- Trans-Continental
- Gameplay mechanics
- TL;DR
- * connect one side of the map to the other, unlocking towns and industries one at a time, whilst maximising own net worth
- Origin and Destination
- * companies are given an origin region
- * for rectangular maps, this is the one side of the map, along the long axis
- * for square maps this one side of the map, chosen randomly
- * could (optionally) be somewhere in the middle (not sure why this is better though)
- * companies are given a destination, this is the opposite side of the map
- Primary Goal
- Town placement
- * most towns (and all cities) are closer to the origin side of the map
- * the destination side has only a small number of villages and smaller towns
- * GS constructs towns in response to goal completion
- Industry Placement
- * GS controls all/most industry placement
- * at game start,
- * most primaries are at origin
- * all secondaries are at origin
- * randomly during gameplay, and on completion of goals GS builds new industries
- * primaries all tend to be placed towards destination side of map, and probably don't care whether there is transport service in the town
- * secondaries are distributed more evenly, but favour towns that have transport service
- * GS ensures that tertiaries (black holes) are evenly distributed in towns
- Land Grants / Rewards
- * there is some kind of 'land grant' or other reward mechanism
- * this might be based on town rating (connecting a town increases rating in neighbouring towns?)
- * this might be cash rewards
- * this might be using existing subsidy mechanic
- * this might be using exclusive transport rights
- * this might be via favourable industry placement
- Personnel
- * player can choose a chief engineer at game start
- * this will modify building costs and town ratings (anything else we can influence?)
- * player can choose to replace the engineer every 5 years
- Capitalism / Corruption
- * player gets a personal net worth (via story book)
- * some mechanic(s) allows player to transfer company funds to personal net worth
- * legitimately via owning stock, where the value comes from company value
- * legitimately via 'dividends'
- * illegitimately via stealing money
- * player can be 'fired' by GS bankrupting the company, or using deity funds to take it over
- Micro-challenges
- * similar to Busy Bee
- Anti-trust / taxman
- * GS has triggers for removing excess company profit
- * something like public sentiment, which is improved by completing goals
- * player can also 'bribe politicians' but may get caught (map-wide version of bribing towns)