From: soelex@four-lab4.Berkeley.EDU (Alexander T. Soe)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games
Subject: Re: A-Train
Date: 21 Jul 1992 06:21:52 GMT
Organization: /etc/organization
NNTP-Posting-Host: four-lab4.berkeley.edu

In article <1992Jul17.220040.15369@lmpsbbs.comm.mot.com> bhv@areaplg2.corp.mot.com (Bronis Vidugiris) writes:
>I usually look at the 'satellite' to see what the train is carrying - I
>wasn't aware of any way to do this with scehdule.  Doing it with the
>satellite I only get information on what the train has RIGHT NOW,
>nothing in the way of 'average' or historical information.

I usually have 2nd level of Railroad Menu constantly showing, so that I know
how my railroad is doing each day.  I look at the change in monthly profit/loss
number at midnight.  If the number is going up then it's good for me.
The 'average' is done manually for me.  I just pick one date. Jot done the
monthly P/L number and wait for at least seven days before checking it again.
The difference between the two number divided by 7 gives me a good average
for one week, compensating for the drop in communting load on Sunday.

There should have been an averaging function of somekind, so that we can
tell how our trains are doing.  Even a bar graph over a week or a month
period would be nice.

>There's nothing like RR Tycoon's per-train profitability report that I
>saw.  There's an instantaneous total profitability report that can be used
>in a simple setup with one train to compare different train types, for
>example.

Never played RR Tycoon. So, I didn't have the luxury of enjoying those
niffty reports in that game.

>Trying different trains out was the easiest way to see the differences
>between them.  The manual is quite right about the one model (forget the
>name) being more profitable than the others.  It's hard to say why - I
>presume the expense of the train represents luxurious construction, as I
>notice the total number of passangers with this train goes up significantly.

It's AR III.  It's an express train, so I assumed the speed is what drawn the
rider to it.  And, the high ticket price and low carrying/maintenance cost
result in a larger profit margin for this train.

>There is a profit figure for subsidiaries, but I'm confused about whether
>it includes property taxes or not.  Probably the easiest way to find out
>exactly what is going on is to run an experiment - buy a subsidiary, look
>at your cash, let the simulation run for a while, look at the report and
>your cash again.  [I haven't done this - instead I've picked up a rewnewed
>interest in RRT.]

Figuring out which subsidiaries are profitable are quite a challenge. 
The profit numbers in the subsidiary menu don't include tax.  So, a piece of
subsidiary is turning profit if its profit number at the end of the fical
year (March 31) exceed 5% of the Market Value.
If you don't want to wait till for a year, use the daily profit amount, which
can be obtained by substracting the numbers reported at 1900 each day.

After some experimenting and number crunching, I realized that stadium and
amusement park have the highest $/day profits, while the ski resort and the
golf course actually lose money overall (after taxes) if not in right 
condition.  Factories are good if a freight train is constantly taking
the materials away.  This also pays back the cost of the freight train.
Hotels needs to have a waiting period before you started seeing positive
numbers.  Small station are useless, but large station already broke even
when 301 passengers disembark.
But, we all know that the real profit is in the resale value of a building.
Just remember to keep a wide strip of land around any new station and 
keep building and selling subsidiaries on those valuable lands.  The
increased market value due to being near station (and, roads if near a large
station) is nothing compare to normal daily take-ins.  I once built a stadium
next to a road, hotel, lease building, and some apartments, and the market
value jumped immediately from $1Mil to $5Mil.  A 500% fold increase! Too good.
Of course, that stadium also takes in the most amount per day: ~$1350.  
Compare this to $600 for my hotel or $290 for my factory.  Must have a number
one ball club at the stadium, or very expensive hot dogs/sushi. 

Wonder when I will reach $50Mil with so much income tax...

alex
soelex@four-lab4.berkeley.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games