New map for testing: Opar Peninsula (fictional)

[brunom]

Hey fellas

Long time, no hear from me. :)
Well, this hobby of creating maps lost a lot of momentum since two years ago (or so), but every now and then I still kill a little time "carving" the odd fictional mountain/valley/desert/island/etc..

The following is a fictional map, with background story, working economy and finished look/geography. Still lacks winning conditions and a few more events to spice it up - but it's already good enough for a go and to collect some thoughts from the community.
So have your say (if you test the map) - i'll be around reading it.

Cheers
B

[ytr191]

Well, well, well what do we have here?

Let me give this map a try.

Update:

While i was playing it, my track stopped being updated every month.

Whats wrong with the amount of track?

[RayofSunshine]

I didn't have too much success with this scenario. But I do like the terrain and the concept of it.

My 1st attempt was to use the Opp Port, with a cnn to the nearest option, a Rice Field. Took a time to get adequate track allottments, but the supply was basically only 1 way, and that was a minimal $18K. So, my initial revenue just deteriorated. FINALLY I made cnn to Tazook, and eventually to the Bauxite site, and a Logging Camp. BuT, the revenue was insufficient to get much headway.

The 2nd attempt was to use Ikan Lake with a cnn to Bonsil. Revenue was much better, but being that the distance was of such a nature, much of it was used for operations. In both the 1st and 2nd playing, I initially used an Atlantic engine. When a cnn was made to Orutsk, I used an A1. Here I ran into a problem, as Orutsk had "tons" of coal, but no place on demand. The closest was that at an Electric Plant near Salsanik, a goodly distance.

I did not run into a problem with the 2nd attempt for trackage. It seemed that I could use the initial 26 sections, but after a short time during the year, I was allotted another 40. And even got the second 40 before the end of that year. It was just that I could not generate an adequate amount of revenue to keep advancing track.

Oh I could keep issuing bonds, like I did in the 1st attempt, but tried to "live within my means", unlike our present administration for the last few years. Just too often engines were operating with 1-2 loads, or empty.

It is a very interesting scenario, but doesn't or didn't seem to keep my interest.

[Moggie]

It was tough going and took several restarts to get things working. I started by just hauling rice to Opp port from the rice farm nearby. Then I inched my way to Salsanik and continued from there. By now my company is doing fine, there's enough income to expand and to pay back loans.

[Wolverine@MSU]

I've been playing this one for the last couple of days. I play on Expert, and started with only Industry (Lumber mill between two closely-spaced Logging Camps), then a Paper mill right next to the LM a year or two later, then a Furniture Factory a couple of years later. I was playing to maximize CBV, so issued stock every year and maxed out Bonds to build. Only after a firm base was established did I start to build rails/run trains. The 25 track/month was adequate (but see below) to expand slowly, and had enough income to build some more Industry (Brewery, Lumber Mill, and Paper Mill in Salsanik to soak up Rice, Logs, and Pulpwood shipped in from nearby). After 20 years I'm doing quite well (I think). See Ledger screenshots below. I do have a few comments:

1- The map itself is great! Nicely painted, good elevations, good placement of cities and although some resources are a bit scant, they're adequate to make it challenging

2- I wish that the monthly track allotment were allowed to accumulate; it is very distracting to have to remember to "use it or lose it" when trying to mange other aspects of the game. I often got involved in other things and lost my chance(s) to use the precious track sections. One benefit, though, to always being in the "track laying screen" was that (and I don't know if others have noticed this) while in that screen (laying track), changes in Economic State don't seem to occur as they should. I was in a Boom, and managed to stay that way for several years as long as I was in that screen when March or September rolled around. As nice as that was in terms of being able to refinance bonds, I still found it annoying to have to pay so much attention to my track alottment, especially early on when there were only 25 pieces/month to be had.

3- On the same issue, it took a long time to connect distant cities, with track maintanance having to be paid on track that wasn't generating any revenue. I didn't use all the track I was given, but in 20 years, got the system shown in the screenshot below.

4- Allowing at least a few AIs would make it more interesting. I'm really good at exploiting them, and given the resources on the map, doubt that without a lot of help they would be very competitive. I plan to replay it with a few AIs with the goal of maximizing PNW.

I think this is a very nice map, and perhaps would make a nice on to allow different "paths" to the gold: High CBV, or High PNW (or combination thereof, or High LIP, or High Track Miles (with limited but retained) track quotas.

All events seemed to be OK, but I did not look at them in the Editor to see what I might have missed.

map45.jpg (34.5 KiB) Viewed 11958 times

PNW.jpg (39.91 KiB) Viewed 11958 times

Income45.jpg (59.13 KiB) Viewed 11958 times

Balance45.jpg (39.34 KiB) Viewed 11958 times

Haulage45.jpg (49.73 KiB) Viewed 11958 times

[RayofSunshine]

It is a great map as you mention MSU, and maybe it would enhance play with some type of goal. Maybe that was my problem of gettng interested.
There is an amount of industry and farms to make it an interesting concept of challenge, and I enjoyed that part of the Scenario. I am looking forward to the possiblity of goals being added.

[Hawk]

Map is being worked on again. This time by OilCan.

See this topic. viewtopic.php?f=86&t=3976