1M+. The solution is to increase building prices on that island. No one will build an EP for $6M!

[RulerofRails]

The obvious reason to build on the quarry islands is that the quarry will output 2-3x (boost events exaggerate the effect) the amount of Rock and/or Crystals at full/high price than at very low prices. This may be possible to achieve with very frequent train service as well. Didn't happen for me, didn't try very hard. Thought about building a Furnace there, but was cautious.

Bumping the price should discourage this play. Although to really shut the door I would do more than +100% on build cost. One could still build a Furnace at $2.4M there simply to boost production, hauling away the Rock to another location. Then they would be able to run an extra Furnace as well as upgrade the existing one on the additional output.

[Cash on Wheels]

The obvious reason to build on the quarry islands is that the quarry will output 2-3x (boost events exaggerate the effect) the amount of Rock and/or Crystals at full/high price than at very low prices. This may be possible to achieve with very frequent train service as well. Didn't happen for me, didn't try very hard. Thought about building a Furnace there, but was cautious.

Bumping the price should discourage this play. Although to really shut the door I would do more than +100% on build cost. One could still build a Furnace at $2.4M there simply to boost production, hauling away the Rock to another location. Then they would be able to run an extra Furnace as well as upgrade the existing one on the additional output.

It's build, upgrade, watch the price, then sell the building as it starts to lose its profits. The plan is 150%.This inculedes stations.

[Hawk]

This map is now available in the archives.

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

[RayofSunshine]

Well, I am not a "favorite" player when it comes to "mountainous" scenarios. However, this is a very interesting an challenging scenario. I made a couple mistakes, as I was directing some "major" supplies to the wrong destination. I also did find "after the fact", that on delivering coal to the steel mill, that the product of "steel" was being routed back to Manila. I did catch it in time to redirect the steel, but it lengthened the time to get the Davao goal increased. But that is part of the game, and a player does have to watch the "progress" of train movements, even if he is not micromanaging.

I do believe that players will find this scenario an interesting challenge.

I am looking for future scenarios of another new "user" creaton.

[Sugus]

Just downloaded this map and used the editor to check for special conditions.

No offence but I must say that the introducing text and the win conditions do not correspond.
Bronze: text requires 25 cities, event checks for 20 cities
Silver: text requires 30 cities, event checks for 31 cities
Gold: text requires 50/30 loads, event checks for 49/29

Ok, not a very important thing - nevertheless nice if corrected.