Epic History of Railroad in Utah (updated)

[K-class]

Hello universum yep you may be right

I suppose my point really is do we have to have so many scenarios and perhaps such a large map?

Would it not be possible to do a two parter or 3 parter like a mini series.

Complete map 1 then do map 2 and then finally map 3

Imagine what you could get working or add as features, (rockets - crusie ships)

This way you can really expand on things and I would thing that as you have map 1 done its just a matter of copying it with a different name etc.

What I also did on you map and I do to others is remove all the ship 100, 200 and 300 goods to towns and change these to more realistic sums like 10, 20 and 30 etc.

Ok back to me. But if I do a Ctrl Alt delete I still have heaps of memory left but the CPU is at 100%

The thing is I play these maps with the investor mod and have 100 million $$ etc to start with and diesel and double locos going everywhere.

Its a matter of turning off all the extra services and antivirus, firewalls etc and after about 2/3 rds of the way through things come to a crawl.

This is really poor coding of SMR that we notice on larger maps with lots of scenarios and having to run a lot of track especially double tracks.

I play half-life 2, Quake 4 etc and my PC does not miss a beat with all things turned on.

I am however going to get another Gig of memory this weekend.

You have built a great map and for me to complete I deleted the trains and track that where not needed.

Keep up the great map buiding.

[tomasvicente38]

The map is the best one than I have seen, is very original mainly as far as the news of the newspaper and the one of the copper mine. By the way, How you have inserted the photos of the newspaper in the news? Another thing, can be inserted photos in color in the news of the newspaper? I congratulate to you

[Dr Frag]

Phew, now that was a workout. Congratulations on a finely sculpted masterpiece. Lots of fun and frustration.

[Baldur]

Thanks to Universum for the challenge. Ran smoothly with Atani's first installer - no extra money on startup.
Starting location was Green River WY - succeeded to finish all the goals as a mogul. So Universum: With $900,000
in starting money I think it would be possible to succeed on Robber Baron, starting from other places than Logan and Ogden.

All in all a great scenario. Reminded me of the first year playing Sid's first RR masterpiece nearly 20 years ago.
Thanks Sid, lost a girlfriend there.

Only two CTD's - both while laying long tracks as new train popped up.

Thanks to all you folks contributing to this site - had to buy a new computer to be able to play Railroads. Your developement of the game makes it well spent money.

Regards from Norway - 70° north.

Baldur

[universum]

The map is the best one than I have seen, is very original mainly as far as the news of the newspaper and the one of the copper mine. By the way, How you have inserted the photos of the newspaper in the news? Another thing, can be inserted photos in color in the news of the newspaper? I congratulate to you

Hi Tomas,

thanks for nice words. I like your maps too, played all of them.

Finally someone commented on the custom newspaper pictures .

Newspaper images are easy to do. They are all the "event_???.dds" files. You need to have editor which can edit DDS files. I have used Paint.NET with DDS plugin. The images are in true color format so you can easily use colors for them. I have chosen to go with "sepia" effect to not diverge from what the game is using. But maybe I should have in some cases because the pictures of Utah scenery would look much better in color. Next time maybe.

All you need to do is to open any of the "event_???.dds", replace the image in it (the size is 742x300 pixels) and save it under name of your choice. Put the image somewhere in your scenario directory or subdirectory under it and reference it from your main scenario file using:

<szNewspaperBitmapSuccess>event_???.dds</szNewspaperBitmapSuccess>

Link to Paint.NET: http://www.getpaint.net/index2.html
DDS plug-in: http://paintdotnet.12.forumer.com/viewt ... sc&start=0

Looking forward to your maps with custom images! Maybe you will first to use colors.

Good luck!

[universum]

Thanks to Universum for the challenge. Ran smoothly with Atani's first installer - no extra money on startup.
Starting location was Green River WY - succeeded to finish all the goals as a mogul. So Universum: With $900,000
in starting money I think it would be possible to succeed on Robber Baron, starting from other places than Logan and Ogden.

Baldur

Hi Baldur,

glad you enjoyed the game .

Give it a try on Robber Baron, compared to Mogul, it is more difficult to make money at that difficulty (but all the sweater the success). You pay 1.4x more for everything and you only get 0.8x of the money for it, on Mogul, it is 1.2x and 1.0x. You could get lucky with patents I guess. Did you buy them?

I am surprised that you did not have much problems without more starting money. How did you make money at the beginning?

Post a saved game, I would love to see how you laid tracks. I would also like to see saved game from after completing the transcontinental railroad (first era).

Thanks

[universum]

Phew, now that was a workout. Congratulations on a finely sculpted masterpiece. Lots of fun and frustration.

Hi Dr. Frag,

thanks.

I hope I will be seeing your Australia scenario some day, Karsten should now really have time to work on goals for it as promissed when he is not wasting his time playing my scenario.

What frustrated you most? (Except for game freezing when laying tracks)

[universum]

Hello universum yep you may be right

I suppose my point really is do we have to have so many scenarios and perhaps such a large map?

Would it not be possible to do a two parter or 3 parter like a mini series.

Complete map 1 then do map 2 and then finally map 3

It is definitely possible but it would be better if game could handle big maps and a lot of trains better.

What I also did on you map and I do to others is remove all the ship 100, 200 and 300 goods to towns and change these to more realistic sums like 10, 20 and 30 etc.

You are cheating! I don't really blame you, I also use "god" mode if the map author went crazy with difficulty but it is more satisfying without it. Railroads! is different in that it is more of a puzzle than adrenaline rush action and you can slow down or even stop the game completely to lay tracks so I think it is not really needed.

You are missing half of the fun this way, I know it could be hard and frustrating and you will have to try multiple times but when you finally succeed, you will feel great satisfaction.

The thing is I play these maps with the investor mod and have 100 million $$ etc to start with and diesel and double locos going everywhere.

You can completely ignore the economy aspect of the game. For me, it is part of the fun too.

I am however going to get another Gig of memory this weekend.

Great, you won't regret it. I have turned off the swap file completely now when I have 3GB. It is much better when you run game and web browser at the same time for example, you can switch out of game to browser in no time which is really nice.

[Lowell]

:::snip:::

Imagine what you could get working or add as features, (rockets - crusie ships)

Gee thanks...That's what I am placing on my Florida map. I shouldn't have talked about what I was making before it was posted. Besides...there are no rockets in Utah.

Also...I placed the map and files in the game...your map won't show-up in the game. I did not run the batch file...I don't want any more global settings changed...that makes my maps I am working on crash. Adding industries, cars and trains won't cause a crash...but messing with the other stuff will.

[dwax]

Lowell said:

Code: Select all

Gee thanks...That's what I am placing on my Florida map. I shouldn't have talked about what I was making before it was posted. Besides...there are no rockets in Utah.

Yes there is. The make the solid rocket boosters for the shuttle in Utah. And there are several other manufactures that make rocket motors for the government.

[Baldur]

Sorry, the midnight sun is rising - see belove.

[universum]

Gee thanks...That's what I am placing on my Florida map. I shouldn't have talked about what I was making before it was posted. Besides...there are no rockets in Utah.

Actually they are building solid rocket boosters for Space Shuttle in Promontory, Utah. I was thinking about making it one of scenario goals but decided otherwise.

http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,12 ... 05,00.html
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0310/24srbtest/

[Baldur]

Universum wrote:

I am surprised that you did not have much problems without more starting money. How did you make money at the beginning?

Post a saved game, I would love to see how you laid tracks. I would also like to see saved game from after completing the transcontinental railroad (first era).

Okey, Universum. First step, don't care about bringing wood into Evanston. With 400,000 in starting money it's easy go connect the nearby "ruralities" to Green River. Because of the low production rate on industries, I did not care about track elevation when connecting to Evanston.

Finishing the first era was really not the main problem, the secong was the challenge. Within the last split secong I was able to deliver the last passenger. Overcoming the second era, the rest is easy. (No offence)

The key is growing Salt Lake City into a metropolis.. as you know. And early on buying industries if possible.

And yes, I was lucky cutting track laying 25% early on...

I'll try this one on Robber Baron level - the Basin crashed.

Thank you again for a challenging scenario - the longer the better. It's nice seeing those dual locomotives, but what the heck... I've not seen no such for years, anyway.

ps. no screenshots of some of your requests because I owerwrite any game I play.

Evald

[Dr Frag]

Well, I started playing on Robber Baron but after missing the first era by this much four times because I couldn't make enough money to buy the last segment of track I dropped back down to Tycoon. I did have to cheat and slow the game down a bit to make the second or third era. And I totally blew building Salt Lake soon enough to get it to accept gold so I had to go back to a previous save. I have 12 saves for this Scenario, the most I've use for any so far.

I really enjoyed laying track around this map, I try to lay track as realistically as possible by sticking to going around hills and trying not to go above medium moderate grades and as few bridges as I can.

[universum]

Well, I started playing on Robber Baron but after missing the first era by this much four times because I couldn't make enough money to buy the last segment of track I dropped back down to Tycoon.

A little trick when you cannot finish the tracks is to sell some of it to get enough money to reach the destination. Just make sure you don't sell the last segment or you will have to start again (it is a REAL bummer when this happens , especially because it is your own fault). You will loose some money because of the terrain modifications and probably difficulty modifiers but you will get there. I have typically sold tracks leading to Evanston (I have started from the closest Lumber Mill) because it was not route I wanted to connect it later to the Salt Lake City anyway. With Robber Baron it is really important to buy the patents and if they show up in the right order, it could be huge boost (25% cheaper tracks or halved maintenance are obvious, sell piece of track if you must to secure these two).

I did have to cheat and slow the game down a bit to make the second or third era.

If you mean game speed, it is not cheating in my book. I often stop it to lay the tracks. I often spent first era or first few eras in slow speed to make sure I do things as soon as possible and have time to ensure trains are running efficiently and picking up all possible goods. For example mail from Salt Lake City once Logan or Ogden grow enough to accept it.

And I totally blew building Salt Lake soon enough to get it to accept gold so I had to go back to a previous save. I have 12 saves for this Scenario, the most I've use for any so far.

Gives you more fun and you can do thing better next time. Too bad if you don't have enough saves and have to start over or go too far back (happened to me few times during testing; mental note to myself: save at least when era goals are completed, but preferable every 5 years or so!).

I really enjoyed laying track around this map, I try to lay track as realistically as possible by sticking to going around hills and trying not to go above medium moderate grades and as few bridges as I can.

Important detail! Moderate grades and wide curves are important to keep the trains going well. Strategically placed tunnel or bridge also helps. Wooden bridges are not all that expensive after all.

I think that to get this kind of game, you really need to have map of smaller land area (state or even less) otherwise all the terrain features are just too much out of proportion and you end up with bumps in place of hills and washboard in place of mountains and valleys. Other possibility is to increase map size but that leaves people with less memory unable to play it as proven by Utah and Europe map. Other thing to make the map enjoyable is to place trees and make it look nice, I was worried that unrestricted use of trees, rocks and bushes would cause it to slow down but it seems it is not the problem after all.

I think it is really pitty that some mappers spent time to get the digital elevation map and challenging scenarios but leave the map nearly empty. Nothing looks worse than Lumber Mill with no trees anywhere near or uniform default green all over the place. From my experience, all this "beautification" took very little of the overall time I spent on it. I had the map done about a month before the release.