Silverback

There are lots of linkts to strategy guides in this thread some of which may still work There is a wayback machine cache of the Blue Baron referenced in the above which is https://web.archive.org/web/20030106031017/http://home.revealed.net/brandonwb/contents.htm I also found the Dick Knisely guide (mentioned in the thread) on an old 3.5" floppy recently and have attached it (it's in word 97 format) RRT2Guid.zip

I use thunderbird. I never new the July 23 release was called Supernova either until mentioned above so everyone does NOT know. I much prefer version numbers to names. The version of railroad tycoon 2 I now use is from GoodoldGames - gog.com which doesnt need a CD at all as all their game are DRM free (and legal) I've not had rhe double launch problem with it. I would suspect a DRM timing issue if using a version of the executable that requires a CD as some other games that required a CD to be in the drive stopped working as the DRM they used was found to be a security risk so microsoft disabled the services they needed to run

Is the speed factor related to rot factor? Seems like the algorithms in the code for cargo values are more complex than realised. After 25 years there are still things to discover in this game. I very rarely fire this game up but I still think this is one of the best railroad games of all time

Welcome. Some scenarios are easier than others. Whistle Stops and Promises mostly depends on having no breakdowns if run as intended. You can cheat by starting it, pausing immediately and then changing the consist to just the loco, but it can be done without this.

Or press tab and enter the cheat BigfootGold You can "win" it even more quickly. I think this says cheater on the win screen though. I would consider the ctrl-b trick as a dubious ploy.

Try enabling engines via an event - this MAY stop them being retired at their normal retirement date, however this won't affect car weight changes or any other events like passenger generation falling at fixed dates in the game engine. The editor text files supplied with the game show how to enable engines. I don't think theres an event to set the game year though.

Perhaps use messages to PM gobalopper or use the contact us form on the terminal main page to see if the original can be found, but I think any registered user can attach files to a post, Best to zip the file first though.

Its best to get a majority of shares in an AI company before trying to merge. You can merge with less than a majority sometimes if you offer a very high price. The companies chairman will always vote against a merger in my experience so if the chairman of the AIU company has over 50% of shares in his company you won't be able to merge and may have to make him bankrupt (see the Robber Baron for tips on that) e.g steal all his traffic.

Have you tried disabling the startup video? (you have to get the game to start before you can do this though and be in a scenario before you can use the games control panel options). Maybe temporarily use an old monitor to disable the startup video. The issue may be related to screen resolutions on your computer. You may be able to turn off sound via HDMI on your computer and use separate speakers but definitely try disabling the opening video first. You could also try disabling direct3d in your grapics card driver. WineD3D has been suggested as a fix for drivers. When buying old games I purchase from Gog.com as they are usually better at getting them to work than steam is.

You Tube predates RT3 let alone RT2. RT2 1998, RT3 2003, YouTube 2005. The world wide web only really took off in 1995. Even then most home access was via dial up modem and continued that way for several years so video for most people just wasnt possible. The Blue Baron's guide and the Robber Baron's guides were my favourites, with the RipTrack for mapmaking. Almost all sites are only available via the web archive and aren't complete. Start with the strategy guide that comes with the platinum version of the game.

Interesting idea. Ocean bridges were only added later (in the second century expansion) so the classic campaign wasn't designed to used them and this couldn't be done. I've always started Quebec Montreal Halifax.

You can cheat by pausing the scenario as soon as it loads and then change the consist to just the loco before it gets to the first station, Even that can fail if you get a breakdown, so you can use the nowreck cheat. Doing it properly without cheating then the Camelback is the one to use as the platinum strategy guide says and the best route is also in the guide. The random breakdowns are the killer.

Yes! Any part or all of the name as Maglev indicated. Heres how if you havent worked it out yet. Double click the station to open its screen (where you would buy upgrades) if its not already open as it would be when you create the station. Click on the stations name. A flashing vertical bar cursor will appear Type in the name box to change the name and hit enter or return Station has been renamed. You could also try and edit edit the default2.lng file and edit the tSTATION_NAME_VARIANT_0 section if you don't like the default suffices. But do read the files instructions (in the file) first.

Welcome. Sadly theres very little available on modding and map creation. As I've never made a map I'm not much help. There never was much multiplayer activity, and there's very little activity here nowadays. If you create a map someone else may play it. jeffryfisher has some modding experience so searching his posts could be of use. There were several sites on modding but they went years ago alas. I can only suggest examining other peoples maps for tips. Somewhere on here there is a post listing links to useful resources (try https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/23142-rrt2-strategy-guide-links/?tab=comments#comment-366383 ?) but many of the resources are dead (thread is almost 10 years old). Archive.org could be your friend. Good luck! There may be some info over at http://hawkdawg.com but no active RTII community. The last RTII post there was June 2019! Here it's about a post a month!

To access the control panel you need to be playing the game - the control panel icon is the one that looks like sliders 2nd from bottom on left (above the floppy disk icon). In the general settings you can set music volume - check it isnt set to 0. You may need the CD in the drive or you could manually copy the MP3 files from the CD to a folder of the same name on the PC. You could buy the game from GOG.com (platinum version) for easy installation on a newer PC. Its often on offer cheaply - normal price is around whatever your local currency equivalent of $5 is . It works on windows 10 too whereas installing from a CD can be a pain on 10.

RT3 doesn't seem to like graphics cards with a lot of memory being a game from 2003 - the best resource to search for solutions is probably Hawk's site http://hawkdawg.com/forums/index.php? There are lots of ideas for things you could try there but one is to turn down the graphics details in the settings. I also think there are issues with Nvidia cards which require T&L to be turned off so it will run in the first place. This puts more load on the CPU. There are some workarounds on Hawks site, but I've not tried them.

GoG version is 1.56 with DRM removed I believe. No other changes to standard 1.56 are likely to be in there. GoG usually release the games DRM free with the latest official patches but no other modifications.

According to the author's readme here http://sirian.warpcore.org/rt2/granprix.txt you need to complete in 50 years to get the gold in single player

Human and AI don't play by the exact same rules as has already been observed above. Without the source code or documentation of the economics for the AI we can only speculate. It depends on the difficulty levels as to how much the human player gets for undemanded cargoes anyway - this much is known - and also the modifiers are known (select a map then click options and select a difficulty). the AI may get the exact same BASE value as the human player but then any revenue modifier percentage will take effect anyway - we just don't know definitely.

I believe the remove track option suggested is the "Liquidate Bankrupt Companies" in the Gameplay section of the game options of RTII and so applies game wide - there's not an individual map option as far as I know. It only applies if the company is liquidated usually after at least one bankruptcy and then when the share price falls to $1. its my preferred option but isn't the default. normally the track is left littering the map. I don't recall if you can merge with a liquidated company in RTII - I think railroad tycoon 3 introduced this option and it wasn't available in RTII.

I've never felt the need to set up email notification so never get emails ! my settings are all at default.

Commiserations. Sometimes you just can't win and its best to give up. Sadly this seems to be one of those cases. If anyone else reads this and has this issue and wants to carry out more tests ... Compatability mode on the settings for the application in windows should allow 16 bit colour for that application. Windows 10 wont let you select 16 bit colour for everything unlike earlier versions of windows. For this specific issue I don't think it will deliver the solution wanted. The windows settings may allow a lower monitor resolution and override the chipset manufacturers setting but it's unlikely. Some games do change screen resolutions. Closing them should reset the screen resolution to the value before the launch if they are properly written.

just thought of the following. Or use the widows settings/control panel to set the display resolution to 1024x768 before launching RTII with the monitor set to "wide" on the physical monitor if you haven't already tried? (may not be possible) Ive never run in windowed mode before My setup won't do windowed RTII without desktop setting changes - My 1920 by 1080 setting for the display wasn't recognised by RTII as suitable ( 1152 x 864 or greater is needed) until I set the desktop to 16 bit colour via windows settings/control panel after reading this link http://www.thegameengine.org/railroad-tycoon-2/railroad-tycoon-2-windowed-mode/ The window isn't resizable by dragging the edges though. The Post preview is now via the last icon above the reply box (looks a bit like a magnifying glass over a sheet of paper to me).

Maybe you need to try the intel website or the lenovo website for later drivers than those from windows update. 15.40.25.4463 may be the latest version from Intel direct and says it fixes some scaling problems. Does your screen display RTII full height or is the black border all around? I've not noticed a burn problem with my screen but I have noticed some persistent image issues on brighter parts of the screen (after I had set the brilliance to 100% and also left the display static for several hours) which I thought were burn in but which faded away to nothing over an hour or so when other applications were used. Just make sure that you know how to revert to the older driver if the new one doesn't work as (rarely) the newer drivers may not work on your laptop. Getting into windows 10 safe mode is more difficult than it should be as the old methods don't work. At least the game works on windows 10 which is not bad for an old game. In my experience it is usually oddities in the graphics systems or the installer that cause the majority of issues, especially on 64 bit operating systems. If you could repair your old PC and have a way to reinstall XP then maybe it could be used just for older games - the problem is getting the parts e.g IDE hard disks are getting rare. IDE to SATA converters are available but then costs start to rise.

A scaling issue is the likeliest culprit as you have already identified, but there are several places where scaling is set other than in the default generic windows settings. I don't run games on the windows 10 machine I have so can't help directly. You may need to search the full manuals for your monitor and laptop for the equivalents of the following. MONITOR SETTINGS I use a windows 7 desktop and monitor for games (32 bit) and my monitor has monitor image size settings of Auto or Wide. Auto keeps the aspect ratio the PC tells it to display whereas wide always stretches it. These settings vary from monitor to monitor. From what you say I'm presuming that you are using an external monitor and not the laptop's screen. (If you want to use the laptop screen then there may be a utility on your laptop change these settings for your built in screen or graphics chipset.) One additional thought here is if you use an external monitor then you may need to make sure ONLY this is in use as using the laptop screen and the monitor together may cause problems and show a smaller image on the external screen to match the built in screen for example, and also make sure the laptop detects the monitor's capabilities correctly as it may not know what the external monitor is capable of. There is usually a special set of function keys on laptops to tell it to use the internal screen, external screen or both. Sometimes a monitor may have different settings for different inputs - some monitors have VGA, HDMI, DVI etc inputs so did your XP PC connect to a different input on your monitor from your laptop and could this have affected your settings? GRAPHICS CARD / CHIPSET DRIVER SETTINGS The settings for Nvidia graphics card in the Nvidia control panel for my PC has 3 scaling modes Aspect ratio, full screen or no scaling. It seems as though you are getting the equivalent of no scaling - The windows control panel doesn't show these scaling options in most versions of windows so you need to use the graphics chipset manufacturer's utility, which may not be installed but should be available, or the laptops hardware settings which can be a separate utility provided by the laptop manufacturer. You might just need to increase the amount of memory the laptop allocates to graphics but this is unlikely. GRAPHICS DRIVER CHANGE You could also see if the graphics chipset manufacturer for your laptop has a different driver from the one windows 10 is using and change the driver. You could also see if windows has an updated driver but the chipset manufacturers drivers may have more facilities. Finally I always keep the aspect ratio of the game as this is more to my taste then stretching the image widthways but for old games like this I do scale up the image in proportion to fill the monitor height and leave black bars either side of the image, so I use the setting of "Auto" on the monitor itself and "Aspect Ratio" in the Nvidia control panel which does exactly what I want. This took me some time to work out as the default was to do exactly what I think you want i.e. for the image to fill the monitor in both directions ! Hope this helps - Good Luck