Soviet Power and Electrification

[Optimizer]

At last I have finished the Soviet Power and Electrification scenario. Please play and comment!

Soviet Power and Electrification

Russia was hit hard by World War I. Czar Nicholas II abdicated in February 1917, and the Provisional Government was not popular.

The Bolshevik Party, led by Vladimir Lenin, gathered worker councils known as Soviets, and seized power in October the same year. The Soviet government faced resistance from the old elite, Western nations, and other revolutionaries, and had myriads of "enemies of the people" deported and killed. Lenin's successor Stalin was responsible for millions of deaths. Yet more millions of Russians died in World War II. Through wars, death and despair, the Soviet Union became a superpower, second only to the USA.

Lenin said "Communism is Soviet Power plus electrification of the whole country", to emphasize the need of infrastructure to create a classless society. However, the arms race against rival nations turned out to be more urgent than civil rights.

Your goal is maximum book value by the end of 1952. There is no financial market, and the autocratic leaders' policies change the terms every few years.

Soundtrack
Turn off the original music and load this Youtube playlist instead:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fa4cu1t ... sults_main

Cumulative changes for v 1.06

Bug fixes
* Gold victory fixed.
* Several info text events fixed.
* Act 4 goal checked at end of month.

New features
* Lokomotiv Sports Club event added.
* Uranium transport chain available by January 1950.
* Korean War event added.

Balancing (to increase difficulty)
* Chernihiv & Sumy removed.
* Less track provided from Steel & Lumber.
* Annual cash subsidies removed altogether.
* No passenger bonus during Act 2.
* Act 2 requirements raised to $2M annual profit.
* Less industrial discount during Act 4.
* Industrial profit drains more electric power.
* Act 4 goals raised.
* Moscow trials cause economic depression.
* Act 6 goals raised.
* Don Valley lost earlier; a diversion from real-life history.
* Reinforcement event removed.
* Electric power gives only 80% boost to Aluminum, Chemicals, Paper & Tires.
* Electric fuel cost raised by 1.
* Less goods provided on eastern edge of map.
* All final goals raised.

Miscellaneous
* River connection at Stalingrad removed. (As of real-world history: the canal opened in 1952.)
* Ammunition needed during Act 1, instead of Weapons.
* Bulldozing slightly cheaper from Act 3.
* Minor text changes.

[Hawk]

It should be noted that this is a 1.06 map.

[Sugus]

First of all (and as Hawk already mentioned), it's a Patch 1.06 map. And as usual, "I hate train crashes!". Nevertheless, this is a great map and it was both entertaining and challenging to play it (on normal). Really well designed!

Here my progress in short by enumerating the cities connected and the factories bought:

1918 Act 1 (till 1924): 40 loads out of Petrograd, 30 weapons
1918 Petrograd, Novgorod, Volkhov, Bolojoye
1919 Kalinin
1920 Moscow
1921 Vladimir
1922 Tula, weapons factory in Moscow

1923 Act 2 (till 1928): Leningrad - Idel Ural, 1.5 M / year
1923 Gorky, Yoshar-Ola
1924 Kazan

1924 Act 3 (till 1934): 200 GWh, 2 M Industry / year
1925 electric plant in Gorsky, oil wells near Kazan and Yashir-Ola
1926 electric plants in Leningrag and Novgorod, forcing oil transports
1928 Murmansk, Ivanovo, Yaroslavl, Rybinsk
1929 weapons factory in Moscow, auto plant in Moscow
1930 meat packing plant in Moscow, fertilizer factory in Moscow
1931 brewery in Moscow

1931 Act 4 (till 1939): Moscow - Stalingrad, 15 of each ammo, diesel and weapons / year
1931 Yelets, Liski
1932 Mikhaylovka (diesel!), Stalingrad, Achtubinsk (diesel!)
1933 Elista, munitions factory and weapons factory in Kalinin
1934 Dimitrovgrad, Ulyanovsk

1935 Act 5 (till 1941, and not before!): assemble 5 M cash and >= 1000 sections of track
(Within this act, the ledger is somewhat "irritating")
1935 Kubyshev, Uralsk
1936 Syzran, Balakovo, Saratov, Kanyshin, Aleksandrov Gay, Guriev
1937 sitching network to electricity, starting to build doubled tracks
1938 completed to build doubled tracks
...

1941 Act 6 (till 1944): save Leningrad, Tula and Stalingrad (60 loads yearly to each city)
1941 fulfilled
1942 fulfilled

1942 Act 7 (till 1946): connect Moscow to Estonia, Poland and Moldavia
1942 Pärnu, Thallinn
1943 Tartu, Pskov, Riga, Minsk, Babruysk, Mayzr, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsya
1944 Rybuitsa, Chisinau

1944 Act 8 (till 1953): CVB of 50, 100 or 200 M
1938 138 M
1939 148 M
..
1952 185 M
1952 August: 202 M, but no (Gold) medal awarded!!! --> Silver at end of year

A short inspection by use of the editor shows, that the win conditions for Gold should compare game variable 1 against 17, not 16! Besides that: a very interesting scenario! There was always and every time something to do - simply great!

From my point of view, Bronze is not really an option and could be deleted, i.e. leave Silver or Gold only.

[Optimizer]

Thanks for your extensive review!

I made some tweaks to slow down expansion and emphasize industry, see the original post.

The scenario intends the player to build lots and lots of industries, especially at the eastern edge of the map. How many industries did you build?

[Sugus]

I built six or seven. Mostly, I bought existing ones.

[Optimizer]

Developer's comments:

This scenario has been replayed and re-balanced countless times, and there are 27 saved versions of it. I can hardly understand why I still enjoy it. The very first inspiration came from the "Mother Russia" scenario in RT2. Many complications from the early game were omitted. In early versions, there were Troops as a cargo. They were removed, mainly because of the difficulties moving troops in specific directions.

Act 1-2: Revolution and NEP
I considered giving the player a built railroad for starters, but that would make the scenario design much more complicated. Instead, the player gets a really generous starting position with plenty of cash, to skip the slow start of many scenarios. The Moscow-Leningrad axis is not just the most profitable, it also contains Lumber and/or Steel, needed to gain new track.

I don't intend any of the part-time goals to be difficult. They mostly function as guidelines for upcoming goals, and a good player can find some challenge in solving them as fast as possible.

The NEP carries some historical interest, as a capitalist intermission in the planned economy of the Soviet Union. Early versions of this act required specific quotas of consumer goods to be hauled each year, but that turned the act to micro-management chaos. Instead, profit would be a natural aim.

The non-existent financial market consists a challenge to the game. This should be well compensated by the good starting position.

Act 3-5: Five-year plans
Few countries have industrialized faster than the Soviet Union during the 1930s. With a map drowning in raw materials, and a significant Industry discount, the player will have an unparallelled opportunity to build industries. The horrors of the period are briefly mentioned through news, affecting gameplay negatively. I consider making Stalin's rule still more destructive.

The player's company represents the Government. As in most RT3 scenarios, Industries can exist independently of the player/Government, and that could have different interpretations. non-player owned industries can be interpreted as under controlby other parts of the goverment, or by worker councils. Or this scenario could be an alternate reality, where the Bolsheviks allowed private enterprise.

The Electric Power bonus required plenty of testing, and is still not completely satisfying. Hopefully, it is the first balanced implementation of electric power in an RT3 scenario.

A good player should barely be able to connect all cities in the "safe" provinces by 1941, and build enough industries to use all Iron, Coal, Oil and Chemicals in these provinces, for Ammo, Diesel and Weapon production. A Coal shortage can be avoided by building Warehouses.

Act 5 (Third Five-Year Plan) is the only act without a failure condition. Regardless of performance, it ends with the German invasion in 1941.

Act 6-7: World War 2
"Hero Cities" first required specific quotas of Ammo, Diesel and Weapons to be delivered at the defending cities, but that again turned up some micro-management. To encourage military production during the war, the civilian production penalty was introduced.

"To The West" first required provinces to be liberated one by one by running supplies to the previous province, but scripting of territorial rights is complicated, and micromanagement would deter players.

Act 8: Cold War
I never liked the hard-coded wagon weight increase that occurs in 1850, 1900 and 1950. It creates an unwanted pitfall. I tried ending the game end in 1949, just to get rid of it. However, having an Uranium transport chain is tempting enough to get into the Fifties. A possible sequel would take place in the Central Asian Soviet republics, with the Baikonur Cosmodrome, nuclear test sites, a shrinking Aral Lake, and unrest in Afghanistan.

I try to follow the principle that a player should never get bored, but a really successful player should be just about to get bored at the end of the game. After a good game, the player should have connected all cities at the western edge, owning industries that exploit most resources on the map and so on. Maybe the $200 million goal is to easy? Maybe the game needs more high-profit drag?

[RayofSunshine]

Well!
It may not be difficult for some, but................
Act 1 went well. It was the Act 2 for the profit of $2M which booted me down the track.
Had several industries doing well, including the Electric Plants, as well as the hauling revenues to $300K, BUT, although the Profits on the Yearly Leadger showed $3K, the Status page just gradually increased in a negative.

It is a great scenario, and the concepts are understandable. Just have not been able to master the "profits" requirement, although it appears possible, and Sugus has mastered the challenge.
Will have to attempt the Act 2 extension of the saved Act 1, again, to see if there is a different system.

[Optimizer]

Version 1.04 uploaded! The goals should be slightly harder now.

[Optimizer]

Had several industries doing well, including the Electric Plants, as well as the hauling revenues to $300K, BUT, although the Profits on the Yearly Leadger showed $3K, the Status page just gradually increased in a negative.

Did the Electric Plants get both Coal and Oil? If only supplied with one of these, they won't turn a profit.

[RayofSunshine]

I believe that I only had 1 Operational Electric Plant. However, I had a couple of other operational industries, at least the Aluminum Mill. Off hand, I don't know if I had another. Anyway, I thought that it would compensate to get a profit. Will have to try another attempt, and system. Thanks for the info.

[Wolverine@MSU]

A very nice map and scenario, but not very challenging. Got Gold on Expert well ahead of the deadline. I already had the $200M, and just had to connect the required cities when the last chapter opened. I went all-electric track as soon a a decent electric loco became available. Built 2 electric plants (upgraded) over in the east where there was gobs of oil and coal to support them.

The Status Page for the 3rd 5-year plan shows various loads delivered (a holdover from 2nd plan?), but should show the buildable track pieces as the player "banks" pieces toward the 1,000 suggested.

I would urge players to take advantage of the extremely low bulldozing costs, when they become available, to get rid of highly profitable (and therefore expensive to buy) industries, and replace them with lower cost player-built industries. You can make a ton-o-money this way, as inputs are already piled up on the economic cell, and your newly-built industry will take off like a rocket.

[Optimizer]

Thanks for your feedback! Version 1.05 is slightly more difficult.

The status report during Act 5 is purposed to encourage production of military supplies.

[RayofSunshine]

I didn't give the "bull dozing" agenda any thought, as usually it is a costly expense. will have to give that system an attempt, as with a number of industries showing good profits, I was not able to reach that 1st plateau of the requirement. Even though I didn't get very far into the scenario, I like the concept of the thus far challenges which I was able to attain, but see that WSU has shown that there are more challenges in the attempt for Gold. He has a an easy way with getting the Gold, while the rest of us struggle in the attempt. A real TYCOON.

[Blackhawk]

I avoided using the idea of bulldozing industries and rebuilding it, so getting the final 240m company book value was a little harder to do. At first I just put the game speed on fast during Act 5 as there was nothing really left for me to do but wait til 1941. Then once Act 8 told me I need a company book value of 240m, I had to go back and replay Act 5 and reinvest my profits into industries or else I've never be able to do it in the last few years of the scenario as the industries seemed more expensive to buy (some modifier increasing their costs must have taken effect)

A few things I noticed:
- the toy/sporting equipment event (it might be nice if it was in the ledger), but it's said to occur after 50 loads are hauled, but doesn't trigger until 60 loads are hauled.
- the trigger to move to Act 5 needs to be fixed as well as it is based on loads hauled but tests at the start of the month so if you bring in the final loads during the month of December it doesn't matter. It should be checked at the end of the month.
- Act 6 - It's a little confusing if you want 60 hauled to Leningrad, Tula, and Stalingrad every year during the war, or just one year. It seems like just once since that's when you award a point to game variable 1 and the newspaper appears saying the city is now manned. But then the message still remains in the ledger the next year even after the city has been staffed. It also doesn't seem to make sense then to post Stalingrad at the same time as Leningrad and Tula since you can't fully man that city based on your events until after May 1942, so why have it appear in 1941 and make the player think they may have satisfied the condition in 1941 by shipping 60+ loads when the 60+ loads won't count until 1942.
- Act 7 - the status disappears before all 3 territories are connected.
- Act 8 - The company book value numbers are different than what the gold/silver/bronze tests for. (ex. ledger says 200m for gold, gold victory tests for 240m)
- Electric Status - Says chemicals, paper etc doubles. I thought it was 80% increase?


I'm not entirely sure I was able to follow how the electricity really worked in the game. Is it possible to put something in the ledger saying how much my track and industry is using up?

- The decrease in ammo and weapons price at the end seems to make most of the ammo/weapons factories slightly unprofitable. I'm not sure if that was the intent of the reduction in the price, but if you own a lot of them it can hurt your industry profits.
- Don Valley - Never recovers any production after the war.

[Blackhawk]

I also believe that the events giving more track may be incorrectly programmed as well. As far as I can tell, it looks like you get 6 pieces of track for any haul of steel or lumber, but not 6 pieces of track for each individual carload of lumber/steel hauled. So a train of 6 carloads of lumber gives just 6 pieces of track, just like a train carrying 1 load of lumber/steel.

[Optimizer]

Thanks for your review! I will de-bug the scenario once again.

The track events work as intended. They allow 6+6 cells of track weekly. If many cars are hauled during one week, the track bonus event triggers each following week, once for each cargo.

[Blackhawk]

Ah okay, I misread part of how that event was written. I thought I saw the company variable was being replaced by the LTD loads hauled. I didn't realize there was a max of 12 (6+6) new track per week, that makes more sense as to why I wasn't getting all the track right away, but seemed like I was getting the credit for it over time.

[Optimizer]

- Electric Status - Says chemicals, paper etc doubles. I thought it was 80% increase?

Intended. The effect stacks with a 20% general factory production bonus.

Version 1.06 is debugged, according to Blackhawk's reports.

[Blackhawk]

- Electric Status - Says chemicals, paper etc doubles. I thought it was 80% increase?

Intended. The effect stacks with a 20% general factory production bonus.

Version 1.06 is debugged, according to Blackhawk's reports.

I think I was referring to the prior event which says that the production will go up to 80% for those select industries and then 20% in other player owned industries. I notice one of the prior changes you made was that:

* Electric power gives only 80% boost to Aluminum, Chemicals, Paper & Tires.

So I thought maybe originally they were doubled, but the effect was reduced after some test runs but the event text was never updated. I'll have to go back and look again but I thought I saw the chemical plant was +80% production, but the paper, tires, and Aluminum were only +60% in the effects of the Electric event. (Then there was a +20% general factory production event as well). Which then adds up to be 80% not 100%. Except for the chemical plant which I am unsure of if that is affected by the general factory production modifier or not.

[Optimizer]

New soundtrack suggestion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWTFG3J1CP8