3 New Maps and a few questions

stormfather · Post by **stormfather** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 3:20 am

These are both fun maps, and it's nice to see new content being released. I'd recommend smoothing the coastlines and riverbeds a bit with the map editor. I think bringing the coastlines down to a smooth beach would look very nice.

What kinds of trains were/are used in Africa? Maybe some British or German trains might be appropriate, since a lot of Africa was colonized?

K-class · Post by **K-class** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 9:59 am

Hello jowe10

Big

and congrats on your maps.

Just want to add I played both maps except the 3rd Africa Diamonds and these maps I really enjoyed and I think you have found a good balance between map size, CTD issues, Graphic issues, Slow track layout in later parts of the game.

The Africa map is well laid out with lots of resources and its playable to the end!

Stick with what you are doing and don't be swayed by adding to much.

jowe10 · Post by **jowe10** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 1:08 pm

Kclass:

Thanks for the comments. I enjoy playing maps that are spread out a little and have more challenges in making money.

The CTD thing is a big challenge because I am finding there seems to be all kinds of "hidden" nuances to this game which I have not yet uncovered. Things like depending on the XML editor you use it may put in unseen characters that make SMR CTD, but are unseen to you (thanks to the forum posters). Also there are dependencies between all the possible locations an XML file can exist that are not completely known, and other things going on that I won't even get into. I just spent a day troublshooting my computer after SMR started locking up my computer for any map. It didn't even CTD, it just locked up my computer. I ended up havng to do a complete uninstall and reinstall of everything.

If I wasn't so close to finishing my new map I would have walked away from it for a few weeks. Honestly, if I had not received comments from people like you saying you actually used the maps I would have given up.

Stormfather:

Thanks for the comments. If you know a resource that that lists what trains may have been used let me know. Honestly, I don't know anything about the trains and don't worry about it too much. If it makes for a better map to have some accuracy in trains I could change it. I agree on smoothing out the coastlines. I am going to post a map in a little while where I did smooth out the coastlines in many areas (except where I purposely left cliffs). I have a couple other maps I am working on. After I complete those I may go back and update these.

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 9:39 pm

jowe10 - you mentioned something about dependancies between XMls. I'm not sure if this is what you mean, but it might help. If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask. It should print out on 3 sheets. Check your margins first.

atani · Post by **atani** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 4:49 pm

Installers for the maps in this thread attached..

jowe10 · Post by **jowe10** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 1:09 am

Atani - thanks for the installers. I appreciate your help in making these easier for others.

Snoopy55:

I have downloaded and read through your RealityMapRequirementsMaster. Thanks.

An example of the dependencies that got me lately was my computer would lock up (not CTD) whenever I started any game. Made troubleshooting laborious as I had to reboot every time (Ctrl-alt-del didn't even work). Without making the story too long, I found I had a file RRT_Depots.XML in one of my user maps directories. All the other files had the map name in the file name, but somehow this one ended up without. I couldn't find anything actually wrong with it, it just did not like it being in that particular user map directory. Even though I rebooted the computer and just tried to play another game, the game was seeing this file and choking. I added the name of the user map into the file name and everything started working fine. I would not have expected the game to search every user map directory for certain files, even though the map was not being played. I do remember seeing something in one of the posts about the game always using the latest version of a particular file.

Another example. I think you suggested editing the events file to match my map. I have had a lot of trouble with this. When I have done this my games start to CTD. I can't find anything wrong with the file. in fact, all I did was:
1) copy the events XML file into my maps directory
2) add in the map name to the file name
3) change the scenario file to point to the new event XML file
4) edit the text in the events file

I end up spending too much time troubleshooting so I gave up on this for now. A question on these:

How do you know, or set, the map to use the US vs the Europe vs the Global events? Can you delete any?

I am sure I am doing some things wrong, but the lack of diagnostics is tough. I have enabled logs, but never find anything useful in there. Maybe you have tips on the log files?

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 4:02 am

jowe10 - this is one example of why I and others stress NOT to put the tenders in the RRT_TrainCars_xxx.xml files. The game seems to find them and use those tender files. When we first started doing these custom maps alot of mappers would use minimum data in their map XMLs and add what I guess became to be called 'Global' XMLs to their map folders. If you downloaded say Utah on Tuesday and played it, all was OK. Then you downloaded Ohio on Thursday and played it, all was OK. If you tried to play Utah on Friday, the game went for the latest 'Global' XMLs, Ohios' from Thursday, and No-Go.

I plan on doing a 4th section to my 'Map Making 101' on RRT_Depots and RRT_Events. For the time being, install MID_EAST and Middle East. You'll find them both under 'Middle East Final Beta Released'. Read the whole thread as there are some repairs and some required maps. In there I created Events for the Middle East. They end up at the bottom of the GLOBAL RRT_Events XML. In the Middle East folder you'll find the answer to another question of yours. Like the rest of the XMLs, you tell your map which items to use from the GLOBALS. Or, if you don't use GLOBALS, you only put in what you want your map to use with an Events XML with your maps name on it. Also, with your permission, if you give me the data on a couple of the Events you wanted to do, I'll use the info in the lesson.

As to diagnostics, they do exist and you are using them. To insult a famous author: "To work or not to work, that is the question. Whether it is nobler to suffer the pulling of your hair from your head or to dash your computer against the wall"

It's been trying for me for the last few days. My C: drive has ben going out

, the replacement drive burped

, one of the two drives (240Gb total) I use for just the research and editing of this game lost its MBR

, and I gotta find out what I lost and what I need to download from the forum

.

Happy

, happy

. Joy

, joy

.

atani · Post by **atani** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 6:16 am

snoopy55 wrote: For the time being, install MID_EAST and Middle East. You'll find them both under 'Middle East Final Beta Released'. Read the whole thread as there are some repairs and some required maps.

As a note, the installers above should not require Middle East maps to be installed, the ones which used the resources/industries etc are setup to automatically add them as required.

Also you can use the Middle East installer from the Wiki (direct link to download in above mentioned thread) and it will install a known working version of the Middle East map(s).

Mike

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 7:03 pm

atani - sorry, I wasn't completely clear on that.
What was meant was that by loading and looking those maps over he could better see how I did the Event creating. As to reading the whole thread, unless the minor things like the Iron Mine not being a forest item and the Falafel Farm having fields has been repaired, those things ( and there might be one or two others ) were mentioned in the thread. While I agree that the Wiki does make it much easier to download the maps, the threads give alot of information that people new to the game need to see.

jowe10 · Post by **jowe10** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 10:39 pm

Snoopy55:

sorry to hear about your computer problems. I know that can be a pain.

I have read through many posts on this forum on all kinds of topics. It is a bit overwhelming for newer people to sort through it all. there appear to be many contradictory posts. For example, I read one that said to update the globals with cut and paste, another one that said not to do that, but to replace them entirely. As far as the tenders, there are posts that say delete them, and others that say you don't have to. I am not asking you for answers on all this, just saying there is a lot to absorb in all these posts.

Also, I have found that every time I tinker with something new, I end up trouble shooting for hours. I really am working now with the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

I did find your post on the solution for event XML files, and I am afraid you only reinforce the idea of the quirky nature of modding this game. There was a long history of posts where no one could figure out the problem. I can't imagine the hours put into that one. I am actually glad I gave up on that one. In any event, thanks for the tip and I will try your soution next time.

Snoopy55 wrote:

As to diagnostics, they do exist and you are using them. To insult a famous author: "To work or not to work, that is the question. Whether it is nobler to suffer the pulling of your hair from your head or to dash your computer against the wall"

If those are diagnostics then I am missing something completely.

As far as using some of the events I was going to use, there is nothing really special. I actually wasn't trying to add events, I just modified the existing events to match the maps. For example, in mystery Island, instead of "U.S. economy expands.." I changed it to "Island economy expands...". Even with that I ended up with computer lockups and just went back to the default file (see my previous post) .

Thanks for all your help. BTW, in reading all through the threads you definitely go above and beyond what could be expected of someone. I am sure there are many others that appreciate it.

Good luck with the computer issues

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 10:15 pm

jowe10, if you're still with us, I went over these 3 maps and did some editing. Mainly, removing Goods, Industries and Cars that are not needed. As I've said before, in Industries, this is important as when you want to add an industry to a city, you only get 12 of the 28 or so there are.

Another problem i found. When you click on a town that has a Power Plant, the map CTDs. It does that because the game is looking for Oil, which you don't have, so it shuts down. The following change needs to be done in RRT_Industries_Ohio_Large.xml :

<RRTIndustry>
<szName>Power Plant</szName>
<Production>
<Resource>
<Input>Coal</Input>
<Output>None</Output>
<InputOutputRatio>0</InputOutputRatio>
</Resource>
</Production>
<Locations>
<Location>
<StartX>32</StartX>
<StartY>-147</StartY>
<Rotation>31.996778</Rotation>
<Size>0</Size>
<InCity>TAG_Ohio_large_TOLEDO</InCity>
</Location>
</Locations>
</RRTIndustry>

This will stop it from looking for Oil.

These 3 maps, edited, will be turned over to Atani so he can do new Installers.

jowe10 · Post by **jowe10** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 10:47 pm

Snoopy55, thanks for the edits. I had actually started to go back to old maps and start to clean them up. However, I did not catch the problem with the power plant. I have never seen this problem. After reading your post I went back and tried the map again. I clicked on the city (Toledo), the power plant, and all around and never got a CTD. I can see that the power plant wants coal or oil, and there is no oil anywhere (there is coal), but that is not a problem for me. The obvious question is why don't I see the problem if there has to be both coal and oil on the map?

I have a couple other maps I have been working on, but I have hesitated to post them due to these quirks in the game I don't understand. I have created some custom code and I fear that may make it much more likely to create CTDs on others computers.

Anyway, thanks again for the clean up, and if you can answer the above question I appreciate it.

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 11:05 pm

Have you made any changes to the map since you last posted it?

I'll check your RAR file and see if the problem came about with the installer.

snoopy55 · Post by **snoopy55** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 11:29 pm

OK, I found out what it was. Under Goods, you have Oil, so the game has no problem with it. I had edited the Goods and removed the Oil as there were no Oil Wells, so when I ran it, it had a hissy-fit and CTDed. If you remove the Oil from Goods and make the above change in Industries. it'll run. Or leave Oil in Goods and it will run, but the Power Plants will show accepting Oil that ins't available.

Sorry bout all this

, but editing is what I've done since the first map was created

.

If you'd like, I can post your maps as I have edited them. Or not. no problem either way.

jowe10 · Post by **jowe10** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 11:56 pm

Snoopy55 - go ahead and post these with your edits. Thanks for cleaning them up. Hold off on the maps in the other post ("2 New maps - no mods") as I have already made edits to those (see the other post)