What does each shape represent? (If anything)

[Mudpuppy]

I've noticed more circles so I figured circles were more residential stations where as triangle and square were commercial and industrial stations. Other shapes could be sports stadium (rugby ball shape) medical for the cross ect...

Or am I making something out of nothing?

[BlaXpirit]

Originally posted by Mudpuppy:

making something out of nothing

[poetryofruins]

I think you are right and there is a hidden meaning. Certain types of stations seem to pop up in specific places in each city - it looks to me like the maps have a predetermined "layout" of stations based on real world cities. Also, types of stations seem to have a type of passenger appearing on it most often.

IMO this is the meaning of each type of station:

• CIRCLE: residential
  
• TRIANGLE: office/jobs (notice how often people from circles want to go to a triangle and back)
  
• SQUARE: train stations/transport hubs
  
• CROSS: hospital (often has passengers wanting to go home - to CIRCLE)
  
• STAR: landmark
  
• PENTAGON: military/airfield/some kind of industry? (good to connect it to a SQUARE or a TRIANGLE as people often come from there)
  
• JEWEL: goods/shopping district
  
• RUGBY BALL: stadium

[Artemis]

Originally posted by BlaXpirit:

Originally posted by Mudpuppy:

making something out of nothing

[Robert]

Awesome to read your take on it corellian! We do indeed have proper names ("residential", "hospital", etc) for each of the station types, but they exist only in code comments. We do base the behaviour of the stations on those names, so as you correctly identify, circles appear at the hospital when they get discharged and want to go straight home.

[mcx3100]

They are randomly existed on the map

[jaynemesis]

I also came to the same conclusion, here's how I see it:

Circle: Residental
Tringle: Office
Square: City Center
Rugby: Stadium
Star: Landmark
Cross: Hospital or Cathedral?
Pentagon: Government
Diamond: Palace/Castle
Jewel: Luxury shopping

[Tarek]

Originally posted by corellian:

SQUARE: train stations/transport hubs

I dunno about that one.
Who wants that as their destination?

I think it is more like what jaynemesis said: City Center

[cruinne]

Shapist!

Having lived in a few large cities with condo developers running rampant, I can say that it just reminds me of these companies that come into an area of town, build a bunch of high-density housing, then just expect the city to make everything work - transportation, water mains, &c. &c. - and really not caring if the people who buy their shiny new developments know that "hey, mail delivery isn't even set up for you yet... that'll get worked out eventually." Every time I see a new circle I think "Great. New cluster of 'luxury' condos. No thought to how the transport system is supposed to cope!"

Or mebbe just being in Toronto the last several years has jaded me

[Mudpuppy]

Originally posted by cruinne:

Shapist!

Having lived in a few large cities with condo developers running rampant, I can say that it just reminds me of these companies that come into an area of town, build a bunch of high-density housing, then just expect the city to make everything work - transportation, water mains, &c. &c. - and really not caring if the people who buy their shiny new developments know that "hey, mail delivery isn't even set up for you yet... that'll get worked out eventually." Every time I see a new circle I think "Great. New cluster of 'luxury' condos. No thought to how the transport system is supposed to cope!"

Or mebbe just being in Toronto the last several years has jaded me

That remindes me of a part of London called North Greenwich, Loads or brand new appartments but really poor transport links and local shopping. Even though the appartments look really nice I would hate to live there, I'm too attached to local shops and being a short walk from a tube station.

[styster]

The only thing that trips me up - when residents want to go "home" to a residential location, they don't actually care which home they go to! Apparently in this world anyone can sleep in anyone's home. The alternative would make for a really hard game, however, so I'm not complaining.

[Sang Froid]

While I love this interpretation, in truth there is a very logical reason for those different symbols. You see, passengers have shapes too. The way the game works, when they board a train, they are not trying to get to a specific location, but rather to a specific type of station: circle people stop at the first circle station they encounter, triangle people stop at triangle stations, etc...
You have three basic shapes, which I think work a little bit differently (but I am not sure): circle (most common), triangle, and square (the rarest of the basic shapes.) They pop at random on the map, and sometimes they turn into special shapes.
Special shapes can also appear on their own; their particularity is that there is only one of each on each map, which means that passengers in that shape are looking to stop at this station specifically. Which means that you ideally will have more than one line going to this station or something.
But yeah, even if this game is very abstract, I like to think that they are real people going to specific places too... :p

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

My guesses:

Circle: spawns a bunch of things, mainly triangles, squares, and crosses; residential area
Triangle: spawns circles, stars, and pentagons; business district (though why is it they don't go to Squares?)
Square: other transit hubs (e.g. port, airport, long-distance rail)
Star: spawns triangles and circles; government building (e.g. city hall, court house)
Pentagon: spawns squares and triangles; hotel or conference facility
Rhombus: spawns squares; recreational/entertainment landmark (e.g. park, sports stadium)
Cross: spawns circles; hospital (could be a house of worship, but people don't go there en masse, though I'm guessing that feature hasn't been implemented yet)
Wedge: spawns circles; either an educational institution (e.g. university) or local attraction/entertainment
Diamond: I forgot what it spawns; people have suggested bank or shopping area
Prolate Spheroid or Football or Rugby Ball): I forgot what it spawns; people have suggested a sports stadium

Originally posted by Cyberbeni:

This game makes you racist against shapes. Circles are the immigrants who want to take over your city and create neighbourhoods of 5++ circle stations, making you have a really hard job getting the shapes who don't like their new neighbourhood to a peaceful location with all kinds of different shapes around where they can live their simple lives without getting overrun by circles.

Methinks you're thinking too much about immigrants...when I see circles I see (sub)urban sprawl (and curse under my breath about it).

[Haunted Tiger]

Shapes means...just shapes.

Carefully observe passenger shapes. They will tell you which station they want to go to. For exampe, circile shaped passengers want to go to ANY circle station. Square shaped to square, star to star and so on.

Strategy is to connect as many differnt shapes on one line to make is maximum efficient. Or at least take them to the nearest interchange so that passegers don't have to travel far.

Quicker you deliver passengers to its shaped station more you score.

It is as simple as that.

[Tsubame ⭐]

Originally posted by Haunted Tiger:

Shapes means...just shapes.

Carefully observe passenger shapes. They will tell you which station they want to go to. For exampe, circile shaped passengers want to go to ANY circle station. Square shaped to square, star to star and so on.

Strategy is to connect as many differnt shapes on one line to make is maximum efficient. Or at least take them to the nearest interchange so that passegers don't have to travel far.

Quicker you deliver passengers to its shaped station more you score.

It is as simple as that.

Why necro a 4+ year old thread, especially when that is not OP's point, the thread was not about how to transport passengers, just a rhetorical "for fun" question on what could the shapes be, from a real life perspective.

[Blender McBiscuits]

We've all seen the developer's comment where he points out particular shapes represent particular buildings in the code, and that different shapes spawn different kinds of passenger? So it is relevant. Figuring out exactly which and how, is apparently up to us.