News:

Simutrans Forum Archive
A complete record of the old Simutrans Forum.

Investing

Started by EvanBGood, December 10, 2009, 11:05:11 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

EvanBGood

I'm still rather new to Simutrans, but in my short time with the game, I think I know exactly what I'd like more influence over.

People seem to dislike the idea of adding more city or industry growth control to the game, as this is a game that you're supposed to be a transportation tycoon, not a city developer, and the well being of the cities really isn't your concern other than their transportation needs. I agree! However, if it were possible to influence these things without directly controling them, I think it would still fit into the theme of the game. Thus, my idea.

It would be interesting if there was a way to invest your money in other parts of the game. For example, a player could invest some of their company money in the growth of a nearby town, or could invest in the development of more tourism attractions in that area. Similarly, they could invest in a particular industry to help boost production (either temporarily, permanently, or, what I think would work best, permanently with a recuring cost), or perhaps even encourage the growth of a new factory. I don't think this would be out of character for a tycoon who would experience a symbiotic return on the investment in a city or industry that supplies them with money.

Of course, none of this would involve actually telling the "city planners" what to do, but rather, it would influence the "under the hood" numbers that effect growth. It would almost be like using one of the public service buttons to "grow city" or "increase industry", only without such an instant and powerful effect. I would think the system would also call for some amount of randomization, so growth could be "influenced" and not "purchased".

I won't sit here and pretent to even begin to know how difficult something like this is to program, so I wouldn't want to say it would be "easy". However, since it's a matter of subtracting credits and pushing numbers one way or another, it didn't sound impossible... at least not in my dreamy little mind  ;)

It's probably a little too out there for ST-standard, but maybe it would work in ST-Ex? Or maybe as an addon... if that's even possible.

Oh, and by the way, like I said, I've only recently joined the ST world and I have to say, you're all awesome!!!

mobo

Well it already is a bit like this in st standard. The more more people and mail you transport from and to some town, the faster it grows. And when it reaches a certain size (adjustable in simuconf.tab) there are new markets beeing built in the city, and also new suppliers for these markets. The tourist attractions in cities also get built when the city reaches a certain population.

Tiles within the city limit that are empty (no building) are also potential destinations for the passengers. So if you run busses to these locations they will probably not be profitable for a while but you stimulate more city growth - this is a bit like investing in city growth IMO.

The Hood

I think this is an interesting idea.  I would support some kind of option to pay money into a public service fund that either results in some city growth or a new industry chain, or an increase in industry productivity.  Something to do with your money when you are making a large profit later in the game...

vilvoh

I also support the idea. You already can found new cities. It's expensive but if you can afford it, it's the best way to expand the game when you've a lot of money and you want to introduce new challenges. Thus I would do the same for industries and tourist attractions, as The Hood has explained above, paying the public service to develop the city and its metropolitan area.

Escala Real...a blog about Simutrans in Spanish...

colonyan

I like the idea of using company earned money redistributed to its poetential client.
For those seek faster growth, it might be one solution!

But there is one game concept we might lose.
The only way for growth was player's service. But if money can buy growth, what will be the reason for transportation...

How about instead of investment affecting the growth directly, investment opens possibility for faster growth upto
certain population or such?

EvanBGood

Wow, I knew this was a nice community, but I didn't expect such support for my little idea! Thanks all!

Quote from: The Hood on December 10, 2009, 12:27:39 PM
Something to do with your money when you are making a large profit later in the game...

That was exactly what I was going for :D I haven't reached this point in the game, myself, but I assume that there's still that, like many similar games, there comes a time when money is so overly plentiful that it simply doesn't matter. Having something to do with all that extra cash could be a very rewarding feeling for setting up such a solid company.

Quote from: colonyan on December 10, 2009, 04:44:57 PM
But there is one game concept we might lose.
The only way for growth was player's service. But if money can buy growth, what will be the reason for transportation...
How about instead of investment affecting the growth directly, investment opens possibility for faster growth upto
certain population or such?

I think we're both saying the same thing, really. I'm not proposing that the system should even begin to replace the boost of a good transportation and mail network. Again, my experience with the game's inner workings is still rather basic, but I believe there are growth "factors" that can be set on a new game. By default, I remember seeing something like "400" for small towns "200" for medium and "100" for large. I believe these numbers are to sway the game later on, so that a large city needs more work to grow than a tiny one where every transported person counts. Again, I may not have that fact right, but the idea remains the same: investing in a town's growth wouldn't just make the town grow for you, but rather, it would inflate your own existing business by making each action within the town more productive, as well as increasing your potential travelers. For example, you have a rail network transporting people and it's resulting in about 30 monthly growth within a city. You invest in that city, causing a boost to, say, 45 monthly growth. Without the transport network there, perhaps the investment would cause the city to grow a tiny bit, but a "multiplier" for existing city growth would keep the idea of building a transport network appealing. Not to mention, transport makes money. These "donations" wouldn't (not directly, at least).

The big idea with all of this, however, is simply to provide another way to play the game. One of the things I love about this game is that I could, for example, play an entire game without delivering a single piece of mail, or I could never ever use a tram, or I could do all my passenger transport by road and air. Of course, the biggest reward comes from mixing everything together into one giant network, but the game never forces you to do anything. In the same way, you could choose to skip investments entirely and focus on growth in other ways, or you could use investments to supplement areas that you don't want to focus on, such as if you were focusing on industry and didn't want to be "forced" to work on much passenger transport to expand your business. However, if someone tackled the issue of industry growth from the angle of growth through transport, as well as investment, and fueled it with the profit of their industry network, they would have much more potential than someone who did only one thing.

jamespetts

One thing that players can already do with a large quantity of surplus money is to buy and maintain headquarters. Their purpose, I understand, is to act as a sort of status symbol, to show that a company can still make a profit despite having paid a large quantity of money to purchase, and continuing to pay a large quantity of money to maintain, a large and glamorous headquarters building.
Download Simutrans-Extended.

Want to help with development? See here for things to do for coding, and here for information on how to make graphics/objects.

Follow Simutrans-Extended on Facebook.