Signals Upkeep

[SHADOW-XIII]

Well looking at some screenshot I though .. why the hell someone is building signal on every square ... it looks awful

the idea come to my mind ... why don't create upkeep for those signals (and semaphores) ... let's say 1 pound for 2-way signal, 1 pund for two 1-way signals (for semaphores cost could be reduced but then they should be maybe limited to non-electrified railways or have delay while changing, imho another fine idea)

price would change with inflation

[Born Acorn]

I voted yes, as it is too easy to make money in ottd, so a signals cost will have more impact, the more your network grows.

[lucaspiller]

Rather than upkeeping just the signals maybe the whole track could be maintiained. There could be a maintenance train that has to go along the track (slowly) to fix it. The track could have a reliability type thing and the train passing increases it. If it is low then trains go slower.

[GrrBrr]

Rather than upkeeping just the signals maybe the whole track could be maintiained. There could be a maintenance train that has to go along the track (slowly) to fix it. The track could have a reliability type thing and the train passing increases it. If it is low then trains go slower.

this is a very cool idea

[Gorre]

I voted yes. Signals on each square are really ugly and unrealistic.

[PDsiRF]

towns are ugly and unrealistic, so there should be none of them.
trains are ugly, so there should be none of them.
even the whole game is ugly and unrealistic so it should be buried and blown to venus.
no doubt that players are ugly too, and very unrealistic, so lets just BURN 'EM ALL!!111! (and blow them to venus too)

imho, this buhuu-signals-everywhere-buhuu-suggestion sucks. Even if signals would cost to maintain, it would not limit players to place them in where ever they like, and how many they like.

realism my ass, let us keep our signals and stop whining.

but i have nothing against railway upkeep.

[Archonix]

I kind of see placing signals on every square as cheating. It doesn't even remotely follow real-life practice, which is partly (not completely) what TTD was/is about. It looks fugly. The towns are symbolic of real towns, so they can slide. The whole thing is symbolic. Placing signals on every square destroys the symbolism and renders the whole thing pointless in a lot of ways.

[Patchman]

As far as distances are concerned, I always considered the length of one tile to be about 1-2 km. Of course that doesn't match the scale of the engines or the houses, but it makes sense for the distance of cities.

So, placing one signal every 1-2 km isn't really that unrealistic. Besides, real-life signals are a lot more sophisticated than (O)TTD's signals, and you have to compensate that lack of functionality (such as advance signals, path-based signalling and multi-aspect signals) by placing more of them.