US History

[GuineaPig]

One thing that's actually been a lot better this go-round was the AI competition. Partly because of my lack of ruthlessness, but also because of some surprisingly sensible track alignments, there were two other major competitors in 1910 (where I am now). One started off between Winston-Salem and Roanoke, and then moved south, taking much of the East Coast, Florida, and the cities along the Gulf of Mexico. They also branched out west, making it as far as Phoenix, by which time I had decided to merge with them (for $110 million, in a recession!) because they had crossed my main transcontinental line and were stopping up traffic. My next hour will probably be spent bringing that RR into line with mine.

The other one, New York & Philadelphia, has expanded west to Denver, has $150 mil in cash, and makes yearly profits nearly as much as mine. I've built into its main cities (one thing I like to do when there's AI opponents; building uncontested right of ways is no fun) and it still hasn't done them much damage. Don't know how long they'll be around.

[jeffryfisher]

One thing that's actually been a lot better this go-round was the AI competition... I've built into its main cities

Do you use transfer stations and dedicated "waiting trains" to soak up every possible passenger and sack of mail?

One thing that hoses AI companies on my map is caving in to every union ultimatum. Their only protection is to go into the red.

[GuineaPig]

Do you use transfer stations and dedicated "waiting trains" to soak up every possible passenger and sack of mail?

One thing that hoses AI companies on my map is caving in to every union ultimatum. Their only protection is to go into the red.

No, I didn't. As mentioned, I wasn't playing as ruthless as normal. More of a laid-back approach to it.

Even more incredibly, the company that sprung up out of the ashes of the one I merged with laid a track west through the Rockies to Boise - with only one track segment above a 3.5 grade (it was a 4.5).

[jeffryfisher]

the company that sprung up out of the ashes of the one I merged with laid a track west through the Rockies to Boise - with only one track segment above a 3.5 grade (it was a 4.5).

That's an amazingly sane gradient for the AI. BTW, did you kill or merge another company between 1880 and 1910? I ask because the first computer company to start in 1880 or later is supposed to become Mexican. Is there a late-comer company with only Mexican territory access?

[jeffryfisher]

I've turned up a stinky little bug in my last map (late May). If you play as Canada, don't buy into the Northern states until after the Great RR Strike. The movement freeze doesn't reset properly, so the territory stays as track-only until you reject your first union ultimatum about 20 years later :(

US and Mexican players aren't be affected.

The bug will have a work-around in my next upload.

[jeffryfisher]

I've replaced the map file in the OP with my latest. The known bugs should have been fixed (but I am only up to about 1924 in my current test, so there could be end-game bugs I haven't reached yet). Please give it a try.

I'll upload another rev after reaching Y2k in my current test game.

[jeffryfisher]

Wow, has it been a month+ already since that promise? I guess travel, cons and other distractions will do that.

Well, I've finally found time to slog through the many-trains years and am reaching the last "sandbox" (future) events in my scenario. There hasn't been much to change. That means that there haven't been any serious bugs, only a few cosmetic/word-choice fixes, and that's good news. I'll be updating the map file in the OP soon.

My next task will be to further mod the EXE. I want to go beyond mere "fun" and "bug-fix" mods to fix a few historical problems with locomotives that some players may not want fixed. For that reason, I'll be uploading the next modded EXE as an addition rather than as a replacement for my earlier mod.

Go to Modding RT2 to offer suggestions, discuss, and eventually find the mod.

[Gwizz]

With the Sun moving further South and days getting shorter, people will start moving inside and the game should gain some new life.

My game computer acquired the lazies and I was just too busy to fix it. Window loads and then the computer keyboard and mouse fail to load.

Raining again tomorrow. It might be the day I need to operate on it.

[jeffryfisher]

I've just uploaded what I hope is a release-worthy version of US History (see the OP).

It is best played with my modded v1.56, which I am going to work on next. Since I am planning to "fix" some historically inaccurate locomotives, I will add a new mod rather than just replacing the one that works. Discussion at "Modding RT2"

[Gwizz]

Bumped

[jeffryfisher]

I found a minor bug yesterday. If there are two or more RR companies based in the Southern US, then the earliest one will convert to standard gauge in 1881 (gain access to the whole US), and the others will be left behind. Normally this means that the human player converts while any southern computer players languish, but it could still cause somebody a problem.

If you're not playing as South (and enjoying the pointy end of the Civil War), then the bug doesn't matter. If you are playing as South, then be sure to found your company before anyone else goes South.

The fix will be in my next upload.

[Drewski]

Superb Effort Mr Fisher !

Been playing it right from the earliest possible (1823) - Those Trevithicks are like molasses running through crude oil. Connected up Boston/NY/Philly/Balt/DC at the start (to keep the ai out of those cities), and nearly went broke personally and companywise for a while.Three one track wooden bridges for 17 yrs is quite frustrating to say the least.

In the meantime, the Clevland-Columbus line went crazy and expanded all through the midwest...but I was happy eating away at their stock and merged the company with mine in around 1855 (took out 8m in bonds to do so, then of course had to destroy a lot of their useless track- But actually kept most of the Cleveland/Detroit/Chi Line intact). Made silver when the first Boston to San Fran passengers arrived in 1870. Left it there for now.

Love the history lessons and events. I'm playing a house rule of no-unconnected track (except for cleaving mountain passes- The Donner pass is now more like the Donner Valley ;))

I wondered why you decided to make Industry non-purchasable, as it's the only real guaranteed way of stopping industries from disappearing. ? (e.g. I was sending Produce from Philly to Syracuse for a long time, and then suddenly it disappeared, of course you're not warned this is happened, so while I was busy with the tricky western route, I probably had a train waiting for something that would never arrive...)

I know it's very easy to change myself, I just wondered why you chose that option?

Thanks again for all the effort.

[jeffryfisher]

Superb Effort Mr Fisher !

I wondered why you decided to make Industry non-purchasable...

Thank you for the praise :D

My thinking on industries is that I want deliveries rewarded only by loads' demands, not industries gushing cash. My own tendency, if/when I turn to industry, is to wire-up exactly one steel mill, one cannery etc and then flood it, taking my profits from the industry after demand flatlines. I wanted my "history students" to spread their deliveries more realistically, so I removed the consolation prize for being unrealistically concentrated.

[Drewski]

Thank you for the praise :D

My thinking on industries is that I want deliveries rewarded only by loads' demands, not industries gushing cash. My own tendency, if/when I turn to industry, is to wire-up exactly one steel mill, one cannery etc and then flood it, taking my profits from the industry after demand flatlines. I wanted my "history students" to spread their deliveries more realistically, so I removed the consolation prize for being unrealistically concentrated.

I tend to do that too. On the East USA map, I love to supply the whole map with steel from just Pittsburgh, partly for the routing and track creation challenge, partly because hey, it's Pittsburgh, and partly because it makes me feel like an old time Steel Magnet :D

I see why you restricted it for your map, makes sense in what you are trying to accomplish.

[jeffryfisher]

BTW, did you figure out the logs and iron surpluses to reduce your track costs?

Let me know about any event bugs you may encounter. I am already working on fixing events that do not (but should) affect sub-territories.

Example: The dust-bowl events reduce grain production in Kansas-Nebraska, but not in the thin strips of "Kansas Raid" used in the Bleeding Kansas and CivWar Raid events. You wouldn't believe what an upheaval this "undocumented feature" (subterritories not affected with parent territories) has caused for my scenario programming... Then again, if you have programming experience, then maybe you can.

[Drewski]

Yeah, the lumber was fine, except even when I'd delivered an adequate cargo requirement for "the next 3 yrs" the next yr, I'd often be told I hadn't met the quota..hence a penalty again. (surely not intended?) As for Steel, if I can't own the mill, I sulk and it can become stainful and rot ;)

Re the Kansas events, it's an old game; I don't think they ever envisioned it being taken to your history lesson...still it's weak original design/code, I agree.

[jeffryfisher]

Yeah, the lumber was fine, except even when I'd delivered an adequate cargo requirement for "the next 3 yrs" the next yr, I'd often be told I hadn't met the quota..hence a penalty again.

It's an annual event that has a 3-year effect, so you can have both pluses and minuses overlapping. If your deliveries are consistent, then you can rack up three bonuses (30% discount). Do the same for steel and get another 30%.

BTW, Have you survived the coal and Pullman strikes yet? I just went through it in my current "test" game and realized that an end-of-strike newspaper is really necessary (they currently end silently).

[Drewski]

It's an annual event that has a 3-year effect, so you can have both pluses and minuses overlapping. If your deliveries are consistent, then you can rack up three bonuses (30% discount). Do the same for steel and get another 30%.

BTW, Have you survived the coal and Pullman strikes yet? I just went through it in my current "test" game and realized that an end-of-strike newspaper is really necessary (they currently end silently).

I haven't got that far yet, I'll look out for them and let you know.

[jeffryfisher]

Hint: When you hit the year of the coal and Pullman strikes, make sure that your company has the most track of any company in the game at the end of the year. 8)

[jeffryfisher]

I've uploaded a revised map in the OP of this thread. It now plays an arms race during the Civil War (if you have the military buildings and loads modded to appear that early). I also cleaned up some text and fixed a subtle bug where some small sub-territories were not being affected by events in their parent territories.

[jeffryfisher]

Since I reworked the TGVs in my game mod (putting them back close to the original game), I fixed the events that activate them in this scenario. A minor revision has been uploaded to the OP.

[jeffryfisher]

I have fixed some events to avoid a revenue "bug" in the game: If your company builds an enormous pile of cash, then interest earnings will swamp operating revenue. Because the game doesn't include interest in revenue, and because my scenario's "tax" bites show up as negative revenue, the revenue function in triggers returns negative numbers year after year. This made revenue triggers unreliable, so I had to replace them with netIncome triggers.

It was also possible to max out the $121M / yr that my tax collection events were set to take from your company treasury. My company accumulated almost a $billion in uncollected taxes before the sandbox events in the end-game reduced taxes to 6% and brought on nearly uninterupted boom times that minimized interest income. I have increased the big-bite to the maximum allowed by the slider ($28M/month), which might keep up with the tax liability of even the most profitable RR.

I uploaded a new version of the US History map to replace the prior one in the OP of this thread. Please try it and let me know if you find any remaining bugs.

[akuenzi]

Jeff,

Your comments on collecting taxes caught my eye. Since this thread is about the US History map, I'll add a post to the main discussion board on it.

[envelope]

I have barely gotten my foot in the door of this web site, and seeing that I was not able to find an "Archive", I did read most of the threads within this 'discussion' grouping. One of which was pertaining to the US History scenario/map, which I downloaded.

We old cougers don't have to be from the "show me" state of Missouri, but am having a problem, not only not finding an "archive", but the "my profile" has only given me an entry of "what are you looking for? or something to that respect.

Seeing that there are still members who have an interest with the RT2 Editions, I am looking forward to some of the creations. some diversion from the RT3 Edition. :)

[jeffryfisher]

If "My Profile" ain't working, then you may not have enough Javascript enabled.

Site issues should be posted to (maybe) general discussion or by PM to a moderator.