New Holyland Beta

[Cash on Wheels]

After months of production delays Holyland is finally ready for BETA. With all the tourist, oil, tech, Military and stratigic locations around your player better be mega rich by the end of this one !

****this game is intend to play with hex edited 1.06 mentioned here: http://hawkdawg.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4014 you can still use original 1.06, the game may play different than mine.***

Holyland.txt

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Submitted to archives


*******Split furnace option! If you want to use it, it is OPTIONAL. Please be familiar with how to insert new buildings into the game before downloading and using. *********The CEMENT KILN is only for Holyland, It skips ceramics, just Rock-->Concrete. THIS gives an advantage to people who have the guts to chase the PLATINUM medal .****


Add these two to your data-->building types folder

Ore Smelterbty.zip

(309 Bytes) Downloaded 210 times

Ore Smelter.zip

(274 Bytes) Downloaded 211 times

MOVE furnace.bca to backup then add this one:

Cement Kiln.zip

(300 Bytes) Downloaded 205 times

keep furnace.bty in the building types folder

[Gumboots]

A blast furnace is used for production of steel or other metals. If you want to produce Portland cement, what you need is a kiln.

[Cash on Wheels]

That's funny, I was never told there was a difference. considering I drove for a bulk carrier years ago, I should know better! Then again I always picked up portland cement from the railroad anyways. Just kiln alone sounds boring to me. Got any suggestions?

[Gumboots]

Sure. Cement kiln. Cement works. Don Gianni's Department of Concrete Shoes. Need more?

By the way doesn't 1.06 already use all the industry slots?

[Cash on Wheels]

Sure. Cement kiln. Cement works. Don Gianni's Department of Concrete Shoes. Need more?

By the way doesn't 1.06 already use all the industry slots?

Flintstone auto plant? Sounds like winner.

There's room for one more cargo, I can use 52 without any problems. To stop it from throwing other cargos out of order it needs to be something after ~4513Rock.

Like spaceships in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=4017

[Gumboots]

It's not a new cargo. It's a new industry. Not the same thing. Will it fit?

[RulerofRails]

The cargo limit is hard and fast. According to Stoker (when he started trying to improve 1.06 industries) there are 16 free industry slots in 1.06. However, TM uses more than this, at the expense of dropping some "Add ... (Industry name)" from the event effects list. I would call this a "soft" limit.

I aborted an attempt on the scenario because I didn't for-see that rail expansion growth isn't that strong here (economy crashed also for a good few years early on) resulting in bad flat spot of growth. I have started another attempt where I probably over-compensated with a bit too much industry. This current attempt is also compromised by going "down to Egypt" too soon (very poor ROI). I even peeked in the editor to find that the promised oil "bonus" for connection there actually has other unmentioned connection conditions which I didn't plan for at all. Also has a bug when you unlock the "bonus": 1st choice uses CV2, 2nd choice uses CV1. The corresponding events to give the bonus both check CV2, so when I chose the 2nd one on my first play, I never got any bonus.

Will let you know how my play progresses. Definitely feeling like some of the more advanced production chains need thoughtful setup, perhaps more than I gave so far. Just running trains around wont unlock the potential on this one.

ETA: there's another problem with the event sequence I mentioned above. I fixed the bug mentioned above in the version I'm playing, but found another. For the event called "c2t2-3" the Effects need to be applied "to the company \ player for which the condition is TRUE". This allows player cash to be awarded in the same event that a Company Variable is set. With the setup in the BETA (human players only), setting the Company Variable isn't working.

[Cash on Wheels]

The cargo limit is hard and fast. According to Stoker (when he started trying to improve 1.06 industries) there are 16 free industry slots in 1.06. However, TM uses more than this, at the expense of dropping some "Add ... (Industry name)" from the event effects list. I would call this a "soft" limit

52 is the hard cargo limit. Milo notes said an economic cells can only handle 52 cargos only.(getting too far off topic!)

I aborted an attempt on the scenario because I .....

Yep, wrong city with the SA oil connection.

I also moved the global building density form 81% to 87%beta to now @ 105%. Nile delta density went form 333% to 225%beta to 288%.

The intent is to make egypt ur cash cow. But have that canel crossing as a bluff to keep some people out.
Maybe $450k is too much. Also mulling reducing track cost when laying track in the nile green.

Basicly connecting resource rich egypt & turkey to resource starved & industry heavy holyland,jordan lebannon is a very $$$ endeavor.

RoR where did place your bridge across the suez? And are u using steam only?

[RulerofRails]

Yep, wrong city with the SA oil connection.

So the instructions are correct? If Turkey connection isn't required, that makes Egypt connection worthwhile much earlier in the expansion process. Should really restart my game. . . .

In terms of the economy in Egypt, most of the cities are on rivers. This limits the strength of the demand differentials available. There's lots of cargo there, but I don't see good price differentials develop because of the ports and rivers in Egypt evening out prices there locally. I see about that the distance to Israel is quite far. Because I was pushing to get to Turkey I felt too cash-strapped to electrify, but perhaps with the BR E111 running costs are low enough that shipments can be made in bulk. I didn't try it yet. I having been trying hard to keep my ROI above 20% (need to get out of the gate strong for $1bln, don't think anyone will get this one on first go), maybe error in judgment but my guess was that even with electrics this would be <20% ROI after costs.

Especially if there's a supply warehouse in Alexandria Steel->Autos is a good chain to develop in Egypt. However, this requires a good amount of financing and a wait time so not instant bang-for-buck. There might also be other good industrial opportunities depending on the seeding, but these are of the nature that financing is generally required and my approach to that is necessarily different to a cheap connection I would make for the bonus.

I think the crossing fee is fine. It may seem a bit high initially, but unless you do something like base it upon the revenue hauled from Egypt, via percentage event, the current fixed fee will end up seeming very manageable later in the game.

RoR where did place your bridge across the suez? And are u using steam only?

Wooden, nothing fancy. Yes, steam only on this run so far, but not averse to using whatever I think can be most profitable. I also started with 3 AI, feels a bit crowded. Sort of a problem that they like to buy shares in your company, I wasted some PNW shaking them out. In the end left my shares open too long so one has 1,000 out of 905,000 shares in my company. Although, they do give me a little misc. revenue.

PS. I'm playing with your exe fix (restored price islands) and the split Furnace/Smelter. Of course, playing with one company. Obviously it's easy to get free access rights / unlimited PNW by starting others. But, no challenge if you do that.

[RulerofRails]

I failed this attempt. The closest I made it to was $840M PNW at the end of 2004. I kept accumulating cash, but the economy declined later on resulting in only a 1:1 ratio of CBV to PNW. At the end of 2006 I wasn't even awarded any medal (loss event). The problem is the set of Territory Variable 2 = 1 when checking for the Cyprus connection, this event hasn't got the flag set to not apply to territories.

I don't like going into the editor even when maps have bugs, because as I did on this one I might see some spoilers. On the other hand it's frustrating when events don't work and you wonder what really is happening behind the scenes. I decided to look on this one and unfortunately I saw what was the right choice for the second scam. There is a problem/feature with it also, because the instructions asks for a connection to Konya, but the event checks a different city. I felt like I wouldn't have gotten this choice right, so I didn't chose it. This would obviously have easily given me the PNW.

As I said previously, I wasn't sure how the event I mentioned last time should be set, so if I didn't got to Turkey early, I think I can go faster. Also, this play I only used 2 diesels because of their mountain climbing abilities. All the rest were QJs (main reason is their low purchase price) with a half a dozen or so Red Devils on the long resource runs. How was your engine strategy?

I find this map a little tricky to calculate the ROI, on the one hand I want to develop the special resources and the more complex industries requiring multiple inputs, but this doesn't yield the same instant bang like putting a Lumber Mill on a log stack will. This is more generally a 1.06 feature, honestly was awhile since I played 1.06, and getting used to the split furnace/smelter. Anyway, as an idea of how much potential I got from the map, profit topped at $49M in boom year on revenue of $83M. But, in normal economy $30M was more typical.

Here's a picture of what I did Duba:

I was really debating with myself whether it's worth it to try to maximize production at the fields or to collect almost $40k of haulage revenue per load on the way down. I feel like this strategy wins for the main reason that the port in Duba is going to ensure that prices for end-products (Diesel/Toys/Goods) are a lot more stable than inland. Doesn't matter if the station cell gets a price-lock (island) at a very low price. As an idea: average prices Diesel, 422 loads @ $169; Toys, 430 loads @ $301; Goods, 268 loads @ $301. Obviously, economy varies but this is close enough to full price for me to be happy. Production from the Oil wells has averaged 8.77 loads per year (unlocked full production in 1977). I don't know how high these can run, perhaps 12 loads per year or higher at full price??? Quick math seems to indicate that it's close nominally (before engine/station/track costs) assuming 33% higher production. So would be a clear winner to maximize production if there was enough demand near the wells to ensure that price didn't simply crater.

Not long after the picture above, I replaced the wood bridge with a stone one. Never double-tracked it, or built another.

In terms of ideas since this map is a beta, I did have the thought that it might be interesting to do something with overhead here. This made up 60% of my costs. Perhaps some choices where your factories' production would take a small penalty, to be offset with a drop in overhead. Could also do something similar with a penalty on Station/Track/Engine maintenance costs offset by quicker station turnaround. But, the map did play well as it is, I just felt that these sort of choices later in the game when the player has probably maxed his holdings out (all profitable industry or thereabouts), it would give him a chance for a bit more strategy.

I will say that the Ports are well setup. There's probably a bit more "fishing" than ideal especially in "Trye" (should it be Tyre, I did notice some other speelling i-shoes, but assume they will be fixed for the final), I even accidentally placed my Beirut station just so that it dumped all delivered cargo straight into the sea making it an effectively isolated "full-strength" demand zone. But within the confines of the game you did well.

PS. Also the 2nd and 3rd Lebanon peace newspapers have two time conditions combined so they will never fire. The ledger is repeating (also has some defunct text about LTD loads). Reason: it's testing against All Territories.

Bonus: aren't Nuclear Power Plants fickle? I don't know what cause the profit spike here. Economy had improved but around $1-2M was typical average profit. Will note that supply was a little scarce for the Upgrade long-term, but regardless GWhrs per load consumed is varying a lot.

[Cash on Wheels]

I failed this attempt. The closest I made it to was $840M PNW at the end of 2004. I kept accumulating cash, but the economy declined later on resulting in only a 1:1 ratio of CBV to PNW. At the end of .....

I noticed the economic stall around 2004 also. Tries before fizzled out around 1992 with about $80m.

New start $2m starting cash + 4m from investors. Got 640m on this try. Still lost. Lots to get to. This map acts very werid. I'll post more sights & sounds later.

My cable event fired just fine. Most likely I will rewrite the medal objects to something else. And leave the billionaire objective as a platinum medal. This one would be too much of a grind for casual players.

[RulerofRails]

Personally, I think that the economics are random (I wouldn't expect to see a 2004 down-turn on the next play), but there must be an average cycle length determined somehow by the game that could cause somewhat repeatable results.

Cable event works just using a different city to instruction (not major difference, it's near the correct one), I just chose a different option at the choice to simulate what choice I would make if playing without inside knowledge (I had looked in the editor to check first bug I mentioned). I will probably await the new version before playing again.

ETA: About "the map acts weird", depending on exactly what you mean, but I noticed that the topography is quite varied. No doubt the heights are realistic, and there are enough buildable routes, there's just a bit of a damper on non-station demand transmission. Not to lessen the heights, but some general smoothing to the whole map (take out some of the smallest lumps) may help some.

[OilCan]

I have stopped at 1986 with a PNW of $25M. I don't see how I can ever reach 1 billion in the remaining 20 years. I think I can reach $250M, but that's just a guess.

I did not choose to add the new industries, instead staying with the default 1.06V industries. My industry base was just beginning to blossom after a 5 year recession. My next move was to invest into nuclear and then into recycling in the early 1990s.

I assume that the player was expected to expand from Israel to the other countries, but not knowing this, I started in Syria and then moved to Egypt. My connection to Cairo triggered a $2.5M fine. I was expanding into Israel with track in the early 80s.

RoR may have made these suggestions, so please ignore them if he has:
(1) The status repeats the message: change to force test of company and player to fix this.
(2) The status does not show the progress for Bronze
(3) There is no advance warning that a connection needs to be made between Tel Aviv and Cairo to avoid the $2.5M fine.

Overall, it is an interesting game theme. I enjoyed the time I played it. It has potential.

[RulerofRails]

Oilcan, I see that you haven't connected to any of the resources in special territories. One of the distinguishable features of Cash on Wheels' style is to have a single mine (sometimes a few in the case of Oil Wells) in a tiny piece of out-of-bonds territory. Once you connect to the adjacent city (here most checks are connections to territory Holyland aka Israel), you will get a notice of accomplishment that will trigger a massive rise in production. For example the Coal Mine in the NE of the map will see production of 33 loads per year. The amount of boost varies, but generally there is a hint about the amount in the notice. Basically, with all the mines connected there's a lot of potentially for revenue especially with the Oil in Saudi Arabia, with derivative Diesel, Toys, Goods. Also, Electronics (more Crystals), Steel (more Coal), and derivative Autos.

Don't want to take over, just thought I should say a little something. Perhaps, it would be nice to have a hint about this system in the introduction to the map for players who never encountered this style before.

PS. It's neat that with the split Furnace/Smelter, Ceramics disappears entirely from the map.

[Cash on Wheels]

Oilcan, I see that you haven't connected to any of the resources in special territories. One of the distinguishable features of Cash on Wheels' style is to have a single mine (sometimes a few in the case of Oil Wells) in a tiny piece of out-of-bonds territory. Once you connect to the adjacent city (here most checks are connections to territory Holyland aka Israel), you will get a notice of accomplishment that will trigger a massive rise in production. For example the Coal Mine in the NE of the map will see production of 33 loads per year. The amount of boost varies, but generally there is a hint about the amount in the notice. Basically, with all the mines connected there's a lot of potentially for revenue especially with the Oil in Saudi Arabia, with derivative Diesel, Toys, Goods. Also, Electronics (more Crystals), Steel (more Coal), and derivative Autos

That's fixed, rebellious people like oilcan will be notified about the benefits of starting in the namesake of the map. However if they do not heed the warnings about egypt that's....... I forgot to tell people about the mines in the readme. I did not mean to have 50+ loads oil coming out of those wells. 20 should have been the max. [The story should have read: we will give u 20 free loads a year to use...)

This sugar farm has a fertilizer factory next door. It's production with fertz should be 3. The production maxs tend to be bent if supply is well short of demand.

Don't want to take over, just thought I should say a little something. Perhaps, it would be nice to have a hint about this system in the introduction to the map for players who never encountered this style before.

PS. It's neat that with the split Furnace/Smelter, Ceramics disappears entirely from the map.

You'll take over if/when this laptop dies soon....I will not be doing 15 beta versions of this map tho!

Speaking of the split furnace/kiln/smelter/whatever. I need to do a run without it. I have a feeling buildings do not like being thrown out of order.

Got silver and the game kicked me down the tracks also.

My soon-too-be-replaced PC can only handle about 90 trains before it CtDs.I could have used many more but I ended up with 81 before losing some to crashes while I was in the red.

Remember people, all rails to Tel Aviv!

[Gumboots]

...rebellious people like oilcan...

Now I have a vision of OilCan with a mohawk and a leather jacket.

[Gumboots]

PS. It's neat that with the split Furnace/Smelter, Ceramics disappears entirely from the map.

What's neat about it? Not that I'm totally addicted to the Ceramics cargo, but is not having it an advantage in some way?

[RulerofRails]

Well, at default production, 6 x Oil wells is going to give you circa 18 loads per year. Say 15 to allow for some periods of low-price production. However, at that level I would consider building right next door to them (especially if no Oil Refinery or Plastics Factory seeded in Duba as in the last one I played) because demand for finished products will not suffer as much from the isolation.

About the Fertilizer: the notice of "20% higher production" is misleading. It's just text. The mechanisms the game uses behind the scenes of the bca files don't allow a "boost" of any kind.

What we have is a 0.2 Fertilizer -> 1 Sugar conversion. The important part is that the value at position 042 (decimal address) in the header of the bca file only governs Conversion entries (Supply Only, or the regular production of the Sugar Farm isn't covered). For the Sugar Farm this number is 2 loads per year. So that would be a theoretical 4 loads per year when combined with the normal supply. However, using the small fractions (necessary for profitability) is prone to over-runs which is why you see 6 loads per year here.

Hope your laptop survives, if it's a hard drive thing, make sure you do some backups ASAP. I almost lost some stuff recently to that. Got lucky. Are you running dgVoodoo? Has a chance to help performance. And I thought that my old laptop with a 300-350 train limit before freezing was slow.

---

PS. It's neat that with the split Furnace/Smelter, Ceramics disappears entirely from the map.

What's neat about it? Not that I'm totally addicted to the Ceramics cargo, but is not having it an advantage in some way?

I wasn't making a statement about like/dislike for Ceramics (although the Ceramics->Concrete chain is quite daft), just that this mod was clean, without any loose-ends.

[Gumboots]

About the Fertilizer: the notice of "20% higher production" is misleading. It's just text. The mechanisms the game uses behind the scenes of the bca files don't allow a "boost" of any kind.

What we have is a 0.2 Fertilizer -> 1 Sugar conversion. The important part is that the value at position 042 (decimal address) in the header of the bca file only governs Conversion entries (Supply Only, or the regular production of the Sugar Farm isn't covered). For the Sugar Farm this number is 2 loads per year. So that would be a theoretical 4 loads per year when combined with the normal supply. However, using the small fractions (necessary for profitability) is prone to over-runs which is why you see 6 loads per year here.

Hang on a minute. Are you saying that instead of giving a 20% production boost it actually gives 100% or more? Because that makes a huge difference to the economics of supplying fertiliser.

[Cash on Wheels]

PS. It's neat that with the split Furnace/Smelter, Ceramics disappears entirely from the map.

What's neat about it? Not that I'm totally addicted to the Ceramics cargo, but is not having it an advantage in some way?

Rock's base price is 20 ceramics is 40 & concrete 100
So instead of the normal 100% mark up it is 500%! Due to port factors though the B̶l̶a̶s̶t̶ ̶F̶u̶r̶n̶a̶c̶e̶ ̶ Cement Kiln only made a profit of about $850k a year. Not sure how much it would be if it were elsewere on the map.
Now is it better for the company to deliver rock to the furnace then ceramics....!!. ....(...whos the fool that made this chain..) ..!!.... too the concrete plant. Then deliver the hardened concrete to the customer. Assuming the player owns the furnace and CCplant.