Do you prefer to see cargo generation mechanism or not?

[ebla71]

I'm working on a new industry NewGRF and before preparing a release, I was wondering which preferences players have on knowing about the cargo generation mechanism (or not)?

Therefore, I'd be highly interested in your preferred option:

1) Show me cargo generation mechanism in game (or at least in some documentation)

2) Let me figure out the cargo generation mechanism myself by playing around

3) I don't care

In games like Civilization, I have always enjoyed discovering new things and figuring out myself how things work, so I would have a certain preference for option #2 (and hardcore players will be able to check the algorithm by looking at the NML source code anyway) but I would really like to hear your opinions ...

[2TallTyler]

Hard to say without knowing what you have in mind, but I like to know. Experimenting is difficult in OpenTTD because it's hard to accurately know what made a difference.

[LaChupacabra]

My answer is 1+2

In my opinion, a good mechanic is one that is quite easy to guess and which, preferably, doesn't require the player to study documentation at all.

For example, FIRS 1 and 2 had explanations about how much product would be made from each type of raw material. It wasn't bad and I even miss it a little. However, this was no longer the case in FIRS 3, but it was quite easy to notice and even guess which raw material supply will result in the creation of a larger quantity of the product. This mechanism became non-literal and the player often received more units of the product than he provided raw materials. Maybe for some players this is ridiculous, but personaly I realy like this mechanic and for me it significantly improves playability. In this case, explanations would only spoil the fun - some things the player doesn't need to know, and it's even good if he doesn't know them. It's the same with Santa Claus. You don't have to explain to the children that he doesn't actually exist.

It is good to include in the windows of enterprises these basic information that may be difficult or time consuming to guess and they are important from the gameplay point of view. Details that are not very important are better kept in documentation (e.g. Read me).

[ebla71]

Hard to say without knowing what you have in mind, but I like to know. Experimenting is difficult in OpenTTD because it's hard to accurately know what made a difference.

Some of the industries will have rather complex formulas on calculating produced cargo based on differences in the delivered cargo.

For example, a coal mine will produce a low level of coal without anything delivered to it, but produce more coal whenever receiving a batch of explosives and yet even more when also provided with engineering supplies.

The accepted and produced cargo are always shown but I was particularly wondering if players would care to the the precise formulas of calculating produced cargo.

[ebla71]

I this case, explanations would only spoil the fun - some things the player doesn't need to know, and it's even good if he doesn't know them. It's the same with Santa Claus. You don't have to explain to the children that he doesn't actually exist.

It is good to include in the windows of enterprises these basic information that may be difficult or time consuming to guess and they are important from the gameplay point of view. Details that are not very important are better kept in documentation (e.g. Read me).

Good point, thanks for sharing your thoughts

I'm in the finishing touches (cargo and general industry done, "only" about another 20-30 of the industry production algorithms to code) and hope to share something with the end of the summer.