Southeastern USA

[RobO]

Here's the first problem report. Nothing serious, fortunately.

The second page is blank.
No AI, playing on Hard.

[arop]

This problem can be solved by changing territories in the trigger from all territories to USA. I do not hope I have made more blunders, if I have, let me hear.Thank you!

[RobO]

So, I'll have to restart after fixing this, right?
Not a big problem, I haven't gotten too far and I'm having a bit of a problem earning money at start - have to rethink my opening strategy.

[Wolverine@MSU]

So, I'll have to restart after fixing this, right?
Not a big problem, I haven't gotten too far and I'm having a bit of a problem earning money at start - have to rethink my opening strategy.

You don't need to restart the game. Just go into the editor, make the change and save the map. Exit the Editor, and at least for the game you are playing, the bug will be fixed. If you plan to play it again, you should fix the original map before starting.

[RobO]

This is probably a problem with RRT3 itself or with 1.06b4

I have a cotton field in St Stephens and a Textile Mill in Mobile, connected via rail. But I can't move Cotton from St. Stephens to Mobile unless I force the train to move it. And it automatically takes it back. Mobile does not demand cotton from St. Stephens - it is quite the reverse, contrary to what it should be.

I have a savegame in case someone wants it.

[Silverback]

well I'll take a shot at an answer - the cotton won't flow as the price seems to be higher in St Stevens than Mobile so I guess the real question is why is the price higher in St Stevens? which I can't see from the screen shots.

Maybe there are already a lot of cotton fields near Mobile lowering the price - or is a textile mill somewhere else raising the price at the cotton field?

You need to move cotton from Clanton or Jackson to Mobile by the look of it

[RobO]

Here s demand and supply:

The cotton does flow elsewhere, but I have the only rail connection to that farm, so it ought to be used.

The farm is very profitable.

So, is this just a matter of a strange supply/demand model in RRT3?

It does look like the Textile Mill in Mobile is flawed - it apparently doesn't generate any demand for Cotton (or very little).

[Wolverine@MSU]

could it be that there was a Textile Mill there when the game was seeded that then disappeared? If there was, it would have generated a demand, and piling up of cotton, that takes several years to dissapate after the sink (Textile Mill) goes away. Usually factories don't get built in the middle of nowhere, but this may be a case where one did.

[RobO]

could it be that there was a Textile Mill there when the game was seeded that then disappeared? If there was, it would have generated a demand, and piling up of cotton, that takes several years to dissapate after the sink (Textile Mill) goes away. Usually factories don't get built in the middle of nowhere, but this may be a case where one did.

You mean where the cotton farm is?
It doesn't seem likely. Why would it go away if there's plenty of cotton readily available? And there's a demand for cotton at the farm now, and no textile mill in the area.

[RobO]

The cotton flow problem eventually corrected itself. But I've got another one now. I bought a Steel Mill in Knoxville and set up an ample supply of Iron and Coal. I'm also hauling away Steel pretty fast (but maybe not fast enough). There's plenty Coal and Iron in Knoxville, yet the Steel Mill produces only max 5 loads per year. It has been that way for a while, but it hasn't been that way all through the life of the Steel Mill. It certainly does not use the full upgraded capacity.


Is the demand/supply model in RRT3 simply inherently unstable?
Or is it a problem with the 1.6 patch? I've upgraded to b6 yesterday.

There are only two other steel mills on the map - in Birmingham and not connected to my rails. They also operate at a loss. Demand for Steel is pretty large in the south, some places over +100$

[belbincolne]

I know I've played this before but can't remember what happened so I had another try on Normal. Got Gold after 31 years and the only fault was in the Almanac as already illustrated. If you combine railing and Industry you always seem to be rolling in money even during depressions.

[RobO]

Yeah, I have no money problems, perhaps except for PNW (I always have found this to be difficult). In my game (on Hard) I'm around 1900 with 2 AI's. I have spent some years trying to accumulate enough cash to merge with one of them, but it doesn't work (they increase in value almost as much as I accumulated, and I had to spend some money buying back stock to keep my broker happy). So I've started an expansion from Memphis through Birmingham to JacksonVille(?) in Florida(?). My company has over 30M in cash, so it shouldn't be hard to do, just takes some time. I expect the share value will push me beyond 50M in PNW (at least).

I sold that Steel Mill and also bought and placed a Tool & Die in Knoxville. One or both of these changes (or something else) eventually made the Steel Mill profitable. My conclusion is that the supply/demand model isn't quite transparent (could be a bug or could be a feature).

[belbincolne]

Played it on Expert and got Gold after 36 years with no real problems at all - I tried it with two AIs but they were so aggressive that I knew I was going nowhere so packed in after 5 years and restarted with none - again mixing railing and manufacturing. I didn't buy any prime producers until very late (last 3 years) in game when it became harder to find places to build new factories. Could find absolutely no flaws in the game play.

[RobO]

I got Gold as well in Jan 1907, but the Gold trigger is wrong. This was shortly after making the last required connection - to Miami this time. My CBV and PNW was too low for a Gold however.

[RobO]

I checked the map in the editor. The Gold event checks for CBV <= 300000K, that should obviously be >= instead.

However, I don't really understand how it triggers on my case, as the Gold event also has checks for PNW >= 150000K and industrial profit >= 150000K, and I didn't fulfil any of those. All the conditions are AND conditions, none of them are OR, so that shouldn't be the problem.

Which brings me to another thing: The Lose event. It says
Time = 75 years AND
PNW < 50000K AND
CBV < 100000K
That won't trigger if your CBV is e.g. 110000K and your PNW is 40000K after 75 years (Bronze is CBV >= 100 AND PNW >= 50). But the editor doesn't sem to allow the proper event: (Time=75) AND (PNW < 50000K OR CBV < 100000K)). Is there something wrong with this event as well?

[arop]

I have made another blunder!!! am sorry for the inconvenience I have caused. I hope you like my map anyway.

[RobO]

I have made another blunder!!! am sorry for the inconvenience I have caused. I hope you like my map anyway.

Actually, I do.
Pls tell me if I need to make other corrections than changing <= to >= in the Gold event. In other words, do I need to change the Lose event? Wouldn't the proper Lose event be:
Year = 75 AND no medals awarded (if that's possible to check)?

While we're at it: The Lose, Bronze, Gold, Silver events all test against all companies and all players. Shouldn't that be on screen player only?

And the order of the win/lose events seem wrong. They go
Lose
Bronze
Silver
Gold
Check this post. I see that Silver and Bronze only fire at Year=75, but still - it seems to me that you could fulfil silver at year 75 and still only get bronze.

Sorry for being such a bother
I'm not that familiar with the limitations of the RRT3 editor.

[besterik]

The Lose event. It says
Time = 75 years AND
PNW < 50000K AND
CBV < 100000K
That won't trigger if your CBV is e.g. 110000K and your PNW is 40000K after 75 years (Bronze is CBV >= 100 AND PNW >= 50). But the editor doesn't sem to allow the proper event: (Time=75) AND (PNW < 50000K OR CBV < 100000K)). Is there something wrong with this event as well?

Instead of:
(Time=75) AND (PNW < 50000K OR CBV < 100000K))
Put them in the order:
(PNW < 50000K OR CBV < 100000K)) AND (Time=75)
I think that the program will add the paranthesis the right way now.
An alternative solution is to just let it check it (Time=75) and place it after the medals. That way the game will first check if gold medal condition is true, then silver medal and then bronze medal, and then give a loose event if none of the medals were triggered.

[RobO]

An alternative solution is to just let it check it (Time=75) and place it after the medals. That way the game will first check if gold medal condition is true, then silver medal and then bronze medal, and then give a loose event if none of the medals were triggered.

But that would fire the Lose event if you decide to play on after a medal, wouldn't it?

[EPH]

You can put in a new event above each medal or lose event. This would have the same qualifications as the medal or lose event but would offer a choice: You have qualified for the (medal). Would you like to take your medal or play on?

The choice should set a variable from zero to one. Each medal and lose events would then check that variable, and if it is zero the event would fire (and not fire if the variable is one).

Choose GOLD
GOLD
Choose SILVER
SILVER
Choose BRONZE
BRONZE
Choose LOSE
Lose

This may not be exactly what you are looking for, but it will work.

Alternatively the Choose event could give the player another 3 or 5 years, but you will need a second set of medal (and lose) events for that.