Lama

Outlawing unconnected track would get rid of the skip-cells cheat.

Well, JSS, as you said earlier, the actual formulae used are probably so fuzzy that it would have been almost useless to include them in the manual. My guess would be that the fuzzyness would serve the purpose of preventing that a player can exactly predict what the stock price will be. After all, there is always a moment of speculation (in the double meaning) involved in stock deals. The price reduction at the end of the year baffled me, and I could not come up with a better explanation than that it "just happens," which is of course not an explanation. It makes a lot of sense that it would average out past performance. I took my original data, month-by-month, and indeed, the average bv/s over the past twelve months comes close to the price at the beginning of the new year. Of course, all else remaining constant, the price is still higher, the higher the dividend, even though a higher dividend means a lower book value, hence a lower bv/s. The difference between the price derived at as the average of bv/s in the past x months, and the actual price, would be a function of the dividend paid (and of a bunch of other factors, to be sure - the point of my test was mostly to prove that dividend drives up the price, which some people had doubted). I hope people will start running more tests on all these things you brought up. I might do some more when I get around to it. Its busy here, the semester has just begun.

I did some research on the relation btw dividend payment and stock price, which I posted here: http://www.railroadtycoon.info/forum/viewtopic.php?t=136 It might be interesting to try the same type of experiment to isolate the influence of trading, economic status, and cash flow.

Have you tried increasing your general screen resolution settings? I think you need to run at least 1024x768 to be able to do windowed mode. Maybe other general display setting could play a role, too?

I use the plateau tool, too. You can see the height on the info bar at the bottom of the screen, while you use that tool. That is extremely helpful in making sure that rivers run evenly from a greater to a lesser height. For junctions, I managed with the help of this site: http://www.exdx.net/RT3/index.html (click on "Surveyor") I also found that a junction looks better at the point where the river flows into the sea, than a normal river cell.

Yep, you can build wpns and ammo plants. They are actually quite helpful for providing demand sinks for steel, too, so that you never run out of places to haul it to. I have found it challenging to get the wpns and ammo plants to crank up production, but the key seems to be frequent auto-consist service from the city where they're at, to a city that has a barrack. It seems that factories (like raw material sources) produce most, when demand is high, locally. Have you found out what fouled up the connection event?

Other than a freak bug, here's what I could imagine as a reason: Some of the cars on your custom trains may have been less than 100% full. If you have a weapons train with two custom cars set to wait for a full load, it can take off with one car at 100%, and the second one at something like 10% or even less - even if it is set to wait for 2 full cars. Two trains of that sort would make for a total of 2.2 full loads, and fractions are always ignored. So even 2.9 would still mean 2 loads, as far as the game knows. Hence, if you want a train with two full loads of weapons, have it wait for three, instead. This doesn't explain the load count of 1 load, though. Could it have been station placement? You could shift-E to check they're all where they're supposed to be, though again, the hidden territories are fairly large. I agree that steel and lumber are the key, and to keep them rolling even after initiating production, so that you can always max out your annual track allotment, can be challenging. Iron is the weakest link, since it tends to disappear. Even now, replaying the map, I sometimes come short on those goods. I wish I had known when I made the map that you can make industries appear by events - I would have placed a few extra iron ore mines, to be sure.

I'm glad to hear you haven't given up on this one, and that you have been doing better! That other thing is weird. What did the status page say about the number of loads you had delivered? And did it say that the cities were connected?

I absolutely agree, Gwizz - feeder RRs, whether urban systems or NGs, were on my personal wishlist. It looks like Chris Sawyers new RR game will have streetcars. I am considering looking at that, since I liked the predecessor, transport tycoon, - you had different rail systems in that one.

Hard-coded events will still be in German. I'd just buy the English version - it doesn't cost all that much, these days

Maybe you could actually try to exchange it at the store? Some events are hard-coded, and these will always be in the local language. This would include the two events that announce passenger traffic reduction, one in 1921, one in 1957. It also may include the events that announce new station buildings, and definitely includes the ones that announce the availablity of steel and suspension bridges.

You're right that there are quarterly payouts, but I think I think I observed that they are at the beginning of the months you mention.

Hi Gwizz! I never pre-placed barracks in the beach towns, so that can't be it. But I did notice in another map I am making, that events that place industry on the map (and that is the type of event triggered by building in a beach town on this map) sometimes cause a stop error or at least ctd. That seems to be one of the many bugs, but fortunately, this one often fails to happen, i.e., more often than not, this type of event works alright.

I'm sorry to hear that the game crashed, but the instability of RT3 isn't something for which I feel strongly responsible. Since, in a normal game, one wouldn't start with a line btw two beach towns, I am not too concerned about this crash, though. It works as intended if you play it regularly (i.e., not with a view to testing a particular event).

Belbincolne, as soon as a station is placed in one of the boxes, barracks will appear nearby, given that the station is connected to Philly or Baltimore. The piece of track immediately in front of the station has to be placed within the box (This is the same piece of track that you can only buldoze, if you buldoze the station building, first). The station building, itself, does not have to be in the box. If barracks don't appear, that means that your station is not in the right location. I probably should have made the boxes larger. It is possible to connect all four beach towns with a straight rail line, even if it may be tricky. And, no, there's nothing wrong with the way the events are written.

Hey Casey, thanks for not giving up!

Hi guys, thanks for your interest in the map! I have been hearing the same thing you said from Molse, who runs the German site for RT3, and I was surprised, since I tested on medium, and didn't have the same problem. ??? Maybe this is because I have basically adapted a strategy where I will always spend the first couple of years just buying industry, and laying track only once I have a solid income stream of >200K p.a. from industry. (though you did say you tried that, too) :-\ My first line was usually Balto-Annapolis, followed by one to Havre de Grace. Often, an insular line north and south from Easton would also make money. I never ran more than one train on each line at first, once even only one train Annapolis-Balto-Havre d. G. and back. After buying into DE and PA, and connecting Wilmington and Philly, I always had plenty of spare cash to build a line with all stone bridges down the coast. The basic idea is to not over-expand early on, and to sit on your hands for a few years. Also, issue all the stock that you can, every year, and take out bonds if you must to get into DE and PA I will replay the map as soon as I get around to it, and will post any further ideas for strategies as soon as I've done that. (I would have responded earlier, if I wasn't really busy with schoolwork right now; which may also keep me from replaying this map, soon) In the meantime, could someone who successfully played the map post here, please?

There are two threads in the Gathering forum (both have "Baghdad Rwy" in the title) where people discuss their winning strategies on this map, and where I added some suggestions. Since I don't want to create unnecessary duplication, I just wanted to point you guys that way. People have made Gold on this map, as early as 1910, so it isn't impossible or even ridiculously hard. It might take a few tries, though; and a lot depends on getting a good start.

Since there seems to be some interest in multiplayer maps, I thought I'd make another attempt at finding volunteers for a test of a map I designed mostly with multi-player games in mind. I posted a call for test players weeks ago, and the sole respondent and I never were able to play a complete game, since his firewall instantly put us out of synch whenever we tried. E-mail me at ***lama***@***boo.net (remove the *** from this address), and I'll send you a copy, and we can make arrangements to meet online on a weekend.

You remember correctly, Gobalopper. The reason I think it belongs in the European section is based on statehood and history, rather than geography. The Ottoman Empire was a part of the European concert of powers in the 19th century. Over the course of its history, its most important political and cultural relations were with Europe, rather than other Asian states. In terms of railroad management and equipment, too, the Ottoman Empire was closer to Europe than to Asia. In a similar case, the Trans-Siberian Railway, I would also argue that it belongs in the European section, for much the same reasons.

Thanks, Peter! I'll go to Germany, among other things to check out the newest high-speed rail corridor btw Frankfurt/Main and Cologne. That should be fun. JayEff: I think you're talking about the Janissaries. They were quite a formidable force for centuries, but decayed in the 19th (still fought admirably even in the 1857 Crimean War, though). The young officers who rebelled in 1910 put an end to the Janissaries' power in the realm, but modernization had been going on since the 1870s, driven by the Sultan. The difference between him and the Young Turks was that the Sultan wanted to rule without a parliament (and did so, 1870s-1910), whereas the latter forced them to reinstate one in 1910. I think Attat

Hi guys, thank you very much for your comments! I very rarely visit this forum, otherwise I'd have replied sooner. I hadn't thought about baksheesh - would have been a nice addition! Maybe if Poptop makes an edition of the game that will include fan-made maps, and if this one makes the cut, I'd think about that. What do you think would be the benefits of bribing? Track? Consider, too, that subtracting money from the company has been the single most buggy event in the entire editor. Has anyone discovered a way to make it work 100%? Peter, I am currently working on an RT3 version of "Mixed Local", the RT2 version of which you tested a year ago. I never finished the latter, since by the time I was getting ready to do so, RT3 was already in the wings. RT3's economy model would go well with the "Mixed Local"-concept, and since my other project (re-making "German-American Trade") has been stalled b/c of multiplayer issues, "Mixed Local" will probably be the next one I make. What I'll do to incorporate your suggestions from back then, will be to re-introduce the random "priority shipments" of RT1 fame. This way, there'll always be something to do; especially in the later game years, when you'll have a network that reaches every different type of cargo that is available. In my first test, the "priority shipment" event chain worked as intended. I think that especially those players who miss RT1 will like it. The new map won't get done for another month, since I'm going to travel for two weeks, but you can expect it late May. Maybe we'll even have patch 1.04 by then!

CompanyTerritoryLoadsHauledFromLifetimeToTerritory(x) works like this: The first 'Territory' in the formula (underlined) stands for the one you specify in the small box just above the big trigger conditions box. You enter the number of the territory into that small box. Lets call it territory A. The second 'Territory' in the formula (italics) stands for the one you 'pass in as a parameter'. In plain English, that means that, when you write out the formula, you replace the x with the number of the second territory, which we'll call B. The function will count all loads hauled from A to B. So if Terr. A is no. 1, and Terr. B is no. 2, your formula reads CompanyTerritoryLoadsHauledFromLifetimeToTerritory(2) You'll also need to put '1' into the small box in the 'test against territories'-line.