US History

[RRTFan]

Can this work with the Steam version and if so where do I put the files at?

[jeffryfisher]

When I went into the map file, I discovered that port action #1 had a demand recovery rate of 5.0. I copied that recovery rate into the 2nd and 4th actions, replacing their zeroes. The 3rd action is the annual coffee supply, so it doesn't get a demand recovery (unless I decide to create a booster for it, which would be a "beyond the editor" enhancement rather than the mere bug fix I've attempted for my first hack).

You're right about rubber having no use early, but (without further hacking) ports are set at the beginning of the game and never change. I wanted rubber in the 20th C to supply war needs and eventually act like plastic to make goods at Tool & Die. At this point you may notice that that gives the US map a post-WWII infinite loop: Turn goods into rubber at a port, and then turn rubber into goods at T&D.

My modded EXE also uses chem plants to convert crude oil into synthetic rubber beginning in 1940, making chem plants more than mere sources of mostly useless chemicals. From 1940 onward, they become a link in one supply chain to produce goods, which are a profitable fast freight in an era of dwindling passenger/mail revenue.

[MaglevForever]

When I went into the map file, I discovered that port action #1 had a demand recovery rate of 5.0.

 

I was trying to say that the demand seemed a bit too high, from the little I tested. After looking in the spreadsheet you made, I found that the Bakery only has a grain demand of 2.0 while the Textile Mill has a demand for Cotton/Wool of 3.0. That's if I am reading it correctly. Compared to these normal uses for those things, 5.0 seems a bit high. It may make more sense to have a demand this high for something such as Goods in the later time period conversion. The main thing is that the ports work properly!  :D  I am happy for that however you decide to adjust the demands.

 

I didn't mean to diss the conversions you chose for the ports and can see that they make lots of sense for some of the time periods (Chemical supply to help the South in the Civil War, Rubber supply for Autos/to represent Plastic in the nineteen hundreds.) I guess what I was hinting at is that it would be exciting with more conversions that change with the times. And no, I didn't think about the Rubber -> Goods loop while playing. I am planning to play this again all the way, but will probably be a lot less focused this time. I am thinking to try to get my focus right and run at normal speed without setting the game on pause. This should stop me doing crazy stuff like dozing entire mountains and buying 1200 trains which distract me from finishing as I get deeper and deeper into it. That's fun, but when I have to leave it I have trouble picking it up cleanly.

 

PS. A little off topic, Is there a list of what number in the conversions tab of the spreadsheet corresponds to what cargo, for quick reference? Maybe I missed it there somewhere?

[jeffryfisher]

The cargo IDs are in the cargo sheet.

[letsdance]

i've always been tempted to try your map, but what still keeps me from doing is, that you somewhere posted about unexpected events that can kill or seriously damage a company. that's not really the kind of fun i'm looking for. i'm also not motivated to look through 400 events or play "test games" to find such potential gamekillers. is there any way around that?

[jeffryfisher]

First: There's Sherman's "March to the Sea" (and on into the Carolinas). Before 1864, don't commit heavily to the path that he's going to take.

There's other damage in the Civil War (raids north & south, the Union cutting all bridges on the Mississippi etc), but a human player can repair and survive. A computer player will never replace lost track, so his company might be toast. The AI's failure becomes a human's opportunity. You can "patch" a computer RR's track, inducing his trains to pay to traverse your patch... maybe a very *long* patch.

If you don't want any part of Civil War damage, then play as Canada. Snow will occasionally slow your trains, but there are no track-destroyed events.

Second: There are historical stock market crash events that can ruin a player who is personally over-extended on margin in the stock market. If you avoid being fully margined on the eve of a scripted stock market crash, then you should be okay. The computer players may not be so fortunate...

BTW, You should look up those crash dates (IIRC, one follows the Northern Pacific bankruptcy, one follows the Franco-Prussian War, and another is 1929. There might be another right about the time van Buren becomes president).

Aside from that, save often so you can back up and resume with prescient historical knowledge.

PS: The game throws in its own economic swings, so you always need to be on your toes anyway :O

[jeffryfisher]

I've modded the ports in the US History map and am testing them now. Demand is recovering nicely. I am waiting for more industries to appear so I can test the "booster" good (weapons) that I created for my port's one annual supply product (coffee). My theory is that supplying guns overseas (or to the ports themselves) facilitates this import. It will be fun to see suthuners moving guns to their ports during the War Between the States in order to acquire coffee through the Union blockade.

 

After testing, I'll upload the revised map/zip and announce it here.

[anthracite]

I am one of the not quite extinct rr2 diehards as well.   I have played almost all the maps available here. Is it possible for me to try your American history map?

[jeffryfisher]

The OP is where I put (and update) the zip file. Note that the patched game EXE works with the platinum CD version of the game and not Steam. You do not need my game patch to play the map, but it makes some events more meaningful (e.g. military loads become available in time for the Civil War).

 

Give it a go, and watch here for when I make the next minor upgrade (ports I mentioned above, still in testing).

 

US History has replay value (even moreso than RRT2 in general) because there are 4 choices of starting "country" (Canada, Mexico, North US or South US). Each plays very differently. By the time you've run out 200 years playing one, I should have finished testing my latest revision. You should be able to download it to try another angle.

 

However, I need to finish my year-end data entry before I can play RRT2 again  :(

[anthracite]

So what is the OP?

I do have the platinum disk and do not play through steam.

 

Never mind, original post. I found it. I will let you know how it works. thanks

[jeffryfisher]

I have finished testing my patched ports. Demand recovers for various exports, including the weapons I added as a booster for coffee imports (take that, you banana republics!). The weapon booster has implications for the Civil War: Now a Southern RR is motivated to send weapons to its ports, especially those that haven't been blockaded yet (ostensibly for "export", but it simulates the blockade battle somewhat).

 

Post #1 has been updated. The new zip file has the map, game patches for the CD version, and some spreadsheets for the patches.

 

Now how do I get my map added to the maps section of The Terminal (and elsewhere)?

[ConFuZed_tYcoon]

Sounds like a very fulfilling scenario. I am currently browsing around the Internet looking for a Platinum CD I can buy in good condition for a decent price, just to play your scenario! If Steam cuts out some of the events or anything at all for that matter, I don't want to even try it. As soon as I finish TSC campaign (currently holding Mother Russia up against German forces) I'm going to focus on the stand-alone scenarios (primarily yours Mr. Fisher).

[jeffryfisher]

Sounds like a very fulfilling scenario.

As I have mentioned elsewhere, it is an entire campaign in a single map.

 

I am currently browsing around the Internet looking for a Platinum CD I can buy in good condition for a decent price, just to play your scenario! If Steam cuts out some of the events or anything at all for that matter, I don't want to even try it. As soon as I finish TSC campaign (currently holding Mother Russia up against German forces) I'm going to focus on the stand-alone scenarios (primarily yours Mr. Fisher).

My game patch can't replace the Steam exe file. Besides minor fixes to things like industry, the patch brings military (loads, buildings, cars) into the game at an earlier date to support my Civil War contest. The map still plays well even if you don't have the patch.

As for finding a CD: In my opinion, if you paid Steam for the platinum version of the game, then you should have no moral qualms about burning a copy of the out-of-print platinum CD and playing a patched version of it (yes, the CD can be very simply disk-copied and installed; there's no protection on it).

[jeffryfisher]

US History

View File

---

Having almost 500 events (as many as all 50 PopTop maps combined!), this is the ultimate RT2 map! Over two years of FULL TIME work in the making, this is effectively a whole campaign in one map! US History pushes the map editor to the edge and beyond! (I tweaked the binary file to fix the bug where demand at ports failed to recover). For students of history (have any kids, grand-kids, nieces or nephews willing to play an "old" game if it counts as "study"?), you'll be rewarded for knowing what will happen when!

Features:

• Presidents from Monroe to Obama
• Territorial expansion from 1820 to the end of frontier
• Wars both Civil and World. 19th C panics and the Great Depression
• Progressive era regulations, property tax and income tax
• Tech advancement options and RR material supply opportunities making a game within a game
• There are even a couple dozen significant Canadian and Mexican events affecting their territories filling out the edges of the map
• Extreme replay value in choosing among four starting regions (Canada, North US, South US or Mexico)

US History plays best using my modded version of the last RT2 Platinum patch 1.56 (for CD only), included in the larger, possibly newer, zip file in this map's dedicated (and long-running) US History thread in the forums. However, it should still play well in any version of RT2 TSC. You'll miss out on the advanced military industries during the Civil War (I designed a North vs South RR race), but you can live with out them.

---

• Submitter
  jeffryfisher
• Submitted
  02/18/2016
• Category
  North America

Edited August 13, 2016 by jeffryfisher
Removed link to this thread

[MaglevForever]

Jeffry, I noticed that the link called "US History thread" in your above post doesn't work. Some type of "Not Found" error.

[Gwizz]

This post is talking to the past, Yea! about 5 year old posts from the past, when 3 identical posts came together then another 3 and so on, on an on.   

To answer one of the posts;  I'll give one possible answer and see how it goes.  

Dealing with a new problem, for me, of using parts of a number when most triggers only work with whole numbers;

Except when trundication is not so important,  and when whole numbers are more important.    

I think this will work.     (((gametrackcells) +100) - ((companytrackcells) + 100)) (- 100)    = + or - (companytrackcells)

The reason:  company is buying up all other game cells until all game cells are owned by the one company  and wins Gold.

Edited August 8, 2016 by Gwizz
edit typo

[jeffryfisher]

On 8/7/2016 at 6:38 AM, MaglevForever said:

Jeffry, I noticed that the link called "US History thread" in your above post doesn't work. Some type of "Not Found" error.

Strange... I wrote that stuff to upload a file elsewhere, and the link worked at that time. It got copied here, probably because I associated this thread to it. Here in this thread, the link is not needed (this IS the US History thread).

[MaglevForever]

10 hours ago, jeffryfisher said:

Strange... I wrote that stuff to upload a file elsewhere, and the link worked at that time. It got copied here, probably because I associated this thread to it. Here in this thread, the link is not needed (this IS the US History thread).

I noticed the bug on the map's page in the Downloads section: https://forum.dune2k.com/files/file/1515-us-history/ . I posted in this thread because I saw that the two were linked together. Who knows why it stopped working.

[Gwizz]

33 minutes ago, MaglevForever said:

I noticed the bug on the map's page in the Downloads section: https://forum.dune2k.com/files/file/1515-us-history/ . I posted in this thread because I saw that the two were linked together. Who knows why it stopped working.

 

[Batchman]

OK, so this can't be used with the Steam version ... but I think I know exactly where my platinum disc is, so I can just install that, as well, and have both steam and regular (modded for these updates) at the same time.

Now the question is ... what other updates should I track down to try and fit in at the same time? (Port fixes for all the campaign scenarios, other fixes for all the broken things in the campaigns, etc, do I need any patches (1.56 was it?) or are they built in to your exe?)

This stuff is fun, but also kind of complimacated.

I hope to get around to actually trying this map, sounds like a major labor of love!

[jeffryfisher]

17 hours ago, Batchman said:

OK, so this can't be used with the Steam version ... but I think I know exactly where my platinum disc is, so I can just install that, as well, and have both steam and regular (modded for these updates) at the same time.

Now the question is ... what other updates should I track down to try and fit in at the same time? (Port fixes for all the campaign scenarios, other fixes for all the broken things in the campaigns, etc, do I need any patches (1.56 was it?) or are they built in to your exe?)

This stuff is fun, but also kind of complimacated.

I hope to get around to actually trying this map, sounds like a major labor of love!

The map can be played with the Steam version, but some things won't happen. For instance, the Civil War contest to deliver military loads won't be very interesting without weapons and ammo, but there might be troops (can't recall if the original game provided troop cars for them though). I think there's still plenty there that works as intended.

I don't think you need any other fixes. After all, this map and its events stand on their own -- There are no other maps involved.

And yes, my modded exe is derived from the patched v1.56. You can just swap it (and the lang file) into place: Rename the originals, then copy in mine and rename them to what the originals had been. I recommend doing all that by adding or removing extra extensions to the file names.

 

[kamyFC]

Hi @jeffryfisher
   Thanks for the wonderful Map. I played from 1823 to 1860 and it felt epic! 
Learnt so much history, while playing i started reading about 'Trail of Tears', 'Mexican Cession', 'Gadsden Purchase' and so on.
This shows how educational your map is.  Hats off for the effort put into this. 
All schools should get kids to play this map and learn history! 

I had some questions, thought i will find out from you.

a) First question was about 'Property Tax' and 'Accumulated Corp Tax' = This keeps increasing as we expand!
    And every year, i get a warning that i have to pay that money - 'Watch the cash'!!!
   Now when do i have to pay these large sums of tax money? 

b) Second issue was about lack of availability of 'Troop' car, but then i realized soon that i did not use your patched EXE. My bad!

 

c) Third was that i lost my bridge and track in certain sections during the Civil War.  And it showed a message that -'I dont have access to Confedarate areas' or such.
   So i just have to wait it out, till the war gets over and incur losses right?  When i go to the territories, i see full rights in the south. Its sort of confusing. 
  Sorry to bug you on gameplay features of the map, but am just curious.  

c) 

d) Also why is log and lumber important. I get a message if i dont deliver logs!  Again just curious.

Thanks a lot and congratulations on making one of the best maps for RRT2!

Best

Edited May 1, 2020 by kamyFC

[jeffryfisher]

a) The tax will be sucked out of your account automatically, so keep an eye on your cash lest it go negative and charge big interest.

c) Yes: In the war, the Union cuts the entire Miss. River through the South. After the war, you should get your rights back.

Your starting position looks like South, but there's a sub-territory along the Miss River that you lose during the war. Blame the Union (A newspaper should have informed you).

Be thankful your RR didn't focus on the Atlanta - Savannah route! (Sherman's March).

d) For the rules about iron and lumber, dig up the map's briefing (under one of those side-menus). The idea is that if you develop the industry but create a surplus of the material, then your RR construction (steel and lumber) cost will be lower. If you're not delivering any logs at all, then your RR will pay extra (for imported RR ties).

[kamyFC]

11 hours ago, jeffryfisher said:

a) The tax will be sucked out of your account automatically, so keep an eye on your cash lest it go negative and charge big interest.

I see, when will it be sucked out of account?  One lumpsum payment sometime in the future?
It surely is not a monthly payment being made as i see the amount remaining same even if i don't expand for many years.
 

11 hours ago, jeffryfisher said:

Your starting position looks like South, but there's a sub-territory along the Miss River that you lose during the war. Blame the Union (A newspaper should have informed you).
Be thankful your RR didn't focus on the Atlanta - Savannah route! (Sherman's March).

I knew something bad will happen in the south east coast! 
So my line was hugging the border of Louisiana and Texas!
And when Texas opened up, it was easier and just very profitable!

Thanks for the replies. 

[jeffryfisher]

4 hours ago, kamyFC said:

I see, when will it be sucked out of account?  One lumpsum payment sometime in the future?
It surely is not a monthly payment being made as i see the amount remaining same even if i don't expand for many years.

IIRC, There are two sizes of monthly deductions,  but neither will trigger unless you owe at least the amount of the smaller one. Property taxes are low in the 1800s, and there is no income tax yet, so you're probably skating for free. Just you wait until the progressive era!