Will This Be Fixed? Is Another Patch Being Considered?

scrapser · Post by **scrapser** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 12:08 am

I like the idea of this game. But there's something screwed up with how it functions. I play this game (or try to) each night. I just finished spending an hour loading the Northwest scenario over and over again. I must have done this at least 50 times!

The scenario has a set of goals but the resources and the villages that can use them are always placed in ridiculous locations. All the wood is in the Northeast corner of the map and all the paper mills are in the Southwest corner. Or all the fish processing industries are on the east side of the map and all the fisheries on on the coast (west side).

Sometimes my starting city only has secondary industries but all the primary industries and the resources are so scattered, there's no way I would ever survive to reach them. Even if I wanted to, I have to build up each village to a city before I can buy an industry which makes the task even more impossible. Add to this that usually the AI starts with a village with three industries and large, matching resources sitting right next to it and...well...there's not much point in even trying. Plus, the AI has super abilities to change each train's consist to always be hauling the maximum number of full cars between each city.

Didn't the designer's think about this while they were testing? It makes no sense at all.

scrapser

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 12:19 am

If all 15 maps had the goods placed in the same spot and you beat it the first time you played and every time after that, you would get tired of it and give it to someone else. You would stop going to the same golfcourse if everytime you played you beat it by 18 strokes wouldn't you? Same here, it gives you something different to try for. Myself, I look to the goals, but my main one is beat the pants off those AIs. He keeps trying to buy that industry from me, so I'm going to get rid of him.

It gives the game a new challenge each time. If you want the stuff in the same place each time, download some of the maps that have been created.

Post by **Warll** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 12:57 am

Sounds like you'd have a blast playing this map.
http://hookedforums.com/a/viewtopic.php?t=1318

scrapser · Post by **scrapser** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 2:28 am

snoopy55 wrote:If all 15 maps had the goods placed in the same spot and you beat it the first time you played and every time after that, you would get tired of it and give it to someone else. You would stop going to the same golfcourse if everytime you played you beat it by 18 strokes wouldn't you? Same here, it gives you something different to try for. Myself, I look to the goals, but my main one is beat the pants off those AIs. He keeps trying to buy that industry from me, so I'm going to get rid of him.

It gives the game a new challenge each time. If you want the stuff in the same place each time, download some of the maps that have been created.

I think you misunderstood my post. Of course I want the variety and a challenge but it should at least be feasible. I understand the goals can be ignored but why put them in there and then make them impossible to achieve? Maybe my standards are too high.

Fisheries off the coast of Portland, Oregon...canneries in Montana...do we do that in reality?

scrapser

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 2:51 am

Oddly, we do in some ways. We mine iron ore in upper Minnisota, ship it to Pittsburg where we make steel, then ship that to Detroit and Down south somewhere to make cars, which we then ship all over. We send steel to Japan who make things that we import. We buy huge cranes for container unloading from China and ship them to the east coast. But, if you don't want to ship cars from Detroit, you do what Chrysler did and build a plant in St. Louis. Catipillar build in Montgomery and Joleit Illinois and ships World wide. The gane leaves out a few things. The cannery you mentioned needs people and tin and paper. All it asks for is the fish. Automobiles need tires, plastics, copper, aluminum, glass, electronics, steel and the list goes on.
It's a game and anything goes.

Dr Frag · Post by **Dr Frag** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 6:33 pm

My suggetion would be to Pause the game when you need to do any planning. Personally I haven't played against any AI yet because there's enough pressure as it is figuring out what to do. First thing I do in a game is pause it to look around at everything and plan my strategy. Coincidentally I am on the Northwest scenario as well and it's tougher than it seemed at the start. I keep needing to cross over my mainlines to get things around and I'm not one to just build a bridge at the drop of a hat so trying to figure out routes has been interesting in this scenario.

vancouverexpress · Post by **vancouverexpress** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 1:50 am

Of course I want the variety and a challenge but it should at least be feasible. I understand the goals can be ignored but why put them in there and then make them impossible to achieve? Maybe my standards are too high.

Quite a few players like using this map online for the exact reason that it is so challenging. Most cities don't start with enough of a population to accept passengers, etc, so you have to build them up by shipping resources to them.

As a single-player game, I would suggest you play it without AI, and in investor or financier mode. It is challenging. If you don't start on the Oregon plain, you can always restart as there are multiple starting locations in most maps.

There is almost always a way to make some money at the start by hauling resources, so you just need to be patient. The victory conditions give you a fair amount of time to complete the goals. However, this type of scenario isn't for everyone. Most of the others (NE, Midwest, Germany, etc) are loaded with big cities and don't require as much patience. Play the scenarios you enjoy, but realize that there are players who enjoy these type also, and wouldn't want a 'patch' to get rid of them.