Cities in Motion 2 – More vehicles – Developer diary #4
In addition to buses, trams and metros, we selected trolley buses and water buses for the Cities in Motion 2 lineup. Water buses were a part of the original Cities in Motion, but never worked as well as we would have hoped. With the sequel, many problems have been fixed to make them a valuable part of any public transport system. Trolley buses were added in an expansion, but we felt they should be a permanent addition, due to the easy way to expand the bus system with them and how well they easily fit into any bus system.
Trolley buses
Trolleys use the same stops and depots as buses, but run on electricity, so they need overhead wires to operate. To ensure rising petrol costs won’t topple your company, you can build trolley lines. Trolley buses are preferred by citizens in central areas because of their quieter operation and high capacity. Still, on long routes with fewer passengers, like ones lines going heading to the outskirts of cities, buses are still unrivalled.
Water buses
Water buses are very useful since many maps have large bodies of water. They are a much cheaper way to get over water than building a bridge, and naturally you get more profit. Water buses use depots like all vehicle types, and have piers where they pick up passengers. To tweak your water bus routes, you can use waypoints – a feature that was heavily requested after the original game released.
As I mentioned in the previous post, balance is very important. All vehicle types can use waypoints, so it is easier to get the most out of your vehicles and avoid places where traffic jams occur. You can divide the city into different zones and tweak prices for tickets from one zone to another to make longer lines more easily profitable. Like I earlier said, depots are used to store the vehicles when they are not on a route and to keep them in good condition. What is important is that many lines can use the same depot, so you can keep the costs down by using the same vehicles on many lines. For example, you could have a line that services runs during the daytime and another that only works on runs at night, and use the same vehicles for both.
In addition to buses, trams and metros, we selected trolley buses and water buses for the Cities in Motion 2 lineup. Water buses were a part of the original Cities in Motion, but never worked as well as we would have hoped. With the sequel, many problems have been fixed to make them a valuable part of any public transport system. Trolley buses were added in an expansion, but we felt they should be a permanent addition, due to the easy way to expand the bus system with them and how well they easily fit into any bus system.
Trolley buses
Trolleys use the same stops and depots as buses, but run on electricity, so they need overhead wires to operate. To ensure rising petrol costs won’t topple your company, you can build trolley lines. Trolley buses are preferred by citizens in central areas because of their quieter operation and high capacity. Still, on long routes with fewer passengers, like ones lines going heading to the outskirts of cities, buses are still unrivalled.
Water buses
Water buses are very useful since many maps have large bodies of water. They are a much cheaper way to get over water than building a bridge, and naturally you get more profit. Water buses use depots like all vehicle types, and have piers where they pick up passengers. To tweak your water bus routes, you can use waypoints – a feature that was heavily requested after the original game released.
As I mentioned in the previous post, balance is very important. All vehicle types can use waypoints, so it is easier to get the most out of your vehicles and avoid places where traffic jams occur. You can divide the city into different zones and tweak prices for tickets from one zone to another to make longer lines more easily profitable. Like I earlier said, depots are used to store the vehicles when they are not on a route and to keep them in good condition. What is important is that many lines can use the same depot, so you can keep the costs down by using the same vehicles on many lines. For example, you could have a line that services runs during the daytime and another that only works on runs at night, and use the same vehicles for both.
