Summer Vacation

[belbincolne]

I downloaded this from here and as Lars M the writer hasn't put anything in I thought I'd report (none) progress. I've tried it 3 different ways (twice railroading, once industry for a few years) and as soon as I build any rails at all first of all profits go out of the window so I'm bankrupt within a few years and, secondly, there's so little traffic apart from express that unless you run mixed trains they scarcely move at all - even if set at a minimum of ) let alone 1. Needless to say I can't get anywhere near to a holiday resort.

Any clues/hints Lars  >:(  >:( ?

[Casey]

Hey Lama:

Nice graphics and a very creative idea, but I usually play on Easy (I even took the later 1890 date) and I'm still dying here also.

When I build railways there is nothing to haul after the first couple of trains. If I try industry it takes ten years to get my money back.

How are the experts handling this one?

Casey

[Lama]

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?

[Casey]

Dear Lama:

Thanks so much for the quick reply and for the suggestions.

From your post it appears that I was running too many trains too soon.

I had tried the Baltimore - Havre route etc but not down to Annapolis.

I was also concerned about the "express" mph condition so was trying to separate that from the freight cargo right from the beginning of the scenario.

The other thing that worried me was that if I sat on my hands for ten years at the beginning waiting for my industry to provide money that I would run out of my 25 years time too quickly.

Casey

[Casey]

Again your suggestions are working well Lama.

I made it to the beach in ten years.

But I am having some problems properly siting my stations. I have been using the largest station, which in a couple of cases has covered the nearby barracks. But a couple of the resorts are not seeding barracks. And a couple just will not "name" themselves properly. They take on the name of a neighbouring community. Sometimes this doesn't matter for the computer does recognize them anyway, but not always.

The other challenge is with these bridges having to have some footing on dry land in order to generate.

It would have been nice to see the "connect" message etc when hovering the station over the tiny square, or in the case of the one, just guesssing on the location in the middle of hte sand bar.

I did get a few service buildings to work on the beach but it was very challenging.

Different topic: Don't worry to much about those of us having problems.,  The "whizz bzng" guys are all testing "things" right now. I'm sure they will all manage to defeat the map on their first try in less than 10 years on Hard-expert with millions of $ and many loads to spare.  :D

Casey

[Casey]

(Hopefully a final commetn)

I did figure out how to get around the names.

With the stations in the right "boxes" on the sand bars I just renamed them eg. from Merlin Junction etc to Rehobeth Beach and they then were recognized and all planted a barracks.

I never could get a total  "beach" railway going. I kept getting warning messages about laying bridges in the water.I now come in from the land side to some of them and just connect that line back off from the shore.

Casey

[Lama]

Hey Casey,

thanks for not giving up!

[JayEff]

On hard I tried starting with rail only, adding the logging industry chains later.

After 15 years I had Baltimore, the li'l town to the north, Annapolis and Havre de Grace connected and a wopping 4 trains in operation. ;)

I'll try it another way next time...

[Casey]

Dear Lama:

Yes, when the station was in the box the barracks appeared fairly close by. Earlier when the station was half out of the box, if the barracks appeared it was almost too far away to be included in the station's "footprint."

I'll have to try harder re beach railways. I did look in the editor to see where the water was versus reserve cells etc and there is not much room to manoever! Even then I still have not been sucessful.

Casey

[belbincolne]

Back from holiday I've now given this another go using Industry for the 1st ten years and I could then get down to Rehobeth and Bethany. I couldn't run lines through either box and so just touched a corner of each. I couldn't place a station fully within the box so had about a third/half inside. Two years later there were still no Barracks and no troops had appeared. Afraid somethings not right with the scenario.

[Lama]

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.

[belbincolne]

I lost my save game here and couldn't get back to thinking about another ten years of Industry before I could try your suggestions so I restarted and immediately built a station in R and B. If part of the station was inside but the rail outside it was o/k but as soon as I tried to place it the opposite way round the game crashed - and, restarted, it did the same thing at the other resort. Maybe it's because there was nothing else there but I'm afraid lifes too short to keep trying! >:( >:( >:(

[Lama]

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).

[Gwizz]

On another map I added an industry in the editor.  Then changed my mind and deleted that industry.  When I tried to lay track across that spot in a game, the game crashed every time I tried.

There must be some memory of deleted items that the game can't deal with.

[Lama]

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.