Railroad Tycoon 2 other - History file

                            Railroad Tycoon II            
                       History File - 21 January 1999
                               Version 1.05


       TABLE OF CONTENTS

       1 Overview         
       2 Technical Notes  
       3 Change History     


==================
1) Overview
==================

These notes should accompany the 1.04 version of Railroad Tycoon II.  
You can install this patch over any version from 1.00 to 1.03.  
For this patch, there is only one version, not separate European and
North American versions like with previous patches.

This version is backwards compatible in multi-player with all 
previous versions of Railroad Tycoon (1.00, 1.02, 1.03), though 
some of the enhancements in this version may be disabled if
playing in a multi-player game with someone with an older version.

Also, as with all previous patches, the format for saved games is 
unchanged, so you can read your old files.


==================
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  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 1.05 Version--
A) Fixed one serious bug introduced by 1.04 version that caused crashes.



--Changes in 1.04 Version--
A) Reduced bonuses of passenger support buildings by 5-10% each.  
Overall, a city with maxed out passenger support buildings now
has a total bonus of 45% versus 80% previously.  Increased overall cargo
and passenger revenues by 7% to make up shortfall.  The net effect of 
this is that passengers and big cities should be less important.

B) Fixed some significant memory leaks that could cause the game to 
gradually slow down (or possibly crash) over the course 
of a long play session, in either multi-player or single player.

C) Did away with separate European and North American versions.  One
version now works on either.

D) Fixed the win conditions for campaign scenario 17 (Australia) which
would sometimes take an extra year to trigger a win.

E) Bulldozing trees now costs $1,000 per tree, matching the cost for
laying track over trees (and closing down a loophole where it was
cheaper to bulldoze first, then lay track).

F) Declaring bankruptcy now has an additional effect that the creditors 
receive stock equal to 50% of outstanding shares (effectively reducing
current shareholders percentages by a third).




--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.