Central States Scenario for Locomotion

By Alfred Barten

Central States scenario for Locomotion covers mid-America, spanning north-south from Chicago to New Orleans and east-west from Cincinnati to St. Louis and Atlanta to Houston. You'll find plenty of industries and passenger business to keep you going for a good many years, though you may complete the goal in relatively quick time. I've set the cities on the small side, to avoid growth so rapid that it chokes the landscape. The level of play is Easy, with only one competitor which doesn't get started until 12 months have gone by.




I created the base map with the idea of making a place for boat traffic. I've successfully run boats both ways between New Orleans and St. Louis along the Mississippi River, and between New Orleans and Cincinnati on the Mississipi and Ohio Rivers. Unfortunately, I discovered the AI engine for boats is not reliable. Occasionaly a boat loses its direction and flounders. The most reliable section is New Orleans - Memphis.


Building the Map

I followed the procedure outlined in my article "Creating a Scenario and Map in Locomotion" here, sketching it out freehand in MS Paint. Thus it the bears a reasonable likeness to reality, but is certainly not exact. I set the grayscale levels to 6 (river bottom), 70, 77, 83, and 90. During the map generation process I selected n for North America, 12 for water, and 130 for Green Grass.






Customizing the Scenario

I set the start date for 1915 and did not select any non-default items. I suggest you edit the scenario to suit your interests as far as start date and vehicles used are concerned. I did the same for myself. In order to keep things straight, I add my initials and the start date in front of the scenario name when customizing. Thus, I named my own version of Central States "AB 1915 - Central States". If I want to save a game during play, so that I can continue with the current game and come back some day to the saved version, I add the saved year at the end of the name. Thus my game saved in 1923 would be named "AB 1915 - Central States - 1923".

Availability

The scenario is available for free download at the Virtual Railroader Downloads page, here.

Feedback

I've played the scenario a number of times during testing, making adjustments and enhancements. I think it's now ready for sharing. Feedback is welcome.

Al