Finished scenarios and campaign : Where's more challenge?

[gardlt]

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/933803782207982967/89AB213710067EBC48515C6813719D7DF4ED6691/

Unlocked all the achievements. Been using no maintenance or service towers. Not sure if it's the smartest strategy, but it clearly works well enough.

Hard maps were almost there for challenge - if only there were more of them. Maybe somebody had success with the editor? Specifically, is there a setting for "Hard" that can be used on other maps?

[genemead]

Congrats on "beating" the game.
Now it's time to actually play it.

Have you tried Free mode?
Did you get the highest rank in each campaign and scenario?
Did you make more money as you went through them?
Did you complete ALL the tasks?

[Doc Savage]

Originally posted by geneomead:

Congrats on "beating" the game.
Now it's time to actually play it.

This. So much this.

Take some time to actually enjoy the ride instead of just getting there yesterday.

Cheers..!

[gardlt]

It appears that "President" isn't possible for some of the campaigns. As the shot shows I got "President" 30+ on all scenarios. On a first try, I wasn't expecting to get a perfect 20/20 time score on all maps. There's always room to improve a result especially more money.


I just finished a free mode of the South, vs. 3 AI, hardest settings, 1910. Starting in Denver. Didn't use bonds. Had to get $1.3M passenger revenue in one quarter by 1918. Made that with a year or two to spare. Everything else was finished. Could do lot better on a retry. There is a lot of strategy that can be put into these. Anybody say, dedicated express or a dining car?


In case you were wondering, the only time I ever touched a warehouse was the sole one I needed for the achievement.


You might think it strange, but I have never played a serious game out of Trainiac mode. In my view the track laying system's strength is it's speed and getting to a nice job rather quickly. It falls down in the intricate stuff, options for intricacy are too restricted in the attempt to make it idiot proof. I guess the devs did their research in looking at the super tight turn-at-station that were the play in Railroads!. Only so much is realistically possible, and that can be done quickly. Feel free to show me shots that can change my mind.

These restrictions are one of the reasons that give me the sense that this is a game to play without pause. There are other reasons about the whole cargo system and especially flat rate freight fees, but I don't need to write an essay about it.

If we are talking about quality of the system, when going this quickly I did take a few shortcuts. But I do makes efforts at "realism" it's actually super rare that I put bridges just to cross my own track.

Bonus
Here's an example of some weirdness, this is more bug. Trains didn't use the circle. Ring was only visible in signal view, but left a cleared outline in normal view. Route acted normally.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/933803782208814143/6049106EBADCCA167FD588F570FD431CE1EBA159/

[evalen]

Did you use the Easy mode to go through your trains or signals

[Kakan]

How do i beat midwest - automobile scenario?

[Blackadar]

I don't care what level he / she beat the game. Being a completionist is NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR CONTENT. It would be a different story with random maps or even random resources. But just cranking up the difficulty level to do the same thing again is not the answer in a strategy game.

I was talking with someone else who beat the campaign in 9 hours. That's a pathetic amount of "content" in a campaign-based strategy game.

[vivas]

Uhm, isn't it the way you look at things. I played over 30 hours and haven't even started the campaign yet...i just like to chill and play the game.

[Maria]

Originally posted by gardlt:

It appears that "President" isn't possible for some of the campaigns. As the shot shows I got "President" 30+ on all scenarios. On a first try, I wasn't expecting to get a perfect 20/20 time score on all maps. There's always room to improve a result especially more money.


I just finished a free mode of the South, vs. 3 AI, hardest settings, 1910. Starting in Denver. Didn't use bonds. Had to get $1.3M passenger revenue in one quarter by 1918. Made that with a year or two to spare. Everything else was finished. Could do lot better on a retry. There is a lot of strategy that can be put into these. Anybody say, dedicated express or a dining car?


In case you were wondering, the only time I ever touched a warehouse was the sole one I needed for the achievement.


You might think it strange, but I have never played a serious game out of Trainiac mode. In my view the track laying system's strength is it's speed and getting to a nice job rather quickly. It falls down in the intricate stuff, options for intricacy are too restricted in the attempt to make it idiot proof. I guess the devs did their research in looking at the super tight turn-at-station that were the play in Railroads!. Only so much is realistically possible, and that can be done quickly. Feel free to show me shots that can change my mind.

These restrictions are one of the reasons that give me the sense that this is a game to play without pause. There are other reasons about the whole cargo system and especially flat rate freight fees, but I don't need to write an essay about it.

If we are talking about quality of the system, when going this quickly I did take a few shortcuts. But I do makes efforts at "realism" it's actually super rare that I put bridges just to cross my own track.

Bonus
Here's an example of some weirdness, this is more bug. Trains didn't use the circle. Ring was only visible in signal view, but left a cleared outline in normal view. Route acted normally.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/933803782208814143/6049106EBADCCA167FD588F570FD431CE1EBA159/

Unfortunately it is not possible to reach President on all maps. That is a known issue. We will fix that.

[gardlt]

Originally posted by maria margheriti:

Unfortunately it is not possible to reach President on all maps. That is a known issue. We will fix that.

Talking about known issues. There's something else that didn't get fixed in the scenarios. Some of the express train requirements aren't checking for both cities. In Gold Rush, just need a run of Los Angeles - ANYWHERE. Same in The Commodore, can be Toledo - ANYWHERE. I didn't check carefully on the others.


Kakan,

The automobile scenario is rated "Hard". I got through it with a "perfect" 20/20 time score, which actually surprised me. It didn't feel that smooth.

What I did was a Chicago-St. Louis up-down line with spurs to the resources. I built a Museum in Chicago right away. Watch out that cities will shrink until you start supplying them. At first I regretted not building one in St. Louis.

I thought that St. Louis would be important for Steel. But it wasn't. Made that up in Rochester. Petroleum was made in Indianoplis. The AI helped me grow it.



I can't really give you a guide here. What I did wasn't that smart. I gave up on growing St. Louis once I realized that it wasn't feasible. I needed more track than I could afford in early game, so I headed north instead.



I will try to give tips on how I start:

- Maintenance/water/sand are unneccesary

- Techs are important so choose Doc Murphy or Tricia Jones

- Techs to raise your revenue are more important than engines. Techs to give cheap engines and cheaper buildings are important.

- Cheap engines are more important than power unless you climb a mountain. I'm using Berkshire a lot but some revenue techs first

- Focus on linking cities with producers of goods that will benefit them both. That means Beer - Meat on the most basic level. This is good for growth too.

- Add short spurs to supply industries with resources. Freight revenue is flat rate. You get paid as much to drop it next door as other side of the map.

If the last two combine, meaning you are hauling enough finished product to keep the factory at high production these can be some of the best revenue sources in early game with very little outlay. Cheap engines are perfect for this.

Everyone will have a different style with tracks. At first I just use an up-down line and just grab what I can sensibly spur into that. Definitely small stations at resources.

Every 6 months or so, "refresh" your bonds. It really makes a difference.

[vivas]

Looks like a real solid start to me. Maybe the rate as to get to 20/20 score should be adapted to be more challanging? I admit tho that i like getting to 20/20 while being known for my rather impulsive gamestyle

[n-rico]

I'm kinda stuck in the third campaign, I've got 4 trains constantly shipping wood to the Toledo Lumber factory, but there isn't any lumber being produced. Quite annoying :)

[gardlt]

Originally posted by n-rico:

I'm kinda stuck in the third campaign . . .

Is storage full? Are you shipping lumber away?

You can find storage info in the full city list, but directly in city view there is a display of all outputs. Such as 14/14 would indicate full storage of lumber for a level 1 sawmill.

Sawmill view will show in the left hand pane how many loads of Logs are waiting to be proccessed.

If you own it, could be sabotage by the AI, but should have notice.

Hint: You can build the sawmill yourself if you are quick at game start. This is much cheaper than fighting the AI for it, and you can control capacity. The AI seem to be slow on upgrading capacity.

Extra hint: You can supplement with a Madison sawmill. Town size limits this to level 2, 3.2 per week, versus Toledo where level 3, 6.4 per week, is possible. The trip is much shorter from Madison. In combination can have this done very quickly.

[Maria]

Originally posted by gardlt:

Originally posted by maria margheriti:

Unfortunately it is not possible to reach President on all maps. That is a known issue. We will fix that.

Talking about known issues. There's something else that didn't get fixed in the scenarios. Some of the express train requirements aren't checking for both cities. In Gold Rush, just need a run of Los Angeles - ANYWHERE. Same in The Commodore, can be Toledo - ANYWHERE. I didn't check carefully on the others.

Hi again, I could reproduce this issue and it will be fixed in the future. Thank very much for reporting and keeping us updated!

[Reneb]

Originally posted by maria margheriti:

Originally posted by gardlt:

Talking about known issues. There's something else that didn't get fixed in the scenarios. Some of the express train requirements aren't checking for both cities. In Gold Rush, just need a run of Los Angeles - ANYWHERE. Same in The Commodore, can be Toledo - ANYWHERE. I didn't check carefully on the others.

Hi again, I could reproduce this issue and it will be fixed in the future. Thank very much for reporting and keeping us updated! :choo:

i actually have the problem on the other side, nothing works i've got multiple tracks that goes from LA to SF with express trains and nothing, i keep loosing the game.
Tried to put express trains from LA to other cities and i still dont get a success in this quest

[Ronwe]

Hey Gardlt. Would you like to write a few lines on general starting up and general expansion?