Thank you
solo for testings and that's a bunch of suggestions - ALL welcome, but, as an "Ex's Hard CB" Tribute, I'll reply to each one ^^
1. Lower the property maintenance by 50% of what it was (I think u alrdy did that)\
Was already lowered 50%, it's now 1/64 for rails, 1/32 for roads, canals and stations - still wanted to keep some values here but not as high as before, since the tributed server hasn't them (neither OpenTTD at the time ^^)
2. Lower the construction costs by 33% (make it 2/3 of what it is right now and I think people can happily play a 1 train line)
Won't happen! Reason: are values set by EX_cities.grf, used on the original server, and I'll keep it for the sake of building smart and not fast!
3. lower the passengers req by 20% (I foresee trouble by people all taking the same cities and since they're not growing you might want to consider this)
4. Lower the mail req by 20%, see point nr.3
Plausible request and, since I decreased initial city sizes, to don't leave pax as the best "money maker", it's natural that won't produce so much passengers and mail for the towns. New demands: Passengers: 200; Mail:30;
5. Increase coal requirement by 20%. To balance the lower pax count
6. Increase goods requirement by 10% (also to balance pax req)
Values will continue the same. Reason: Until now been easy and no resources competition - Will happen for sure later ^^
7. Consider to lower the building costs on slopes/ debris/ farmland/ rocks/ trees by 50%. I know this is not what you want, however I think it will improve the gameplay since not everybody knows how to build cheap.
8. Consider upping the cargo payment of coal by 10%. Since coal always is and have been the highest source of income buffing the coal income can be good for people starting with it, so not everybody decide to pax the shit out of the map xD.
Same reasom as in quote for point
2
9. Consider to have town upgrades (advertisement, fund buildings, statues to be lowered by 33% of the current costs, to make it interesting to use town advantages.
Doable, and we all like to companies spend money on towns... was cut to 50%
10. Turn off buying enemy companies (you know my last game)
11. Turn off automatic sweeping of companies in the red for X months (see point 10, I got sweeped while being very healthy but wrong timing) I don't know if this is possible, if it is, turn it off xD
I don't know a way how (without change server code) so, best solution is: keep company "above the water", all the time ^^
12. Increase the amount of water supplies per map (if possible)
13. Increase the amount of farms per map (if possible)
14. Decrease the amount of iron mines (nobody uses them anyway)
15. Increase the amount of forest per map
Directly related with mapgen and number of towns, nothing we can, currently, do about it.
16. Lower the costs for signals (is that possible or do you need to lower whole construction? I pay 80 bucks for a railway and 260 bucks for signal. Seems unreal high to me)
Building costs spoken on point
2 and about maintenance on point
1
17. Increase the amount of water on the map (could be very interesting to create some narrow chokes)
We could give it a try: it's currently at 1%, I'll increase to 2% (only a unit, but will get huge on map ^^)
18. Lower the requirement of food by 10%.
It doesn't scares me the suggestion, but it's smaller change: Food demand is now 120;
19. Decrease the water req by 20% (or increase the spawn rate, see point 12)
20. Decrease the pax req by 40% (for me fine but I kow how to deal with pax, the gross might have trouble)
21. Decrease goods req by 40%, same as point 20 for me
22. Decrease mail req by 40%, same as 20
23. Increase diamond req by 40% (lot of mines on map, should be fine for all.
Well, I won't adjust the demands like above, but I'll set the goal for 6000 inhabitants for the Tournament. Will continue to be a hard goal to reach, imo, and who reaches it... or get closer, must be rewarded
Solo, thank you very much for suggestions - Main post was updated and training server too
Edit: I fixed some typos but maybe many above... Good luck to us all