new map: Naghraib

[brunom]

This is the penultimate map from my series of "Other Lands", which started a few months back with Dragozain. There's another in the production line, but then that's it for now, since "carving" stopped being so fun for me.

Naghraib was done using a "Northern Africa" motif. There's a desert inland, there's a Sultan, architecture is Persian and to name those hundred towns I used sounds-like-arabic words. Still, the rest of the scenario has nothing to do with that real-world region (the map doesn't even have oil!).

Cutting the story short, not much to be said, really, other than I hope you enjoy it and I hope you don't find too many flaws.

As always, all comments, positive or negative, are welcome.
B

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[RayofSunshine]

This is a scnario which makes for fun, and some tough calculations. Fulfilled most of the requirements, but then there is the requirement to be the sole survivor. Unless a player controls the majority of the AI stock, you may as well start from the beginning. Even when an offer of ""double"" the initial price, and there is only the owner, I was not able to make the merger. I will have to give it a thought, to try and "take over" the company. But then I don't believe that I have the majority of my original Rwy, to get back to its Chairmanship. I have a lot of years remaining, so will get back to some theories of play.

[brunom]

My own opinion on this scenario is that it is quite easy and that most of the map isn't needed. It's one for heavy builders and people who enjoy extensive networks, not necessarily for medals sake.

Careful with those mergers, Ray . AI players will likely generate new companies, with 100% of the stock in their hands - if you take over too soon. That part of the scenario needs to be worked exactly like Wolverine (or was it Blackhawk) theorized the other day...

B

[RayofSunshine]

I didn't take MSUs suggestion, as I was more of the idea to try and merge with AIs, of which I did not have the 51% controlling stock. That was after 40 years. As indicated, it did not work, even with a max incentive.
However, that being the case, I went back to scratch. Spent the 1st 3 years trying to accummulate AI stocks, and even used a max dividend for my company, after max issuing bond, keeping a rate in the "Cs". Well, that didn't work either, as the AIs dividend, which was at the "top of the totum pole" right from the start, kept spliting, faster than I could buy their stock. But then I had to make connections of 8 to equal, or 9 cities to fall in line with the program of requirement. Things were moving along fine, as a scenario goes, but kept falling behind on the majority percentage.
Stock Market is not one of my better types of scenarios to play. Looks like this one is for these "wizard" mathematicians.
This scenario has a great concept of imagination, and the terrain is simple enough to navigate. Just have to use the engine compatible for the hills. Either you have the speed, or a slower engine, with better incline capability.
Will run the 40 year course of requirement, and then see what can be done with the mergers.

[Blackhawk]

-In the briefing: therefor should be therefore. (Also not really a big thing but the name of the company is the Imperial Railroad of Bassyria, yet in the briefing it's said to take over the Bassyria Imperial Railroad)

-the time frame should probably be mentioned in briefing? (I noticed it was added to the ledger by the time of the 2nd year)

-I was worried about the overhead increasing 1% every time there are over 2mil in profits. It does seem to take an ever growing amount of money from me so you really can't shouldn't just sit back and relax as you need to keep expanding for awhile to keep making more revenue to cancel out the increased overhead costs. However, it didn't really slow me as much as I thought it would.

-Some of the events need a little reworking. Obviously the victory events need to be added. But also the order of the Lose events and/or when they are checked needs to be changed. I was told another company connected to Bourqibi and that the Sultan was displeased. (At the end of the year) Then, at the end of January/start of February I finally am told I lost. I would fix those so the player doesn't keep playing only to find out a month later they've lost for something that happened last year.

-Related to the above point. I bought out Northeast railroad, Quissyria Railways and then I used that to expand downward into Bourqibi. After I connected at the end of the year I was told another company made the connection and I lost. But the company that actually connected it was mine, it was just a different branch of it so either the briefing should make clear it has to be the branch connected to Quidrifat that has to make the connection, or the event has to be rewritten to allow for the possibility of a merger and the connection coming from a some rail that doesn't yet connect to Quidrifat.

[Blackhawk]

Alright I'll do my run-through of the scenario now that I have some more time.

The first thing I did was sell off a share or two of my own stock so I could buy a share of Imperial Railroad (IR) as I saw it would split at the end of the year.

I then built from Qidirfat to Saldar to Tarisha. I then built south for awhile to Hamanif - Sauk - Alafabet - Nabatiet. I then when back and connected to Seif and debated whether or not I wanted to head east from Seif or Nabatiet and I thought it looked like I'd avoid the most mountains and connect the bigger cities if I used a southern route. I ended up eventually building out to Mermissi and Lacauf and my line stopped there as I decided I'd try a take over of the QR.

It was around 1871 when I bought out the QR. I thought well do I want to pay 4 million to pay for access rights to a territory or do I want to buy out one of these companies and use their access rights. I decided to buy out the QR as they were becoming more profitable as an iron mine recently appeared by the steel mill they owned. I wasn't sure if the steel mill would become highly profitable or not but I didn't want to take my chances in making it too difficult to buy out the QR. I think I ended up paying around 7 million to buy out the QR as it was in a booming economic time so their stock price was high and threatening to split soon so I needed to take out around 5 million in bonds.

After the takeover I used the QR line to connect to Maat and Qassem and rebuilt the station in Iqilla to be a large station and cover more of the city. Then I built south towards Bourbiqi and connected some of the cities along the way. Later I built up north along the coast to connect to Shanaif and then south from there to Hagamah. As noted above because of the way the event was written I was told I lost when my own company made the connection to Bourbiqi because it was not part of my track from Qidirfat.

A little later I was again presented with the issue of do I pay 4 million for access rights or just buy out the IR and get their access rights. So again I waited until I had enough cash and bought them out. I think this time I may have been in a recession so I didn't bother taking out any bonds I just waited until I had enough cash on hand. I believe I managed to get a 51% stake in the company as well so I got away with offering the bare minimum price so it wasn't that expensive of a take over. With access to the other territory I then finished my connection from Bourbiqi - Qabir - Hesebat - Bourdiqil - Dadik and connected to the former IR line in Bourbud. Then I connected Matmaf to Tarisha and just waited for my 1500 loads to be shipped to Qidirfat. I was often adding more and more engines to haul to Qidifat and towards the end of my game I was often hauling over 100 loads a year there. Once I had enough loads shipped I then bought access to the final territory and connected Hameh.

With no end game events I wasn't sure entirely if this was now considered victory or not. As I had bought out the IR and QR and connected all the cities, and the briefing only said to buy out the QR and IR, not to be the only company left. However, the AI had 2 new companies pop up after I bought them out. The QR since I paid a high price for it meant the new AI company was 100% owned by the AI player, however, his company lost money continually and eventually filed for bankruptcy so I bought up some shares thinking I might need them to merge with him once. But eventually the company was liquidated by his creditors. The IR AI player started another company but I was able to buy up about a 1/3 of the company, then when he declared bankruptcy I was able to take a 51% stack and bought up the company.

I rarely use hotels/taverns but in this scenario they brought in some nice profits in Qidirfat. I think the hotel was bringing in around 150-175k a year towards the end of the scenario.

I guess that's about it. Invest wisely and buy up stock in the other companies. I tried to invest in the one either I knew I wanted to take over soon, or the one that gave the best dividends. I also owned some of my own stock as a way to increase my purchasing power. I bought some early and then knew it would split over time so I'd keep some and keep letting it split, and I'd occasionally sell off a few shares here or there to make sure I never had a problem with my purchasing power. I never had any dividend in my own company though so you have to be careful not to buy too much of the company or else you'll be so far in debt you'll pay more in interest than you'll make in dividends and growing stock price. I also don't think I issued any of my own stock since my purchasing power was important to me to be able to safely own stocks in the other companies.

[brunom]

Hi guys, thanks for testing the scenario.

It still doesn't have win conditions because I am unsure if the requirements should stick to what I outlined in this version. I would love to have a bigger share of the map to be used by the player, and to get any medal you can ignore over 50% of the map. If you have any ideas concerning this, please share.

I am also aware of the problem you faced, Blackhawk, concerning merging with the northern company and linking Qyssiria to the inland capitals instead of Qidrifat. I will re-write the ledger and requirements presentation. The scenario will demand the cities to be connected to Qidrifat before any other main port (will need to rewrite the events a bit as well), no matter what the company.

The need to make a choice between mergers of buying access for your own company is done on purpose. I tried to balance the cost of merging and the cost of access. Do you guys think this was accomplished?

I also need to experiment a bit to come up with a way to test that the player merged with Imperial Railway and Qyssiria Railway, but still allow for late-spawned companies... but I have an idea for this (checking if CBV = 0 for those companies)

I'm contending with the idea of having another war starting between Bassyria and Naghraib, with effects on territory access, commodity access, etc.. but I still haven't worked this out as well. (thoughts on it?)

Finally, the next version will have the start date moved a little forward, so that it still ends "at the turn of the century", but the player should be more pressed with time.

B

[Blackhawk]

It still doesn't have win conditions because I am unsure if the requirements should stick to what I outlined in this version. I would love to have a bigger share of the map to be used by the player, and to get any medal you can ignore over 50% of the map. If you have any ideas concerning this, please share.

I suppose you could use a requirement to connect X number of cities. I thought I used a decent amount of the map but overly large and expansive railroads just for the sake of being a large railroad isn't really my play style, especially when it ends up requiring a lot of engines and then it lags my computer, so I may not have used as much of the map as you would like the player to use. With the way I accomplished the map I didn't bother touching the southwest territory until I made the final connection though so that area was wide open except for in the very end connecting to the capital.

You could also come up with another industry that appears only in a certain area of the map and make it have to be hauled elsewhere. Ex. have Bauxite appear and it'll need to hauled to a aluminum mill somewhere else in a less likely to be connected area, and then the aluminum will need to be shipped elsewhere to a port/warehouse or tool & die.

I am also aware of the problem you faced, Blackhawk, concerning merging with the northern company and linking Qyssiria to the inland capitals instead of Qidrifat. I will re-write the ledger and requirements presentation. The scenario will demand the cities to be connected to Qidrifat before any other main port (will need to rewrite the events a bit as well), no matter what the company.

Chances are I'd still do the same strategy, I just wouldn't build a station in the capital city, I'd just run track through it. If you're not okay with a player doing that you may want to even test for track in an area around the city.

The need to make a choice between mergers of buying access for your own company is done on purpose. I tried to balance the cost of merging and the cost of access. Do you guys think this was accomplished?

I thought at the time when I merged with the companies it was much more beneficial to buy out an AI player rather than pay 4 million for access. I think I paid just over 7million and maybe 5 million (I'd have to go back and look at that to see, it was a recession and I owned 51% of the stock) to take over the railroads. To me these seemed like a bargain compared to the price I'd have had to pay for territory access. I suppose if I had connected the 3 capitals first, and got northern territory access for free it might not have been as much of a bargain, but I still felt by paying a total of 13-14 million I got access to I think 5 territories, which otherwise would have cost me 20 million, plus I got the AI's assets. So to me the incentive to merge is pretty high. With lower territory access costs maybe there would be more incentive to expand rather than merge early on.

I'm contending with the idea of having another war starting between Bassyria and Naghraib, with effects on territory access, commodity access, etc.. but I still haven't worked this out as well. (thoughts on it?)

That sounds like an interesting idea, but it'd be hard to comment on it more without knowing more specifics.

[RayofSunshine]

Well Brunom,
I enjoyed this scenario, and worked at a pace to acquire sufficient funding to merge with the Bassyria Rwy. Well to little avail. Before I could allocate consists and replace their aging engine, I had another AI to contend, with no stocks available. I believe that if the requirement is to be a player to be the sole survivor, that the programming should omit any newly start ups.
The scenario has an adequate amount of challenges, without these little "surprises". Otherwise, the program was running fine, without any "crashes". Well, that is the programmng. I had a considerable number of engines crashing every year, even with only 4-5 years of service. But I guess that was the reality in those early years.

Now, as in a couple of other scenarios, I don't know how a player can wait until the "last minute" to do the merging, and not have an AI start up, as it was within a couple months that it occurred in this scenario. Not unless a player lays all the parallel tracks to the cities of requirement, and with a "V-E-R-Y" high amount of revenue, to pause the system, and to merge, at which time, near the end of the time frame, with AIs, which have a considerable high value. Even if the payer has the 51% controlling stock.

AND considering that the AI start up was within a couple of months from the merger, such mergers would have to be made on DEC 15th of the final year. LOL

Did enjoy the scenario, and the terrain was very playable. Good concept of challengers as well. EXCEPT for those AI new start ups.

[brunom]

I have an idea to solve the problem Ray, which I shall test soon, when I find the time.
Basically, I want an event that will trigger as soon as you merge with someone else's company and set that player cash to nearly $0. Once I can make this work, Naghraib is a finished work, ready for archiving.

But for now, it's up to the player to make sure he can control every company. Which can be done if you own more than 50% of the stock of all companies and use that to your advantage (admittedly not an easy achievement)

B

[brunom]

The idea didn't quite work. So I decided to wave away the requisite to be the sole survivor - it really didn't have to be.

So here's the "release candidate" version, with everything programmed in. I played it a few times and seems to work fine. Give it a week or so, and if nobody finds any glitches (I'm guessing few people are around, as we are in holidays season, still), it'll go for the archives.

Naghraib 95 (RC2).zip

(4.06 MiB) Downloaded 330 times

Happy Summer
B

[RayofSunshine]

You know Brunom,
I will keep that previous beta 98 scenario. Being that none of the betas were being updated, I started playing the "Campaign" scenarios. That Germantown has always been tough for me to similarily, be the lone survivor. I tried a few attempts, and finally was able to get the Gold. In this case I was able to not only get the control of the stock, but accummulated several hundred more stock. I tried for a few years to accummulate the enormous amount of revenue to merge without success. The remaining AI just continued to expand, driving up the required amount in the merge.
But then I remembered a similar suggestion or previous scenario attempt, and waited for a Recession, and then sold all the extra stock, but retained the 51% control factor. That drove down the stock, and also the revenue to acomplish the merge. Maybe I will try that method in another attempt of the beta 98 version.

With that last (.) it became the memory that the problem was not attaining the factor of "sole survivor", but that a merge of an AI, permitted that AI to start another company without any available stock.

So with that said, I wil forget about an attempt with the beta 98 version, but will leave the rest of this thread in tact as a suggestion or hint for other players with the problem of merging with AIs having excessive revenue.

[RayofSunshine]

This is an older scenario back from Aug 2011, but I do go back to older scenarios of which I enjoy playing. This one has an interesting concept of imagination of challenges, and "almost" did not anticiapate continuing playing, with only 12 years left of the time duration. Accesses were $4M and $6M and $2M to obtain the goal requirements. But knowing that I had finished playing this scenario back in 2011, I continued. Then I found out the reason that I had finished in 2011. There is a bonus in obtaining those other necessary territories, in order to complete the goals for the Gold. I'll leave the surprise to those who attempt the play of the scenario. Believe me, it does have its challenges and is a worthwhile scenario to play.

[Hawk]

I'm assuming this is just a spelling error.
In the Important Notes, you say to connect to Naqqalat, but all I found was Naqalat. I'm guessing that is what you meant. The extra q was an error?

[RayofSunshine]

Well Hawk,
As I ran into that "misspelling" I just assumed it as such. I was more concerned with the "access territoy fee", and almost discontinued play 1/2 way thru the time duration. But as mentioned, there is a bonus once a player connects to a "specific" city. (Can't even tell any one, as I don't remember the city.) Ignorance of the law. LOL
I also had some thoughts on even playing it, as I had played it some time ago, and didn't remember having any problems with getting the goals. With that said, players will just have to play it to get its results.

[Hawk]

OK! I successfully connected Qidrifat with Bourdiqil but I'm not getting credit for it in the ledger.

Ledger.jpg (59.81 KiB) Viewed 12235 times

map.jpg (15.46 KiB) Viewed 12235 times

At this point I'm going to hold off playing any further on this map until you post back.

[RayofSunshine]

I am surprised Hawk,
That the connection to Bourdiquil is not credited. Puzzled. I do see that you made the connection via Daezil,Massat, and Dadik, which was the same as the routing I took.

I don't believe that there would be any connection between me first connecting to Hameh via Daezil, have any bearing on the problem. But Hameh has to be connected with Bourdiquil in order to get credit of the "corridor" being completed.

Will be interesting to see the reason for your playing to be a problem.

[RayofSunshine]

Well Hawk,
This has nothing to do with Naghraib as per say, but then maybe.

We all know about glitches, just ask the web creators of ObamaCare. LOL

Any way, I played "The Port of Newcastle". All the requirements were completed, but I only received a "silver". I double checked everything, as I have missed requirements in previous scenarios, but all was complete.

In all test, and periodically, of normal playing, I do a number of saves, when I try different avenues of direction. So I reloaded the scenario from my last save. This time I received he Gold. However, there was some tyype of error, as when I checked the "ledger", I found that I still had some "debt". of which a requirement was to that of
"no debt".

With that said, the none credit for the connection to Bourdiqil is probably in the category of a 'glitch'.

[Hawk]

Actually, looking in the editor, I think the ledger is supposed to show when you connect all 3 as opposed to each individual connection.
I think it's just the wording in the ledger that needs correcting.