Why Trucks though?

[Synka]

I've seen on images that later on you will be having trains, but why would you get trucks in the first place? what logic is there in not going directly for trains

[Maniac]

Probably you wont have trains from the beginning and will unlock them later

[Bomoo]

Originally posted by Synka:

I've seen on images that later on you will be having trains, but why would you get trucks in the first place? what logic is there in not going directly for trains

Less resource-intense infrastructure.

[Synka]

Originally posted by Bomoo:

Originally posted by Synka:

I've seen on images that later on you will be having trains, but why would you get trucks in the first place? what logic is there in not going directly for trains

Less resource-intense infrastructure.

im pretty sure roads are more resource intense than rails, and trucks more than trains

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Synka:

Originally posted by Bomoo:

Less resource-intense infrastructure.

im pretty sure roads are more resource intense than rails, and trucks more than trains

in this game or in reality?

[RMJ]

To have a sort of progression and options. There could be a reason to use trucks, boats "when water", trains, planes. Usually trucks would be good for short distances or gradients, trains would be best for long distance over relative plat terrain etc.

[Bomoo]

Originally posted by Synka:

Originally posted by Bomoo:

Less resource-intense infrastructure.

im pretty sure roads are more resource intense than rails, and trucks more than trains

I'm pretty sure that's true neither in real life or the game.

[Davor]

Originally posted by Bomoo:

Originally posted by Synka:

im pretty sure roads are more resource intense than rails, and trucks more than trains

I'm pretty sure that's true neither in real life or the game.

Roads are insanely expensive to build and maintain, they're literally bankrupting nearly every town and city in the USA. Rail is more efficient and less expensive, it's simply this way in game for progression purposes.

Ideally you'd be using freight rail for large hauls over long distances, meanwhile trucks would be for small hauls over short. We don't need to get into passenger rail as people are mostly abstract in the game.

[Buntkreuz]

Lets be frank here, its to stretch content and thus playtime until you find out that the only thing keeping you playing is by constantly hunting the next unlock.
The more unlocks, the longer you keep playing.

Thats pretty much it.

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Zero Fox Given:

Lets be frank here, its to stretch content and thus playtime until you find out that the only thing keeping you playing is by constantly hunting the next unlock.
The more unlocks, the longer you keep playing.

Thats pretty much it.

isnt that the point of many games?

[Buntkreuz]

Originally posted by Maniac:

Originally posted by Zero Fox Given:

Lets be frank here, its to stretch content and thus playtime until you find out that the only thing keeping you playing is by constantly hunting the next unlock.
The more unlocks, the longer you keep playing.

Thats pretty much it.

isnt that the point of many games?

Not really.
See, lets take Anno.
You constantly push further to unlock but even once you unlocked all the techs/buildings, there are systems in place challenging you to make proper use of them.
To combine the tools, that you have available, the right way.
To play around with the available systems, to make choices, to make compromises, to make decisions on what you want to reach and HOW you want to reach it.
Replayability then comes from different choices and paths allowing you to reach the goal in many different ways.

"Bad" games just offer you a linear way to progress, without any variation or choices and compromises.

Just placing stuff into a tech tree for unlocking for the sole reason of extending the playtime artificially, makes bad games.
If you need to stretch your content artificially, its a sign the game is shallow and bad.
Which is why so many games put arbitrary high resource costs on upgrades and unlocks, to induce more unnecessary grind.
Its the same logic with other bad design decisions in videogame design.
One popular design flaw is the well know "Rubberbanding" or "Cheating AI".
The former is used to artificially make AI stronger in racing games (for example), while the other is a way to artificially increase difficulty, often used in Strategy Games.

Those are design tactics to avoid to actually work on better systems.
For example Rubberbanding is used to avoid having to create a proper AI that is able to react and make use of the games systems.
Cheating Ai follows the same idea, compensating for bad AI.

Development is expensive and thus sometimes developers need these tactics to avoid underdeveloped areas to drag down the overall games quality too much.
Thats fine, sometimes.

But lets be frank about it, the reason you start with trucks and then later go with trains, is to do exactly that: stretch content
Nothing less, nothing more.


Thats ok, as long as the game offers me some game mechanics to play around with, and make use of what i unlock and provide some actual gameplay depth besides just constantly unlocking.
Because otherwise it becomes insantly boring once you unlocked the last item and that shouldnt be the goal.

[Energist]

Originally posted by Synka:

I've seen on images that later on you will be having trains, but why would you get trucks in the first place? what logic is there in not going directly for trains

Logically speaking, I can see things a truck can do that trains can't. Just like in the real world, both have uses. Both have advantages and flaws.

[Gaddy Games]

Ok that's a bit too long for me ^^

What is my design idea: the trucks load and unload very fast. The trains are much faster and transport many more containers, but they accelerate very slowly. So the trucks are better for very short distance and the trains much better for longer distance.

The current reality of the game makes trucks quite useless after some time in the game, when you need massive quantity everywhere. I might try to balance that, but it's not easy with the heavy change the scale.

Globally what i tried to do with the game is to give a evolution of the game during the game, so it's not just "unloack something more" : at start you micromanage a lot and play on short distance, then later you move on very long distance with massive quantities, it's not really the same gameplay anymore.
Also the terraforming that is not there at all at start, with the water (although i still have to work on that).
And finally, the recycilng process I think does really change the gameplay too. At least that's my intent:)

[Azeroth]

Hey Gaddy Games! Nice to see the dev in the chat! I think the long post is valuable and your intention with trains vs trucks seems answer the critique there as there is a niche use for both. I like that design - there's a threshold where trains are more efficient than trucks.

To Zero Fox Given's point, it'd be interesting if there were multiple development paths along the tech tree to choose different play styles. I've only just played through your demo, but if that opportunity presents itself, it might be a reasonable direction.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow and congrats on your work thus far!

[Duzzit]

It makes sense, logistically speaking trains are better at bulk transport.