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CASCADIA - FROM DIFFICULT TO INSANE


loco_motive

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Cascadia was created by Nick Bennett back in the earlier days of RRT2 and I attach (in the 2nd post) what is probably the original zip file created on his own Apple computer of the day, to which I have enclosed 3 additional files of mine. That's me, SteveM, back then, my first ever online moniker.

 

Here is my original review of this scenario from April Fool's Day, 2001. The full thread is enclosed:

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Congratulations Nick Bennett on another excellent scenario!

 

There's lots of play time here: a fun very involved delivery schedule, a limited choice of engines with heavy "real time" R&D costs, development of industrial income for the MIC, loan rates starting at 18%, a cumulative earned track allowance, a reservoir that fills over a course of years after repairs are made (to be watched), the development of enough cash to electrify all your track, and a multitude of other objectives.

 

Wow! There's a delivery schedule to boggle the mind! Early on, I had only 1 coal mine in the hills south of Veneta (but 2 OK chemical plants in New Salem and Eugene), but decided to go with that even though I wasn't sure I would be able to develop enough steel. My only other reasonable coal was near the Oakridge weapons factory and it would be a long time before I would have track to there. Having oil refineries only in Roseberg and Bend was a little scary but that worked out fine too.

 

Some expensive R&D costs must be paid as the research team continually explores several engine choices, with the engines only becoming available after some time and company growth takes place. This time delay idea worked quite well.

 

Making money for the MIC was a bit scary as it started off pretty slowly. You can't ignore this by any means but must keep a reasonable balance with other objectives though.

 

Anyhow, it played out fine. Its definitely on my favorites list. The objectives seemed well balanced. I finished the military delivery schedule in the same year MIC Industry Income broke $15000M, and went gold the following year-end.

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PS: Here is my crash record (not as bad as I thought, now that I write it out):

Nov/10 #2 crashed, 11 years old, passengers and mail
Mar/21 #14 crashed, 5 years old, bare engine
Jan/27 #55 crashed, bauxite maiden run, 6 years old, must have been stuck in traffic.
Jun/28 #3 crashed, 2 yrs old, carrying 4 milk.
Jan/34 Another crash, weapons cargo lost. Hah! It matters not!
Never! A required delivery train. Because I ran spares of course. Hah again! 
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FROM DIFFICULT TO INSANE

 

Among other things, delivery schedules for Albany and Grant's Pass must be completed. It was Nick's original intention to include Warm Springs as a 3rd depot. But that would have made the scenario insanely difficult. Nevertheless, some months ago I attempted to do just that and have enclosed the resulting scenario in the attached zip file along with a short technical note. I never played very far into this one so it is not fully tested. As I recall it just seemed like such a daunting task at the time. Nevertheless, here it is.

 

Note that I never intended to distribute this so it may have some odd things in it, for example, 2 or 3 variables strung into the same variable in the status report either as xxx,yyy  xxy,yzz (can't get rid of the comma). 

 

I just looked and saw that I disabled gold so I may not have even expanded it to include the additional connection, so you'll have to keep track of your own results. The event will trigger a report but with no gold effect.

 

The gold effect in the gold trigger has been removed. It was quite likely just as it says in the dialogue, so you could continue playing. I have no reason to believe the trigger is incorrect, but however the silver, etc effects have not been altered so they might still trigger even for a gold win. A player may want add back the gold effect or remove the other medal events, but its not really necessary to do so [Ed.] 

 

Hoping this gives you a good challenge, outofmage & MaglevForever, and that you will report your views/results and upload your post-gold game if you get one. Note that I didn't state when I got gold in the above narrative, it seemed better not to at the time for various reasons. And I don't remember any more. I can tell you though, that it would have been a no-tricks honest play because I always disclose anything like that and anyhow wanted an honest play so I could write the review.

 

But then (lack of) trickery is oft in the eye of the beholder.

 

Good Railroading

Cascadia-NSB.zip

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Loco, thanks again for the updated map. I love it. It is my favorite map, not a massive sprawl but engaging throughout, from the start right up till the end. The events and industry chains top it off for me. It always annoys me that I can't manage to use many of the advanced industries on a standard map. Always some key inputs are missing or far-flung.

 

I should point out that I have played the easier version twice before, including re-loading saves on the second pass to find out all the different engine choices. On my first play I remember getting gold in the last year or two. As a result I have been able to optimize my routes a little more on this play.

 

I decided to see what I could do with the hard version. I managed to fulfill the gold conditions with 9 years to spare. I got a little scared when I realized that I didn't have any Cement Plants on the map. I decided to wait for one to appear, and had to wait until 2115 when one popped up in Bend. Then I was hauling all that heavy gravel up over the mountains. Industry profits were the last thing I needed to fulfill the gold conditions. The balancing act needed to run so many expensive steam freights with little passenger revenue to cover it is probably the most difficult challenge for me in this game. It is too easy to buy too many freights which will drag you down into a hole. (I was playing at -25% revenue).

 

I didn't bulldoze any track before electrifying except a little spur to a gravel pit near Hasley because the end was sticking in the river and I couldn't electrify it without building a bridge sticking into the gravel pit. I paid full price for the track and didn't use any cheats. 40 years is a longer time-frame for a map. I was really aiming to have this finished in 30, but went one year over. Maybe next time. Feel free to have a look at what I did.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cascadia Hard Done.zip

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