Rift3

Jancsika · Post by **Jancsika** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 4:13 am

This is a revised version of the Rift V 2.1. I liked the terrain and the general setup but it was rather easy scenario. I made this a little more difficult. Added some more goods, (Lumber and Grapes). The Paper Mill and Newspaper industries serve only to occupy the "Village" industry slot so you will have to grow them into Town before an other Industry can be added. The lumber and paper are only $2000/carload. It will not be profitable to haul them.

You have to build a Winery, Refinery, Bank and Textile Mill from scratch at the locations where the scenario calls for.
There is an Instructions.txt file in the ZIP package that will have to be followed. It is very simple; even I could follow it.

When laying the tracts you have to be watchful for the circular loops of tracts, the AI will NOT route the train necessarily at the shortest route but will look for an open connection. If there happens to come an other train and block the route, the train will reverse itself and it can happen several times if you have too much traffic in the area. Nothing you can do about it. Careful routing will help.

I have included an expensive Tunnels XLM file. It has to be placed in the Globals. It will increase cost of the tunnels by 200%, so you will be forced to lay the tracks in the canyons. It makes the game more interesting.

I am also including Lowell's Brown Cotton Barn.
It is all explained in the "Instructions.TXT" file.

The map is only 10 X 10, so it will be easy on older machines.
Jancsika

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 8:36 am

You keep adding Tunnel cost changes, and Bridge cost changes in your previos map. If you look under Talk! - Problem with changing Tunnel and Bridge costs, you'll find that the only way to make a price change in these two is on the GLOBAL level. The map does not see Map level changes no matter what you name them. And the cost of Tunnels and Bridges is kinda left up to each player. The worry about cost in these maps seems silly to me. A 141 pound rail costs $980. 1 mile of rail costs $243,197. A diesel engine runs about $1.7 million. Cars, which we don't even pay for, start at $72,000 just for a coal car. Heck, we couldn't even get out of town!

These prices are from the January 2008 issue of Trains.
This won't cause CTDs either as the game just ignores those files and goes straight for GLOBALS. If there isn't one there, it goes for the Originals.

Bushdoctor · Post by **Bushdoctor** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 1:20 pm

Sweet!
Thanks Jancsika.

Now we only gotta find that crashing news report to make it all perfect.

Jancsika · Post by **Jancsika** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 2:25 pm

look under Talk! - Problem with changing Tunnel and Bridge costs, you'll find that the only way to make a price change in these two is on the GLOBAL level.

I am fiinding that out. I have a Global tunnel file in my upload and instruction how to install it.
As far as the cost of rail: this is only a game, so we can have our immagination run away with us.

In Hobbitland everything is possible.

Now we only gotta find that crashing news report to make it all perfect.

I have a very basic Events file included, that supposed to take care of the News problem.I have played it through without CTD
Jancsika

karsten · Post by **karsten** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 8:05 pm

Stable? You bet! But 256 turns per month? I wonder

karsten · Post by **karsten** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 12:22 am

I wonder no more .. did it in 5 years out of 10, Robber Baron on hard routing. Runs like clockwork, not a single crash!

Bushdoctor · Post by **Bushdoctor** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 6:02 am

This is truly a very sweet map.
Runs great without any crashes or problems.
The layout of the map is great. I love those canyons and the way they
become wider when you lay multiple track through them.
Did you set the cities to hold 6 passengers max?
Great industry and annex setup.
Perfect time scedule. It felt more real when years pass by slower.
Could use targets that have a way higher number - I didn't need the second food chain.
I'd also like to play longer on this map. A second set of targets would be great.

All in all: Greatness.

Thanks for putting it out there.

Bushdoctor · Post by **Bushdoctor** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 3:50 am

I thought what the heck and opened up the XML to search for the scenario target.
Whatayaknow, the layout resembles BBcode, or even html.
Easy to recognize elements.
I actually managed to tinker with your scenario and set higher targets
for myself.
I even added an extra Era of 6 more years with an extra target.
Pretty cool stuff.

When reaching that extra target I want my own graphic to show
with the news report.
I've created a DDS file with the correct dimensions, but I don't know
where to place it and also don't know how to adjust the xml so it uses
that specific graphic. Is there a topic on this subject?

Thanks.

karsten · Post by **karsten** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 6:21 am

Universum provided this mini-tutorial:

Finally someone commented on the custom newspaper pictures Very Happy.

Newspaper images are easy to do. They are all the "event_???.dds" files. You need to have editor which can edit DDS files. I have used Paint.NET with DDS plugin. The images are in true color format so you can easily use colors for them. I have chosen to go with "sepia" effect to not diverge from what the game is using. But maybe I should have in some cases because the pictures of Utah scenery would look much better in color. Next time maybe.

All you need to do is to open any of the "event_???.dds", replace the image in it (the size is 742x300 pixels) and save it under name of your choice. Put the image somewhere in your scenario directory or subdirectory under it and reference it from your main scenario file using:

<szNewspaperBitmapSuccess>event_???.dds</szNewspaperBitmapSuccess>

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 7:37 am

As to the DDS file, you can put it in a folder of your own naming and place it in CustomAssets. Heck, call it 'Rift 3_1'

Bushdoctor · Post by **Bushdoctor** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 8:40 am

That's great. Works like a charm.
Thanks for posting that Karsten.

Snoopy, what would happen if there are two different graphics
with the same event name in the game's folders?

I've got a strange problem with DDSconverter. Aparantly it needs
a graphic size with a ratio of two. 700x350 pixels for example, or
1024x512. But I can't export the 742x300 as described by Universum.
The original game graphics are actually 1024x512, but with a strange blank area.
That area doesn't show. I guess the game picks it up as transparent.
I used the original dds, pasted my graphic on top and voila.
It worked, but the size, in kbs, became larger than I wanted. No prob.
Cool stuff, this.

Bushdoctor · Post by **Bushdoctor** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 8:58 am

Found my answer!

choobacca wrote: The game resolves duplicate file names by using the one with the latest modified time-stamp.

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 8:59 am

Two files with the same name, last one loaded will always be used. Reasearch it out, or add 2 random letters or numbers after it. Use your initials.

As to DDSConverter, which one are you using??? I have DDSConverter 2. It converts square DDSs to other types and other types to DDSs. Search the net, sounds like you got an old copy.

Go here:
http://files.filefront.com/DDS+Converte ... einfo.html

Bushdoctor · Post by **Bushdoctor** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 5:33 pm

I've actually got version 2.1.
It sounds like a wrong setting, but I can't find anything
that refers to a size ratio in the options. Hmmm.

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 5:48 pm

try working these two files. I did them on my copy.