Beta test map - West San Diego County

[coruscate]

I played the whole scenario through before tuning up one last time. I made the PNW and LTD industry profit and THEN SOME, but I fell at 92 instead of the 99 mark for the gold on company cash. That was because I focused too long on building and investing when I should have just stayed up.

HOWEVER... I did find out that way that the loser event was firing off before the bronze and silver so I adjusted it to occur at the end of January 2012 and the bronze and silver to stay at the beginning of that year.

I added chemical plants, some more recycling plants and used warehouses to similate "industry" pressence that I could not with the standard industries... that and no city grows without industries so... for civic areas it's a very low demand warehouse but it ensures just about anything on the map can be profitable as long as you ply at it. If you place industries where there is none sometimes I find it helps to add two of the same industry (or two industries with the same required load) in a spot, otherwise the spot doesn't change very much from red for some oddball reason. The game doesn't automatically adjust demand when it should, it's weird. I adjusted price levels for alcohol, furniture and clothes to help with this. In most cases those are profitable industries. The base products become profitable if you get those going as well.

[Hawk]

Lookin' forward to the new version.

[belbincolne]

Earlier I pointed out that I couldn't play this because it didn't appear in my Maps. Anyway I uninstalled patch 6 and now all the mising scenarios are there - but those needing 6 aren't. Thought (though I may be wrong) that everything was there until I installed the "Run without disc" patch (which requires un/re installing 6).

Looking at the Programme files this actually seems to be what you'd expect because 6 creates a second complete RT3 game (bigger than the original) so clearly only recognises the appropriate scenarios. Clever things computers - pity 6 doesn't allow a choice of running with/without though.

[Hawk]

I have basically two installations of RRT3. One on C drive with the 1.05 patch and one on D drive with the 1.06 patch. Two different shortcuts on the desktop allows me to run either one.

[coruscate]

Oh, whoops. Same URL, new version is up.

[belbincolne]

As always I'm puzzled by what computers get up to. Thought Hawks idea was a good one so copied RT3 to my D drive. Then tried to reinstall patch 6 on my C drive. Wouldn't - when I uninstalled it everything (including the zip file) had been deleted. So downloaded again.

Now have RT6 on my C drive and RT3(5CtoC) 0n my D. Both open without disc - thats one triumph!

Before I started all these changes RT6 only had some 20 scenarios on it (i.e. only those that would only run on patch 6) now it has 70 odd - presumably all these will run on either. San Diego Again is one example of a scenario which has re-appeared.

RT3 has 80 plus - presumably all those that don't need patch 6. In the Age of Steam series Green Diamond is the only one that appears in both so presumably the others all require patch 6. Anyway all this is here because is a question just to check that everything is working as per the patches. (and maybe this should be moved to the Patch 6 section).

What is the easiest way to tell if it is running on patch 6 or not?

[Hawk]

Oh, whoops. Same URL, new version is up.

The file and description have been updated.

http://hawkdawg.com/rrt/rrt3/map_arch/rt3_n_am.htm

[belbincolne]

Just finished playing it and got Gold on Normal at 1st attempt. Wasn't sure whether it would finish at start or end of 2012 so in Dec 2011 having only $90m cash I sold all my biggest factories to get it over the 100m so (obviously!) it finishes at the end. Anyway I still ran (just) in profit in the final year so that wasn't a problem. PNW was though because I'd been nearly $100m here too but (a) the country had been in depression for some 5 yrs and (b) my directors were really annoyed - presumably for selling industry and not building anything so fell to about 60m. Anyway buying up depressed stock got me back up so all was well. My industry profit was around three times the requirement.

Then gave it a quick burst on RT6. Couldn't see the slightest difference and it didn't crash. So its back to the question above please.

[coruscate]

Awesome, then my map is definitely completed and once I get the game mods up and running for the new buildings, I'll have a version of this map that employs all of them.

[coruscate]

By the way, let me know if a steel mill shows up when the dialog saying it does when any of you connect to Engineer Springs.

[belbincolne]

A steel mill had shown up long before I connected to ES (somewhere to north-west less near to iron and coal). When it did I built one there - it was very unprofitable until I connected when it made good money (as did hauling to T&Ds that I built). One never showed up of its own accord at ES

[Hawk]

I did see in the event that you need to connect San Diego to Engineer Springs before the steel mill will trigger. Just connecting to Engineer Springs won't trigger it unless the track is somehow connected to San Diego.

[coruscate]

Well I've set off the trigger myself like... four or five times playing this map (I always connect San Diego before getting out to that part of the map) and it never appears. I may not be setting the space up right...

[Wolverine@MSU]

This one is really easy. In my latest go, I got Gold on Expert in 1985 with three competitors. After taking out a bond and building an industry, I bought up all the personal shares I could and then used the leftover company cash to buy the rest. The price is artificially low and skyrockets after the first month. There seems to be a glut of cargoes produced by the Ports and Warehouses, so I took advantage when I had the money to build appropriate industries; the cash came gushing in. Was able to buy into a competitor, whose value skyrocketed because of huge price differentials (>1000 K trains) on coffee especially. I actually used that competitor to buy out my original company. There's no real incentive to connect Escondito to San Diego, other than some extra locos and a bit of bonus. The first time through I kept everything in the north, and didn't touch the lower 2/3 of the map, except for obvious places to build industries. Later on in the game, I was just shuttling coffee around in the San Diego area, because of the huge supply/demand differentials, sometimes reaching $400 K - $500 K per carload! The map is really nice, and I like the detail and "extra" territories, like State Parks and Military Bases. I think that oversupply, not just in the Ports/Warehouses, really detracts from having to develop a long-term strategy to meet the requirements.

[coruscate]

Well the original problem was too few supply and none of the industries were profitable. I can tone down the warehouse loads and or require a connection to win. I'll see what other feedback I get. In the meantime I'm slowly hashing out the version with the mod additions to the map.

[coruscate]

Oh Hawk, I don't think I gave you a direct answer. This map is a non-modded map. Should work fine with or without CtoC or 1.06.

What version of the game gave us the Orca train?

http://www.healthyinsanity.com/railroad ... go1976.rar

Same URL again, but don't take this one just yet, I'm trying to update it by what I noticed was still off and the last feedback I got.

Changes:

• Silver - same requirements as before plus you must connect Escondido, Oceanside and Rancho Santa Fe.
  Bronze - Same requirements as before but connect Escondido, Morisetta Junction and San Diego.
  Gold - 120 mill company cash, 77 mill in PNW and 50 mill in LTD co. industry profit plus a connection from Escondido to Tijuana.
  I accidentally turned off weapons factories, I turned them back on.
  I reinstated rubber as a port import rather than tires and re-established tire factories so the county wouldn't have to be stretched with too many of the same industry.
  I added some new, small cities.
  And I added new timed connection goals. Certain cities offer a bonus if you connect by a certain year. Others contain one if you do, and a different one if you do but miss the date.
  And the bonuses at the beginning of the game are no longer endless, outside the first two tiny cities, each city offers a few different connection bonuses but once that is set off you cannot collect the others from the remaining cities. You also have only 1-2 years to make the connection. I'm talking about connecting to San Marcos, Twin Oaks, Valley Center, Rancho Bernardo and Ramona, by the way.
  MORE RIVERS! Although they are more like creeks in real life though LOL

I also reduced some of the bulk up of products (rice, coffee) by having them swapped out for dead simple products like meat or goods. Oil and bauxite still pack up but then without it there's not a whole lot of manufacturing that would take place. San Diego has no natural resource for either, and I do think the Iron and Ore thing I'm doing in the lower right corner of the map to be... highly fictional.

[Wolverine@MSU]

Check the "Census" Newspapers for 1990 on.....I think I remember them with 1980 Headlines. Let us know when the newest version is available, I'ld like to try it. I think I noticed that some of the connection announcements were given as messages that slipped by in the upper left corner. It might be better to put them on banners (or whatever the notice is that comes up and you have to click "OK" to get rid of.

[Hawk]

Oh Hawk, I don't think I gave you a direct answer. This map is a non-modded map. Should work fine with or without CtoC or 1.06.

Noted and revised on the page.

[coruscate]

Check the "Census" Newspapers for 1990 on.....I think I remember them with 1980 Headlines. Let us know when the newest version is available, I'ld like to try it. I think I noticed that some of the connection announcements were given as messages that slipped by in the upper left corner. It might be better to put them on banners (or whatever the notice is that comes up and you have to click "OK" to get rid of.

I'll check the census thing. As for the messages slipping by... check your settings, it sounds like you turned off the dialog boxes and forgot to turn them back on. I've done that before...

[Wolverine@MSU]

I started playing the newest version you linked to above (even though you said it wasn't quite ready yet). It plays much better with the "toned-down" ports/warehouses. I like the new additions to the map too (rivers, cities, etc.). I'll have to take a look at the messages thing; could be it's turned off. I like the bioaccelorator cars, except that they tend to make my video much jerkier than before. Is there something tied to them in the game, or are they just there for kicks? Are the steam locos supposed to be outragously expensive? I'm seeing over $1000 K for some of them. Did you alter the speeds for the diesels? Most of them seem to have specs that are unusually fast. Are you trying to push electric? The choices seem very biased toward electrics after connecting to San Diego. I've been sticking with the lowly $200 K diesel (forgot what the name is) as it seems to have much better long-term reliablity compared to the $400 K diesels. I also like the fact that you've added connection goals for medals.......makes one have to construct a complete railroad system. And, by the way, 1990 cesnsus newspaper still says "1980 census", although I think it gives the correct numbers for population.

Looking forward to the "final" version.