CIM2 requests and suggestions

[Gogomaester]

As i have read almost everything about CiM 2, I would like to say just one thing, but probably it will be solvedwithout my note:

-When a sim goes from A to B and two or more lines are going there (same time), the sim should use the line, that comes first. -That would be a nice addition, because of making two lines in center with interval 5 minutes and 1 line in suburb with interval 10 minutes. (I am sorry I do not know the english word - branching?) It was in Traffic Giant too.

thanks

 

[Barkydog]

I’ve just been thinking of other things to add and I think I’ve come up with some more ideas

• The need for dedicated school and college bus services for students only so that your existing bus network is not clogged by students in the morning and afternoon. To make a profit on this you can run specific journeys to and from schools and colleges to cater for the journeys to class in the mornings and have your buses pick up again to get students home in the afternoon. You could either charge premium fares or get a subsidy or payment from the school, college or local authority.

• Also the need or option for dedicated workers buses that will run at specific times so they serve the needs of shift workers in remote factories or industrial estates.

• Charter or private hire buses so when a school or college plan a field trip then you can provide them with a bus to get them to and from their chosen destination.

• In the timetables to have the options of different levels of services depending not just on the time of day but also on time of the week. Ideal for a rural area where you might find most people have cars you might only need to run one return bus service a week.

• For Friday and Saturday nights to be busy with evening revilers so you have to run an extended service or keep the metro running till later than normal where normally you would normally stop metro at midnight and get people to swap to night buses instead.

• To have days of track maintenance for both metro and tram systems so some weeks on a Sunday you run a reduced metro and tram service while tracks are replaced/repaired and people have to take a bus instead.

• If you have a busy metro station and your platforms are crowded it would be good to have the option to close your ticket gates to hold back the crowds till your trains get a chance to clear the platforms that would stop people having to queue all the way up the escalators and back to the street if the demand is high especially during sports events and or extra busy rush hours.

• Last but not least I know I’ve said it before but both park and ride and ferries would still be a good feature for the new game.

• I do agree with what others here have said if the days could possibly be a bit longer that would be better when planning out timetables and routes.

I hope I've not covered old ideas but I hope some of the above ideas will help with designing the game.

 

[douglasrac]

The need for dedicated school and college bus services for students only so that your existing bus network is not clogged by students in the morning and afternoon. To make a profit on this you can run specific journeys to and from schools and colleges to cater for the journeys to class in the mornings and have your buses pick up again to get students home in the afternoon. You could either charge premium fares or get a subsidy or payment from the school, college or local authority.

I would really like to see the possibility to have discount or even free tickets for pupils and professors, just like in Traffic Giant. That was a nice feature. It makes you feel more connected to the CiMs and the city.

 

[GE90-115B]

Good post Barkydog.

I like to add that it would be nice too see more difference between the sims and where they are traveling than it is today. Both on time of the day and destinations.

I would also like to see the airport as a more important place. More people(white collar workers and tourist) traveling to and from.

 

[mippzon]

Hey Developers!

Can't you set up a voting system (similar to http://www.uservoice.com/feedback/) so that we can add suggestions and vote for those. Maybe it would be more clear what most people would want to see in Cim2?

 

[unmerged(273319)]

People should be able to enter buses through ALL the doors available, not just the front ones. Otherwise, what is the point of having multiple doors?

In CIM1, buses would take forever to get loaded because of the old people. On top of that, because of the queue system, bus would wait hours for a passenger to get on it if he was across the street (problematic on big stops with multiple lines and tons of people waiting).

 

[giladteller]

People should be able to enter buses through ALL the doors available, not just the front ones. Otherwise, what is the point of having multiple doors?

In CIM1, buses would take forever to get loaded because of the old people. On top of that, because of the queue system, bus would wait hours for a passenger to get on it if he was across the street (problematic on big stops with multiple lines and tons of people waiting).

In many places, you need to buy a ticket from the driver (or show him your ticket). This is why everyone must board from the front. The back door is used for getting off the bus.

I think that shool buses will be possible. All you need to do is to create a line from residential area to the school and schedule it to go only in the morning and back in the afternoon. It might not be perfect, but it is as close as it gets...

 

[Alex_brunius]

In many places, you need to buy a ticket from the driver (or show him your ticket). This is why everyone must board from the front. The back door is used for getting off the bus.

Depends on the capacity.

Since they have implemented separate bus lanes I assume we will be able to create close to Bus rapid transit systems, where buses are used like metros or rail and passangers normally can enter in all 3-5 doors at once.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_rapid_transit

 

[Svip]

Depends on the capacity.

Since they have implemented separate bus lanes I assume we will be able to create close to Bus rapid transit systems, where buses are used like metros or rail and passangers normally can enter in all 3-5 doors at once.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_rapid_transit

Well, for a BRT system to work, it seems that you need to dedicate your entire infrastructure around its route to the buses, unlike regular bus routes, which may still have bus lanes.

But if history is still in the game (I have not checked up on this), then surely these options should only become available around modern times.

Part of the reason we were confident enough to make BRT systems, were also because we had modern ticket systems.

 

[Alex_brunius]

The game is based only in modern time I think.

At least where I live you can step on any bus in any door you want. Except for the expensive busses going to the next city or to the airport.

 

[Svip]

The game is based only in modern time I think.

At least where I live you can step on any bus in any door you want. Except for the expensive busses going to the next city or to the airport.

Those are usually called coaches or shuttles, for that reason. The thing is; where I live you have to walk in at the front door, because the driver needs to see your ticket. Only a few select bus routes allow you to enter at the back door.

You could argue that the game should allow you to tweak this. But then I also think you should be allowed to pick ticket system. And even have a system that allows you to have a free route, which may be subsidised by the local government and/or increase your local popularity for your other lines.

The basic form of a ticket system is one where you buy it on the transport. Others will require that you buy tickets at information kiosks and other stores. You could even disallow purchase of tickets on trains (like in my country). Allow a monthly traveller card, where a passenger only has to purchase a card once a month (or whatever is reasonable within the game scope), but can only travel on certain line(s) with it. And other ticket systems.

Then we can discuss allowing buses to have people enter from the back. All these decisions have different benefits and issues. In the UK, I have discovered, they prefer buses with only one entrance and exit (at the front), but that would only work for short buses in neighbourhoods with few people.

 

[unmerged(273319)]

Those are usually called coaches or shuttles, for that reason. The thing is; where I live you have to walk in at the front door, because the driver needs to see your ticket. Only a few select bus routes allow you to enter at the back door.

You could argue that the game should allow you to tweak this. But then I also think you should be allowed to pick ticket system. And even have a system that allows you to have a free route, which may be subsidised by the local government and/or increase your local popularity for your other lines.

The basic form of a ticket system is one where you buy it on the transport. Others will require that you buy tickets at information kiosks and other stores. You could even disallow purchase of tickets on trains (like in my country). Allow a monthly traveller card, where a passenger only has to purchase a card once a month (or whatever is reasonable within the game scope), but can only travel on certain line(s) with it. And other ticket systems.

Then we can discuss allowing buses to have people enter from the back. All these decisions have different benefits and issues. In the UK, I have discovered, they prefer buses with only one entrance and exit (at the front), but that would only work for short buses in neighbourhoods with few people.

I think it is something that you have to have more control over than you had in CIM1.

In CIM1, you would have vehicles with 3 doors (buses) and only 1 door would be used. A bus would spend enormous amount of time standing at the stop because of all the old people and such. If they fix the speed that people enter buses, I'd be happy with front door entry.

Once again, I'm only talking about buses and vehicles with more than 2 doors. If it is 2 doors or less, it is obvious that 1 should be used for entry and another for exit.

In real world, there are many different options for making all of the bus doors work.

- Honor System. People have to have a ticket, but they do not need to present ticket to the driver. They can enter through any door available. They are required to present a ticket to the random ticket checks performed by company staff at random stops. If they do not have a ticket, they are fined. (There is a fine system in CIM1, but we have absolutely no control over it. Hiring more officers would definitely make Honor System work quite well). This system is implemented in the VIVA Rapid Bus Transit here in Toronto.

- MetroPass (Monthly pass) System - Holders of Monthly Passes can enter through any door and verify their card at scanning terminals located at each of the doors.

 

[Gogomaester]

That montly pass would be really good, because in CiM 1 its better to let the passenger use longer distance, with more transport types (pays per transport type), than a short route with just bus....

 

[douglasrac]

Either system for me is good, but it need to be 1 system. In CiM 1 what we have was a confusion of 2 systems. CiMs only used the front door, but at the same time the company had costs with inspector wages and gain money from fines. If the passengers always enter at the front door there is no way a fine would exist.

Ticket system could improve a lot with zoning system, like in Traffic Giant. But I prefer a simple but very clear system than a complex system that we have no control off.
A zoning system that we can control size of zones and price per distance and minimum price would be good. Plus the zones should appear in the minimap, so we can see what we are handling.

 

[gaerraty]

In CiM 1 what we have was a confusion of 2 systems. CiMs only used the front door, but at the same time the company had costs with inspector wages and gain money from fines. If the passengers always enter at the front door there is no way a fine would exist.

Don't they use all doors when boarding trams and metro?

 

[TH1]

Either system for me is good, but it need to be 1 system. In CiM 1 what we have was a confusion of 2 systems. CiMs only used the front door, but at the same time the company had costs with inspector wages and gain money from fines. If the passengers always enter at the front door there is no way a fine would exist.

On some bus routes in Hungary connecting cities, you can only use the front door to get on the bus and you show your pass/buy your ticket from the driver. Still their are inspections to check if you really have a valid ticket (otherwise people often make a khm..."deal" with the bus driver to let them in for a half price, but they don't get ticket and the money goes to the driver's wallet directly ). So this mixed system does exist in reality.

 

[Svip]

Isn't that called corruption?

 

[unmerged(413392)]

Isn't that called corruption?

Yep... We have the same system here in Hamburg, Germany. You have to use the front door since half a year or so. Most drivers check the tickets, some on a heavy used line dont, and 2 lines do not check (with those 2x articulated buses). Since then I never saw an inspector in a bus.
On the other side, in our U/S-Bahn we dont have a ticket inspection system, so there are still inspections made.

In the end I would prefer passengers to enter through all doors, since it often takes longer if you can only use the front door and I dont think we could add exceptions to that like in the real world.

 

[Shukfir]

Gogomaester in the first post made very good suggestion. I'll repeat it: if there are several lines, leading to the nessesary place, passanger must use the line, which vehicle comes first.

If it's impossible to realize for any reason, make at least this: if passenger comes to a stop and there are several lines, leading to the nessesary place, he must wait vehicle from those line, where there are less awaiting passangers.

 

[douglasrac]

On some bus routes in Hungary connecting cities, you can only use the front door to get on the bus and you show your pass/buy your ticket from the driver. Still their are inspections to check if you really have a valid ticket (otherwise people often make a khm..."deal" with the bus driver to let them in for a half price, but they don't get ticket and the money goes to the driver's wallet directly ). So this mixed system does exist in reality.

Strange system you guys have.

Here you have to always get in at the front door and there is a turnstile that counts the amount of people getting in the bus. At the end of the day you just have to check how many people passed there and how much money is in the cashier. No corruption this way.

What happen is sometimes the driver let you go in front, where there are few seats reserved for old people that don't pay. So you get in and out at the front door. But its rare since the space is minimum and everybody can see you are going for free. And also kids can jump the turnstile, which also happens because small kids don't pay and they are flexible enough to jump.

 

[GE90-115B]

A good middleground here I think would be to allow all-door use on the high capacity buses, and disallow it on the other ones. It's atleast how things work here in Oslo.

Edit: But the rules are ignored by passengers and the driver. Which is a good thing since it helps on keeping the schedule.