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Cart #50646 | 2018-03-21 | Code ▽ | Embed ▽ | License: CC4-BY-NC-SA
2

Version 1.2

  • All known bugs have been fixed.
  • The pricing scheme has been overhauled to make it simpler and more useful. The ticket price is now charged when leaving the point of origin and the value is linearly proportional to the distance to the destination, independently of the route taken (multiplied by the "class of travel" factor, whether the whole journey is by Shinkansen or not). For instance, if the distance is 6 "blocks", 4 of which are on fast trains and 2 on slow trains, the total fare is still 30,000 (if the price is left to the default 5,000). If using only slow trains, it would have been 6,000 in total.
  • The decision function to take the Shinkansen (or not) is now nonlinear. Travelers will choose the fast train option if the increase in price is lower than or equal to the square of the reduction in journey duration. For instance, if the duration is reduced by a factor 3 and the price is increased by a factor 5 (default), the traveler will still choose the fast option (5 < 3^2 = 9). This makes the price adjustment function more usable (i.e. it is easier to "convince" travelers to use the Shinkansen for only part of their journey through a small fare reduction).

For the "complete" manual, please refer to the original post: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=30916

Also...

Debugging "Shinkansen" in the Shinkansen ;-)

P#50648 2018-03-20 21:20 ( Edited 2018-03-21 01:20)

This is a wonderful game! Beautiful, peaceful. I love it.

It's supremely satisfying to analyse the landscape, dream up a grand, complete shinkansen system, then scheme the most efficient way to iteratively make it a reality.

I think this game has a lot of promise. It reminds a little bit of Mini Metro, (which I'd highly recommend buying if you haven't played it).

I found this game very hard to pick up. I read the "manual" out of curiosity, and I realised I had almost overlooked a very detailed and elegant game. Would you consider adding cues to make it easier to pick up?

Important facts I couldn't figure out on my own:

  • sequential numbers commute to each other
  • it costs 1000 per section of track
  • the third line on the post it is your available money
  • the Y5000 is not your money!

Perhaps you could subtly indicate the commute destinations of a station somehow when hovering it?

Could you give feedback during track planning? Could you show how much the track will cost? or perhaps how much of the track plan can I afford?

Another thing that confused me initially was that I couldn't start a track that didn't extend the existing track. What if, instead of refusing to begin the track, it automatically switched to the next available colour. As a beginner, optimising the number of rail lines isn't as important as making progress and making money.

I don't know whether you consider this a WIP, or a finished work. Either way, I hope these thoughts help.

P#50654 2018-03-21 05:06 ( Edited 2018-03-21 09:06)

Thanks aaaidan :-)

I was considering this as pretty much done and ready to move on to my next project, but you make some very good suggestions. Some are easily implemented, so I'll give it a go. Others would require more effort, so I'm less sure about those...

I know of "Mini Metro" (although I haven't played it) and I drew some inspiration from the core concept (I even considered calling the game "Pico Metro" at one point ;-) My claim to originality is to start with the "slow network" alternative already in place and make the game about the rise of the Japanese bullet train...

P#50685 2018-03-21 20:42 ( Edited 2018-03-22 00:42)

Awesome! Glad to hear you might do some more work on this, even though you were gonna shelve it. (Please don't compromise the minimal philosophy and aesthetic!)

This game is definitely distinct from Mini Metro: you have many claims to originality!

P#50723 2018-03-23 05:33 ( Edited 2018-03-23 09:33)

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