station placement

[bonavada]

got a little bored with the normal game so i started using a little "creative landscaping" just for fun. that is placing staitions just about anywhere i like on the map. i "creep" the stations to wherever i want and can then hammer all competion as and when i please. anyone else try this? if so what is your best ann. profit? i achieve £14 mill PA for my whole rail system once and +£10 mill regularly. i also managed a £7 mill PA single line profit (london/hastings) for a short while. using "station creep" it's possible to bash the AI everytime NP.
i found the AI to be rather unchallenging and somewhat stupid. ie making uneccesary tracks to nearby goods yards, not picking up passengers, never being first bid on auctions etc etc i always play the hardest settings btw. i loved the game at first now its not much fun anymore.
anyway atb

BV

[snoopy55]

One thing you can do for a challenge is set all the charactrs skill levels at 4. This can be done in (whichever drive you use):\Program Files\2K Games\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Railroads!\Assets\XML\RRT_Characters.xml. I can't say it'll do great things, but some of those AIs are set rather dumb

[keotaman]

... i found the AI to be rather unchallenging and somewhat stupid. ie making uneccesary tracks to nearby goods yards, ... BV

I agree with the specific quote above, but the other two contradict what I have seen.
And I'm intrigued by "station creep", can you explain what it is to us? Thanks BV.

[Warll]

I think I know what you mean by "creeping". By it you mean how a industry will move if you build tracks "pushing" it to a destination.

[bonavada]

I agree with the specific quote above, but the other two contradict what I have seen.
And I'm intrigued by "station creep", can you explain what it is to us? Thanks BV.

as warii writes above. you can lessen the distance travelled by trains by "creeping" the stations/goods yards from the original zone by building multiple tracks in front/behind and then deleting the tracks and the station "creeps" in the desired direction. this beats the AI every time i find. after a while it's no fun though.................

BV

[Warll]

Although there is no way thats any cheaper then just building track out to the station.

[keotaman]

... lessen the distance travelled by trains by "creeping" the stations/goods yards from the original zone by building multiple tracks in front/behind and then deleting the tracks ... BV

Guess I'm having a Senior Moment, but I still don't get it. Yes, I know you can shift the position of a depot slightly, but it still has to meet the conditions of being within 3 trackwidths of both track & the green influence circle around resources & towns.
As far as "placing staitions just about anywhere i like on the map," I just don't see how you do that.

[bonavada]

Yes, I know you can shift the position of a depot slightly, but it still has to meet the conditions of being within 3 trackwidths of both track & the green influence circle around resources & towns.
As far as "placing staitions just about anywhere i like on the map," I just don't see how you do that.

its a a pure bug.
you can, if you want, place a station/goods depot anywhwere on the map. you can do it like this.
place a nice straight no grade section of track at your city/yard, facing the direction you want to end up.
build your station/yard (of course, at first this will have to be within the green zone)
place 4 double platform tracks (assuming a terminal. 3 if your a depot)
delete the inside 3.....the station will creep up to the last track left.
repeat the process until you have the station where you want it.
it can be done quicker but this is the first way i learnt.
get 2 city stations real close and in the early stages of the game big bucks are earnable when passenger revenue is high. remember to fully load your train with say 6 passenger and 2 mail cars and( if you have the stations close enough) there is no travel time in the turnaround.
;-]

BV

[keotaman]

Ok, thanks BV; I understand it now.

[bonavada]

Ok, thanks BV; I understand it now.
I played around with this a bit, & also found that once the depot is placed, then it can be moved as far as you want to go, irrespective of the original track/green circle conditions.

Thanks for your patience in explaining for this Certified Old Guy!

NP COG you old pedant :-]
...perhaps i should have written REplaced the depot

anyway it sure beats up the AI on any diff. setting on any map. its was fun for a while to build up a huge ann. profit i think my record is about 15 mill with a record single train of 7 mill.
btw what is the "richest" standard map which map does everyone think this bug could be used to it's fullest advantage?

BV