The future of roads

[UltraSkuzzi]

Hi all this is my first post, dont flame me! I was bored at work today, so I decided to jot some ideas down on what I thought the future of TT should be like. Transport Tycoon, or I should say the players of Transport Tycoon have always seemed to put more of an emphasis on Rail verses other forms of transportation. So I am going to try to put forth new ideas in the other major form of transportation, roads.

I. Roads

The ability to create exacting routes. The computer would find what it views as the optimal route automatically, but the user can modify it if he so desires.

Road maintenance. If we are talking about a truly capitalistic system, the Governments roads are the Governments and the Businesses the Businesses. Last time I check roads don’t stay in pristine condition, either. Roads should deteriorate over time, and maintenance trucks will have to be bought to handle this task. This might get too tedious for the user to direct what areas need to be worked on, so the maintenance truck should work with minimal intervention.

Seeing cars owned by people. In TT, you only see cars of your business and your competitors. This is where route design would come in; you could design your routes around traffic patterns.

The ability to design highways, and interchanges. Players would have the ability to design to their content, the type of interchange, traffic light patterns, etc. Since the highway would be privately owned, the players could charge a toll to drive across it, including their competitors!

The ability to submit bids to win subsidies. This is how real business works. The “customer” would send the contract to everyone, and those who were interested could bid on the project. The contract would contain information on the deadline, and maybe guaranteed delivery times.

That’s all I can think of for now. Tell me what you think. I am open to constructive criticism!

Chow!
UltraSkuzzi

[Da_Imp]

Well it sounds like you want the game to be more complicated... I adored TTDX for its simplicity. No stocks, no complicated economic models, no complicated mainenance (just fees) etc etc. I prefer simplicity, and when Im into complicated stuff, I turn to games like Transport Giant or Sim City. But thats just me

[JamesM]

I think this is where we need 'difficulty' levels. Maybe we could have the simplistic version like TT, but also have a difficult level with all the stuff the hardcore players want.

[Lilman424]

Ultra: Not to plug, (it IS plugging, even though I'm not leading or programming it..) but most of those features are planned to be included in Transport Empire, the fan-made 3D TT Clone.....of course, it's been in development for over 2 years (note: sense of time == screwed) and we still have nothing to show for it, except some silly UML diagrams...

[RangaKoo]

Most of your points can also be applied to rail systems as well. If you were going to have road maintenance, then you would also need track maintanance too, which would be very disruptive on massive networks and logistically difficult on isolated track setups.

(From what I have seen of my local rail networks, maintenance is done from trucks with both road and rail axles as most tracks are either close to roads or will have an access track - but this cannot really apply in TT.)

Maybe if road (and rail) maintenance was handle similarly to the 'abandoned road' patch; ie, if a section of road/track hasn't been used in X amount of time the chance of breakdown is increased. This can be overcome by either doing a 'blind' (empty) run with the vehicle or by buying/hiring a service vehicle to run the route first.

Of course, road within the boundaries of a local authority would be constantly maintained by the local authority......

I think I'm just making this more complicated!

However, Locomotion screenshots do show that you can have both bitumen and dirt roads.

[UltraSkuzzi]

Most of your points can also be applied to rail systems as well. If you were going to have road maintenance, then you would also need track maintanance too, which would be very disruptive on massive networks and logistically difficult on isolated track setups.

(From what I have seen of my local rail networks, maintenance is done from trucks with both road and rail axles as most tracks are either close to roads or will have an access track - but this cannot really apply in TT.)

Maybe if road (and rail) maintenance was handle similarly to the 'abandoned road' patch; ie, if a section of road/track hasn't been used in X amount of time the chance of breakdown is increased. This can be overcome by either doing a 'blind' (empty) run with the vehicle or by buying/hiring a service vehicle to run the route first.

Of course, road within the boundaries of a local authority would be constantly maintained by the local authority......

I think I'm just making this more complicated!

However, Locomotion screenshots do show that you can have both bitumen and dirt roads.

The rail/road maintenance could be done invisibly a la SimCity. Another solution is to make the vehicles cost little or nothing until used (eg. Each block will cost money for reconstruction).

[MrBadAxe]

Hi all this is my first post, dont flame me! I was bored at work today, so I decided to jot some ideas down on what I thought the future of TT should be like. Transport Tycoon, or I should say the players of Transport Tycoon have always seemed to put more of an emphasis on Rail verses other forms of transportation. So I am going to try to put forth new ideas in the other major form of transportation, roads.

I. Roads

The ability to create exacting routes. The computer would find what it views as the optimal route automatically, but the user can modify it if he so desires.

Road maintenance. If we are talking about a truly capitalistic system, the Governments roads are the Governments and the Businesses the Businesses. Last time I check roads don’t stay in pristine condition, either. Roads should deteriorate over time, and maintenance trucks will have to be bought to handle this task. This might get too tedious for the user to direct what areas need to be worked on, so the maintenance truck should work with minimal intervention.

Last time I checked, there was an item on the Finances screen titled "Property Maintenance."

Seeing cars owned by people. In TT, you only see cars of your business and your competitors. This is where route design would come in; you could design your routes around traffic patterns.

The ability to design highways, and interchanges. Players would have the ability to design to their content, the type of interchange, traffic light patterns, etc. Since the highway would be privately owned, the players could charge a toll to drive across it, including their competitors!

Highways would be a good idea...road vehicles could suddenly become just as good as trains in terms of speed of delivery. And the tolls Idea couldn't hurt either.

The ability to submit bids to win subsidies. This is how real business works. The “customer” would send the contract to everyone, and those who were interested could bid on the project. The contract would contain information on the deadline, and maybe guaranteed delivery times.

New News Item: "<opponent> has made a counterbid of $x, bid again?

That’s all I can think of for now. Tell me what you think. I am open to constructive criticism!

Chow!
UltraSkuzzi

good ideas, Ultra. Keep on truckin.