I originally bought TH on CD-rom long ago, and have played it for quite a while. Never finished the game, though.
'Recently', I bought the game on GOG, and I found that my old saved games still load perfectly..
But now this leaves me puzzled.

I'm looking at some saved games from Level 5, Simpleton.
The first save is from Jan 1, the start of the game. There are several noob doctors (Juniors) for hire, and they all know no specialties.
The second save is from Feb 1, one month later, and four of the noobs that I saw in save 1, have actually been hired, and have spent most of their time in training.
In the third save, Mar 1, those same four doctors are all still Juniors, but they have all mastered ALL speciaties.


Now here's the problem: when I start from the first save, hire those same four Juniors and send them to exactly the same training room, I can NOT get them to learn all three specialties in just two months! Even though, apparently, I *did* manage just that, twelve years ago! So I guess there was some trick to it that I knew then, but have forgotten in the meantime.

If anyone can tell me what trick that was, I would appreciate it!

The learning speed depends on how many student in the training room. More students mean learning slower.

Thank you for your response. Yes, THAT part I know. All the online guides say that.

But even if I have each student train alone, two months is not enough time for all four of them to learn all three skills. Because for each skill, they need a different Consultant (It's the level where you have three Consultants: one with Psychiatry, one with Surgery, and one with Research). Yet somehow, i still managed 12 years ago, to have all four students learn all three skills in only 2 months time...

And in all the old saved games of that level, there is only that ONE training room with four seats, and I always find all four students in the room together. So 12 years ago, I must have had them train together all the time. Still, after two months, they have learned all three skills.

So now I've tried everything: training them apart in multiple rooms, training them together in a room that is identical to the old version... NOTHING seems to work. Nothing is fast enough. That's why I'm so confused. So that is why I think there must have been some hidden trick that I used twelve years ago... I just don't remember what that trick was.

How about their "attention to detail"? Are they the same with your old save?
I think higher the state will learn faster.

Yup, that sounds logical, doesn't it? But they're totally the same characters with the same stats.

For this new attempt, I didn't start the level anew, but I reused the original Game 0 file (.h0 extension) that was generated long ago when I first started this level. And I've checked the stats between the old and new version. The pool of people for hire is exactly identical, all doctors with the same names, the same ability level, the same attention to detail, the same initial slary level.

You would really think it's the same game, except for the fact that I can't get them to train as fast as they once did. THAT is really the only difference, and I do not understand why that happens.

I think I'm gonna screw with their minds a little, see if it makes a difference if I pluck them out of their seats and let them sit down again... repeatedly, if I have to.

I installed it from the backlog and plan to try it out, then I realize there are 3 difficulty levels. So I stop there.
Best guess it was set to easy?
At any rate, the game is not that hard even on hard difficulty, as long as you know how to manage well.

I agree, that this game isn't all that difficult. But that is not quite the point. The point is that I want to understand how my previous attempt could have been so much better than anything I can muster now.

Okay, let's assume that it WAS set to easy difficulty, originally... The difficulty level can ONLY be set when you start a NEW game! I'm not starting a new game, so I *must* be playing at the same level that I selected so long ago...

Anyway, thank you for bearing with me so far. It helps me channel my thoughts.