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What is the size of the catchment area?

Started by HarrierST, December 25, 2015, 02:00:21 AM

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HarrierST

Just started to look at Experimental with Britain.128.

My question is, what is the catchment area- there appears to be two?

Let me explain my confusion by using standard 64. 1 tile = 1 km.

When placing a mailbox - you see a 5*5 grid in yellow (which I assume is the catchment area). Having placed the mailbox and then pressing 'v' it confirms this - your team colour covers the same area.  So the next mailbox ideally should be placed 5 tiles away to avoid overlap.

Now with Experimental using Brit-128. 1 tile = 0.125 km.

I place a stage post (7*7 yellow grid) but pressing 'v' shows a much larger area. (may have miss-counted but appeared to be about 33*33)  So my question is should the next stage post be 7 or 33 tiles away?

If the answer is 33 tiles - why does the placement tool only highlight 7 tiles and not 33?

It is not only confusing but makes it very difficult to know where to place your next stage post.  You have to count 17 tiles from the 'v'  border to get the optimum setting.

Oops, sorry just noticed - in the wrong thread.  :-[


Rollmaterial

#1
In Experimental, passenger and mail routing is more elaborate: their probability to travel also depends on the distance between the city building they come from and the nearest station. In the building properties window, you can see a list of nearby stations with their respective walking times.

jamespetts

In Experimental, there are two catchment areas: a wide catchment area for passengers (who can walk long distances to a stop) and a narrow catchment area for freight (which has no legs and thus cannot walk). Mail works on the passenger catchment area on the basis that people can carry letters as far as they can walk for posting. By default, the smaller catchment area is shown for goods only stops; the larger catchment area for other stops, but the converse can be shown by holding down SHIFT when selecting the stops in the menu.

However, as Rollermaterial points out, there is more to spacing stops than just ensuring that everything is covered by a catchment area. In Experimental, as in real life, passengers will prefer to travel from nearer than farther stops. Each passenger has a journey time budget, and will (1) take the quickest journey to its destination; and (2) not travel at all if the travel time exceeds the budget. The time taken walking from the origin building to the first stop (at 4km/h, assuming walking in a straight line) is counted as part of the journey time. Thus, it is not enough for an optimal network for the buildings to be within the catchment area: they need to be as close as possible. Obviously, this will involve all sorts of (very realistic) compromises, but that is part of the fun of the game.
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HarrierST

Thank you. That is just what I needed to know.   :)

Merry Christmas everyone.