Railroad Tycoon II
History File - 15 December 1998
Version 1.03
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Overview
2 Technical Notes
3 Change History
==================
1) Overview
==================
These notes should accompany the 1.03 version of Railroad Tycoon II.
There have been 2 widely released patches for Railroad Tycoon II. The
first patch, 1.02, primarily fixed a number of small bugs in the release
version. This patch, 1.03, fixes some bugs in single and multi-player
play, and implements a variety of small features and improvements
suggested by the user community.
There are two versions of this patch, one for Europe, Asia and Australia, and
the other for North America. In the lower left of the title screen, you'll see
a version number, probably "A 1.00" or "E 1.00". Those with an "A" should use the
North American patch, those with "E" should use the European patch. For the 1.03
version, there is no longer a separate version for Windows NT, the European patch
works for Windows 95, 98, and NT.
One other note - all 3 available versions (1.0, 1.02, 1.03) are
compatible in multi-player. (i.e. Everyone does not have to be on
the same version). However, as the 1.03 version is the most stable, it
is recommended that all players use that version.
==================
2) Technical Notes
==================
This patch clears up all technical issues we're currently aware of,
except the following, which are outside of our control:
A) Some users of Sound Blaster Awe 64 cards report relatively frequent
crashes. Early versions of the drivers for this card had problems.
The best solution is to get the latest drivers from www.creativelabs.com.
If this doesn't work, you can also turn the sound volume to 0 within
the game's options panel (Not in Windows, but rather in the game itself).
This will disable sound and prevent any problems.
B) Some users report scrambled colors when running the game. (i.e. all
the colors are wrong, greens, blues, etc.) A few video cards
incorrectly report their color formats to the game, and there's
nothing that the game can do about it directly. There are 3 solutions:
1) Run the game in 8 bit color (Press <F3> to toggle).
2) Update your video card drivers.
3) Adjust your video hardware acceleration. Go to
Start - Settings - Control Panel /
then Display - Settings - Advanced - Performance
Adjust the performance slider up or down (some cards do better at
a low setting, some do better at a high setting), then restart
the game.
C) The Heat.Net service included on the CD is primarily geared at North
American users, as that's where Heat has the strongest infrastructure.
If you're playing in Europe or elsewhere, you may or may not be able
to successfully use this service. However, you'll be able to play
internet games regardless - just use the TCP/IP option in the game.
The only thing Heat provides is a convenient means of locating other
Railroad Tycoon II players, you'll have to do this on your own if you
aren't using Heat.
==========================
3) Change History
==========================
--Changes in 1.03 Version--
A) Track Laying - Added new interface allowing several new track laying
options. Reduced jumpiness of cursor, improved responsiveness
late in game when a lot is going on. Improved track laying over bridges.
B) Train crashes - added prompt for train replacement upon train crash.
C) Multiplayer - Fixed out of synch bugs. Fixed problem handling
multiple simultaneous merger attempts. You might still get out of
synch errors if you're playing someone using an earlier version of the
game.
D) Tweaked revenues for pre-1920. Passengers and mail now earn less, all
others earn more.
E) Autosave - Added autosave feature. You must enable this yourself, if
you want it, under the options menu, 'Gameplay' category.
F) Added ability to name your player in single player mode (in the player
detail screen.)
G) Fixed problem of trains not stopping at stations if you've double
tracked or electrified in their vicinity.
H) Fixed sporadic crash bug when A.I. assumes control of a
formerly human owned company (via a human's starting a
new company or resigning). We didn't quite nail this one in
the 1.02 patch.
I) Fixed a problem in breakdown odds computation with throttle
slightly in the red.
J) Fixed a bug that in rare instances, would allow you to access
competitor's trains and stations through the train detail screen.
K) The game now uses the manager-adjusted station build cost
to see if you can afford a new station.
L) Fixed the +$80,000 company cash choice in campaign
scenario #2 (Handle on the Breadbasket).
M) Fixed a few small miscellaneous graphical issues.
N) Fixed a bug preventing track laying in territories where a
company has track laying rights, but not train running rights.
O) Fixed a bug that could cause a crash if the A.I. inherits a railroad
that has been bulldozing stations.
--Changes in 1.02 Version--
(Note: 1.01 version was only used for German release, and primarily
implemented support for German language issues).
A) Created versions that work around European copy protection flaws,
which were causing GPFs for some Pioneer CD Rom drives and
'Invalid Windows Version' errors for NT users.
B) Fixed sporadic crash bug when A.I. assumes control of a
formerly human owned company (via a human's starting a
new company or resigning).
C) Fixed Campaign Scenario #13 (India) so A.I. companies now build.
D) Fixed Campaign Scenario #10 (France) so gold and silver wins work.
E) Fixed Stand Alone Scenario (North America) removing buggy coal
price event.
(Note these scenario fixes are automatically applied by the program,
you don't need new or updated .MAP files)
F) Interface change to clarify when a station placement counts as
connected to a particular city (for scenario win conditions and
cash bonuses). City name will now say 'Connected' as you place station
or when you move your mouse over a nearby station.
G) Removed error message when music unable to play a track, allowing game
to continue without music. Note: this makes for easier multi-player
games off a single CD - just start on one machine, remove the CD, use
that CD to start on second machine.
H) A few small fixes to multi-player issues, primarily with setting up a
new game.
I) Fixed bug when a train is unloading and all of its station stops
are removed.
J) Various text fixes for foreign language versions. One .EXE should now
support English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, automatically
detecting the version based on the default.lng file being used.