I think there are a couple of things that are tricky to get a handle on
- firstly, the fact that you can have a profitable network that can be utterly crushed by just adding another small bus line....courtesy of the fact that everyone then piles up at the stations, but doesn't actually pay anymore. In other words, you're adding capacity to move non-paying customers across the city....a sure fire way to ruin yourself. Whilst I appreciate the idea in terms of realism, in game terms its a bit hard to fine tune with the tools we're given. I would have liked to have seen a bonus of sorts for building an efficient way to cross the city rather than a punishment the way it is now. Maybe the devs should look at this in terms of balancing - more flexibility in ticket prices (ie give us the ability to discount fares for bus hopping if we WANT to, with less appeal as a punishment if we don't) , maybe a timetable facility of sorts for crossovers (ie make a bus wait for the appropriate bus from another line, etc), maybe add in some sort of season ticket pricing (maybe a la oyster in London for instance - this can then can help to plan costs better, etc).
-Secondly, there's no real input as to where stops are best placed. Its fine placing them near stations, etc but apartment blocks and other buildings can be tricky - I've placed one outside city hall and noone ever uses it for example.....none of the graphs really do the game mechanics any justice - just a question for the general public here...does anyone actually USE these graphs to plan a route ???? Better might be a system that shows the expected daily usage on a mouse over with a stop for instance or just give us graphs that show which routes a majority of people want... So if I can see that most people need transport between the hospital and a particular block of flats for instance, then I can more efficiently plan my routes. Or maybe I just can't see the value there is in these graphs already.......if so, a few pointers would be appreciated.
- firstly, the fact that you can have a profitable network that can be utterly crushed by just adding another small bus line....courtesy of the fact that everyone then piles up at the stations, but doesn't actually pay anymore. In other words, you're adding capacity to move non-paying customers across the city....a sure fire way to ruin yourself. Whilst I appreciate the idea in terms of realism, in game terms its a bit hard to fine tune with the tools we're given. I would have liked to have seen a bonus of sorts for building an efficient way to cross the city rather than a punishment the way it is now. Maybe the devs should look at this in terms of balancing - more flexibility in ticket prices (ie give us the ability to discount fares for bus hopping if we WANT to, with less appeal as a punishment if we don't) , maybe a timetable facility of sorts for crossovers (ie make a bus wait for the appropriate bus from another line, etc), maybe add in some sort of season ticket pricing (maybe a la oyster in London for instance - this can then can help to plan costs better, etc).
-Secondly, there's no real input as to where stops are best placed. Its fine placing them near stations, etc but apartment blocks and other buildings can be tricky - I've placed one outside city hall and noone ever uses it for example.....none of the graphs really do the game mechanics any justice - just a question for the general public here...does anyone actually USE these graphs to plan a route ???? Better might be a system that shows the expected daily usage on a mouse over with a stop for instance or just give us graphs that show which routes a majority of people want... So if I can see that most people need transport between the hospital and a particular block of flats for instance, then I can more efficiently plan my routes. Or maybe I just can't see the value there is in these graphs already.......if so, a few pointers would be appreciated.
