letsdance

i've tested the prime rate modifier that comes from events long enough and maglev posted the proof in his last reply (3 posts above this one). there may be a general prime rate, but it's without any doubt possible to change it for certain companies or players only. none of the existing managers can change the prime rate, but it's possible to give them that ability by hex-editing (and i've done so, which is why there is such a manager in my map).

also the chairman changes prime rate only for the company which uses him

yes that should work, but i don't like monthly event checks. i had a yearly event that takes cash out of AI companies if they have much (a simple cash > 30 Mio -> lose 1 Mio) but ultimately removed it, i think. i considered doing something similar for human players (call it inflation) but then figured, if you get to save that much money you somehow deserve it.

i don't play with bonds alot after the initial 10 years or so. maybe that's why i'm underestimating wooten. but i think i'll keep him for now as he is. it's a choice you have. i left the 8-wheeler as it is and took its availability stats from an excel file, and never checked if they are correct. will have to look into that one when i make v8. camelback seems to have a wrong date in the readme, it's ony available until 1930. i've changed this one back and forth alot. gonna add a warning in the download site for now. thx for finding those. i thought about killing interest when the player has too much money - i've done something similar to the AI. but the main problem that kept me from doing it is different interest rates depending on economy state. setting interest to a point where you get none during recession would mean you pay negative interesting during normal, prosperty and boom times. setting interest rate so that you get none during boom times has very little effect overall, because you'll still get alot during recession. as it is i just reduced the prime rate by 1 point to lower the effect. if you'd like to try i can add an event that makes interest = 0% during normal times with payment penalties for cash during better economy state and interesting during worse ones, and send you the file. but i don't think it's a good idea for a general audience. i never had towns losing size. that seems a bit strange, especially because it seems you've been delivering more than i usually do. i sometimes delete unnecessary industry to increase the chance for some good industry showing up (seems the more industry a town has the less likely new ones come), but i don't know if it also helps for houses.

well, you certainly did deeper analysis to the map than i ;-) in my last game my shares trippled before i could buy any and it took me a long time until i had 75%, the rest was held by the AI. that game i also noticed they like buying your shares if you have a -share price manager. it took me until 1940 or maybe even later until i had all territory rights. with such a good start in your game i can't imagine anything going wrong later. the golden times are usually around 1860-1900. just save up 100M until 1900 and then interest alone will keep you alive if all else fails and remember, in emergencies you can issue stock and buy it back yourself (even raising your PNW while doing so). if you're not sure about freight routes profitability, don't replace those trains. instead, start new ones (copying the route) and retire the old one. that way you get good information looking at the lifetime profitability. a few years mean nothing in a scenario that long, so you can just test it out. wooten allows you to issue one extra bond... should i reduce him to credit rating +2 or make him more expensive in v8 (which is probably not due for another year or so lol)? it's nice to see that you seem to enjoy it. so at last sharing it here actually made sense

uploaded version 7 which includes a modded exe. it should be possible to use the modded exe with saves of version 6 games. that does make it a bit easier, but i think i'd do it. the only possible problem i see is that your manager may change. i copied details into the first reply in this thread. the OP has the link to the download section of the map. i don't expect any more updates this year.

but in that time it was not possible to build such tunnels, especially not within reasonable costs (and time!). at least if playing on a map with the scale of eastern USA. small tunnels are so small that they are not shown in the game and part of mountain tracks anyways, in my oppinion.

you get out of boston over the sea to allentown. i just loaded my last game, i also have a track through the N.Y. area, with no grade higher than 3.5, but it does have some corners. since the boston area is likely your main source for rubber you'll have to find a way out of there. though in my last game i solved it differently: the best usable tire plant was in burlington and i had different stations for rubber delivery (on top of the mountains) and even 2 for tires pickup (downhill across the river). not sure if that was cheating, but there was no way to do it with less stations. i don't remember fixing milk demand and my notes say nothing about that. but i just checked: milk demand is recovering. i have one milk train in my last save and the demand recovered after delivery. i did fix demand for ports, autoplants and cannery. my exe does have a different name, too. it always bothered me that RT2 is mostly about shipping passengers, while following long production chains (like automobiles) doesn't pay off. in v7 it doesn't pay off either, but you have to do it for the victory conditions *lol* the only change for hardmode is that engine purchase stays at +100%, while usually it drops to +60% (for gold medal) in 1950. that doesn't sound like a big change, but i think it actually is (especially since maintenance is tied to purchase price). i think you get the choice if you have 30m+ company cash in 1945. version 7 is pretty much done, i'll wait to see if i find anything more that i want to change, then i'll upload. altough v7 has many changes that satisfy me alot, there's nothing gamechanging.

yes i'm aware how revenue modifiers influence your profits. but multiple stations for higher demands work the same way - they increase your revenues. so does cutting through mountains because you can deliver more cargos within the same time (or reduce costs by needing less engines, fuel and track maintenance). i'm confident, these issues contribute more than 5%. i just finished my game. i was playtesting v7 with some changes (especially removed +100% auto revenues that v6 still has), but it's still pretty much the same scenario. early 20th century until 1950 was hard. 1950+ is quite easy again, but i think i'll leave it that way. you deserve an easy end if you get that far. i fulfilled gold medal requirements in 1990. 7M sounds good. watch out for event pre-notifications. there are some points where you'll want to be able to spend 10m and you'll also need alot for engine replacements. i tried to have at least 20m in cash always (didn't succeed of course, but that way i didn't run into serious troubles either). be sure to keep an eye on maintenance and fuel costs. for high reliability engines often it's better to replace even if breakdown chances are still low - more in this scenario than others because of higher costs. all in all, i think mail causes more troubles than it's worth. similar to milk (which is why i increased milk production). 1855+ i use 3 pax +1 mail and wait for half load, or 4+1. later and for long distance high speed trains i use pax only and wait for full cargo (at least on the bigger station). mail causes too many long waits, and when not waiting for full cargo, mail cars are often empty. i try to attach single mail cars to freight trains that don't wait for full cargo. sometimes i run mail-only trains with low maintenance engines (they wait alot...) between large cities. i think best for those is 5 cars and wait for half load. when boom time comes, i sometimes look which cities have much mail and buy new engines for single mail delivery runs. after a year i look if those engines can take high valuable cargo again from their destination. if they don't, i retire them. that's not that much micromanagement and i don't feel guilty for not delivering the mail it usually pays off, though not by much. yes, growth is quite slow. in my last game, grand rapids didn't demand passengers until 1980. i don't deliver to small villages. i just attach single passenger wagons to freight trains leaving them. often you can build a station that covers 2 villages (like wausau and green bay), or a village and a city and get combined city demands. to prevent the AI from going there it's sufficient to connect a small station and then bulldoze the track again. i also do that when my station at a city is too far to get "connected". don't ignore industry profits. even if your trains barely cover their own costs you still make a profit from industries. in the late game, my indrustry profits (5-6m) where often higher than my net profit. it's somehow scary when you run 140 engines, each with a purchase price of about 500k, and your shown average net profit is only like 4-5m, but it did work. anyways, the end game is more about efficient track building and usage. i had 3 parallell tracks from toledo to cleveland and many cities with multiple stations - not for the extra demand but because it was the only way to avoid serious traffic jams. version 7 gold medal will require 3k autos hauled, and i added a hardmode for pros like you =)

unfortunately, even with hex editing, it is not possible to retire multiple trains with a single event. i'll solve it by further lowering engine purchase price for the AI.

yes the AI gets engine cost reductions later on to keep them from going bankrupt, or at least from going bankrupt too fast sometimes an AI survives til the end (in test games), but usually you merge the big ones anyways. i did not counterbalance the reduced cost with higher upkeep. the yearly engine replacements work as upkeep anyways. but it's an unsolved issue in v6. it's not breaking the map, because in the late game you play mostly against the car shipping and value goals. but it means the AI companies usually struggle for survival in the 20th century. in my current game i seem to get dividends from them, even though they are struggling for survival. i usually don't pay much attention to that because i don't need the money anyways and i expect to get the PNW from shares value, assuming that the company reaches the book value goal.

yes i know they can be. but they aren't in my map. and my map does not have any events that make anyone lose territory rights. that's why i said they can't =)

yes i do many long runs. chigaco-montreal and atlanta-new york are good ones. chigaco-new york works too, later. i like the fact that you need different trains for different routes. 30% ownership right from start is extremely good. i usually start with 700k outside investments, maybe i should also try 600k next time. in my current game, my shares trippled before i could buy any and i failed the 1899 passenger event

yes i just looked, its expert. if you use tricks like levelling and multiple stations, the 5% won't kill you. i'm usually quite lazy as soon as i have more than 4 stations. with some micromanagement you can make up more than 5% easily, too. of course, so far i never got a gold medal in my own scenario *lol* i know i can do some levelling, but it feels like cheating (same as multiple stations for higher demand) so i never bothered how it really works. like i mentioned above, i just use it to flatten single pieces of especially annoying track. besides, the Eastern USA map is quite flat anyways. AI companies are unlikely to pay out high dividends in the long run.

yes v6 has had more fixes and changes than expected. the problem with retiring AI trains is that the editor does not support mass-retiring and i don't want to add 100 events for that. but it could be possible to hex-edit the event in the map to achieve the desired result. gonna look into that, sometimes.