[Feature Request] Cargo subtypes for mail and passengers

[209CATrus]

Well, in real life (especially in 21st century) mail is not just small bundles. It might be something bigger. Towns have light industry areas, and such areas often order cargo mail. Industry in that case is not big enough for dedicated supply route, yet is still industry and needs heavy haul from time to time (usually containers). Small businesses is a good example.
After playing ETS 2 i thought it'll be cool to have non-player commercial warehouses to allow intercity cargo flow, but that might be out of simutrans scope.

While it might be not related to simutrans right now, but such stratification might be also useful for passengers. Soldiers moving between military bases or prisoners between prison, for example.

So my point is that non-industrial buildings should sometimes generate/accept cargo, and game shouldn't be always related to big industry.

Hope i got my suggestion clear. I know that development is focused on other things, so no pressure

[209CATrus]

I know realism is not always fun, so from gameplay standpoint, this allows to make mail way more attractive/profitable for players. Also compensates mail decline after mass communications development

[MatthewForrester]

Hi 209CATrus! Suggestions are welcome but you are much more likely to get a useful response if you post on the International Simutrans Forum.

Visiting the forums will also give you the opportunity to learn more about Simutrans too. Your soldiers example might be helped by knowing that there is a long-standing rule that" the subject of military technology is generally discouraged in Simutrans". That may be surprising in your culture, but Simutrans is most popular in Germany and Japan, where many people do not want military affairs in a relaxing game.

[209CATrus]

I'm too windy for forum account, i'm afraid. For example, i hardly check my email in weeks, even months. And not a regular player.

On military topic, it is people that kill each other, not weapons. Weapon is a tool of peace, otherwise we would be running at each other with sticks and stones without fear of horrible consequences, like monkeys in the prologue of Kubrick's Space Odissey...

Whoops, looks like i strayed too far. Anyway, military almost always means top notch technology, so military branch of industry will be hard, but rewarding to supply. Simutrans extended is extended not because it is beta of simutrans, but because deviates from main line in lots of things, isn't it? Military industry is not a bad thing, especially if it'll enrich current gameplay. It won't turn simutrans into pulp fiction spinoff, worry not. Not a war simulator anyway, still relaxed delivery of goods and passengers.
Besides, military related thingies can be pakset-optional.

[209CATrus]

Well, i just don't know who, besides soldiers, would need dedicated passenger subtype.

[jamespetts]

This suggestion is interesting, but would have far-reaching consequences that would need a very considerable amount of work to implement (and would also need very careful and detailed thought about exactly how it should be balanced and fit with existing and planned features; this would also take a very large amount of work). Currently, and for probably quite a few years in the future, all development time is accounted for by existing projects that are considered balance priorities.

There has been discussion on the forum recently of a proposed "alternative fulfilment" feature, in which passenger journeys can be replaced by alternatives such as telegram, telephone, e-mail or videoconferencing and one possible implementation of that is for home deliveries to replace certain shopping trips. There is also a "private vans" feature in the (very long) list of planned features (and it is not a priority at present and will not be for some years) allowing industries to send their own goods in some cases similarly to the way in which passengers can sometimes travel without player transport using private cars.

Exactly how all these interrelate requires very, very detailed thought that it is probably not even worth starting until some of the major balance features that have been planned for years and are very slowly being implemented have been complete, not least because it will not be known until that implementation how well that any given other feature will integrate with it.

If you would like the point when features such as alternative fulfilment and private vans are being considered to come sooner than it otherwise might, then I suggest joining in the effort to implement the prior balance critical features, although this will in reality require registering a forum account.

Thank you for your interest in Simutrans-Extended - do enjoy playing.

[jamespetts]

As an aside, the original suggestion of having specific subtypes for goods, mail and passengers is unlikely to be workable without significant advances in computing power or a major overhaul of the routing system by somebody whose coding expertise is much greater than mine, such as to make it vastly more efficient without compromising functionality, since each subtype of passengers/mail/goods added would require its own refresh cycle of the route-finding algorithm, which, in larger games, can take real life minutes to complete.