PouncingAnt National Monopoly Challenge 4

[SoLo]

Getting there. Think I just need to replace some trains so that they aren't so old and then I am good. Every town that has a station named after it has a statue and has (for the most part) a train in the station loading at all times. Just can't get them over 76-77%. The two 0%s are being serviced around 80% too, just no delivery in the last month.

[PouncingAnt]

Hmm. That is a predicament.
After all, I made the decision to have 80% transported before I decided on the tropic set, so there is a good chance that I inadvertantly made the challenge impossible.
One could conceivably wait until faster trains are available since they will boost the station ratings..
I'll review the winning conditions in a few hours, and get back here when I have the opportunity..

[SoLo]

Not really a problem with the trains. I think it is mostly with the cars. Some (like ore/oil) have top speeds of 64kmph. I'm fully upgrading all of the trains though to see if that helps. Won't be able to play until tommorrow evening though. Will let you know what happens when I do.

[PouncingAnt]

You are correct in your assumption. The wagon speeds are preventing you from reaching 80% cargo output. In the mid to late 50's faster wagons will be available. At that point, you should be able to get 80% or over.

[AlexW]

It might be more of a challenge if the takeover award was not achieved through share buying but through the "company in trouble, would you like to take over this company" box...

Loving these challenges though, keep up the top work

[PouncingAnt]

I would like to alert people to the fact the conditions for completing the challenge no longer includes transporting 90% of the goods produced. The amount has been reduced to 80% to allow for the wagon speeds. sorry about that

[SoLo]

I renewed all my trains (some were actually over 20 years old) and added some new trains to a few routes to keep the industries better serviced. Still can't get everything up to 80%+. The short routes I can hold up that high, but the long ones keep getting stuck in the mid 70%s.
I've never used the Tropic Ref set before. Any idea when faster wagons get introduced (already have new passenger and mail wagons, not sure what year they appeared though.)

Posting a save for everyone to look at.

[PouncingAnt]

I already mentioned the faster wagon's arrival in the mid to late 1950's. To get the exact year, load up the tropic set in another game, and use Ctrl+Alt+C and skip the date forward.

It should be possible to get above 80% after that. However, where the set is the only limiting factor to meeting the victory conditions, I cant help but think the victory conditions themselves are too stringent.

Do you think that making shorter routes would solve your problem? Do you have the money to build industries to shorten your routes to achieve victory?

If not, I may be persuaded to change the victory conditions..

EDIT: Having reviewed the situation in more detail, I have concluded moving the amount of cargo required to be transported to 75% or more.*

*This was due mainly to the boost in speed provided by using newer wagons being somewhat insufficient. It would probably not be impossible using the previous conditions, but annoyingly fiddly.

[SoLo]

Finally got everything up to 75%+. Took A LOT more effort, even with the new wagons then I expected it would. 80% would have been a real pain. Likely would have shut down the entire network, upgraded every train to a brand new engine and let them all go at once and hope they can get it over 80% on their first visits.

The goods transfer station in the south bounces between 77% and 82% depending on how many trains arrived the last month. And on top of the mountain there 'was' a diamond transfer, since that was the closest bank until one opened in the north. It has a rating around 12% but is no longer in use. Just can't clear it.

Working on another try for fun to see if I can kill the comp faster then a buyout is possible. (:

[SoLo]

Well, this is kind of funny...
Exact same as the buyout, lol. Date is one later just because of slowness in hitting the screenshot button.

[Elvish Magi]

I've completed this one, but needed 101 trains to do so!

Hutfinghill Transport, 2nd Dec 1965.png (38.19 KiB) Viewed 2918 times

There seems to be an unavoidable issue with any challenge where the win condition is using the least number of vehicles to transport all freight at a set efficiency level. The number needed is far too random, depending on the number of industries that open or close and the types that do.

Still, it was fun to play and the fact I know it could be done with a lot less trains than this means I may just have to do it again at some point!

[PouncingAnt]

I must say, good job! I was beginning to worry that noone would complete this challenge. It was more of a handful than I was expecting.

Yes, the number of trains required is somewhat random, however it does give less skilled people a chance as well.

EDIT: I also must point out that most of the awards could be improved upon