Railroad Tycoon (RRT) Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Compiled and Edited by David Mitton Rev 1 Draft 5-Apr-1994 Scope & Disclaimer: Not a complete treatis on RRT or RDX. Just an overview and pointers. Also not a subsitute for purchased docs for pirates. Keystrokes are documented in the Technical Supplement. Strategy discussions can be endless. Included are basics and net contributions. Buy one of the books for more detail. I have edited articles culled from the net for better focused content. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: - Top 10 Questions - What is RRT and RRT Deluxe? - Microprose information - Game Limitations (README.DOC) - Known Bugs - Version info - Hints and Strategy books - "The Computer Cheats!" - Mastering the Modes and Levels - Strategies - Basic - Rate Wars - Grand - Robber Baron - Techniques - Details - Getting the most out of the displays (How to I find that?) - Map Differences - Deluxe Differences - Hackery - Acknowledgements ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions - How do I double track? Read your Tech Supplement. All keys and color keys are documented. - Why can I only build only 32 stations or trains? Design and memory limits. - How can I build track/stations like the computer? You cannot. See section 7, The computer cheats! - What is the cheat? Read the manual. (F1,$) - What about the GP-30? It never becomes available. Didn't make the cut. They couldn't fit it into the code (in RRT). RDX has the Geep and many new European locos. - How come my city/industry is not working? a) You are using Basic Economy. Industries don't do anything in Basic. b) Industries are not guaranteed to contribute to a cities demand. You have to wait for the message saying "City now will take x" - What are Slums? Undocumented "feature". Caused by not servicing a industry well enough. There is an RRT version with them patched out. - Why do things go wrong over when a player/competitor goes over $32M? 16bit signed int bug, no fix, even in RDX - How come there are only 9 questions? shhsss... it's only a draft. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) What is RRT and RRT Deluxe? Railroad Tycoon (RRT) and Railroad Tycoon Deluxe (RDX) are exciting strategy games of empire building, operation, and market manipulation. It is a commercial product of MicroProse Software and is availible for MS-DOS on an IBM PC or Apple Macintosh. The game was authored primarily by Sid Meier, who went on to write Civilization and other great games. Bruce Shelly also helped with the design and is known for his previous contribution to Avalon Hill's 1830 railroad board game. The game borrows elements of 1830 and combines them with elements of the PC Empire wargame to provide a strategy game that can consume hours of play. RRT pits a single player against 3 simulated players. You are given some initial money and must build a successful railroad corporation. You spend your money building the track and stations. Then you buy and schedule trains that earn money by collecting cargos at resource centers and delivering them to stations with matching demands. A changing economic cycle and a growing population over time, keep things from becoming static. On the financial side of RRT, allows you to raise money by selling bonds and investing in the stock of your company and your competitors. If you can manage to gain greater than 50% of your competitor's stock you can also operate their railroad and take their profits. You can also manipulate your competitor's stock values to your advantage or their detriment. At the end of 100 years you are rated on your financial accomplishments. RRT was released in 1990. RDX was released in 1993. Railroad Tycoon Deluxe plays basically the same as RRT, but has greatly enhanced graphics and additional scenarios. Most discussions are geared to the original game and applies to both. The differences are discussed at the end. Game Materials: Manual, Technical Supplement, Distribution diskettes, Economic charts The game is copy protected by a challenge to identify a locomotive by sight. The locomotives are pictured and described in the Manual. A frequent player or railfan can memorize this. The less initated can make a crib sheet by noting the wheel arrangements (eg: 2-4-2) also given and explained in the manual. Failure to pass the challenge results in only being able to play with 2 trains. 2) Microprose information MicroProse Software, 180 Lakefront Drive, Hunt Valley, MD 21030 Customer Service: 410-771-1151 MPS*BBS: 410-785-1841 (8,N,1) 8 lines, upto 14400 baud CompuServe: Forum GamePublishersB, ID: 76004,2223 Internet: "76004,2223@Compuserve.com" AOL,Delphi,Fidonet,GEnie,MCI Mail, PC-Link,Prodigy,Promenade,Q-Link 3) Game Limitations README.DOC - On the distribution diskette is a file with some last minute changes and details on the limitations of the game as implemented. Investment: Can own only ONE extra RR if Investor or Financier, TWO if Mogul, All THREE if Tycoon. Trains: 32 total, (the GP30 is not availible) Stations: 32 stations (depots,stations,terminals), 64 signal towers Industry building: no forts or textile mills (or power plants in England) (different in RDX) 4) Known Bugs - $32,000,000 limit - hangs - hyperspace transfer - Slums - RDX initial bugs 5) Version info RRT - retail version #V455.001? Patch versions: V455.003 - RRTVER03.ZIP fixed version via MPS BBS - SLUMFI.ZIP fixed version with Slums patched out via MPS BBS ----------------------------------------------------------------------- RRT V.03 corrected some of the money problems, screen updates, and a few other minor fixes. There are a few things still needing correction such as the stock rolling over to $0.00 at the later stages of the game. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The two files are both Version .03. The difference is Sid removed the random generator parameter that creates slums in cities. Slums can destroy powerplants and other industries that some players felt was unfair due to the random method it occurred. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- RDX - original version buggy v#?? - fixed version V#?? ship date? 6) Hints and Strategy books There are two published books on RRT: "The Official Guide to Railroad Tycoon" by Russell Sipe (C) 1991, Compute Books, Greensboro NC. ISBN 0-87455-244-3 $12.95 "Railroad Tycoon, Master Strategies for Empire Builders" Shay Addams, (C) 1991, Osborne McGraw-Hill, Berkley CA. ISBN 0-07-881728-5 $14.95 7) "The Computer Cheats!" A frequent whine from beginners is "how can I do x like the computer players do?" And the answer is you cannot. The computer is playing a different game than you. It has some advantages, but it also has many limitations as well. Advantages: + multiple entrances to cities, + amazing terrain conquring track laying Disavantages: - no switches, stubs, or loops. only builds tree-like networks - only builds to named cities, not to resources away from cities. - only builds in straight lines, cannot round terrain corners, - can not build ferries - is limited to a number of stations too 8) Mastering the Modes and Levels Difficulty Levels: Investor Financier Mogul Tycoon Scales some of the resource settings. The easier levels have more. Also affects how many competing RRs you can buy. Reality Levels: Basic vs Complex Economies In Basic mode, all stations pay for all cargos. No conversion. In Complex, stations pay only for industry and local demands. No Collisions vs Dispatcher Operations NC mode does not use the block signal system. Dispatcher mode provides block signals which are automatic, but can be overriden by the player. NC mode has no controls and is totally automatic. Dispatcher is more interesting and can provide more optimal control. Signal towers are useful in this mode to break up blocks and provide more flow. Friendly vs Cut-Throat Competition In Friendly mode, your competitors will not attempt to take over your RR, or start a Rate war with you. Beginners should start with Investor Level. As you become more interested in taking over competing roads, you have to move up because of the investor limits. I recommend that you immediately start playing with Complex Economy and Dispatcher Mode. The lower modes are not interesting. Turn on Cut-Throat when you have mastered the basics and are ready for a challenge. Starting out hints: - Initial state, turn on Resource Display - Learn how to use each display and report Pointers: F6 Train Income; watch maintenance cost, get to routing Balance - Econ cycle - Freeze the game when laying track or researching decisions 9) Strategies - Beginning Learning to play: use low difficulty level, complex econ, Dispatcher ops, Friendly Comp. use $ cheat if need be. - Basic Start small (2-3 good cities), go for best revenue route, Keep competitors honest, Investing in them slows them down. Buy your stock early, aim to own 50% of self soon Roll over Bonds on first Boom - Rate Wars How to wage successful rate wars - timing - Depot staging - analyze the demand - Grand Mail & Pass vs full service Priority load service - Robber Baron Bankrupting and stealing from competitors ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic From: louns@cs.washington.edu (Michael Lounsbery) Subject: Re: Railroad Tycoon Help Message-ID: <1993Sep23.010332.26210@beaver.cs.washington.edu> Date: Thu, 23 Sep 93 01:03:32 GMT Gee, am I the only one posting help who favors buying out competitors and holding them forever? If you can manage to get them early on, and develop them wisely, you can really make a bundle. I can't imagine that owning only your own RR can possibly come close in value. Strategy: (major spoilers) In the first part of the game, I typically devote myself solely to buying out the opponents. Forget my own RR for a while -- 1 piece of track, no stations at all. Its price will sag to $1 a share, at which point I buy it up to get rid of those annoying shareholders. Meanwhile, buy up the bonds (during a good economy, if possible), so you have enough cash to completely buy your first competitor. A "cheating" way to get him is to surround him with your track - with no routes, his price plummets. You can still get him without cheating if you're lucky and careful. Try to buy as much of him as you can now. Over the long term, his shares will get much more expensive, so it's a very good investment. If you go into debt, so what? Your shareholders can't kick you out, and you'll eventually get enough cash from expanding the competitor that you can always get back. Once you get the competitor, rip up your single track, and forget about your own RR. Develop the competitor RR into a booming business. Use the profits to pay off your own huge bond debts, and keep expanding him! Eventually, you'll get quite a profitable enterprise. Once you get close to $2Million disposable cash, relax. Build your own RR, with as long a delivery route as possible. Short (2-car) mail trains are big money-makers. Lots of them. Build post offices at the stations. Lots of switches or double track is good, tunnels (which can't be double-tracked) are annoying. Build a very long line in 1 shot. If you're on Western US, do something like San Francisco to Milwaukee, and collect the $1Mil bonus. I only do short mail or passenger trains. The only time I do other kinds is to get a factory busy enough to eliminate the slums. I don't care about getting oil money, but I hate for those city-dwellers to stop buying postage stamps. Once you get your stations in, the other 2 competitors appear. You should have no problem buying them out, but only do so if they have a good location. If they don't, let them rot and die until one starts in a new area. Develop the other 2 competitors, as before. Fork over loads of cash from your own RR and your 1st competitor to keep them on their feet. Keep expanding them (give them enough cash to add to their lines each fiscal period, if possible). If you're careful and keep expanding, you'll amass a huge fortune. It should be quite possible to get a retirement bonus of $20 million or more at the end, double what you need for President. I got $26 million last time, and I know if I had been more careful, I could have made more. (It's hard to be careful at 2AM). [By the way, save the game each pay period. The game crashes sometimes, such as if you are running >1 RR, and in the "Choose RR to Run" menu, you don't choose a RR.] Besides the useful tactic of always having cash when you need it, the benefits of buying out the competition and holding them forever are: * If you buy them at the start, their stock will multiply many times over by the end of the game. This monstrously increases your net worth. * You get a multiple bonus for each additional RR you own. This multiplies your net worth yet again. Toot, toot! Michael ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: drazil@qiclab.scn.rain.com (Devin Ben-Hur) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic Subject: Re: Fastest President or Prime Minister in RRT Message-ID: <1993Oct14.222418.16856@qiclab.scn.rain.com> Date: 14 Oct 93 22:24:18 GMT Article-I.D.: qiclab.1993Oct14.222418.16856 Lines: 140 Wilhelm Friedrich Mueller writes: > Devin Ben-Hur (me) writes: >>I just set my personal best in RRT by ascending to Prime Minister >>after playing an England scenario for ten years. Anyone topped this? >>What are your quickest times for getting the top job in each scenario? >> >>What are the quickest times for retiring at the top WITHOUT ever taking >>control of an opponent? > >And this was without cheating? As long as you don't consider buying control of another railroad and milking them for cash cheating, yup, it was without cheating. Here's the basic strategy: 1) Lose money for your first fiscal period. lay track to 2 or 3 cities and a few resource centers, but don't make any stations. Borrow $2-3M, enough to pay for your initial stations and track and trains and still have enough money to buy up your first opponent. 2) Buy up the first opponent that pops up ASAP. If it's a dumb one, he doesn't start by first buying the first 10K shares of his own stock, so the way the turns alternate with the broker call, and the way the stock price ratchets up as you buy, when you buy the fifth lot of stock (50K), he doesn't have enough cash to buy his fifth lot and uses his turn to borrow $500K. You buy the next lot and take control. You must have at least $1.2M liquid to seize control this way, so make sure you borrowed that money BEFORE he shows up. If it's a smart opponent, he'll buy first, and you'll both end up holding 50% stock. In this case, don't take control until after the end of the fiscal period, at which point the stock price will drop by 50% or more making it much cheaper to buy out management at 2X the current stock price. In either case, you don't want to start milking any cash until after the first fiscal period. 3) After the first fiscal period, because you lost so much money, your own stock will plummet to $1-3/sh. For the second period, you milk the opponent for cash, by taking money from his treasury until he's under $100K, selling down to 50% stock, he borrows more money, you buy up to 60%, and take the new cash. You can repeat this until he hits his credit limit, then sell off all your stock in his company. His credit limit is higher in Prosperity or BOOM times, so these are quite advantageous. If you are unfortunate enough to wind up in a recession or panic, you probably won't get enough cash out to cover your initial stock and interest losses and should just retire and try for a luckier start. Milk your opponents cash in preference to re-financing your own debt, because you can shoulder the debt, but if the boom period ends too fast you won't get enough cash out of the take-over. After milking all this cash, buy up 80 or 90% of your own stock (it's quite cheap). Make sure you buy up most of your stock before the end of the fiscal period because it sky-rockets from all the money you just "made." Buy up your own stock in preference to selling off the last few shares of your now debt-crippled opponent. 4) In Jan. of the 3rd fiscal period (year 5), freeze time and build your initial stations and make a bunch of trains. Be ambitious, but don't use up all your cash. Keep at least $1.2M liquid so you can take-over one of the the new opponents that will pop up after you've built your first two stations. You may want to sell some of your inflated treasury stock to make sure you have healthy cash reserves, but be sure to buy it back before the end of the fiscal period, because owning your own stock is the key to accelerated asset growth. 5) For the the next few years, keep taking over and milking any opponents you can. If recession or panic limits the opponent's credit limit, take what you can and hold on to 50% of their stock. When the economic climate improves, they borrow some more and you immediately take 'em over and steal it. Also, continue aggressively building your railroad. All these take-overs should keep you flush with cash, so SPEND it. More stations, more trains, more revenue. The higher your revenue, the higher your profits, the less significant your interest expenses. Don't pay off debt (well maybe the most expensive debt - 8-9% bonds are worth paying off), just keep expanding, paying off debt is lost expansion capability. Also, as you expand, remember that if you run a line into the station of a controlled RR, you get a terminal (Union station) for the price of a normal station (but forgo the first year bonus fares), so you may want to take advantage of this with nearby opponents. Your stock profits are a major contribution to your yearly profit numbers, which influences your stock price even higher. By rapidly increasing your stock price, you rapidly advance your total assets, because YOU own 80-90% of your stock. When you retire, your job offer is based on your retirement bonus. You need a bonus of $10M to get Prez or Prime Minister. The bonus is calculated as a percentage of your total assets based on length of service (percentage gets lower with longer service), plus a "Mogul bonus" based on how many RRs you control at retirement. You get 125% for one RR, 150% for two and 200% bonus for all three. At ten years, the service percentage is around 33% (I forget exactly), so if you own all three opponents, you only need total assets of $15M to get the top job. If you have $10M in misc assets (stations, track, improvements, industries, real-estate, other RR stock, rolling-stock), $3M debt, and you own 80% of your own stock, you only need a stock price around $100/sh In the England game I mentioned way above, I was fortunate to get a combination of good economic times (prosperity & boom) for most of my take-overs, and to have nice prosperous cities with decent resources not too far away. My stock price for over the five fiscal periods looked roughly like this: year 1 3 5 7 9 $ 10 1 67 120 220 I think I also actually started my RR in the second fiscal period, instead of waiting for Jan of the third. At the last period, one of the other RRs had dissolved, so I only got a 150% mogul bonus for two RRs. If anyone's curious, I did save the SVE & MAP files, which I could ZIP up, UUENCODE and mail to you if you want to see what it looks like at the end and examine the history reports. Winning without ever taking control of an opponent is much harder. I think my quickest time was about 55 years in Western US. Takes much longer, for three reasons: 1) no mogul bonus, 2) no cash infusion from take-overs, 3) constantly getting cut-off and having to expand away from opponents or conduct expensive rate-wars. I especially hate rate-wars, because not only are they expensive, but the computer rarely puts a station where I WANT IT; so, after winning, I then have to throw away my station and build a new one a few squares away. One key to winning rate wars quickly, is to not worry about the first fiscal period. Don't even service the station, let him get all the business. In the second year of the first fiscal period start routing trains to the rate-war station, so they'll make deliveries in the next fiscal period. Make a couple of trains to arrive right at the beginning of the second fiscal period and make them wait for full loads (8cars) of passengers, mail, and any other resources generated at the station. Waiting for full loads means you get most of the take-away service and that coupled with a bunch of deliveries will almost always give you a quick one fiscal period victory before the town council. -- Devin Ben-Hur [drazil@qiclab.scn.rain.com] "We're from the government; the check's in your mouth." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10) Details ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: dquock@jarthur.claremont.edu (Daniel Quock) Subject: Re: RailRoad Tycoon -- max number of stations? Message-ID: <1992Oct20.222101.27725@muddcs.claremont.edu> Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1992 22:21:01 GMT [The following information was from "The Official Guide to Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon"] And here's some other interesting tidbits of info from the book: Calculation of Revenues: There is a series of four calculations that are run on each commodity on each delivery. They must be done in the order listed in this chart. The total revenue for the run is determined by adding the results of the calculations below for each commodity. To that will be addad any station-specific modifiers such as restraunt/hotel income for passenger deliveries. Variables: DIST = # squares between stations (* .5 if E. USA or England) DISTB and DISTC = Interim variables in formulas SPEED = Mph/2.5 (i.e. 20mph = speed of 8) CLASS = 0 for Ma, 1 for Passenger, 2 for Fast Freight, 3 for Slow Freight and 4 for Bulk Freight) DIFF = Difficulty level (0 for investor ... 3 for Tycoon) REVENUEA = Interim variable in formula FIRST YEAR = The first year of the scenario REVENUE = Revenue for cargo Calculation #1: Effect of Distance DISTB = DIST*(5 - CLASS) + (40*(CLASS+1)) Calculation #2: Effect of Speed DISTC = (DISTB/8)*(SPEED + (2*CLASS^2) / (((YEAR-1790)/10) + (2*CLASS^2)) Calculation #3: Effect of Year REVENUEA = TONS*2*DISTC / (YEAR - (1170 + (FIRST YEAR/3))) Calculation #4: Effect of Difficulty Level REVENUE = REVENUEA * (7 - DIFF) / 6 I know that most of you won't use these equations, but it's neat to see how they relate to each other and how one affects the revenue as a whole. Weight of Cars: These weights are used as arbitrary units to calculate the speed of the train in each square. This is not directly related to the speed formula used in the Revenue Calculation Chart. Unloaded Loaded Mail 190 290 Passenger 180 300 Fast Freight 160 320 Slow Freight 140 340 Bulk Freight 80 400 Loading and Unloading Times: To load and unload cars takes the following amount of time: (1 Fiscal Period = 4000 time units) TONS*CLASS/8 The same formula is used for both unloading and loading. Class = 0 for mail, 1 for passenger, 2 for fast freight, 3 for slow freight and 4 for bulk freight. Switching cars: To switch a car it take the following amount of time units: (again, 1 FP = 4000 time units) 16 Time units with a switching yard 64 Time units without a switching yard Economic Trends Flow Chart +---------+ +-----------+ +----------+ +----------+ +--------+ | PANIC |<->| Recession |<->|Moderation|-->|Prosperity|-->| BOOM | +---------+ +-----------+ +----------+ +----------+ +--------+ ^ ^ | | | +-----------------------------+ | +----------------------------------------------------------+ Note that at Prosperity you can only go to a boom or back to recession and at boom you will always go into a panic. Station Maintenance Chart Yearly Costs Signal Tower $1000 Depot $2000 Station $3000 Terminal $4000 Maintenance Calendar Each January: Stations Track Each July: Locomotives Rolling Stock Track Note that track maintenance is assessed twice a year. Also, any cargoes delivered to a station in the first fiscal period it is built in receives double rates. There's some other interesting stuff here but I'll only post it if theere's a demand. Good luck! Daniel Quock ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: dquock@jarthur.claremont.edu (Daniel Quock) Subject: Railroad Tycoon Info. Message-ID: <1992Oct21.213347.27798@muddcs.claremont.edu> Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1992 21:33:47 GMT There's been some requests for more RR info. and so here goes: BTW, at the end of this article is a spoiler of some sort (mild one, really) so here's just a warning. (I would block it out but I'm not quite sure how. Is it Ctrl-L?) Again, the following is from "The Official Guide to Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon" Track costs: Track costs are calculated by the half square. A track piece (two half pieces) is laid from the center of one square to the center of the adjoining square. The cost of that piece of track is calculated by adding the cost of the two half squares. So, in a normal economic environment, a piece of track that went from the center of a clear square ($2000 per half square Right-of-Way) to the center of a city square ($20,000 per half square ROW) would cost $22000 in right-of-way costs. Add the $6000 for the cost of the track and it's a total of $28000. The right-of-way costs found when clicking on the square is for a half square of track in a normal economic climate. It is not for crossing the whole square. So if you build through a city, you will spend $40,000 going through it, not $20,000 as suggested on the game message screen. Right-of-Way and Track Costs in different times: The cost listed in the game is for a straight track, half square in Moderation times. For diagonal track you add 50%. For the different economic times, it's: Boom Add 33% Prosperity Add 17% Depression Subtract 17% Panic Subtract 33% For building track, it costs (per square): Panic $4000 Depression $5000 Moderation $6000 Prosperity $7000 Boom $8000 Bridges and Tunnels: A bridg that washes out is likely to wash out again. Stone bridges never wash out and Iron bridges can wash out, but not frequently. Wooden trestles wash out with some regularity. If an iron bridge washes out, chances are that it's located in a hot spot for washouts. You might want to consider relaying your line so that a new iron bridge can cross a different square. However, only one bridge can be washed out so you might want to try to build a decoy bridge. Build a second line over the river, parallel to the first bridge. Connect it (except for a single piece of track) to the main line. If the main-line bridge washes out, then build the missing piece of track to the other bridge and use that one insted. Tunnels are expensive and can not be double tracked. If you need a tunnel, it's best to put signaltowers at either end. In Railroad Tycoon, it says how long the tunnel will be in miles. This translates to 2 miles per square (three miles if the track is diagonal). If you want to figure it out without having to build a line up to the proposed starting point, then you can figure it out by using the F10 survey key. Tunnel Exit Calculation: IF HX =< HE+4 THEN EXIT HX = Height of Potential Exit Square HE = Height of Tunnel Entrance Square Maintenance: The annual maintenance cost for a steam locomotive that has been fully maintained is equal to $500 plus $500 per fiscal period that the engine has been in existence. The maintenance cost of a steam locomotive that hasn't been maintained is the base $500 plus $1000 per fiscal period. This is cululative. Each fiscal period the annual maintenance cost of a steam engine goes up by whichever figure is appropriate ($500 if the engine is maintained, $1000 if it isn't) Train Maintenance Chart: Steam Engines $500 + $500 for each FP maintained + $1000 for each FP not maintained Disel Engines $500 + $250 for each FP maintained + $750 for each FP not maintained Cars $500 per car These charges are assessed each July (i.e. twice each fiscal period) Hotel and Restaurant Income: Restaurants: +$2000 per full passenger car Hotel: +$5000 per full passenger car Both: +$7000 per full passenger car Other Building Tips: Borrow money in good economic times (when interest rates are low); then hold money until bad economic times (when land and track are cheap). Oil wells in the U.S. are big producers (5 cars per year) A cluster of oil wells means big bucks. Oil wells tend to cluster up over the course of the game. If you see a couple of oil wells in close proximity, you probably have an emerging oil field. Chances are other wells will appear there as time goes along. If you destroy a station either by removing track or by building (upgrading) a larger station over it, you get back half the value of the old station. Stockholders: After five fiscal periods in which the stockholders are outrages, you'll be removed from office (unless you own 50 percent of your line's tresury stock). The outrageous fiscal reports DO NOT have to be consecutive. If you improve the return on investment significantly, you can erase some of the ill-will you've developed with the stockholders. If, after experiencing one or more outrageous fiscal periods, your line produces a 10-percent-plus return on investment (that is, stockholders are either happy for ecstatic) you'll wipe out the effects of one outrageous fiscal period. Buying out other competitor's rails: There are two major ways of buying out a competitor, the shark attack or a gradual takeover. The shark attack is used when a competitor's financial condition is vulnerable. Both sides are going to get beaten up badly and you need a lot of cash. A good time to catch them is during Boom times. At that time the competitor may "roll over his bonds" buy repaying back all his bonds (sold at a, persumably, higher interest rate) and then selling them again when the interest is low. If you keep an eye out for that, you can catch him with a negative revenue and buy him out quickly. The other way is buy gradually buying stock. At some point both you can your competitor will own 50% of the stock and you will buy his shares at twice market value. This will get you 100% of the stock so you can sell off all but the required amount to keep control. Rate Wars: The first vote that counts is the first COMPLETE fiscal period. For each commodity that a Rate War city wants, there are two votes. You'll get a vote if you deliveANY amount of a commodity the city wants, two if you're the only one that delivers the commodity. (It DOESN'T matter if you deliver 1 passenger or 100 passengers, it's still only one (or two) votes!) However, votes for picking up cargo is measured by tonnage. The more tonnage you haul away, the more likely you are to get votes. Rate War Voting: The Number of Votes to be Cast: Cargoes Picked Up 0-40 tons picked up = 1 vote 40-80 tons = 2 votes 80 + tons = 3 votes Cargoes Delivered 2 votes per item in demand Determining Who Gets the Votes: Cargoes Delivered You get 1 vote if you deliver any tons of a cargo in demand. You get 2 votes if you alone deliver the cargo in demand. Cargoes Picked Up One Vote Available Vote goes to the side with the most tons picked up. Two Votes Available Two votes go to the side that carries twice as much, otherwise each side gets 1 vote. Three Votes Available Two votes to the side that carries away the most. The side gets an additional vote if it carries away at least twice as much. WARNING! POSSIBLE SPOILER AHAED!!! For those of you without a disk editor or are sick and tired of continuously going in and changing your money, there's an embezzlement key! To add 500,000 ill-gotten dollars to your cash balance: 1. Go to the F1 Screen (Regional Display) 2. Hit the $ key Well, that's almost all of the information in the book! Hopefully I'll post some information on your opponents and what their strongpoints are. Good luck! Daniel Quock ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10a) Techniques - Track laying - 11) Getting the most out of the displays (How to I find that?) - Station displays (colored bars) - Train display (F6) 12) Map Differences - Eastern US - Western US E/W vs N/S differential & Transcontental Bonus - England - Europe RDX - North America - South America - Africa 13) RRT Deluxe Differences VGA support Graphic renderings, but not animated Slow response in F4 New maps New time ranges and locomotives Bandits and Sheriffs New initial bugs 14) Hackery ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: gnohmon@ssiny.UUCP (Ralph Betza) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic Subject: RRT superfast trains by editing save file Message-ID: <264@ssiny.UUCP> Date: 26 Oct 93 20:31:25 GMT I really like Europe because of the GTVs. True, it's a little boring because nothing is worthwhile except mail & passengers, and it only makes sense to use 3 or 4 of the train types (Hamiltons at the start, the 70/80/90 mph trains later, and then the GTV), and every train always has exactly two cars. But, it's fun to watch those GTVs go.... Just the other day, I had gotten such a nice railroad built, was struggling with a buggy game, removed a small station and built a new one, and the game froze up. I had just built my first GTVs and never got to use them. :-( Disgusted, I started anew; this time, I cheated, leaned on the dollar key, and built all 32 stations on move zero. (Took a couple of hours; it was kinda fun!) I played it for awhile, thought about how boring it was going to be to wait for the GTV to be introduced, and quit. The software technology of CIV and RRT are so similar, I had no doubt I would find a "units description" table in the save file. Sure enough, it starts at 0x3310, and here is the format of each entry: struct traintype { char name[20]; /* ends with null characters. */ short speed; /* in 5mph increments. This is the "maximum" ** speed" shown on the train info screen. ** 0x0c is 60MPH. */ short power; /* in 500 horsepower increments. 0x41 ** displays as 32500 HP. 0x7f makes your ** train move 0 mph with 1 car and 0 grade. ** The chart that shows how fast the train ** goes with N cars at X % grade is ** calculated using these two variables. */ short price; /* increments of $1000. */ short intro_date; /* What year this train becomes available. */ short expire; /* 0xffff means the train, once introduced, ** is always available. Unsure how to ** interpret other values, but who cares? */ short maint; /* 0x0000 makes the maintenance go up as ** slowly as possible; 0x7fff makes it go up ** as you watch! Negative numbers might be ** fun to try :-) */ char danger[2]; /* This somehow affects the picture when you ** break a speed record. Changing this can ** garble or crash. */ char unknown[6]; /* Looks like 3 2-byte pairs -- ?weight of car; ? time ** to load? (for different categories?) -- these are 0 ** for the GTV and for 'GP' series. */ short something; /* (? or 2 more bytes of unknown[] with second byte ** always 0 ?) ** (is 0 for GTV) */ }; You can introduce the GTV early in Europe, by editing the intro_date field, or simply make fast grasshoppers in eastern USA.... I tested these in a game where I cheated and built the best line I could, from Florence to one of the German cities straight north of it. Had a 640 MPH train whose best average trip was 277 MPH and whose maximum speed (clicking on the train display) was 540 MPH. Made the flattest, straightest line I could (Very few grades, but sometimes all those mountains and the approaches to the rivers can get to you), but still never got max speed. Gotta check with really low horsepower and high max speed to see if "mini-grades" count for much. You may have noticed that sometimes you can build track from height 41 to height 36 and get no warning message, but sometimes it says there's a grade. I suspect that internally the height is something like 35.6 and 41.4 in these cases; and grades less than the warning may still slow you down. I (still don't know how to build the fastest possible tracks.) Of course, any train that goes faster than the GTV has a *long* green line on the train chart, that goes right out of the chart and into the main screen. I plan to try a train with a speed of 0x7fff (probably some intermediate calculation will overflow, but might as well try). 160,000 MPH is several times escape velocity, so I expect to see my train arrive at Alpha Centauri :-) Either that, or its long green line will overwrite something and cause a system crash. This game can really *move* when it has fast trains to work with. It's hard to click on a 540MPH train on the F2 screen. Instead of running the trains slowly, it would have been interesting to adjust the time scale: when the Norris first becomes available, according to the way things look in 1830, its 20 MPH speed is blazing fast; but by 1890, if you have one left, it seems to creep along so slowly, while the new trains appear to move just as fast as the Norris used to appear to move... By the way, a few more things are obvious in the save file, but thanks to the money cheat, I don't find them interesting; with infinite money, you can do anything you want except make your trains go faster... ===== Until you build your first train, the game is frozen even if you didn't choose speed "frozen". If you save during this period, there are whole areas of the save file that aren't filled in yet. I thought if I started up, paid my bond, saved, built no track, waited for February, and saved again, the *only* difference between the save files would be the date. Problem is, it stays January forever, until you start building. Sometimes you're just getting happy, and it's over; by futzing with the date, you could play 200 years... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15) Acknowledgements - Daniel Quock for details from Official Guide. - Ralph Betza for how to edit trains in the save file - all the others in here whom I haven't got around to culling their names down.