Samurai Killed Me

[alexender00]

Hi, I used to think I wasn't too bad a player since I succeeded to win Gold In all the previous Original Campaign map, but I stuck with the Samurai Rides An Iron Horse map. I start with only 300K and can't get bonds (Grade F) and can't raise reasonable money thru stock (about 10-12K). I think it might be me but I can't figure out where to build that first money maker train track that would unlock the bond and later on the stock market for further money for extensions.

Any help would be welcome.

I play on RT2P with 1.55 at normal. Like I said I finished all the previous maps with gold, but I can't even figure how to begin this one with the paltry 300K they gives you.

[alexender00]

Nevermind found the place...

Small Station at Tokyo, Medium at Maebashi, without crossing the river.

[loco_motive]

By not crossing the river its possible to get a map that only gives you 3 houses covered, as mine would have been. Never good since you need at least 4 houses to have pass and mail demand of course. With the $50K cash start and even without issuing stock, a river crossing is possible. In my 1-train game, I picked up 5 houses in Maebashi with a medium station and 5 houses in Tokyo with a small station.

In the distant past I have also gotten good starts connecting Fukui either north or south depending on the particular map and starting option.

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PS: Nice to see a game-related post for a change instead of this site being hijacked into someone's personal blog.

[Gwizz]

Steve, be nice. Better to generate some activity then to have the site close down.

I'm also glad to see some game related activity.

[Paul Kersey]

Thread resurrection time. I've been playing this level the last day or so and am struggling to get gold. It took a few years to even get anything going since the Tokyo to Maebashi route isn't the greatest. Once I expanded to Sendai some decent cash started coming in. I noticed as the scenario progressed that it seemed like no routes were making any money. My only good route was Tokyo/Sendai. Other routes covered greater distance but couldn't come close to matching the earnings of my one good route. Getting anywhere south of Tokyo requires going over Mt. Fuji which slows everything to a crawl even with the Shay. My last five years or so were the worst. I only needed one more connection but never had enough money to make it. In fact, every year at the end was bleeding cash. Also, apparently you can't buy industries on this level so you are only relying on train income which sucks because it felt like there was always a recession going on. Any tips?

[GuineaPig]

To be honest, I've never started this map at Tokyo. I've always begun at Kyoto/Osaka.

[jeffryfisher]

I didn't see this as an independent map (only as part of the campaign), so I did some editing while turning off the campaign flag. Here's my stand alone version (not yet tested)

EDIT 4-May-2013: I've replaced campaign choices with statuses, and I've corrected some event trigger flaws (like not checking the "test human companies" flag when triggering against companies. Reserved cells have been streamlined, and a few new towns have been added to Hokkaido.

Meiji Restoration.zip

[jcco]

Thread resurrection time. I've been playing this level the last day or so and am struggling to get gold. It took a few years to even get anything going since the Tokyo to Maebashi route isn't the greatest. Once I expanded to Sendai some decent cash started coming in. I noticed as the scenario progressed that it seemed like no routes were making any money. My only good route was Tokyo/Sendai. Other routes covered greater distance but couldn't come close to matching the earnings of my one good route. Getting anywhere south of Tokyo requires going over Mt. Fuji which slows everything to a crawl even with the Shay. My last five years or so were the worst. I only needed one more connection but never had enough money to make it. In fact, every year at the end was bleeding cash. Also, apparently you can't buy industries on this level so you are only relying on train income which sucks because it felt like there was always a recession going on. Any tips?

Helllo, just played this one quickly last night (it had been years since last time I had tried it) and made gold by 1882. Didn't run into much trouble. Here are a few things you should keep in mind as you play this scenario, which should help you greatly:

 

  - You don't need to have all your tracks connected until the very end. You can build anywhere you want in this scenario so you should try to avoid going over mountains. Concentrate on building several small profitable lines wherever the terrain is flat enough...the Shay is useless in this scenario for that very reason.

 

  - There is no AI and your personal net worth is irrelevant in this scenario : Don't forget to issue stock every year! you won't get much money at first (but this can help you buy that much needed second Vulcan) but as time passes and you make some profit, you'll make good money selling new shares EVERY YEAR.

 

  - The Vulcan is not the fastest nor the most reliable engine BUT it sure is THE CHEAPEST one around! It is a very valuable asset in this scenario. Try dead-heading iron to a steel mill with an Iron Duke and you'll soon be broke. The Vulcan on the other hand can turn a profit out of anything (albeit small) even dead-heading grain to a cattle ranch or moving goods between two very close city. So, keep the Ten wheelers for long to medium Pax/mail runs or fast freight like food or goods, but keep to the vulcan for stuff like Iron, grain or when doing very short runs.

 

 

Here is a step by step account of what I did to get gold in 1882:

 

  - I chose the +50k bonus because the shay is pretty useless if you don't go over steep grade and the +10% speed bonus won't make much of a difference (and will increase fuel cost by roughly the same amount!). Starting with 350k will give you a lot more flexibility at game start.

 

-1870 : connected FUKUI and KANAZAWA. Both cities had a port. Bought 2 vulcans: one for PAX/Mail the other moving food Back and forth between the 2 towns (had to issue stock to buy the second engine). I had to micromanage the PAX train for maximum profit. was able to buy water and sanding towers after arrival of second train. PROFIT: 177k .

 

-1871: Issued stock, managed my 2 trains as best I could. Bought a roundhouse. PROFIT: 194k

-1872: Issued Stock, paid 80k to get access to better engines. PROFIT 97k (after deducting the 80k from event).

 

-1874: Issued more stock. Was, at last, able to connect OSAKA/KYOTO. Replaced my "Fukui Cannonball" with a ten-wheeler and started to run  pax between OSAKA and KANAZAWA/FUKUI. Bought a second fast engine to move food between the 3 cities (all had a port) and used the vulcan to move Iron to the steel mill near Kyoto (built a depot there so I could also sell the iron from the port of OSAKA). Soon added a second vulcan because there was far too much iron.   PROFIT: 498k

 

-1875: Issued stock. was making some money at last. doubled the tracks between OSAKA/KANAZAWA. connected KITAKYUSHU to OITA and got 300k reward. Put 2 vulcans on this line (one PAX, the other dead-heading Food/Iron) which kept making over 100k/year until the end. Connected the Osaka line to NIGATA for a second 300k reward. added a Ten WHeeler to run OSAKA/NIGATA with PAX/Mail and extended the route of my food train to reach Nigata as well. Waited for the arrival of a few trains to be able to build some more. Connected TOKYO to SENDAI, only running a PAX/Mail ten wheeler between the two cities (no freight to move around there). 1875 PROFIT : 1. 560k (including the 600k rewards and stock issuing).

 

-1876: Issued stock. Connected NAGOYA to HAMAMATSU and put 2 vulcans on the line (PAX, COTTON/FOOD/GOODS) and AOMORI to AKITA and also used Vulcans on this very short run. Also bought some improvements for the other lines (sanding towers, roundhouses) and doubled tracks where necessary. Invited the guy who cut construction costs to come over (can't remember his name). PROFIT: 997k

 

At this point, I had 5 disconnected railway lines: OSAKA/NIGATA was the big money maker (over 500k/year) with 5 trains (including 2 vulcan). TOKYO/SENDAI with only one train and some station improvements was making around 250k/year. KITAKYUSHU/OITA, AOMOR/AKITA and NAGOYA/HAMAMATSU were very small lines served mostly by vulcans moving PAX and dead-heading stuff like iron or food, BUT all in all, the three lines together brought in a profit of around 350k per year. Bottom line is, I was now making over 1.000k/Yearly and my credit rating was AAA (I had not yet Issued a bond). I was quite confident this was enough to stockpile money to finish connecting all the cities before the end date, but there is a second requirement to haul at least 50 loads in a single year. I guess I was already very close to this number but I decided to build some more links between a few towns and industries to make sure.

 

1876-1882: continued to issue stock every year (I was now getting over 200k each year). Connected a logging camp near NIGATA and dead-headed logs with a vulcan for the sawmill there, while a consolidation took care of moving the lumber to the OSAKA/FUKUI area, bringing back food. connected HIROSHIMA to KITAKYUSHU/OITA to move some more PAX  and replaced the PAX/mail vulcan with a 10 wheelers running between the 3 cities. connected TOKYO/MAEBASHi. Made some station improvements.

 

At this point, I was fairly sure I had been moving at least 50 loads in a year...all I did from this point on was wait and stockpile money still issuing maximum stock possible every year and replacing a few crashed vulcans. By 1882 I had over 4.000k in hand. Issued a few bonds and "connected the dots"... THat is, built a single track between KAGOSHIMA and OITA, another one between HIROSHIMA ans OSAKA, then one between OSAKA and NAGOYA. I finished the track between NIGATA and AKITA then AOMORI to SAPPORO. Finally I connected TOKYO/SENDAI to FUKUI. I just put a depot in KAGOSHIMA and SAPPORO to get the connection there, waited the end of the month for GOLD.

 

I guess I could have finished this one before  by taking bonds earlier instead of waiting to stockpile money. You can end this scenario with a debt, so this would not have been a problem.

 

Hope this help. Of course, your game might be slightly different from mine since there is some randomness in the placement of ressources and the economic state of the game, but it should be feasible before 1899 in all cases. Just concentrate on profitable routes, don't take bonds early because these would kill the very small profit you get out of the vulcan (a slow start is better here, took me 3 years to get out of the FUKUI/KANAZAWA area but afterward it was a piece of cake). Don't forget the Stock (and put dividend to 0 by the way) and everything should be fine. when your credit rating is AAA you can take a pile of bonds for the finish....if everything else is ok, then you'll never have to pay the interest since it is endgame!

 

BYE,

 

JC

[Gyrobot]

Sorry to bring this month old topic back from the dead, but for some reason despite connecting Nigata/Nagoya/Sendai to Tokyo, there is no newspage on it.

 

BTW I am using the steam version of the game. 

[loco_motive]

Gyrobot, that's because the author didn't write one.

 

The "xxx city offers $yyy to the first player to connect" events are generated by the game machine and those successes are announced (not that events like that can't also be added in the editor).

 

Things required by the scenario itself are inventions of the author and require him to write events for them using the Event Editor. You can load that map into the Event Editor yourself and look under "Map Options" and then under "Events" to see for yourself all the events the author has written.

 

I was interested to hear the game is available on Steam. The most current version of the game is Ver. 1.56. It is called a patch to the platinum edition but it is actually a full exe file for the game. What version do you have? Look in bottom left corner of your opening screen to see.

 

(Don't worry too much about reopening the thread, it was actually started in 2008. This forum operates on slowww tiiiime.)

[jeffryfisher]

The most current version of the game is Ver. 1.56. It is called a patch to the platinum edition...

 

That was the last patch by PopTop, but Steam must have modded the game before releasing it. I don't think they fixed any game play; they just changed the requirement for having the game CD in a CD drive. That may imply that Steam has versions of the source code...

[jeffryfisher]

Since I just finished my last playtest of US History, I am taking a break by playing my Meiji Restoration adaptation of the campaign map. Having re-read this thread, I now realize that I should have edited in one of the pre-game options. I think I'll start the player with an extra $50k ($350 instead of $300).

In the mean time, I'm making do with just $300 and no Vulcan or speed bonus.

I started at the earliest allowed date. After much searching I connected part of Kyoto to Fukui with two small stations and a Vulcan and zero dollars left over. In fact, I had to reload the game a few times and fuss with the track laying to shave a few dollars off of the grade-fixing that comes from dragging track over hill and dale.

After a few years of micro-managing pax and mail, my credit rating is up to single 'A', and the economy is booming. With a little luck, I'll get optimum "credit weather" next year and be able to float maximum bonds at minimum rates.

[MaglevForever]

For me, this scenario/campaign is very easy. Way too easy in fact. To make it any challenge you would have to not allow building unconnected track, issuing bonds, and stock issuing. I guess it's fun to start with so little money, and a low stock price. It had its place in the campaigns, but it's just too easy to make the connections with "burn" track using bonds in the 4th year.

I played the original campaign "map" through when I read this thread a few months ago using Jeffry's mod, and just now I played the "Meji Restoration" with the "original" 1.56 version. I can report that there are no major game-play differences on the particular path I take to gold.

I have always started in between Kanazawa and Fukui. Then made a few steady profits the first year. Once my credit rating hits CCC in the second year I find and hire Ames Oakes. Then I connect to Kyoto. The resulting run Kanazawa to Kyoto becomes my main stay run. Putting a large station in Kanazawa to get as much as many houses as possible form Fukui as well. I then look for straight, flat runs to make money as fast as possible and meet the load count. The southernmost island is a good place for these. As my book value climbs I can issue more and more bonds. By the beginning of the 4th year, my credit rating is good enough for around 4 million in new bonds. I hire a 40% cheaper track manager and join everything up. Then I'll wait most of the year for the load count to come in. I issued stock once, but it doesn't make much difference here.

Is laying "burn" track cheating? Personally, I think that everyone has his own style of play. So for everyone "cheating" will mean something else. In my view cheating is: stealing cargo, making new companies just to wreck them (I rarely make new companies unless it is required in the goals), controlling the AI companies to your advantage, laying free electric track (when I discovered this I thought the world of it, but wont do it now), rerouting trains in the station... some more I can't think of right now. Laying single electric track is a grey area for me. Sometimes I wont, but often do at the start of a scenario to get a good connection when I cant afford the double track.

My style of play is efficiency. I want to move lots of cargo, serve towns well and make some serious (hopefully) money while playing on the hardest settings. I like to micro-manage, I will pause every time a train comes in to optimize the consist and route.

Some waiting for half a load is a necessary evil in my view, but no good money is made this way. The cargo is often stale when the train arrives and the fuel costs for the empty cars eat into your profit. That's why I have a lot of trouble in the rare cases I try to set up many semi-automatic routes as is necessary in large maps over long time periods. I love the concepts, but simply aren't experienced with the optimum distance and concentration patterns.

I think the biggest problem with the game is the way corners on grades are handled. Not only do they slow already slow trains to crawl, they use exorbitant amounts of fuel for long periods of time while doing so. The cornering effect should just be a reduction in the maximum permitted speed not a slowing effect. Makes me wonder, do wooden bridges increase fuel consumption too?

[outofmage]

it's just too easy to make the connections with "burn" track using bonds in the 4th year.

 

 

 

 

 

Can you explain more about "burn" track? I didn't get it.

 

 

 

they use exorbitant amounts of fuel for long periods of time while doing so. The cornering effect should just be a reduction in the maximum permitted speed not a slowing effect. Makes me wonder, do wooden bridges increase fuel consumption too?

From my knowledge, fuel consumption for one type of engine is only related to the distance of travelling and the weight of its cargo. Slow trains will use less fuel, which means turning, hilling and wooden bridge can reduce the fuel cost since trains travel less in a year. By the way, wooden bridge do increase the break down odds.

[MaglevForever]

outofmage, what I meant by "burn" track was single track laid in the cheapest possible way that never carries a load of cargo. It is used simply to make the connections, and often goes in less than ideal routes, hilly, lots of corners.

About the fuel costs, you are right. I put my foot in my mouth. I do believe, however, that break down odds are increased when turning.

I said the wrong thing. What I should have said is that it is very hard to make a good profitable run on twisty graded track through the mountains. This is while playing on the hardest difficulty. My fuel costs always eat up my profit on these runs. I conclude that what I am really experiencing is the loss of revenue due to cargo rotting in the longer times it takes to negotiate turns through grades.

Time is the killer here not fuel costs, then. Speed in turns is limited to around half the maximum train speed on that grade. Because trains in the game generally are not good at climbing grades to begin with a 4% grade on a turn brings most trains to single digit speeds.

What I would like to see is the reduction for turns only a reduction to half of the maximum speed on flat ground with that load. For example, the maximum speed is 63mph with 300 tons in a 4-8-4 Northern. The limit should be around 30 mph in turns. If the train is traveling below that speed already due to grades when approaching the corner there should be no additional halving of its speed. E.g. it can negotiate the turn at 20 mph without slowing to around 10 mph, as it currently does. If I am unclear just ask again and I can try to explain better.

What does everyone think, is that realistic?

[outofmage]

MaglevForever, mountain tracks are not good at making money, obviously. Turning and climbing reduces train speed twice is unrealistic, that's true, but compare to other designing loopholes, this is acceptable. Because even straight lines can reduce the speed significantly on high grade tracks, you should pay more attention on building more flatten RR. You can ease the grade by bulldozing and rebuilding.

 

Edit: I understand the burn track now. I use it too. Actually I use it from the first campaign - The Iron Seed. I just connect Philadelphia with a "burn" track. I think it's fine, it's a way to save you time and effort to move on and play another map, because I played the second century first, when I played back the  origin campaigns, I found that you must play them in order. It's annoying to be forced to play the beginner level maps, so I just want to win and go on.

[jeffryfisher]

I do believe, however, that break down odds are increased when turning... Speed in turns is limited to around half the maximum train speed on that grade.

A turn acts like an uphill 2% grade (in addition to any actual uphill grade). Uphill grades slow trains, and I think that all grades raise risk.

If I were modelling risk, then uphill would strain the engine while downhill would risk a runaway crash -- and the crash is likely to occur where the train encounters a curve.

[Gwizz]

On one of my maps I left the coast on a steep climb; up hill train speed was limit to the slowest train.

 

I built another track for traffic  coming down hill.  It was was nearly vertical.  The down grade trains went no faster than if they were running on level ground.

I didn't use turns on the down hill run.  I wonder if turns would have slowed the free fall trains any.

[jeffryfisher]

Well, I'm giving up halfway through. The events aren't triggering. I saw a dialog about Iron Duke and 8-Wheeler finally becoming available, but they aren't, and I don't know why.

I've added a bunch of statuses and checked over the triggers for gotchas. I am now cleaning up the reserved cells. After playing it once, I'll re-upload Meiji Restoration.

[jeffryfisher]

I've replaced the Meiji Restoration map file in post #7. The new scenario is more of a stand-alone map, and it now has statuses (for victory criteria) that should have been in the original.

[jeffryfisher]

I achieved gold victory in about 1888 and have since played on to 1899.

 

It can be frustrating trying to find two clusters that can be wired up with tiny stations at the start. Kanazawa's houses were too scattered to use when I started, so my first build was Aomori Beach to Akita.

 

However, once the money starts, then it's a simple task to wait for good credit rating, borrow a big pile of money, and then expand exponentially. I never issued stock, and I never paid a dividend, yet my player exploited stock price swings to own 100% and get out of debt on his salary alone. I probably could have won in 1880, but I wasn't in a hurry.

 

What I like best about this map is its constricted geography (mountains and water). I found myself building several ocean-spanning causeways, something I usually don't do. If you download this saved game, then I think you will like the twin causeways to Hokkaido.

Me2 6i.zip

[MaglevForever]

Like all the bridges. Good work with flattening the grades also! Especially Mount Fuji.

Like the railroad you built. Nice routes.

When I play I tend to try to haul everything I can. I believe your strategy is more profitable once fully set-up.

Right now, I am trying to get gold on a scenario called WAG 2.05 (available in the maps). I managed with your mod, but want to try to do it with the original engine settings and no DB18 available (it's a very hilly pre-laid map).

[outofmage]

Jeff, where are the Atlantic engines come from? Your mode?

[jeffryfisher]

I don't think I changed the engines available for the map, but my mod did change the intro year for Atlantics (since their wheel arrangement did appear before 1894, and because I wanted to separate them more from the Pacific). They didn't appear until after I had won gold, so I didn't even think about it.