Mentioned in 'Game Concepts - Resources' was transport. Transport will be important in a dynamic world with real dimensions and will set apart those truly impressive TNCs (Trans-National Companies) from the subsistence farmers (sorry, geography has really gone to my head with exams and all that).
Transport for a Changing World
The idea for a 'world' is to create a basic world map in which players can actively relocate their industries around. The ability to physically move existing industries will be explained later in the post.
The idea is that a player starts with nothing and has to make their way up the corporate ladder to become a truly successful industrial emperor. Suppose that you start with just a bicycle and then you can choose to buy a different mode of transport later on, when you have a but more cash. In order of price/relative speed:
-Bicycle
-Small Car
-Minvan (same speed as small car) [capacity vehicle]
-Family Car
-Motorcycle
-Helicopter
-Learjet [capacity vehicle]
-Cargo ship [capacity vehicle]
The words 'capacity vehicle' in square brackets [ ] indicates that the vehicle has the ability to transfer assets between industries, be they capitol, workers or resources. A [Large Capacity Vehicle], we have none yet, will allow you to move a factory within the country.
The cargo ship is separated because it will probably cost a lot more than the other vehicles and is the only means of physically moving one of your industries abroad - as an example, say you had a beef farm in the UK and you wanted to move to the US because of proximity to steak factories. You would have to buy a cargo ship in order to 'pack up' the industry and move. Otherwise you would simply sell the industry, move to the US and buy a new one there.
Genesis
Creating a digital world is no easy feat, and making it dynamic even more so. To begin with we have 7 cities dotted around the world for players to travel between - the cities are representative of their country/region for simplicity. A table has been drawn up with land and sea distances between points. Land distances will determine how long it will take for you to reach your destination using your current mode of transport (except cargo ship). Sea distances are crucial for the cargo ship, which can't just crawl onto land and belly flop its way home, and determine both the price of the ship hire, and the time it will take to reach the destination. With sea routes, the boat takes you to the closest coastal city. You can then move your factory to another city in that country using a large capacity land vehicle.
Times & Costs
As a general rule, we are looking along the lines of 2,000 miles taking 1 real-time hour, that means getting from London to Paris for example (215 miles), will take about 6 minutes 30 seconds in a small car (which would be free, but you must purchase the car first).
However if you wanted to transport a factory with that, then it will take about 4 minutes 40 seconds on the boat (for which you will be charged an amount dependant on the distance), then load your factory onto a large capacity vehicle and take it to Paris.
Obviously the mode of transport will vary depending on what you have bought, this will also affect the time taken to travel over land. However boats will all be the same speed. A small car was used for this example as it has a relative speed of 1 (all other vehicles take their speed from the small car).
I know this sounds complicated, but all the calculations will be handled by the client, and you will only be shown the total time, and the cost (if appropriate).
System Preview
And now for the moment some of you may have been half-interested enough to not be able to wait for. Below is a screenshot of our transport system as it is now, it is not finished and won't be until we work out a way to manage how the time system will work.
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