A pile of requests and questions!

[keotaman]

Hi folks,
Due to a question by Oddible (check wiki Resources page history), I felt compelled to fill in some of all the stuff I left unsaid, here.
Is any of this General Strat page new to you old hands? I never know if the thoughts I see in a vacuum are common knowledge, or have holes I never saw. Especially since I don't do mp.
RK
P.S. Great to see you folks!

Absolutely great work on the Wiki, Sir RedKnight! I have learned soooo much from your researh & articles, TY.
I'm a newbie, not an old hand, but thought I'd answer anyway - hate to see a serious question go by without an answer. I hadn't realized that the Strategies page just went up, everything seems so polished I assumed it had been there for a long time!
I've played a lot lately on the Northeast U.S. scenario, single player at first then included one & two AI's for a bit more interest. They have taught me a few things too, most of them bad, although leaching or claim-jumping is perfectly legal & acceptable! I also do not play in MP mode.
When a game started to go bad for me, I would back up to an earlier version to try a different tactic, or start over with a new plan, so I've developed a more intuitive feel for what works rather than a strict mathematical proof of concept as you have done - just too much work for that!

My opinion on your General_Strategies:
Trim Your Terminals - excellent advice, worth it's weight in gold. I even linked to it in my track laying article & included a picture! I had seen trains stopping in the center of "loading tracks" at stops, just wasn't sure if short or long was best as both have disadvantages. Most times I agree, short is better! Just take care when connecting to "loading tracks" to avoid "breaking" curved spans into lower speed blocks.
Ping-pong Same Resource - if you mean a train that goes only between 2 stops, a resource & its demand, then I agree, you can almost "set & forget" that train. Downside is 50% of travel is empty. The AI's taught me to leave empty cars in place for speedier loading, that works really well. An outgrowth of this one is later, when the demand stop produces product/goods from the resource, your train can load product after delivering resource and then deliver the product, a "chain train." More time making money & less time moving empty. I usually set 4 res. cars & 4 product cars & leave it that way. While this train will often be on "dedicated track" at the start, it needs to be connected to the grid later.
Weightless Empty Cars - yes, leave them in place for re-use. If you have trouble with a long train blocking, put in more signals (shorter "blocks) to allow them to get closer before stopping. It's easy to install a signal anywhere you want one! Trains usually only "look ahead" one or two blocks at a time.
Monogamous Trains - aka "dedicated track" & "spur line." Okay in the very early game, to get money flowing. But building track takes most of your money early on, you can't really afford not to re-use track by having other trains also operate there! The skill comes in finding ways to do it that don't snarl or tie-up your trains.
The Least-Useless Train - I can't really agree here, the resources grow & output faster so the ARC won't be able to keep up. Your line, "Just as long as it can handle the resource output -" tends to cover this, however.
Falling Off the U-Tube - I'm kinda lost here, so no opinion.

No criticism of you RK, I'm in awe of your take on things. I live near & have often travelled on the NorthEast Corridor, so I try to model the prototype as much as the game program allows -- not easy, but who doesn't enjoy a challenge?

Be sorta nice if a few of the "hard-core gamers" would chip in with some feedback; as you say, working in a vacuum is difficult.

Thanks again for so many thought-provoking articles & posts.
Keo

[RedKnight]

Hi Keo,

I'm not playing Railroads any more, so I don't gaurantee any replies. But it's great to see someone deep into it. Busy man.

Response to Public Comment, as they say in the government:

It's true that I attempt strict mathematical proofs - solo games with no AIs or MP. Others can build on the variations MP/AIs might introduce if they want - and if they want the added headache. Of course things will be different then. But how can one avoid the simple starting point - how do things act all by themself?

Trim Terminals - "Just take care when connecting to "loading tracks" to avoid "breaking" curved spans into lower speed blocks." Not sure I understand this statement of yours.

If you mean the effect of speed on delivery time, it only matters for express delivery (P&M). For freight, I never studied whether one horrific turn right before the terminal was better or worse than going out of your way to make a sloping curve, when one had to choose. I suspect one horrifically tight turn is better for non-express, but it's just instinct. For express, time is everything.

Ping-Pong Same Resource - Apologies, I must have explained this poorly. By "same resource", I meant "same resource".

For example, a train that ONLY ping-pongs passengers between one stop and the other. Such a train never changes cars, because both stops always have exactly the same resource.

PLEASE clarify what I said on the wiki, if this is not clear. It's the point of the point!

Weightless empty - Works hand in hand with same resource (often, but not always).

Monogamous Trains - Unsure what to say here. Not sure where we disagree. In theory, make one track early in the game and if you have god-like powers of planning to always use it for the exact same engine across the whole game (but not necessarily consist). Of course there are exceptions, every game. Even beginners break their own rules; even experts do. It's a broad statement.

But the point is: Don't make 10x the track if your trains aren't performing. Instead, force them to stick to one line. Make them do their work.

Which changes over time. Maybe.

The Least-Useless Train - "Your line, "Just as long as it can handle the resource output -" tends to cover this, however."

That's the bottom line. Does the rest not make sense in that context? Help in re-wording is appreciated.

As for the U-tube, when you get really precise in Railroads, things can be handled just barely well enough to go really well, or just barely bad enough, to go really badly. It's an optimal curve-fitting thing. If you're always hauling less than is piling up when you don't have your cars set on Wait, they will get slower and slower. Until finally they are hella slow. If you had initially had a slightly faster engine, everything would've been fine, all the time.

Optimization is a technical concept, and in this instance, it's an upside-down letter U. Or right-side up graph... depends on the labels of the X-Y grpah. Anyway, the pain is the lowest when you do it just right so that you're at the bottom of the U of the intersection of cost versus pay-off.

It's kinda like dating, laugh.

Please take a heavy hand at re-wording everything I wrote. No wiki page is owned by anyone, and I have moved on. Make it more understandable - IF you understand it.

---

I had hopes that many folks would become interested in the wiki, since I loved Railroads when first playing it. I was honored and glad to see that Falconer, a sysop here, gladly volunteered to make one. In my humble experience, nobody's as into the science of the game as I am. (I am a scientist IRL.) But that's fine, there's plenty of other things to be put on a wiki... graphics, tales, mods, tons of things.

The thing about a wiki is that it outlives oneself. I am glad to have my work revised in the future. Keo, please revise my wording any place it could use easier wording (but only if you really understand what I said).

Cool bro - RK