California 2020 (for v1.05)

[moblet]

OK, I think this one's about ready to throw to the wolves, er, I mean, beta testers.

This is my first scenario, and as I went into this not knowing much about how the editor functioned the programming ended up more complex than I anticipated and I had to switch some of my variables around. It seems to hang together now - I'm sure I'll get to hear about it if it doesn't!

A custom language file is included which changes some commodity names and customises the player and company names, newspapers, and most of the building captions. If you need instructions for substituting your language file, or are playing without substituting it, consult the readme.

Questions I have:
~ Is the scenario self-explanatory?
~ As it's set in the USA everything should be written in American English. Americans, please corrupt my spelling.
~ Is the degree of difficulty appropriate? (both targets and penalties). It was designed to be challenging, unforgiving even, but not impossible.
~ Is it fun? If not, what would make it fun?
~ Does RT3 behave itself?

On that last point, here are the pointy bits:
1. Earthquakes are random events that cause temporary operational and economic effects and may destroy infrastructure. There are four degrees of severity; the higher the severity, the lower the probability of occurrence. A temporary variable is used to ensure that another earthquake does not occur until the effects of the previous one have worn off; otherwise RT3 may introduce offsets that do things like drop steel and lumber prices to zero (making it impossible to complete the scenario). I had some trouble with this in development but believe I've solved it. A severe (magnitude 9) earthquake should only occur once naturally, if at all. (The player can potentially induce an additional severe quake.)
2. There are two choice-driven paths with randomly-determined outcomes. You'll know these are upcoming at mention of a lawsuit, and, later, "curing" earthquakes. Please save your game at these points and explore the choices and outcomes. The lawsuit has five equally probable outcomes. These paths are triggered by haulage and electricity generation, not the calendar, so you won't see them at the same time every time you play, or if you're not working towards the targets.
3. At game start there should be a uranium mine north of Reno somewhere, without which your first 10-15 years are much more difficult. I've always seen this mine every time I've started the scenario, but if you ever don't, let me know.
4. Upon achieving a certain target RT3 is instructed to add six rubber farms in one of three randomly selected locations. I've found that I don't always get all six, but have always received at least one. Please tell me if you ever get none.

Anyone wanting to pick through the events will likely find them all a bit confusing. For you, and you especially, a list of variables is included.

[belbincolne]

I've just started playing this and so far its running fine (but haven't got to earthquakes or law suits yet). I don't like changing commodities etc because the last time I did it everything became corrupted and I had to reload everything (which is quite a large job when you're running both an RT3 and RT6 files). There was no Read Me covering playing without substitution.

It also wasn't clear whether you had to buy the power station or just get it to produce - seems like its the latter fortunately. With no read me I dont know how much uranium you have to ship each year to meet the target. In the first year I produced about 4 times that needed and in the 2nd only about a third. Personally I hate micro-managing (in this case in Dec stopping any trains with uranium if your targets met so that they'll go into the next year, although I know some players love that sort of thing) so I'd rather see surplus electricity carried forward. My problem initially was that two ports supposedly have uranium so I tried to carry from them without any success so had to spend a fortune to get to the mine near Reno

Anyway its a nice idea and is fun. I'll keep on playing the game I've started although I think I could easily improve on the play now I know what happens.

[moblet]

Sorry, the readme has just a passing reference to playing without the .lng file. The only thing you have to know playing with the original commodities is that implants are represented by toys.

Correct, you don't need to own the power stations; thanks for picking up on that. I don't like that degree of train micromanagement either and want to set a target that's achievable without it, provided one's strategy and execution are good.

Were you supplying the ports with the necessary commodities in order to obtain uranium? They don't give you anything for nothing. They may take a couple of years to wake up after they're first supplied. As for the quantity you need, I don't know the official conversion, but have arrived at a rule of thumb of 1 load of uranium generating 100 GWh.

[belbincolne]

Thanks. Played on without success. There were quite a lot of train crashes (one with a load of uranium) which - with only expensive electric trains - didn't help at all - maybe disallowing crashes would help. I found it very hard to get to the far east uranium area and managed to build steel and tyre plants but then hadn't enough money to build the auto plant having maximum bonds already. Will try again with (I hope) a better strategy.

[belbincolne]

Well certainly did better but still no success. This time no train crashes at all. Managed to get the auto plant built but before my first train with tyres and steel arrived there was told I'd failed to deliver any cars to the east so only had the implants left. With no money to build these (and its nearly midnite) I've given up until tomorrow. This time i got the 1st 5 years of elec generation o/k but then I couldn't meet the increased demands at all. I'm also having a problem with PNW - cant see me getting anywhere near the target. Mind you the first 5 years of play this time was all depression/recession which is nice for building rails but not for anything else.

[moblet]

I completely agree about switching off train crashes. Dunno why I didn't think to do that before.

For the auto haulage, note that the medal requirement is haulage from the AutoZone, not specifically to any destination. The Utah auto target is a separate target that earns you a bonus. I set up the AutoZone arrangement to make it impossible to meet the target by shuffling the same autos back and forth - you must produce them.

Don't panic about the PNW before the last ten years. This scenario's goals don't allow you to depress performance early on to acquire a large holding in the beginning, but because you have to build all the industries, and should have kept most or all of the profitable ones, if you're still in the game in the last ten years you should be rolling in money, enabling buybacks and large dividends. The PNW target is mainly to prevent the player habitually issuing stock to raise cash, but it also gives you something to focus on in those final years when you (hopefully) have the operational targets under control.

I've got an idea for the electricity generation to satisfy both styles of play: offer the player the option of converting it to a LTD target in exchange for something. Will have a think about whether to make that "something" cash or a performance target of some kind, but it needs to be costly. Suggestions welcome.

[belbincolne]

Shouldn't have mentioned no crashes - two immediately I restarted! No auto deliveries penalised me $1m p a so I never got back into the black and it proved hopeless to play on so I'll have to have another restart once I've got time (family now here). Good idea about the auto target - another thing that annoys me is when the only way to meet targets is to keep returning trains.

I've noted PNW position - and hopefully wont go bust next time when a depression sets in. And like idea of a carryover - I'll have to think about what might be a suitable swap.

[moblet]

I think I'll charge the player extra overhead (30%, maybe more) in exchange for making the electricity LTD. Might soften the auto penalty to half a million too.

Hope the family are being nice to you. I'm about to move house so won't get back to this for maybe a couple of weeks.

[belbincolne]

Well haven't gone bust for PNW but hauling everything is hell. There isn't enough coal/iron on the map to make steel mill profitable nor enough rubber for tires hence not enough of these for autos. Plus after the first 5 years there isn't enough uranium for electricty. Had the message that big iron deposits at Tonapah(?) but there wasn't (last play one appeared but hadn't enough cash to rail there so don't know what it would have produced. I've one coal mine and one iron mine only. Four rubber but two too far away - and one had train waiting there for an age - when I looked why it had vanished. Can hardly buy them to stop this happening as (a) haven't enough cash and (b) they never make a profit either.

Kids now gone - but still have to clean house up after them! Hope your house move goes without trauma

[moblet]

There isn't enough coal/iron on the map to make steel mill profitable nor enough rubber for tires hence not enough of these for autos. Plus after the first 5 years there isn't enough uranium for electricty.

The ports! Look at the ports! Plus the warehouse at Merced. Producing most of the required commodities will also make you a lot of profit. Remember too that a recycling plant produces steel, paper, and aluminum/gold. You don't need to reach Utah to produce enough steel. Your steel mill may not necessarily be profitable but you can always sell it after you've built it. I'm not spilling any beans about the Tonopah iron just yet.

Obtaining the rubber farms quickly is generally crucial to securing enough rubber supply to meet the auto target. Expect to have to build a tire factory in Nevada that may not be profitable, to draw the rubber supply to a single point for collection. I'll increase the number of cattle ranches in Nevada to help get the rubber farms earlier and to help supply the port at Eureka.

[RayofSunshine]

Moblet and Belbincoine,

As it still being a BETA, which I shy away due to lack of 'know how' to correct any bug, which on occasion has screwed up my computer system, I have these comments.

GREAT IDEAS. I have yet to download it to display to see the terrain, but it can only be a bonus to the creative ideas thus far explained. And if Belbincoine is having problems of trying to keep the scenario running, being considerably more of a Tycoon than myself, I don't know if I would be much of a help for you to get to the final version. However, I am looking forward to that completion, as I do like challenges, but of more interest to just play.

And Belbincoine, when I start having too many "train crashes", I can usually get some help by the "cheat" of """safety first""". Sometimes the percentage of crashes seem to be greater than usual, and I don't like them to be over excessive to ruin my playing.

Both of you keep up the good work of creation. Other members will have the enjoyment of your creative abilities. Expecially those of us who do not have the talent.

Thanks again for your endeavors.

Ray of Sunshine

[RulerofRails]

I don't know why this one is still an "unfinished map"? Seems like the beta testers couldn't confirm that it was working nicely. I just played it and I didn't see anything wrong. This guy understood the events on par with the best. He also used intelligent port/warehouse placements and setups. The effort and creativity he put in shows.

This map uses the "Central Pacific" as the base. The style of the map is similar to Drums of War and Panama Canal (but less intensive haulage, so less temptation to micromanage). Basically, you need to build the entire economy (industries aren't seeded in towns). Then there's some haulage to and from ports and warehouses. Not a sharp economic game, but an empire builder style. Mix of industry building, management, and running a long term network. I do enjoy this style of game every now and then, although admittedly replayability isn't inherit. Thankfully, there's some events that help with that.

I enjoyed my play and thought the least I could do is to leave a word here to say thanks to the creator.

[RayofSunshine]

Thanks RoR,
For your comments. I had some comments myself on the initial scenario, but don't remember playing it. As I have downloaded it again, and will see what problem I may have had, so didn't start or finish my play.

It takes talent and time in these creations, and hope Moblet will try again, to see more of his creations.

[RayofSunshine]

Well RoR,
From my previous trend, I shyed away from it being a Beta, that might need corrections to 'bugs'. However, I did download and boot it up, and played for a couple of years. But I have run into a problem. I don't know how to get "implants". There is some reference in connection to GWHs when 1,200 gets trigged, and then some thing to do with the "first implant". Everything otherwise has been operating without any problem.

So, can you enlighten me as to the source of getting the initial "implants", so as to continue play??

[RulerofRails]

Implants = Toys. Aluminum = Gold, Bauxite = Gold Ore. The custom language file (rt3.lng) included renames them, but you don't need to use it.

[RayofSunshine]

Thanks RoR
for the info. I don't have an lng program, and really don't want another in my system, unless it becomes a definite necessity. Not when I can get the info from you.
So I run into another problem. I don't see any icon for an "electric plant", necessary for electricty. I have been "feeding" into the nuclear plant, but don't see any "tally" for it in the year end ledger.
Am I on the right or wrong track????

[Gumboots]

You don't need any "lng program". The custom lng file is a straight swap for the default RT3.lng file.

All you need to do is save a copy of the default, and then drop the custom one into the same folder - Data/Language.

It's easier than installing a new custom locomotive, and you can swap it back to the default file whenever you want to.

[RayofSunshine]

Lean something each day Gumboot. Now if I could find out why I am not getting any tally for the GWH -electicity, as I know that I have hauled at least 3 loads of waste from the Nuclear Fusion Plant.

[RulerofRails]

Ray, the Electricity goal is Yearly. So only what you made in the current year will show up. There is no Electric Plant, because in this scenario the story-line is that California has banned burning fossil fuels. So, focus on Uranium. Initially, look to the Ports which will trade it for Aulminum (Gold) and Alcohol.

PS. The cargo "Waste" in RT3 represents the "recyclable" kind. Nuclear waste would definitely make no sense converted to Steel, Aluminum, or Paper.

[RayofSunshine]

Okay RoR,
Interesting. CA still has a on nuclear. At this time, Japan is really having time trying to clean up the mess caused a couple of years ago. They claim that it will take from 30 to 40 years. I just wonder what the health level is at those 2 cities bombed in WWII. Supposedly scientist claim radiation for 100s of years, and now there are cities construction at both.

Thanks again for the info.