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Community => Community Discussion => Randomness Lounge => Topic started by: jamespetts on March 10, 2013, 11:02:52 PM

Title: Cities in motion 2
Post by: jamespetts on March 10, 2013, 11:02:52 PM
Those put off Sim City (2013) by the serious problems, people might be interested in the forthcoming Cities in Motion 2 (http://www.paradoxplaza.com/games/cities-in-motion-2#about_game-tab), which, unlike the original, will have dynamic city growth based on transport, timetables and a day and night cycle. The curved roads look very similar to those in the latest version of Sim City, and, interestingly, the maps look much bigger.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: isidoro on March 10, 2013, 11:47:42 PM
I liked, with its limitations, CIM 1 and was able to play it decently with wine.  I hope, when I buy it, to be able to play it with wine again...  It seems to me that CIM 2 will be better...
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: mEGa on March 11, 2013, 09:53:06 AM
First : as Simcity 2013, we must be connected to Internet to play with CIM 1 (using Steam techno).
Second notice : CIM 1 had not very much vehicles and transportation sets are only trams and buses (I didn't know how to use railway without paying it online ?)
What about CIM 2 ? Anybody tested it ?
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: jamespetts on March 11, 2013, 11:22:35 AM
It hasn't been released yet - scheduled for Q2 this year. We're still in Q1...
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: Carl on March 11, 2013, 12:33:20 PM
It had a closed beta test recently, I think -- I applied, but wasn't selected.

There has been very little in the way of preview images or video released about the game, so I'd be somewhat surprised if it was released in Q2 -- but then you never know with Paradox.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: isidoro on March 11, 2013, 11:50:37 PM
@mEGa: if I remember it correctly, CIM 1 also had underground trains (tube) and ships.  They were somewhat limited, I agree.  And there must be a bug with ships that made them get stuck apparently for no reason.

I bought a physical game (the box with the CD) and, although I think I remember I had to connect to steam to register, I also think that I could play being offline.  But of that, I am not sure...

Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: asaphxiix on March 12, 2013, 01:26:22 AM
paradox is a very creative company - they always have great ideas and implementation - but always lacking as well - their ideas just deserve much bigger projects in a deeper level. Sounds like this game is a good step in that way.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: Carl on March 12, 2013, 07:35:04 AM
Quote from: mEGa on March 11, 2013, 09:53:06 AM
First : as Simcity 2013, we must be connected to Internet to play with CIM 1 (using Steam techno).

Steam DRM is not at all comparable to the always-online requirement of SimCity.

First, you won't get booted out of the game if your connection goes down.
Second, Steam works in offline mode so you don't even need to be online to launch the game.
Third, savegames and the like are stored locally.
Fourth, Steam works...
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: el_slapper on March 12, 2013, 09:23:08 PM
I did but Cities in Motion 1 on gamer's Gate. Once downloded, there is no more connection needed. I like a lot.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: rsdworker on March 12, 2013, 10:11:58 PM
Quote from: Carl on March 12, 2013, 07:35:04 AM
Steam DRM is not at all comparable to the always-online requirement of SimCity.

First, you won't get booted out of the game if your connection goes down.
Second, Steam works in offline mode so you don't even need to be online to launch the game.
Third, savegames and the like are stored locally.
Fourth, Steam works...

excatly - its good one but also Desura as well
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: Junna on March 12, 2013, 10:26:35 PM
Me and rsdworker were in the alpha/beta.

CIM1 actually works to play without running steam, though. I still prefer CIM1 to CIM2.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: isidoro on March 12, 2013, 11:06:08 PM
Can you please elaborate?  Why do you prefer CM1 to CM2?
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: Junna on March 13, 2013, 08:54:28 PM
Quote from: isidoro on March 12, 2013, 11:06:08 PM
Can you please elaborate?  Why do you prefer CM1 to CM2?

It's static cities are more convincing, because the games own cities end up too simplistic and do not appear as detailed (generation is fairly simplistic, though in reality more advanced than that in SimCity, at least these Cims have actual residences and places of work); buildings simply appear along roads, and there's no way to easily control this layout even in the editor (unless they change this, I hope they do, but likewise I doubt they have the time and resources available to them that are necessary). The 48 minute day is too fast for transport patterns to be very pronounced: it should be much longer, 72 minutes or more, at the very least. Most buildings were generic ones from CIM1 refitted and modded and a few new ones, but the ones chosen were all those of a more "American" appearance (you can see this clearly in screen-shots released). Of course, my favourite part of CIM1 is the map editing. The new road patterns are the one thing which stand out in CIM2 as being vastly superior to the system in CIM1, but I'm not sure I feel the way the depots and such work is very intuitive. There were a few other issues I had with the game, but as I'm not sure how much will change for the final release, I'll have to wait and see how that ends up. I do like that the developers are quite responsive and seem engaged in the work, it's just unfortunate that they do not have the resources available to them that ought to.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: jamespetts on March 20, 2013, 02:38:15 PM
The developers have just released their latest "Developers' Diary]http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?676796-Cities-in-Motion-2-%96-Timetable-Zones-and-Ticket-Pricing-%96-Developer-diary-10]"Developers' Diary (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?676796-Cities-in-Motion-2-%96-Timetable-Zones-and-Ticket-Pricing-%96-Developer-diary-10) entry, describing their zonal ticketing and timetabling options. What is intriguing about this so far is that Cities in Motion 2, a commercial game, is including features deemed too complicated even for Experimental users.

Whilst I don't think that we can sensibly accommodate price variations by users for the time being (not least because of the impact on our routing system, which is more performance sensitive than in CIM due to us simulating entire large regions instead of single, albeit large, cities), I notice that many users of Experimental have in effect implemented timetables by the back door using the convoy spacing feature. It will be interesting to see what proportion of CIM2 users actually use timetables to see whether it would be worthwhile one day having a more explicit timetabling tool for Experimental, albeit that would be a low priority for my time at least compared to a number of things that are currently in the development queue and that will take some time to complete.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: asaphxiix on April 02, 2013, 08:06:19 PM
I don't think I'd recommend this one... i'm still too new to tell more about it, but a very bad first impression. Seems the space-time continuum is way off...
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: jamespetts on April 02, 2013, 10:40:17 PM
Oh? How so?
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: asaphxiix on April 02, 2013, 11:17:32 PM
it takes 45 minutes to cross a 500 meter bridge... with no traffic.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: jamespetts on April 02, 2013, 11:32:30 PM
Is this perhaps a case of multiple scales where internal consistency is observed? One might say of Simutrans that it takes a week to make a 300km journey by train if one looks at the month/year time scale...
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: asaphxiix on April 03, 2013, 01:13:38 AM
I didn't understand your question :)

In simutrans it doesn't really matter what the real time is in terms of day/week/month etc., in cim2 it does. So you have a 2 hour morning rush period, when a rather small bus loop takes 3 hours to complete. for a passenger to cross from one side of town to another would take a whole day at least, and although there's no information on whether pax even have origin/destinations, it does seem they finish their journeys very late at night, or else it's a very upbeat town.

Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: Carl on April 03, 2013, 06:56:24 AM
Oh, I see CiM2 has been released:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/225420/

The initial price point of £14.99 is very low, much lower than the original, leading me to think they have low expectations. Coupled with the fact that I didn't see much publicity about the recent release...
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: isidoro on April 03, 2013, 09:37:13 PM
I guess I'm out of the game: no Linux version and only download.  At least, with CIM1 I was able to buy the CD and run it with wine...  A pity...

Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: dannyman on April 03, 2013, 10:11:36 PM
I pre-ordered and have since paid for the game, but haven't had a chance to play it yet due to the far more engaging game of being a new father.  I dislike Steam but it isn't as annoying as Simcity, which, while beautiful to look at feels like a step back from SC4, unfortunately.  :/


CiM1 was fun, and yes, it is always nice when a game works under Wine.  I bought the North America pack and had fun helping the hippies in their mission of "free healthcare" in San Francisco until I tried to re-route a trolley line and it insisted that the route had to detour to the far side of the city.  Nasty bug, there!  Anyway, as a simutrans fan I feel obliged to sample other games in this genre and CiM2 shows some potential, as if it is, in some respects, a labor of love. :)


(Don't tell my boss, but I use the Windows partition on my laptop as the commercial game platform since my home gear is all Linux. ;)


Happy gaming, yall!
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: asaphxiix on April 03, 2013, 10:15:57 PM
I guess they'll patch it up at some point, but until then, it's not ready for release, and hardly playable. Laying tracks is a nightmare, editing existing lines (or even checking their route) is near impossible, there's no indication at all of passenger traffic (what lines they go on, when, origins, destinations), and worst of all, no autosave, and the game crashes relatively often. As usual with paradox - great ideas, poor execution.

Upsides: Very nice graphics; Despite the twisted time-space issue, the time-of-day feature fundamentally changes gameplay and adds a whole new dimension, adding very much to the game experience, such dynamics is very enticing to keep monitoring and correcting; The zones and tickets feature is also nice, but does not come to not very meaningful experience in game play,  probably since the whole economy system is lacking - there's hardly any clear connection between financial decisions (pricing, wages, scheduling) and revenue.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: jamespetts on April 03, 2013, 10:31:36 PM
Interesting discussion, and congratulations Danny! I tried unsuccessfully over the week-end to get the demonstration version of the original Cities in Motion to work under Wine on an old Linux computer that I use when staying with my parents - the problem was the graphics, which would show as completely black with some shadowing.

I am minded to purchase Cities in Motion 2 in order to analyse how its mechanics work and compare it with Simutrans-Experimental, and to see how well that some of the ideas work there. It should be an interesting comparison with Simutrans, I think.

Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: dannyman on April 03, 2013, 10:43:22 PM
Thank you, jamespetts.

I am eager to see how they handle rush hour, which is a very important concept for transit systems, but which seems difficult to work into a casual game.  It sounds like they have a system where you simply specify line frequency, and then they'll increase the frequency during rush hour for you.  (So, like a 30m frequency line will toss out a couple extra vehicles during peak to bring the line to 10m?)  (Okay, but then where do the extra vehicles come from? ;)

What I liked about CiM1 (or even SC4, and also Tropico) was you could click on the little people to see where they were going, and how they were feeling.

What I really liked about SC4 was when you could click on a road segment and you'd see a multi-modal overlay of all the sources / destinations of the users.

It would be neat if simutrans one day had route overlays on the playing field.  Maybe each mode has a color, then subsequent lines have a slightly different shade.  That would be darned handy when re-working bus routes in a larger city.

If I ever have the free time I want to blog a game, probably Pak128.Britain-Ex, probably around 1915, with a few regional companies with interchange points, and make some nice system maps along the way. :)
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: jamespetts on April 03, 2013, 10:50:21 PM
I have just spent some time reading the forums: the reaction from people who purchased the game is very interesting: some are unhappy about various aspects of it, but others seem quite pleased, and a number are replying to the disgruntled people defending the game. What is even more interesting is that the lead developer is personally replying to a significant proportion of the posts complaining about things, in some cases going into detail of what she is going to to do fix some of the problem that have been identified: see here for example (promises to introduce edge scrolling, fix the broken multi-player and improve the editing of underground metros). That does not by itself answer the criticism that they ought to have got these things right in the first place, but an impressively good response all the same.

I also particularly liked the feature in Sim City 4 Deluxe/Rush Hour showing origins and destinations of traffic - there was some really quite detailed traffic simulation in that game, especially with the Rush Hour expansion and the Network Addon Mod. Road traffic is hard to simulate well because of the very large number of autonomous agents that each make complicated routing decisions from which the traffic patterns are an emergent property: this was an issue that I encountered when attempting to make private car simulation more realistic in Experimental (and in the end had to adopt a highly approximate approach).

I shall look forward to your diary!
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: asaphxiix on April 03, 2013, 10:51:49 PM
Quote from: dannyman on April 03, 2013, 10:43:22 PM
Thank you, jamespetts.

I am eager to see how they handle rush hour, which is a very important concept for transit systems, but which seems difficult to work into a casual game.  It sounds like they have a system where you simply specify line frequency, and then they'll increase the frequency during rush hour for you.  (So, like a 30m frequency line will toss out a couple extra vehicles during peak to bring the line to 10m?)  (Okay, but then where do the extra vehicles come from? ;)


there are several overlaying frequencies, one for whole day, one for morning, night weekend etc., what it basically means is you can specify bus departure times almost specifically throughout (quite flexible), which is very nice.


If I ever have the free time I want to blog a game, probably Pak128.Britain-Ex, probably around 1915, with a few regional companies with interchange points, and make some nice system maps along the way. :)


Hope to see you in the next multiplayer game :)
The last one was epic.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: Carl on April 04, 2013, 06:55:18 AM
The buggy release of the game is not a surprise: Paradox have a habit of releasing games in an unfinished, and sometimes unplayable, state. More often than not they get things up to scratch eventually, however.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: Junna on April 05, 2013, 10:46:58 AM
Quote from: asaphxiix on April 03, 2013, 10:15:57 PM
I guess they'll patch it up at some point, but until then, it's not ready for release, and hardly playable. Laying tracks is a nightmare, editing existing lines (or even checking their route) is near impossible, there's no indication at all of passenger traffic (what lines they go on, when, origins, destinations), and worst of all, no autosave, and the game crashes relatively often. As usual with paradox - great ideas, poor execution.

Upsides: Very nice graphics; Despite the twisted time-space issue, the time-of-day feature fundamentally changes gameplay and adds a whole new dimension, adding very much to the game experience, such dynamics is very enticing to keep monitoring and correcting; The zones and tickets feature is also nice, but does not come to not very meaningful experience in game play,  probably since the whole economy system is lacking - there's hardly any clear connection between financial decisions (pricing, wages, scheduling) and revenue.

I've only experienced a single crash. I don't know what sort of problems you're having with laying tracks, unless you mean with the underground view - which is deeply unsatisfying under developed areas and roads. As I mentioned previously, the time is far too brief in real time per day minute; it should have been 72 minutes per day, or 96, even, rather than the current 48; which is too brief for the variability in travel at rush-hours etc to become very relevant to the game mechanics. 
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: el_slapper on April 06, 2013, 08:34:09 AM
Quote from: Carl on April 04, 2013, 06:55:18 AM
The buggy release of the game is not a surprise: Paradox have a habit of releasing games in an unfinished, and sometimes unplayable, state. More often than not they get things up to scratch eventually, however.

With exceptions. Hearts of Iron 2 was playable & enjoyable from scratch(CK2 also, from what I've heard). Others like Rome never reached the playable state.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: jamespetts on April 08, 2013, 12:22:57 AM
One of the great advantages of Simutrans over Cities in Motion 2, I think, is the way in which we do multiplayer. Cities in Motion 2 has a peer to peer multiplayer - there is no persistent server. One can save a game and then agree with the person to host the game again from a saved game and so play over multiple sessions in that way, but that takes a lot of organisation; having a persistent world as with Simutrans is much preferable.

Additionally, this alters the style of play. In Cities in Motion 2, it is possible to fast forward during a multi-player game. That, combined with the impracticality of resuming the game after a session, and the goal-oriented gameplay (which, although not compulsory, is enabled by default) rather than Simutrans's open-ended gameplay, leads to short intensive sessions where players build a network, then turn on fast forward and let it run and see who reaches the relevant goal first. That does not allow the exploration of the deeper aspects of the game. Furthermore, the number of players per multi-player session is limited to 4, unlike Simutrans's 16 - and there is always the danger of a player dropping out, which, because the thing is run peer-to-peer, means that the player cannot simply rejoin later, causing the multi-player experience in that particular session to come to an end unless one can find somebody else in the game lobby to play the other player's company starting from a saved game.

The great delight in a persistent world as with a Simutrans server is seeing a recognisable landscape of urban and rural, of economy and transport slowly evolve over time in response both to the game's own internal automatic mechanisms and the complex emergent properties of the myriad choices of multiple players over months of real time.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: Junna on April 09, 2013, 07:37:45 PM
Quote from: el_slapper on April 06, 2013, 08:34:09 AM
With exceptions. Hearts of Iron 2 was playable & enjoyable from scratch(CK2 also, from what I've heard). Others like Rome never reached the playable state.

Actually HOI2 was riddled with critical bugs until a few patches into the game. But Paradox is not the developer of CIM, though, it's a small studio in Finland; Paradox just does the publishing.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: jamespetts on April 10, 2013, 12:13:09 AM
There is currently a rather unfortunate bug (reported here (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?681660-WHOA!!-From-City-Center-to-Suburbs)) whereby large buildings, including skyscrapers, shopping centres and stadia, downgrade to small residential houses if they are covered by a 'bus line and nothing else - this can have quite a severely detrimental effect on the gameplay.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: jamespetts on April 10, 2013, 10:07:35 PM
One rather good feature of Cities in Motion 2 is the dynamic allocation of vehicles to lines: vehicles are purhcased in a depot, and are sent out of a depot whenever they are required for a timetabled working. Vehicles have to visit depots regularly for maintenance. Although the particular implementation in Cities in Motion 2 could be improved upon (vehicles have to visit depots too frequently, and there is insufficient control over which vehicles can be assigned to which lines), there is much to recommend this basic principle, and it might be worthwhile considering implementing something a bit like it in Simutrans one day.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: isidoro on April 28, 2013, 11:09:31 PM
I finally managed to buy a CD version of Cities in Motion 2 and works flawlessly in Linux/wine (through Steam).  From what I've seen so far, the game is beautiful, with lots of options.  It's also true that I pretty much enjoyed CiM 1.

It has timetables, but they are automatically generated and you can set the time interval between vehicles.

Another nice thing to consider is that vehicles are purchased at depots (as in ST), but depots have capacity and every line must start and end in one of such depots.  Therefore, deploying depots play a more important role in CiM2 than in ST.

Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: asaphxiix on July 02, 2013, 11:08:43 AM
100 days of grace are soon over, and the game has failed to deliver a good simulation - I just don't see the point, when a ride through the center of the town can take 7 hours with no traffic jams.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: Carl on July 02, 2013, 11:11:30 AM
So am I to understand that the game has not received significant patch support/bugfixes?

I almost bought it in the 66%-off sale on Steam the other week, but if that's the case, I'm glad I didn't.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: asaphxiix on July 02, 2013, 11:33:33 AM
it has been updated, and does work better now in technical matters (less annoying bugs), but this is a basic concept which I don't think can change very much.

It has virtues too which have been written here, but all in all the speed issue tips the scale against it, in my view.

edit: Indeed the method of associating lines with depots holds a very nice prospect of real time fleet management, but again it clashes with the distorted and unmanageable travel duration.

edit2: Also no autosave, and sometimes crashes.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: Junna on July 02, 2013, 02:35:31 PM
Quote from: asaphxiix on July 02, 2013, 11:33:33 AM
it has been updated, and does work better now in technical matters (less annoying bugs), but this is a basic concept which I don't think can change very much.

It has virtues too which have been written here, but all in all the speed issue tips the scale against it, in my view.

edit: Indeed the method of associating lines with depots holds a very nice prospect of real time fleet management, but again it clashes with the distorted and unmanageable travel duration.

edit2: Also no autosave, and sometimes crashes.

The last point sure is a hassle. I noticed that last week...

But as for the simulation points: the  game added a option to customise some certain game simulation rules (including, most importantly, time!), which does make it a lot more enjoyable.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: transporter on July 03, 2013, 01:55:02 AM
I actually do like it. A huge part is the budget, that directly shows the total costs and revenues from each transport type in the total budget. My main annoyance is the constant notifications of price changes
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: isidoro on July 03, 2013, 10:24:28 PM
I have kept playing for quite a while now and haven't observed a single bug or crash...  And I play in Linux with wine (no pun intended).

I like the freedom of the engine to build 3D structures/ways, crossings,...  I like the traffic jams.  I also like the graphics.  The build interface is also quite simple once you get used to it and its rules.

But the game seems a bit simple to me.  Campaign mode always consists in one of three objectives: more population, more coverage, more money...  But the cities are more or less the same, gamewise.  You also need a fairly powerful machine to play at ease.

I haven't tried network games.

And there are details very similar to ST: you can connect tram tracks to railway tracks, for instance.  It wouldn't be a surprise to me if the developers of CiM2 were also fans of ST.

Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: transporter on July 06, 2013, 04:07:01 AM
Well, you can connect them, but I haven't been able to run trams on railways and vice versa. Is there a trick to that?

One other thing is the way the coverage area works. Instead of area covered by your stops, it looks like it takes the total population vs the population that uses your system. So you can have a really efficient system and run, say, 15% and have a huge bad system and run the same. And you can actually see the people leave your stations in droves if they wait too long. Which isn't much time either.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: isidoro on July 07, 2013, 12:30:08 AM
To your first question, I must admit that I've read somewhere that it's possible to connect railway tracks with tram tracks and one of the vehicles can drive on the tracks of the others, but I haven't tried it myself.  I can remember that it said that only one of the two kinds of vehicles (metro or trams) can drive on the tracks of the other, while the opposite isn't possible.

To your second question, the way it is dealt with in CiM2 makes a lot of sense to me.  The game measures the percentage of people wishing to travel that use your network.  Maybe the name is confusing (coverage), but that way of doing things is quite logical: a busy line going through the city center is to be more important than another line visiting the suburbs, even if they cover the same physical area.

Also note that that coverage depends on time, even if you don't change your transportation system.  You may have a 50% coverage in the morning and a 80% coverage at night.

Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: sdog on December 10, 2013, 09:52:00 PM
Cities in motion 2 has been added to the latest humble bundle. At the low price it might be worth a look.

Unfortunately there are only two US 'charities' available this time, unlike also the Red Cross in previous bundles.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: Lmallet on December 11, 2013, 05:06:35 AM
Quote from: sdog on December 10, 2013, 09:52:00 PM
Cities in motion 2 has been added to the latest humble bundle. At the low price it might be worth a look.
...and there goes my money.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: Carl on December 11, 2013, 10:48:13 PM
The link is here, for the curious:

https://www.humblebundle.com/

It's an impressive bundle even aside from CIM2. Depending on what you like, all the other games offer something interesting.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: ӔO on December 14, 2013, 11:06:49 AM
I am playing it...

It's not too difficult to play, but it does seem to take time to build up finances for a proper backbone, the metro.

I am somewhat surprised that 40 seat trams get overcrowded so quickly, even with minimal bus feeder lines.
trams probably require something like a Prague layout or trunk and branch layout for optimal line use.

Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: asaphxiix on December 15, 2013, 07:30:25 PM
AEO how do you find the real-time mechanism?
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: ӔO on December 15, 2013, 10:52:16 PM
real-time mechanism?
It's more like time-dilation mechanism, isn't it?


Aspects I find are not working well:
- The scheduling is at odds with how fast the day goes by. It's a bit annoying to see trams that left on saturday night picking up passengers on monday morning.
- Stop coverage area. I can understand each stop being its own entity, but can't they share their coverage area if they are very close by and linked?
- Stop sharing. Why can't trams and buses use the same stops? Trolleys and Buses can.
- Line creation is okay, but editing lines to add stops is a hassle, as I haven't found a way to insert stops.
- Turning the vehicle around. Having to go into a depot or using a loop to turn around I can understand for trams. But why can't buses just make a U-turn on avenues?
- Another thing with avenues. Why are trams the only ones allowed to use the center?
- Depot capacity. There is a Small and Medium, but no Large or Extra Large.
- No station buildings, just stops and platforms.
- No macro level structures, like airports, railways, ports or even highways that connect off map.

Things that are nice:
- Route preview
- ETA to next stop
- Various road types
- Zones and ticket prices
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: transporter on December 16, 2013, 03:55:06 AM
You're comparing it too much to simutrans. It's not meant to mimic or otherwise. And for perspective for your first point:  In simutrans it takes 'months' for a modern train to get across the US scaled map. And each stop is treated as it's own entity and that's all. The only way they're linked is if they're in each others influence area. Otherwise I agree with you, the mechanics could be a bit tweaked and there's little things that could be changed, but overall it does what it does well.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: ӔO on December 16, 2013, 04:32:02 AM
It's just that the game has a full week of dynamic demands and a detailed scheduling system, yet it is at odds with how fast one day goes by.
In simutrans, there is no rush-hour or off-peak, so it doesn't really matter how long a month takes or how long it takes for convoys to make a full trip.

Other than that, once you have enough money for a metro line, the game becomes super easy.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17111233/CiM2save.rar
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: jamespetts on December 16, 2013, 10:00:20 AM
It is always worthwhile comparing different games of the same genre. For what it is worth, Simutrans-Experimental has two explicit time scales with a precise relationship to one another (and even Standard has something similar, but more implicit, and it also lacks anything resembling timetables that make this of significance in any event), and the time on one of the scales is always precisely calibrated with everything else. Experimental also has a system for passengers taking into account the walking distance from their ultimate origin to any stop within range and the same at their destination to calculate the quickest journey. These are valid comparisons, albeit it is also noteworthy that Cities in Motion has a different emphasis from Simutrans.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: Lmallet on December 16, 2013, 02:16:03 PM
Quote from: ӔO on December 16, 2013, 04:32:02 AM
It's just that the game has a full week of dynamic demands and a detailed scheduling system, yet it is at odds with how fast one day goes by.
I am having problems with this too.  I've had to run some lines at night, Í regularly have people get on the tram during evening rush hour to transfer to a bus route at 2AM (next bus is at 7AM).

Otherwise I rather enjoy the game, I suspect I just need to get used to the dynamics.  I was having problems making money with bus lines, but once I started building tram lines I would be profitable pretty quickly.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: transporter on December 16, 2013, 03:29:51 PM
Yeah, trams and metros are the cash cows. I only use buses strictly for feeder lines or spots I missed. I don't even touch the trolleys.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: asaphxiix on December 28, 2013, 10:24:11 AM
gotta say this - been playing SC5 for a while - it's kinda great! execpt for a few annoying bugs. I really like the industry system.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: sdog on January 03, 2014, 10:42:58 PM
cities in motion is announced to become available on linux.

http://www.paradoxplaza.com/press/2014/1/cities-in-motion-2-announces-new-monorail-expansion-and-linux-support

Quote"We believe in Linux as a platform for the future of gaming," said Fredrik Wester, CEO of Paradox Interactive. "Gamers who currently use Linux are a smart and demanding bunch, and they expect versatility and an experience that fits their personal preferences, which makes our games a great fit. We're bringing Cities in Motion to Linux because we believe it's just the type of game that Linux users will enjoy."
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: jamespetts on January 03, 2014, 10:50:04 PM
I saw that mentioned - interesting indeed!
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: isidoro on January 04, 2014, 01:20:19 AM
I wish the best of successes in Linux!  I only hope there is enough market so that it is worth the effort...  I will surely buy the game to support the initiative.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: Carl on January 04, 2014, 08:20:32 PM
This is a general trend, with Steam games supporting Linux to an increasing degree and the new SteamOS being built from Linux in itself.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: sdog on January 10, 2014, 12:16:57 AM
I've just read cities in motion was available for linux now, on steam.

Those who played it: rather go for cities in motion 1 or 2?
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: ӔO on February 04, 2014, 11:27:25 PM
Not sure if this deserves its own thread, but Sid Meier's Railroads is on humble bundle right now.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: isidoro on February 05, 2014, 12:27:01 AM
Now that I see the thread back, @sdog: I liked both, but I prefer Cities in Motion 2.  Not as deep a simulation as ST, but worth the try.

BTW, it was a nice surprise that with my purchase of CiM2 in Windows I was able to play CiM2 in Linux at no additional charge.  Good point!  This way, I could try the game first with wineHQ and then, native...

Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: ojii on February 05, 2014, 11:42:36 AM
Got CiM2 as it's out for linux now and looked like a pretty transport sim. Was disappointed when it turned out to be just that, a pretty sim. After playing simutrans for ages CiM2 is just plain boring. It's so easy that I started to completely ignore all economics and just build "cool" networks (mostly metro networks that build kinda neat systems). As mentioned above, the "rush hour" etc features are neat, but in my opinion completely useless. I just always use a "flat" timetable for all my lines, as in every day of the week the same rhythm for the whole day. 


Also the shockingly small amount of maps (no random generator?!) was a huge letdown.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: jamespetts on February 05, 2014, 12:16:20 PM
There is a random generator, I think, isn't there? I do agree with you about the simple economics, however.
Title: Re: Cities in motion 2
Post by: sdog on February 05, 2014, 07:56:27 PM
I've decided for CiM 1, as they have lovely hand crafted scenarios, with rather beautiful european cities over a long timeline. It's rather pleasant to see those. There's no reason to play any scenario more than once though. They're too easy and simple. Fun and very relaxing game for a few weeks though. At many points it shows the developers were quite motivated to make not just a game that's enough to market it, but to make something rather lovely.