Open RT2 Wish Lists

[jeffryfisher]

I thought I started a thread of bugs, oddities and desired enhancements, but I can't find it. Maybe it was at Hawk & Badger (it was a couple years ago). If I find my old wish list, then I'll migrate it here.

I have reserved the first several slots in this thread for building lists of different types of features that an "open RT2" project would possibly want to address. Below that, we can propose and discuss the merits, details and classification of each. As ideas emerge, I'll add them to their appropriate lists. If an open RT2 project ever materializes, then these lists can serve as fodder for its requirements document.

To begin with, I will create the following (mostly empty) lists:

* Critical bugs -- Must be fixed if at all possible

* Undesirable features -- Probably bugs, but can be worked around, and some players might even disagree about changing.

* Game weaknesses -- Existing features that are not bugs, but maybe could be improved if an improvement proved popular and practical.

* New, high-priority features: Things we would want to add if at all possible.

* New, nice-to-have features

* Documentation Improvements

* Reserved for future use

 

To help highlight recent additions/edits in the lists, I will write them in blue and leave them that way until my next editing session (something I do a couple times per year).

[jeffryfisher]

Critical bugs -- Must be fixed if at all possible:

*** Game Play:

* When replacing a train's engine, the spacing of the tender and cars is sometimes fouled (cars can either overlap or get huge gaps in between). It appears to be connected to when a train turns around (different parts of the train have different directions of travel, so the adjustment for a new engine's length is being applied negatively to part(s) of the train). What's worse is that a fouled train might then fail to stop and buy/sell cargo at the stations on its route. The engine replacement routine must be made "bullet-proof" so that engines can be replaced blindly without harm.

* It is possible to place a station so that one cell of its frontage track sticks into a river without a bridge. This configuration can later (after building the bridge) lead to bizarre behavior (like a bridge that can be crossed in only one direction) and game crash (if a train puts on cars in the station so that they would reach across a bridge that can't be crossed in that direction).

* Bug: Some demands flatline (drop to zero and stay there) after any delivery. This happens for all 2nd inputs except at a steel factory (foundry). Fix the industry data (demand recovery speed must be >= 1.0) or else fix the demand recovery algorithm to accumulate fractional values.

* Waypoint Crash Bugs: Spawning a new train at a waypoint will crash the game. Allowing a train to continue to a waypoint whose track cell was deleted will crash the game.

* AI mistakenly uses train age instead of engine age when deciding to replace its trans' engines. The result is that after about 25 years, every AI company will attempt to replace every engine every year until the company enters a debt spiral to bankruptcy.

 

*** Scenario Editor:

* If a temporary event is set to affect one territory, then when it expires, the effect should only reverse itself in the original territory. Unfortunately, such events unwind (cause the reverse effect) in all territories, making temporary effects unusable for territory-specific events (and setting a trap that some scenario designers have fallen into).

* The PlayerId function doesn't work, rendering it useless in triggers. PlayerId needs to be given its proper value so that players (esp predefined AI players) can be triggered.

[jeffryfisher]

Undesirable features -- Probably bugs, but can be worked around, and some players might even disagree about changing:

*** Game Play:

* One cannot build electricity on an opponent's bridge (but the game charges the build price anyway). Either do the build or treat it as an "invalid track placement. Don't accept it, deduct the money and then fumble the build.

* Replacing engines on a train can foul speed-record calculation. Fix the data or calculation so that trip speed is calculated correctly even if the engine is replaced on the verge of reaching a destination.

* If an event or company liquidation tears a hole in a computer-company's track, the AI never repairs it. It also looks like it never notices trains that can no longer reach their destinations. Track deletion needs to prompt the AI "players" to do some damage control.

* Foreign track usage needs better recorded and accounted. Intermediate stops (loads added) and engine replacement should not screw up calculations for continuing loads.

* Placing a station on existing track should not alter the lay of the track in any way.

* Diagonal track should be 1.4 times the mileage of orthogonal track (ask Pythagoras), but the game might be miscalculating it, which could distort fuel usage etc.

* Station fees not covered by delivery earnings should be charged against train owner, including when shuffling cargo in your own stations.

* Track placement on and around beaches (and along rivers) is often erroneously blocked as illegal. All legal track placements should be allowed, especially in single-segment mode.

* Stations can be built/expanded to touch diagonal track at a cell corner, but diagonal track cannot pass the corner of an existing station. All track placement should be consistent (close diagonals should probably be allowed on all track placement except perhaps on Metra-scale maps).

* Irrational deceleration: When climbing a hill, a train will lose speed according to its acceleration (quicker trains lose speed more quickly). The deceleration should vary according to engine power and traction (with power and traction helping, not hurting).

* Merged bonds beyond bond limit (either merger should be blocked or else game should handle over 20 bonds for player company).

* Buildings' production should not become synchronized over time (or economic cycles). Current algorithm, perhaps responding to econ cycles, brings raw production into phase, resulting in massive waves of passengers and mail separated by long (multi-year) droughts of virtually nothing. The algorithm needs an ever-present element of pseudo-randomness to scatter production.

*** Scenario Editor:

Edited July 23, 2016 by jeffryfisher
Smooth out production pulses/synchronization

[jeffryfisher]

Game weaknesses -- Existing features that are not bugs, but maybe could be improved if an improvement proved popular and practical:

*** Game Play:

* If you run all on foreign track, then you lose all revenue -- and may pay station fees to boot. Track fees should eat from only part of the delivery revenue pie, leaving another slice for the company that provided the engine and fuel.

* Accounting is misleading because cash events are added to misc income even when negative, and interest is added to expenses even when positive.

* The AI companies should place (and size) their stations more advantageously. Perhaps the algorithm would benefit from looking at reserved cells. Map designers could then guide the AI through their maps.

 

* Currently, AI will never build to a city that has ever had a station placed there (except to build into the same station, which may not even exist anymore!).. So not only will they not compete for big hubs or replace destroyed stations/tracks, but they also allow human players to "cheat" by placing small stations and then deleting them. AI companies should be willing to place their own stations, especially after deletion/destruction.

* Spark long list of AI weaknesses here...

* Track placement costs are inconsistent. Single electric then doubled is cheaper than simply building double electric. Doubling alternate segments yields all double track at a fraction of the cost of a long continuous stretch. Electrifying one segment at a time in certain directions is FREE after the first segment. All of these are delicious when first found by aggressive gamers, but they're errors in the modeling and coding of a RR sim. Track cost calculations should be made consistent, and, if anything, some upgrades should cost more than the difference between two types of track.

* Change labels (and docs) to say "days to pick-up" rather than "days to deliver" (i.e. tell the truth).

 

* Track and building rules should change with different map scales (which implies that the miles per cell on a map should be data available to all calculations. In particular:

    * Grades should account for the many more miles per cell on continent-wide maps

    * Sharper turns should be allowed on larger scale maps (i.e. at 7 miles per cell, a train can make a U-turn inside one cell).

    * A curve's effect on train movement should diminish with scale

    * Train movement, fuel cost, sand loss & maintenance distance could be scaled to the map.

    * At highest (continental) scales (5+ miles per cell), it should be possible to place track through buildings and along river banks. However, it might be too tricky to design an interface (and internal data) to choose and remember left-bank versus right-bank.

 

* Except perhaps on Metra-scale, a bridge should exist only within the river cell that it spans. Track built from either end ought to be allowed to extend in any legal direction (straight or at an angle). Likewise causeways over ocean cells.

 

* Use improved scales on stock-price and earnings graphs. Use the available vertical space, and consider using a logarithmic scale.

 

* Delivered freight loads should be allocated to industry by demand, satisfying the highest demand first, as opposed to the current scheme of favoring lowest x co-ordinate :(

 

 

*** Map & Event Editor:

* Trigger functions such as revenue and net income are sometimes bogus or unusable because of the misleading way that cash events and interest are counted.

* Worse, trigger functions are prone to integer overflow even when internal storage isn't (thank heavens!). It appears as if money is stored internally in thousands (so a billion is stored as as million), but functions like company cash expand that internal number (and can overflow) before they can be used in calculations. Because company cash, player net worth, and expressions' intermediate values can overflow $2 Bn, even triggers should use 8-byte integers internally (or devise another way to handle integer overflow).

[jeffryfisher]

New, high-priority features: Things we would want to add if at all possible:

*** Game Play:

* Replacing a large number of engines is extremely tedious. The game needs a feature that can select a large number of trains and replace their engines all at once. Train filtering and sorting could be part of the solution.

 

* Converting a sizable RR to electric can be tedious. It can also "miss a spot". It would be handy to have a special function to electrify all of a company's non-electric track (after seeing the price to do so). Then a warning should be given that you should look for places that your track crosses foreign-owned track.


*** Scenario Editor:

*

[jeffryfisher]

New, nice-to-have features:

*** Game Play:

* Filter and sort company train lists by characteristics like engine type, fuel type, age, having a particular stop in its schedule, being unable to find a path to its next destination etc.

* If a station is destroyed or deleted, then trains having that station in their schedules should replace it with "nowhere" rather than simply deleting it (and losing the info). If left to operate, a train to nowhere will just skip it and go to its next stop. With filtering and sorting implemented, trains having a "nowhere" in their schedules can be quickly found and fixed.

* Foreign track percentage should eat at only part of a delivery payout, not the whole. Maybe split it so 100% foreign track takes only half of a payout... or 2/3 (pick a number).

* Proposed: That if a train stops to wait for another, then additional trains (i.e. overtaking) having equal or lower priority should stop behind (or outside) the waiting train so it isn't perpetually clobbered.

 

* Offer a list of train-priority tie-breakers to choose which train must stop when two trains of equal priority meet. Let a player choose which tie breaker to use company-wide. Some possible criteria: {uphill v downhill; speed; momentum; cargo value; mean cargo speed factor; minimize estimated passing time...}

* Design an even cheaper zero-coverage "station" for services and drop-shipments only.

* When upgrading a station or building, get a discount from the one being replaced.

* Teach the AI to develop stations other than towns and cities (e.g. farms and mines)

? Vary the stock market behavior and price formulae by era (emphasize dividends in early years). Maybe even hide some data in early years of weak/secret accounting. Should "directors" force dividend increases?

* For displayed cargo cars, superimpose a shrinking "rot" indicator to indicate how close a load is to expiring. Similarly, for auto-generated (non-conversion) cargo types that are empty, give an ETA for the next time that a load of that type is expected (subject to economic and other events changing the schedule).

* Shrink big industrial buildings, at least on largest scale maps.

* Allow ports to appear on rivers? Could ports be reduced to 2x2 cells? Maybe auto-rotate half-land / half-water.

* Let players choose how aggressively they want to smooth terrain (i.e. how expensive they want it to be) while stretching track. It could be a numeric spinner on the track selection dialog, somewhere near the choice of bridges.

* Like interest payments, the game could impose inflation quarterly.

 

* Distinguish shallow bays from deep oceans. Allow causeway bridges only over shallow inlets.

 

* Enable the double-tracked causeway bridge.

 

* Bring back the ferries that existed in an older version of RR Tycoon. Allow ferry "tracks" (routes) to carry trains over both shallow and deep ocean water. If we're really enterprising, we could have companies buy ferries and have them ply water routes from port to port waiting for, picking up and delivering trains. A port station would be one with one frontage-segment in the water. If we made companies buy ferries, then the water "tracks" would be free. Ferries, like locomotives, could come in different models with different speeds available in different decades at different prices. Otherwise, the water tracks would have a cost to cover the implied ferries.

 

* Offer more complete financial reports, and offer summaries going back more years. See the game "Capitalism" for examples.

 

* Retain the last year or two of newspapers when saving the game (loading from a saved game currently loses the news archive).

 

* Similarly, remember the last ten deliveries when saving the game (loading from a save currently wipes the delivery history).

 

*** Scenario Editor:

* Limit player choice of how aggressively they can smooth grades when stretching track. Create an event effect to change the range of choices? Schedule such effects as part of game history, similar to the introduction of bridging options?

* An event in the editor could increase or decrease the inflation rate, or set it to a trigger.

 

*** Interface:

 

* Change to a truly multi-window interface in which "clutter" can be minimized/hidden when one wants a full-screen view of something like the main map (or route-planning map).

 

* Enable zoom-in for the route-planning map so that waypoints can be precisely placed in a single cell on a within a huge map (and without station stars getting in the way).

[jeffryfisher]

Documentation Improvements:

*** Game Play:

* If necessary, add a game-internals section or appendix for those of us who crave greater precision in planning.

* Describe delivery payoff factors / formula more precisely. Describe load evaporation precisely. Describe the time-value of post office, grain silo etc exactly.

* Tell us in what order loads of different ages will be picked up.

*** Scenario Editor:

* Each effect should tell whether it can be set independently by player, company, territory, or some combination. For instance, economic state is a game-wide value. Setting it in an event for one territory will still affect all territories. Train speed can be changed per territory and per company (but probably not per player). What about something like electric fuel cost -- is there one price for electricity game wide, or can it be different by company and/or territory?

[jeffryfisher]

* Reserved for future use

[RSimpkinuk57]

Hi Jeffry,

organising my thoughts could take a while, so I'll start trickling a few at a time.... regards, Richard

Undesirable: Game Play

Builidng electric single track, then doubling it, is cheaper than building double electric. The company must be paying for doubling the rails but not for doubling the wires.

% foreign track should be calculated separately for each car from loading point to unloading. In the Trans-Australia scenario I discovered by accident that if I carry loads on the "common" track as invited, but stop to pick up extra loads as soon as I am on my own track, then my company is "charged" whatever % it is of zero payment for the cargo staying on the train. Then when it all unloads at Perth (say), all loads have come on 100% my track since the last station stopped at so no foreign track fees are deducted.

[RSimpkinuk57]

another Undesirable: Game Play

If an industry goes out of business, then of course it stops accepting or producing cargo; but cargo from it already on a train (perhaps two years old, two-thirds of its way across the continent to meet a "loads hauled" objective) should survive. (Ditto passengers and mail from vanished houses)

[RSimpkinuk57]

Undesirable: Game Play

Trains that stop and wait for others should not "fade out" except for higher-priority trains (whether coming up behind, or crossing their path at a junction). This to prevent the perpetual queue-jumping (which human players can micro-manage, but which can completely mess up the AI on steep hills) whereby train 2 catches up train 1, stops, then cannot restart because train 3 behind, still going, is "treading on its tail".

Game Weakness: AI not building stations outside cities to collect from industry out in the country. (I happen to like RT3's solution of the industry arranging its own transport to cities.)

Nice-to-have: a zero-cost station type with no coverage, for somewhere to put e.g. extra sand (on steep grades) or water. Or some other way of achieving this with only the tower itself to pay for.

Nice-to-have: when replacing a building (hotel, restaurant or the station itself) with a larger one, get back half the value of the old building. E.g. build a large station from scratch: cost 200. Build a medium station 100; upgrade it later to large, pay not a further 200 but only 150 for a total historic cost of 250.

Nice-to-have: replace the "50% extra when supplied with X" by a simple, like everything else, "1 X -> 1Y" (e.g. 1 grain -> 1 cattle). Maybe keeping the free 2 a year (why 3 a year for cattle when 2 for everything else?). Maybe a limit (max 2 grain turned into cattle each year, plus the freebies) but then similar limits on other process industries' outputs.

[jeffryfisher]

another Undesirable: Game Play

If an industry goes out of business, then of course it stops accepting or producing cargo; but cargo from it already on a train (perhaps two years old, two-thirds of its way across the continent to meet a "loads hauled" objective) should survive. (Ditto passengers and mail from vanished houses)

I didn't know that this was a problem. Have you caught the game red-handed deleting cargoes? If you think you have, then I'll have to run a little bulldozing test...

[RSimpkinuk57]

Hi Jeffry,

I certainly have caught the original game red-handed deleting cargoes along with buildings, and I think TSC too. Buildings vanish (at random, depending on economic growth and how well a city is being served) at year end only. Losing the odd house from a city happens more often than losing a whole farm, mine, port or mill, and can be spotted by an empty passenger car on what had been a full train.

Another undesirable: laying new track connected to old can change the grade of old track - for the worse - even several cells away from the junction. (Sometimes just inspecting grades can change them, especially I think if there is a train on the track, but relaying the track - at zero cost - often gets round this.)

Something that feels wrong to me, but would be a gameplay change: I once tried short selling just for the fun of it, and noticed I could keep a negative number of shares in a company for the rest of the game (and had to if, subsequently, the target company bought back, or an AI tycoon bought, the last shares left in the open market). In my opinion when you short sell in one month, and don't cover your position by buying real shares the next, then your stockbroker should convert your shortfall into a cash deduction from your account, at the new share price, at the end of the second month. (Since this is cancelling an attempted sale, as opposed to an actual purchase, it should not affect the stock price.)

Separate question arising: can you short sell a company when there are no shares left with outside investors? If so, should it be alllowed, seeing that the target cannot defend its share price by buying shares?

[RSimpkinuk57]

A nice-to-have gameplay change I'd like: in Britain when our railways were being built in the 19th century, there were no sophisticated analysts working out company book values: share price was governed by the dividend relative to the bank rate. A chairman who tried to retain all the profits for expansion would find the share price dropping so the company would be unable to raise money on the stockmarket - or the bond market. He'd also risk being voted out by angry shareholders, if he withheld dividends so as to crash the share price and buy up all the shares himself. On the other hand, George Hudson could take out a bond, pay half of it out as a dividend, then on the basis of the resulting high share value issue more shares and take out more bonds.

What is my suggestion: (1) stock price should either depend on dividend rate (mainly or entirely) or be subject to a ceiling dependent on dividend rate (2) the Board of Directors should insist on increasing a "too low" dividend if the company is profitable.

regards, Richard

[jeffryfisher]

I certainly have caught the original game red-handed deleting cargoes along with buildings... can be spotted by an empty passenger car on what had been a full train.

I'll try to keep an eye out for that. I would think that I'd be caught short at a cargo conversion (having left full and arrived unfull) if this could happen. I have however seen cargo vanish from stations where it was waiting with its source.

Another undesirable: laying new track connected to old can change the grade of old track - for the worse - even several cells away from the junction.

New track is usually kind to old, only altering it to make fair compromises. What's really harmful is what happens when you put a new large terminal on a steep grade. That just has to stop.

Sometimes just inspecting grades can change them

I don't think inspection is changing the grade; it's merely lying about what grade is really there.

when you short sell in one month, and don't cover your position by buying real shares the next, then your stockbroker should convert your shortfall into a cash deduction from your account, at the new share price, at the end of the second month.

Ah, but that's not how real short-sales work. You may short a stock for as long as you like. You must pay the dividends on those shares, but you aren't obligated to close your short position unless "cornered" (squeezed). If anything, the game treats short interest too harshly.

can you short sell a company when there are no shares left with outside investors?

Not in RRT2. You may only short half of the shares held by outsiders.

the target cannot defend its share price by buying shares?

You're describing a "bear raid". I just did that to a few tycoons just last night. I noticed that they had big debt and virtually zero purchasing power. A couple short sales was all it took to cause cascading margin calls on my opponents. They fell like dominoes, each one's sell-off pulling the rug out from under the next. The whole market tanked, and I swept up shares at fire-sale prices.

Ahhhhh... I love it when a plan comes together!

[RSimpkinuk57]

You may short a stock for as long as you like. You must pay the dividends on those shares

Ah, now I understand.

You may only short half of the shares held by outsiders.

So shares are there to be bought, defending the price, if the victim can afford them. Fair dinkums. Leave things as they are.

Cargo vanishing from trains: the way to prevent that (except for passengers and mail unless from ports) is to buy the industry it comes from, but of course not all maps allow that.

My next undesirable: cargo at a station expiring during the time it takes to marshal the cars you've ordered added to a train (a train already there). Related to which: cars loaded at a station unload if you re-marshal, so their cargo can be lost too.

Nice-to-have: replace "days to deliver" on car info box with "days to collect" (accurately!), and make post offices and the like explicitly extend the days-to-collect. More work - an indicator bar under each carload waiting at a station showing how close it is to expiring.

Another nice-to-have (maybe you know already how to do this by changing data tables): make mail more valuable, and longer lasting. From what I read, government mail contracts were really important to railroads, even before adding the express delivery - parcels to a Brit like me - that RRT mail cars must also represent. Small towns could be satisfied by a daily passenger-and-mail run (one train a year at RRT scale), so the expiry time should never be less than a year (plus some margin for error).

[jeffryfisher]

Cargo vanishing from trains: the way to prevent that (except for passengers and mail unless from ports) is to buy the industry it comes from, but of course not all maps allow that.

I tried to buy houses once (didn't work)

I've decoded most of the data tables in the EXE, so I could probably make houses and/or townhouses buyable. They might even pay "rent" based on pax/mail delivered and received.

My next undesirable: cargo at a station expiring during the time it takes to marshal the cars you've ordered added to a train (a train already there).

It's annoying, but that's just part of the race. Get there sooner and improve turn-time (especially use customs houses where selling to ports).

Related to which: cars loaded at a station unload if you re-marshal, so their cargo can be lost too.

That's a two-edged sword. Stale cargo doesn't pay well, so ditching it can be a blessing sometimes. If you really really want to stockpile cargo, then create a satellite station to which you shuttle it. Trains changing consist at a way-station under a red flag will re-shelve it without risk of it expiring.

But such cargo can get very very stale if it piles up faster than it is hauled away.

More work - an indicator bar under each carload waiting at a station showing how close it is to expiring.

Good idea. Also: For any empty non-conversion cargo type: How close is the next "harvest"? (i.e. how long until that next mail will appear?) Granted, the time can change with the next economic shift, but it would still be useful much of the time.

Another nice-to-have (maybe you know already how to do this by changing data tables): make mail more valuable, and longer lasting.

That's a matter of play balance. Mail is what mail is. It's our job to deal with it (or find other business opportunities).

From what I read, government mail contracts were really important to railroads, even before adding the express delivery - parcels to a Brit like me - that RRT mail cars must also represent. Small towns could be satisfied by a daily passenger-and-mail run (one train a year at RRT scale), so the expiry time should never be less than a year (plus some margin for error).

Mail normal is (I think) 300 days, which is about a year. A post office lengthens it (or decreases time penalties on payout). You could put events into a scenario to elaborate on gov't contracts.

BTW, In my game mod, the large hotel does the time-thing for pax (in addition to boosting revenue).

[RSimpkinuk57]

Jeffry,

About mail:

1. I am quite convinced that "300 days to deliver" means only 200 days to put it aboard a train before it vanishes.

2. I am not convinced that having a post office makes any difference in that regard (whatever it may do to protect revenue from what mail IS collected).

3. I would like it to be 400 days to collect.

4. If one has a choice between leaving some mail behind or leaving some passengers behind, then as things are now it nearly always pays far better to leave the mail. I would like the mail to be worth somewhat more than the passengers (until about the 1960s). That needn't mean higher rates for mail than for passengers; make demand recovery as fast for mail as for passengers and the lower production rate will keep stations' mail Demand# at a higher level.

On the more general point: my train arrives at a station and unloads. I select it, see that it is scheduled to take 3 carloads of passengers (for example) but there are 4 waiting, so order a fourth car added. In the time it takes to load the train, one carload has vanished. That is tantamount to the game saying, "Ha ha, I lied". Not acceptable (in the ideal version we are dreaming up). When the load is so close to vanishing that it cannot be picked up, it shouldn't be shown.

On with the wish list: smaller ports (so as to fit more places on maps). Not 4x4 cells of ocean plus one of beach where the jetty comes ashore, just 2x2 (the platform with crane) with at least one corner on beach, at least one over ocean, and none on anything else.

[jeffryfisher]

I would like the mail to be worth somewhat more than the passengers (until about the 1960s)...

If you play my US History scenario, you discover that the US Post Office switched from trains to planes in 1966. Up until then, mail was all that kept "express service" (light, fast trains) profitable under the weight of union payrolls, generous pensions, and mind boggling regulation. In my scenario, mail production simply halts after that event.

For the game as a whole, I wonder if mail revenue should be boosted. I seem to recall that it used to earn much more than it does in the current version of the game. I'm not sure what changed. Maybe the hotels + Mr Pullman etc make passengers equally profitable in the games that I play.

Even so, mail is profitable right up until the 1966 cut-off, so tweaks to its parameters will require thought.

[GuineaPig]

Game weakness: AI will never build to a city that has had a station placed there. So not only will they not compete for big hubs or replace destroyed stations/tracks, but they also can allow human players to "cheat" by placing small stations and then deleting them.

Nice-to-have: some way of in-game altering the terrain other than by tedious track construction.

Dream: being able to do grade separations.

[Gwizz]

I was sorting through some old CDs and found reference to a RT2 wish list file.

I didn't look at the file. But if any one is interested in seeing the list let me know, I will open, look and try to post it.

[jeffryfisher]

Hey, let's see it (or at least a pointer to the old thread, if it still exists somewhere on this forum.

I wonder if it is a file of my own, which I might even have somewhere (if it wasn't lost when my old PC died).

[Gwizz]

Whoops, Now I can't find that CD. Give me a few days and I'll find and post it.

I think it is from the old PopTop forum.

I need to clean out my CD storage anyway and do some painting.

[douglascaixeta]

How nice to see this forum up and alive!

My wish list contains New features:

+ New types of industries

+ More complex production chains. There is a mod for Locomotion that adds cars to it and it is complex as this:

- Iron + Coal = Steel

- Steel in factory = Autoparts

- Rubber + Steel = Tires

- Tires + Autoparts = Cars

- The car factory produce left overs

- Left overs go to recycle factory

- Recycle factory gives you steel that can go back into the chain.

There is also a remake of the Automod, that will involve 16 industries and 14 cargos in the automobile industry. I like the complex chains.

[jeffryfisher]

My wish list contains New features:

+ New types of industries

+ More complex production chains.

My mod adds a few wrinkles like making rubber from oil after the invention of synthetic rubber, and using rubber (plastic) to make goods. However, I don't dare to add whole new cargoes. Bad things can happen when one changes the length of an EXE file in a hex editor.