A preset game.
What that means is I used my .SMRailroadsSavedGame editor to reset the game date back to the start over and over while building up the tracks. First I gave myself $150M and used about $100M to build the tracks with as tidy a layout as possible. There's no logic to the tracks; it was just a case of start somewhere and go from there. Along the way I edited some terrain to include the odd gully and pond. I also aligned towns to their platforms. It was a fun time.
I learnt some more about the guts of a .SMRailroadsSavedGame, like where log messages are kept and how to erase them. And much more.
I did learn that the game ticks are stored somewhere (but do not know where) and events like auctions are tied to the game ticks elapsed. So 2 auctions happened while I was building tracks and I had to buy them, of course. Only game victory conditions and new trains seem to follow the game date. Some conditions were met while building, like building a steelmill in Rawlins.
I left things like finance history etc, which can be zero'd but left it as testimony to my work.
I offer two versions of the saved game for anyone interested in checking it out.
The file with NT in the name means no trains. The other has trains, 65 of them, ready to go. Very little logic to the train cargo and most trains have 8 carriages. I wanted to see if it would crash.
In the game with trains, I left Vail without a track as it's the only victory condition that is needed. Can't have it all!
Also in that version, you start in debt and an auction comes along early. You get enough money to bid in the last second of the auction. Be sure to slow the game down for that. Heh.
Anyway, here's the two versions and some pics. This is something I wanted to do for a long time so now I can get back to real life for a while until I feel like doing it again. I started this one on Nov 3 2023.
If you do check it out, I hope you like it.
User map pack required : Rocky Mountain High
RMH_NT.SMRailroadsSavedGame
RMH_T.SMRailroadsSavedGame