I just think the difficulties in the map should accurately reflect the difficulties chosen. If someone chooses investor (very easy) the map should be, well, very easy. And vise versa. Investor should be a cake walk and robber baron should have you on your toes. This map would cater to more audiences if it followed this formula. Currently it just caters to hard core railroaders.
Just my 2 cents.
Arizona Gold V2.4 PcMac
This map is not that hard. I mean look at me if my Railroads! was stable. I'd have gotten all but one goal done on my first try and I don't think of my self as a hard core player. Even if this map can not be won by normal players you have to look to the fact that most players don't even download fanmade maps. So while most SMR players may be unable to play this map most Hooked on Railroads! players can.
ZanzerTem - if you want to try it with lower costing Bridges and Tunnels, remove those two XMLs from the map and change the names in the RRT_Scenario XML.
Myself, I usually play maps with 3 AIs and work to stay ahead of them with the goals as a secondary.
Myself, I usually play maps with 3 AIs and work to stay ahead of them with the goals as a secondary.
I'm correct 97% of the time..... who cares about the other 4%....
G3mInI, I see you are working on the bridge file. If you would like to supply an improved bridge file for Arizona, I would be more than happy to include it in a Version 2, giving you full credit, of course.
Universum, if you would like to enhance the decoration of the map along the lines you sketched out above, I would also be pleased to include your map in V 2.
Cheers!
Universum, if you would like to enhance the decoration of the map along the lines you sketched out above, I would also be pleased to include your map in V 2.
Cheers!
I came really close this time on very easy/hard routing! Couldn't get Las Vegas to develop fast enough to build an army base. However, I know what I did wrong: I needed more passenger trains going to Las Vegas and another gold train going there as well.
I wasn't able to build an army base until one year left
Oh well I'm still proud I did so well this try! Heres how I did it:
I started in ash fork: I believe this is the ideal starting location due to you get a free terminal here. I connected to Grand canyon and bought the hotel there and set up passengers service between there and ash fork. I build to Flagstaff and set up another passenger train. I bought the stockyard in Ash Fork and delivered the food to flagstaff. This setup gives you a good base on working towards the objectives.
This is a fun map for experienced players. I think I will tinker with it and make it my own per se to make it easier for myself, however.
All in all I've had a lot of fun starting and restarting this map trying to beat it! Thanks for the contribution karsten and I look forward to getting my butt kicked by your next map
I wasn't able to build an army base until one year left
Oh well I'm still proud I did so well this try! Heres how I did it:
I started in ash fork: I believe this is the ideal starting location due to you get a free terminal here. I connected to Grand canyon and bought the hotel there and set up passengers service between there and ash fork. I build to Flagstaff and set up another passenger train. I bought the stockyard in Ash Fork and delivered the food to flagstaff. This setup gives you a good base on working towards the objectives.
This is a fun map for experienced players. I think I will tinker with it and make it my own per se to make it easier for myself, however.
All in all I've had a lot of fun starting and restarting this map trying to beat it! Thanks for the contribution karsten and I look forward to getting my butt kicked by your next map
- Attachments
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- SMRailroads!0003.GIF (184.51 KiB) Viewed 14193 times
Hé Karsten,
congratulations on your last map!!!
it's surely adding something to the game!
phew
, it's still totally different to my map and scenario, eventhough you've had also an hotel (like i have also 1, but still different)
I must admit, i didn't played this last map yet till the end,
but you can understand that when creating a map yourself, you can't easily relax and take some time to play other maps, i'm to focused on my map (and yes, i'm playing already my scenario map, and even without being really tuned up, i'm already so happy with it)
Let's hope i will finish it 1 day... (i'm still planning to do everything myself, the terrain is for the moment just plain grass fe)
In short.
Well done karsten!
keep up the good work!!!!
congratulations on your last map!!!
it's surely adding something to the game!
phew
, it's still totally different to my map and scenario, eventhough you've had also an hotel (like i have also 1, but still different)I must admit, i didn't played this last map yet till the end,
but you can understand that when creating a map yourself, you can't easily relax and take some time to play other maps, i'm to focused on my map (and yes, i'm playing already my scenario map, and even without being really tuned up, i'm already so happy with it)
Let's hope i will finish it 1 day... (i'm still planning to do everything myself, the terrain is for the moment just plain grass fe)
In short.
Well done karsten!
keep up the good work!!!!
Hi everyone,
I have completed the map on Mogul/Hard starting in Flagstaff just a year ahead of the deadline (but it could be done sooner with a little better planning).
Most difficult was to complete first era objectives while setting up economic foundation for further success. My plan was simple, buy stockyard in Flagstaff, connect nearby Cattle Ranch, connect to Ash Fork and start hauling passengers and food. When money allowed, I bought Furniture factory in Ash Fork and connected nearby Sawmill to start producing goods.
I have eventually ended up with 2 double track routes between Flagstaff and Ash Fork, each accomodating two trains (4 altogather), one was for two passenger/mail trains and other carried two cargo trains hauling food to Ash Fork and goods back to Flagstaff.
At the end of the first era, I had enough money to get rails laid all the way to Needles.
Rest was relatively easy because money stopped being much of a problem. And tip for lucrative short routes: look at Phoenix.
I have had some rather annoying problems when setting up paralel lines between Ash Fork and Flagstaff. I have started with two paralel lines each having its own platform on either end. I have double each line while still having one platform on each end and added one additional train on each line. Computer should have had no problem whatsover with this layout because there were enough room for all trains. But it had, it insisted on sending the trains head on on the same rail and inevitably got stuck. At first, I though it was because I had left semaphores in places so I removed them and made sure each rail was a single segment. To my surprise, even this did not stop the game from screewing me royaly. At first, I saw two trains passing through each other like ghosts while other rail was completely unused (see the pictures), I though it was just glitch because it happened just after I added the train and even though it was hard routing, it did not cause the train to stop. To my surpise, two other cargo trains got stuck in the same way after few years of flawless operation. I was able to add connection between the tracks and problem was solved but my trust in the ability of the Railroads! not to screew up trivial routing case took a nose dive.
My several first attempts ended up few items short of completing the objectives. First I have learned that to get enough passengers from Barstow to Ash Fork, I have to run two trains. In first game, I have set train camera to follow last arms train to Vegas only to arrive in December 1969 and watch the year roll over to 1970 just as the stopped and started unloading. I did not save my game for quite a while so I had to replay pretty much eveything again.
After I completed the scenario, I spent years setting up train camera on long distance trains, zoomed in to max and just enjoyed the ride.
Great map, great scenario, wonderful terrain.... 10/10.
Thanks a lot karsten...
I would only complain about southern route through Parker which felt a little useless because there was nothing to do there. It would not hurt to have to transport few passengers there (http://www.coloradoriverinfo.com/parker ... vents.html).
I will also try harder difficulty, I think I have few ideas
which might work.
I have completed the map on Mogul/Hard starting in Flagstaff just a year ahead of the deadline (but it could be done sooner with a little better planning).
Most difficult was to complete first era objectives while setting up economic foundation for further success. My plan was simple, buy stockyard in Flagstaff, connect nearby Cattle Ranch, connect to Ash Fork and start hauling passengers and food. When money allowed, I bought Furniture factory in Ash Fork and connected nearby Sawmill to start producing goods.
I have eventually ended up with 2 double track routes between Flagstaff and Ash Fork, each accomodating two trains (4 altogather), one was for two passenger/mail trains and other carried two cargo trains hauling food to Ash Fork and goods back to Flagstaff.
At the end of the first era, I had enough money to get rails laid all the way to Needles.
Rest was relatively easy because money stopped being much of a problem. And tip for lucrative short routes: look at Phoenix.
I have had some rather annoying problems when setting up paralel lines between Ash Fork and Flagstaff. I have started with two paralel lines each having its own platform on either end. I have double each line while still having one platform on each end and added one additional train on each line. Computer should have had no problem whatsover with this layout because there were enough room for all trains. But it had, it insisted on sending the trains head on on the same rail and inevitably got stuck. At first, I though it was because I had left semaphores in places so I removed them and made sure each rail was a single segment. To my surprise, even this did not stop the game from screewing me royaly. At first, I saw two trains passing through each other like ghosts while other rail was completely unused (see the pictures), I though it was just glitch because it happened just after I added the train and even though it was hard routing, it did not cause the train to stop. To my surpise, two other cargo trains got stuck in the same way after few years of flawless operation. I was able to add connection between the tracks and problem was solved but my trust in the ability of the Railroads! not to screew up trivial routing case took a nose dive.
My several first attempts ended up few items short of completing the objectives. First I have learned that to get enough passengers from Barstow to Ash Fork, I have to run two trains. In first game, I have set train camera to follow last arms train to Vegas only to arrive in December 1969 and watch the year roll over to 1970 just as the stopped and started unloading. I did not save my game for quite a while so I had to replay pretty much eveything again.
After I completed the scenario, I spent years setting up train camera on long distance trains, zoomed in to max and just enjoyed the ride.
Great map, great scenario, wonderful terrain.... 10/10.
Thanks a lot karsten...
I would only complain about southern route through Parker which felt a little useless because there was nothing to do there. It would not hurt to have to transport few passengers there (http://www.coloradoriverinfo.com/parker ... vents.html).
I will also try harder difficulty, I think I have few ideas
which might work.- Attachments
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- Routing surprise
- Routing Troubles.jpg (368.99 KiB) Viewed 14151 times
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- Phoenix - Las Vegas route crossing Colorado south of Needles
- Bridge over the Colorado.jpg (304.16 KiB) Viewed 14151 times
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- Perfect wooden bridge
- Perfect Bridge.jpg (286.72 KiB) Viewed 14153 times
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- Phoenix - Grand Canyon Village train
- Phoenix - Grand Canyon Train.jpg (414.65 KiB) Viewed 14153 times
Actually I also like to avoid those ugly overpass bridges because as you say, they are hideous. I even go as far as trying to make sure that bridge pillars won't stand in the middle of rails passing under the bridge for esthetic reasons (can't stand to watch train passing though them). In this scenario, I tried hard to use only wooden bridges, beside being cheaper, they fit into the Southwest better. Would it be possible to make the overpass bridges prohibitively expensive?G3mInI, I confess I really dislike overpass bridges, because they look like nothing you would ever see in real life (they also remind me of the inelegant bridges in RRT3). But they are hardcoded in the game and so you are right, I need to bring them back. I avoid them myself by using the terrain for overpasses, like in the picture, but that is expecting a bit much from other users. I am really pleased that you welcome difficulty in a map. That is exactly what I try to achieve. Interesting, tough, but fully tested to be doable.
And behold fruits of my hard work near Peach Springs, it took a lot of level adjusting and building in stages but the result was worth it
.I had a lot of fun building the rails over difficult terrain (to get the wood to Needles). I usually try to keep the gentle or moderate grade and not too tight curves to avoid train from slowing too much.
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- Pefect wooden bridge
- Perfect Bridge 2.jpg (298.28 KiB) Viewed 14140 times
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- Mountain railroad
- Rails through the Mountains.jpg (292.19 KiB) Viewed 14139 times
universum,
I noticed on your train passing through a train picture that the station track is very short, shorter that the lenght of the train. The switch is very close as well. I have seen where a train will stick out past the light controlls when loading, and will then pass through one that happend to take that route that is waiting. It's as if the waiting train doesn't know that the loading one has chosen it's route, but instead of locking head to head, the loading train when done loading just passes through the waiting.
I hope this helps.
Big Papa
I noticed on your train passing through a train picture that the station track is very short, shorter that the lenght of the train. The switch is very close as well. I have seen where a train will stick out past the light controlls when loading, and will then pass through one that happend to take that route that is waiting. It's as if the waiting train doesn't know that the loading one has chosen it's route, but instead of locking head to head, the loading train when done loading just passes through the waiting.
I hope this helps.
Big Papa
hi karsten,
I could not have posted those, as you say, great screenshots if there was no great map in the first place.
BTW. I have tried on harder difficulty and I don't think it is possible, definitely not on robber baron starting from Flagstaff. I have tried to pull all the tricks but there is just not enough time/money to complete first era objectives. I have even tried to sell the tracks to get some money back and be able to reach Needles.
Maybe drank can give it a go to see if he can do better.
I have tried to see if I could do it starting from Phoenix (had to make it one of the starting places), that was not very successful either so I tweaked factories down there a little bit and now I am pretty close to a setup, which actually could make it possible to win on Robber Baron (had to stop playtesting at 3am yesterday but I am sure I can do it).
I will send you the modified XML files once I succeed. I may throw in some goal to make southern Parker line useful.
I have also sent you private message yesterday, did you receive it?
I could not have posted those, as you say, great screenshots if there was no great map in the first place.
BTW. I have tried on harder difficulty and I don't think it is possible, definitely not on robber baron starting from Flagstaff. I have tried to pull all the tricks but there is just not enough time/money to complete first era objectives. I have even tried to sell the tracks to get some money back and be able to reach Needles.
Maybe drank can give it a go to see if he can do better.
I have tried to see if I could do it starting from Phoenix (had to make it one of the starting places), that was not very successful either so I tweaked factories down there a little bit and now I am pretty close to a setup, which actually could make it possible to win on Robber Baron (had to stop playtesting at 3am yesterday but I am sure I can do it).
I will send you the modified XML files once I succeed. I may throw in some goal to make southern Parker line useful.
I have also sent you private message yesterday, did you receive it?
Hi Universum, I got a few pms yesterday, but none from you... 
I pmd you my email, in case you want to try that.
In my first scenario draft, there was going to be a connection to Yuma via Blythe, perhaps for sending medical supplies to the clinics there. So you could come up with a Mexico connection, possibly exporting some wood and returning assembled manufactures from a maquiladora you build in Blythe/Yuma ... looking forward to your Phoenix mod!
I have already fixed the overpass/overlap issue by including them as an expensive opion, like you suggested. Works beautifully, because it rewards careful tracklaying with cost savings!
I pmd you my email, in case you want to try that. In my first scenario draft, there was going to be a connection to Yuma via Blythe, perhaps for sending medical supplies to the clinics there. So you could come up with a Mexico connection, possibly exporting some wood and returning assembled manufactures from a maquiladora you build in Blythe/Yuma ... looking forward to your Phoenix mod!
I have already fixed the overpass/overlap issue by including them as an expensive opion, like you suggested. Works beautifully, because it rewards careful tracklaying with cost savings!