new map coming

[Gwizz]

I have been testing my new map. ( Mr.Hill's Railroad )  I added a new RR partner  ( Mr. Tesler ) He is a major supplier of AC electricity  for the RR.  

This map will be a mega dollar map with 10 AI RRs you will be required to merge to reach a gold win.  They are also required to deliver  cargo to mr Hill's Railroad drop stations.  For those who like building a rail system and running trains.   It is also "NOT" a quick win map.   But then I have had players in the past, eat my maps for lunch.  

          Because of this I'm working on special triggers and having a problem with the triggers;  But, each trigger will be solved one by one.

 

Had an interesting happen-stance that has never happened to me  before.   I was able to  serve 8 cattle companies with one large station.  This required double track and 3 locomotives to keep the cattle from knocking down their fences.  I had no other Cargos at this station.   

Has anyone had this happen to you.

    

 

[jeffryfisher]

If you want help with your triggers (and their effects), you may post a copy of your map and ask me to comment on its coding. If you don't mind having someone mess with your baby, I could even spend a day or two cleaning it up before handing back a revised version.

It's too bad that the events editor does not support select-copy-paste operations (for a lot of reasons) or else you'd be able to tell us your headaches and show us the "source code" here to get our help with it.

I'd like to get a cattle station like yours, but I don't think I've ever had more than four. I bet you could fill more trains if you ran'em for distance. 8 cattle yards should also suck down a huge amount of grain (and then produce even more cattle!).

[Gwizz]

Thanks Jeffry. My big problem now is waiting for new glasses.  I can't see worth a darn.  They should be here tomorrow.

I'm play testing the map now at 14 points and bold type.   I enjoy play testing.  I now have a list of what to add and what to take away from the map.

Steve Largent told me a long time ago to put the triggers on paper before adding them to  the game.

I have yet to do this.  I'm just hard headed I guess.   Changes today will be how to offer one of the two possible railroad jobs.

One is heavy in stocks and cash.  The other is progressive and will be able to generate cash over time.      Locomotive use will be controlled. 

Mr. Tesler is a partner of the rich leader and has donated for testing 20 GG1s.  The other job not chosen will becomes an AI job.  

To top these two jobs will be more then 10 startup railroads that will depend upon which of the first two job is chosen. 

And so on.
 

With

 

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[Gwizz]

Not sure why my third post stayed hidden.  It seems visible now

Anyway this is my fourth post on my Hill's Railroad.

 

Jeffery:  I looked for the 8 cattle ranches at one station.  Its' no  longer in this game. 

I'll look in the waste basket.  I normal save 3 to 5 times on top of other saved games

I've restarted the main map about 5 times So the game should be one of about 5 maps deleted on a restart.

  

I did find two stations close to each other.  Each had 4 cattle ranches and 3 milk plants. Almost as good.

 

Well my glasses came and I don't think I can now see better.   they said give them time that my eyes have to adjust.  

 

Iv'e got a lot to do this wekend.  But I will send you a beta map as soon as I have a good one.

 

[jeffryfisher]

15 hours ago, Gwizz said:

I now have a list of what to add and what to take away from the map.

Steve Largent told me a long time ago to put the triggers on paper before adding them to  the game.

Changes today will be how to offer one of the two possible railroad jobs.

One is heavy in stocks and cash.  The other is progressive and will be able to generate cash over time.

When planning a scenario, I build a spreadsheet of events. The spreadsheet has columns for trigger formula, effects, per-player etc checkmarks, date, frequency, a list of variables used/set, design comments and more. Then I can sort the events before coding so that cascades (one event setting a var to trigger another) execute in order. When I finally get into the editor to code them, I leave lots of placeholders so I can insert more events later. I had nearly 400 lines in my US History spreadsheet before I started editing. There are about 450 now.

Speaking of comments: It can be very useful to add comments in the editor. When the editor lists events, it will display only the top 2 lines of the comment. However, when you edit an event comment, you can type quite a few lines explaining the formula (if it's complex), interactions with other events, the meanings of variables used, the reason why you choose one frequency over another (for instance, there are subtle differences between year-end and year-start, especially when events can trigger each other).

If you insert a blank line between the comment top and any further explanation, you can hide the explanation from casual readers. The only clue they'll see is that the top-line of the coment is pushed up subtly from its usual centered position in the 2-line display. Those who have my US History map can see what I mean by opening it in the editor and going to the events dialog and then opening some of the comments. There's probably a 50-page book of map-design notes, hints, tricks and warnings hiding in there.

BTW, In case you haven't seen my warnings elsewhere: Never EVER delete an event. If you make a boo-boo, just empty it out (set the trigger to false, remove all effects etc). There's a bug in the editor that can irreparably mangle (crosslink) events before and after any event that you delete, so don't do it.

On RR jobs: One is progressive? That doesn't sound like you Gwizz. Are you developing a bleeding heart in your old age?

[Gwizz]

I  found Hill's Map.  Now, since I have not used the new board, I'll see if I can still send a map.

This  is ( NOT ) a finished map.      I had stripped many of the triggers and Changed other things. 

If you play the map, remember  there are no win triggers.   You do have a lot of dollars to play with for a short while.

Play will be for you to buy up all stock away from the IA railroads as they start up.  So you can used the AI RR's to feed you RR.

You will drop deliver cargo to the ends of your big RR for the GG1's to pick up.  Choose your other cargo with care.

You have 16 GGI's  Your prebuilt railroad is mostly for passenger and mail transport.  

As the game progresses the use of the ability to build electric powered track will stop.

Other events are planed but are not yet part of the game. 

 

Hill's RR a station & 8 cattle.GM2

[jeffryfisher]

You've posted what looks like a game in progress (GM2). I thought you were looking for help developing events in a map-scenario, which would be a MP2 file.

[Gwizz]

That is correct.  I took a game,  stripped it and I'm using what is left to make a new map.   I've done this many times to save time.  

Did you find the 8 cattle yards? You'll have to place a large station to connect all cattle yards under the one station territory.

 

Sorry you didn't understand.   I was testing how I was going to track the dollars on the remake I sent to you.      

The remake map I'm working on now is a different remake from the one I posted.  I did program the possibility of having another 8 cattle yard station.  

 

 

[jeffryfisher]

I'm offering to use the editor to review your triggers. I don't know how to open a saved game in the editor, so I'll wait for a map (MP2 file).

PS: I'll be out of town (mostly offline) June 24 - July 4.

[Gwizz]

 

My Mr. Hill's RR map starts as a game played from the past into the present;  Not as a new Map made from scratch.    

Just change the extension from a game extension to a map extension.  Then rename and put the maps in the correct folders. 

On the 8 Cattle Yards, I only missed getting 9 Cattle Yards by one square. 

It looks like getting a large supply of a cargo at one station is easy to do.  

I just never tried before.  For the map I posted,  I only changed the map's title to a game title.

 

Have a pleasent vacation.  

PS.   My AI Railroad leadership people are progressive not me. 

 

[jeffryfisher]

Cool, I didn't realize that the two file types were actually the same.

Your map has only one event, so there's not much to analyze. Since it is a news event, you should probably uncheck the "check computer companies" box (as if a computer company could ever hit that target before a human player anyway).

You might want to review the engines allowed in the game. You can disable a few old steamers that will be obsolete before the earliest start date. You probably want to allow another electric or two (especially the Amtrak E60CP).

Likewise industries... I noticed that there's no produce or aluminum plants allowed. You might want to set up a canning supply chain with produce, bauxite, aluminum plants and canneries.

Finally, I see the names "Telsa" and "Tesler". Was somebody trying to say "Tesla" (as in Nicola Tesla, the electronics genius)?

[Gwizz]

OK,  I think I've picked my map.  I'm going to keep most industry chains, produce and like industries from the 1930-50s.   I've changed locos used.  

I've Changed dollar amounts.  they still may need adjustments.  I've removed some of Mr. Hills trackage. 

I hand picked who I believe are the best managers and Chairmen for this map.

Winning Gold may be hard to achieve, But, not for the players or chairmen, who I believe can win the gold;  But because I can't figure out how to script the gold event.

The Gold win event is to own all trackage on the map in 20 years. 

Jeffry,  How would you build and script this gold win event.  

There are 10 AIs that can start up and when you merge one, he can often build another railroad owning a majority of his own stock.

[jeffryfisher]

Compare GameTrackCells to CompanyTrackCells per company for human-owned companies. Beware of initial conditions. You don't want your player winning as the game starts!

[Gwizz]

That trigger will work. 

I'm planning to reduce new track cells on Mr. Hill,s RR each year until a planned limit is reached. 

Since the number of track cells would also increase with the start of each New AI RR, I'll put in some safety percentage limits as well on the AIs track.

I have long wondered how I could sell used rail for a percentage of the full price for the track cells I bulldoze. 

[RobS]

On the North America map, the town of North Platte (between Omaha and Denver) frequently produces a large number of cattle yards, upward of a half-dozen and I've seen as many as nine or 10. With that much cattle, the issue becomes where to find suitable meat packing plants to send them to.

[jeffryfisher]

Cattle are reasonably "fast" and "long distance" cargo, so I don't mind treating them like passengers.

Or maybe all this time I've been treating my passengers like cattle!

[Gwizz]

Mad Short line RR players got even with Mr Hall.  Hall gained a controlling interest in stocks for over 30 million (or was that 30 Billion) worth of track and equipment plus about 50 locomotives from the short lines.  

I took the map back in time about 4 or 5 times adding or changing something.  ( I went back in time again, I found Short line Railroaders hadn't paid the cost of their Railroads.   The railroader's IOUs were traded by the judge for Hall's  stock.)  

In game time I went back about 3 years and found I no longer owned my own track and stations.  No one did.  First time I lost control of my time machine map method.   I think I saved over the top of another map and something didn't fit.   O'well there was a few more things I wanted to change anyway.

..

[MaglevForever]

On 05/07/2016 at 2:19 PM, jeffryfisher said:

Cattle are reasonably "fast" and "long distance" cargo. . . .

 

Agree with this. I never looked into the "hidden" stuff like the reward for distance hauled, but from experience and the info available in-game this is probably the best raw resource for profit. Easy to see a good weight/base price ratio. Two cattle yards makes a good supply, especially if you deliver grain (9 Cattle per year). The Meat Packing Plant is a good demand, and if you can get two "within" one station's capture area you will have one of the best freight demands available, my guess is that this could be compared to the demand of a city with 14 houses.

 

Gwizz, how do you "time travel" in the game?

[Gwizz]

When I start a game I save it with a base title such as: Hall's RR 001  After say 4 months I save again: Hall's RR 004.   The 4 means the game time is 4 months old.  I can go back in time 4 months to the first save. 

If I have a major traffic jam, I can go back to my last saved game and un-jam the trains.  I then play on,  remembering the time of the last save so I can  watch to see if my fix worked.

The problem I posted happens when I move something that later doesn't fit the spot.   Example:  I planted a produce farm; then covered most of it with a lake.  Only the produce building showed.   I then posted a No Trespassing sign.     If anyone tried  to build on the submerged land the computer went blank and stopped working.  Major trap.   At that early time the game didn't flood.  Now it can.

On the Hall's map, I don't know what I did to cause me to lose all of my game wealth during a game save.  I was working with large numbers.    Early on in poptop's  life,  I locked up a game when I hit a billion dollar mark.  The game lock up so tight I sent it to poptop .   I was told I went out of range.  They said they never expected anyone to achieve such a big number.  They fixed the problem and my map.

 

[jeffryfisher]

Not only does cattle pay okay, but it produces food which also pays okay for time and distance. Autos pay better, but they're difficult to make and requires slow freights that aren't profitable except for short hauls (and what are the odds that you can get rubber to tires, coal + iron to steel, and tires + steel to an auto factory using only short hauls?

Cattle to food and food to city, both long and fast, are easy money.

[Gwizz]

I've been re-balancing Hill's railroad Map.   It is better now, but still needs more fine tuning.  I've lost on the map for 3 plays now.  The AI stocks and bonds get out of control and hard to fix when the AIs go against me.  So I used the " Slush fund " To keep a positive balance sheet when I'm lossing to keep my testing alive and tried a couple of different play styles.  They didn't work very well.   On my next play I will only use one cargo per train unless they are needed, such as iron and coal are needed together to make steel,  could be hauled together on one train. 

Now how will I do this without causing the AIs to back haul.  I also have too many big cities and industries along the edges of the map .  My hub cities need some fine tweeking as well.   And of course the triggers are still waiting on me to finish them.  I keep adding more events without triggers.

 

 

[Gwizz]

I can't seem to get much past year one.  This time in Dec. Year one, I numbered the nine AI railroads numbering each down from #1 to #9 from the strongest to the weakest. This allowed me to see how each RR performed over time.  I had programed all AIs to be less productive adding only a few extra Locos.   

I started the map forgetting to return my control to Hill's RR.  Hill had about 25 locos. Now at the start of year two Hill's RR added about 90 more locos.  An odd thing happed.

Starting year 2 the game also started 8 more AI RR companies.   All together there was now 18 RR companies in the game.  I'm tryings to make the map easyer.  Boo Hoo.

[Ray of Sunshine]

As you can see, it has been a time since my last post.  Had some bad medical problems, so didn't do much with other than play my standard RT3 maps.   But finally believed that I should catch up with "stuff" in the Terminal.   So, I have downloaded the "Hill's" scenario to see if I remember how the system works, as well as get acquainted with the RT2 scenarios.   I didn't check all the posts at this time, so with the "Hill's" being posted, I didn't check to see if there were any other "newly created" scenarios.  Don't want to get too many projects going at one time.   LOL

Nice to be back with the "gang".

[jeffryfisher]

4 hours ago, Ray of Sunshine said:

As you can see, it has been a time since my last post.

Just over 8 years, but who's counting? This forum has been so quiet lately that any and all activity is welcome.

4 hours ago, Ray of Sunshine said:

I didn't check to see if there were any other "newly created" scenarios.

Compared to 2009, my US History map will be new for you. It has almost 500 events, so it's like a whole game on top of the game. I hope you have a chance to try it sometime (I spent 2010 and 2011 developing it, so I am pleased whenever somebody besides myself plays it).

[Ray of Sunshine]

Well Gwizz,

That 8 year gap surprised me, as I had posted a number of posts within 2 years.   However, maybe it is 8 years as Ray of Sunshine, but the posts were as "Envelope", which would probably make the difference in time.   And I have played your US History scenario a number of times.

I was also a bit surprised that the rar download of the Hill's scenario would not list in my menu.  But, it finally dawned on me, that it is a gm2 and has to be played in the RT2 system, and not the RT3, of which it was loaded.  Just been too long since I had played RT2, so it takes a little time to get "back in the grove".

And I see that there are some later "downloads" which I did download, so will be kept busy for a time.  Am looking forward to future updates and stuff, after I get to be able to "manuver" in this system website.