This is a compact scenario from Ali Baba. I should confess in advance that I love railroad bridges, so I have a soft spot for the island maps - and this one doesn't disappoint. Like most such, La Islands is a connect-cities-by-year-N map without much complexity.
High points:
- Relatively small map (320x320), and has to have been constructed from scratch, but there's no sign of the editor tools in action - smooth slopes, no oddly circular features, no oddly flat raised areas.
- Decent separation of resources by region. In fact, in my start, half the resources weren't available on any island, which made it more interesting planning the cargo chains. Lack of resources did not get in the way of making the industry income goal.
- Map includes portions that aren't used by the story, so there's additional fun to be had in sandbox mode (gee, how much does it cost to bridge to Ali's Retreat?)
Minor issues:
- Player is given 50 miles of track to start with, not 250 as advertised
- AIs are even more hapless than usual
- While "Somewhere" (city 32) is the medal-related connection target on the southeast island, "Tickle Me Pink" (city 31) pops up the congratulation dialog and awards the player company its bonus.
- Several of the farms have 2005 build dates, which means they behave strangely in 1939.
- The "Whoed Bother" inhabitants are remarkably slow to notice the new railroad station in their midst...
- The Gold doesn't trigger before 1959, even if one manages to make all connections earlier than that.
- There's an abuse possible by starting extra companies: Each new company gets 50 miles of track, which can be laid before merging the new company back into the main one. Should probably disable starting new companies.
La Islands
Re: La Islands
Was anybody successful on "La Islands"? I've no problems to fulfill LIP or connections, but there is the horrible limit of 30 mph! Five failures - and you're history! Any hints concerning "faster speed" would be nice.
There's no business like RT business ...
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RayofSunshine
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Re: La Islands
I don't frequent some of these older threads, but seeing that Sugus is having a problem, I thought I would try and both remember the last time I played this scenario, as well as what system I used.
It took me a number of attempts to actually complete the scenario to get the GOLD. And as Sugus indicates, the problem was the "speed" factor. So, here are some of the factors of engines which I used.
I have used the "spur" maintenance system previous, so my first step was to cnn a track to the existing track from the port, laying a track to Hot Spot, which had to traverse a medium incline. Hence I used the H100. My depot at Bad Bugga was set sufficiently enough so that I could lay a track toward Lynne's Retreat, having an adequate amount of space to build a water/sand and maintainence shed on the port track, which in this case, it was permissible. Needing to increase the av. speed factor, I used the Mallard on that section of track. In both these cases, hauls were only made to Bad Bugga, unloaded, and then the engines were shuttled to the maintainence amenities.
With just these 2 engines, I was able to cnn to all of the cities, and purchased a couple of inexpensive farms to start the LIPs revenues. Then with sufficient revenue I built a "high bridge". I made a mistake on the 1st attempt, as the track was too close to the bridge, and at a later date, the Mallard speed was reduced, and thereby ran into the problem with the speed factor. I was also using the Orca and a Northerrn, and with only a few years in most cases, due to the heavier rolling stock, I had to both reduce the consists of 8 to a max of 5, and replaced all the engines with the V200 when it became available.
My system to to save play in periodic eras. So I was able to go back and change the lay of track, and hence reduce the incline on the high bridge. Thus being able to attain a 30+ speed factor.
Once connected to Lynne's Retreat, I had placed the depot with adequate space, to extend the track, and thereby able to place the maintainence amenities, and connecting to "when all fails", hence repeating the process of only hauling to Lynne's, unloading, and servicing the engine.
The length of hauls govern when an engine had to be shuttled to maintainence amenities. And in most cases, an engine could make a round trip before it had to be serviced for either water/sand, and/or both maintainence.
With all the cities of requirement, I was able to also construct a high bridge, costing $5.7K to Ails's Retreat. In this case I ran the train to the depot beyond Hot Spot, with the maintainence amenities on an extension beyond.
Got the Gold the end of 1959.
Enjoyed the scenario. It is just that a player has to monitor trains into the maintainence, until it is not necessary to change the routing, and sacrifice the "starting" engines, to more efficient ones.
Hope this helps anyone who would like to play.
It took me a number of attempts to actually complete the scenario to get the GOLD. And as Sugus indicates, the problem was the "speed" factor. So, here are some of the factors of engines which I used.
I have used the "spur" maintenance system previous, so my first step was to cnn a track to the existing track from the port, laying a track to Hot Spot, which had to traverse a medium incline. Hence I used the H100. My depot at Bad Bugga was set sufficiently enough so that I could lay a track toward Lynne's Retreat, having an adequate amount of space to build a water/sand and maintainence shed on the port track, which in this case, it was permissible. Needing to increase the av. speed factor, I used the Mallard on that section of track. In both these cases, hauls were only made to Bad Bugga, unloaded, and then the engines were shuttled to the maintainence amenities.
With just these 2 engines, I was able to cnn to all of the cities, and purchased a couple of inexpensive farms to start the LIPs revenues. Then with sufficient revenue I built a "high bridge". I made a mistake on the 1st attempt, as the track was too close to the bridge, and at a later date, the Mallard speed was reduced, and thereby ran into the problem with the speed factor. I was also using the Orca and a Northerrn, and with only a few years in most cases, due to the heavier rolling stock, I had to both reduce the consists of 8 to a max of 5, and replaced all the engines with the V200 when it became available.
My system to to save play in periodic eras. So I was able to go back and change the lay of track, and hence reduce the incline on the high bridge. Thus being able to attain a 30+ speed factor.
Once connected to Lynne's Retreat, I had placed the depot with adequate space, to extend the track, and thereby able to place the maintainence amenities, and connecting to "when all fails", hence repeating the process of only hauling to Lynne's, unloading, and servicing the engine.
The length of hauls govern when an engine had to be shuttled to maintainence amenities. And in most cases, an engine could make a round trip before it had to be serviced for either water/sand, and/or both maintainence.
With all the cities of requirement, I was able to also construct a high bridge, costing $5.7K to Ails's Retreat. In this case I ran the train to the depot beyond Hot Spot, with the maintainence amenities on an extension beyond.
Got the Gold the end of 1959.
Enjoyed the scenario. It is just that a player has to monitor trains into the maintainence, until it is not necessary to change the routing, and sacrifice the "starting" engines, to more efficient ones.
Hope this helps anyone who would like to play.