Age Of Steam V-Pheonix Rising For Your Review

[Gumboots]

Yeah I'm going to do the same thing, once profits get to that level anyway. No point having cash sitting around doing nothing. Although I did have one thought about it. In a deep recession, especially if the prime rate is jacked up by event, there could be a real benefit in having a large pile of company cash sitting around. I'm not thinking so much of this scenario but of others. If you have a huge pile of cash, and if the prime rate is high, that means you'll be making a nice amount purely on the interest on your cash. This could well be as good or better than rail or industry during the same conditions. Worth considering anyway.

I started in Des Moines, just because it was central to a lot of good things and had an existing furnace there that was doing really well. I just plonked a furnace of my own into the existing resource stream as my first move in the game, then went from there. I'm not used to the map dynamics yet so have missed some early haulage opportunities, but since I don't really expect Gold this time around I'll be making notes for the next attempt. I have noticed price breakouts for corn from the Mason City area down to Davenport and from the Corning area down to Davenport. They seem to be the big ones at the moment. I'm onto it in a big way now, but probably should have picked it up a bit earlier.

And next time I probably wont bother with the stock market at all. Since there are no PNW or takeover goals, and since takeovers just for fun don't seem feasible anyway, there's not really any point in buying stock or paying dividends. Might as well just ignore it and leave dividends at zero to boost company profit. That's a bit boring, but practical.

One thing I have noticed, and which seems to be common with all of the AoS series, is that the loco stats are all bumped up to the point where they become meaningless. Those things aren't running on coal. They must be running on pure nitromethane. They're the locomotive equivalent of a Top Fuel Ford Model T. Yee haw. Personally I'd prefer a bit more restraint on some of the stats, just for a bit more realism.

[Gumboots]

Still haven't finished this game. It's at the stage where I just have to mess around micromanaging enough revenue to two territories (the other two will take care of themselves). This hasn't been appealing since I prefer a range of other goals. I'll probably finish it at some point, but have been busy with other interests.

[Gumboots]

Finally finished it. Gold with 5 years to spare and without any micromanagement. Once you get on a roll it's fairly straightforward. The last few years are just coasting and waiting for it to tick up the gold levels of revenue to all warehouses. Took the tax hit in the last couple of years, just because there was nothing really to spend money on, but it only amounted to about 10% of total profits for each year so no problem.

It's a pretty good scenario. Not my all time favourite, but a good one nonetheless. Gave me an idea too. It might be good sometime to do a scenario that has realistic treatment of climate change. This one just jokes about it, but there's probably scope for some good strategy if it's approached realistically too.

[RulerofRails]

Glad you made it. Cracking the AI on this map may be one of the bigger challenges to be had from this map. It is on my to do list for one day.

Climate change is a bit controversial. Of course, I don't want to start a debate (controversy) about it either. Each man has his own views, but, whether I agreed with the ideas or not, I would play such a scenario for the strategic value which would be good, plus it would be fresh and different from other maps. So overall a good idea I think.

[Gumboots]

Yes that would be a challenge. I'm not sure it's possible at all. I don't know if the author or any of the beta testers ever managed it.

Anyway, I was idly considering how strategy could be approached for such a scenario. The big thing for me is how do I get to run lots of steam trains in a low carbon economy?

[RulerofRails]

Now there you have a real problem. If steamers were considered to be polluters shortly after 1900 when electrics started to be used in large cities, what about now? Only thing I can think of is if oil runs out in the future making them unavoidable.

If you get serious about ideas for climate change strategies, maybe start a new thread. I love to think and talk about strategy, but would hate to be the one to carry this thread way off topic.

[RulerofRails]

Well, I got a little time to try to beat the AI on Expert and I can say that in the third year I was successful in bankrupting 1 and the other 4 have less than 10 thousand shares each. I did use short-selling to trigger their margin calls, but I had two economic improvement newspapers putting the economic state at normal. In an earlier attempt without the economic improvement, I saw an AI margin called without any of my assistance.

To start, I bought as many of my shares as I could on margin then had my company buy all the others. I sold them all, issued two thousand shares and then bought them all up on margin except the last thousand which I bought with company money. Then I sold them all off again. I repeated this to use up all my companies cash. This gave me around 900k of player cash. After unpausing the game for a second, share price of my company which had no assets dropped from $190 to $11. I waited a month for them to drop a little more, then bought them back to keep them out of the hands of the AI chairmen. The option of the 1 million cash near the end of the first year gave me the capital to get my first line running from Niikota Port to Prairie du Chein via the Equator Port.

I haven't played it out yet, but I don't anticipate problems getting the money for the mergers. As a last resort, selling stock to drive the price down should be a good guarantee against impossibility. (As this is a personal goal which wasn't intended by the creator, I don't feel bad about using advanced robber baron tactics.) This should give a basic strategy guide for anyone who wants to try to do the same thing, however, some skill and experience is required to optimize it. For instance, a certain level of understanding of how the AI will act on the stock market is required. Explaining in more detail would make my post very long, but if someone tries it and has some questions, feel free to ask.

[Gumboots]

Interesting approach. I'd be interested to see how you go with that.

[RulerofRails]

I completed this. Unfortunately I restarted my computer before saving the screenshot I took. I got to the 37th year with around 220M of cash. The last AI had a book value of 235M with a market cap of over 500M as the economy had just up-ticked to Boom times and he was paying around 40M of dividends per year. I decided to use the method of selling my shares in the company to complete this merger. After this merge my PNW was 1.4B with over half that in cash. (When I shook the chairmen out with margin calls, I didn't buy as heavily as I could have safely so this isn't a good indicator of a maximum.) I was trying to take him over legitimately, but I had left the largest for last and he had been focused on industry as I trapped him early (connected to both ends of his original track to make my line). He owned most of the corn farms.

I was playing with some of my own handicaps. After the initial procedure I described in the last post, I never issued any more stock. I never built my own station in a city the AI had connected to (I used their stations), or built track alongside theirs to run competing service. I never bought any industry, but I did inherit a lot through the mergers. I didn't micro-manage. I tried to capture the high profit routes, but when I bought a train it stayed on that route. I only built one station per city with none to capture cargo in the countryside. This left a lot of Corn wandering aimlessly hither and thither on the rivers. This is a potential goldmine. When prices are high, the gentle effect of demand transmission through the stations according to how much and the pattern in which they are serviced is broken. The rivers still transmit price well. I hoped my city stations on a carefully-planned, direct route would make a good catchment for Corn, but in fact they enabled new outbreaks that alternatively had the Corn moving up and then back down the rivers and going nowhere.

While playing I was thinking about the track allocation method (the rolling mill). At first I believed that it simply increased track prices (roughly 3x the quoted cost when laying normal track). Then I realized that all the money spent to "buy track" disappears from company book value. This in turn keeps the credit rating down further into the game. Owning industry will reduce this. Otherwise, in some circumstances there may be a case for saving until it's possible to take out a big lump of bonds before purchasing track, doing a bigger expansion. The drawback is loss of momentum. Something to try in the future.

I missed my goal here (if I had used the trick of selling my shares to reduce market cap on all mergers, I would have been finished many years earlier). I think I need to improve my timing to start saving for the mergers. Also, saving for the bigger companies earlier may be better as once the price increases really kick in their market cap grows very fast. There is a slight error in the scripting that test all companies for the initial tax, but, because of the "AND" combining conditions for ranges of cash and yearly industry profits, this will be uncommon (I got taxed $1M once while having dead $0 LIP on my books).

I was fairly close to getting this, so next time for sure. Also, different plays wont be exactly the same, but I don't think there is a problem with repeatability (seeding, where the AI starts, etc.). I am unsure if shaking the AI will work as well if playing with less than 5. J.P. Morgan and James Fisk are heavy margin buyers. As the scenario starts in Recession and with the large initial jump from the cash gift event they like to use their margin. The lag before the computer manages to do something useful with their companies' cash gets them close to the limit. A little push and off they go.

[Gumboots]

Sounds different. I might have to try this. The standard rail and industry approach wasn't all that fascinating to me. I think I may have done it so many times that the novelty has worn off.

[RulerofRails]

Here is a screenshot of my latest attempt. I am starting year 9 and I just managed to take out all 20 bonds. As you can see the AI have expanded on some of the good Oil routes, so I decided to beat them to building a bridge. It only cost just over 1M. It also connects the AI together which is good. I just discovered that doubling the AI track doesn't count against your track allotment which is handy at the connections. This is sort of a cheat, but I would have done it anyway. Sort of just a bonus. This time I refined my stock strategy a bit more and tried to buy up the AI stock pretty fast instead of buying 51% and waiting for them to buy the rest back. Something different to try to hopefully limit their overall expansion. I have to leave it for awhile. It is definitely a good challenge. Just the type of thing I enjoy. Gumboots, Good luck on your attempts!

Phoenix AI attempt II.jpg (95.41 KiB) Viewed 8623 times

[RulerofRails]

Phoenix AI attempt II done.jpg (98.42 KiB) Viewed 8612 times

That first bridge worked so well that I decided to build another from Rock Island to Davenport and a third between Dubuque and Galena. On the first and third I built a station right on my mainline at the ports. I ended up double tracking both the first and second connections. These connections earned me 10s of millions due to price outbreaks. The water keeps the price difference going for longer. I ended up with probably 20 trains on the first line and oftentimes the price would step up on route and they would make lots of money in both directions. The second line successfully captured the ~$1,200 to ~$2,000 outbreak of Oil really well. I was earning 5M per train load there for a while. The AI always build bridges at crazy angles. It seems beating them to it is good strategy as they hauled across my bridges extensively gifting me over 50M in revenue. I am impressed by how well the AI routing mechanism follows the price outbreaks (this includes across your bridges ). After running excessive trains on those bridges I realize that the breakouts can be influenced by the heavy service that is so characteristic of the AI management.

This time the company in the lower left corner of the map (Clarinda Eastern) bought most of the Corn Farms on the map. So I targeted it for my first merger, eventually getting it for a cost of around $70M. Late in the game that is where most of the money is, as the really profitable hauls are to be had only when the outbreaks are occurring. Once the price settles down into the $1,500 to $2,000 range the profits from hauling aren't so great but farms make a killing year after year. I managed to get hold of it early enough. Just before corn went through the roof out at the farms. I purposely didn't connect too close to Corn Farms before I had bought this company out to try to keep prices down there.

Three of the other companies were only medium sized and weren't benefiting from the price increases very much. I gobbled them pretty quickly after Clarinda Eastern. I then expanded into the corn farming areas to hopefully get better profits for the farms that I now mainly owned. Then it was saving to merge with the Rock Island and Joy railroad which of course captures most of the Oil profits (I have a suspicion that the close towns in this area of the map make it one of the hotspots of this activity). I eventually did it at a cost of $170M, and then paused the game for this screenshot. As you can see the Centreville and Angola warehouse tallies are still quite low. I didn't focus on getting this goal, but they are one of the tougher locations to reach 12M as the price outbreaks help you in most of the other possible locations.

I did one dud start and noticed that several of the warehouses can be in different locations. Maybe one is seeded and the other is event placed, but I should look in the editor at some stage to figure out how this is done, but it seems that more than 2 are varying on this map. I thought I read somewhere that only one warehouse can be event seeded and one seeded, but maybe this changed with 1.06 or I didn't understand correctly? Anyway, the point being that my favorite start (top right corner) may not be quite as snappy with this setup. Early on money is tight with this strategy so it may be a slower start. I would lean towards starting at Burlington if getting this seeding (no warehouses at Galena or Savanna). That should be almost as good. The goal should still be possible. If I get time I will try one of these starts and see how it goes.

[Gumboots]

At least two of the warehouses are randomly placed in this scenario, IIRC. I did look at the coding for it but can't recall all the details. With haulage, I found that two warehouses were no-brainers fairly early on, one was a bit slower, and one was out of the way and really needed max connections to it and a fair few trains (about a dozen on various routes, IIRC) but still didn't need micromanaging.

The bridges trick sounds like a good one for early earnings. I hadn't thought of that.

[RulerofRails]

Just thought I would add to what I said about the warehouse seeding. It appears that the game is seeding them (at greater than 97% chance), so failure to appear isn't a great issue as the game will look to build one soon. I am not sure how it was done but 3 are listed in city recipes to seed. I erroneously thought that they were event placed to change up strategy. If that were the case I would try a different strategy option, but this is not the case. Also, my idea of changing start location to Burlington wasn't well thought out. The AI is so likely to start there, and if it didn't, the chances would be that there was little cargo available there. In light of this I doubt there is too much strategy to be had in trying to load a different seed. I could try to find one that looks disadvantaged, but it should just be a case of waiting a few years as the game will seed a warehouse there pretty early in the game when you are small and you probably couldn't connect there anyway.

[Shamough]

Better way to calculate TAXes:

Your way TAXes at anywhere from 67% to 100% IF AND ONLY IF a minimum positive cash reserve is in the company's bank at the end of the year. Not only that but the smaller the YTD IP the higher the TAX. This is very unfair! And keeping your company's bank below the trigger point at the end of the year completely spoils the effect of the TAX.

The following always TAXes YTD Company Industry Profits at 67%, no matter how much cash the company has in the bank at the end of the year. <Only works for RT3 V1.06>

For some reason RT3 V1.06 doesn't like the RED version and loves the GREEN version. Minimum YTD Company Industry Profit added to allow game to begin without a huge tax burden on indie profits up front for those players who like to start indies first.

• EVENT "YTD Indie Profit TAX"
  X * Yearly (End of year)
  * all companies
  * single Player
  CONDITIONS:
  ... Years Elapsed since start of game >= 2
  ... YTD Company Industry Profit >= $1,000,000
  ... Force test against companies is TRUE
  
  X Apply Effects only once per evernt
  * to all companies
  EFFECTS:
  ... Set Company Variable 4 to [YTD Company Industry Profits]
  ... Company Variable 4 / 100
  ... Comapny Variable 4 * 67
  ... Company Cash (-)[Company Variable 4]
  
  ... Set Company Variable 4 to [YTD Company Industry Profits]
  ... Company Variable 3 = 100
  ... Company Variable 4 / Company Variable 3
  ... Company Variable 3 = 67
  ... Comapny Variable 4 * Company Variable 3
  ... Company Cash (-)[Company Variable 4]

[RulerofRails]

Shamough, your way is definitely a more accurate way of taxing the company. The cash triggers make the current tax easily avoidable as most players spend all their money. That being said, have you ever played Crystal Cotton Revisited? That scenario has a really crippling tax on all profits. It was a while since I played it, but I believe it used a similar method to yours except taxing all profit instead of just industry profit. If you spend all your money, this has the effect of giving your company a massive debt at the beginning of the year. It often takes over half the year to pay it off. In my opinion, wsherrick probably made the taxes with the cash triggers to avoid ever getting a start of year debt that can be perceived as low quality and be very annoying to some players. In my latest games, after taking over one or two AI (I wasn't buying industry myself), there was no way to avoid the highest tax rate as I saved for the next merger.

[Shamough]

A Age Of Steam V-Phoenix Rising

Problem: Program doesn't take away old unused track at begining of 2011 when the Rolling Mill becomes available. They hang around to be used until the player drops a track into the Rolling Mill grey area.

This now gives you a true "USE THEM OR LOOSE THEM" before 2011. This slightly alters the original game which allowed Industry buying in the begining ... and allows you to go down the wrong rabbit hole. You can still buy Industries ... but you'll loose all of the UNUSED FREE track at the begining of 2011.

I removed the EFFECT from the EVENT: Track Allowance (Set Company Track Pieces Buildable to 1200) as it was redundant .

• EVENT:
  How To Buy Track
  
  • X * Monthly (End of month)
    X One time only event
    * on screen player's compant only
    * Single Player
    
    CONDITIONS:
    ... Game Year Month (YYYMM) = 200801 AND
    ... Game Difficulty Level <= 1 AND
    ... Force test against companies is TRUE
    
    X Apply effects only once per event
    * to the company for which the condition is TRUE
    
    EFFECTS:
    ... Set Company Track Pieces Buildable to 1500

How To Buy Track-X
Dialog says you get 1000 sections ... program gives you 1200 sections.

• EVENT:
  How To Buy Track-X
  
  • X * Monthly (End of month)
    X One time only event
    * on screen player's compant only
    * Single Player
    
    CONDITIONS:
    ... Game Year Month (YYYMM) = 200801 AND
    ... Game Difficulty Level >= 2 AND
    ... Force test against companies is TRUE
    
    X Apply effects only once per event
    * to the company for which the condition is TRUE
    
    EFFECTS:
    ... Set Company Track Pieces Buildable to 1200

The following EVENT follows the "How To Buy Track-X" EVENT
Leave the Player with 5 track in order to purchase new track.

• EVENT:
  Getting Rid Of Old Track
  
  
  • X * Yearly (Begining of year)
    X One time only event
    * on screen player's company only
    * Single Player
    
    CONDITIONS:
    ... Current Game YEAR = 2011 AND
    ... Force test against companies is TRUE
    
    X apply effect only once per event
    * to human companies only
    
    EFFECTS:
    Set Company Track Pieces Buildable to 5[/b]

• EVENT:
  Buying Track
  
  
  • NOTE: EFFECTS - OPTIONS 1 thru 4 CHANGE:
    ... + 400 to ... + 401
    ... + 800 to ... + 801
    ... + 200 to ... + 201
    Option (4) add to EFFRECTS: Set Company Track Pieces Buildable + 1[/b]

• EVENT:
  No track available
  • ...
    EFFECTS: (add)
    ... Set Company Track Pieces Buildable + 1

I want that track piece back that was used to open the options dialog!

[RulerofRails]

I can see you are getting right into the events, so I am looking forward to your map! Maybe I am blind, but I missed the intention here for old, unused track to be taken away when the rolling mill becomes available. I didn't notice that the track issued in February was incorrect, though. Good work on deciphering the events, and finding that inconsistency. However, the scenario is still playable and enjoyable as is, so I would leave the decision of how to correct it for the main copy to wsherrick, who I am sure will stop by in time. I will fix it on my copy though. Harder is better and this will make Expert level a little more difficult. I am not too concerned with getting the piece I used at the Rolling Mill back though, so will leave that.

[Shamough]

My reasoning for removing the OLD unused track is: It was old and weak as all get out (Nothing but train wrecks looking to happen.). The FRA only allowed it to be used because nothing else was available. Once the tracks started coming out of the ROLLING MILL the FRA issued a scrap order for all unused OLD tracks. It boils down to a quality and safety issue.

[Shamough]

I just finished an Expert SINGLE PLAYER - NO AI game. Even though I had met all of the conditions for GOLD I was awarded SILVER!

I edited the GOLD, SILVER and BRONZE conditions for a better end of game solution.

I also changed my TAX calculations to use GAME VAR 1 & 3 which were unused. Company Var 3 & 4 are in use ... I missed them my first lookee see.

I'll test it tomarrow to make sure that I didn't add in an ATOMIC STINK BOMB.

Hans