Roles, Large Boats and Shared patch
I have a proposal for a fancy game we can try, which would involve multiple companies filling in for specific roles, shared global exchange idea and large capacity ships. In a nutshell – it is schema where each company is given a region, and it would not deliver any of local cargo (thus delivering all primaries to an exchange point) while being sole owner of some secondary industry and processing required materials delviered from other regions (taken from exchange point).
A setup for that is a precreated map, which has few feasible regions that are big enough to fit some nice network while being completely independent from other parties in that aspect. The map features 4 large landmasses targeted as regions for activity with specific purpose in mind (industries are allocated with this idea in mind). It also uses NewCargo support that allows introduction of 3 more industries (fishing ground, brewery and food plant) and 2 more cargo types (beer and fish) as well as modification to factory (accepts wood and steel).
Before introduction of shared facilities (thanks to TrueBrain again) this would only be possible if done within same company, however now situation is slightly changed.
I propose using 5 companies, one being Global company that creates port facilities on tips of all 4 continents close to middle and facilitates cargo echange with huge ships (thanks to thgergo’s mod). The global company will only own stations and ships on that level and ships will have relatively small voyages (<100 tiles hopefully). Both sides that do the processing and colelction of cargo will get their share of the income, due to patch features. Other companies, each of 4 taking one sector will fit in for party processing one and collecting other raw materials. Separation of companies adds some competative element as well as letting us to see graphs and proportions of cargoes (hopefully that will ease up future management). Based on the map layout i suggest this:
As far as i can see this balanced in terms of flow and each continent is producing secondary that can be either delviered somewhere as well. Depending how well the game goes “somewhere” can be foreign town, global HQ city or at worst case some local delivery. Two primary cargo types – grain and wood – can be processed at 2 continents so one acts as primary consumer and another as secondary, exact proportions are to be defined in game by throughput and efficiency of involved sides. Another activity, if desired, can come out of later pax/mail/valuables transportation between continets.
To make it more intreresting for participants we can have some fixed arrangement with players being signed for specific company and working exclusively in designated area while collaborating with other parties in terms of goals. The global side is going to be there only for show and as money distributer (some money will be made on ships, if more needed – it can built airports and start airtraffic between 5 high population cities in different parts of the map).
At this point of time i am aiming it more for a Member Zone game. Perhaps, some pier stretching will be desired to limit ship travel time even further (YAPF and NPF will not be available to ships, but still they somewhat affect performance) but aside of that it can be a nice eye candy-ish game since landscape is friendly and quite a few town are scatared along the coasts. Aside of that it is pretty much shaped up as an idea and i am finishing the map as well.
hi there!
though i dont play on ottdcoop servers, i often visit ur blog, and i have an idea for this game.
I’ve seen some time before here ‘passenger detinations’. it could be used here in a way that the global company collects pax + (?) mails to the central area and from there local companies could redistribute them. i dont know if this works between companies or not, but should give another ‘side’ to the game
Sounds interesting eltor, but IIRC the Passenger Destinations Patch isn’t done yet and in our last try we had a lot of desync-errors which made it impossible to play.
Besides I would consider an option for contracts between those companies for trading goods. This would mean we have a real market and players have to play a role and develop their role and state in this game.
The global company could also save the resources/goods of others. And do the sharing job. I.e. on an isle are 4 docks, one for each company and the global company transports it to an inner cargo center and re-transfers it to another dock. This would also mean the global company is kind of a Bank which administrates all the resources and also the contracts. Otherwise the global company might be a bit of a boring job, maybe??
I really like the map and the concept is on its best way. Anyway I’d like a better software support, i.e. a real Subsidiaries Patch or Pax Dest like eltor said.
Wonderful idea, I’ll just try it @home 😛
I really like this idea. I loved WWOTTDGD and i’d love to play something like that again (sooner then WWOTTDGD 2 XD)
My thoughts:
Ships… they are very slow. Because we want a large map for this to take place, ships will take _ages_ for goods to get from point A to point B. Also, they are a huge drain on CPU. How will these points be dealt with?
Other then that, I’d really like to make a GRF request, only problem is that it has not been made yet. But basically it is an eyecandy thing. Dummy Docks. Some way to make realistic ports with more then one berth. Not sure if its possible, but oh well. not really needed I guess.