Restarting, but not totally...

[[Nex] Phoenix]

Hey, so I have a map i've been playing on for a while, very happy with the lines and what not... but its 2020+ now... Is there anyway I can restart the save game at a earlier time period, while keeping the trackage/roadways, but not the modern vehicles (like restart at 1900+/-). Alternatively, is there anyway I can just save the trackage/roadways, and start it over in a new game (not an altered save game)

[TrainswithNick]

I don't think that'd be possible, no. There may be some bright spark that can come up with a way eventually, but heavily editing the save file on a coding level, but the likelyhood of it breaking the save file is very high.

[SBGaming]

While I don't know/think you can edit the current date in the save game file to set yourself back in time, one option might be to just turn on the No End of Vehicle Life mod, and do an auto replace on all your lines to revert back to the Steam era, and then just not care about what year it actually is currently.

[ChunkHunter]

Originally posted by SBGaming:

While I don't know/think you can edit the current date in the save game file to set yourself back in time, one option might be to just turn on the No End of Vehicle Life mod, and do an auto replace on all your lines to revert back to the Steam era, and then just not care about what year it actually is currently.

the only downside to that will be that all of the other assets (houses, cars, citizens) will be 20 th century...

[[Nex] Phoenix]

Hmm... I see. Then, does anyone know a way (best way) to somehow copy the trackage that I have set up, so that I can make it exactly the same (close to exact)? Or is the best way to just take a bunch of screen shots and tediouslly go back and forth till I have it as close as possible?

Maybe a program that I can use to make a blueprint like map... (as this is on a extra-large map, one face down screenshot won't really cut it...)

[SBGaming]

Restart the map at 1850 or whatever year you want to start at with the No Costs mod turned on, and then tediously attempt to re-create the map is probably your only option.

I was tempted to go back to the map that I did for my USA Freeplay series and run it with the 4x slower mod, building a lot of the routes that I knew were going to be decent money makers. Considering how much progress I had with my European Freeplay, and how profitable it became especially after 1900, I could probably progress a lot further than my first time around on that map.

The first change I'd make is that I would not tear out my truck network that connected the first couple towns in favor of transporting cargo by rail. A truck network that connects all towns is the best way to get demand from a large number of towns to flow to all industries that are supplying goods into the network.

[Thork]

Most of the information is only available in the savegame, not in the map related files.
I'm pretty certain there is a way to convert a save to a scenario (look at the campaigns) and reset the date, but it does not seem to be simple. A savegame editor might be a great addition.