HQ at research

[nicfer]

Hello all!

Well I got an idea: what about if you can research technologies in your HQ for getting first the locomotive / bus / lorry / etc. and about a year or two it is available to all the companies. The research time should be stablished by:
- the size of your HQ
- the money dedicated to research
- the technology
- and other factors (maybe discuss about this)

The goals of those ideas are:
- delete the a bit irrealistic vehicle offerement
- adding more challenge to the game
- another location to where put your money .
- ....

Well I don't think that this will be transformed in a patch at least but an idea is an idea .

[czerty]

Yeah, very interesing, and mayby others optipns - you can invest money to improve current vehicles (mainly in capacity) and less in speed and others, and yours developed vehicle will be avaivable only for you for 5 years (or something simmiliar) and after this period, will be avaivable to all companyies (and computer researched to you too, and you can cooperate with another company in develepoment).

[Born Acorn]

Your companies don't design the vehicles. The vehicle designers do.

[AlexH.]

However, the company could spend more money on vehicle handling, what would result in increased reliability.

[czerty]

Your companies don't design the vehicles. The vehicle designers do.

True, but you forgeting - some planes (new versions, sometimes completly new planes) are created by reguest of transport companyies.

Mayby in HQ you can "issue order" to improve plane (for a price) and company agree or disagree.

And AlexH bring very interesing idea - in HQ you can set pilocy of you company - e.q. how many money you spend in mainetance of vehycles - low/normal/high which afects reliabilityand mayby others - adversting -none/low/medium/high which afect company relationship etc.

[Aloysha]

What about - remove the concept of years from the game, and give technologies to companies relative to their performance. So, everyone joins the game with lowly steam engines, and if those routes are profitable, this gives access to diesel engines, and so on.

/ramble

[Archonix]

I like that as an interesting alternative way of doing things.

[Ailure]

What about - remove the concept of years from the game, and give technologies to companies relative to their performance. So, everyone joins the game with lowly steam engines, and if those routes are profitable, this gives access to diesel engines, and so on.

/ramble

Maxis did that with Simcity 4, and it actually worked quite well. Instead of waiting to a certain year, you needed to met certain requriments to gain power plants such as Fission and Fusion power plants. On the other hand, I don't want to see a game going from steam engines to maglev within ten years.

[RiTi]

I think that's to far away of the game concept. Your primary goal is to earn more money then others by building and exploring a transport network. If technology is given to companies even then the one with the most earned money will be the winner because he/she can invest and earn quicker more money. I even think that the game could be quick over and out because the first one who get's new technology is then almost directly the winner. Then the goal of winning is not the one with the best transportnetwork, but the one who gets first the technology.

[Wolf01]

maybe the research can be used to tune little aspects of the game... for example:
research autoreplace: older trains will be replaced automatically
research better capability: wagons can carry 10% more stuff
research engineers wisdom: engineers can do 10% cheaper terraforming

the game should have the fog of war like civilization and you can explore the map while building things, or research "spy satellite" to reveal the whole map

[Bjarni]

the game should have the fog of war like civilization and you can explore the map while building things, or research "spy satellite" to reveal the whole map

are we still talking about the same game

[Ailure]

TRhe iddea of unexplored terrietory isn't bad, it would fit on some 19th to early 20th century scenarios, but it would also need a overhaul industry system (and make industri managming a bigger part of the game... which might be nice for a spinoff but seem to not be the main goal of devolopers) and "spy satellite" would be just silly. It's not a RTS, and openTTD would do badly as a RTS anyway if it were made into one.

[SM9T8]

In reality railway companies did develop their own trains, of course as this is not not the aim of the game its not important to simulate it, but companies did also improve old engines as new technology was developed.

Many steam engines were rebuilt with new boilers and some became superheated, this wouldn't require any graphics change on the game as they're not detailed enough anyway, but it would improve performance, and perhaps the length of life for the engine? A rebuilt engines life could then be doubled, so making it more cost effective.

Perhaps such technologies should be able to be developed or bought and the expensive option given to convert existing stock or simply to make it standard on new stock?

This would most likly be done on individual engines, since its unlikly to be required for a whole fleet, although the option should still be there because I for one would quite like to be able to make all 'old' engines 'new' without replacing them individually.

[SM9T8]

(Sorry I had another Idea)

What about having other functions for the HQ, such as managing station improvements, one useful income would be being able to set up shops and cafes in stations, and improve waiting rooms and carparks, this would only appear as a list at under something like Station Facilities.

In the later stages of the game as there is increasingly more passenger traffic, it should turn from a nice extra income into a vital requirement to fit all the lattest facilities to keep the passenger numbers up.

Also i forgot to say the vehicle improvements would be kept below 10% and some may increase running cost.

[Johnny B Goode]

Your companies don't design the vehicles. The vehicle designers do.

True, but you forgeting - some planes (new versions, sometimes completly new planes) are created by reguest of transport companyies.

Mayby in HQ you can "issue order" to improve plane (for a price) and company agree or disagree.

And AlexH bring very interesing idea - in HQ you can set pilocy of you company - e.q. how many money you spend in mainetance of vehycles - low/normal/high which afects reliabilityand mayby others - adversting -none/low/medium/high which afect company relationship etc.

Yeah. After all the DC line (DC-3 available in TT) was created by request. Depending on how much money you grant the company, your vehicle will be improved.

[athanasios]

Your companies don't design the vehicles. The vehicle designers do.

Big companies almost always request vehicles the way they fit their particular needs.