Simutrans seems to be more biased towards intercity transport. However, I am sure there are a number of players who play with maps that resemble one single city.
The current Simutrans engine has quite a few annoying things that make this kind of games hard:
- Fixed prices
- Limited airport use
- Way too high buses running cost
- Way too low trams running cost
Therefore, I have a set of ideas to change this. Some of the requests might have been raised before, but I think my take would be better.
Intracity ModeThere can be a switch in Simutrans config at the creation of the game. Once choosing this mode, the game will implement the following changes to optimise for intracity transport simulation.
User-controlled ticket pricesThe user should be able to control the ticket prices. Ideally, he/she can set each individual route's price. Currently, running bus routes that make a stop every 8 tiles or so is prone to losing lots of money, while running commuter express routes will yield an unrealistically high profit. This is not fun at all.
I remember last time someone talked about this, it was viewed as "too complicated." Honestly, I don't think it is that complicated to the user. The following is a good format to follow.
http://www.gld.gov.hk/egazette/pdf/20081221/egn200812213396.pdfThe user can set a fare class for a type of routes operating on a type of roads. Then, Simutrans will calculate the one-way distance (total dist / 2) of the route.
There should also be discount points, where the player can specify on the route schedule at which stop the fares are at 0-100% (at 10% increments) of the whole route fare.
This will allow players to run local bus routes at a profit, and express bus routes at a relatively higher (but not stratospheric) profit.
More importantly, this will allow a better division between local and express routes running between the same set of destinations.
In essence, I am trying to raise the short fare prices, while lowering long-distance fare prices.
International AirportThe public player will be the only player with the ability to build an airport, and set the yearly pax levels. Planes will be generated automatically by Simutrans (as if it were operated by the computer players). Regular players will not be able to start airline services. However, they can start bus, freight, boat, and train services to the airport to transport the airline passengers.
The yearly pax levels will automatically drop by 10% a year if insufficient connecting transport modes are provided, beginning from the second year of airport operations. Vice versa for excellent connections.
Variable convoy running costConvoys making regular stops consume much more fuel than convoys running at constant speeds. Starting from the 4th tile at a constant speed, the running cost should drop by 5% until the cost is at 65% of the full cost.
Worker's wageIdeally, the wage of workers should be about 40-60% of the operating costs. I think a more simple way to implement this is to make the wage levels proportional to the convoy running cost.
The player can set the wage levels at 0-100% of the vehicle running cost. For every 1% below 40% (exclusive), the vehicle would ignore 2% of pax at the stops. For every 1 % above 45%, the vehicle would allow a 1% overload on board, until the vehicle is at 120% of its normal capacity.