Review: Belbincolne's "Crossing the Pennines"

[milo]

Debut from Belbincolne looks promising. One of the prettier maps not based on a DEM, this scenario covers the rail link between Manchester and Sheffield in the early 1800s. I made the mistake of trying on expert first; as the author mentioned in his description, it's probably a better idea to tackle this map on an easier level first. Got gold... but I didn't earn it.

Nifty stuff:

• This is the first map I've played where the early engines actually felt as if they might not make it from one town to the next. Nice effect produced with a high-resolution map on close-together towns in this era.
• Good scenery.
• The Pennines themselves are something of an optical illusion. First time I looked, I snorted and wondered why a tunnel was necessary. Turns out I couldn't even approach the foothills without hitting grade 3...

Issues:

• Scale may contribute to the AI's odd behavior. It built a single (quite profitable) line in the northwest and then proceeded to buy its stock back rather than expand.
• Several farms, mines, and industries are preplaced in the game start year rather than the usual three years back, which makes them (intentional?) bargains for the savvy investor.
• The Gold condition merely checks that all cities are connected, but it does >not< check if anything crossed the mountains. I accidentally triggered gold by finishing networks on both sides in preparation for building that tunnel. Workaround: flip the 'connected track only' Special Condition before playing the scenario.
• Completely even distribution of all resources using just one region cuts down on available shipping somewhat.
• Livestock need meat enabled.

Conclusion: Needs a few simple fixes, but otherwise a solid first effort.

[Wolverine@MSU]

Agree with milo. The scenario needs a "Connect Manchester to Sheffield" event to ensure that the Pennines are indeed crossed. I was able to connect through the mountains overland without making a tunnel. Perhaps raising the cost of building graded track a whole bunch would slow down this tactic, especially if there were some sort of cargo-hauling requirement between the two featured cities.

I had the same thing happen with the AI; it built in the southwest and preferred to buy back stock rather than expand. Also, only one of the four opponents actually built railroads; the others just sat back and bought an occasional 1,000 shares. Perhaps if you chose AIs that tended to build railroads, the competition would be better. I don't remember offhand who they are, but some of them are real go-getters when it comes to building. I recall someone saying in the old forum that they have the same characteristics as their conterparts in RT2. Perhaps someone can post the characteristics of the different AI characters.

I was playing on expert, and if I hadn't sold-short on the AI, I would have gotten gold by 1839 or so with the Gold event written as it is. I thought the AI would go under when a Recession or Depression set in, but they never materialized and the AI kept growing in value. The 10M PNW for the gold will be pretty easy to meet in my next go at the scenario.

On my particular start, there were lots of timber camps, but no lumber mills. I built a few during the first few years and had no trouble making the 10M industry profit goal. There were lots of sheep farms (and the cotton farms mentioned by milo, which seemed somewhat out of place in England) and lots of textile mills, so clothing abounded in the west, making lots of profit for me by hauling to the high-demand cities. I did notice that toward the end of the game, demand for both lumber and clothing was pretty much diminished in most of the western cities.

The scenery was great. A good job of placing groundcover and coloring the map. You appear to have a good future ahead of you in mapmaking belincombe. Cities weren't too close together, and most of them were one tank of water apart. I have the bad luck to not remember when new locos arrive, and often build lines and buy lots of trains just before the new ones are introduced. One of these days I'll write down the dates, or print a timetable of when they become available.

[Grandma Ruth]

What a beautiful map! Clearly made by someone who loves walking those hills! Some little improvements could be made as the others have said, but I gather this was a first try.
But I've found the most peculiar thing - I went into the editor to see how Mr B had managed the routes conditions, and I find that the Lose message you get isn't actually what is in the lose event. I think it must be a default thing if you don't use the "dialogue" option. I've taken a picture because I don't really believe it myself! You can see the game message, which is what's supposed to be there, but also the "Lose" dialogue box.

[belbincolne]

Thanks for your comments everyone. It must be getting on for two years since I made the map and I've not done one since so I'm very rusty on how to fix things anyway. Remember reading Milo's comments and thinking that there was a simple fix to the connection error but as there were no other comments didn't seem worth re-posting.