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Would be nice if there was a button to push on the mag lev to make it close it's doors and head to the next station. Perhaps make it wait a minimum of 30 seconds to a minute in case someone needs to get in.
But sitting there two or three minutes while nobody gets on. (I'm talking real people, not virtual) is silly and gives them the name Lag-Lev.
This would be awesome.
By Jago at Sep 27, 2015 7:12 PM
You're not supposed to enjoy your public transporation experience on it's own. You should want to own a car. Waiting is the name of the game. Public transit can be fun with the right people, but on your own, it should be largely uneventful, smell like pee, and make you late.
By Stygian at Sep 27, 2015 7:14 PM
Can you shut the door and give the train a push on any real life trains?
By Vetra at Sep 27, 2015 7:14 PM
I can think of 1 really good reason why this works the way it does:
For all the RP opportunities it creates. Make the suggested change, and it would destroy all the RP that happens in those stations.
By ShinMojo at Sep 27, 2015 7:14 PM
Real life trains leave almost right after they stop, ever been to New York and used the Subway?
By Jago at Sep 27, 2015 7:15 PM
They do here to.
I'm not sure what the complaint is. I've had to wait much longer for trains in real life than I have here.
By ShinMojo at Sep 27, 2015 7:16 PM
The change I'm suggesting is to improve playability, not mimic real life.
We also can't clone in real life in five minutes, but we can here.
There has to be some suspension of reality.
By Jago at Sep 27, 2015 7:17 PM
A system that is supposed to be slow and annoy you is slow and annoying.
Working as intended.
By Jinx at Sep 27, 2015 7:17 PM
Time it.
Withmore Mag-Levs doors are open for a shorter time than real-life commuter trains.
Anyway, they have a schedule to keep. If they left sooner, they wouldn't get there any sooner.
By Vetra at Sep 27, 2015 7:17 PM
I'm not sure I get this change.
Only change I would like to see is two more trains to balance it out making it a bit and I do mean a bit faster. But then again I know in real life there is usually one train going one way and another going another way. Miss one and wait a longer time. So you can do this in RL but not a game? This game is made to be a close approximation of real life.
By JustinBailey at Sep 27, 2015 7:17 PM
So.. you haven't found elevators yet..
By karmaportrait at Sep 27, 2015 7:18 PM
By Jinx at Sep 27, 2015 7:20 PM
You are all totally derailing my original suggestion.
By Jago at Sep 27, 2015 7:20 PM
My big issue is I seem to miss the train by a few moments enough as it is. I don't need some impatient baka shortening the time I have to get to the station.
By Zumini at Sep 27, 2015 7:25 PM
Original suggestion has been denied. The system is designed to be slow and annoying, and you are complaining that it is slow and annoying. Therefor, it's working exactly as intended. No change is needed if the thing isn't broken. Making it faster and more convenient would, in fact, break the feature.
By Stygian at Sep 27, 2015 7:25 PM
Okay, I can understand that's it's design, but then maybe there should be some alternative that doesn't cost 50k to avoid it.
By Jago at Sep 27, 2015 7:26 PM
There are alternatives. Check your SIC, you might see at least one.
By Trickyhottrev at Sep 27, 2015 7:29 PM
There are... at -least- three ways I can count to travel between sectors that doesn't involve the mag-lev or spending 50 grand.
You're going to hate this, but find them out IC.
By Stygian at Sep 27, 2015 7:29 PM
The scheduling is a thing. If everyone was closing the doors and moving on to the next station eventually all trains would be backed up behind each other. Each one cycles at the same time and each station can only support one train at a time.
The 'lag levs' are indeed working as intended. It's something I sought to change a long time ago. I got the as intended response as well. Making them faster is of course possible but would negate the need for taxis and player driven vehicles, thereby making those roles less important.
By Slither at Sep 28, 2015 8:25 AM
Now this Slither guy actually presents a point that makes sense, not just, "It's designed to suck, deal with it."
I guess I didn't think of the Mag-Levs as leverage to use PC transportation.
By Jago at Sep 28, 2015 8:54 AM
You also didn't think of the other value created by it 'sucking'.
Value which has been pointed out to you repeatedly, but you have dismissed. If you cannot understand the value of something, that does not mean that the value isn't present. It simply means you lack understanding.
Please, understand that the RP it creates is vital. Not just in PC transportation, but in actually having to WAIT. Having to sit there. Having to meet up with other PCs while you do. Having to stand on the streets exposed. Having to feel the frustration of it taking so long.
There is SO much value in that. Please, stop trying to dismiss it. It's real.
By ShinMojo at Sep 28, 2015 9:17 AM
Why don't we just put up a digital signage board detailing the eta to the next E7 and E6 then call it a day?
By ReeferMadness at Sep 28, 2015 9:20 AM
By Jago at Sep 28, 2015 9:20 AM
+1 to that idea. Realistic, helpful, and themely. Make them holos that float in the air announcing the times. An automated voice in a few different language would be a kick and a half too, but maybe too much.
By ShinMojo at Sep 28, 2015 9:23 AM
And then you can walk in, go, ten minutes, set a timer and come back. Perfect.
By Jago at Sep 28, 2015 9:24 AM
If there is a board displaying expected arrival times I want (a) it to be wrong half the time and (b) trains to be regularly delayed.
By karmaportrait at Sep 28, 2015 9:26 AM
+1 Karmaportrait
I actually just wrote myself an admin tool for knowing where each maglev is right now. Unfortunately, it's accurate, so, I cannot repurpose it to implement Karmaportrait's savvy, clueful suggestion. Because he or she made the best contribution to this entire conversation :)
By Linekin at Sep 28, 2015 6:15 PM
Um.... of course you can.
arrival_time = arrival_time + random_error
Where random_error is periodically updated to be +/- some random amount.
That way it's off by X for a bit, then off in the other direction by Y for a while.
By ShinMojo at Sep 28, 2015 6:18 PM
Keep in mind it could be accurate too, not everything has to suck.
By Jago at Sep 28, 2015 6:19 PM
Also: Math.floor after some precision reduction would further make it always "off by some fraction of a minute".
By ShinMojo at Sep 28, 2015 6:20 PM
Bitching about the lev is a tradition. If it didn't make me so pissed off, what would provoke me to buy vehicles and then
just to pay for the fuel..I only wish there were echos about all the weirdos in the station eyeballing me and playing with 'something' in their pockets.
By Wildgiller at Sep 28, 2015 9:32 PM
cough. **redacted** to pay for the fuel. I redacted that so hard it redacted itself out of my post... I can't format. leaves..
By Wildgiller at Sep 28, 2015 9:33 PM
@Wildgiller Help scripting. You can make that.
By ReeferMadness at Sep 28, 2015 9:34 PM
Jesus, Shinmojo. Way to take a joke.
By Linekin at Sep 28, 2015 9:41 PM
I HATE the lev so much i hardly ever use it...and i love that.
By fleurtygirl at Sep 29, 2015 6:06 AM
An estimated ETA-- not a bad idea. The Red Line in Boston has those, and they are pretty accurate. I think, obviously, we would have a .accuracy prop on the station.
Green: .accuracy = '100'
Gold: .accuracy = '75'
Red: .accuracy = '6'
Boom. Mic drop.
Obvi it would be a bit more accurate on Red, and the accuracy would be something like:
time_in_seconds_until_arrive + (rand(1) ? rand(100 - .accuracy)
By Slither at Oct 1, 2015 10:21 AM
Actually I was pretty careful in my suggested implementation.
The problem with your suggestion is that the rand will be recomputed each times it's looked at. Looking at it more than twice will make it appear to literally spin.
Instead, I has suggested that the amount of random offset is a constant which is set as a property on the object, and recomputed on a periodic interval, like once every 15 minutes or so. Yes, it could be off by different amounts for different levels, 0 for green, more the lower you go, but most importantly, the 'amount off' will be consistent when looking at it from one minute to the next, yet drift wildly from hour to hour.
This will prevent you from looking at it and seeing, "1 minute", "soon", "3 minutes", "1 minute", "2 minutes", "soon".
Instead, you'll see "3 minutes, "3 minutes", "2 minutes", "2 minutes", "soon".
That way, on green, the train will arrive on time, but on red, it could be stuck on soon for 3 minutes. Or the train could arrive when it still says it has 2 minutes left to go. But everyone standing in the station will all see the same 'wrong' value.
By ShinMojo at Oct 1, 2015 10:33 AM
