@Ted S posted:In my board game, the only record of passenger deliveries is the stack of dollars awarded. Segments eligible for bonus are randomly determined by drawn cards and marked by a magnetic disc. When someone passes over the segment, they claim the disc and flip over another card to identify the next bonus segment. The discs are tallied up at the end of the game. So there's not a "scoreboard"--during the game, it's not readily apparent who's winning.
My vision is that the O gauge version of the game would be more about cooperation than competition. Everyone works as part of a "crew." How many points can that crew score in 45 minutes, either by completing deliveries, or earning bonuses for track segments and scenario cards?
I haven't discussed scenarios in this thread, because their completion probably isn't something that could be verified by LCS. Among other things, the scenarios might refer to specific equipment. They could be incorporated dynamically through a "deck-building" process. Example: CSX is famous for its Juice train running from Florida to the northeast. If you come to visit and bring a CSX diesel, we shuffle a few cards into the deck that award extra points for pulling an orange juice reefer with a CSX locomotive. The potential scenarios are only limited by your imagination. They can be realistic, or completely fanciful, like "every car in your freight train must have the color blue." This would depend on the age and background of the crew.
In any case, these game mechanisms ascribe purpose to building trains and running them. They encourage variety in terms of the make-up of trains, and which tracks they run on. During an operating session, even a passive observer would get to see many different trains doing different things.
On the subject of cooperation. We could have a pass the baton mode. Where each player (assigned to an engine ID) must bring the baton car (with an LCS IR Transmitter on board) must be brought on a trip by all players working together.
I would say let's have co-op mode be an option based on the players. I personally want to be able to compete with my friend, but that's also how so many PC games involving rail operations were set up. Even monopoly is about making the most at the end of the day. It adds a driving motivation. The trick with co-op is making the right reward system. We could call co-op, crew mode, but how the rest of the game mechanics would work seem to get a little more murky now.
Scenarios could be implemented if I could simplify the DIY add-on sensor transmitter to maybe the size of an AirTag. Making them into small wireless charged devices that have a battery inside the small housing. This could then be hot glued to any number of freight cars to then create sorting puzzles and everything you just mentioned.
