Who's skimming my bank balance?

[wallyweb]

The auditors came in and audited the books of The ISR Project.
Jan 1, 1972 Bank Balance $388.326
1972 Net Income $2,455,990
-----------------------------------------
Balance $2,844,316
less Jan 1, 1973 expenditure $9792
-----------------------------------------
Jan 1, 1972 Net Balance $2,834,524
Jan 1, 1972 Bank Balance $753,212
-----------------------------------------
Missing $2,081,312

I'm using TTDPatch r1857, however I suspect this has been going on for quite a while.
This is the first game where I have used the feeder service extensively.
Most of the feeder services are in three stages - rail - ship - rail, with the ship portion covering the longest distance.
The manual says the first rail stage and the ships are credited with their share of the revenue, with the last stage reflecting only that portion of the trip.
I believe that the first and second stage revenues and costs are properly recorded in the Expenditure/Income section, however only the costs are calculated into the Bank Balance.
The revenues should also be reflected in the Bank Balance, but somehow they don't seem to make it.
This is not very realistic unless the feedrservice patch includes an undocumented fraud feature.

Nobody leaves the room! Where's my money?

Failed_Audit.png (10.38 KiB) Viewed 3155 times

[athanasios]

Poor Wally!
Maybe aliens have abducted your money to make some nasty experiments on them.

[wallyweb]

Poor Wally!
Maybe aliens have abducted your money to make some nasty experiments on them.

If you are playing TTDPatch and using Feeder Service, better check your own bank account, because then they have your money too.

What I would like to know is whether these aliens are bugs or are they a natural phenomena that were placed there intentionally and if the later, to what end?

[AndersI]

Not an answer, but some points for thought...

Could it be that the cargo is still in transit when the new year starts? When do the different vehicles in a feeder chain get payed for their cargo - immediately, or when the cargo reaches its final destination? If immediately, and the bank balance is only affected by the final 'cargo reaches destination' while the other numbers are presenting sums for the vehicles, a difference might show up for cargo still in transit. Only guessing here...

[wallyweb]

Could it be that the cargo is still in transit when the new year starts?

I have 17 ships each being fed by several trains, with each ship delivering to its own one train which makes the final delivery to an industry. So yes, it is possible some cargoes are still in transit, but not all of them.

When do the different vehicles in a feeder chain get payed for their cargo - immediately, or when the cargo reaches its final destination?

Each stage gets paid immediately when it unloads at a transfer point.

If immediately, and the bank balance is only affected by the final 'cargo reaches destination' while the other numbers are presenting sums for the vehicles, a difference might show up for cargo still in transit. Only guessing here...

That still does not explain why, when a ship or train unloads at a transfer point, its fee gets credited immediately to the balance sheet, but the same amount does not get credited to the bank balance, either simultaneously or at the final point of delivery.

[DaleStan]

My guess is that the "income" gets credited in the "$TYPE income" line on feeder-delivery, but the penalty the next vehicle takes to its running cost does not get debited on feeder-pick-up.

[wallyweb]

My guess is that the "income" gets credited in the "$TYPE income" line on feeder-delivery, but the penalty the next vehicle takes to its running cost does not get debited on feeder-pick-up.

If this should prove to be the case, can it be easily fixed?

[DaleStan]

With a savegame, from just before the bank balance (or possibly the balance sheet) gets modified inappropriately. I've watched feeder delivery and feeder pickup, and not detected anything untoward, neither in the bank balance nor in the balance sheet.

[wallyweb]

With a savegame, from just before the bank balance (or possibly the balance sheet) gets modified inappropriately.

It's all in the zip. I've stopped all other transport except for RVs just to keep it simple. The save is Jan 1934, just before the ship unloads to the train, so the balance sheet is relatively clean. I've also lined up some balance sheets in a png below for easy reference.
1. Clean balance sheet.
2. Ship unloads to train. Ship credited for its part of trip. Train debited (Ship's credit less Ship's running cost)
3. Train delivers first part of load. Train is credited for its part of the trip which is applied against the debit handed to it by the Ship.
4. Train delivers rest of load. Once again, Train is credited for its part of the trip which is applied against the debit handed to it by the Ship.
The Train should have been credited for the entire trip (Ship + Train) in order to offset the debit handed off to it by the Ship.
Also 69,394 - 25,812 does not equal -38,832

Finances.png (11.76 KiB) Viewed 2806 times

[DaleStan]

You're skipping a step between 3 and 4: 3.5) Train picks up rest of load, and gets its income debited for that part of the load. (This is, I believe, why the train is only debited for 150K the first time around.)

[wallyweb]

You're skipping a step between 3 and 4: 3.5) Train picks up rest of load, and gets its income debited for that part of the load. (This is, I believe, why the train is only debited for 150K the first time around.)

Ok ... That explains the bad math which isn't so bad after all. However, the bad profit picture becomes even worse. It's that much more that the Train has to cover, which can only come from being paid for the entire trip.

[DaleStan]

The way I figure, that train should be running at a deficit of approximately its running cost. It's moving cargo relatively quickly (not much income loss from added time) between two points that are approximately equidistant from the cargo source (not much income gain from added distance).

[wallyweb]

Looks like I'm going to have to hunt for the bogyman somewhere else and eat a little crow along the way.

I just ran a comparison between two configurations, train only and ship+train, using twin scenarios with all finances zeroed out before the runs. The results were comparable when considering the lower running cost of the ship. The attached png tells the story.

Thanks again, DaleStan, for helping me to think this through.
If anybody else should raise similar issues, just point them to this post. I have a couple of extra crows in the fridge.

Compare.png (6.32 KiB) Viewed 2704 times