I have just sent a new scenario to Hawk for release. It is the fourth in the Age Of Steam Series. After this there is one more to go to complete it. It is a large map and is based on providing your customers with fast freight service. I made it all from scratch and have been working on it for several months. A great big thank you to Wolverine who with great dilligence and patience worked out a brilliant event sequence for the game. I won't tell you what it is-you've got to find out for yourselves. Thanks again Wolverine IMPORTANT NOTICE-YOU MUST INSTALL THE 1.06 PATCH TO PLAY THIS SCENARIO!!
The patch is available only here at Hawk's place and it allows for a lot of expanded game play. Blue Streak was designed to take advantage of the ability to build ports and warehouses-an abilility now available with the 1.06 Patch. There are several locomotives in the folder to use with the game. I don't know yet if the file is too big with all of that extra stuff in the folder-If it is then I'll have to take some of the extra stuff out. We'll see.
I look forward to your comments and I hope everyone enjoys this scenario as much as I did in making it.
Haven't installed the 1.06 patch yet as it seemed to cause others some problems - what's the position?
Incidentally once installed how does anyone uninstall a patch? (Obviously you can uninstall and re-install whole programme but, having just gone through all that with my new computer don't want to have to do it again!)
The problems with the 1.06 patch are minor and mostly effect writing scenarios rather than game play. I think a lot of it is player perception since the new patch allows for so many new variations within the game. Ever since I have installed it. RRT3 seems to run much smoother and I haven't had it crash on me since.
I deliberatly designed this new scenario in 1.06 so everyone can see how it behaves with a new scenario written under the new patch. It plays wonderfully on my computer and my offical tester of maps has found no issues with it at all.
We put a huge effort into this one and it would be a shame not to play it because one didn't have the 1.06 patch.
belbincolne wrote:Incidentally once installed how does anyone uninstall a patch? (Obviously you can uninstall and re-install whole programme but, having just gone through all that with my new computer don't want to have to do it again!)
The patch comes with its own uninstaller. Just go to Control Panel - Add Remove Programs, and uninstall from there.
Well, I tried to get the map added to my site but without the software on my computer at home I can't get it uploaded.
I tried using the Control Panel but it has a file upload limit of 10,240kb and the map is just a bit bigger than that and I don't have my usual FTP software on this computer, and I think this ISP also has some restrictions because I can't use any FTP connection.
I'm afraid it will have to wait until I get home.
Sorry Folks! :(
It looks like after tomorrow (Tuesday) I won't be near a computer again until I get home-hopefully this weekend.
Hey, we all need a vacation occasionally. :)
I finally decided to download an FTP utility and install it on my cousin's computer and was able to upload the zip.
Unfortunately the only way to download it until I get home is by clicking on this link.
It will get a proper place and link on the site when I get back home.
hhhhhmmm Am I first to notice this, but after opening a number of zip files, I had a map called Age of Steam II - Green Diamond. All other files refer to Blue Streak, but eventually I found your earlier map
OH DRAT Everybody Stop. I just checked and somehow I accidentally put the wrong map into the folder. I don't know how that happened. I will fix it and remail all this back to Hawk, but it will not get fixed until Hawk gets back from vacation. I'm really sorry everyone.
Okay its after 8PM I just checked the stuff I sent to Hawk and it is the right map-See posts below. Thanks a million Hawk.
Last edited by wsherrick on Mon Aug 13, 2007 8:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Well I guess this is now in the wrong forum but as I've been playing for 20 years I suppose you can count it as a part review and part pointing out problems.
The only flaw is that east of the Wabash seems to be a non-entry territory - I can't find anywhere where I can build a bridge over it to get to those corn fields. Otherwise everything seems to work properly and - like all this series - it's a great scenario to play.
The first target seems to be impossible - I started 3 times (1) industry - easily the most profitable route but then got nowhere near the 50 loads (speed isn't a problem) (2) railing - actually fell 1 mph low but anyway it wasn't profitable enough for me to expand so still nowhere on 50 loads. So to (3) and I combined Industry (changing from Lumber to Textile Mill) with railroading - nowhere near but at least I had money so managed to withstand the loss of $500k p.a. The other three targets I made long before the year was up each time.
So after 20 years what's the problem. Goods carrying is proceding incredibly slowly despite custom trains. In particular how can you carry Fertilizer to KC when there's absolutely no demand for it and no way of creating it (Aluminium is nearly as bad but I suppose I could build a Tool & Die or Toys) - the only way would be to ship it to a farming area and then change the trains destination but that just makes the game hard work and no fun (especially not for 200 loads!).
Really therefor the only problem seems to be the Wabash and Fertilizer - how did you solve these in testing?
So after 20 years what's the problem. Goods carrying is proceding incredibly slowly despite custom trains. In particular how can you carry Fertilizer to KC when there's absolutely no demand for it and no way of creating it (Aluminium is nearly as bad but I suppose I could build a Tool & Die or Toys) - the only way would be to ship it to a farming area and then change the trains destination but that just makes the game hard work and no fun (especially not for 200 loads!).
Really therefor the only problem seems to be the Wabash and Fertilizer - how did you solve these in testing?
The way to make money and produce the needed products and demand is to locate ports and warehouses in key areas. Look at the items produced by the warehouses/ports there are 5 different kinds of warehouses and ports-they are an important part of the game. Two of them make fertilizer-one takes aluminum and makes goods. A couple trade coal and other traffic for chemicals to supply fertilizer factories. Another demands goods. You have to ship grain out of Kansas City and fertilizer into it so branch lines built to the many grain farms in that region from Kansas City will accomplish that. Another thing is to build branch lines to your ports and carry traffic back and forth. The ports are cheap to build and hugely profitable plus create needed traffic rapidly.
I found no problem building across the Wabash river. Did you start near Shawneetown? I will take a look at it.
The speed trial events were tested over and over countless times to make sure they worked and they were possible and not too hard.
The haulage requirements were much lower at first but once you get the hang of how the scenario works were too easy. I thought it would be less challenging to be able to finish the scenario with 15 or 20 years left in the game. Your foes in the game are time and distance.
Sorry - never even noticed you could build ports/warehouses. :x So I've started to and grief yes aren't they profitable. Guess I could have made lots more money I've known before :P
In the inital announcement I made an oversight in thanking Mr. Scott for the beautiful Cotton Belt Logo he made for me at my request. Thank you Mr. Scott :)
O/k got through to the end. No problem meeting any of the requirements except loads and as I hate micro-managing and even (for example) ensuring oil gets to the right refinery and then from there to the right location needing diesel I'm not the one to comment on this aspect. Enjoyed the new trains and (If I'd found them sooner) the new warehouses etc.
I'll give it another try on Expert instead of Normal
So to Flaws
(1) Played on for 2 years after scenario should have finished. I got nothing - should have told me I was a useless scumbag being just short of Bronze on 5 loads. (Gold plus plus on all rest). So obviously don't know if the actual wins come up correctly
(2) New ports/warehouses. You should put this into the Read Me - if possible with some explanation of what each one does. Just like any other industry some appear on the map at random (not sure if they were there at inception but I think not). Northen Cities and River Boat Traffic appear in the build Industries box twice for some reason - I assume there's no difference between them
(3) The Wabash. Don't understand this. Tried for ages to build across it (from Shawneetown) but my line always finished at the edge just as though I had no access rights east of it. BUT could build into the area across the Ohio (at presumably three times the cost) with no difficulty so that's not the problem
Northen Cities and River Boat Traffic appear in the build Industries box twice for some reason - I assume there's no difference between them
Actually all Port/Warehouse types appear twice, once as Ports and once as Warehouses. When you click on one of them in the "Build Industries" list, the picture will show which it is.
(3) The Wabash. Don't understand this. Tried for ages to build across it (from Shawneetown) but my line always finished at the edge just as though I had no access rights east of it. BUT could build into the area across the Ohio (at presumably three times the cost) with no difficulty so that's not the problem
For whatever reason, sometimes you can't build across a river exactly where you would like to. Drag the mouse to where you want the track to go and then move up- and down-river a bit until you hit a "sweet spot". You can also try building a section to near the river and then another section across the river with the method described above.
