Hi again!
Thanks for reading and commenting on the first developer diary for Cities in Motion. It raised a lot of questions about building lines in the game, so I decided to write a little about it. Since Cities in Motion is about public transportation, building and maintaining lines for different vehicles is essential.
Building lines works like this: you select the vehicle type you want to build for and are presented with a choice of stop or station types (depending on the era and vehicle type) and rails, if the vehicle needs them. Say you want to build a tram line. You would start by choosing the tram icon and building the tram tracks. You would then see different types of stops, like a stop with only a sign and a stop with shelter.
Trams are wonderful because you can lay rails in places where automobiles cannot go. You could take a detour through a market area or build tracks on the grassy median between two lanes on a busy street. When you are building tracks, you see icons indicating if the track is not connected. Trams cannot turn on tracks, so the line needs to be circular or have little loops at the ends. The tracks appear instantly as you build them, but do not hinder other vehicles.
Once the rails are in place, it’s time to build stops. If you have a circular line, you’ll have to keep all the stops on the same side of the tracks. With the looped lines, you can position stops with more freedom. You can use different stop types on the same line, if you want to. The type of stop to use is dictated by the expected amount of passengers: more expensive stops draw more passengers (if there are any available in the area), but have higher maintenance costs.
When you have placed stops, the line is ready to open. You then just need to pick the order in which the stops are visited, choose the vehicles, and give it the green light!
Today, on the 6th of December, we celebrate here in Finland: have a nice Finnish Independence Day!
Regards,
Karoliina Korppoo
Cities in Motion’s lead designer
Colossal Order Ltd
Thanks for reading and commenting on the first developer diary for Cities in Motion. It raised a lot of questions about building lines in the game, so I decided to write a little about it. Since Cities in Motion is about public transportation, building and maintaining lines for different vehicles is essential.
Building lines works like this: you select the vehicle type you want to build for and are presented with a choice of stop or station types (depending on the era and vehicle type) and rails, if the vehicle needs them. Say you want to build a tram line. You would start by choosing the tram icon and building the tram tracks. You would then see different types of stops, like a stop with only a sign and a stop with shelter.
Trams are wonderful because you can lay rails in places where automobiles cannot go. You could take a detour through a market area or build tracks on the grassy median between two lanes on a busy street. When you are building tracks, you see icons indicating if the track is not connected. Trams cannot turn on tracks, so the line needs to be circular or have little loops at the ends. The tracks appear instantly as you build them, but do not hinder other vehicles.
Once the rails are in place, it’s time to build stops. If you have a circular line, you’ll have to keep all the stops on the same side of the tracks. With the looped lines, you can position stops with more freedom. You can use different stop types on the same line, if you want to. The type of stop to use is dictated by the expected amount of passengers: more expensive stops draw more passengers (if there are any available in the area), but have higher maintenance costs.
When you have placed stops, the line is ready to open. You then just need to pick the order in which the stops are visited, choose the vehicles, and give it the green light!
Today, on the 6th of December, we celebrate here in Finland: have a nice Finnish Independence Day!
Regards,
Karoliina Korppoo
Cities in Motion’s lead designer
Colossal Order Ltd
