PouncingAnt National Monopoly Challenge 4

[PouncingAnt]

I'm back again, with my latest challenge. Or should I say, challenges. Since this time there will be a host of goals to obtain!

Current Winner: Elvish Magi (Chairman of Hutfinghill Transport, with 101 trains in 1965)!
Runners Up: None!

Take over award: 1st Jan 1927 by SoLo (be the first to bankrupt/take over a company)
Monopoly challenge award:(transport 80% of all cargo produced)
1000 rating award: (get a rating of 1000 as quickly as possible)
Population boom award: 572k points by Elvish Magi(increase the population of ALL towns as much as possible)
Efficiency award: 36k points by Elvish Magi (get the highest income with the least trains)
Service award: 9 by Elvish Magi (have as many stations with 80% rating as possible)

Goals:
-Transport at least 75% of all cargo produced
-At least 75% of all goods produced must go to the the city named "Export"
-When transferring cargo, the station where cargo is transferred must have a rating of at least 75%
-At least 3 desert towns must receive food and water
-The player achieving the above conditions with the least amount of freight vehicles wins.
-You must obtain your goals before the year 1970

Rules:
-Do not change any rules without prior consultation
-Use only the tropical refurbishment set, or other GRFs recommended in this post.
-The rules are subject to change. Check back here once in a while!

Suggestions:
-Try the OpenGFX packs to enhance the feel of this scenario. Rivers are used, and look much better in OpenGFX
-If you don't have the patience to complete the main challenge, try obtaining one or more of the awards. You can attempt as many times as you wish!

Story: (Feel free to skip straight to the scenario download to get started)

You have been called to a small sub-tropical island at the request of it's government, to take part in it's "Western Development Project". The island's East has prospered over the last 20 years, and with increased comforts that prosperity brought, the people's compassion has also deepened. The Western Development Project was drawn up to boost employment and living standards, as well as profitability of the poor West of the country.

The West experiences very dry conditions, and is mostly desert, separated from the rich West by a huge plateau. While it is moderately rich in resources, the lack of water and food has led to it's economic stagnation. Publicly funded attempts to right the situation have failed, so now, they have offered you a sizable loan, in the hope you can do a better job.

[Commie Si]

OK that was quick getting that up, I'll have a bash when I get outta work. GO CUMMINS! (sigh)

OK i have looked at it......YOU ARE A MADMAN!

[CommanderZ]

I don't like the export island. I will mean a lost of ships or some ultra expensive bridges. This gonna be a challenge

[PouncingAnt]

Yeap, this is meant to be a step up on the difficulty scale. But there are plenty of awards to go for if the main challenge is too awkward.

[VoxDissident]

Sounds like fun. Thanks for posting

-Vox

[tb2571989]

pssst...you may wanna update your sig.

[PouncingAnt]

lol. I more or less assumed noone looked at it

[CommanderZ]

I will give it a try next week. I'm having exams on monday.

[Commie Si]

This can be done a lot quicker...

[PouncingAnt]

Nice job at pushing the AI out of the game. I took some stats off the save, and you've got yourself 3 awards for now

[SoLo]

Probably could still be done sooner. I completely forgot about stock buying and just happened to try it. He was already making negative monies from the trains I built beside his.

When I first saw the takeover goal, my first thought was to just park a train at the end of their stations and they'd be finished in a year or two. But apparently they took that 'feature' out. (:

[PouncingAnt]

lol, I was never aware of that one.
Anyway, good job ^^. Keep up the good work

[SoLo]

Lasted about 3 months and then the comp was reborn.
This could make the map a bit more interesting. Dodging retarded roads is always fun. (:

[PouncingAnt]

well, feel free to re-enable road vehicles for the AI. It wont build anything otherwise

[SoLo]

Can't build anything anyways. I don't even have access to road veichles yet. Forget when they get introduced in the tropical set. 1930s-1940s range I think. But right now I basically have my track built and empty. Need trucks to move the maize to the station for transport.

[SoLo]

This map needs to stop generating industries. Get very close to finishing and then a new industry pops up completely away from the cargo it needs and I need to redo half my trains to service it properly.

Btw, for those of you thinking of making trains go to the island. It's going to cost you. I ended up needing double bridges in each direction and three self made islands to connect the bridges (seems that bridges have a max length of around 100). Raising 2 small islands with 6 raises for each costing 60kish pounds each. Then 12 (3 sections with 4 tracks) 90 length bridges to connect the mainland to the island at 300k each.
Spent about 4.5mil pounds building the thing, and it still can clog because of the number of trains running on it. *sigh*

[SoLo]

Started a new game because to many industries opened. Had 40 trains going and still had some industries not even being serviced. Figured that I'd post this before heading to bed. Should be unbeatable. At the end of each year I opened the computer's company window and started clicking buy. Finally got through in 1927, January 1st.

Not sure if I like the new game eitehr though. Instead of opening A LOT of new industries, this time everything is closing down. Lost two of the farms ontop of the hill, the food plant in Wrindinghall, and the Wranhall ore mine is almost gone. Guess I'll give it a try some more tommorrow and see if it is doable.

P.S. I named my company appropriately for the challenge. (:

[PouncingAnt]

Nice Job! Seems you've aced that challenge.

I would like to remind you that the main challenge should be equally difficult no matter who is playing. The only factor different between each game is skill and luck. The largeness of the map makes both factors more variable, I think (Luck certainly becomes more significant).

Also, you have until 1970 to finish! I haven't seen a single game past 1940, yet the number of towns logically requires a much larger number of trains. So, even if you have 80 trains, it is well worth submitting a winning save game.

P.S. I like the name for your company

[CommanderZ]

This gonna be tough. I ended in hopeless bankrupt on my first attempt

[SoLo]

Yeah it's hard. I'm getting close to finishing it now though. Everything on the mainland is connected except for that diamond mine (If this was a real game I'd keep ignoring it, 18 a month, pfft. And it has to cross the entire map to get to the only bank.)

Here's what I have atm:
April 1934
31 Trains
365 Rating (this will never hit 1k) (:

This is what I am missing:
Food to the 3 towns that are getting water - but the food plant is fully supplied and the track/stations exist, just need to make the trains.
Goods to the Export City island.
80% at all industries (just need to buy some statues I guess)

Will try to get it done by tommorrow or wednesday at the latest.

We don't lose marks for ugly looking junctions I hope. OTTDCOOP will probably nuke my track if they saw some of these. (: