Purchasing - [RBP Help Contents]

After you arrive at a destination, you can make a purchase; if one is affordable, RBP will prompt you. You can purchase a railroad or upgrade your engine.

MAKING A PURCHASE

To make a purchase, from the Turn menu, choose Purchase. The drop down list contains the unowned railroads and engine upgrade options. Any item in the list surrounded with ( ) is one you do not have sufficient cash to afford presently. To see how a RR integrates with your existing network, choose one from the list. RBP updates the map with your selection highlighted. If this is the RR you want, click the Buy button.

While the Purchase window is open, you can also click on the map to select a RR to consider for purchase. This visual approach can be an easier way to assemble your network.

The city access and monopoly statistics indicate the destination probabilities for the cities served by your RR network; data is shown for both before and after the pending purchase. Monopolized cities are those served by your RRs only.

Note that under Rail Baron rules, you can make a purchase before paying your rail use fees. Pending fees are displayed near the top of the purchase window. To help avoid a subsequent sale or auction, be sure to only purchase what you can afford after subtracting the rail use fees you owe. Note that enabling the "Pay before purchase" Game Option will require fees to be paid in advance of a purchase.

ADVICE

The Advice button tells you what each of the AI barons would do in your situation. A consensus of opinion usually indicates a highly recommended purchase. When opinions vary, it usually means there is no clear cut answer about what to do. Remember that IA Newby makes virtually random purchase decisions; if you ask for advice again, he is likely to change his mind. The other barons may also change their mind if they think several choices are about equally good.

MANUAL

Though it will negatively impact your game score, you can manually assign the ownership of railroads via the Ownership feature.

UNOWNED vs. OWNED

By default, unowned RRs are displayed on the map with a dotted line, and owned RRs are displayed with a solid line the color of the player.

GRAPHICS / MULTIMEDIA

The herald/logo/image of the RR or engine you are considering for purchase will be displayed. If only the RBP logo is displayed, it means either you are missing the multimedia files for the map, or RBP is having trouble loading them. For the USA map, the multimedia is stored in the USARRS.BMS file. Note that some maps may not have a .BMS multimedia file since this depends on the efforts of the map's designer.