Gameplay

[davidwengier]

The age old question, is this a game, or is it a watch-trains-go-around-tracks?

• [x] Toggle between Build and Run modes
  • Pointer, Eraser and Track tools are in build mode
  • Run mode has train controls instead of those tools (keeps pointer tool for panning)
• [ ] Trains are electric
  • No smoke particles :P
  • Each train has a battery, and power level
    • [ ] Add debug layer to show battery %?
  • [ ] Carriages add more battery eg, another 75% of a trains total battery
    • Will have to tweak the number obviously
  • [ ] Battery depletes as trains move
    • The faster they go, the faster it depletes
      • More carriages, more power used
      • Steeper hills, more power used
    • Below 30% battery, speed is capped at battery %
    • Battery slows to 1% and speed to 1%, but not a complete stop. Solar panels on the roof of trains can keep it idling along like this
      • Does solar recharge the train if its moving? People could create a siding to stop trains while they recharge?
      • [ ] Day/night cycle?
  • [ ] Need (help!) to create a function for all this to allow for balancing
    • eg. If you stop a train how fast do the solar panels charge it back up to 100%?
    • eg. How much do carriages deplete the battery vs add power? Does a train with no carriages run out of battery first, last, or at the same time as a train with one carriage?
    • Is there a tool where I can visually tweak a graph, and have it output a function (in C# code?!)
  • [ ] Create inductive loop charging tracks that charge the batteries
    • The longer a train is on them, the more charge it gets, ie, faster train gets less charge. train with carriages gets more (but has more batteries to charge)
• [ ] Trains are only created at train factories
  • This solves the problem of how to place carriages on a track in the right orientation - don't!
  • [ ] Factories need to be able to be rotatable to connect to vertical or horizontal tracks
    • Factories only have an exit, trains can't go back in
  • [ ] Factories have a controllable size of trains it creates (eg, number of carriages)
  • [ ] Factories have a controllable rate for producing trains
• [ ] Need points on a T intersection to facilitate factories
  • Trains need to be able to leave factories and enter the loop, and not be able to come back
  • [ ] Points is controllable in Run and Build modes
  • [ ] Pointer tool needs to work for selecting trains, and adjusting points, before panning
  • [ ] Add more T-intersection types. currently we have Y type, what we really need is a proper T (ie, should be able to go from left to right on a left-right-down track)
  • Far far future: Allow programmatic control of points via Blockly integration
    • eg. this train should go left, this one should go right
    • eg. switch to left for one train, then right for two more, then back to left
• [ ] In Run mode avg speed of all trains needs to be above X km/h or game over
  • Would mean we can't have a day/night cycle? Or does it only count trains that have enough battery power to move, but aren't?
  • [ ] New maps have a factories placed randomly on the board, with random terrain. You need to draw tracks to take the trains away, and then keep them moving
• [ ] Eventually, money
  • Drawing tracks can be free, but you shouldn't be able to just make a track entirely out of inductive charging loops I think
  • Need ports and depots to pick up and drop off cargo to earn money
  • Alternatively, stations and people buying tickets
  • Make sure there is a Zen Mode where money is optional and you can just watch trains go around