In this topic you will find a challenge mady by Optimix that seems to be pretty tough.
http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=3722.0 (http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=3722.0)
Translation:
It is april 2000. There lives a man in Lichfield who is afraid of airplanes and ships. He likes to visit his family in Hipwitch. He only dares to travel by train, but he can stand short travels (max 60 tiles) by bus, tram or underground.
Your task is simple:
Bring that man by train to Hipwitch using a railway bridge and do it as soon as you can. Everything is allowed (including raising tiles from sealevel to land), apart from changing the configuration files.
When there is a train from Lichfield to Hipwitch with at least one passenger for Hipwitch and when your net wealth is positive, save your game with the train visible on the bridge.
The winner is the player completing the task at the earliest moment, according to year-month-time in the lower left part of the screen.
(http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/4435/angsthaasplaatje.th.jpg)
edit: a better translation of "angsthaas"
Am I supposed to see a company deep in red numbers with tankers?
Yup. Thats why the challenge is so hard. You need to get the Netwealth up before you can do anything.
Well, not so hard, finished in October 2005. By the way, the pak128 is very unbalanced. There is exactly one tnaker car and one bus which does the jobs. All other buses than the raven hydrogen one are much more expensive to run. And the default selected tanker car with 100km/h is already the best, all trailer ones are even worse. Save for the VT98, which beats any other rail car. Even the Kiha, which is slower, has less passengers is more expensive to run.
http://simutrans-germany.com/files/upload/Angsthaas-3-fertig.sve
I like the idea of this challenge :)
And for some funny reason the German seem to have a word "Angsthase" that means just the same.
Quote from: prissi on November 09, 2009, 10:24:32 PM
Well, not so hard, finished in October 2005.
(....)
http://simutrans-germany.com/files/upload/Angsthaas-3-fertig.sve
Wow!! Congratulations! :-) You're the first one!
Great! I have only one problem: I cant view your
sve. When loading I get an error. Is there a way to
solve this problem?
@ Hajo, dutch and german are very similar :D
@ Prissi
Thats amazing, you we're really fast, but I too can't open your save file :/
Odd, I have no problems opening prissi's save game.
Actually, that was just half an hour in the evening. It could have been faster (datewise) but then I had to do different at the very beginning.
Quote from: Anime on November 10, 2009, 06:43:32 AM
@ Prissi
Thats amazing, you we're really fast, but I too can't open your save file :/
Neither can I, see error message
Not sure why, I just used the current nightly. (But this should no make any differences.)
I got Loading BDF font 'font/Prop-Latin1.bdf'
Unexpected character (255) for 255 character font!
Loading BDF font font/Prop-Latin1.bdf with 255 characters
but could still play. Maybe language settings play a role?
I get this error (but then in Dutch language)
(http://www.oaamedia.com/help/Images/windows_error.jpg)
You have to read "Simutrans" for the words "~e5d141.tmp"
I have windows XP, and I am using Simutrans 102 SDL stable
(simutrans.exe from 06-03-2009)
Perhaps this info can help to solve the problem?
I really would like to watch the prissi angsthaas challenge :-)
Well, the 102 cannot read 102.2 games. You have to use the version 102 or a current nightly.
So I'd need to download Simu-vers. 102.2?
Anime, yes.....:-)
There is a new stable version, and I missed that.
I am busy now with downloading, with the online
installer.
----
prissi, I installed the 102.2 version and I could watch
your result. It looks very nice. I finished too, but I
needed 8 years.
Your hint about the raven hydrogen car is great.
I changed my busses for the ravens, and I guess
I had about 50% more profit.
Do you have such a hint for trains too? :-)
For trains I found the VT98 railcars cheaper than anything else, especially compared to the Kiha with nearly same speed and capacity.
After looking at Prissi's save, he is right, just use the hydrogen buses, the tankers and the VT98, and you are all set. I was able to get the margin back in the black pretty quickly simply by replacing vehicules and removing any unnecessary infrastructure.
Prissi: you seem to be able to find which vehicles are most cost effective pretty quickly (well, I guess the head programmer gets some inside information ;) ). Do you simply look at running costs, or is there a quick calculation to figure out what will make you more money?
I just look at the running cost,no matter what the cost of the vehicle :)
And the speed ofcourse. The cost of the vehicle doesn't really matter as it doesn't decrease your net Net Wealth.
The most important things are speed, capacity and running cost.
I look for running costs, speed and capacity. If one beats all categories, then selection is rather simple. By the way, I suceeded in june 2003. Attached again http://simutrans-germany.com/files/upload/Angsthaas-4-schneller.sve
Quote from: prissi on November 11, 2009, 08:35:11 PM
By the way, I suceeded in june 2003. Attached again http://simutrans-germany.com/files/upload/Angsthaas-4-schneller.sve
Well that is really a miracle. I just finished my latest try,
and I finished in june 2003 too. :-)
But I have to be honest. The raven-bus tip helped me very much,
and another hint of your latest sve (nr.3 fertig) was, that I could
buy a much cheaper bridge. Here is my sve:
http://simutrans-germany.com/files/upload/Angsthaas-finish-june2003.sve
i cannot open any of these saves
google says that the files cannot be found (directory does not exist)
Optimix, can you re-upload the original save?
Oops Dwachs, that's a scenario of 2 years ago.
I will search for it; maybe I can find it in a backup
of my HD. You will hear from me.
Does the Simutrans file hosting site have a back up process? If so might there be a way to recover lost files that way?
Hello Dwachs, I searched a lot in all my backups, but I cannot
find the original scenario anymore. I'm sorry.
If you appreciate, I will make a new "angsthaas" challenge
that looks as much as possible as the original one, with
exactly the same story and goal as the original challenge.
Building an extreme large railwaybridge, and doing that
as quick as possible.
not necessary :)