RTPlayer

This is the topic which I said I'd started in the RT2 forum about the stock market. Anyone with suggestions on how to play for PNW in RT3 is welcome to comment.

I've learned a lot from reading this; I tend to go relatively easy on the AI companies that do not pose any real threat of major expansion. I have a question: How much of this applies to RT3? And are there any strategies not listed here which apply to the RT3 stock market? I've started a topic in the General RT3 area which is intended for anyone wishing to answer these two questions.

I've discovered that there's just as much of a strategy element to RT3, especially when it comes to building industries and creating a passenger network. I've noticed that it's possible to play RT3 without any real strategy, but that this only goes for games of "easy" or "medium" difficulty as it takes some real strategy to make any real money on "hard" or "hardest." An example of this type of strategic thinking (different from the kind of strategic thinking that you use when playing RT2) is the map of the east coast set in the primitive days of railroading. This map always starts out with no meat packing plant and many cattle yards. If you can come up with the roughly 1.5M to build a meat packing plant, make sure to put it in the right place to make money! If you put it in a city, it will make money rapidly (houses form demand for meat, which raises the price), but will drive the price of meat down in that region (not enough to make the meatpacking plant lose money, though), making it possible to haul meat to the other cities where the meat demand hasn't been driven down. Picking the location where you want to build an industry is a major strategic element in RT3. I play both RT2 and RT3 because I enjoy both, although I can see why someone would prefer one over the other.

I've been working on editing the campaign map that has you taking Roosevelt on a whistle-stop tour of the northwest (where I live), because the map "Rooseveltings" gave me the idea. You see, while "Rooseveltings" is an interesting map to play, the economics are a bit off (the presence of the huge megalopolises in the eastern regions, the overall large size of cities and huge volume of passenger traffic, etc.) I decided to start from the campaign map (my first serious attempt at using the map editor), and ran into the difficulty of deciding just what the ports would supply/demand. You see, things have changed quite a bit over the years, and there's no Effect to change what the ports do (this is a suggestion for any possible future patches, if they ever come out). For example, somewhere in the last 25-50 years, the real-life ports of Oregon and Washington have largely gone from "demanding" lumber and paper (in RT2 terms) to "demanding" logs and pulpwood and "supplying" paper (somebody figured out he could ship out pulpwood to Japan, have them make it into paper, and then ship it back more cheaply than he could have the paper manufactured here in the Northwest). Now, one thing I like about RT3 is that while you can't make a port change functions over time, you can set up port regions which allow you to make different ports in different regions do different things. This would help me account (if I ever were to get into RT3 mapmaking, which is probably very unlikely) for the fact that some ports in Washington have radically different supply/demand requirements than, say, the port of Portland, OR, which is the largest grain export center in the US (second in the world). (Also of note is the fact that it's impossible to build a port on a river or in a relatively small bay-I tried to put the port of Portland into the map I was editing to no avail.)

I've been looking into downloading the Coast to Coast Expansion and the 1.05 Patch. What changes do they make? Are either (or both) of these upgrades included in the jewel case version? And will it mess with the campaign that I'm in the middle of if I install them before I finish the campaign?

I think the "light blue streamliner" he's talking about might be the J3A Streamliner.

I've got a jewel-case version of the game. How can I get the strategy guide and locomotive chart?

I've noticed that when I build stations and maintenance facilities, it changes the terrain to make the ground under the building flat. Any suggestions on how I can get the computer to quit changing the grade of my nearby track? Also, when the hilly cities grow new buildings, they often change the grade of my existing track. Any suggestions on how to get around this?

I normally start different railroads without changing companies-if the scenario doesn't require that you lay all your track connected. For example, in North America I start a railroad up and down the eastern US, then start one between Mexico City and Guadalajara, then start one serving the three cities in Cuba, depending on what my multiplayer buddies do.

While you can't turn off the night (as far as I know), if you want to be able to see clearly at night to lay track or do something like that, you can turn on the "Brighter Nights" option. This is available in the "Settings" screen or by clicking on the thing that looks like the watchamacallit that you pull on to turn on a lamp. This hangs down over the mini-map that the instruction manual calls the "radar map."

If you connect your company's track to some other company's track, they'll run trains between their stations and your stations (common knowledge at this point). I've discovered that if you aren't playing a scenario that requires all track to be connected to your company's track, then you can lay track between two nearby company's rail lines and one or both of those two companies will run trains on your track to get between each other's stations. I'm using this on "Germantown, USA."

I jsut discovered a glitch in RT3 which allows you to form consists of over 8 cars! The trick is that when you buy a new train, then tell it to haul 8 cars, then wait until the train is in the middle of loading and then go into the "consist" screen and change the last car to a diner, the original 8-car consist will finish loading, then the diner will be added as a 9th car. I haven't tried this with a caboose yet, though. EDIT: Not only does this work with the diner, but it also works with the caboose (or the diner/caboose combination, which brings the maximum number of cars up to 10). Also, you don't have to do this for a new train for it to work; you can do this with a train you've already been running.

I had that same problem. Unfortunately, I didn't take written notes on how I fixed it like a good computer geek should, and I can't remember exactly what I did. I think I just deleted the Alaska map that came with the game. I may have changed the downloaded map's suffix, but I'm not sure whether or not I actually did.

I've never played seemingly half the maps in Platinum, but I did download the Alaska map and found it to be one of the most interesting maps to play. I never go for the scenario goals-the challenge of keeping my player and company from going bankrupt is challenging enough for me. It takes some really outside-the-box strategies to achieve my personal goal of staying financially solvent, anyway.

Thanks for the info; Phil Steinmeyer left me a reply on his blog (philsteinmeyer.com) in which he suggested trying new video drivers; he said a new video card is even more likely to help. My problem is that my computer doesn't have an AGP slot-it's got an onboard graphics accelerator that the designers apparently thought would eliminate the need for an AGP port (a couple years ago). Any suggestions on how to fix the problem, anyone?

I tend to treat the "max days to deliver" number as a kind of index number indicating the time-sensitivity (the rate at which it loses value while en route) of a particular type of cargo relative to other cargo types. I didn't understand it as well as Gwizz before I read his post, but I understood the part about the carload dissapearing when it's not picked up on time.

I've been playing through the campaign and I'd like to know what to do about the fact that the ground color changes gradually over the course of a scenario. This gets really annoying when the water's surface is blotchy (almost every color of the rainbow), and when I'm playing a desert map like Texas and the ground gets white with blurry spots of blue or yellow all over the place.

I couldn't help but notice that in the last RT3 scenario in the American room, the locomotives all behave as though their top speed has been reduced by 50%. Anybody know what's going on?

Early on-each new locomotive that comes out (with the exception of the DeWitt Clinton, which is inferior to the John Bull). That said, the real quantum leaps in this era are the Prussian and the American. mid to late 1800's-the 8-Wheeler for relatively flat express runs, the Consolidation for relatively heavy freight and/or grade work. Late 1800's-Replace some or all of the 8-Wheelers with 10-Wheelers; replace all Consolidations with Moguls. I typically use the Atlantic for fairly flat, medium-to-long-range express runs; put it on a short run and it'll run out of cargo due to its speed and will become less lucrative. I prefer not to use the Pacific most of the time due to its high operating cost and the fact that it really doesn't go that fast unless you keep your track fairly straight (it has terrible cornering ability). I do occasionally use the Pacific for fairly flat, long straight express runs. I only use the Camelback for really steep grades or for fairly steep grades with heavy loads; it's just not fast enough for me to use it for express work. I basically use it as the 3-Truck Shay of its era. I use the Prairie for just about everything under the sun-it's faster than the Atlantic, more powerful than the Mogul, and is cheaper to both purchase and operate than its contemporaries. Given the era, it's one of my favorites and quite possibly the one I use the most out of all the engines. I've found that while the Mikado is relatively expensive to operate, its combination of extreme strength/grade climbing ability with respectable flatland speed opens up many opportunities for extremely lucrative routes that just aren't possible with most of the other engines. I use it on routes that justify its use. If I choose to electrify, the GG1 is tops for most purposes, but if you want to be honest with yourself about the operating cost you're paying for it, you must figure in the maintenance/purchase price of the electric track. The Alco PA1 is a good general-purpose diesel, and I use it frequently, but I typically use the F3 for much of the early diesel era. I use the F9 for a lot of uses whenever I want a really fast, strong locomotive. It's expensive to operate, but it opens up lucrative opportunities the way the Mikado does. Of course, on a map such as Alaska (the one I got off of philsteinmeyer.com), the operating expense of even one F9 (or Mikado for that matter) can bankrupt you. Also, I use Geeps for heavy freight both on low and moderate grades. I almost always replace my GP9's with GP18's as soon as they come out, except in Alaska (which I still haven't mastered), where the difference in operating expense justifies the use of the 9 over the 18. For the late diesel era (think When Walls Come Down, a campaign scenario which I played the other day), I use the FP45 for flatland express and the Dash-9 for most heavy hauling. I occasionally use the bullet trains when I want to make a lot of million-dollar long-range express runs in a short amount of time. I generally favor the Eurostar over the Thalys Bullet for its lower operating cost. I also use the Class 232 for heavy hauling and/or grade performance due to its speed, power, and reliability. I usually limit its use to the most lucrative freight routes, however, because of its operating cost (the operating cost of the Class 232 is the only reason I ever use Dash-9s in Europe). I never use the Maglev due to the fact that for the same purchase/operating cost of one Maglev, I can make much more revenue with several cheaper trains. The amount of revenue you can make for a certain amount of investment is what business is all about, right?

I enjoy playing both RT3 and RT2; both have their idiosyncrasies and challenges. When I want to use the 3-truck Shay, I often play on "Making the Grade." This is one of the most fun maps for me to play, although I think my favorite probably still is "Interior British Columbia." There are still many high-grade maps I haven't played on in Platinum, although I've been playing for several years, because even though I have been playing for years I still haven't had the chance to play all the maps. Regardless of this, I did download the Alaska map that was saved over with the Tanagore Island map by one of the guys at PopTop.

Many of the industries in RT3 are indeed very similar to RT2. There are some differences, such as the addition of the recycling industry and the fact that the cargo formerly known as "food" has been divided into the categories of "meat", "cheese", etc., and the housing units never stop demanding uncanned produce. Other than these and similar exceptions, the indsutries haven't changed much. On the other hand, the locomotives have changed quite a bit. Many of the locomotives of RT2 aren't in RT3, such as the Hudson, the Prairie, the John Bull, and others. There are engines in RT3 that weren't in RT2. And many of the engines that are in both RT2 and RT3 ahve different "personalities." For example, the 8-Wheeler in RT2 is one of the earlier locomotives (the era immediately after the era of the "primitive" locomotives such as the John Bull and the Prussian). In RT3, the 8-Wheeler is one of the locomotives from the era surrounding the turn of the century. I know there's a big difference, because I could never get an 8-Wheeler over 100 mph in RT2. Also, in RT3 the Camelback isn't the grade-climber that it is in RT2. My point is, an engine chart (like the one that came with my boxed copy of RT3) would be helpful. Also, I found the industry chart on the back of the locomotive chart (or is it the other way around?) to be helpful. Is there a way I could get another copy of that industry/locomotive chart somewhere? About the suggestion that a locomotive chart helps on some of the scenarios, I used the one that came with my boxed copy of RT3 as I played through many of the campaign scenarios, and I found that while at times it could be very useful, it wasn't always foolproof. The reason for this is that whoever designed those scenarios manually edited the list of available locomotives in many of them.