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grumble321

Fremen
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  1. Likewise. I really get the warm fuzzies when playing with the old choo-choos in the 1800s. Maybe it's some sort of weird nostalgia or whatever - don't know and don't care; what I do know is that I have lots of fun playing the old ones. More atmospheric, for sure (at least to my taste). Transporting munitions and alcohol and uranium around on a maglev? Meh, not my cup of tea. But playing in "ye olde times" with a nice steam loco chugging mightily on a 1% slope at a breath-taking 20 mph? Gimme all you got!
  2. Well, I finally made it. Got gold in 2017, but it was pretty frustrating all in all. First, how on earth can the AI make profits by running multiple trains between two towns that are really close? There aren't _nearly_ enough passengers and mail generated to make a profit...yes, I know they don't pay for oil/sand/etc, that's fine. My trains were between cities at 3-4 times the distance, and _still_ spent a lot of time "waiting for cargo". And of course I was serving the industry, too, which the AI doesn't seem to bother much with. Guess I just had to take that off my chest :) Anyway, as far as it goes, this was pretty frustrating because there simply was not enough potential for development - in most other scenarios, you can expand a lot and do whatever you want, and make a profit at it. Not here. I had 2.5-3.5M profits most years, after I set up the network in Poland/Germany (which took a good 10 years). And my profits dipped after I built the lines all the way to Venice and Istanbul - because of all that track maintenance. I know it might have been better to try to bring my PNW up first, with a more profitable railroad, and only connect to those at the end, but I got the 40% cheaper track building guy, so I did it when I got him. After I was done with track building, I fired him and got a manager with 25% cheaper fuel costs, which made a pretty big impact. Still, profits were disappointing, for the costs of the locos (and their maintenance). I only managed to get 80% of my company's shares; AI players and "other investors" held the rest (and it wouldn't let me buy the last batch of shares from "other investors"); this was because of an insane number of splits... A prosperity and a subsequent boom helped get me to 20M, although I still had time to get there anyway, even without them - it would have taken another year or two, since I was paying myself dividends. I would have really liked to be able to develop the industry more, but it seems industries are rather scarce on this map, and it's hard to make a profit - at least with diesels. Maybe electrics are better, though I'm not sure, since their fuel and maintenance aren't cheap either, and they are waaaay more expensive up-front than the diesels. Besides, like I said, _speed_ wasn't an issue. My trains spent a LOT of time waiting for cargo - both pax and freight. Faster trains would have meant they just spent more time idle in stations... Anyway, it was still fun, in the end. Thank you very much Andrew, and everyone else, your advice helped immensely. Appreciate all your feedback and suggestions and experience :) I still have a lot to learn, and it's a fun process. Thanks, you guys! Now, onwards with the remaining ones...
  3. wow, thank you again! Of course this helps, it's an amazing explanation - thank you very, very much! I do appreciate the effort - taking the snapshot, drawing on it, uploading it, etc - not to mention all the actual explanations. The first thing that struck me when I saw the snapshot was "wow, that looks a lot like my rail network!" Heh, I guess there aren't too many ways to do it since one is stuck in Poland for quite a while... Thank you for pointing out the bit about oil and sand, I realized it myself too late in the current game - I should have planned ahead and put a couple of depots with a roundhouse and sand tower on some of the central trunks (as opposed to putting them in city stations)...what you said makes sense - like in your case forcing them to go through Lodz, for example. It's really interesting that you made the money on the industries, I'm impressed that they proved so profitable! Although I guess the whole point was to get such a map where you have reasonably located components so you can complete a full industry chain. Very interesting that you made it to gold with only 2 pax trains. I wouldn't have expected it (I've mostly played 1800''s maps, where pax are plentiful, and freight trains are the minority. But it's encouraging, that one can make so much money from the industry. And you make a very good point, that one should buy right away all those industries. (I'm surprised none of the AIs snatched any of them! I think one of them is into buying industries, personality-wise). I also noticed I had a very small number of trains - got about up to 6 in my games, but I quit before 2010, so about 10 trains sounds about right. Thank you for the detailing of the industry chains in the snapshot, it's a really nice setup - and lol at "dead cows" I don't remember what difficulty my current campaign is - is there a way to find out, after you started it? It's ok, doesn't matter. I also picked the 20% speed bonus every time, seems the best by far. And yes, I have used the 40% off electric track guy in some of the games, though not in my current one yet. Thank you for reminding me. Once again, awesome explanation and lots of help, thank you so much! I gotta be able to do it now :D I'll keep you posted, though I may not have time to play until Sunday at the earliest. I'll be back...with the gold :P Did I say thank you?
  4. Wow, thanks a lot! :) And congrats for the gold, that's really impressive! I got the save file, I'll look at it later tonight :) Thank you so much! I've tried it again, too. I agree with you, it's a matter of luck with respect to where the AI build - if they're in Poland, it's pretty much game over. I tried what was suggested above - Poznan to Kaunas/Vilnius...but I couldn't do in in one shot, even single-track and wooden bridges - still not enough money, even with a bond...so I had to do it in two steps - first Poznan to Warsaw, then when the first train got to Warsaw, I had enough money (with the gov't subsidy) to complete the run to Kaunas/Vilnius. Even so, with some 7 houses in Poznan, and with a FP45 (i.e., not super-fast) loco that goes from Poznan to Vilnius and back, there are still not enough passengers for a full train by the time I get back...sheesh :\ Now I'm contemplating making another run from Krakow to Gdansk, it's as far as it gets in Poland...I'd do Lodz to Vilnius, too, but there's not enough pax in Vilnius for _two_ trains to take...somehow, I think I was in better shape in my previous attempts, when I had lots of spurs serving industry... sheesh. (Btw, I always get frustrated by the AI who can supposedly make great profits by running _two_ trains between two really close cities...how does that work? Do the passengers replenish faster for the AI? Because I don't get enough passengers for cities 5 times as far from each other, and with slower locos to boot...) Did you bother with the contracts? Frankfurt to Moscow, that kind of stuff? Can't wait to take a look at the savegame, maybe I'll get more ideas :) Thank you again, Andrew, and congrats once more for the hard-earned gold! :D
  5. Thanks for further replies, Andrew! Yes, I ended up in pretty much the same situation in my last play, with respect to the margin calls. Although I was much more aggressive in buying up competitors (and my own stock). Probably too aggressive that time, and then the economy started going down, way down, and I didn't have enough control over the AI to force them to buy back their stock, so eventually I also had to sell and sell and sell...and my PNW went way down, and it wasn't going to end well. I will also use diesels instead of electric next time. I felt that in this scenario it is hard to recoup the costs for elecs, including laying electric track. Glad to hear that some industry service does make a profit, I'll continue to do that, although in a limited fashion. I never went crazy with bonds, either, though maybe I'll try it for this scenario. Who knows. It's not like I can do _worse_. :P Thank you very much once again for all your feedback! Much appreciated.
  6. Heh, yes, that's pretty much exactly what my situation is as well, Andrew: I did get into the coal/iron/steel/autos chain, and a little into feeding some bakeries and such (including buying them once lucrative or better). And I feel exactly the same way about this map and modern maps, as well. Thank you very much for your feedback! You're right, I _could_ take out more bonds...I usually try not to go too crazy on bonds, because of the interest. Well, on the campaign scenarios up to this one I don't think I've ever _needed_ too many bonds, or not for long, anyway, since profits were pretty easy, but on this one, I'd have to hang on to them for a long time. And yes, exactly, at the current profit rate, I wouldn't make it too far past Denmark - I'm sure I'd get nowhere near Venice... Thank you again!
  7. I don't know if it is preferred that I start a new thread, or I revive a really old thread for this - please let me know. The question refers to this thread: (mods: if you'd rather merge this into that thread - by all means, please feel free to do so) My question is that I don't really understand how 1-train or 0-train things work, or even exactly what they are. I'd be grateful if someone could explain. thank you.
  8. Wow, I didn't expect anywhere near as much help and responses to an old thread! I appreciate it all the more! Thank you very much for the suggestion, Silverback, it makes a lot of sense. Black Sea is always the best of the AI companies in my games and even though I always have a decent share of their stock, I haven't got to the point where I could successfully take them over/merge. But I didn't focus on that, either. Thank you so much for the suggestion, will definitely put it to use! thanks again, you guys! ps. edit: so far I've also used electrics, but it doesn't seem like a good investment to me - even with 40% lower electric track costs, it still costs a fortune to lay track, and the locos are expensive and don't justify the investment :( Although it IS true, I haven't played long enough past the point of getting out of Poland. The thing is, I get frustrated because rights in Germany are so expensive that it takes me several years until I have enough profit and constant revenue to make sense to expand into Germany; that is, I can buy the rights earlier, but I won't have money to actually build any track and buy more trains to expand into Germany, so it doesn't make sense buying the rights when you can't afford to actually use them... Usually, by 1996 or so I have a PNW of some 4M, and while my company is way better than all the AI ones, I don't get nearly enough in profit to be able to expand, and it seems highly unlikely I'll ever be able to afford track all the way to Venice and Istanbul at the current profit rate. I guess if I focus on taking out the Black Sea, it might make it easier, because by doing that I'll also get territory rights in Germany, as an aside bonus...plus I'll get more track, plus I'll have fewer competitors - that is, I _do_ hope that the former chairman doesn't start yet another company... So do people try to get profits from industry in this scenario ? I've tried it, and did so-so. One needs a lot of spurs because industries are all over the place, and spurs seem to be very expensive and inefficient for this era of expensive locos and super-expensive (if electrical) track. Also, the profits are meager at best, and while I did get some steel factories to "gushing cash" (and bought them), the profit on these is still pretty feeble, and the situation is made worse by inefficient use of locos and laying lots of track to reach the industry resources to complete production chains. Another thing is that the much-touted (by the official strat guide) Auto industry chain seemed like a major letdown; after several years of supplying the Auto factory in one of the Polish cities, and making sure it was always fully supplied, I have yet to see _any_ autos in there. Sure, I make a profit on running coal/iron/steel (very little with tires), but I never get the autos themselves, which, presumably, would return a bigger profit (finished goods and all that). I guess, bottom line is that in Poland there's not enough passenger generation - cities being way too close for the speedy trains of the era, and industry profits are too feeble. The result is that the profit rate, and the growth rate of my company, is soooo slooooow, that I'll never get the gold at this rate, and maybe not even Venice.
  9. Gwizz - thank you for your reply. It's ok, don't worry about it. I appreciate the intention :) As for the scenario itself, I'll keep trying, and reading the forums - there's (not surprisingly!) a lot of stuff I have yet to learn. Thank you again! cheers, grumble.
  10. sorry to resurrect an older thread, but I wanted to say that I'm also stuck on this (seems a huge increase in difficulty compared to the previous ones, prices just skyrocket and passengers aren't nearly as plentiful anymore). I'll try what you guys are suggesting, thank you for the ideas - and I wish I were able to download/view the zero_train.jpg file, but for some reason I get permission denied when I try it (and the contact administrator link doesn't work, either...). anyway, thank you for the suggestions!
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