loco_motive

Thanks guys. I see a few downloads and hope they resulted in some plays also as I would rank the original as one of the classic must-play scenarios. The narrative nature of the delivery task statements may sometimes create some ambiguity or uncertainty. Regardless, I wanted to retain Paul's style here. I believe the only hauling tasks with deadlines are the Apr/65 6 passengers to Bechar by the end of 1969 and the Aug/58 taking the king home within 2 1/2 years, both as stated in the task narratives. Another task, delivery of 6+ rubber in a single year states a required deadline, but there isn't one. The comment lines for some of the introducing events give the time range in which the event will start, not how long you have to do it. None of those events have time limits for completion, as anyone can plainly see who knows how to look at the trigger statement in the completion event.

Actually try searching for *.GM2 You might also want to search for and save hiscore.dat In both cases take careful note of where they are so you know where to put them back, (goes without saying but said anyhow) Steam games may very well be saved in My Documents/My games/....

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.)

For any of you that occasionally like to go back and play some of the old scenarios, here is a good one that I extensively reworked last spring. It is a nice scenario and I hope there might still be a few around to play it. There is a readme in the zip file for the original and an update by me outlining changes I have made. I just came across it again but I'm pretty sure I had finished it. Oh, I see there is one thing I overlooked, so if you find it, no cheating now! Gold requirements have been expanded considerably, including adding the 10 delivery side quests, several of which were previously no more than distractions. Maybe those who play it through could report here if the goals seem balanced, ie; if you lose, what were you furthest out in, and if you win what goals did you overshoot the most. Also report any errors that crop up so other players can work around them. If you have any problems, like you think you missed a quest or a territory, please do take a look in the editor. Morocco-Rails over the Atlas (SM2).zip

I don't know what you've tried, but you can often merge a company by offering the maximum amount for it if you have less than a majority holding. If you have a suitable save just reload and try that several times until you get it. It might not work if there is only 1 other shareholder, but works well where not everyone needs to vote on your side.

To the OP: Sadly your thread was highjacked, a pet peave of mine, but yes, that pretty well sums it up. As stated, you need connecting track or new purchase. Connecting track is the backbone of the zero trains technique employed in some of the campaign scenarios as mentioned in the related fewest trains threads of yore. After you have the trains on your track, bulldosing the connection keeps them dedicated although, like you, my technique was to let them keep critical stations and some track so they could stay solvent. I have never seen an AI company buy a train to service any other AI or human company's station though, not that you asked. There should be a new thread about crashes and ports or whatever. But, since its already a successful and expanded highjack, yes, AI trains can be crashed and broken down (and robbed) with cheat codes so an example would be unconvincing. But also yes, these things can happen on their own. They get topped up with sand, water & fuel, possibly monthly, so they're in better shape than yours. Edit the Heartland scenario to start in 1942 with only the Streamliner and Big Boy allowed and a 1-time event setting train safety at 99% riskier and you will see crashes and breakdowns galore among the AI companies within the first 2 years. You can verify disappeared trains (crashes) by looking at the balance sheet: Cost of disappeared trains (an unlisted asset) = Liabilities + Surplus - Listed Assets.

Still not getting it? Here's a 4-year spoiler walkthrough showing a few tricks. (How to run a real business creating an imaginary railroad, lol.) Get Oakes as manager if he's sitting there waiting. Player sells shares and company issues shares and a bond. Temporarily invest in the AI's carefully. Do some tree bulldosing on your trackbed to create some expenses. This lowers share prices a bit since part of your track cost gets expensed instead of capitalized. Single track, cheap bridges Adelaide to Sydney with customs houses and 2 strategically placed sand/water stations. Then get rid of any high goodwill manager and even shop a bit if you like (expensed hiring fees lower share price a bit). Run 2 full Prairies, the hill-climber with higher priority since it will take a good 2 years at best. Upgrade one of the stations some more as cash allows, ie; large hotel and saloon in Adelaid. Have both trains waiting at their destinations on Jan 1/1919 or later if they're not there yet. Sell any AI shares and buy shares in your company, ideally you'll get about 50% of them. Let one train come in to the partially upgraded station and stop it. Use the cash to upgrade the other station. Buy a few more of your company's shares. Don't go over about 60-70% in total. Let 2nd train in, then complete upgrading the stations. Micro your train consists and send them off. Immediately double-track from a stone bridge to the east and a little to the west Keep enough cash to upgrade to Mikados, and do that asap. In mid-January of 1921, player buys up enough of any outstanding shares to get PNW up around $12M or so. That should be enough to win at the end of the month (eom). If you can't get these results you should at least be in a very good position to continue on. Reload the autosave, don't buy up the shares, and play a little longer in a more regular manner. A slightly increasing dividend payout will help stock prices, doing a better job than share buybacks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Between games looking for a temporary diversion.

Classic Campaign scenario #15? I will assume on hard with passenger income boost, probably matters little. Got silver? Advice to a noobie; try a little harder. It has a simple PNW target. There are no other requirements so if you're losing you're probably trying to do some unnecessary things that are contra to your objective. Get your win, then you can replay to your heart's content. Don't bugger up your campaign scoresheet though. PopTop seemed more concerned to make the original campaign scenarios very uncomplicated rather than actually requiring cross-country hauls or anything to make this scenario more interesting. Sometimes there is a non-campaign version that is a little more challenging. This totally PNW map can be won in 4 years, and as I point out in my fewest trains thread, can also be done with no trains at all in any company while you chair it. Actually its a perfect a candidate for it. Next post is a spoiler walkthrough. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Between games looking for a temporary diversion.

It is worth noting that the op is asking, albeit again, how to win this scenario. How do you win? This is a game. Pay attention to win requirements and keep it profitable. No cheats, no exploits except pausing, no use of AI's for anything, anyone could do it. ___________________________________________________ Sydney-Brisbane on single track. One GP18, micromanaged to haul 6 pass/mail. One bond, shares issued every year (lol this is hardest part). Large stations with max relevant improvements asap, then repay bond. Had $10,141 company cash by Oct/72. Elec and non-elec track & 5 more stations cost $9,693. Gold. ___________________________________________________ Same deal with 2 GP18s and double track asap. Had $12,563 cash in Nov/72, not that much more, esp considering +10% passenger income manager for several years. Addit build cost $10,518, due to econ a level higher and slight track layout differences. ___________________________________________________ Financials . . . . . . . . . . 1 train . . 2 trains Initial capital ............... 1100 ...... 1100 Addit share issues ........ 2652 ...... 3217 Passenger income ....... 5509 ...... 7236 Mail income ................ 2593 ...... 3427 Station income ........... 2976 ...... 4167 Less: expenses .......... -2278 ..... -3535 Less: other assets ...... -2409 ..... -3049 Cash for final build ...... 10141 ..... 12563 ___________________________________________________

But surely there is a more challenging or bizarre way to win this scenario, other than a simple 1/63 win on hard with 4 AI's. http://forum.dune2k....-ever-get-gold/

Actually, an even bigger chuckle; if you'd played #6 to a win or lose then the menu for the next 6 scenarios would have shown up automatically. Even now, if you actually did complete #6, if you hit the Load Campaign button and load the one called After06, you will get the menu for #7-12 and if you haven't been restarting the campaign with every one you played (if you've played any-lol) it will also have the history of the ones you already played. These are the only ones that will count towards an eventual entry in the scoresheet. You can even go back and play them out of order to get improvements. Of course, when you come back the next day, it will be the most recent saved game you need to load to keep your history, whether its a mid-scenario save or an Afterxx save. Just do everything before you do #18, as then it goes straight to the scoreboard and there will be no After18 saved game.

The right arrow key. :D -> Or put mouse pointer on right side of screen. And see those windows to the left of the last set of scenarios in the classic campaign. You should click on an unbroken one.

I edited one of my previous posts re the revenue decreasing event. As it was written, it cannot be 1-time since it must cycle through all companies rather than stopping after the first company. The way it is now though, I guess you will catch all companies and also catch new companies, which were left out before, albeit there's no P&M anyhow by that time. (I don't do this often enough any more to get things right first time-lol) PS: Since you replaced the map in your lead post, I guess you'll soon be deleting the 2 redundant uploads?

Well, I did get 5 years into the scenario, playing on Hard also, not far enough to really decide on a strategy but far enough to want to check out the delivery events to make sure they would fire properly, in particular since I was thinking about a haul strategy. The logic looks good but your criterion for hauls between Chicago and San Francisco is going to be automatically completed by the Chicago/NY hauls. You need to change Terr 6 to Terr 7 in that event. I guess anyone actually getting to that point can just go by the status report, which does have terr 7. If I actually restart this I will make that change to mine, and probably also make the status report events always show, not out of necessity, just as a personal preference.

By doing the -99% production event every month, I guess it eventually flipped over from max negative to max positive, flooding all the stations with max pass and mail beginning 7/2004 ( 331st time?), causing continuing engine purchases by the AI's to attempt to compensate and a game crash just before 7/2005. In fact I suspect it is actually number of engines exceeding some limit that causes the crash. If I am right here, this should be repeatable under controlled conditions. Funny way to fix it though, since it still triggers every month, instead of handling it the same way as p&m revenue, which only triggers once, albeit the company left out is not the advertised company. Even there, I would have preferred the one-time event box and a "true" trigger. Anyhow, one way's as good as another I guess. Ed: Otherwise this event looks good and cannot be one-time, since it must cycle through all companies I can't imagine how the math is done on the multiple reductions. We've had some situations with maximum sized positive and negative integers in this game before though, related to track counts I believe, where I seem to recall this situation of flipping from one end of the spectrum to the other. Has to do with the way the numbers are represented at the bit level. Looking at the Maddog's saved game, it appears that it was played on Hard. Wish you guys would get in the habit of stating difficulty level. I might give it a try. Seems like Hard would be a decent level. Djf01, what level are you playing it on?

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

Probably most of us have put in our time with RT3 and come back to RRT2. Most who started with RT3 will probably swear it is the better game though. That seems to be the way things go. For me, I found RT3 to be slow and pretty much an industry game rather than train-running game, but that's running on the hardest setting. It may be more of a train-running game at the lower levels. The actual economic concept is interesting but works poorly as a game. For many it was more for the art of designing stuff that held their interest, I think. Anyhow, too much said on this. I would say go ahead and play RT3 but also try and pick up Rairoad Tycoon II Platinum or Gold as that will give you another campaign and a whole bunch of additional stand-alone scenarios over and above the 13 with the RRT2 original. Also, playing stand-alone scenarios on Easy is a bit of a strange idea, for me anyhow, and doesn't open up the game at all. I strongly recommend playing on Expert. These original scenarios are just too basic and simple to be played on Easy and take only 6-10 years to win even on Expert. Getting RRT2 Plat or Gold will mean you can play all the TSC (.MP2) maps on this site and not just the RRT2 (.MAP)ones. Also Plat has a bunch of player-made maps, all of which are on this or Hawk's site, about 10 extra Pop-Top maps and extra music that gets old very fast.

Cape to Cairo starts 1/1890 and requires 8 loads to be hauled between Capetown and Cairo by 12/1902, 13 years. I have not read the Blue Baron postings but I guess the challenge here is: Is a gold win possible a year early, ie; before 1902? No mention of my stronger claim in my fewest trains thread, that it could be done with 1 train, on Hard setting. For the 1-train solution, I started by flipping through managers to get Oakes; $12K in signing bonuses so probably 3 or 4 managers before I got him. Took out a bond, issued stock, connected Cairo and Khartoum (7 houses), with sand/water halfway between. Ran a Consolidation from Cairo into Khartoum, back into Cairo, back towards Khartoum. Stopped outside Khartoum 10/1892. That is, after a mere 2 deliveries of likely 6-car passengers and mail. Both stations were fully equipped, which I would have done asap, and it looks like I might have only issued stock twice, 44K shs o/s, so I might have missed once. No matter. At this point, 10/1892, I was able to increase my bondholdings to $4M, giving me $4,578K cash. Built track, steel bridges, and suitable servicing stations to Capetown, even did some track leveling north of Kampala around (157,177) area. Then continued the stopped train on to Capetown with its 6 cars. Returned with 2 cars and arrived at Cairo 10/1898, for gold. I ended with a 2-year-old Mogul, so I imagine I upgraded the Consolidation to a Mogul as soon as I could, then replaced it with a 2nd Mogul on the return trip instead of buying roundhouse, sand, water in Capetown. This probably also means about 4 years down with 6 cars, 2 years back with 2 cars. Starting 2 trains between Cairo and Khartoum, and a 3rd train from Capetown, cutting both the initial money-making time and the final delivery time in half, a win in under 5 years seems within reach. Actually, even more improvement might be possible if you start a train to Capetown before you can afford to build track all the way there, and run 4 2-car trains for the 8 loads. Below is a jpg showing my track and station layout.

Here is a small amount detail about the one and zero train solutions not included in the fewest trains thread. It seems likely the critical path here is getting the required PNW. With 1 train, starting 1/1991, connected Poznan and Warsaw, then expanded to Minsk asap. Started with an SD45 and with a robbery and a crash, replaced it probably mid-1996 with a Dash-9. Kept Diesel as manager throught. By 12/2007, company had $12M cash, no bonds outstanding, probably waiting on the required PNW. Connected the required cities with burn track and AI track where available and built the required stations on my or AI track, again where available, for gold. For the zero-train scenario, connected Poznan-Lodz-Warsaw with first company, then created a second company right away, the boss company, to control it. Then created another company in 1993 connecting Wroclaw-L'viv-Kiev and slaved it to the boss company. Got into a little trouble when they connected Krakow, but was able to bulldose and rebuild to fix things up well enough to keep them off the new route they inadvertantly created for the other cities. The 2 slave companies were running 5 and 4 trains respectively. As above, with no bonds outstanding, gold 12/1996 after buying up all outstanding stock to get a high enough PNW for the year-end. Attached is a post-gold picture of some of the layout detail and the burn track for the zero-train scenario.

I have just updated the first post for #'s 4, 12, 13, 15, all done with zero trains using the slave company method, where you get other companies to run their trains on your track. These were all previously listed as 1 train scenarios. Also added remark in 1-train scenarios section for #7. This is just the original campaign folks, designed for novices. Most of the scenarios are dead easy. especially when you know all the tricks. ;) There's a bit of a description for each one, in some cases spoilers.

Reserved

Well, I never tell all the first time. I thought the picture would explain it but perhaps its too small. Notice the slightly brighter color of the track on either side of the bulldosed area, That whole strip was company A track, just long enough so it could be bulldosed., 4 sections needed. Another condition was that the route on company A's track not be useable until company B buys its engines. I went so far as to have it not connected to B's track at all, in lieu of further testing. So in other words, to get company B running on Company A's track: While in company B lay the route using company B track except for a 4-section gap of 1/2-1-1-1-1/2. You can also double track the part of B's track coming out of the stations that will still be used later. Then come back into company A and lay 4 sections of track in the gap. Go off pause until B buys its engines. Then pause again and lay the route you want using Company A's track. Once B's trains go past the gap to the other station, bulldose it. Of course you could also do this before they reach the gap if you are particularly greedy and make any other bulldosable crossover onto A's track. Sometimes I did, sometimes I didn't.

Oh, I guess I forgot to mention that that post was just to notify that the first post had been updated for scenario # 14, Elbow Room. The chemicals were hauled in my main company with an E111 from 2 plants in Heulva and one in Valencia that I added 10 or so years later just to keep the E111 busy and to ensure an earlier delivery count. The company had income as follows: Misc $33.9M from the 6 slave companies, Freight $2.3M, Station $0.4M, Industry $1.5M. Expenses were $4.9M. I only vacated my main company when on pause. Nor of course did any AI have any engines while I was chairing them. Don't know why I would merge any companies. Anyhow that would charge me with their trains if I did. Except for the chemical industries and a couple industries serviced by the AI's, all the industry investment was made right at the end with available cash and some loans.

#14, Elbow Room, has joined #17 in succumbing to the use of slave companies. Well, I mean I will be perfectly happy if someone else has a better name for it.

I had some further thoughts on this method, so thought I'd put them down here just to keep the forum alive. This method seems to be most useful for this combination of goals, namely high PNW and/or a high income that is independent of the number of trains. It seems that a number of scenarios can use this method, including TSC #14 with 1 train. Perhaps even Classic #10 with no trains at all; that would present more interesting challenge for sure. The method essentially leaves all the high engine and fuel costs in the AI, to be offset by the AI getting all the station income from the station upgrades. There might even be some advantage to not buying any station upgrades as long as the company doesn't get liguidated. You get more advantage from the AI income multiplier since you don't need to reenter the AI company to get some of its cash. As we know from previous studies, the longer you stay out of a company with no director the more income it gets from its cargos, although never nearly as much as one with an AI director gets. Your own company is unable to make any growth of its own and both the player and the company could become too cash heavy. It seems to me that this method might be able to produce just as early a high PNW finish as wide open play except perhaps that you can only start a new company every 2 years. Of course this method can be combined with other methods at any time, not just in special cases.