(edit) Exploring Patent Auctions.

[Tijer]

OK, If you can't get your head out of the train. Then you have the electric motors for electric trains along with the grid and you have diesel engines. then you have the Maglev and its derivatives. Redesigns on rail cars that allow them to transport cars standing on end instead of car carrier style like they used to. After that just get creative. To date they have not put a reactor on a train engine, but they put them on warships and send them into battle. That would be a return to steam concept. How about an engine that runs on Booze, beer, trash. Same for power plants, increases profits to those that buy them. Insecticides improve farm production, DDT. Glass production methods improved Manufactured goods. The redesign of hoppers to make them empty quicker.

You really need not be so picky. When all else fails make some up after all no one said that trains are completely dead. So what a bout the future. Currently, the industry is fighting the Panama Canal to stay alive. If the dual canal gets built what happens next. Will they find a new niche to fill or will they fade to just passenger lines competing with Airlines or just fade away. For the most part everyone stops in the current period in the scenario writing, reason there is nothing else for them to archive. You can expand that to the future with just a little effort. Once you go there others will follow. Some very new engines and passenger cars, Would be cool. Be creative or just dream a little.

Let me out of here before I add another project to my growing list and Snoopy kills me.

[Star Ranger4]

To date they have not put a reactor on a train engine, but they put them on warships and send them into battle. That would be a return to steam concept.

its also one of the 'enabling' ideas for San Martino, I should note.

[Tijer]

To date they have not put a reactor on a train engine, but they put them on warships and send them into battle. That would be a return to steam concept.

its also one of the 'enabling' ideas for San Martino, I should note.

Well there you go Doc.

[Bushdoctor]

A reactor could definitely work but others are harder to realize.

I think we should work the other way round.
First check which modifiers we can actually influence.
Then find patents to match those modifiers.

Here's a list of the currently available Patent modifiers.
I suggest we use that info and try to get a new one working first.

LocoSpeedInTurns (Westinghouse airbrakes)
LocoSpeedUpHill (Baldwin's sandbox)
LocoPower (Parsons Steam Turbine)
TrackCost (Malleable rails)
TunnelCost (Greathead tunneling shield)
BridgeCost (Bridge Truss)
Maintenance (McCoy Lubricator)
and
GoodDeliveryBonus - This last one is used for 2 patents: Pullman's Palace Car
which influences the Passenger profit and Swift's Refrigerator Car which
influences a lot of perishable goods.

Even though the mentioned Reactor sounds great, it would basically copy
Parson's Steam Turbine patent and influence the LocoPower.
That's okay, but you would have to remove the Steam Turbine patent
from the list
because I don't think we can influence the order in which patents appear.

An important question is whether or not it's possible to use other tags from the game as modifiers.
For example the ones used in the Events.
Most, if not all random appearing event-effects would be suitable as auctionable Patents.
All of them influence the output of Goods (plus a few influence the overal
stock market).

We could, for example, create a patent for each type of good:
Crops (grain, corn), Animals (swine, livestock), Animal products (wool, nitrates), etc, etc.
Then we can do the same for the industry outputs. Group them and assign
patents to their production increase.

We can go as far as having very detailed patents that, for example,
only influence the storage capacity of an industry but not it's production speed.
Etcetera.

Another important question is whether or not it's possible to run a scenario
with its own patents file.
If not, I think the entire idea becomes much less interesting.

If somebody doesn't beat me to it, I'm gonna dig into this once
I'm finished editting the scenario Rift Revisited.

[Tijer]

Doc - Well the reactor could increase speed on all electric trains as well be able to pull freight. Excess power from the reactor would be added to the grid. This may get people to use it in western maps. Plus the advantage of higher speeds. On the subject of Rift, I will PM you some info that I have discovered.

[Bushdoctor]

I've done some testing on the patents and I'm affraid we can't use
different modifiers than the ones mentioned.

I tried to create a patent that would increase passenger output.
I was able to make it appear in the game and even bid on it,
but the effect wasn't applied.
This was due to the fact that there is no modifier available to create this effect.
When changing <szType>GoodDeliveryBonus into <szType>Good the game crashes.
(The last modifier is the correct one for the passenger increase entry
in the events xml which I partially copied to try and make things work).

We can only have a bit of variation with the existing patents.
Give them a different name, change their values a bit, but that's it.
Darn shame.

I might do some more testing in the future, but I think I've checked
all logical possibilities. New attempts would mainly consist out of guesses.

[snoopy55]

The thing about the Patents is that they are random. A Reactor would look kind of silly showing up in 1850, much as the Pullman car looks odd in 1980.

As you said earlier, Patents can be done for Goods. It just takes some reaserch for either real Patents, or non Patent things, like faster butchering abilities in Stockyards. Combines for crops. Better storage for a lot of things. If you really want to keep it as Patents, make up Patents for things along those lines. New Pestisides?

[snoopy55]

I would bid on a Bessemer patent if it would increase the output of MY steel mills, not if it would globally influence prices for steel, engines, bridges, track, cars, automobiles and whatnot.

As far as I can tell, the effect is for you only for 10 years. I do believe it then affects everyone.

As far as a patent goes, a Water Scoop might be a good addition. It could affect Goods, getting you more money since you don't have to stop for water. Here is the Patent :

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/2438397.html

And here is a picture:

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/1510898 ... 9509wlmdsl

In the upper right of that screen you can look at a few of the parts for it. They could be added to the Patent Screen.

[Bushdoctor]

I don't think you want to influence all goods with a single patent,
because that would further limit possibilities.

With the limitations that we have got to work with the only thing that seems
to make sense is to create seperate patents, one for each good.
This could be any good, not just the ones from the fridge patent.
However if the goods from the fridge patent would be split up, it would make
sense to remove the fridge patent itself from the list

The patents xml file needs to be global, so it can be deleted after the
map has been played which would restore the normal patent situation.

[snoopy55]

Well, You could do perishables, those have always required a fast train, and this would prolong their life in the market.......