Athabasca 1905

[Wolverine@MSU]

I see a mention of Gravel in the Readme file. Does this mean that the new cargoes need to be installed for the game to play correctly?

[belbincolne]

Immediate problem with this I'm afraid. Downloaded and inserted all files (although as the extra trains weren't there and I couldn't be bothered to search for them I left these out) as instructed.

RESULT: RT3 no longer runs

Undownloaded the Language file and renamed the original file back and its o/k again. It may be that the rename should not be to rt3_old.lng but to rt3old.ing or perhaps rt3.old.ing but I wasn't going to spend another hour researching it as I'm sure one of you experts can tell us immediately.

In the meantime beware everyone

[Hawk]

I've updated the download page to mention the files not included in the zip as well as added a link to this thread.

[JayEff]

Wolverine: The gravel and gravel quarry are actually bauxite and bauxite mine by new names, contained in the language file. There are many other functional and entertaining changes in that file. I highly recommend using it.

Belbincolne: In the language folder you must have a file called 'RT3.lng', that has the same format as the original fileor the game will not start. The idea is to rename the original to anything other than the names of the other files in that folder. Having renamed the original, you can rename the supplied file to 'RT3.lng'. ell-en-jee.

If naming the new lng file is not the problem then it could be that the locomotives are required, not optional.

The map was made with version 1.05A. There is an event calling for the Class P8 (European) loco to become available. Fan made locos in that time period, on my machine, include Ten Wheeler, Mogul, MT-1, P-2, G5s 4-6-0 and the J1a 4-6-4 NYC Great Northern. I will mess around with earlier versions, and experiment with including and excluding the fan made locos and see what happens. If needed I will alter the game or add in some of the locos to the game package.

I am pretty sure there is no problem with the player, logo, building or language files. That leaves loco and version.

[belbincolne]

My problem was that when I replaced the original ing file with yours the game wouldn't start - but did when I removed yours and renamed the original back. So far as my computer is concerned therefor there seems to be something wrong with your ing file.

[JayEff]

What version of RT3 are you playing?

[bombardiere]

Belbincolne, you need to rename the file Jay Eff included as RT3.ing. Otherwise the game doesn't have language file to use. At least the ing works fine with my computer.

Actually, I have had some time and I have played the scenario to halfway point. And it looks highly interesting. The fact that most cities are so small makes the gameplay really challenging. The usual tactics getting multiple trains and loading those up to the hilt, doesn't work here. I have to really think.

My start has been sluggish. I overbuilt my track and couldn't get good revenues. And I built a Papermill at Smith, which gave some revenue, but was wrongly located for scenario goals. (so was a Tool & Die at Edmonton. Brought money because of Grain to Aluminium conversion, but doesn't contribute towards transport requirements.)

I got a brainstorm and connected early on to a rival company south of Edmonton. This gave me good early cash, as the company was eager to ship to/off Edmonton, but I got lion share from the revenue.

I have tried my new Mastodon with this scenario. And it is a perfect engine for this scenario. In fact I haven't been using any other engines than Mastodon and Camelback. (apart from one lonely Mogul) Mastodons are great for those long distance connections between Edmonton and outback, and I use Camelback for low profitability local routes.

The early low resource level did make me to stick on South. Not a good move for achieving the scenario goal. I simply don't have enough cargo from the outback. I might make silver, but probably not gold. Still it has been interesting and, let me say, exotic scenario. The managers have been fun too, although I have stick with same one. (one with industry bonus) And I haven't found any bugs or anything. Even the ledger works fine. (Beta 1.06 introduced some problems with the last ledger page)

Great work.

P.S. Well actually there is something wrong. Land office and Immigration appears fine (and seem to work the way they should), but both building have same green Custom House skin. Not the Blue and Yellow I did try to make. Probably doesn't matter much. It works well as it is. But if you want I could look into it later.

[belbincolne]

Sorry but thats what I did. It may not be all computers just mine. Bought a game a year ago and wouldn't play on mine. When I got my new computer it wouldn't play on that either. Gave it to my grandson who's computer was a year older than my new one it was fine!

So others need to be warned of the possible effect and how to cure it.

[bombardiere]

Sorry belbincolne. After I read your post more carefully, I noted that you have already wrote that you did it.

Yup, RRT3 is bit strange. I have a newer better graphic card, but the game refuse to co-operate with it. (even with latest paches) But with old 64 MB, the game is happy.

This is not an expert comment, but testing and loco making have crashed my game so often that I could venture to say following comment. If the game refuses to launch and crash right at the beginning, it is the .ing file. If it crashes while loading the scenario, it is locos. or extra buildings, or actually the logos.... Well anyway, user extra content usually crashes the when the scenario is being loaded.

[JayEff]

I downloaded from Hawk's website, and played with RT3 version 1.04 (did 1.05a in testing). The RT3.LNG worked no problem. I added the P-8, P2 and MT-1, and did not add the Mogul or the Ten Wheeler. Everything worked fine. The only thing to watch out for is that whatever version you have, you must have the P-8 because there is a sequence of events that may make it available.

Belbincolne, sometimes files corrupt during downloading. You could try downloading again. The LNG file should be 220k when extracted, and you should be able to read it as a TXT file.

Bombardiere, my buildings are green too, but no biggie. I see that the paper demand is working for both of them. I haven't tested the passenger production and demand yet.

[belbincolne]

Well I've now played this 4 times. First time I got Bronze and knew that I'd do better so second I moved up to Expert and gave up after 5 years - I did make 2 mistakes - started railing too late so an AI also got into Edmonton and laid track before May so paid over the odds - but still .
Third I tried (back to Normal) without any Industry - dismal failure
Fourth I went back to Industry for 6 months and everything went really well all through the scenario. Was able to manage almost without bonds after initial 4 to get started. At end kept selling my own shares to be able to buy the successful AI and took it over with a year to spare so was only left with loads from Athabasca. Didn't even get the minimum for Bronze despite using it as my hub with at least half my 60 or so trains going there Don't know how you could ever get Gold carryings.
Incidentally in first few years the Almanac gave me Nil carryings from Athabasca despite my having carried perhaps 20 loads albeit of small value.
A hint - take a Bond immediately at start of game - if you leave it until May you'll pay 11% instead of 9%!
Anyway it's a really nice scenario and enjoyed playing it.

[JayEff]

Hmm, we are starting to get into strategies so I will post my responses and hints in Scenario Strategies.

[Hawk]

To help keep things in perspective, here's a link to the Strategies thread started by Joe.

[JayEff]

I would like to do an edit before Molse launches his DVD. The scenario seems a little easier than intended, so I am planning to decrease the density a bit, but increase the growth rate. I will also increase iron in the northeast corner of the map so players have a better chance to make steel.

Has anyone found any bugs, or got any suggestions to make this a better scenario?

[steelm]

I've played this scenario on expert and won gold in 1923.

Wondering why my camelback only runs 11mph even though the track condition was 98% and I was hauling gravel like hell (patch 1.06, you can haul gravel by loss), I found that the gravel event is not working. It is a great idea to use the teritory variable as counter and the game variable for the status work right, but the 'All Speed' and 'All Pulling Power' variables doesn't. At the end the debug info says: track condition 98%, speed 98%, all pulling power -42, all speed -42.

I really like this scenario and have tried to find a workaround, but couldn't find one without a complete redesign. One thing that could work, is a test on yearly basis (YTD gravel).

/cu steelm