Trukz, the trucking sim

[molson]

Hmmm. Hopefully there's more to this game then, "Find the best route Monday morning, do that over and over again, repeat on Thursday".

I guess the strategy kicks in if you happen to be far away from the "best route".

[Neon_Chaos]

Just joined. Is there an FOFC company right now?

[Brillig]

Not yet, no one has the money ($7,000) or miles (10,000) yet.

[Brillig]

Originally Posted by molson

Hmmm. Hopefully there's more to this game then, "Find the best route Monday morning, do that over and over again, repeat on Thursday".

I guess the strategy kicks in if you happen to be far away from the "best route".

They need to crank down the bonuses for 'most-wanted' cargo. Right now it's the #1, #2 and #3 most important thing in determining the best route.

Actually, what would be best is if the need changed dynamically based on how much cargo was actually delivered to the city. That'd be cool.

[Alan T]

FM, I took your list from post 1 and added all of the URL links to make it easier to check people's profiles.

list of FOFCers known as drivers in the game (67 players):
Ageofquarrel
Alan T
Ardent Enthusiast
Axxon
azjoe02
Big Tuna (MrBigglesworth)
BrianD
Buster Hardiman (JetsIn06)
Cartman
Castlerock
Clark
Coder
ColoradoGKB (gkb)
DanGarion
dansik (illinifan999)
David Gonzalez (kingfc22)
Detox
DiamondCutter (JonInMiddleGA)
DoucheDaddy (jackyl)
Fast Eddie (Brillig)
FBPro
Frog Man
Gold Golden (gold101)
Hawk4669
Heybrad
HoosierDude
I. J. Reilly
Izulde
Jaygr
Jeebie Dee (JeeberD)
JeffNights
Karlifornia
KevinD (Celeval)
Kildar (daedalus)
Kyle Wesley (MrBug708)
Lathum
Leadfoot5 (PadresFan104)
Mike Stone (condors)
MikeVic
Molson
Nathan Hicks (GoSeahawks)
NoMyths
NTN Deacon
Omnivore (Dark Cloud)
Ozias
path12
Phototropic
Pumpy Tudors
Pwhite (TCY Junkie)
Radii
Ragone
RainRaven
Router Help
RP Shedson (RPI-Fan)
RushBronco (Crim)
Ryno104 (Ryno)
Scoobz
Shkspr
SirFozzie
Sleepy Jesus (Julio Riddols)
SnDvls
sooner333
Tarcone
TazFTW
Thomkal
TLK14 (TheLionKing)
Vexroid (vex)

[Neon_Chaos]

Add me up.

Neon Chaos

[Castlerock]

Originally Posted by Crim

Also, I haven't yet figured out how to "save" driver names in-game. Little help over here?

When viewing a driver, there is a 'save' icon on the top line (after the ID).

[Castlerock]

Pulled into Richmond last night. Made a short run to Southport this morning. Heading to Jacksonville as soon as I am rested.

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by Brillig

They need to crank down the bonuses for 'most-wanted' cargo. Right now it's the #1, #2 and #3 most important thing in determining the best route.

Actually, what would be best is if the need changed dynamically based on how much cargo was actually delivered to the city. That'd be cool.

This is exactly what I was thinking. With this sort of system, the first few people to make the run would be rewarded, but slowly the rewards would go away. The game would seem less interesting if everybody is making the same run.

[molson]

Originally Posted by Brillig

They need to crank down the bonuses for 'most-wanted' cargo. Right now it's the #1, #2 and #3 most important thing in determining the best route.

Actually, what would be best is if the need changed dynamically based on how much cargo was actually delivered to the city. That'd be cool.

Agreed.

I also assumed, first time through (for some reason), that you didn't know exactly how much you'd make on a route until you were actually in the city, and calculating different routes from that city. I didn't realize that you could just go to the stats screen and immediately know how much every possible route in the game would generate. Kind of a downer.

[Brillig]

Another idea I proposed on the Suggestion board was that you could only get each level ($100, 200, 300, 400, 500) of bonus once per cargo period. That'd also work.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Alan T

FM, I took your list from post 1 and added all of the URL links to make it easier to check people's profiles.

list of FOFCers known as drivers in the game (67 players):
Ageofquarrel
Alan T
Ardent Enthusiast
Axxon
azjoe02
Big Tuna (MrBigglesworth)
BrianD
Buster Hardiman (JetsIn06)
Cartman
Castlerock
Clark
Coder
ColoradoGKB (gkb)
DanGarion
dansik (illinifan999)
David Gonzalez (kingfc22)
Detox
DiamondCutter (JonInMiddleGA)
DoucheDaddy (jackyl)
Fast Eddie (Brillig)
FBPro
Frog Man
Gold Golden (gold101)
Hawk4669
Heybrad
HoosierDude
I. J. Reilly
Izulde
Jaygr
Jeebie Dee (JeeberD)
JeffNights
Karlifornia
KevinD (Celeval)
Kildar (daedalus)
Kyle Wesley (MrBug708)
Lathum
Leadfoot5 (PadresFan104)
Mike Stone (condors)
MikeVic
Molson
Nathan Hicks (GoSeahawks)
NoMyths
NTN Deacon
Omnivore (Dark Cloud)
Ozias
path12
Phototropic
Pumpy Tudors
Pwhite (TCY Junkie)
Radii
Ragone
RainRaven
Router Help
RP Shedson (RPI-Fan)
RushBronco (Crim)
Ryno104 (Ryno)
Scoobz
Shkspr
SirFozzie
Sleepy Jesus (Julio Riddols)
SnDvls
sooner333
Tarcone
TazFTW
Thomkal
TLK14 (TheLionKing)
Vexroid (vex)

wow, great work! I've updated my list in the first post with this version and will do it that way from now on.

FM

[tarcone]

Dammit. decided to take an overload (46k) of veggies to NYC. To earn $511 for the overload, I have received 2 $100 tickets. Sigh.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Dammit. decided to take an overload (46k) of veggies to NYC. To earn $511 for the overload, I have received 2 $100 tickets. Sigh.

that $511, is that the extra you are earning for being 6k over the 40k limit, or the total payout of that route?

Also, where did you start from?

FM

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by Brillig

Another idea I proposed on the Suggestion board was that you could only get each level ($100, 200, 300, 400, 500) of bonus once per cargo period. That'd also work.

I'd also like to see a number of routes that seriously lose money. Going back and forth from the top cargo to the nearest city is the easy call right now. If going straight back to the top cargo city lost money, people would have to develop better circular routes.

[path12]

Originally Posted by MrBigglesworth

It might not be a bad idea for FOF to be a regional business right away. In fact, looking at the terminals of the bigger companies, if we concentrated in the SW we could clean up at a time like this, with the biggest two resources being down there. I also haven't run into much bad weather down south here either.

Where do we see the biggest resources? I'm just out of Seattle to Las Vegas with 40,000 lbs of oil. Was going to pick up clothing there and take to Nebraska, then pick up some nuc waste there and take back to Yucca Mtn.

I find myself just clicking on random cities to see what they need though, so if there's an easier way that'd be cool.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Brillig

Actually, what would be best is if the need changed dynamically based on how much cargo was actually delivered to the city. That'd be cool.

That same thought crossed my mind last night as well.

Another "it'd be cool if" that comes to mind (although maybe it's in the game & I dimly just haven't spotted it) is that if it would tell you approximately where you are at the end of a trip leg. For example, I know right now that I've covered about 800 of the 1100 miles between Jacksonville & Corpus Christi, but I don't know if that puts me in Texas or Louisiana or where.

[Brillig]

Originally Posted by path12

Where do we see the biggest resources? I'm just out of Seattle to Las Vegas with 40,000 lbs of oil. Was going to pick up clothing there and take to Nebraska, then pick up some nuc waste there and take back to Yucca Mtn.

I find myself just clicking on random cities to see what they need though, so if there's an easier way that'd be cool.

You can't carry nuclear waste until you have a driver rating of 50.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by path12

Where do we see the biggest resources? I'm just out of Seattle to Las Vegas with 40,000 lbs of oil. Was going to pick up clothing there and take to Nebraska, then pick up some nuc waste there and take back to Yucca Mtn.

I find myself just clicking on random cities to see what they need though, so if there's an easier way that'd be cool.

go to games statistics (last link on the left side pannel) and there you'll find cargo and city statistics.

FM

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by path12

I find myself just clicking on random cities to see what they need though, so if there's an easier way that'd be cool.

http://www.trukz.com/stats_cargos.asp

And other stuff at the main stats page
http://www.trukz.com/stats.asp

[MikeVic]

So does anyone know if having negative cash on hand is bad? Seems like you don't get penalized. I have all my cash in the bank, and a negative balance on-hand.

I recall someone in this thread making that observation as well, but don't think anyone else commented on it.

[Celeval]

You can pull your money from the bank at any time to cover the negative balance, so I'm not sure how much it matters.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by MikeVic

So does anyone know if having negative cash on hand is bad? Seems like you don't get penalized. I have all my cash in the bank, and a negative balance on-hand.

I recall someone in this thread making that observation as well, but don't think anyone else commented on it.

I made that comment earlier, that I had put all of my money in the bank to collect interest before midnight last night and then I did my refueling and truck repairs with all of the money in the bank. Instead of it pulling it from the money in bank, it made me go negative cash on hand. I still got interest on the money in the bank as well. My guess is when I deliver my next load, that will take care of the negative cash on hand balance. I have yet to see a penalty for having negative cash on hand and a large amount in the bank

[Crim]

Originally Posted by Alan T

I made that comment earlier, that I had put all of my money in the bank to collect interest before midnight last night and then I did my refueling and truck repairs with all of the money in the bank. Instead of it pulling it from the money in bank, it made me go negative cash on hand. I still got interest on the money in the bank as well. My guess is when I deliver my next load, that will take care of the negative cash on hand balance. I have yet to see a penalty for having negative cash on hand and a large amount in the bank

same here

[path12]

Originally Posted by Brillig

You can't carry nuclear waste until you have a driver rating of 50.

Oops. There goes that plan.

Also thanks for the links FM and JiMG.

[dervack]

I'm also in the game as Michael Dervack and because of my work schedule getting changed last minute, will miss my first cargo delivery date. Doh

[heybrad]

Originally Posted by MikeVic

So does anyone know if having negative cash on hand is bad? Seems like you don't get penalized. I have all my cash in the bank, and a negative balance on-hand.

Kind of sucks knowing that negative cash has no penalty at all. I know it's my own stupidity, but when starting the game I went with the cheapest truck thinking I'd need some pocket money. I'll be purchasing a new truck once I finish my current route and I'll be pumping every dime I have into it.

[Wolfpack]

Though I'm not playing, I do find it a touch odd that the game's designer opted for Southport instead of Wilmington. Wilmington (or Morehead City, even) have major deepwater ports while Southport isn't even really a port at all and is probably the smallest town in the game, if I had to guess. Certainly strange that it's a place to go and someplace like Boston or Chicago is not.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by dervack

I'm also in the game as Michael Dervack and because of my work schedule getting changed last minute, will miss my first cargo delivery date. Doh

try switching your gameplay to casual. That way you should have 30 days to accomplish delivery, but will receive 20% less in fee. Maybe it's better to pay the $50 penalty though...

FM

[Qwikshot]

Qwikshot is working on the convoy...

[dervack]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

try switching your gameplay to casual. That way you should have 30 days to accomplish delivery, but will receive 20% less in fee. Maybe it's better to pay the $50 penalty though...

FM

Oh yeah, the $50 penalty isn't going to kill me, I'll be taking hauls when I got time to spare, it's just that I thought I did this weekend, when I don't now. I'll still make some cash from this one, I think.

[Castlerock]

Originally Posted by heybrad

Kind of sucks knowing that negative cash has no penalty at all. I know it's my own stupidity, but when starting the game I went with the cheapest truck thinking I'd need some pocket money. I'll be purchasing a new truck once I finish my current route and I'll be pumping every dime I have into it.

Yea. I bought the most expensive truck (almost no money left) and picked a route that I could finish without re-fueling. Coasted into town on fumes while passing cheap fuel on the way. Then paid close to $3 a gallon. :-(

[BrianD]

Has anybody been having trouble with money in this game? It seems like there isn't much fight to make money and the main competition is to see who can make the most money the fastest. Are there any actual risks anywhere?

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by BrianD

Has anybody been having trouble with money in this game? It seems like there isn't much fight to make money and the main competition is to see who can make the most money the fastest. Are there any actual risks anywhere?

From what I have seen, the only times I have had to take risks is following unlucky spells. Ie: my truck breaks down, and suddenly I'm not looking like I will make my deadline. Or weather sets in, or such. Once that happens suddenly you have to decide if you want to just be late and take a penalty or push it and risk a crash or ticket.

Otherwise, as long as you plan accordingly, it seems like you never really have risks, and it is just a case of planning the best routes to make money faster than someone else.

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by Alan T

From what I have seen, the only times I have had to take risks is following unlucky spells. Ie: my truck breaks down, and suddenly I'm not looking like I will make my deadline. Or weather sets in, or such. Once that happens suddenly you have to decide if you want to just be late and take a penalty or push it and risk a crash or ticket.

Otherwise, as long as you plan accordingly, it seems like you never really have risks, and it is just a case of planning the best routes to make money faster than someone else.

Along those lines, is there any reason to not take a full $1000 loan to buy a bigger truck than you could normally afford? If interest is 2%/week, that isn't so bad. Making $1020 should take a day or two.

[MikeVic]

Oh what the hell. I was selecting a new route today, and when I get to the dashboard, it says I have a ticket from my last destination last night! I was driving with a fatigue of 13 (trying to see how far I can go), and arrived at my destination with no messages of a ticket.

So now, I start my new route with 1 fatigue already.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by BrianD

Along those lines, is there any reason to not take a full $1000 loan to buy a bigger truck than you could normally afford? If interest is 2%/week, that isn't so bad. Making $1020 should take a day or two.

never thought of that and this got me thinking, and well, reading...

from the loans game guide:
http://z6.invisionfree.com/Trukz/index.php?showtopic=21

On your left navigation menu you have a link called Loans. This is the place to go if you need extra money for your driver. There you will see a link called Request New Loan which will take you to the Take Out A Loan screen. Here you see driver ID, current cash available, interest rate, and loan amount. As a new driver you can get a loan from $50.00 to $1000.00 (the loans are in increments of 50's). As your driver rating increases you can take out more money (Driver Rating * 100) up to a maximum of $5,000. A 2% weekly interest rate will be applied to the first loan you take out and the interest rate will increase by one point for every new loan you take out. Interest is calculated on Mondays at 12:00 AM. Once you take out a loan the following information will be displayed for each of your driver’s loans:

Loan Date: The date you took out the loan.
Loan Amount: How much you took out.
Interest: The weeklyinterest rate you will pay for the loan.
Paid: The total amount you have paid on the loan.
Owed: Shows how much money you owe on the loan.
Payments: Details if the loan is closed. If not a form will display to make payments your loan

They said you can take more than one loan, but the second will carry 3%, the third will be at 4%, and so on.

Someone said you could take up to three loans in that thread, although I'm not sure where that comes from...

FM

[Brillig]

Hmm, the Driver Rating thing doesn't seem to apply anymore - oh, and interest is applied immediately.

/sacrifices a $20 for the cause

[BrianD]

So since today is Monday, we could get a $3000 loan which would cost us $90. We then have almost the whole week to pay it off. I think I'm going shopping.

[MrBigglesworth]

Originally Posted by Brillig

Another idea I proposed on the Suggestion board was that you could only get each level ($100, 200, 300, 400, 500) of bonus once per cargo period. That'd also work.

I bet things will start moving towards having the top cargoes change every day or every other day (last week it was once a week, this week it is twice a week). That would take care of the problem as well. You wouldn't be able to do more than a route or two, and if you were on the other side of the country, it would take too long to get to the new best resource.

[MrBigglesworth]

Originally Posted by BrianD

So since today is Monday, we could get a $3000 loan which would cost us $90. We then have almost the whole week to pay it off. I think I'm going shopping.

I thought I read that you could only take out one loan a day...

[Brillig]

Yep, only one loan a day.

And if they go to changing cargos more often, then planning a route becomes progressively more worthless. At which point the game devolves to wandering about the country, getting paid random amounts.

[path12]

Originally Posted by Castlerock

Yea. I bought the most expensive truck (almost no money left) and picked a route that I could finish without re-fueling. Coasted into town on fumes while passing cheap fuel on the way. Then paid close to $3 a gallon. :-(

I coasted into town on my last trip also because I was already to 11 on my fatigue and only had 6 miles to go. Sucked because I had to pay a ticket for going over HOS and on top of that ran out of fuel and had a tow fee on top of refilling gas.

[JonInMiddleGA]

So, about the cost of fuel ...
-- is the price constantly changing or is it stable between updates?
-- on the same line, if they're stable between updates, should we start logging the prices on our routes somewhere?
-- is the price in towns consistently higher/lower or variable vs on the road between towns?

[MikeVic]

Originally Posted by path12

I coasted into town on my last trip also because I was already to 11 on my fatigue and only had 6 miles to go. Sucked because I had to pay a ticket for going over HOS and on top of that ran out of fuel and had a tow fee on top of refilling gas.

Yeah, I think there should be some kind of modifier based on how close you are. Unless there already is.

I'm guessing whether you're 6 miles or 30 miles from your destination on your last leg, the probability of getting a HOS ticket is the same. But in reality, if you're only 6 miles away you should be able to make it without a ticket, don't you think?

[Brillig]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

So, about the cost of fuel ...
-- is the price constantly changing or is it stable between updates?
-- on the same line, if they're stable between updates, should we start logging the prices on our routes somewhere?
-- is the price in towns consistently higher/lower or variable vs on the road between towns?

Someone else can correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like the price is always $2.50 in cities, and on the road a random price between $1.85 and $3.00.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Brillig

And if they go to changing cargos more often, then planning a route becomes progressively more worthless. At which point the game devolves to wandering about the country, getting paid random amounts.

yeah, and as I said on their forum, I like the "only get one bonus once per cargo period" thing because then you'd try to make a round trip kind of multi-staged route where you'd try to hit as many cargo bonus as you can before they change. Now if they change more often, say every day, you are only driving around and hoping one demanded cargo will be supplied from near where you are, only by luck...

FM

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by MrBigglesworth

I thought I read that you could only take out one loan a day...

That changes things quite a bit.

[Router Help]

How do you overhaul your truck? (as in repair) I can do normal repairs, but I can't find where the overhaul option is.

[MikeVic]

I want to play the game Cross Country Canada now...