Balkan Express (BETA)

[Gumboots]

Braila to Bucarest and back is fine with only one spur at Braila. It shouldn't need a water stop at both ends. Alexandria to Constanta is also fine with a spur at each end, although they will run out of water a few yards before the stations at each end. That's no problem since the remaining distance is short, and express will just coast in without losing much speed.

Salonicco all the way to Komotene, on minimum grades all the way, also works with a spur at each end. Ditto Komotene around to Harmanli. I still think range is adequate for anyone running maintenance spurs.

Buying into Romania in the gap years between the B era intro and the faster express locos would penalise you, especially if you were playing for maximum city connections and no industry.IOW, not such a good strategy. Not sure if it needs anything done about it, but am open to ideas.

I prefer industry profits from game start myself, largely because I think if it is left until later in the game it may become tedious towards the end, when you'll end up just buying every farm in sight just to use up piles of cash and make some extra profit.

My rosters tend to be double Atlantics (LIrio stats) for express on all major routes if the terrain suits them, with double track of course. Then however many H3's and P8's I need to deal with the relevant freight. That way I get plenty of fast express haulage with minimum delays, and have enough of a speed buffer to enable me to get away with P8's for express in the hilly sections.

I must admit I haven't tried playing this one with default loco stats yet. Lirio's stats pack has some faults, but for this period they are definitely better (and more realistic) for express and default cars, IMO. They mean you can run Atlantics and Class 500's on full consist with no caboose, and get away with it.

[RulerofRails]

I prefer industry profits from game start myself, largely because I think if it is left until later in the game it may become tedious towards the end, when you'll end up just buying every farm in sight just to use up piles of cash and make some extra profit.

You could always try it. Personally I'm always eager to go after ROI so I never got to the point of buying everything in sight (maybe this is not true for other players?). I also regard such an effort as maximizing the resource potential on the map, which I also enjoy, and in my opinion is in fact easier (less thinking required) to do once your network is established and the effects of demand transmission through the stations, thanks to your train routing setup, have stabilized. Also, as I mentioned before with Lumber Mills, this map is setup with multiple industries of the same type likely to appear in some of the cities. With this idea there's less chance for parasite industries to spring up to spoil yours. A: Because seeding should be pretty stable that far into the map and, B: the time period when you are collecting industry profits is shorter (7-10 years instead of 15-20+).

In my play I did buy a few things at "normal" price, but vast majority of my purchases were with the expectation of a rise in ROI (for example buying the Steel Mill after placing a Tool and Die beside it, Lumber Mill after placing a Furniture Factory, etc.). This was a suggestion in regards to making sure track isn't "burnt." Doesn't matter if you don't like it. You agreed that Rhodes connection is not worthwhile. I'm curious about what solution you come up with.

[Gumboots]

I have tried it, hence my comments about just buying everything to get industry profits. I was running into that even with the current LIP goal. I think making the LIP count start later will just make the game longer without making it more interesting.

Still not sure what to do about Rhodes. Haven't given it much thought yet.

[AT41B]

I haven't played this one yet, but I was about to do so. I saw in the 'Verification check' there is no logic errors. But, I am puzzled about the effect of event 'Express tally'.
Will company variable 3 work as it shows?

[Gumboots]

Yep. RT3 does the operations sequentially. So that event sets CV3 to mail hauled, then adds pax hauled to that, then adds troops hauled to that. I tested it to make sure, using known haulages for the different cargoes, and it works just fine. If you have a train come into a station with 4 pax and 2 mail in the consist, when it unloads the status page will update correctly.

[AT41B]

Thanks Gumboots, now I will try to play the scenario without wondering if it works or not. Thanks again.

[Gumboots]

I don't know if it fits well with this particular map, but if we were to be realistic on any famous express route, like the Orient Express, this could be simulated by territories under the cities along the "corridor" of the real line having a much higher passenger production level than the rest of the map. Obviously could use warehouses with Passenger demands in those cities as well. We cannot control the passenger destinations so there would be a fair bit of local traffic branch from the main line, but we should see some heavy express usage along said corridor.

For some reason I was idly thinking about this, after having not thought about it for ages, and I had an idea which is worth testing.

I think it might be possible to set up an event to measure express speed by territory. You can adjust several things on a per territory basis, so perhaps combining a YTD or LTD express speed condition with "Force test by territory" would allow checking express speed by territory. This is potentially useful for an Orient Express scenario, because you could set a higher express speed requirement on the main route while still allowing lower speeds without penalty on branch lines. You could also set different express speed requirements for different sections of the main route, with a higher requirement on the plains.

I'm going to look into this and see if it can be scripted.

Edit: And the answer is no. "Company Av. Speed" overrides everything else, and it only tests on the basis of that.