Cities in Motion 2 – More Vehicles – Developer diary #4

[gsandi]

Still, it would be a pity to lose railway stations and airports, as it is hard to imagine doing a realistic modern city without them. Better to have them with the CiM1 limitations, than not to have them at all.

In addition, there was at least an add-on to CiM1, whereby I could introduce metros into railway stations. This is a pretty good approximation of suburban rapid transit (like an S-Bahn in Germany). It would be great to have this capability in CiM2.

 

[unmerged(526885)]

I like the water bus and all of its compelling scenery, however, I'm not too fond of the trolley bus which seems to have cartoon-like properties - hope it isn't the final design

 

[David Comnenus]

You know, I did just realize that railway stations could have been simulated as having a variable (possibly dynamic) number of commuters "living" there to represent outlying suburbs from "off the map" commuting in, or putting a small "commuter block" building at the trackside to simulate the on/off traffic there. If the developers are keen on not including Metra/LIRR-style commuter trains, this would be a workable kludge for including the effect at least.

Edit: Beanboy, the sad thing is that those cartoonish paint schemes are used way, way too often in the US for those vehicles.

 

[Bel_Alex]

Trolleybuses - it's really great!

But little remark: at first, re_460 right: bi-articulated trolley have pantographs on last section. At second - catenary is good, but this catenary is not realistic... Please make wires thinner and closer to each other

 

[unmerged(526885)]

You know, I did just realize that railway stations could have been simulated as having a variable (possibly dynamic) number of commuters "living" there to represent outlying suburbs from "off the map" commuting in, or putting a small "commuter block" building at the trackside to simulate the on/off traffic there. If the developers are keen on not including Metra/LIRR-style commuter trains, this would be a workable kludge for including the effect at least.

Edit: Beanboy, the sad thing is that those cartoonish paint schemes are used way, way too often in the US for those vehicles.

Oh, well I'm from the UK so I have no idea about US vehicles.
On the other hand, you still don't think it could look a little polished? I mean, look at the buildings and then compare it to the trolley bus

 

[Butelka64]

At second - catenary is good, but this catenary is not realistic... Please make wires thinner and closer to each other

I agree. Moreover, a catenary tightener on the outer edge of the intersection is quite necessary, as we don't really want the wires to magically float in the air on a curve.

 

[David Comnenus]

Beanboy: I'm going to agree that it could use some resolution improvements, so to speak (especially on the front...very few windows are that big, if just because of a need for crash protection), but there are a few RL streetcars that are a bit cartoony.

 

[OzWally]

Nice Water bus gonna need them.

 

[Butelka64]

Hey... What about custom paint schemes for our companies, being able to edit both colors (not just one, having e.g. red-white or green-white bus) and to make custom colors with an RGB mixer?

 

[douglasrac]

Hey... What about custom paint schemes for our companies, being able to edit both colors (not just one, having e.g. red-white or green-white bus) and to make custom colors with an RGB mixer?

That would be great. The scheme should be for the line and all vehicles on that line would change its colour scheme when operating in that line. This way we could use a color to identify types of lines. Just as suggested here once:

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...-to-use-color-code-provided-by-LineNumber-Mod

1. Express
They are operated by biarticulated type vehicles, red color linking the terminals of integration to the city center.

2. Direct Lines
They are operated by standard vehicles, silver in color, with stops on average every 3 km. Lines are complementary, especially the express and inter district.

3. Inter district
They are operated by standard or articulated vehicles, green, linking the various neighborhoods and terminals without passing through the center.

4. Feeder
They are operated by micro buses, standard, or articulated, orange terminals that connect to the integration of key areas.

5. Trunk
They are operated by standard or articulated, in yellow, which connect the terminals of integration to the city center.

6. Conventional
Operating with micro-type vehicles or standard, in yellow, linking neighborhoods to the center, without integration.

7. Circular
White. Operated only with micro-bus, makes a circular path during business hours for the downtown area. It goes through the main squares in downtown.

8. Touristic
Departure from downtown, go through major parks and sights of the city.

 

[unmerged(526885)]

That would be great. The scheme should be for the line and all vehicles on that line would change its colour scheme when operating in that line. This way we could use a color to identify types of lines. Just as suggested here once:

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...-to-use-color-code-provided-by-LineNumber-Mod

1. Express
They are operated by biarticulated type vehicles, red color linking the terminals of integration to the city center.

2. Direct Lines
They are operated by standard vehicles, silver in color, with stops on average every 3 km. Lines are complementary, especially the express and inter district.

3. Inter district
They are operated by standard or articulated vehicles, green, linking the various neighborhoods and terminals without passing through the center.

4. Feeder
They are operated by micro buses, standard, or articulated, orange terminals that connect to the integration of key areas.

5. Trunk
They are operated by standard or articulated, in yellow, which connect the terminals of integration to the city center.

6. Conventional
Operating with micro-type vehicles or standard, in yellow, linking neighborhoods to the center, without integration.

7. Circular
White. Operated only with micro-bus, makes a circular path during business hours for the downtown area. It goes through the main squares in downtown.

8. Touristic
Departure from downtown, go through major parks and sights of the city.

Nice organisation! However, I do believe a company should stick to one single color scheme in order to avoid confusion with other companies?

 

[Butelka64]

We should avoid making a huge crap in our liveries. That what you've shown, douglasrac, IS a huge crap, especially for multiplayer. IMO it should not be possible to make multiple liveries, mostly because of integrity and order. And no vehicle changes it's appearance just because of operating on another line - please, leave the fantasy world... And remember - there are little places around the globe where a company makes different liveries for different lines. We quite don't want that to happen, as even in real life it's likely to confuse the passengers.

 

[josh95459]

To avoid confusion and allow customisation you could have two colours on your vehicle, a fixed base colour and logo to represent your company and a changeable primary/highlight colour for individual lines/depots.

 

[Butelka64]

That's more like it.

 

[unmerged(387152)]

What's wrong with player customization? Why put Limits on the game? I'm not a big fan of having all these different liveries either, but if another player wants to have 10 different Liveries for his/her transport company who are we to say no. Its an option that gives the player choices.

I would like to see an option for all over Advertisements on Buses and Trams.

 

[ninjapenguin120]

I've always been a fan of metro systems, and so far this game looks AMAZING! I also think it would be a good way to make models, or just dream up transit systems. There should be a God Mode, for doing just that. But I'll run that by the suggestions forum. Anyway...

That waterbus is looking really cool! I've always liked using ferries rather than metros along rivers, both because it's difficult to build metros near water, and water transit is more profitable. I also see how there is a tunnel underground, going out to the dock. I often found myself wishing that were in the first game, where passengers could walk from a building, through a tunnel, then onto a dock. It would have made everything much easier in river cities, and it appears it may be implemented.

I'm not sure exactly how to react to the trolleybusses, though, since I have never really used or seen them. Seems to me like a bus-tram mix, which was already a bus-metro mix, a little bit (yeah, I know it's different, but you see where my point is). However, it does seem to be a pretty neat thing to put into the game. I'll have to figure out how to use it differently, and I may enjoy making a bunch of different types of lines with this new mode of transit. I do like it better than having helicopters, and I doubt any of us will live to see the day when a city formally introduces helicopters as an efficient form of mass transit. They were profitable, but too expensive, and not too practical. It may prove a topic of heave discussion within the Colossal community, but overall, quite excited for these additions

 

[Butelka64]

God mode? CiM is probably too realistic for you...

 

[unmerged(606551)]

Game pleases me more and more.

 

[Butelka64]

Last days, thinking about CiM2 and other games, two things came to my mind.

The primary is, that besides new features, tweaks and bug fixes, CiM2 needs a wider variety of objects. By objects I mean buldings, as well as props and other things which appear over the cities (including the citizens!). People who make maps for CiM1 always run into the same problem - they need mods and community addons to diversify their cities. There are few standard buldings and props. This should be reconsidered in CiM2 - this game needs more stuff to be put on the map (either by an editor or automatically during the gameplay). We'd love to see thriving cities with lots of different buildings and places, and then - also with many different citizens. It's not that hard to make a large variety of citizen models, when you have the existing ones.
To sum up - the more various buildings, props, citizens and other stuff appear in CiM2, the better

The other thing is about the multiplayer. We need to let the players focus on cooperation and competition (and both of them at once), while making it easy to show things to each other - thus we need to be able to make strategy plans to share with our partners, and the ability to point something on the map to let our partners and/or competitors (depending on the situation) see what we are talking about. For example, let's say I have spotted one of my cooperatives running into trouble with his bus line. He doesn't know what's going on, so he asks me to explain it. I mark a point on the map and explain the problem occuring there, but still he doesn't know how to fix it. Then I think a little, and make a plan, marking several things on the map (arrows, symbols, labels and stuff) to show him how would I do the job. He takes my idea, rearranges his line and makes much more money. Another example situation can be, that I am playing competitive against some other players, and I see that somebody has blocked my and his own vehicles and hasn't noticed that. I mark that point on the map to show him what's going on.

I hope you, CO, take these two into a count while developing CiM2 further.

 

[gsandi]

I can only echo Butelka64's wishes.

The creators of CiM (and of CiM2 as well, I hope) came up with an incredibly good model for a game aimed at public transport aficionados. Now, if it is not too late, let's encourage them to create an even better game!

Relying on mods for improvements is not a very good solution. As I found out, some mods were less than perfectly made: they can crash the game (and then it's up to the user to figure out what not to include after reinstallation) and they can be buggy. As an example, the trolleybus added to CiM by a mod could convert exisiting tram tracks into trolleybus lines, leading to the absurdity of a tram rolling along without rails. It would be better, even at a slightly increased cost, if the creators of the game, who understand the game code much better, added as many options to the game parameters as possible.

If it's not too late, I would like to ask for the option of métros leaving railway stations, which is a good way to imitate S-Bahn like routes and airport connecting lines such as the Heathrow Express out of Paddington Station in London. As I said before, I would also like to see intercity trains and airplanes bringing and taking away passengers to/from the city, thus increasing the number of passengers using public transit to and from stations and airports.

As for buildings and other features (parks, sports facilities, factories), the more choices, the better.