Orient Express 1.0 Released

[St Leo]

Orient Express 1.0

The "Orient Express" proper runs from Calais and Paris to Bucharest, passing through France, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania. Then there is the closely-associated "Simplon-Orient Express," which makes its way farther south, through Switzerland, Italy and Yugoslavia.

From Nish, in Yugoslavia, there is a connection for Athens, while the main part goes on through Bulgaria to Istanbul (formerly known as Constantinople) in Turkey. Finally, returning to the north, the "Ostend-Vienna Express" connects with the "Orient Express" at the latter city, providing a through link with North Germany and Belgium. The "Orient Express" links up with the "Simplon-Orient Express" by a connection between Budapest and Belgrade. Such, in outline, are the ramifications of the "Orient Express" and its associated services.

Your goal in this scenario is to build the Orient Express!

Uh, someone pointed out that I never got around to releasing this, so I found a new graphic for the concerned citizens and posted it on SLeague. Meh.

[techumseh]

Very Cool!

Why don't you tell us a bit more about it? The readme is, well, minimalist.

I'm especially interested in the orientex cpp. file. What is it and how does it work? I must have missed it in Little Ice Age.

[St Leo]

Oh, that doesn't do anything as far as the user is concerned. It's the C++ file that I use to generate events.txt.

There is absolutely no advantage to it except that it gives me a very slightly prettier syntax to work with. If you know C/C++/Java, it might be worth looking at. Otherwise, don't bother.

---

Lessee...

I had the idea long, long ago. I think it may even predate Imperial Ambition, Dual Europe, and Big Ice. I think the initial idea was to use an even smaller map.

I think I had already converted a map from a Railroad Tycoon II scenario, but lost it over the years. The new map was made with Mercator's MapEdit.

The whole reason I finally got around to making it was the custom palette idea. Unfortunately, it didn't fully work out, so I made the custom palette files optional.

I learned of the title pic when a discussion of Transarctica cover art came up in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic

Oh, and research is something that happens to other people.

[Harry Tuttle]

You know, this is the first scenario I've played where the City.gif actually worked. I have to say that I like your graphics St. Leo, the blending makes it seem like a whole new game.

[St Leo]

If you are using the custom city.gif, you are going to have to replace it with the default one if you want to play anything else (or it will look screwed up).

[jasev]

I'm having real fun with the scenario, St. Leo

But I don't like the colour palette... too "dark" for me. I felt the same the first time I played ToT.

[St Leo]

Run the useDefault.bat then. It will switch the game to a standard game palette.

[:) Smiley]

Played a game of it, fairly good! Ya ought to make more maps using the same scenario engine.

[techumseh]

Originally posted by Smiley
Played a game of it, fairly good! Ya ought to make more maps using the same scenario engine.

Good idea. Trans-Siberian? Or a multiplayer in N. America - a race to the Pacific, using the various major American and Canadian railways - Union Pacific Rwy, Canadian Pacific Rwy, etc.

[St Leo]

Played a game of it, fairly good! Ya ought to make more maps using the same scenario engine.

I'll pencil that into my schedule for sometime before 2200.

Or a multiplayer in N. America - a race to the Pacific, using the various major American and Canadian railways - Union Pacific Rwy, Canadian Pacific Rwy, etc.

You get to balance that.

[jasev]

I had a trouble: my surveyor escorted by a hired goon was attacked by angry citizens... but the surveyor received the attack in spite of the goons, so I lost both units. I supposed the unit with the best defense factor should have received the attack, so I'm quite confused

[St Leo]

That's peculiar. The Guard should have received the attack.