Posts by Ghoti

In game payment is a difficult issue. The game has to generate income to survive and the income model used by RN has been tried and tested for many years (oh yes Ben Cousins, I remember your talks well).

Many people will pay small sums e.g to keep plus accounts active, and I would be surprised if this causes much concern. Things become more problematic when the pay advantage becomes so significant that "standard players" feel completely left behind, as is the case here.

In shooter games, skilled or experienced players have a chance of competing against the pay to play fraternity; but in a long term strategy game like this, skill and experience have limited impact against a super spender with a massive advantage.

Having the ability to build an era 6 station by the middle of era 2 (or sooner) is an outrageous advantage. There is an easy fix...RN could decide to nerf the cash benefits in the interests of fair(ish) play, but I guess this depends on the company's priorities.

Not a fun way to play an EG but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a roll back and re-start.

But with such terrible covid news in the UK yesterday, my worries are focussed elsewhere. RN is an escape from everything that is happening right now, so I'll keep playing.

Do cakes and trains go together? Of course... a long train journey without cake is miserable

Happy Birthday RN

Dear Alexander,

What a wonderful trip you have planned. I hear the passenger trains travelling this route are amazing! Remember to take a face covering with you - many countries require that if you are travelling by train these days. If you wish to visit all of these cities, then I would suggest the following route:

St Petersburg > Helsinki > Stockholm > Oslo > London > Amsterdam > Cologne > Paris > Bordeaux > Zurich > Milan > Marseille > Barcelona > Rome > Sofia > Athens > Budapest > Vienna > Munich > Prague > Warsaw > Berlin > Hamburg > Gdansk > St Petersburg.

Of course, the joy of this route is that one could start from any point. I would love to visit these cities too, so let me know how the trip goes and I might try it for myself!

Have a great time and don't forget to post some pics of your trip,

Best wishes,

Ghoti

(COM202 Loch Ness)

I join the band of unhappy travellers. I like to maintain my privacy setting on my computer - its part of maintaining good data security. If we can only watch videos if we allow cookies, then that is not ok. Gaining a reward from switching on in game advertising is one thing. But it is not acceptable to expect us to open our security settings to allow those companies data on our location etc.

That's the videos out for me! Poor show RN.

Dear Adam and RN team - thank you for the lovely parcel that arrived today

Oh my, I did so badly at that. All I could see was the clock ticking and my mind went into a total fuzz!

I love understanding the origin of words. The English language has been influenced by many other languages and this has resulted in some very bizarre and random spelling rules. "Ghoti" is a word that was made up (not by me!) to make fun of English spelling. It is pronounced "fish" .

Gh is pronounced F as in enouGH

o is pronounced I as in wOmen

ti is pronounced SH as in staTIon

I would have gone for ghoughpteighbteau (potato) but it's a bit tricky to spell!

Oh wow - this was such fun. Except for challenge 5 which was a total pig!!! Are you going to give us the actual answers? I'd love to know whether I was on the right track!!!

Quote from Ghoti

Surely the trains here never break down!

So (and excuse me chatting to you - but hey - the life of a community manager is never easy!) there are a few issues here.

1) A broken down train is of no use to the company. It is going to have to be repaired or replaced at some point, otherwise this is a capital investment down the drain

2) The company needs to keep the passengers happy, 'so they use the company for future travel.

3) And then there is the maths.....

The Jupiter, travelling at an average of 300 km/hr will travel the 620km distance in 2 hours and 4 mins, arriving at 8:34 pm

Option 1 - Emergency fix - 4 hour delay. Train will arrive at 00:34. Too late for connection. Cost = $30,000 in compensation and the passengers will be unhappy. And, the train will need a more durable fix. Bad choice

Option 2 - Complete cancellation. Unhappy passengers. Train still needs fixing. Reimbursement costs of $16,000. Bad choice

Option 3 - Exchange motor - 90 minute delay. Train will arrive at 10:04pm. Passengers get their connection. Train is fixed. Cost $12,000. Good choice. Passengers will need to hang around for an hour and a half so consider throwing in tea and biscuits to keep them happy - go on - you know us passengers are worth it!

Option 4 - Napping Neptune. Speed is 40% of the Jupiter. Speed is 120 km/hr. It will take 5 hours 10 mins to travel 620 km. Passengers will make their connection in time, but it will be a tight run thing. And they will spend over 5 hours on the train. That's a looooong time. Travelling at this time of the evening with a late arrival will leave no time for dinner at the other end - so I hope there is food on the train. And, the Jupiter still needs fixing. Not a good choice.

Options 1 and 2 are not appropriate.

Option 3 is the one to go for

But, if it is a summer evening with a journey through beautiful country side and if there is a dinning car on the Neptune, some passengers may like the sound of option 4.

So - the company should take option 3, but if circumstances are favourable, the company could also advise passengers that they have the choice of taking the Neptune instead. You never know, the company may make a killing with cash purchases in the dinning car!!!!

Champagne and canapes anyone?

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This assumes, of course, that both trains can run together...!!!

Surely the trains here never break down!

So (and excuse me chatting to you - but hey - the life of a community manager is never easy!) there are a few issues here.

1) A broken down train is of no use to the company. It is going to have to be repaired or replaced at some point, otherwise this is a capital investment down the drain

2) The company needs to keep the passengers happy, 'so they use the company for future travel.

3) And then there is the maths.....

The Jupiter, travelling at an average of 300 km/hr will travel the 620km distance in 2 hours and 4 mins, arriving at 8:34 pm

Option 1 - Emergency fix - 4 hour delay. Train will arrive at 00:34. Too late for connection. Cost = $30,000 in compensation and the passengers will be unhappy. And, the train will need a more durable fix. Bad choice

Option 2 - Complete cancellation. Unhappy passengers. Train still needs fixing. Reimbursement costs of $16,000. Bad choice

Option 3 - Exchange motor - 90 minute delay. Train will arrive at 10:04pm. Passengers get their connection. Train is fixed. Cost $12,000. Good choice. Passengers will need to hang around for an hour and a half so consider throwing in tea and biscuits to keep them happy - go on - you know us passengers are worth it!

Option 4 - Napping Neptune. Speed is 40% of the Jupiter. Speed is 120 km/hr. It will take 5 hours 10 mins to travel 620 km. Passengers will make their connection in time, but it will be a tight run thing. And they will spend over 5 hours on the train. That's a looooong time. Travelling at this time of the evening with a late arrival will leave no time for dinner at the other end - so I hope there is food on the train. And, the Jupiter still needs fixing. Not a good choice.

Options 1 and 2 are not appropriate.

Option 3 is the one to go for

But, if it is a summer evening with a journey through beautiful country side and if there is a dinning car on the Neptune, some passengers may like the sound of option 4.

So - the company should take option 3, but if circumstances are favourable, the company could also advise passengers that they have the choice of taking the Neptune instead. You never know, the company may make a killing with cash purchases in the dinning car!!!!

Champagne and canapes anyone?

Use a decision matrix

Relative importance:

Punctuality is least important score 1

Price is twice as important as punctuality score 2

Quality is twice as important as price score 4

Rate each company from 1 – 3 in each category then multiply rating score by importance factor

Outcome: I would recommend Swiss Metal as the decision matrix, based on the boss’s priorities, indicates that that this best meets the company’s needs.

Besides which, as a lover or cheese and chocolate, a quick visit to Switzerland (by train of course) to have a proper assessment of the product, would be very welcome!

Oh my... I actually went to the kitchen and checked that a banana floated! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME!!!!!!

I didn't do physics or mechanics ever, so this answer is the result of personal investigation (see above) and an exploration of google.

Q1) 2 (couldn't track this answer down - going with common sense)

Q2) 4 (my banana floated - who'd have thought it!)

Q3) 1 (gotta love boats)

Q4) 2 (youtube vid on pendulum - learned about potential and kinetic energy - wow!)

Q5) 1 (knew my beach holidays would come in useful)

Q6) 3 (I now have finger marks on my computer screen... thanks :/)

Q7) 4 (you tube and pivots and balances... cool)

Q8) 4 (pullies! So by the look of things you have 3 single fixed pullies - which won't do anything sensible. I'm assuming that you are not using elastic as your connecting material, otherwise it won't move at all!!!)

Q9) 1 (youtube again - says acceleration isn't affected by mass - go blame them if this is wrong!)

Q10) 1(Fluid dynamics??? What even is this stuff - I don't follow this at all, but it looks like the pressure of water stays the same… huh? Maybe?

I am now late for the dentist.....

I haven't done much on forums. I have to say that I found the titles confusing when I first visited - especially when trying to work out Travian team vs "forumers" so having some info for new visitors here would be good.

Having too many levels of titles would make things more confusing. So (sorry, Hear Me Roar) I'm not keen on multiple levels of each title.

I like the idea of points being awarded on quality rather than quantity of posts.

Train 1 travelling 160 km/hr = 80 km in 30 mins

Train 2 travelling 120 km/hr = 60 km in 30 mins

In 30 mins the trains will have travelled 140m between them

In 30 mins the trains will crash

Man has to travel 6,300m to reach the switch. 6,300m = 6.3 Km

He runs at 14 km/hr, so he can travel 7km in 30 mins

He will reach the switch in time, providing he is a) reasonably fit, b) doesn’t need to stop to open doors, cross roads etc

And this doesn’t explain why he has to run nearly 4 miles to hit a switch! Does rail safety mean nothing to the designers of this railway? And why does the supervisor not have a phone???? Lets hope that Adam is employed to review the Health and Safety policies of this Railway!

Quote from Ghoti

Stupid question - don't judge me! I'd like to play, just to be part of it. But I work (as do many) and have limited play time and. So a) is it even worth me signing up and b) am I going to drag my friends down with me?

And the answer,,,, yes - it was a stupid question,,,, and no - not worth it...one needs time or cash or preferably both. But hey - we learn we grow

Quote from Samisu

Hi Ghoti, we had an entry fee server before Masters 2. With 2k purchased Gold, you would get 20k Gold during the round and that was it. Did you have a chance to try it out?

Here's a blog post of the special server: Rail Nation Birthday Festival - Free browser-based online strategy game - Rail Nation

Did it work well from RN's point of view?

So.... any chance of a "gold free" or "gold limited" masters qualification server next time you run a challenge like this? Then we could see who the real star players are? Or is there a reason why this isn't possible?

Please don't get me wrong - I don't have an issue with the idea of purchasing gold. I understand the business model of in game purchases enabling "free to play" games to get the technical and player support that makes a game worth playing, and I happily purchase gold myself (I find playing without a plus account annoying!); but in the context of a skill based challenge, high gold expenditure makes a big difference to peoples' potential result.

That would push the "pay to win" aspect of the game even further in the direction of those with credit cards...

Stupid question - don't judge me! I'd like to play, just to be part of it. But I work (as do many) and have limited play time and. So a) is it even worth me signing up and b) am I going to drag my friends down with me?