Sure, I'll share my ideas. Of course, I'm always open to helpful comments.Gumboots wrote:What's the basic premise of the India map? Any hints yet?
There will be two India games: India High Speed and See India by Rail.
The high speed is set in the 2000s, maybe starts in 2010. There will be only two goals: (a) haul X amount of passengers for 3? straight years and (b) achieve an average express speed of X for the same years. Electric engines will be the only engines able to achieve the high speeds. Only one AI, Indian Railways which has rail spread out over most of India. The player will be allowed to take over 'corridors' of Indian Railways to build high speed rail, as well as find new high speed corridors. There will be setbacks and opportunities to the player. The challenge will be to know when & where to expand while maintaining high speeds and racing against the game clock. A 1.06V game
See India by Rail starts in 1947, the last year of British rule in India, and ends in 1980 (Indira Ghandi's last term). It is a 'railroadless' map, wide open for the player to build across. (I know that this is not historically accurate: railroads began to appear in India in the 1850s.) This is the game I am currently working on. I will use the same map to later create India High Speed game. There are three 'See India by Rail' options offered to the player: 1) do nothing else but build railroads and haul cargo 2) become a magnate based on CBV and industry profit, or 3) become a tycoon based on PNW and removing rival AI companies. There are 6 optional AI unless the player chooses the tycoon option, which requires at least 3 AI. I have gone to great lengths to make the AI aggressive, especially in the stock market, for the tycoon option. I've done 2 trial runs thus far with lots of adjustments after each trial. I have not yet set the gold & silver goals - always the hardest part. A 1.05V game.
As a side note: I successfully used ACME mapper to create a google map overlay of India. (Many thanks to the person who posted that advice; I forget who that was.) The map looks spectacular with the snow capped Himalayas in the distance and the lush Ganges valley spread to the horizon.