Austrian Hungarian Monarchy SAM

[karsten]

Great! Thanks for the icons. Here is what I found, another few impossible conditions:

The Italian front at Triest was OK, it got built and worked. However, it was not registered as a green tick mark, probably because the AI was too busy with other things at that moment. Wouldn't it be nice to have a multi-thread SMR

Anyway, you wanted to have comments on the Scenario goals, so here goes: Normally, my eyes glaze over when I see looong lists of take A to B, take C to D, take X to A and so forth, thinking OK, another spaghetti map

But this map is much more interesting, there is a real story underlying the era goals:

• Era 1: develop the new empire.
• Era 2: Build prosperity.
• Era 3: Support the war effort.

What I would suggest is weaving those goals into each of the Era goals, to give more prominence and relevance to the story and make it more satisfying to achieve the goals.
Moving from one era to the next did not involve ripping up the whole layout, which is unrealistic prototypically, but instead rededicating an existing rail structure, which is much more like real life.

I don't think the war period is too short, but some goals could be moved into the second era, such as weapons production, since countries normally prepare for war before it breaks out.

Scenery, well, it has great promise, but it would be nice if you let the model railroader side come through more. Painted rivers, no real forests...and those border markings are heavy. Have them in black or brown, or give the foreign territory a darker colour, to indicate that it is out of bounds. I would ease up further on the tunnel and bridge restrictions. This is mountainous terrain, after all, tunnels and bridges should be expensive, but not prohibitively so. I love vistas like this

[karsten]

I think Greybriar has a point related to dual steam engines. In reality, one seldom saw a steam dual, simply because it was highly inefficient and difficult to manage. Engineers built larger, more powerful single engines instead. In the Monarchy map, the dual Medoc outclasses any other engine for 43 years when pulling heavy freight, until finally the dual P8 comes along in 1901, halfway through the second era (see picture above).

That is rather boring, since one has to scroll back all the way everytime a new train is built. So I would tend to agree with those who would prefer to see duals only in protoype combinations, ie with diesels.

[Jancsika]

It is very helpful, because one gets sooo bugged down in details that looses the overall picture.
Here the 32 goods limit comes in play. I was planning to ship “Uniforms”to the Fronts but run out of goods.
I had the “Fronts” as an on site industry, but then I could not register in the Scenario goals hauling from “ANY_CITY” to the “FRONT”. I might still do it but then I'll have to drop food from the goals.
I will ease up on the bridge and tunnel cost. The main reason I have it, because there are players who would run a tunnel from Vienna (Wien) to Spalato (Split).

Historically speaking it was a strange empire. During the 51 years of its existence Franz Joseph was emperor for 49 years. The official language was German, but only 24% spoke the language. Have you read the “Good Soldier Švejk”?
Anyway I have my work cut out for me.
Jancsika

[RockyNarrowGauge]

Karsten, in real life doubleheaded steam engine WAS something that was seen a lot. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl= ... 4%26um%3D1

Google 'steam doubleheader', ignore the color photos and look into the old non-staged black and white shots.

Passenger trains used doubleheaders for speed, distance and weight carried. Mountain railroads such as the Pennsylvania needed them to haul coal and ores through the mountains. And the Rocky Mountain railroads? They were seen there quite often. Railroads often kept a single engine on a siding at the base of some inclines which they used to assist trians up the track.

The problem with the steam duals is the lack of tenders. A pair of T's would look fine, but the game has none.

Karsten, since you seem to be making a map, you must know something about editing them. Make a set on non-duals from Jencsika's maps and post them as such.

[Jancsika]

Make a set on non-duals

It's been done and posted.

Engineers built larger, more powerful single engines instead. In the Monarchy map, the dual Medoc outclasses any other engine for 43 years when pulling heavy freight, until finally the dual P8 comes along in 1901, halfway through the second era

The engines performance is always a problem. I have tried to use engines that were available at that time for the country in question. Some of the older engines were designed for freight, When the passenger traffic demanded more speed, the power was used to increase passenger speed instead of hauling freight faster.
I will probably tinker with the engines a little more. While the game makes it possible to give the passenger traffic more priority, in practical terms just does not work. The faster train will only idle behind a slower train.

I'd like to hear about how the “NO DUALS”work out.
Jancsika

[Jancsika]

I have worked up a new set of trains, where the performance is gradually increasing with time. This is a subject that the Wiki writers could not figure out. This line in the XLM “<Speed0>4</Speed0>” has a speed/performance formula, I just did it by trial and error.
Anyway, here is the new RRT_Trains_Monarchy.XLM file. To prevent confusion I am not posting it in the first post.
About those bridges: Actually there are cheaper bridges. The cost of the masonry bridges was not changed and the lesser steel bridges are 10X, only the large steel bridge is priced 100X.
Jancsika

[karsten]

About those bridges: Actually there are cheaper bridges.

You are right, of course, I was using them. The transition points between the bridge types are possibly not quite right, because SMR sometimes builds mixed bridges in this map, eg masonry and steel girder.

Valid and interesting points being made about the duals - anyway, I will start a new "non-dual" game to see how it works out

[Jancsika]

I have Version 2_00 posted.

Some adjustment were made to the terrain, some cities and resources were moved slightly, so that the flow of goods will be smoother. Reduced the cost of single tunnels from 100x to 10x.

The game with 32 industries is a challenge, especially to the computer resources. After half way through one would need a super computer with dual graphics to move along.
Since the game has 3 different Eras, with different goals, I made separate independent scenarios from each Era:
Game #1 is the complete game from 1867 to 1919
Game #2 is the Compromise Era from 1867 to 1895
Game #3 is the Prosperity Era from 1890 to 1914
Game #4 is World War I Era from 1909 to 1919
These will be automatically available when you unzip the game into the “UserMaps” folder.
Jancsika

[coopej01]

Can't get this map (v2) to load . It shows up as a choice, but when I select it after trying to laod for about 20 - 30 seconds it CTD before ever starting.

coopej01

[Jancsika]

This is a Stand Alone Map (SAM).
I have added some instructions to the first post, read them. It will explain what to do.
There is also this link. You might want to read it:http://www.hookedgamers.com/forums/view ... =42&t=2832

Jancsika

[coopej01]

Jancsika,

thanks for the suggestion, but I think that's not the problem. I've used many other SAM maps without any problem and think there is something inherently wrong with this one.

coopej01

[Jancsika]

I have just tried it. Dowloaded the latest vesion from this forum, run it in a new UserMaps folder, without a hitch.
Check if you have anything in the CustomAssets folder.

I also would like to know if anybody else has trouble loading?!
Jancsika

PS. Sometimes it takes 2 or 3 tries to load a map. Not just this one. Try it several times to load it.

[coopej01]

I don't know what to say. My custom assets folder is empty and I've put this in my (otherwise empty) user maps folder just like I do for other SAM maps. I load Railroads and I do see all 4 maps as choices. But when I try to run any of them the program chugs along for about 20 seconds and then CTD. If it helps I'm running an AMD Athlon chip, windows XP SP2, have 2 GB of RAM and a 512 MB Radeon GPU (AGP). I even tried downloading the maps again and strating over with exactly the same results.

coopej01

[Jancsika]

I don't know what to say.

This scenario is very demanding on the computer resources. It has 32 industries , most of them custom, also many cities, and custom goods. When the game loads it loads everything that the scenario has.
My machine has the double of your specification and while it slows down at the endgame it did not crash, yet.

I would try a smaller game, There are a lot of great SAM out there and see how they work.
http://www.hookedgamers.com/forums/view ... =42&t=3352
http://www.hookedgamers.com/forums/view ... =42&t=3177

These two scenarios have only stock goods, but rather interesting scenario goals.
Jancsika

[remete13]

Nice job Jancsi, great map, thanks for that.
Since i deleted the files of holiday scenario, it works fine.

I tried it only without enemies yet, but i have a question.

Whatever that means: build an italian front? I've made the linr from Triest to where Firenze should be, but nothing happened. So i can not carry any important things to Triest.

I did see some green marks (lines) where i guess the border should be, i've crossed it, but nothing interesting.

plese help me...

(this map is much more difficult than the original ones, so i like it)