Trouble loading maps??? Read this.

choobacca · Post by **choobacca** » Sat Feb 10, 2007 3:30 am

Ok, I have confirmed that the game picks the global xml files with the latest modified date. So if you have more than one RRT_Trains.xml, it will search your CustomAssets directory tree, find all your RRT_Trains.xml files, and load the one with the latest modified date. It does this for all the global files.

So by limiting the global files to just the ones in the CustomAssets\XML directory, we don't have to worry about this.

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Sat Feb 10, 2007 5:33 am

choobaca - here is a of the maps I've worked into the files I uploaded:

Alaska
BC_GOLD
Dogworld
East_Ont
Flaglers Florida
Florida
Germany Deluxe
Germany Standard
Hill_Valley_Steaks
Lama's_Germany
LM2
MARITIMES
New England
Orient_Express
Santa
ScroogeHoliday_1_3
Southern Ontario
SuperBowlExpress
UKLargeMP (the first one)
Wyoming Valley PA

No problems yet. I'm getting ready to work on ChicagoToTheRockies now

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Sat Feb 10, 2007 9:30 pm

Slappy Da Clown - roughly, where are those 'blue glassy like mountains'? Did you load Super Bowl Express from the download above. Also, are you running the Santa files I uploaded? That zip has the names in it.

dwax - yes I just did and it went in fine. I also noticed something noone seems to have commented on, when your in the Roundhouse, all the engines look to have their speeds reduced! I tried to run the TGV up to 300mph and when it didn'twork, I forgot to change it back. What one (or both) of those two changes did was set the Max Speed on the Graph to read 400mph instead of the 300mph it normally does. I'd say it's the <MaxSpeed>, but all the Graphs are up to 400. Another Mapping Mystery to look into. Where is Sherlock Holmes when you need him

I need to open my two XML zips and find out what, if anything, I had to change to make the Chicago map work. I played it and forgot why I was playing it. Working late.....

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 3:53 am

choobaca - could you look over the list in this zip and see if it's all there and if you think it would be of help to people. I have the XML files to go with it, and I want to put it in Wiki.

thanks

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 3:14 am

Slappy Da Clown - go to page 2. Follow directions. Live long and Prosper.

choobaca - will ad the Santa stuff, I must have missed the Dogworld update asI have DogworldBeta3.zip and they ain't in there. Heck, the only Dogworld I can find in this forum is the first one, so where did I get the Beta 3 and where did you get yours?

I'll put the Chickpeas in the list, but last I heard he didn't have the Iron Ore working.

Iroc-SS · Post by **Iroc-SS** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 5:41 pm

I just want to start out with a big thank-you for making this game exciting again. Since I acutally work for the railroad (CSX), I look forward to playing CEO. (Can you blame me? CEO Michael Ward gets a salary of $14 Million!!!!)

Now, here's the thing: I'm lost in translation!! I've read and printed this thread. I've downloaded everything on this thread. But I don't have a clue on where to start. I've got a 30 day trail on Altova XMLSpy, so I can edit the XMLs. Do I need to get more editing programs? What am I changing?

I understand that I need to change things. But I have no clue on the things I should change. (And I do know how to change them).

Any insight?

Lost in Translation C/O Indianapolis

Iroc-SS · Post by **Iroc-SS** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 7:06 pm

choobacca wrote: So when you download a map that has new trains or train cars, or goods that are not in the base game, these new trains, train cars, and goods must be added to your global XML files, or the map will not load.

Another rule to this is that no global files can appear in the individual scenario directories. So RRT_Trains.xml should only be in your XML directory, and not found in any of the individual scenario directories. So I removed the RRT_Goods.xml and RRT_Trains.xml files from the Santa directory, but copied the new goods (Rocking Horses, Toy Soldiers, Teddy Bears, etc.) to my global RRT_Goods.xml file, and the Holiday train to my global RRT_Trains.xml file before removing these files from Santa. Not doing this may cause another map to not load.

choobacca

The files I have are the Goods.xml Good_Santa.xml Trains.xml and Trains_Santa.xml

Which ones do I need to copy( With or without Santa?). And do I copy the whole thing or just certain Lines in the XML files?

Getting over being Lost in Translation.

Iroc-SS · Post by **Iroc-SS** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 9:37 pm

Danecookie wrote:But i dont have any \XML\_SCENARIOS_\ folders in my \CustomAssets folder..

and no global XML file either.. do i hvae to make it myself?

I can help on this. Go to: My Computer/Program Files/2k/SidMeiersRailroads/Assets/XML. That is where you will find the "Global" XML files talked about in the above posts.

Go to: My Documents/My Games/SidMeiersRailroads and you should find everything there. But I think you have to play a game first and I think at least 1 save before it will write anything in CustomAssets folders.

Remember, when we are talking about "Global" we are meaning the files that are located in the My Computer/Program Files/2k/SidMeiersRailroads. Global to us means what was in the base game files. Not in the My Documents Folder.

Does this help any?

choobacca · Post by **choobacca** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 10:42 pm

Iroc-SS and DaneCookie,
This is a hard thread to read if you are just getting started, and the following info should get added to the Wiki in a topic like Getting Started.
Since I don't know how your environment looks now or what you've tried in your installation, I would suggest uninstalling and starting fresh.

1. Install Railroads!
2. Install 1.10 patch.
3. Play and make sure the base scenarios work.
4. Install Holiday Scenario (this will create the "My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Railroads!\CustomAssets" directory structure where all custom stuff goes) Make sure this is where you point the installer to install.
5. Play and make sure the base scenarios and Holiday scenario work.

Now you are ready to download and play custom maps.
6. Go to the ChicagoToTheRockies map topic and download the ~6MB choobaccaPak.zip file (on page 2 of the thread I believe). This .zip contains 2 maps and instructions on how to install them. I suggest trying to get this working first as it doesn't require any XML file editing. Just copy the files to your directories as they appear in the zip file. This will also start your "global XML file system". Don't pay any attention to the rest of the readme.txt on merging files and what not.

7. When you get this working, then try reading through and downloading from this thread again as this thread contains "global" XML files that support more maps (set up by snoopy55).

The trick is to move slowly, one map at a time and taking note when something breaks.

The term "global" means the master XML files that do not contain the map name in them. RRT_Trains.xml is global, but RRT_Trains_mymap.xml is local to the map. This is a set of XML files that serve as master files that contain all elements used by all maps. Then the map's local XML files use the info in the master's files and don't have to include all the XML tags and details. But because of how the game loads these XML files, there can only be one global or master set of XML files in the CustomAssets directory tree. These global files should be in "My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Railroads!\CustomAssets\XML" only.

Global Files are:
RRT_Trains.xml
RRT_TrainCars.xml
RRT_Goods.xml
RRT_Industries.xml
RRT_Depots.xml
etc.

You may not need all of these. It depends on which maps you have installed and whether or not they added anything new.

Hope this helps and doesn't further confuse.
choobacca

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 2:04 am

Iroc-SS - the files you are speaking of as 'Global' are actually better referred to as 'Base' XML files. They area part of the original game and aside from copying them, are best left alone. If we tried to get people to mess with them and they made a mistake, the whole game would be messed up. The 'Global' XML files are for say, the Cowhide and Footballs in the Super Bowl Express. When new stuff was made and the 'Global' like XMLs were put in each Scenario, it tended to confuse the game as to which to use. You had a RRT_Goods.xml and a RRT_Goods_SuperBowlExpress.xml in the SCenario. If you loaded the Santa Scenario and ran it, it might lock onto the RRT_Goods.xml in the Super Bowl Express and the game would CTD. By having a 'Global' XML , we just add the Cowhide and Football goods and the info the game needs there, and Santa just doesn't see it. Also, there are other benefits such as when I did the Wisconsin map, I used the Cowhides and all I had to add to my Goods was:

<Good>
<szName>Cowhides</szName>
</Good>

Much simpler to create.

As choobaca said, read the full post, take notes, and if you don't understand, ask.

Iroc-SS · Post by **Iroc-SS** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 3:43 am

I think we need a mod to make stickies. Or a new thread stating what files to download first.

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 4:17 am

Iroc-SS wrote:Remember, when we are talking about "Global" we are meaning the files that are located in the My Computer/Program Files/2k/SidMeiersRailroads. Global to us means what was in the base game files. Not in the My Documents Folder.

The My Computer/Program Files/2k/SidMeiersRailroads folder is the one the installer loads. Now while the 'Global' files are copied from there, they are not the 'Global' files we speak of. The 'Global' files are in this folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\ (logged in users name) \My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Railroads!\CustomAssets\XML
along with the _SCENARIO_ folder, into which you put the Map folders you download, and the Audio folder which I believe the Holiday Scenario added.
At this point we have the 5 choobaca listed, and I have RRT_Charaters.xml as I've played with those a bit. If you choose to experiment, after you have worked the bugs out of an item, you can add that item to the apropriate XML file or add the needed XML file.

The stickies are made by the forman chief, for lack of a better word, one of whom is Falconer. I agree with you tho. choobaca, do you want to attempt it and I'll look it over, or do you want me to and you can look it over. I have lots of time....

Dr Frag · Post by **Dr Frag** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 4:27 am

Actually it's not '(your computers name)' but rather the logged in users name.

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 4:12 pm

choobaca - I was doing a search for FPK s in the forum when I came across a remark from one of our Firaxis buddies. What he said explains the reason the maps have been having so much trouble. Example: If you loaded the Santa map and played it, it would play OK. If you then loaded the Super Bowl Express map, it would play OK. If you then went back and tried to play the Santa map, it would crash. What he stated is that when the game loads XMLs not specific to the map, it searches for the newst one. In the case of the 2nd Santa load, when it wanted the RRT_Goods.xml, it would load the RRT_Goods.xml from Super Bowl Express! The Global XML files remove this problem from the equation.

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 5:57 pm

One More Time.......
choobaca - I spent the early part of the day working on this, and would like you to look it over and make any changes you think are needed before it gets put either at the beginning of this thread or as a new post. I also am going to start going thru the maps I have in my SCENARIOS and set them up for minimum size to work with the Global XMLs. I'm not sure where to post them tho, in the original thread, as part of this thread or as part of the thread that goes with the zip below if a new one is started.

what ya think?

Smr Simple!

Trouble loading maps??? Read this.

Newbe: Lost in Translation

Re: Trouble loading maps??? Read this.