Smr Simple!

Well it sure is easier than all the global xml typing needed otherwise. My next question is...why did it wipe out the default grain car in game? I seem to be having trouble using the default GP7 in game now.

I really need to read through all your files you made...maybe everyone needs to check on some other maps to see if any of them may have been affected by this.

EDIT//...just checked...the map I am building has just over 90mb of content so far... it runs smooth enough both the size 17 and the size 20 maps...so yours should be fine with the size content you have. Also strike the GP7 comment I made above...it turned out to be something else...my goof.

EDIT//EDIT//I just cleaned out my whole list of older maps. I left mine yours AZCanyon and both SDS maps...and guess what. It fixed it. I was able to enter several test saves of your map that I was working with, I couldn't get back into these for anything before. I had a zillion maps in the list so I'm not sure where the gremlin is. Funny though this saved game thing never happened with the map I am building yet it seems to have affected yours.

Just a note on the Steam Version of SMR and this map.

First off, it works - however, some manual adjustments are required after running the installer is finished.

After running the installer / patch, MyGames\ holds 2 directories:

My Games\sid meier's railroads and
My Games\sid meier's railroads!

the former one is the right one, so copying all assets from the latter one into it will make the map work.

Thanks for the work on this!

domq wrote: After running the installer / patch, MyGames\ holds 2 directories:

My Games\sid meier's railroads and
My Games\sid meier's railroads!

I am working on a new revision to the installer script macros which will fix this issue once and for all. This will also shrink the installer size slightly by eliminating the packaging of the "global" files with each installer (they will be copied on-demand from the program's install directory).

More info will be posted later this week as I get the new macros ready.

Mike

Looks great! I'll give it a try tomorrow. Unfortunately, the game AI doesn't seem to be able to cope with these large maps that have sparse towns/resources. I checked out the huge Utah map and the AI competitors sold all but one of their stock trying to build rails and basically bankrupted themselves.

Targa wrote: Unfortunately, the game AI doesn't seem to be able to cope with these large maps that have sparse towns/resources. I checked out the huge Utah map and the AI competitors sold all but one of their stock trying to build rails and basically bankrupted themselves.

Now, this seems to be the only way to get started on this map for me

I wonder how everybody is doing on this map. I reduced difficulty to minimum, tried several games but I cannot make the first set of goals (apart passengers).

With the initial money I can barely build a track to next town and a station. Adding a Train already needs more money. And the first train available is a maintenance monster It seems slow to build up some cash to extend the network. Takes way too long to get to the coal

How do you start on this map?

thanks

I noticed the 5 types of towns...will this "slow down" the upgrades of the cities? They grow to Metropolis size way too quick in the game. I am trying to find a way to extend the upgrade times/speed...or the amount of cars in and out before the upgrade.

Taronas...if I may, I think most play with an added Difficulty Level on these large maps. This gives you more money and other stuff at the players start. I can post one you can copy paste if you like...the file to adjust can be found here...

C:\Program Files\2K Games\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Railroads!\Assets\XML\Difficulty.xml

This was my favorite map last weekend. Nearly impossible at Robber Baron Level, can get further at the mogul level, but best starting out at investor level until you get a feel for how expensive everything is. This map is a like a huge circle puzzle, and getting the right pieces to fit at the right time ain't easy, but rewarding when you do.

Here are some tips on starting this map.

From any of the starting locations, you should be able to create a passenger route and freight route with the easier difficulties. I always build as much track as I can afford starting out, making sure to buy depots. Then when almost all of my money is spent, I buy engines. (You can buy engines with a negative bank account, but not buy track.) Then I can usually create one passenger train (I usually wait for the first Super Chief to arrive) and one or two freight trains depending on the difficulty.

If starting at Poison Mesa, connect to Hidden Splendor as Hidden Splendor brings in money fast with all the food processing. Then if you are able to connect to Cathedral Valley, your passenger income should receive a boost as Hidden Splendor and Cathedral Valley are two of the larger Towns. Then I'll run a track diagonally on the map from Cathedral Valley to Dead Horse and branch a coal line and taconite ore line. I always use two coal trains to meet the coal objectives.
I always rely on my passenger income to accomplish all this, so you will probably need 2 passenger lines to complete Era 1.

The hardest part is routing the taconite -> steel -> arms.

I've been playing this map for some time and have had problems loading saved games (as many others reference). The game crash on save game load. I hit on a routine that seems to help avoid the crashes 90% of the time. First load the basin game as a new game. Once the map loads exit to the main menu. Now load your save game. I've only had this fail on one saved game. For some reason that particular never loaded.

This is a great map and well worth the hassle.

NLMaas.

nlmaas wrote: ... First load the basin game as a new game. Once the map loads exit to the main menu. Now load your save game. ...

Interesting idea, & I suspect it works well. A few others have posted similar procedures, but none have explained why it works. One has speculated it has to do with loading the xml & other files in the game, but I think it goes back to something older:
Back in the days of DOS, Win3.1, Win95 & Win98, whenever the pc crashed, you "should have" re-started it, open & close each program that had been running and then re-started the pc. This let it start up after a normal exit.
Nowadays, the OS's are more stable, so even if an application crashes the pc is still running. So they go ahead & try it again, and it fails. I think it fails because it (the application) was not started from a normal exit but rather from a crashed exit. So your procedure of loading as a new game, then back to the menu to load the save game serves to start & stop the application, then it starts up okay (the second time) to load the saved game.
So, the next time you have a problem loading a saved game, open & then shutdown SMR, then try it again. And let us know if it helps you, okay?

nlmaas wrote:
I've been playing this map for some time and have had problems loading saved games (as many others reference). The game crash on save game load. I hit on a routine that seems to help avoid the crashes 90% of the time. First load the basin game as a new game. Once the map loads exit to the main menu. Now load your save game. I've only had this fail on one saved game. For some reason that particular never loaded.

This is a great map and well worth the hassle.

NLMaas.

NLMaas,
For the save that never loaded, did you try loading it after you successfully loaded your other save game? I mean,
1. start a new game
2. exit to menu
3. load a working save game
4. exit to menu
5. try to load the stubborn save game

I think this works because when the game tries to load a save game, it is loading too much too quickly and runs into locked files. But if you try to load a save game gradually, it has a better chance of working.

I have also noticed that moving around on the map during steps 1 and 3 also helps.

I received two additional suggestions on my load game approach (see 6/23 posts). I've tried loading the problem save game from a clean boot and a clean load of the game. That failed most of the time.

The second suggestion posted was to load from a known good save game, exit, and then load the problem save game. That worked a bit better but still produced one crash. The load new game and then load problem save game method still seems to work the best.

Who knows why this works, but its allowed me to finish this map several times. Very enjoyable.

I am having troublt downloading it can anyone help me out, please. I read the first post but when I try to download everything, the second one says microsoft needes to know who created it. Does anyone know an easyer way to download this or a way I am not understanding?

Can you be more specific? I just downloaded all three files on two different computers without issue. One using Firefox and the other using IE6.