Changing The Game Controls

[OilCan]

I was wondering if others tinker with any of the game controls before they play a game*. For instance, do you change the goal settings, the starting date, the ending date, the start up player cash, the number of AI players, the aggressiveness of the AI players, the trains, the industries, the player restrictions, or any of the events? Or do you add events like notices for quarters or December? Or do you change the map information changing densities and cities?

So please cast your vote about how often you might tinker with the game controls and please comment on what you typically change in a game before you play it. You may want to comment on how 'sporting' it seems to you to change the game controls.

To start with, I often change the player cash amount and have, on rare occasion, reduced seemingly high haul amounts on a game. Oh, yes, I always remove any train speed goal requirements as well.


* For those not certain what this means, the behind the scenes controls of a game can be edited by the player. Simply start a game, click OK past the objective panel, then press SHIFT and E key. Proceed to the editor. You are now in the edit mode for a game. The bottommost icon to the left takes you to the game controls. Always save the edits by saving the map with a different map name than the original map. I often add '2' at the end of a map name to let me know it has been altered.

[Wolverine@MSU]

I never change them the first time I play through a game. I assume the scenario writer has initialized the scenario in a thoughtful way given the medal goals. Although I sometimes don't like the way it's set up, the only thing I'll ever do on a first play through is restart the scenario if I'm not satisfied with the seeding on the map.

[Hawk]

I'm with Wolvy on this. I try to play a scenario as the creator set it up.
Sometimes, if I find an event that isn't working right, I will try to fix it, but that's about it.

[WPandP]

I only change things that seem like they are broken, such as a ledger status report that isn't reporting correctly. I voted "extremely rarely", as I've not had to do this more than once, I think. The only other times I've edited has been to allow a scenario to utilize mod content, whether buildings or locomotives. Cars and cargoes are used automatically, but industries and engines are scenario-specific.

[Gwizz]

I rarely change the original version of a map, only if it has a problem that needs to be fixed. I normally play the map as-is the first time. Then,

I do often change a map when I no longer have an interest in playing to a win.
The changes I make are to match my playing style. I enjoy the stock market and sparing with many aggressive AI companies. Adding AI players sometimes requires adding extra cities, industries and how ports are used. I save the map with a slightly different name normally by adding II or 2 to the name.
So, I voted for number 4.

[nedfumpkin]

I never change scenarios, not even if it is broken.

I personally don't see anything wrong with it, but it's a choice for the player to make. I figure you've already shelled out the 20 bucks for the game so you have a right to play it however you want if you enjoy it. It's a game, so who cares...it's not like wiping out a city results in a genocide or adding a few hundred K makes GM go bankrupt anything. This isn't a moral issue for me, but a personal style isssue; and to each their own.

I like to play for the logistical challenge. I tend to prefer games that are more cargo driven than stock market driven. I set my onw goals within the scenario, and usually these are difficult short term goals. I usually start a scenario 20 times before I finish it because I like starting over a lot and trying different strategies.

But, one thing I can say for sure is that it is a great game, and regardless of how you play it, it's lots of fun with so much potential that it's variability is what I think keeps it going so many years since it was released.

[Gandar]

I figure the person who made up the scenario has balanced the game play and It would be a cheat to alter the way it is set up. So I never ever change the way the scenario is laid out and I play on expert just about all the time, [that's because the expert setting used to be the only way you could play with the complex economy and the game was so much better that way].
When I can't get gold in a scenario I figure that its my failure and that I have to find another way of playing it. Some I never do solve, Crystal and Cotton, springs to mind but I will come back to it again after a while, and give it another shot.
I will add that I am very grateful to all you scenario writers out there who continue to make fine scenarios for this "Old" game, no matter the results of this poll you should know that your work is appreciated.

[arop]

Being i mapmaker myself I commonly or frequently change the game controls. If I find the terrain looking like a "washboard" I smothen out the terrain along the tracks so it looks as much as possible as a "real" railway line. Now and then I change the whole concept in the win conditions or the choice of locomotives to fit with my own playing style, which is: 1) a long epic game from the early days of railways to the traisition to diesel or electric trains. 2) I often play without AI (AI = absolute idiots) while the way, AI's are building track often drives me mad. 3) I like some kind a nice digital "model railway", not to crowded. I like somtimes to "ride" on one of the trains to enjoy the landscape and follow the traffic flow. If I play with AI's I try to merge or take control over them as early as possible.

[Cliff]

I voted "Rarely." I always play on Expert, and if I didn't want the challenge, then I guess I would play on Easy. I have never even thought of changing the player cash or start-up cash, but I think I did remove the "No Unconnected Track" stipulation once or twice.

-- Cliff in Virignia

[Grandma Ruth]

I "rarely ever" change them - just to correct an obvious error or to add in another status page or something to keep track of numbers.

I'm interested in the concept of "cheating" when you're playing a solitary game. As an only child, I was always making up rules for ball games or whatever to play by myself so I do feel that you can "cheat" even though nobody else loses by it.

In RT3, there are lots of tricks that just skirt the edge, especially in the original version where there's no shipping-at-a-loss. Set off for one destination then switch it to where you want the cargo to go, shuttle back and forth between two stations in the same city, and so on.

Just my

[BikerTim]

I am like Grandma Ruth. I only change things if there are obvious errors. Otherwise, I leave the scenario exactly as it was given to me. If I think there is some way to improve upon it, I write my own scenario based upon the same map.