PJay
17-09-2005, 03:04 PM
Introduction
Some of you might know I've once created a test map for a RISK-kind of scenario. It proved the events all worked like they should, and I could start working on a real full-world map. I did a little work on that, but found actually colouring and setting country, region and city industry properties a lot more difficult. Long story short : I never finished, because I didn't like the map-editing.
Now, I recently re-installed RT3 to play Alternate USA because it stings me I've never been able to finish that map. :D However, while playing it, I suddenly realised this was the ideal map for my RISK scenario.
General info about scenario rules
I have played it a few times now myself, and it works reasonably well. The challenge is to haul the most revenue to a state. I changed the event from "loads hauled to" to "revenue hauled to" to prevent abuse by dropping the cargo and then picking it up again, dropping again, ... like you can do in alternate USA. "Revenue hauled to" counts the price differential (ie: the coins you see in the trains window) before deducting maintenance etc...
While this all works well from the event side, the performance of the AI had to be a lot better than standard. This map expects players to expand like mad and as we all know, the AI is not too good at that. Because of that I have included some special things to boost AI expansion and limit the human players' cash:
limiting the player
Buying and building industries is enabled on the game level, but it should only be used by AI's. I could not disable this for the human, but I was able to rise prices 1000%. Ofcourse, should you have lots of cash, you can still buy or build one, but don't do it, because if your industry profits are not exactly 0, you'll lose the game too. Warning: This includes taverns, hotels, post offices and restaurants.
boosting AI track expansion
=> AI doesn't pay maintenance. Not for track, not for engines (this make a big difference for big railroads)
=> Track, station and fuel cost reduced by 60%
I originally had buying/building cost for industries reduced by 40% for AIs too, but then their focus was too much on industries and not on track expansion anymore, so I removed it again.
I inserted 11 AI's (each one can be played by a human too, so this map can be played multiplayer too). From my experience, 3 of them will start a company in the first year and 2 will survive. In the following 10 years the others might start a company too, but half of them won't survive their first year. So, all-in-all you should have 3 or 4 competitors that stay allive for more than 1 year, spread around the map, with lots of cash (usually sitting on +/- $ 30M) and about 5 - 10 stations each.
Oh, and stock market is disabled too ofcourse, just like being fired, merging etc...
Scenario goals
When you start a company, you have acces to all countries for the first year. At the end of the year, everybody loses all acces except in the countries where his railroad was "best in class". After this, everybody also recieves acces to all the neighbouring countries.
You win when you have access to all 12 states, and all AI companies are dead. You die when you have no access anymore to any state. You can move your territory by expanding in the neighbouring states and trying to haul most revenue there of all railroads. This can be tough if you try to enter a well-develloped AI territory. If the AI connects to your track and sends out swarms of his tracks in "your" state, watch out for not loosing acces rights to your mainline.
There is no time limit on this scenario, take all the time you want. I added a scoring system to compare how well you did. The sooner you win and the sooner you have acces to a lot of territories, the higher your score.
General gameplay tips
Don't try to "block" the AI or use any cheap tricks, because this scenario is only fun if the AI performs and expands his railroad well.
Wait a few months to start your empire and choose an unoccupied state. If you start your railroad in january and find an AI who also chooses "your" state as starting point, you'll almost certainly loose the game after the first year. :wink:
In general, I think this is a nice map of the USA for those who want to just play without time limits or scenario goals to think about. For those who enjoy creating a railroad that spans the whole map and performs very good in every little corner of it.
After playing a few times, I noticed these general tips:
-> Starting in Texhoma might not be the easiest thing to do, lots of competition there.
-> Take a good look at the cargo screen before expanding
-> Unconnected track is allowed !
-> Watch out for Arizona / Lousiana, there are very few cities in those territories.
Scoring
So, from version 1.0 onwards, I added a scoring system to this map. You start with 1000 points.
-> every year : -2 points
-> every year, for every territory :
----> most revenue hauled : -0 points
----> acces rights, but not most revenue hauled : -1 points
----> no acces rights : -2 points
With 12 territories, expect -20 points / year in the beginning and -7 / year at the end.
Official Scoreboard (post your scores in this thread, I will edit this msg) :
points : years elapsed : name
-----------------------------------
883 : 10 : Wolverine@MSU
830 : 13 : Wolverine@MSU
762 : ?? : Orange46
730 : 20 : PJay
Shattered Union
Well, I've chosen this name because it's Poptop's next game and I'm using Poptop's map.
I've also chosen it because the theme is slightly similar : a "war" in the USA.
I've also chosen it because I can't stand the lack of info about their next game.
Where to get it
The last version is currently available here:
railroadtycoon.info (http://www.railroadtycoon.info/download_counter.php?file=/maps/PJay/Shattered_Union_1_02.zip)
hawkdawg.com (http://hawkdawg.com/rrt/rrt3/map_arch/n_am/Shattered_Union_1_02.zip)
[edit: fixed link]
Version History
2005-09-30 : Shattered Union 1.02
* bugfix : removed "." in the map name, so the map isn't colour all-green anymore. (if you have the 1.01 version, you don't need to download it again, just change the filename from "Shattered Union 1.01.gmp" to "Shattered Union 1_02.gmp")
2005-09-20 : Shattered Union 1.01
* bugfix : loose event didn't fire when you lost all your territory acces
2005-09-19 : Shattered Union 1.0
* added : score system
* change : more usefull ledger information
* change : doubled the number of players
* bugfix : prevented AI boost to be applied multiple times to the same company
2005-09-16 : Shattered Union 0.5
first version
Some of you might know I've once created a test map for a RISK-kind of scenario. It proved the events all worked like they should, and I could start working on a real full-world map. I did a little work on that, but found actually colouring and setting country, region and city industry properties a lot more difficult. Long story short : I never finished, because I didn't like the map-editing.
Now, I recently re-installed RT3 to play Alternate USA because it stings me I've never been able to finish that map. :D However, while playing it, I suddenly realised this was the ideal map for my RISK scenario.
General info about scenario rules
I have played it a few times now myself, and it works reasonably well. The challenge is to haul the most revenue to a state. I changed the event from "loads hauled to" to "revenue hauled to" to prevent abuse by dropping the cargo and then picking it up again, dropping again, ... like you can do in alternate USA. "Revenue hauled to" counts the price differential (ie: the coins you see in the trains window) before deducting maintenance etc...
While this all works well from the event side, the performance of the AI had to be a lot better than standard. This map expects players to expand like mad and as we all know, the AI is not too good at that. Because of that I have included some special things to boost AI expansion and limit the human players' cash:
limiting the player
Buying and building industries is enabled on the game level, but it should only be used by AI's. I could not disable this for the human, but I was able to rise prices 1000%. Ofcourse, should you have lots of cash, you can still buy or build one, but don't do it, because if your industry profits are not exactly 0, you'll lose the game too. Warning: This includes taverns, hotels, post offices and restaurants.
boosting AI track expansion
=> AI doesn't pay maintenance. Not for track, not for engines (this make a big difference for big railroads)
=> Track, station and fuel cost reduced by 60%
I originally had buying/building cost for industries reduced by 40% for AIs too, but then their focus was too much on industries and not on track expansion anymore, so I removed it again.
I inserted 11 AI's (each one can be played by a human too, so this map can be played multiplayer too). From my experience, 3 of them will start a company in the first year and 2 will survive. In the following 10 years the others might start a company too, but half of them won't survive their first year. So, all-in-all you should have 3 or 4 competitors that stay allive for more than 1 year, spread around the map, with lots of cash (usually sitting on +/- $ 30M) and about 5 - 10 stations each.
Oh, and stock market is disabled too ofcourse, just like being fired, merging etc...
Scenario goals
When you start a company, you have acces to all countries for the first year. At the end of the year, everybody loses all acces except in the countries where his railroad was "best in class". After this, everybody also recieves acces to all the neighbouring countries.
You win when you have access to all 12 states, and all AI companies are dead. You die when you have no access anymore to any state. You can move your territory by expanding in the neighbouring states and trying to haul most revenue there of all railroads. This can be tough if you try to enter a well-develloped AI territory. If the AI connects to your track and sends out swarms of his tracks in "your" state, watch out for not loosing acces rights to your mainline.
There is no time limit on this scenario, take all the time you want. I added a scoring system to compare how well you did. The sooner you win and the sooner you have acces to a lot of territories, the higher your score.
General gameplay tips
Don't try to "block" the AI or use any cheap tricks, because this scenario is only fun if the AI performs and expands his railroad well.
Wait a few months to start your empire and choose an unoccupied state. If you start your railroad in january and find an AI who also chooses "your" state as starting point, you'll almost certainly loose the game after the first year. :wink:
In general, I think this is a nice map of the USA for those who want to just play without time limits or scenario goals to think about. For those who enjoy creating a railroad that spans the whole map and performs very good in every little corner of it.
After playing a few times, I noticed these general tips:
-> Starting in Texhoma might not be the easiest thing to do, lots of competition there.
-> Take a good look at the cargo screen before expanding
-> Unconnected track is allowed !
-> Watch out for Arizona / Lousiana, there are very few cities in those territories.
Scoring
So, from version 1.0 onwards, I added a scoring system to this map. You start with 1000 points.
-> every year : -2 points
-> every year, for every territory :
----> most revenue hauled : -0 points
----> acces rights, but not most revenue hauled : -1 points
----> no acces rights : -2 points
With 12 territories, expect -20 points / year in the beginning and -7 / year at the end.
Official Scoreboard (post your scores in this thread, I will edit this msg) :
points : years elapsed : name
-----------------------------------
883 : 10 : Wolverine@MSU
830 : 13 : Wolverine@MSU
762 : ?? : Orange46
730 : 20 : PJay
Shattered Union
Well, I've chosen this name because it's Poptop's next game and I'm using Poptop's map.
I've also chosen it because the theme is slightly similar : a "war" in the USA.
I've also chosen it because I can't stand the lack of info about their next game.
Where to get it
The last version is currently available here:
railroadtycoon.info (http://www.railroadtycoon.info/download_counter.php?file=/maps/PJay/Shattered_Union_1_02.zip)
hawkdawg.com (http://hawkdawg.com/rrt/rrt3/map_arch/n_am/Shattered_Union_1_02.zip)
[edit: fixed link]
Version History
2005-09-30 : Shattered Union 1.02
* bugfix : removed "." in the map name, so the map isn't colour all-green anymore. (if you have the 1.01 version, you don't need to download it again, just change the filename from "Shattered Union 1.01.gmp" to "Shattered Union 1_02.gmp")
2005-09-20 : Shattered Union 1.01
* bugfix : loose event didn't fire when you lost all your territory acces
2005-09-19 : Shattered Union 1.0
* added : score system
* change : more usefull ledger information
* change : doubled the number of players
* bugfix : prevented AI boost to be applied multiple times to the same company
2005-09-16 : Shattered Union 0.5
first version