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Topic: Tips to make the game harder please (Read 14362 times) previous topic - next topic

Tips to make the game harder please

Hello all,

I've played a game with these settings :
*128x128 map
*Pay_for_distance_total=1
*no_routing_over_overcrowded=1
*Map_roughness=7
*Mountain_height=320
And starting with only 5000 credits.

Still, I'm in July 1931 now and all relevant factories are connected, all cities are linked (appart some "in the wild" attractions) and I'm making about 55'000 credits/month. The thrill for the challenge of the map is already behind me. I'm aware that the game is at the base a simulation and the major fun of it might be in the construction of a cool looking, functional network and not purely in a capitalist race.

But... is there an option, a button or something that I missed to make the game even harder ? Let say... a mode that would trouble me at least up to 1940 before I consider razing all mountains down to flat land just to help cities grow faster ?  ;D

Re: Tips to make the game harder please

Reply #1 –
Have you tried blindfolding or sitting in an ant hill while playing ;)

Ok seriously: You can set the maintenace costs in simuconf.tab. Set them higher ad you'll have to pay more maintenance per month.

Re: Tips to make the game harder please

Reply #2 –
pay_for_distance_total=2 will make it much harder. Using pak.german will also make things harder. And a larger map make things harder than a smaller ...

Re: Tips to make the game harder please

Reply #3 –
You could have a go with Simutrans-Experimental and Pak128.Britain-Ex, although note that this is still in development and may have some rough edges. But any feedback to help us to improve the balance would be much appreciated! Many report that it's harder to make a profit with Experimental than Standard. Try starting in about 1830-1870 or so and see how you get along...
Download Simutrans-Extended.

Want to help with development? See here for things to do for coding, and here for information on how to make graphics/objects.

Follow Simutrans-Extended on Facebook.

Re: Tips to make the game harder please

Reply #4 –
Quote from: Iluvalar – on
*128x128 map

Try making your map a lot bigger, say 1024x1024, or even better, go for a long thin map, say 256x4098. That way you get into the very complex network design and have to set up routes to avoid higher density traffic areas, as all your traffic flows try to get congested in the middle of the map.

{Also note, with the bigger maps, if you can tolerate no trees, it makes it notably easier on your PC to run.}

Re: Tips to make the game harder please

Reply #5 –
Also you could try to use "beginner mode" to lower your income. (In simuconf.tab at the pak folder). For example this should reduce your income into half:
Code: [Select]
# in beginner mode, all good revenuses are multiplied by a factor (default 1500=1.5)
beginner_price_factor = 500

# use beginner mode for new maps (can be switched anyway on the new map dialog)
first_beginner = 1

Re: Tips to make the game harder please

Reply #6 –
Thank you for your tips.

First, I must say that some of your tips don't work on my 102.2.2 version on ubuntu.
Code: [Select]
beginner_price_factor =10 [OR 1500 OR 500 OR 1000]
first_beginner = 1
Don't seem to make any change in the price I get for a trip.
And
Code: [Select]
pay_for_distance_total=2
Always reset to 0 in the setting. tought "pay_for_distance_total=1" works just as it should so that's why I play with this setting.
Maybe I should  make that bug repport in the good section of the forum ?

I tried the pak.german, with the same setting as above. I didn't finished to link everything together, but I'm in a good way to do it. I don't feel that it is pretty much harder. The price of the raise-land/lower-land tool at 5'000 instead of 1'000 slowed me a bit due to the Map roughness. Sincerly, will I can't really say why, I thing I prefer the original pak. But i'll probably try the other paks sooner or later to see how I like them.

IFor the bigger maps : I've played once in the WORLDPACIFIC1624x933.ppm and in other big map. I'll take your advises in account and play on bigger maps. I'll try the setting of AP (256x4098) pretty soon and see if it make the game harder.

The "maintenance_building" option only affect building right ? I tried it but at some point it affect the balancing of the game. Shorter route become impossible to do and longer route are is not that much affected due to the cost of the two depot on each side. Also p****engers transport become near impossible while transport of good on reasonnably long route still profitable.

I don't get it... if i'm blindfolded how will I know when i'm bankrupted ? ;)

Jamespetts, I might try Simutrans-Experimental and Pak128.Britain-Ex one day. I will give my feedback :) .

Once again thanks ! You have a great game there and a even greater community. Keep the good work.

English is my second language, I can read it pretty well, but I don't write it as much as I'd like. I'm sure that I do misspelling, bad sentence construction and weird words choices quite a bit. Sorry about that; Hope I got undestood.

Re: Tips to make the game harder please

Reply #7 –
Well, Simutrans standard is hard to make hard. I've struggled a lot with that myself. It's possible, but eventually profits will start to overtake what you can spend even under the most adverse conditions. After that I'd say the challenge becomes a network challenge, how to create the most efficient network.

But some points on what I do generally to make things hard on myself:

1) For this and other reasons I play Simutrans Experimental. P****engers in that game are just that much more demanding.
2) I make a big (1408x672) map with a few (30) small (10) 'towns'.
3) I generally did set the industries low. Following experiments (see: 6) this has been reversed to relatively high as compensation though.
4) In the Simuconf.tab file I set the p****enger_factor to 1.
5) I start early in time, 1815 for Pak.German, 1750 for Pak128.Britain(-ex). These earlier times one has to contend with rather crappy vehicles.
6) Most recently I started experimenting with changing the parameters of the individual shops in Pak128.Britain and recompiling it myself, pushing the demand for shops way down.

I'm currently reporting my progress on my latest game in my screenshot thread (http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=3157.new#new). Since I'm always looking for ways to make the game harder, I think you may find it interesting to compare notes.

I hope this helps.