Mud Skippers

[Lowell]

Mud Skippers

Download Link Below, Latest version

Welcome to mud skipper paradise.
A simple happy people, so named after the small mud skippers that live in the local streams.
Fish, wine and mud cakes are the main food sources of the land.
Mud furniture and autos are made here and prized the world over.
Mine mud gold and make money at the Federal Treasury to buy goods at the ports.
Workers and tools added to the local industries will boost production levels.
Bears love to eat the grapes in the mountains...so watch out!
So grab your fishing pole and pack a lunch and climb aboard the Mud Skipper Railway.

Mud Skippers is a rebuilt default game map. It has been re-sized from a size 10 to 16. Much landscaping and terraforming went on as well. The map is built as a self-contained game map and must be the only mod map in the usermaps folder. Place the single Mud Skippers map file folder inside your UserMaps folder...start the game. Remember to remove the map folder from usermaps when you switch to play a new mod map. Make a new folder where you keep your self-contained maps for storage etc.

Thanks to the Beta testers who tested and helped in the completion of this mod...Burningman50, Mikeyc, Kevin, Christian Hulfenhaus, Dwax, BurlingtonNorthern for his new track skin
Thanks to Mikeyc in assisting in script editing as well
Special Thanks to Rodea2007 for use of his cargo ship model, corn field, and map testing
The auto car and the skin for the coal car are from the Basin and Range maps, then edited and rebuilt for use in this map

This is a Clean Install Compatible ( CIC ) self contained game map.

http://www.CrimsonSun.cc/Mud_Skippers_CIC.rar

The file size is 44.5mb so it is a tad large due to much of the new game content. Please feel free to PM or E-mail me if you have any questions on the maps construction.
Lowell@CrimsonSun.cc

[mikeyc]

Mud Skippers represents Lowell's latest contribution to the forum's maps.
It is a well thought-out map that will have you occupied for quite a long time. The victory conditions are achievable although I struggled with a couple of conditions because of the starting point. Barstow is a case in point, a bit hard but you can make it.
There is only one distribution centre which is good in that you can't generate oodles of cash quickly by running trains between the two as in FG, so route planing is important.
The map runs well and during the test phase I loaded plenty of long bridges into the map towards the end to try to get it to crash but it coped ok.
The industries work ok in that you can use all the resources and production and we see the introduction of a couple of new ones and the use of workers and tools at some sites.
The engines in the early part of the game look very smart in their Mud colours.
All in all I think it is the best map Lowell has made so far and is a very enjoyable map to play.

[CobraDriver]

Nice job Lowell, just finished it.

Stable, challenging and very fun.

Met all goals, played all the way thru and no crashes

Thx again

CD

[dogsbody42]

Ok this is me being thick as i've not played this for far too long...I havent got the "UserMaps" folder - do i need to create it?

[mutantz]

Ok,how do i get tools,there is demand but nobody suppiles or makes tools.

[K-class]

Hi mutantz

Just keep shipping goods ands keep things growing.

After a while where you drop off the goods you will be able to pick up tools and workers. I start shipping the goods and after a while I just add tools and workers on the return trip.

[mikeyc]

Dogsbody,
Heres what to do.
Go into My Documents.
Click on My Games
Click on Sid M's Rail
( assuming this is the only SMR folder in My Games)
When the title changes colour go up to the left top window and click on 'rename this folder', then rename the SMR folder to SMR original. Click again and then out of My Games back to desktop. ( I am assuming you have a shortcut to SMR)
Start the game from the desktop.
When the game gets to the Main Menu reconfigure your options. ie graphics your name etc.
then quit back to desktop.
Now copy Mud Skipper into your newly created SMR game's User Maps folder.(the empty user maps folder is created automatically)
When its finished copying, exit back to desktop and restart the game and you will have Mud skippers as a game to play option.
.

[Rodea2007]

Ok,how do i get tools,there is demand but nobody suppiles or makes tools.

If your city growth to Crawdad Hole that City can be produce workers and Tools

Lowell...
I think your mud_clay_car missing something, Notice the picture below

[Lowell]

I cleaned out the maps files for that car before it was posted...I may have removed something for that car I will look into it this evening.

Towns have to grow a level for workers and tools to appear. So the raw goods production line and city growth is slowed this way in the beginning stages of the map.

There are three other items I am making an update for...one for the steel port, adjusting the end track sign and lighten the track ballast a tad. So I will get right on this later and checkout everything then post an update.

EDIT...
the idea behind the workers and tools is it boosts the out of city industrial goods like say wood. Later at the lumber mill, you will see passengers. Those passengers are workers who want to go home back to the cities. So later in the game, you might say have six cars of wood and two passengers, then dump those at the station depot and pickup workers and tools for the trip back.

How to create a clean game file...

Go to your default My Games folder...
C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Railroads!

Then rename the Sid's RailRoads! folder with some thing added to the end of it...
Sid Meier's Railroads!_F_Gold_CIC

After renaming that file folder all your old maps and files are safe. Now start up the game. The game won't see a Sid's RailRoads! game folder and make a new one just as if you just bought the game and just loaded it into your PC for the first time. Set your game username and graphics settings then close down the game to the desktop.

Now...you have created a clean game file that SAM maps and CIC maps can be dropped into the UserMaps folder. These new style maps run by themselves and cannot have other custom game content inside or the maps could crash or run slow etc.

Now drop the Mud Skippers single map file folder inside the UserMaps folder and start the game. Mud Skippers should be the first map you see pop-up, if not scroll left one spot and it will be there then. Run the game.

To play another CIC or SAM map, simply remove the Mud Skippers map folder into a safe map storage folder for these type maps, then drop the next one in and away you go. You can later rename the clean game folder with something added to it, then rename your old game folder and return to your old smri or global game map files at any time. So now you can switch between these map types.

...okay...Squidbillies is on in a few, god knows I cannot mis that...then I will pound out these fixes. Seeing as Rodea broke the clay car I guess it is needed quite quick... ...just kidding.

[dwax]

This is a fun map! I beta tested it and had a blast. Not once did it CTD. Think everyone should try it out.

[karsten]

And I did! Beautifully gleaming engines, Lowell! The scenery is great, and clockwork operation is quite a routing challenge, but I came up with this fairly simple layout. The single distribution centre is a wise constraint. The duals are no more powerful than the single engines, and there is a bit of diesel overabundance towards the end. The 350 waggon goals for containers and steel are a bit heavy and I needed a brute force approach ... still, finished 45 years early.

What I find especially impressive is how Lowell unlocks the potential of a default game map. Re-sized from 10 to 16, creative landscaping and terraforming, and wow, you have a beauty, probably what the game was intended to be, before the marketing types told the programmers that it needed to run on a 10 year old computer.

Great stuff, Lowell!

[K-class]

Lowell where is the latest update on this one??

Great map would be great to see the additions added.

[Lowell]

Mud Skippers has been Updated for the Era 2 clay car. This map is complete. Redownload the files for this map.
Remember, when replacing the self contained map folder, the game will try to reload some of the "old" files from the older folder of files. The thing to do is when you go in-game, and see the Mud Skippers map, scroll past the map then scroll back. This forces the game to totally reload the map before game play.
For some dumb reason, the game trys to remember parts of old past loaded game maps. This causes updated self contained map files to fail unless you scroll past the map a couple maps in the games map selection screen. So just scroll past it a couple maps, then scroll right back and enter the game map without any troubles. Of course this only needs done once after any updated self contained map.

[snoopy55]

The employees of STEP INC have found that there is still a file missing from this map.

[Lowell]

Did anyone say what the trouble was? Some items had gotten changed in the old nif file for the era 2 clay car which should be fixed now. However, the era 2 auto car needs resized.
Guess I need to run through the whole map again and make sure. I have had to work double time on the particles within mod and multiwinia. I will play it through in the next day or so...thanks snoopy55 for letting me know. If you find out any more details please let me know.

Happy New Year everyone