Encouraging Local and Intercity Service

[mcadamsmax]

After a couple months tinkering with different scripts, I'm running into a problem with the game's model of passenger/mail service. I can't seem to make local AND intercity service BOTH necessary in EACH town through any combination of scripts or settings. Tweaking payment mechanics will make one or the other more profitable in almost every situation, and cargodist just incentivizes building strange networks of isolated lines that keep unwanted destinations unreachable. Using the gamescript API's cargo monitors and station lists to make this happen seems *almost* possible, but I can't see how without making an unreasonably large data structure. I really just need a way to track cargo delivered to a town from outside that town. Has anyone else tried to make this work?

[andythenorth]

+1 to the issue. Adjusting cdist 'effect of distance on demand' either overwhelms or starves local networks. And yes, cdist does incentivise not connecting pax networks.

One option would be to split pax cargos in newgrf, 'local pax' and 'long distance pax'. I think this wouldn't work either though, as it would be hard to manage with vehicles that can only refit to one cargo type at any time (such as buses).

[PikkaBird]

With all respect to those who took the time and effort to implement it, cdist solves one specific thought bubble ("it would be nice to transfer passengers to and from an airport out of town") admirably, while making a big steaming mess of the rest of the game. "Turn on cdist, it makes the game better!" gets religiously recited to new players, but I turned it off a couple of years ago and haven't looked back.

Building buses in a town is fun and encourages the town to grow. Building trains between towns is fun and makes a lot of money. Does there need to be more incentive to play the game than "building things is fun"? Can we learn the lesson that features intended to encourage more complex gameplay - cdist, infrastructure maintenance, aircraft range limits - invariably end up doing the opposite?

[andythenorth]

"I don't know why she swallowed a fly - Perhaps she'll die!"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Was ... owed_a_Fly

[mcadamsmax]

"I don't know why she swallowed a fly - Perhaps she'll die!"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Was ... owed_a_Fly

I hear you, but I'm ready to eat a horse on this one