could you or one of the players elaborate what you/they did or what rules you set up or what kind of co-op play you established?
Getting an account:
* Added a password to all the "free accounts" and told people to read the chat in order to get the account. Why? There was two basic problems: 1) Players would get an account and never play or only play for one day, then stop playing. This used up several slots that real players could have used. 2) Very few people know how to use the chat in Simutrans, or find it rather difficult to use. By forcing them to know where the chat is before they get an account, it increases the chances they will actually communicate with other players in-game.
Rules:
not so much rules as things that sometimes cause conflict in games. Really, I guess it boils down to: don't steal passenger/goods from another player.
* Don't duplicate someone else's passenger & mail system in a city. (Basically it amounts to: don't steal passenger & mail from another player by copying their lines.) Another reason is that some players really enjoy developing a city using passenger & mail, so it makes sense for only one player to handle one city in that case.
* Don't copy a factory or industry where someone else is already transporting 100%. (Again, this is basically the same as the first point: not stealing goods from other players.) Since Simutrans has a max amount that can be delivered or produced, it is not possible for many players to use the same factory without it adversely affecting the other players. Of course, this isn't a fixed rule. For example, it makes sense to share during the first week of the game ... or sometimes a player only needs one of the goods, so someone else can get or deliver the other good(s).
Things done in game:
* Someone added a public airport so players can exchange passenger & mail -- makes it very easy for anyone to start a passenger & mail system.
* Added a lot of land to the map. The map used to have a lot of water, but new players needed somewhere to build, so it was filled in.
* Added a lot more cities to the map so new players have a chance to transport passenger & mail and grow their own cities.
* Added a lot of power plants as needed -- because there is too little power by default.
* Built some roads and interstates around the map for anyone to use.
There are also things that need fixing:
* Currently, there are a few public stations on the map that were created by accident that are causing big problems for players. We really need a way to get them deleted.
* The map is littered with way way way too many industries.
Suggestions for future pak128 games:
* Make the map 80%+ land so all players have somewhere to build.
* Add more cities (so more players can build passenger & mail).
* Add just a few more factories and shopping to the starting map. Currently, there's only 1 shopping center on starting map, which is a little difficult for several players to share.
* Raise the rate at which industries appear by 8x. For example, if factories show up everytime a city grows by 5,000, then change it to something like 40,000. The current rate litters the map very, very quickly.
* Perhaps slow the city growth rate?
* Need many many more power plants (with high rates 9,000+) to deal with the lack of power on the map and pak128 -- or just let players build them I guess.
Problems with the game itself:
* The public station "feature" causes all kinds of problems: namely, they produce lots of stations that can never be deleted by the players. Right now, the map has several stations causing big problems (that need to be deleted) that were made accidentally when trying to make a road public. It would be better if there were NO public stations; instead it would be better if you could designate that some of your stations can exchange goods with certain players.
* Power: (1) Not enough power in pak128 for all the factories/players. (2) Players can't share power with other players (3) Multiple players cannot provide power to same factory -- the only solution right now is to build a bunch of 9,000+ power plants on the map as needed, but if this is ever disabled, it will make things difficult for all players.
* Players stop playing, but there is no way to free the account so new players can build stuff there instead.
* Stations keep backing up with more and more passenger/mail/goods way beyond station capacity. It is difficult to fix this when they are controlled by another player... and I wonder sometimes if all this might cause some lag in multiplayer.
