A dirty fix to stop industries being deleted ...

[Bilbo]

That's good news Nemesis ... now you can switch off those pesky AI players and start managing all eight companies y'self! ;)

Beware, if you control AI company, that company is in control too - so you build a depot, but then AI decides that he doesn't like it and bulldoze it right away.

I never play with the computer. They ruin (?) the world!

Since the AI cheats and terraforms for free and ignore local authority completely it is not a miracle thay leave wreckage behind them

[one billion daleks]

Yes, that's correct Bilbo ... but if the AI is enabled, I use the 'Build in pause mode' cheat to stop it bulldozing my work.

The other requirement with AI players is that road service-depots have to be next to a station, otherwise they nearly always get demolished by the AI ... not every time mind you, but nearly every time.

The set-up below is perfect for managing eight companies ...

• Set Number of competitors to 7
  Disable road for AI
  Disable rail for AI
  Disable ships for AI
  Disable aircraft for AI
  Always place road depots next to stations

This way, the AI doesn't seem to affect the game at all ... it certainly doesn't do any terraforming, I haven't even caught it removing vehicles!

[Nemesis]

But what is the use of that? Why would you be 8 players? (except for the money cheat)

[one billion daleks]

Well, it's cos I like lots of different-coloured vehicles flying around my motorways and intersections ... if they're all the same colour it looks a bit boring!

I use Red for buses, Yellow for mail-trucks, Blue for freight trucks, Green for airport shuttle-buses, Purple for rail-shuttles, Navy for ferry shuttles, etc etc

[Bilbo]

• Set Number of competitors to 7
  Disable road for AI
  Disable rail for AI
  Disable ships for AI
  Disable aircraft for AI
  Always place road depots next to stations

Safer way would be to add regular player via multiplayer. Load the savegame on local server and connect to it seven times, each time creating a new company. Save and then play offline as usual, but you will have 7 extra fresh companies with absolutely no AI control (AI won't touch players origated from network games, i.e. those marked as humans)

[one billion daleks]

That's a good trick Bilbo, I didn't know about that - I haven't tried multiplayer / online play.
But I'll try that idea out ... Thanks!