Posts by nigelpet

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  • Virtual bus company, anyone interested?

    But there is still an issue in my view.


    If you say people should drive certain routes, they may not have those routes available to them so cannot drive.


    Also, if they are new and have not reached level 8 yet, then they cannot do sightseeing tours.


    I think it would be better to say that people have the option to drive a short, medium or long route and they can pick which ones from what they have available. Also, they could take a shuttle from whatever they have available once they reach level 4.


    The key should be that people can always drive a route of some type or another so that they can compete.


    Also, I do not believe we should use time spent in the game in Steam as that means very little. I have restarted a number of times to try different things so might have loads of hours but not be any higher than, say, level 4. If I get points just because I have hours in Steam and let's say I have 1000 hours, then a new player would already be way behind and it would be very hard to catch up which might put people off from joining.


    Playing all day would be nice ...with no work ! I wish ! I also have to run a business with offices in several countries which are just reopening after Covid 19 lockdown so am going to be extremely busy for a while.


    I will still try to keep up with Fernbus routes submitted but there might be some delays so patience will be required...i apologise if this is the case. When I can, I will work on a proposal for TBS too.


    It is unfortunately the case that some of the clients for my business may not even exist after Covid and there could be a lot of work in reorganising staff for the contracts that still remain and sadly but inevitably, we may have to lose some of our staff but hopefully this will be kept to a minimum.


    I will post here again on this subject once I have the time and we can hopefully get something going.


    Nigel

  • Virtual bus company, anyone interested?

    But we need to decide how to make it fair for everyone and I do not see how we can do that unless players start from scratch.


    Then they submit a screenshot of the route report and the finance screen. Everything else is then done by Excel to produce scores based on whatever system we decide and profit margin is calculated automatically.


    Accounting ratios are how company performance is compared in the real world.


    BUT unless everyone starts from scratch at the beginning of the competition (by starting a new game in TBS so not losing their progress in any other game they have started) it would not be fair in my view. It seems Denis W would not want to do that so I do not see how it could work. That said, that is now I would want to do it.....if anyone wants to create something doing it another way they are more than welcome....I have plenty to do already !!!!


    Nigel

  • Virtual bus company, anyone interested?

    ahhhh..but you bought the minibus first and that is NOT what I meant.


    I buy a Man Lion Coach (not coach C) brand new right from the start without a loan except the 200,000,you have at the beginning.


    Anyway, if players are not willing to restart from scratch then I do not see how it can work as you would have loads of money, vehicles etc that a new player would not have.


    If it is to be a competition it needs to be fair to all and I do not see how that can work so I think we shelve the idea for now.


    Nigel

  • Virtual bus company, anyone interested?

    Hi


    It might be better (and fairer) if everyone started a new game from scratch so that everyone starts from the same start point and then it would be easier and fairer to compare one to another.


    I am interested that you said that you took a loan to buy a new bus...how? You cannot take a loan until after you have bought your first bus and completed the initial routes in the tutorial as finance is locked until after you have done that. But there is still a way to buy a brand new coach even before doing the initial route 101.


    Nigel

  • Virtual bus company, anyone interested?

    Hi


    "For example, you can choose 331 routes or 291 and the player will wait for this order."


    This would be OK but how do we know when and IF that route will come up for the player? It depends on how they have explored the island and everyone could do that differently depending on the routes that they have available.


    XP and level would be fine.


    Where I have an issue with TBS is in the accounting which is very weak in my view.


    A basic premise of accounting is cash reconciliation where it should be "closing balance = opening balance + income - expenses."

    TBS gives income and expenses but if the player opens a container and gets the money this is not shown anywhere.....the bank balance increases but it is not shown in income ANYWHERE.....it should be in "other income".

    BUT it is totally unrealistic anyway as I know of nowhere in the real world that I can find a load of money in a container (unfortunately !!!!)


    Also, the game can be played in many different ways. For example, I guess most players start with a second hand coach. I never do....I start by buying a brand new Lions coach for 300,000 as it then has no repairs needed and no mileage on it which leads to the engine needing to be replaced.


    I would suggest we could use the following to create player scores from the trip reports for routes that the player drives :


    Passenger satisfaction from air conditioning service, number of accidents, etc etc.....pretty much anything that is on the route debrief in TBS. We could also use XP and level. Maybe financials but only from the income and expenses at the end of each month whilst ignoring the balance as this gets round the problem of the money from containers.


    So, income would come from scheduled services, shuttle services, breakdown service and sightseeing tours. Then it does not matter which routes the player drives...only how well they did it and how much money they made.


    BUT my real issue is this....


    We would have to ignore money from containers and also routes driven by hired drivers as debriefs are only given for routes driven by the player themselves. The hired driver routes would only be taken into account through the income earned and expenses incurred as this would take into account cost of parts, driver and mechanic wages etc etc. However, if we are ignoring money from containers and passenger satisfaction from hired drivers this ignores some fundamental parts of the game but I do not see an alternative.


    We could also use the asset value of the buses that players buy as the costs are part of their expenses so we would need to reflect the benefit they get from the expenditure and this is in the value of the assets that they then hold in terms of vehicles.


    This is where buying a brand new bus right at the start can be advantageous but I suspect most players do not do it because they do not know how and think they do not have enough money to buy a new one !!!!


    I think it could be done but will take some work. When I get time I will go into TBS and drive a bit and then check the route debriefs and work out what we can use and then come back here with a proposal which we can then discuss once I have built something in Excel to do it. It seems to be that the best way is that the companies created by players are competing with each other rather than the player as such. So the "best" company would be the one that has the best performance in terms of income - expenses, passenger satisfaction from the routes driven by the player, and the value of their assets (vehicles and property that they buy). The better a player and their hired drivers drive, the less costs there would be in terms of repairs so this is a decent measure.


    So, I will come back with a proposal when I can and suggest how we do it with some example companies and results. Then when we are happy that it works OK for us, we can test it out with the 3 of us (or more if people want to try it) and ultimately create a web site for it like the Fernbus one.


    As always, thoughts welcome.


    Nigel


    P.S. A further thought. We could use standard accounting ratios such as profit margin which is defined as (income-expenses) divided by income x 100. So if income is 100 and expenses are 75 then it would be ((100-75)/100) x100 = 25%. This could be a sensible way to compare one company to another in financial terms (ignoring the container money) and would include income from all sources (scheduled services, shuttle services, breakdown service and other income) as well as expenses in terms of parts, fuel, wages, insurance, etc.

  • Virtual bus company, anyone interested?

    Hi


    I did think about that but there are some problems.


    Firstly, there is an economy in TBS already and it would be necessary to work out how players earn money in the company given that much money in TBS is found in containers.


    Second, it would be hard to create routes for people to drive as the routes that one player has available will be different to the ones that others have, They depend on which towns players have visited, which hotels they have discovered etc.


    The only way I can see it could be done would be to ignore money and players would need to be assigned a short, medium or large route and they could then drive anyone they have available...for example, if they were assigned a shuttle from the airport to a hotel they would need to drive one that they have available even if it is to a different hotel.


    Available routes differ from player to player in TBS so we would need to agree a way to do this.


    An advantage though is that TBS gives a summary of each route that the PLAYER drives, but not what drivers that they employ drive. So we could use data from that but it would ONLY be for routes that the player themselves drive, not those driven by any drivers that they employ.


    I suggested this sometime ago in TBS discussions on Steam but no one was interested and I suspect this was due to the problems that I have stated above.


    In Fernbus, I have created routes and everyone can drive the same routes but this is not really possible in TBS.


    All that said, if we can work out a way it could work I would be happy to administer it in the same way that I do for Fernbus. TBS gives ratings for each route that the player themselves drive and givesx ratings for air conditioning service etc etc so we could certainly use some of that as well as number of accidents, speeding offences etc if I recall correctly.


    Let me know any ideas you have for how we could get it to work and we can trial it before offering it to anyone else.


    Thoughts welcome.


    Regards


    Nigel

  • Virtual bus company, anyone interested?

    Bevilacqualex


    Hi


    Thanks...can you also submit your routes via the web site please?


    This then gives me a notification by email that you have submitted the route to ensure that I can deal with it asap.


    Thanks again for your first route which is accepted.


    Also a quick update. I have decided to remove just one of the charts as the amount of data now that more people have driven over a longer period is making it unreadable and to be honest, in my view, unnecessary.


    It is the routes by driver and date which over time as more dates are included will become more and more unreadable.


    The main charts that we really need are the number of routes, distance, number of passengers for each driver, etc and they remain in the usual results output.


    Regards


    Nigel

  • Virtual bus company, anyone interested?

    Bevilacqualex


    You do not need to "register" as such...all you need to do is visit the website at https://nigelpet.wixsite.com/mysite


    If you read the "driver guide" page it should explain everything but if you have any queries just send me a message and I will do my best to explain.


    The web site lists all the routes from each of the hubs and you simply pick a route, set it up in Fernbus and drive then submit the results as instructed in the driver guide.


    As I say, any questions just let me know.


    Regards


    Nigel

  • Virtual bus company, anyone interested?

    Hi Both


    CA7GTR No problem....look forward to you driving again soon ! Hope the new system works out OK....I know how frustrating such problems can be.


    I do hope more will join and drive but we will see. For now, I myself am not driving purely because I wanted to give others a chance to "catch up" so we can have a bit more of an even competition but we will see what happens.


    Thanks to you both for liking the idea and I do hope it grows in time.


    Nigel

  • Virtual bus company, anyone interested?

    OK


    I did add a new Steam discussion stating how many routes have been done, etc and inviting others to join.


    I do not use Facebook I am afraid but hope that others may drive. I would have hoped that regular updates here and on the web site would encourage others to compete.


    I appreciate your support.


    Nigel

  • Virtual bus company, anyone interested?

    Hi


    I have deliberately not been driving as I wanted to give others the chance to "catch up". I felt it looks a bit strange if I was at the top of the table and would prefer that others provide more competition which I hope they will do.


    Thank you for your latest route.


    Regards


    Nigel