Way prices - how to represent to players?

[jamespetts]

I am in the process of coding a number of features relating to ways that have been queued for a long time. These include:

(1) a "forge cost" for ways, being a cost that is added to the base cost of a way when a way is first built on a piece of land, but not when a way is upgraded to another type of way;
(2) a cost of purchasing land, which is also added to ways when built newly on land not owned by the player but not when upgrading ways and not when building ways on land owned by a player (land can be purchased using the marker tool), with variable land value depending on the location (initially with a very simple system but with plans to make it more sophisticated in the future); and
(3) a system whereby building parallel ways attracts a substantial discount in the forge cost compared to building separate ways.

This does, however, leave open the question of how these various costs are represented to the player. Currently, there is only a single cost for building or upgrading a way, and this is shown in the tooltip when a player mouses over the icon for that type of way in the menu. This base cost will no longer represent the actual cost of building the way except when upgrading in future, so might be confusing to players. Any thoughts on how best to deal with this, preferably without any elaborate new GUI required that will take a long time to design?

[zook2]

"Tarmac Road: 400c /km + Land"
Then display land costs in the tile info window, and also add a map overlay.

[jamespetts]

"Tarmac Road: 400c /km + Land"
Then display land costs in the tile info window, and also add a map overlay.

The land cost is already in the tile window in my development version; the map overlay might be more tricky to code.

However, would the price without "+ land" include the forge cost?

[zook2]

...the map overlay might be more tricky to code.

For a new player, it would be difficult to get an idea of the differences in land costs without that.

However, would the price without "+ land" include the forge cost?

I'd say yes, as the most important cost is the one for new ways. And while you're at it, why not make the tooltip a little more informative by spelling out what the different costs listed are:
"Steel Track 900 c/km + Land Costs, (Maint. 72 c/km, Upgr. 550 c/km)"

By the way, it would be really helpful to have separate entries in the finance window for track maintenance, building maintenance etc., but I suppose that's been suggested many times before. As it is now, I hardly pay attention to these costs because there's no way to get an overview of different items.

[Sarlock]

This is tricky.  To actually portray the true costs to the player, using this complex system of forge & land costs, would require the game to calculate what the cost of the path is going to be when you drag your new way on to the map and portray the cost to the player before they release the mouse button.  I wonder if it's just wiser to include this cost in an overall forge cost for railways and ignore the idea of purchasing the land as just implied with the way purchase.  You can reduce the cost for parallel (or more) tracks accordingly.

[ӔO]

How about adding words in the toolbar header?
"Rail Tools, Initial build cost +1,000$" or something to that tune?

[jamespetts]

This is tricky.  To actually portray the true costs to the player, using this complex system of forge & land costs, would require the game to calculate what the cost of the path is going to be when you drag your new way on to the map and portray the cost to the player before they release the mouse button.  I wonder if it's just wiser to include this cost in an overall forge cost for railways and ignore the idea of purchasing the land as just implied with the way purchase.  You can reduce the cost for parallel (or more) tracks accordingly.

It already does this (try dragging a way, and you will see "Estimated cost:..."). It is still useful for players to know in the tooltips what the individual cost of each type of way is, however, to compare them to each other.

AEO - this might be confusing, as the forge cost applies only to ways and not to all items, and this does not mention the cost of buying land.