FishMarket 1.0/FishMarket v1.0.iso/fishies/426-450/disk_426/metro/instructions

Text File | 1992-05-06 | 15KB | 366 lines

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METRO: INSTRUCTIONS
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     METRO is copyright (C) 1988 by Mark A. Thomas and David P. Townsend. It
was first published in the March 1989 issue of JUMPDISK (TM), the original
disk magazine for the Amiga. METRO is distributed as shareware. If you use
and like the game please send donations ($10 suggested) to:

Mark A. Thomas and David P. Townsend
10017 Renfrew Rd.
Silver Spring, MD 20901

     For a donation of $20 or more, the authors promise to send you a disk
with complete source code, and other material of interest.

INTRODUCTION

     In METRO, you play the role of a city planner. Using limited funds, you
must construct a mass-transit subway system capable of meeting the needs of
your city. Build wisely and your system will be a success, but poor planning
will lead to disaster and financial ruin.

WHAT YOU NEED TO PLAY

     METRO requires an Amiga 500/1000/2000 with at least 512K memory, and
Kickstart/Workbench 1.2 or later.

HOW TO START THE GAME

     METRO has a custom font which must be installed on your Workbench disk.
This font installation procedure need only be done once.

     To install the font, type the following commands at the CLI
(assuming you have un-ZOOed all the metro files):

Copy anthracite.font FONTS:
makedir FONTS:anthracite
copy 7 FONTS:anthracite

This will copy the metro 7 point font into your current FONTS: directory.

     Double-click on the METRO icon. When the title sequence is complete,
you can click either mouse button to begin play.

THE MAIN DISPLAY

Districts
     The city is divided into 79 "districts" shown as squares on the left
side of the screen. Each district is rated for the following
characteristics: population, employment, jobs, roads, prosperity, parking,
riders and busing. These characteristics will vary from game to game and
will change slightly during the game to represent demographic shifts. They
are fully explained below, under the "Info" menu.

View/Estimate/Build Gadgets

     These gadgets are located on the upper right of the screen. Only one of
these gadgets can be activated at any time. They determine what happens when
you click the left mouse button on a district.

     -- The View gadget (Eye) shows the characteristics of the current
district at the bottom of the screen.

     -- The Estimate gadget (Dollar Bill) shows the estimate cost of
building a train line segment between two districts. Click on one district,
then on an adjacent district, and the cost of joining the two districts will
be shown in a window. Each estimate costs a small amount of money.

     -- The Build gadget (Bulldozer) actually builds a train line segment
between two districts. As with the Estimate gadget, you must click on two
adjacent districts to build the line.

Train Color Gadgets

     These are located beneath the View/Estimate/Build gadgets. They
determine the color of the line segment that you are estimating or building.
Only one of these gadgets may be selected at a time.

Color Scale

     The Color Scale is located beneath the Train Color gadgets and is used
in conjunction with the items in the Info Menu (see below) to show a single
characteristic of all the districts in the city at once.

Budget

     Your budget is located at the bottom right of the screen. Your money
will diminish as you get building estimates, construct train lines and buy
trains. It will grow (maybe!) when you are finished with your turn and the
computer calculates the number of people who ride your system.

Menus

     The Game Menu contains various game-related functions:

     -- Choose "End Turn" when you are finished for the turn. The computer
will calculate the number of riders on your system, show any events that
happen and go on to the next turn.

     -- Choose "New Game" to start over again.

     -- Choose "Quit Game" to leave METRO and return to the Workbench.

     -- Choose "About" to see some information about METRO.

     The Info Menu contains informational items you must consult to do well
     in METRO:

     -- Choose "Population" to see the total number of people in each
district. The more people there are in a district, the more riders you will
have on any lines running into or through the district.

     -- Choose "Jobs" to see the number of jobs available in each district.
The more jobs there are in districts served by your Metro lines, the more
people will ride your system.

     -- Choose "Employment" to see the employment rate for each district.
The higher the employment rate, the more riders you will have.

     -- Choose "Prosperity" to see the average per-capita income of each
district. The closer a district is to median income, the more riders from
the district you will get. Prosperity also affects property costs in the
district; parking and building costs will tend to be higher in districts
with high prosperity.

     -- Choose "Roads" to see the city's road net. Each district is assigned
a percentage value. Higher values mean the district's roads are in good
shape and adequate to meet the district's traffic needs. So your Metro lines
won't do so well in those districts.

     -- Choose "Busing" to see Bus Service availability in each district.
You can start busing service by using the Action Menu (see below). Buses can
carry people to neighboring districts, increasing ridership on train lines
in those districts.

     -- Choose "Riders" to see how many people rode your train system from
each district in the last turn.

     -- Choose "Events" to run through the events that happened last turn.

     -- Choose one of the "History" graphs to see how you are doing. They
show how many people are riding your trains from the city, and how many
people from districts that have train lines through them are taking
advantage of your service.

ACTION MENU

     The Action Menu contains various items on which you can spend money to
     improve the profitability and size of your system:

     -- Choose "Trainyards" to access the trainyards display. See "The
Trainyards Display" below for further instructions.

     -- Choose "Busing" to add busing to the current district.

     -- Choose "Parking" to add parking spaces to the current district.
Sub-items allow you to choose five preset amounts of parking, or choose "Buy
Spaces" to bring up a requester, allowing you to buy what you need. Without
sufficient parking spaces, people will not ride your system.

     -- Choose "Advertising" to buy advertising (commercials, billboards,
etc.) to help influence people to ride. Advertising is preset to $500,000
per turn at the beginning of the game. You can adjust this, of course.

THE TRAINYARDS DISPLAY

     The Trainyards window is where you can buy trains, allocate them to
your lines, set fares, and budget money for maintenance. Your budget is
displayed in the upper right corner of the screen. If you click and hold the
left mouse button on any of the gadgets in Trainyards, it will repeat the
action and save wear and tear on your mouse and your finger.

Lines

     The large colored bars show important information about that color
train line: the number of trains running on the line, the number of segments
in the line, and the number of people who rode that line last turn. Use the
up and down arrow gadgets to transfer trains between the Reserve (see below)
and your lines.

Reserve

     The train Reserve is shown in the lower left corner of the screen.
Click in the Reserve box to buy new trains for the reserve. You should
always try to have some backup trains to cover wear and tear during the
course of a turn.

Fares

     The "Fare Cost" box shows the average fare for a person using your
Metro system. Use the up and down arrow gadgets to raise and lower the fare.

Maintenance

     This area is for the amount of money you wish to spend per segment of
your train system for upkeep, cleaning, maintenance and the like. Use the up
and down arrow gadgets to raise or lower this amount. People are much more
likely to want to ride clean trains, but maintenance can really eat into
your budget.

Leaving the Trainyards

     You can click either the "CANCEL" or "OK" gadgets to return to the main
screen. "OK" ratifies any changes you made in the Trainyards window, while
"CANCEL" nullifies and changes that you made.

HOW TO PLAY A TURN (THE EASY RULES)

     This section contains an outline of what happens each turn, together
with some pointers on playing the game well. See the next section for a more
detailed look at the evaluation algorithm used to determine how many riders
will use your system.

     First, survey the city. Choose the items from the "Info" menu to get an
overall feel for where things are. Remember, to get the most income, you
need to connect highly populated areas to areas with many jobs. Don't
compete with the highways, and remember that prosperous areas are always
expensive to develop. Too, people who don't have jobs won't find your train
system as useful as people who have to commute every day.

     Find a couple likely-looking districts, click on the "Build" gadget,
and then two districts to build a line. Remember, you can always use the
"Estimate" gadget to find out ahead of time how much a line will cost. Your
train lines are shown as colored lines on the screen, joined by square
stations. If two different colored lines meet, a Metro Center will be
constructed automatically for you, allowing transfers from one line to the
other.

     From the "Actions" menu, allocate money for parking and busing as
desired. People won't use your system if it's not convenient. They also
won't use it if they don't know about it, so you may want to set aside some
money for advertising. Select "Trainyards," click on the train gadget to buy
some trains, and allocate some trains to your new line. It's a good idea to
have backups, but the more trains you have per segment of line, the more
riders you can accommodate. Set fares as high as your dare and maintenance
spending as low as you dare. You will definitely want to charge and spend
more than the minimum. Click "OK".

     Take a deep breath and choose "End Turn" from the "Game" menu. The
computer will determine how many riders you attracted. The government will
subsidize you. Random events may happen. You may have problem areas in your
system reported to you.

     Your new budget will be displayed in the lower right hand corner. How
did you do?

HOW TO PLAY A TURN (THE HARD RULES)

     This section goes into more detail about the game rules and the
evaluation algorithm. It's not necessary to read this section, but you'll
probably score better if you do.

Estimating Line Costs

     Each segment of a line costs a certain base amount of money. Building
stations and/or Metro Centers will increase the estimated cost. Metro
Centers are much more expensive than ordinary stations. The total base cost
is then modified by the prosperity of the target districts to arrive at a
total cost.

Building Lines

     Train line segments can join any adjacent districts not already
connected. This rule should be understood throughout the rest of this
section.

     You are always considered to be working with the currently selected
Train Color gadget's line. The following rules summarize the only legal
placement for a new segment of the current line:

     -- If no segments exist, you can build that line between any districts.

     -- If the line already has at least one segment, then you can only
extend the ends of the line.

     -- Lines cannot cross themselves. I.e. you can't make a figure '6'.
Different colored lines are allowed to cross, in which case a Metro Center
is automatically constructed.

     -- You can join the ends of a line to form a loop, but you cannot build
any more on that line, since there are no ends to extend.

     -- Any district that has a line segment must have a station, unless it
has or will have a Metro Center. These will be constructed automatically for
you.

     -- Stations and Metro Centers are always accounted for in the estimate
and building costs for a line segment.

The Evaluation Algorithm

     This section provides a generalized description of how the total number
of riders is computed.

     First, total (citywide) jobs are compared with the job total in
districts served by your system. The greater the percentage, the more riders
you will attract. You will only get riders from districts with train lines
or busing service.

     This percentage is used in conjunction with the employment and
population ratings of each district to determine the base number of riders
for each district. You will get the most riders by constructing lines
through both high-population and high-jobs areas. Separate lines do not
"help" one another unless they are joined by one or more Metro Centers.

     The base number is then modified by the prosperity of the district.
Really rich people won't use the Metro, and really poor people won't be able
to afford it, unless your fare is low . . .

     Parking is looked at next. Populous areas that might produce a lot of
riders are penalized if enough parking is not available.

     Roads are then examined. The better the roads in the districts you are
serving, the fewer the people who will see the advantages of paying money to
ride your train system.

     Following roads is busing. Districts with busing but no lines can
"export" riders to adjacent districts with lines.

     Next, the remaining riders are compared with the capacity of the line.
Too few trains on a line will result in crowded conditions, discouraging
people from riding.

     The number of riders still with you is adjusted by the fares you are
charging. High fares will earn you the most money, of course, but may turn
away those that might otherwise ride your system. On the other hand, a fare
that's too low might mean that you'll lose money.

     Maintenance is evaluated next. Well-kept, clean trains will attract
some riders who might otherwise be disinterested, while poorly maintained
trains will certainly scare away some riders.

     The last factor affecting your riders is advertising. Since this
affects the entire city, it can raise overall riding levels.

     Once the total number of riders is determined, the computer takes your
fare and computes your new budget. To this is added the year subsidy from
the city government, and then maintenance costs are subtracted. The final
figure is the money that you have available to spend next turn.

     The money budgeted to you by the government is reported to you via a
requester. There will possibly be other events as well: strikes, fires, new
construction and the like. If you are doing particularly well or having
difficulties, that may show up too! You can always review last turn's events
by the "Info" menu's "Review Events" item.

HOW TO END THE GAME

     The are four ways to end the game:

     -- Choose the "Quit Game" item from the "Game" menu. Quitters never
win.

     -- Choose the "New Game" item from the "Game" menu. Ditto, but at least
you can try again.

     -- Going bankrupt. The computer will put you out of your misery if your
treasury goes below zero.

     -- Time Limit. If you make it for 15 turns without going bankrupt, the
computer will show you how well you did and give you a rating.

HAVE FUN!