Age Of Steam V-Pheonix Rising For Your Review

[RulerofRails]

Here is a screenshot of my latest attempt. I am starting year 9 and I just managed to take out all 20 bonds. As you can see the AI have expanded on some of the good Oil routes, so I decided to beat them to building a bridge. It only cost just over 1M. It also connects the AI together which is good. I just discovered that doubling the AI track doesn't count against your track allotment which is handy at the connections. This is sort of a cheat, but I would have done it anyway. Sort of just a bonus. This time I refined my stock strategy a bit more and tried to buy up the AI stock pretty fast instead of buying 51% and waiting for them to buy the rest back. Something different to try to hopefully limit their overall expansion. I have to leave it for awhile. It is definitely a good challenge. Just the type of thing I enjoy. Gumboots, Good luck on your attempts!

Phoenix AI attempt II.jpg (95.41 KiB) Viewed 8589 times

[RulerofRails]

Phoenix AI attempt II done.jpg (98.42 KiB) Viewed 8578 times

That first bridge worked so well that I decided to build another from Rock Island to Davenport and a third between Dubuque and Galena. On the first and third I built a station right on my mainline at the ports. I ended up double tracking both the first and second connections. These connections earned me 10s of millions due to price outbreaks. The water keeps the price difference going for longer. I ended up with probably 20 trains on the first line and oftentimes the price would step up on route and they would make lots of money in both directions. The second line successfully captured the ~$1,200 to ~$2,000 outbreak of Oil really well. I was earning 5M per train load there for a while. The AI always build bridges at crazy angles. It seems beating them to it is good strategy as they hauled across my bridges extensively gifting me over 50M in revenue. I am impressed by how well the AI routing mechanism follows the price outbreaks (this includes across your bridges ). After running excessive trains on those bridges I realize that the breakouts can be influenced by the heavy service that is so characteristic of the AI management.

This time the company in the lower left corner of the map (Clarinda Eastern) bought most of the Corn Farms on the map. So I targeted it for my first merger, eventually getting it for a cost of around $70M. Late in the game that is where most of the money is, as the really profitable hauls are to be had only when the outbreaks are occurring. Once the price settles down into the $1,500 to $2,000 range the profits from hauling aren't so great but farms make a killing year after year. I managed to get hold of it early enough. Just before corn went through the roof out at the farms. I purposely didn't connect too close to Corn Farms before I had bought this company out to try to keep prices down there.

Three of the other companies were only medium sized and weren't benefiting from the price increases very much. I gobbled them pretty quickly after Clarinda Eastern. I then expanded into the corn farming areas to hopefully get better profits for the farms that I now mainly owned. Then it was saving to merge with the Rock Island and Joy railroad which of course captures most of the Oil profits (I have a suspicion that the close towns in this area of the map make it one of the hotspots of this activity). I eventually did it at a cost of $170M, and then paused the game for this screenshot. As you can see the Centreville and Angola warehouse tallies are still quite low. I didn't focus on getting this goal, but they are one of the tougher locations to reach 12M as the price outbreaks help you in most of the other possible locations.

I did one dud start and noticed that several of the warehouses can be in different locations. Maybe one is seeded and the other is event placed, but I should look in the editor at some stage to figure out how this is done, but it seems that more than 2 are varying on this map. I thought I read somewhere that only one warehouse can be event seeded and one seeded, but maybe this changed with 1.06 or I didn't understand correctly? Anyway, the point being that my favorite start (top right corner) may not be quite as snappy with this setup. Early on money is tight with this strategy so it may be a slower start. I would lean towards starting at Burlington if getting this seeding (no warehouses at Galena or Savanna). That should be almost as good. The goal should still be possible. If I get time I will try one of these starts and see how it goes.

[Gumboots]

At least two of the warehouses are randomly placed in this scenario, IIRC. I did look at the coding for it but can't recall all the details. With haulage, I found that two warehouses were no-brainers fairly early on, one was a bit slower, and one was out of the way and really needed max connections to it and a fair few trains (about a dozen on various routes, IIRC) but still didn't need micromanaging.

The bridges trick sounds like a good one for early earnings. I hadn't thought of that.

[RulerofRails]

Just thought I would add to what I said about the warehouse seeding. It appears that the game is seeding them (at greater than 97% chance), so failure to appear isn't a great issue as the game will look to build one soon. I am not sure how it was done but 3 are listed in city recipes to seed. I erroneously thought that they were event placed to change up strategy. If that were the case I would try a different strategy option, but this is not the case. Also, my idea of changing start location to Burlington wasn't well thought out. The AI is so likely to start there, and if it didn't, the chances would be that there was little cargo available there. In light of this I doubt there is too much strategy to be had in trying to load a different seed. I could try to find one that looks disadvantaged, but it should just be a case of waiting a few years as the game will seed a warehouse there pretty early in the game when you are small and you probably couldn't connect there anyway.

[Shamough]

Better way to calculate TAXes:

Your way TAXes at anywhere from 67% to 100% IF AND ONLY IF a minimum positive cash reserve is in the company's bank at the end of the year. Not only that but the smaller the YTD IP the higher the TAX. This is very unfair! And keeping your company's bank below the trigger point at the end of the year completely spoils the effect of the TAX.

The following always TAXes YTD Company Industry Profits at 67%, no matter how much cash the company has in the bank at the end of the year. <Only works for RT3 V1.06>

For some reason RT3 V1.06 doesn't like the RED version and loves the GREEN version. Minimum YTD Company Industry Profit added to allow game to begin without a huge tax burden on indie profits up front for those players who like to start indies first.

• EVENT "YTD Indie Profit TAX"
  X * Yearly (End of year)
  * all companies
  * single Player
  CONDITIONS:
  ... Years Elapsed since start of game >= 2
  ... YTD Company Industry Profit >= $1,000,000
  ... Force test against companies is TRUE
  
  X Apply Effects only once per evernt
  * to all companies
  EFFECTS:
  ... Set Company Variable 4 to [YTD Company Industry Profits]
  ... Company Variable 4 / 100
  ... Comapny Variable 4 * 67
  ... Company Cash (-)[Company Variable 4]
  
  ... Set Company Variable 4 to [YTD Company Industry Profits]
  ... Company Variable 3 = 100
  ... Company Variable 4 / Company Variable 3
  ... Company Variable 3 = 67
  ... Comapny Variable 4 * Company Variable 3
  ... Company Cash (-)[Company Variable 4]

[RulerofRails]

Shamough, your way is definitely a more accurate way of taxing the company. The cash triggers make the current tax easily avoidable as most players spend all their money. That being said, have you ever played Crystal Cotton Revisited? That scenario has a really crippling tax on all profits. It was a while since I played it, but I believe it used a similar method to yours except taxing all profit instead of just industry profit. If you spend all your money, this has the effect of giving your company a massive debt at the beginning of the year. It often takes over half the year to pay it off. In my opinion, wsherrick probably made the taxes with the cash triggers to avoid ever getting a start of year debt that can be perceived as low quality and be very annoying to some players. In my latest games, after taking over one or two AI (I wasn't buying industry myself), there was no way to avoid the highest tax rate as I saved for the next merger.

[Shamough]

A Age Of Steam V-Phoenix Rising

Problem: Program doesn't take away old unused track at begining of 2011 when the Rolling Mill becomes available. They hang around to be used until the player drops a track into the Rolling Mill grey area.

This now gives you a true "USE THEM OR LOOSE THEM" before 2011. This slightly alters the original game which allowed Industry buying in the begining ... and allows you to go down the wrong rabbit hole. You can still buy Industries ... but you'll loose all of the UNUSED FREE track at the begining of 2011.

I removed the EFFECT from the EVENT: Track Allowance (Set Company Track Pieces Buildable to 1200) as it was redundant .

• EVENT:
  How To Buy Track
  
  • X * Monthly (End of month)
    X One time only event
    * on screen player's compant only
    * Single Player
    
    CONDITIONS:
    ... Game Year Month (YYYMM) = 200801 AND
    ... Game Difficulty Level <= 1 AND
    ... Force test against companies is TRUE
    
    X Apply effects only once per event
    * to the company for which the condition is TRUE
    
    EFFECTS:
    ... Set Company Track Pieces Buildable to 1500

How To Buy Track-X
Dialog says you get 1000 sections ... program gives you 1200 sections.

• EVENT:
  How To Buy Track-X
  
  • X * Monthly (End of month)
    X One time only event
    * on screen player's compant only
    * Single Player
    
    CONDITIONS:
    ... Game Year Month (YYYMM) = 200801 AND
    ... Game Difficulty Level >= 2 AND
    ... Force test against companies is TRUE
    
    X Apply effects only once per event
    * to the company for which the condition is TRUE
    
    EFFECTS:
    ... Set Company Track Pieces Buildable to 1200

The following EVENT follows the "How To Buy Track-X" EVENT
Leave the Player with 5 track in order to purchase new track.

• EVENT:
  Getting Rid Of Old Track
  
  
  • X * Yearly (Begining of year)
    X One time only event
    * on screen player's company only
    * Single Player
    
    CONDITIONS:
    ... Current Game YEAR = 2011 AND
    ... Force test against companies is TRUE
    
    X apply effect only once per event
    * to human companies only
    
    EFFECTS:
    Set Company Track Pieces Buildable to 5[/b]

• EVENT:
  Buying Track
  
  
  • NOTE: EFFECTS - OPTIONS 1 thru 4 CHANGE:
    ... + 400 to ... + 401
    ... + 800 to ... + 801
    ... + 200 to ... + 201
    Option (4) add to EFFRECTS: Set Company Track Pieces Buildable + 1[/b]

• EVENT:
  No track available
  • ...
    EFFECTS: (add)
    ... Set Company Track Pieces Buildable + 1

I want that track piece back that was used to open the options dialog!

[RulerofRails]

I can see you are getting right into the events, so I am looking forward to your map! Maybe I am blind, but I missed the intention here for old, unused track to be taken away when the rolling mill becomes available. I didn't notice that the track issued in February was incorrect, though. Good work on deciphering the events, and finding that inconsistency. However, the scenario is still playable and enjoyable as is, so I would leave the decision of how to correct it for the main copy to wsherrick, who I am sure will stop by in time. I will fix it on my copy though. Harder is better and this will make Expert level a little more difficult. I am not too concerned with getting the piece I used at the Rolling Mill back though, so will leave that.

[Shamough]

My reasoning for removing the OLD unused track is: It was old and weak as all get out (Nothing but train wrecks looking to happen.). The FRA only allowed it to be used because nothing else was available. Once the tracks started coming out of the ROLLING MILL the FRA issued a scrap order for all unused OLD tracks. It boils down to a quality and safety issue.

[Shamough]

I just finished an Expert SINGLE PLAYER - NO AI game. Even though I had met all of the conditions for GOLD I was awarded SILVER!

I edited the GOLD, SILVER and BRONZE conditions for a better end of game solution.

I also changed my TAX calculations to use GAME VAR 1 & 3 which were unused. Company Var 3 & 4 are in use ... I missed them my first lookee see.

I'll test it tomarrow to make sure that I didn't add in an ATOMIC STINK BOMB.

Hans

[Shamough]

WELL ... I took a GOOD look at the TERRITORIES setup ... REWROTE ALL

• Random 1 to 100 > 20
  Random 1 to 100 <= 40
  
  Is BAD it recomputes the random number each time and can give you nada for a TERRITORIES set
  
  Better:
  • EVENT: Territories 0
    CONDITIONS:
    ... Game Year and Month >= 200802
    ... Force Test Against Companies is TRUE
    EFFECTS:
    Set Game Variable 1 to [Random 1 to 100]
    Set Game Variable 4 = 10
    
    EVENT: TERRITORIES 1
    CONDITIONS:
    ...
    ... Game Var 1 is <= 20 AND
    ... Game Variable 4 = 10 AND
    ...
    EFFECTS:
    Set Game Var 4 = 1
    
    EVENT: TERRITORIES 2
    CONDITIONS:
    ...
    ... Game Var 1 is > 20 AND
    ... Game Var 1 is <= 40 AND
    ... Game Variable 4 = 10 AND
    ...
    EFFECTS:
    Set Game Var 4 = 2
    
    Etc.

Which meant that I had to rewrite all of the GOLD, Silver and Bronze tests. I reordered them by Territory names.

• Game Var 4 = Territory set
  Some Territories are in two Territory sets. Soo ...
  
  • Winning CONDITIONS test example:
    ... (Game Var 4 = 1 OR
    ... Game Var 4 = 3) AND ... these two lines must be at the top of the conditions. Note this would allow for far more territory sets to be added.
    ...
    The rest of the Conditions were modified to reflect GOLD, Silver or Bronze wins
    Note: A new Setup was added to set PV 1-3 to 0 and Game Var 4 to 10
    EFFECTS:
    GOLD: Player Var 3 + 1
    Silver: Player Var 2 + 1
    Bronze: Player var 1 + 1

The whole idea was to leave the game playable as it was intended. I just tried to iron out a few kinks.

I'm currently testing this.

I will upload if someone wants to look at my alterations.

Hans

[Shamough]

GRRRRrrrrrr

It's the little gotchas that really spoil a day. Like using one or more variables that are already in use ... really messes with the game.

I think I have them all ironed out now ... back to testing


Hans

[Shamough]

The EVENT "AI Engines 3" sets the wrong engine to FALSE.

Change GR35 to FP45 FALSE to agree with AI Set 3

Was mucking around to see if I could allow a Mogul whose company had been taken over to setup a new company. As it is now there are no ID setup slots available. (As the game is now the Moguls can buy over 50% of their stock upon starting their companies ... but still can be enticed to sell at 200% Market Value.

I'm trying Comp ID >= 7 ...

[RayofSunshine]

With all these changes being made with this scenario, will an update be posted in the Archives?

[RulerofRails]

This post:

The AI's are pretty hard to take over. At first it was impossible, but in testing I found that it made the gold almost impossible if you play with AI's, so I weakened them a little so if there is a stock market crash or an AI player gets to greedy and loses all of his stock then you might have chance. So go for it.

Hans, I didn't see and respond to your comment about the AIs getting more than 50% of their stock in the start of the game as I assume you were trying to eliminate the AI like I did. I thought that this wasn't designed to be possible, but the above post seems to say that it was designed to be difficult but doable. i didn't try to prevent the AI men from getting 50% of their stock initial as shaking the market (to squeeze them all into a margin call) left them with little. However, I did buy into their companies as soon as they started them. (Personal cash is needed and I had emptied my company cash into my bank account by stock buybacks). The AI men don't start with that high percentage in their first month (I forget is it around 20%?). I bought in to the newest one as much as I could (up to just above the share price=book value per share level) as I knew that the AI would buy that stock the next month and I could then sell it for a slight profit when they bought the next month or a little later in that first year. This helps the AI men to be more vulnerable to the margin call I am planning for them all. I also found out that it is better to sell (likely short sell) shares 1,000 at a time until the first AI man is on the point of having insufficient margin. Then a 5,000 share lump will do the trick plummeting share price to obscene levels and ensure that they are forced to sell as many of their shares as possible. If you do things just right, the AI man may have negative cash and no shares remaining, otherwise continued short selling can take their stake even lower at some cost to you. Once you make sure they are all put in their place, spread out your buying efforts between the companies. It wont be possible at once, but depending on execution you should get a good stake right away. Every new month buy again and continue to do so until you have control 51% stake of them all. You can buy more, whether you should or not is a decision that doesn't affect the eventual goal of taking over the AI unless you plan on using the trick of selling shares at the time of merger to get a better price.

There are many factors that you can watch and adapt to like which AI man starts the first company and how strong an AI company will be initially, and others to try to control like timing of the market squeeze. You will need a full head of steam to make this grade and as always there is room for improvement to this strategy as well, good luck!

[Gumboots]

I might have to try these stock market shenanigans next time I have an RT3 binge. I think I've exhausted the standard industry/rail approach to the game.

[RulerofRails]

I might have to try these stock market shenanigans next time I have an RT3 binge. I think I've exhausted the standard industry/rail approach to the game.

Even though I don't enjoy many stock market tricks, bankrupting the AI chairmen because of their own greed is fun! I'm sure you will like it too. I love building up the economy according to my plan. There are so many excellent maps to play, and I try to avoid the tedious stuff like searching the map for new industries every single year or micro-managing. This way it remains fun for me.

[steamer64]

http://www.iowadot.gov/iowarail/railroa ... asemap.pdf

railroad map of Iowa for updating

[obertran]

Hi all.

I have just finish this map, finally with gold medal, and it's higly recomendable. I have played with no oponents, what I think it is easier. In any case a hard map with many funny hours. Well, it took me one year to win gold but I have to say that I can't play as oft as I would like.

Thanks

[low_grade]

A nice capstone to the AoS series, played this one today, all rail all the way. Started up in Illinois because no rivers and free autos and machinery. Another generous map, but puzzling out the optimum path to success is surely a bit tricky, and captivating. Some years I just looked at how to best supply ports and warehouses to generate cargo, in the middle years I looked at setting up rural stations for logs, rock, and iron, and in later years I looked at double-tracking and duplicating the most profitably routes. Wasted a bit of cash, like $63M, upgrading all locos to A1 2-4-2's, only to spend another now $69M a year later to replace all with Mallards. I wouldn't want to play this with AI's, it's nice as a solo adventure. Great newspapers throughout! Great feeling of story. I didn't take advantage of price outbreaks intentionally, but yeah, my freight revenue went from 60M to 120M in a year without any major changes, so I can tell that the price islands had a major impact in pushing company profits over $225M, and possibly haulage goals over $12M. I had Algona, Peoria, Pickering, and TargMart. Gold on expert in 2036.