Southern Pacific
Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 8:25 pm
The following text is a compilation of what was salvaged from the old Gathering Forum. It contains postings from several different people.
Thanks goes out to Wolverine for putting this all together.
Hawk
Southern Pacific - Added in the Coast to Coast Expansion
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After completing the L.A. to El Paso route, new objectives are made. For bronze, you must extend you line to Wichita. Anyway, I did extend the line to Wichita, the goal registered as having been accomplished, yet the game didn't allow me a Bronze win at the end of my deadline. This is quite the bug. There was no way I was about to complete the Gold with the time I had left, so i just went for the Bronze, which I completed, but the game still showed the hobo walking down the tracks at the end, even though in my ledger the goal was checked as completed. So either something doesn't register the goal properly, or the Bronze requirements are not explained properly. Either way, it is a pain and should really be fixed.
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If the connection really is made and the year is 1885 then something may be amiss.
The events look alright except that the silver and bronze do not test anything of the player's including his company. A test of connection may need a company to test the connection on.
Add a 'force test of company' to silver and bronze events. With the button set to 'online player's company'. I'll do this myself and test it when I have a few hours.
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Thanks, that'd be helpful since I have yet to really poke around with the editor. Have you actually played the scenario to this point? I know it takes a bit, but if you get a chance to do so and shoot for Bronze on the second set of goals (after connecting L.A. to El Paso), let me know if it lets you win or not.
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You know I don't remember if I ever finished. I only played it to some conclusion in beta testing. But, I had to lay a lot of expensive track (tunnels) to reach the first connection goal.
I had many saved games because I didn't know which connection gave me sufficient track to go on. I was like a maze.
When I had won the first connection I got the message that I had to go on to get the gold. The track laying was tedious up to then I think I stopped.
Aren't these suppose to be land grants? Not track grants.
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I've run in to the samething as you. In my thread "I'm getting killed on these CtC maps" I had written that I've connected to Wichita 5 or 6 times now and still lost every time. Sometimes I own all the track and sometimes I connect to AI track to get there. Tho logbook at the end of each year said I had connected to Wichita, but like you got the Hobo walking down the track. I couldn't find anything with the Editor in the scenario, so I'm scratching my head wondering if there is a bug in it. On the H&P Railroad site on page 4 of the map archive, there is a "fixed" map but I don't know if this is something from PopTop or if it just has the correct train logos. I think Mobius might know about the map.
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No I didn't fix any goals on this. Some other minor things.
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Ah, he seems to have the same thing happen, so there must a be a bug in there somewhere, which is rather heinous. Oh, and yes, you need land grants from the government in stage 2 to get more track laid if you run out. You can sorta force the issue by trying to lay track over and over with no track available, then suddenly the screen comes up offering you some more track to the tune of half a million or whatever. If you are out of track and just wait for the offer to come up, it takes eons and you will run out of time, so it seems you have to kinda force it to come up by trying to lay track with 0 sections left. Connecting towns doesn't seem to provide you with enough track to make it to the next town either, you really need those government offers. Of course, all this matters very little if the game won't let you win even after you accomplish the goal!
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You guys got out of the LA Basin
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I know, it seems tough to get cracking right off the start, but the trick is to take over another company right away, before you even set the game speed beyond pause. You need to grab someone eles company and use their lines to generate money, and leave the L.A. station alone for a bit while your cash builds up.
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Buy out one of the companies even before you take the game off of Pause. I've found you can even buy the companies for as little as $200 over the lowest price, sometimes even though you don't own any shares of the company. I even sell short the stock of the highest priced company, I think it is the Denver company. It usually drops from $130-$150 to $50-$60 after the first year. Buy some industry and let your interest rate for borrowing grow towards A or AA. Sometimes I have even laid track but not run any trains since the goals change when you get to El Paso.
I have gotten Wichita and New Orleans connected to LA only once and I still didn't get the Silver. I found that time that the AI railroad building from New Orleans built track close enough to my track that I could connect to it with the little track I had left in the middle of the last year. Perhaps you can't buy the railroads out of Wichita and New Orleans as they have pretty aggressive building of their own. Maybe we can only buy the railroad out of Texas.
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Actually, I think I found a little trick to win this map.
What you do is get at least 51% of the stock in your own company (SP).
I invested in only industry with my own company and had an annual income of over $3 million a year in 10 years. Textile, lumber, and distilleries. Then what you do is also invest to try to take over one of the weaker AIs. Not too weak because you need it to make money. Switch chairmanships to the AI and lay track. The AI RR have something like 50,000 miles of track. You can go anywhere. Then come back as chairman of the SP and merge.
You might be able to take the chairmanship of one of the AI early in the game. Then you are golden if you can make money because I think the track limitation is only on the SP.
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So you mean get 51% of another (AI) company and use that track to make your connections?
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I just got gold in this in 1870. I could have done it sooner except I wanted to see how the AI ran the railroads. And I didn't realize there is a Wichita and a Wichita Falls. And the flag for highest Bookvalue seems to only be checked at the end of the year.
Here's what I did:
Using the Robber Baron exploit I bought as much SP stock as I could. Then I used the SP cash and bond money to buy back all the stock. (You can buy another 1K of stock as it rises.) I sold my own stock at this high price. Then I resigned. (There was still some cash left so I suppose I could have used it to lay a little bit of track but I think there was about $90k left in the treasury.)
Then I shorted the stock and used most of the money ($680k) to buy well into the GH&A and a little bit of the TP. At this point I started the game.
The next month the SP stock dropped from $180 to $50-60 or so boost my PP. Also, started to buy more of the GH&A until I got 11K later the first year.
At that point I took it over, took out bonds and laid track. I resigned and let the game go for the next year. Also, continued to buy into TP.
So that by year 4 I had majority share of both TP and GH&A. I took them over when they accumulated cash and bond credits while expanding both of them and buying industries. Then resigning again letting the AI run them.
I eventually joined them and they both were generating plenty of cash. I took the one with the biggest pile of cash and laid burn track all the way to LA. I then merged with the SP which was $1 a share at this point.
I simply took over the one with the highest book value and got the gold.
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Man, you sure have a better grasp on the political aspect of the game than I do, heh.
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One thing you have to do is connect LA to El Paso using the same RR. I used different RRs from the east and west meeting in Phoenix and it would not give me a connection to El Paso. Otherwise I could have made it in 1867.
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I kinda hate to say this but could you play the SP scenario again and only try for Bronze or Silver. And if you do get the Silver or Bronze awarded could you tell whether you owned the track that connects to Wichita and New Orleans, (hence owning the Companies) or if you left the AI alone. Also, I have always been the Chairman of only SP and not any of the others. Thanks for your help.
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there were two different companies.
But, you can check any configuration for yourself. Use a few cheats and take over two AIs and do what you want with them. Give them money and connect anyway you want. You have to own a station at LA and El Paso with the same RR.
Since there are only connect goals you don't even have to start the time.
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I'd would make a stab at fixing this map to eliminate the exploit but I'm not sure what the author had in mind. Did he want the player to take over other RRs or merge with them?
If the AI doesn't build to Wichita there's really not enough track allowed for the SP to build there. And you can't build off the end of AI track. So if I prohibit changing chairmanships there may be no way to win except to merge with a RR with rails close to Wichita. Even then a win may be impossible given the limited track.
Playing this map without taking over an AI I usually run out of trackage after connecting to El Paso. I never seem to have enough track to reach the closest AI.
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Perhaps the connection to Wichita registers as complete, but without owning the station there it won't let you win. See, with me, I connected to the AI track that went to Wichita, and it said the goal was complete, but I still saw hobo Joe. Maybe I should have owned the company (Texas I think) that had the line to Wichita. I will try this next.
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You are right that a connection between LA and Wichita is needed for Bronze. In my second game my winning RR was connected from LA to the TP. The TP connected to Wichita.
I was testing and saw that the lose condition is set at the beginning of the year and the win at the end. So when they are set to the same year like that you will always lose. But the text says before the end of. So it should be on year end.
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Odd thing is that I had Wichita connected for about 3 years before the game made me lose. I didn't own the station in Wichita thgough, so do you think that might have something to do with it?
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wrote: Odd thing is that I had Wichita connected for about 3 years before the game made me lose. I didn't own the station in Wichita thgough, so do you think that might have something to do with it?
No. You cannot win Silver or Bronze the way the events are programmed. The lose condition is triggered before the test of either these.
If you get the message 'connected to Wichita' when you connect to the CRI&P RR the trigger is working. And that is what happens. This RR is pre-built already in Wichita.
The game basically is Get to El Paso then connect to the CRIP and to the TP. If you are lucky the TP and the Galveston RR have joined up.
This map is sorely in need of a make over. The resources are weird.
Whoever colored the map never made it out to the Calif. desert.
The map should not allow the player to takeover another RR and use their 50,000 track cells.
I'll post the fixed map at the H&P.
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after looking at the conditions for SP in the editor, should the condition for Bronze be -- Current game year=1884 AND game variable 1=0 AND City connects to city (28: Los Angeles, 42: Wichita) is True and this is checked at the end of the year? If the Lose condition is -- Current game year >=1885 AND game variable 1=0 and is checked at the beginning of the year, wouldn't the Bronze condition be checked for first at the end of the year and if it isn't true then the year would switch to 1885 and then the lose condition would be checked at the beginning of the year? If the Bronze condition is checked at the end of the year, it should be registered before the lose condition which is checked at the beginning of the next year. The Lose condition should't be set until the beginning of 1885. I see what you mean by the Bronze and Silver can never be awarded, --as soon as it is 1885, you lose because the Bronze and Silver conditions won't be checked for until the end of 1885 and the lose condition is checked for at the beginning of 1885. Also, for the first time, I took over a Railroad and used its 50,000 pieces of track and built from Louisiana all the way to western Texas ( Odessa) and then it was easy to connect with my LA to El Paso Railroad after jumping back and forth between the two companies since I was Majority Stockholder in both Companies! The Railroad that runs to Wichita had expanded South to Odessa and then I had both Wichita and New Orleans connected. I don't know how to have the Highest Company Book Value unless I actually Merge with the other Companies.
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Looking at the text of the briefing for chapter 2 is says you have to have all the conditions before the end of the year of 1884. So Silver and Bronze should be triggered in that year. (I think the author intended that but he typed 1885.)
That is what I will program in the fix I'm doing.
Also, I will eliminate resigning and taking chairmanships of other companies. (I could allow that but then would have to try to add events that give track sections for all the eastern cities and that would just bog the game.)
Also, adding the KATY RR and new logo for more flavor.
The fixed map now is available at the H&P Map Archive.
PS. One clue I found when testing is that its good to connect to San Diego. You gain more track than you use. In previous tries I always fell about 30-40 sections short of connecting to AIs.
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Thank you very much . I'll download and check it out. Connecting to San Diego and, along the way Mission Viejo, does indeed give you a nice chunk of track as does connecting from Banning to Barstow. I can practically always get to El Paso. I also noticed that when the Bronze is awarded, according to the editor, The dialog will say that you connected to New Orleans instead of Wichita.
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Big thanks to Mobius for trying to iron out this map! I was so happy to see the SP remembered, yet so sad when I discovered this map was buggy. I will also download, Mobius, and again, thanks very much!
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After playing awhile I made some more changes (041206) to the industry.
This now is a pretty fun map.
Plus with the logos and things it seems more historic.
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Ah good, just downloading it now. Thanks again Mobius, you kick arse!
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I am having some trouble getting things going in the Southern Pacific scenario. It forces you to start in Los Angeles, but there doesn't seem to be much industry in and around the towns that you can afford to lay track into. About the only small cache of cargo I can see on the map is a trace of coal and iron. Any hints on getting some cash flow right off the start?
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Alright, I have done some more probing. I have discovered that the easiest way to get some industry going is to first off attempt a merger with one of the smaller companies and to ignore my station in Los Angeles. This gives me instant rails, stations and industries. I then need to wait around for this new railroad to earn some money, then I can start inching my way toward El Paso. I found it tough to make it from L.A. to El Paso because of the limited track, but I managed to get there with a silver by connecting every small town along the way to earn extra track. The thing is, the scenario doesn't end at connecting El Paso. If you take out a bunch of bonds (what I did) to try and make that last stretch to El Paso, you rack up interest that later comes back to haunt you. After connecting L.A. To El Paso, you then need to press on to other cities, but this time the track is even more scarce, forcing you to buy sections from the government in order to continue laying track. At 250 grand for 25 sections, any interst you need to pay on outstanding bonds makes track purchase impossible, so be sure to be free of debt when you connect to El Paso, or you'll be up the creek without a paddle. This scenario is indeed challenging, but it kinda makes me mad at the same time. be sure to save often in case you bone up, it is easy to make a major mistake in this one.
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There is a cheety way to win gold quite easy. Sell all your stocks and buy up as many stocks as possible in the most profitable company (the one in the northeast corner), until you have enough to manage a chairman takeover, after that it's a really simple thing, with a strong economy and without any trackbuilding restictions...
Thanks goes out to Wolverine for putting this all together.
Hawk
Southern Pacific - Added in the Coast to Coast Expansion
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After completing the L.A. to El Paso route, new objectives are made. For bronze, you must extend you line to Wichita. Anyway, I did extend the line to Wichita, the goal registered as having been accomplished, yet the game didn't allow me a Bronze win at the end of my deadline. This is quite the bug. There was no way I was about to complete the Gold with the time I had left, so i just went for the Bronze, which I completed, but the game still showed the hobo walking down the tracks at the end, even though in my ledger the goal was checked as completed. So either something doesn't register the goal properly, or the Bronze requirements are not explained properly. Either way, it is a pain and should really be fixed.
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If the connection really is made and the year is 1885 then something may be amiss.
The events look alright except that the silver and bronze do not test anything of the player's including his company. A test of connection may need a company to test the connection on.
Add a 'force test of company' to silver and bronze events. With the button set to 'online player's company'. I'll do this myself and test it when I have a few hours.
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Thanks, that'd be helpful since I have yet to really poke around with the editor. Have you actually played the scenario to this point? I know it takes a bit, but if you get a chance to do so and shoot for Bronze on the second set of goals (after connecting L.A. to El Paso), let me know if it lets you win or not.
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You know I don't remember if I ever finished. I only played it to some conclusion in beta testing. But, I had to lay a lot of expensive track (tunnels) to reach the first connection goal.
I had many saved games because I didn't know which connection gave me sufficient track to go on. I was like a maze.
When I had won the first connection I got the message that I had to go on to get the gold. The track laying was tedious up to then I think I stopped.
Aren't these suppose to be land grants? Not track grants.
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I've run in to the samething as you. In my thread "I'm getting killed on these CtC maps" I had written that I've connected to Wichita 5 or 6 times now and still lost every time. Sometimes I own all the track and sometimes I connect to AI track to get there. Tho logbook at the end of each year said I had connected to Wichita, but like you got the Hobo walking down the track. I couldn't find anything with the Editor in the scenario, so I'm scratching my head wondering if there is a bug in it. On the H&P Railroad site on page 4 of the map archive, there is a "fixed" map but I don't know if this is something from PopTop or if it just has the correct train logos. I think Mobius might know about the map.
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No I didn't fix any goals on this. Some other minor things.
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Ah, he seems to have the same thing happen, so there must a be a bug in there somewhere, which is rather heinous. Oh, and yes, you need land grants from the government in stage 2 to get more track laid if you run out. You can sorta force the issue by trying to lay track over and over with no track available, then suddenly the screen comes up offering you some more track to the tune of half a million or whatever. If you are out of track and just wait for the offer to come up, it takes eons and you will run out of time, so it seems you have to kinda force it to come up by trying to lay track with 0 sections left. Connecting towns doesn't seem to provide you with enough track to make it to the next town either, you really need those government offers. Of course, all this matters very little if the game won't let you win even after you accomplish the goal!
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You guys got out of the LA Basin
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I know, it seems tough to get cracking right off the start, but the trick is to take over another company right away, before you even set the game speed beyond pause. You need to grab someone eles company and use their lines to generate money, and leave the L.A. station alone for a bit while your cash builds up.
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Buy out one of the companies even before you take the game off of Pause. I've found you can even buy the companies for as little as $200 over the lowest price, sometimes even though you don't own any shares of the company. I even sell short the stock of the highest priced company, I think it is the Denver company. It usually drops from $130-$150 to $50-$60 after the first year. Buy some industry and let your interest rate for borrowing grow towards A or AA. Sometimes I have even laid track but not run any trains since the goals change when you get to El Paso.
I have gotten Wichita and New Orleans connected to LA only once and I still didn't get the Silver. I found that time that the AI railroad building from New Orleans built track close enough to my track that I could connect to it with the little track I had left in the middle of the last year. Perhaps you can't buy the railroads out of Wichita and New Orleans as they have pretty aggressive building of their own. Maybe we can only buy the railroad out of Texas.
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Actually, I think I found a little trick to win this map.
What you do is get at least 51% of the stock in your own company (SP).
I invested in only industry with my own company and had an annual income of over $3 million a year in 10 years. Textile, lumber, and distilleries. Then what you do is also invest to try to take over one of the weaker AIs. Not too weak because you need it to make money. Switch chairmanships to the AI and lay track. The AI RR have something like 50,000 miles of track. You can go anywhere. Then come back as chairman of the SP and merge.
You might be able to take the chairmanship of one of the AI early in the game. Then you are golden if you can make money because I think the track limitation is only on the SP.
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So you mean get 51% of another (AI) company and use that track to make your connections?
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I just got gold in this in 1870. I could have done it sooner except I wanted to see how the AI ran the railroads. And I didn't realize there is a Wichita and a Wichita Falls. And the flag for highest Bookvalue seems to only be checked at the end of the year.
Here's what I did:
Using the Robber Baron exploit I bought as much SP stock as I could. Then I used the SP cash and bond money to buy back all the stock. (You can buy another 1K of stock as it rises.) I sold my own stock at this high price. Then I resigned. (There was still some cash left so I suppose I could have used it to lay a little bit of track but I think there was about $90k left in the treasury.)
Then I shorted the stock and used most of the money ($680k) to buy well into the GH&A and a little bit of the TP. At this point I started the game.
The next month the SP stock dropped from $180 to $50-60 or so boost my PP. Also, started to buy more of the GH&A until I got 11K later the first year.
At that point I took it over, took out bonds and laid track. I resigned and let the game go for the next year. Also, continued to buy into TP.
So that by year 4 I had majority share of both TP and GH&A. I took them over when they accumulated cash and bond credits while expanding both of them and buying industries. Then resigning again letting the AI run them.
I eventually joined them and they both were generating plenty of cash. I took the one with the biggest pile of cash and laid burn track all the way to LA. I then merged with the SP which was $1 a share at this point.
I simply took over the one with the highest book value and got the gold.
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Man, you sure have a better grasp on the political aspect of the game than I do, heh.
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One thing you have to do is connect LA to El Paso using the same RR. I used different RRs from the east and west meeting in Phoenix and it would not give me a connection to El Paso. Otherwise I could have made it in 1867.
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I kinda hate to say this but could you play the SP scenario again and only try for Bronze or Silver. And if you do get the Silver or Bronze awarded could you tell whether you owned the track that connects to Wichita and New Orleans, (hence owning the Companies) or if you left the AI alone. Also, I have always been the Chairman of only SP and not any of the others. Thanks for your help.
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there were two different companies.
But, you can check any configuration for yourself. Use a few cheats and take over two AIs and do what you want with them. Give them money and connect anyway you want. You have to own a station at LA and El Paso with the same RR.
Since there are only connect goals you don't even have to start the time.
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I'd would make a stab at fixing this map to eliminate the exploit but I'm not sure what the author had in mind. Did he want the player to take over other RRs or merge with them?
If the AI doesn't build to Wichita there's really not enough track allowed for the SP to build there. And you can't build off the end of AI track. So if I prohibit changing chairmanships there may be no way to win except to merge with a RR with rails close to Wichita. Even then a win may be impossible given the limited track.
Playing this map without taking over an AI I usually run out of trackage after connecting to El Paso. I never seem to have enough track to reach the closest AI.
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Perhaps the connection to Wichita registers as complete, but without owning the station there it won't let you win. See, with me, I connected to the AI track that went to Wichita, and it said the goal was complete, but I still saw hobo Joe. Maybe I should have owned the company (Texas I think) that had the line to Wichita. I will try this next.
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You are right that a connection between LA and Wichita is needed for Bronze. In my second game my winning RR was connected from LA to the TP. The TP connected to Wichita.
I was testing and saw that the lose condition is set at the beginning of the year and the win at the end. So when they are set to the same year like that you will always lose. But the text says before the end of. So it should be on year end.
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Odd thing is that I had Wichita connected for about 3 years before the game made me lose. I didn't own the station in Wichita thgough, so do you think that might have something to do with it?
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wrote: Odd thing is that I had Wichita connected for about 3 years before the game made me lose. I didn't own the station in Wichita thgough, so do you think that might have something to do with it?
No. You cannot win Silver or Bronze the way the events are programmed. The lose condition is triggered before the test of either these.
If you get the message 'connected to Wichita' when you connect to the CRI&P RR the trigger is working. And that is what happens. This RR is pre-built already in Wichita.
The game basically is Get to El Paso then connect to the CRIP and to the TP. If you are lucky the TP and the Galveston RR have joined up.
This map is sorely in need of a make over. The resources are weird.
Whoever colored the map never made it out to the Calif. desert.
The map should not allow the player to takeover another RR and use their 50,000 track cells.
I'll post the fixed map at the H&P.
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after looking at the conditions for SP in the editor, should the condition for Bronze be -- Current game year=1884 AND game variable 1=0 AND City connects to city (28: Los Angeles, 42: Wichita) is True and this is checked at the end of the year? If the Lose condition is -- Current game year >=1885 AND game variable 1=0 and is checked at the beginning of the year, wouldn't the Bronze condition be checked for first at the end of the year and if it isn't true then the year would switch to 1885 and then the lose condition would be checked at the beginning of the year? If the Bronze condition is checked at the end of the year, it should be registered before the lose condition which is checked at the beginning of the next year. The Lose condition should't be set until the beginning of 1885. I see what you mean by the Bronze and Silver can never be awarded, --as soon as it is 1885, you lose because the Bronze and Silver conditions won't be checked for until the end of 1885 and the lose condition is checked for at the beginning of 1885. Also, for the first time, I took over a Railroad and used its 50,000 pieces of track and built from Louisiana all the way to western Texas ( Odessa) and then it was easy to connect with my LA to El Paso Railroad after jumping back and forth between the two companies since I was Majority Stockholder in both Companies! The Railroad that runs to Wichita had expanded South to Odessa and then I had both Wichita and New Orleans connected. I don't know how to have the Highest Company Book Value unless I actually Merge with the other Companies.
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Looking at the text of the briefing for chapter 2 is says you have to have all the conditions before the end of the year of 1884. So Silver and Bronze should be triggered in that year. (I think the author intended that but he typed 1885.)
That is what I will program in the fix I'm doing.
Also, I will eliminate resigning and taking chairmanships of other companies. (I could allow that but then would have to try to add events that give track sections for all the eastern cities and that would just bog the game.)
Also, adding the KATY RR and new logo for more flavor.
The fixed map now is available at the H&P Map Archive.
PS. One clue I found when testing is that its good to connect to San Diego. You gain more track than you use. In previous tries I always fell about 30-40 sections short of connecting to AIs.
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Thank you very much . I'll download and check it out. Connecting to San Diego and, along the way Mission Viejo, does indeed give you a nice chunk of track as does connecting from Banning to Barstow. I can practically always get to El Paso. I also noticed that when the Bronze is awarded, according to the editor, The dialog will say that you connected to New Orleans instead of Wichita.
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Big thanks to Mobius for trying to iron out this map! I was so happy to see the SP remembered, yet so sad when I discovered this map was buggy. I will also download, Mobius, and again, thanks very much!
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After playing awhile I made some more changes (041206) to the industry.
This now is a pretty fun map.
Plus with the logos and things it seems more historic.
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Ah good, just downloading it now. Thanks again Mobius, you kick arse!
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I am having some trouble getting things going in the Southern Pacific scenario. It forces you to start in Los Angeles, but there doesn't seem to be much industry in and around the towns that you can afford to lay track into. About the only small cache of cargo I can see on the map is a trace of coal and iron. Any hints on getting some cash flow right off the start?
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Alright, I have done some more probing. I have discovered that the easiest way to get some industry going is to first off attempt a merger with one of the smaller companies and to ignore my station in Los Angeles. This gives me instant rails, stations and industries. I then need to wait around for this new railroad to earn some money, then I can start inching my way toward El Paso. I found it tough to make it from L.A. to El Paso because of the limited track, but I managed to get there with a silver by connecting every small town along the way to earn extra track. The thing is, the scenario doesn't end at connecting El Paso. If you take out a bunch of bonds (what I did) to try and make that last stretch to El Paso, you rack up interest that later comes back to haunt you. After connecting L.A. To El Paso, you then need to press on to other cities, but this time the track is even more scarce, forcing you to buy sections from the government in order to continue laying track. At 250 grand for 25 sections, any interst you need to pay on outstanding bonds makes track purchase impossible, so be sure to be free of debt when you connect to El Paso, or you'll be up the creek without a paddle. This scenario is indeed challenging, but it kinda makes me mad at the same time. be sure to save often in case you bone up, it is easy to make a major mistake in this one.
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There is a cheety way to win gold quite easy. Sell all your stocks and buy up as many stocks as possible in the most profitable company (the one in the northeast corner), until you have enough to manage a chairman takeover, after that it's a really simple thing, with a strong economy and without any trackbuilding restictions...