Passenger Numbers Dependent on Number of Transfers

[Banksie_82]

Hi,

I have an idea for the disincentive of creating a passenger network with a large amount of changes from one vehicle to another.

In real life, not many people will catch 3 buses a tram and a train to get across a relatively small town, they will simply drive.

The way I understand it at the moment:
1.   A passenger is generated
2.   They go to the local bus stop/train station (what ever)
3.   If it is full they become an unhappy face,
4.   If it is not full they check to see if there is a route to their desired destination, which is with fewer interchanges than specified in simuconfig
5.   If there is a route, they wait for the next transport going their way and become a "happy face".
6.   If there is no route they become a "no route" and leave

My idea would take effect between point 4 and 5.
If there is only 1 vehicle they need to catch to get to their destination, then there is 100% chance they will catch it.
If they need to catch 2 (interchange 1 time), then there is a 90% (say) chance,
If they need to catch 3, 80% chance,
Catch 4, 65%
And so on.

The ones who don't catch the transport because of too many connections, become another tally along side "happy", "unhappy" and "no route" – say "too many connections".

The percentage chance of catching the transport for each amount of interchanges can be experimented with, and possibly a function of the max connections in simuconfig.

Ideally the percentage chance would also be dependent on distance. Someone would be more willing to catch a bus to the train station then another bus to their destination if it was across the other side of the map but not if it was within the same town. But this may be a little hard to program, I don't know.

I believe this will provide more incentive to have more lines crisscrossing the map rather than a central interchange station. It would make it more representative of the rail network in Europe or the metros in London or Paris.

Also, I think this should only apply to passengers, not to goods or mail.

Sorry for the long post, but I worry that I won't explain it properly if it is too short.
What do people think?
Is it worth the effort of programming? (I think so, but I know nothing of programming)
Will it make the building of a passenger network too difficult?
Will it take too much computer power?
Will it make it less fun? (I think it will make it more fun)
Will it make passenger networks unprofitable? (But this would be able to be balanced?)
Will there be too much incentive for really long routes, in order to have direct connections for almost all stops to all other stops?
Will it be too confusing for new players?

[colonyan]

Don't worry for the length. Since its well organized, it is very easy to read and to understand.

I like the idea. It shows some human nature. Also, distance should also have some effect, that I agree too.
But really, distance is a really big factor. But I afraid it will slow down the simulation given the traffic volume
at the lager stage of the game.

I don`t think it will make the passenger network unprofitable. Player can decrease the number of train or
use chaper to run vehicles.

I think it adds some challenge factor rather than direct fun. If player manage it, its fun for him atlast.

Incentive for long routes, yes.
Long routes are easy to under take the effect of random fluctuation of passenger flow.
Thus overcrowding stations more easi
There is also a new feature that passengers won`t travel if any of there transfer station is overcrowded.
I guess it will make player use more chaper to run large volume trains.
To counter that, passenger should choose more closer destination than currently it is(or available choice of)
(of course if you can afford to build multi plathome station everywhere it is another story)

Anyway complex story and interesting idea.
How about if we made a simple zone.
Close and Distance destination for simplicity? Close range for 4 max transfer and 8 for out of that circle.
And that circle zone radius changing with time as travel speed increase as noted in speedbonus?
Imagination don't stop...

[jamespetts]

Banksie,

interesting idea. Something vaguely similar is used in Simutrans-Experimental, although not depending specifically on the number of transfers. In Simutrans-Experimental, a certain proportion of passengers have private cars. A number of factors decide whether passengers use their private cars rather than the player's transport, a number of which relate to the quality of service (including overall speed) of the player's transport. Since overall speed is affected by the number of changes, this is indirectly accounted for.