New Wandernetz?

[1993matias]

Hello everyone,

Apologies for writing in English, but unfortunately my German is not sufficient.

Looking back at my time in BAHN, some of the most fun has been building Wandernetz-EN. Having a huge region always evolving was very interesting. Unfortunately, that WN seems to have been left alone for years now.
Which brings me to my question for you: Would anyone be interested in starting a new WN in the same style as WN-en?
Rather than everyone building everything together, in WN-en people got their own "country" where they could do whatever they wanted. WN-en was mostly based on the United Kingdom, but that was not a requirement. But English language was required (lucky me! )

What are your thoughts? I would be happy to start another multiplayer game and bring BAHN to life again!

[Dierk Nüchtern]

Hi Matias,

I think a new WN-E could be very interesting. We should talk about the details.

[1993matias]

It seems like there is some interest. Not impressive, but do you think it's good enough to start planning the beginning? On the facebook group there are two other people besides Dierk who have shown interest.

[Sascha Claus]

Glück auf,

the idea of a 2nd English Teamwork sounds good. I even have the 1st one still laying around in hibernation.

[1993matias]

Okay, sounds like we're a crowd! How do we start? How did EN-Teamwork 1 start?
To me it seems like a good model. Each player gets a "country" to do with as they please. This will most definitely lead to some very different railway operations, which only makes it more fun Spy on each other, learn new techniques, see how other people build their networks.

In order to keep it nice, I would like to suggest a few guidelines for this teamwork - of course, they are open for discussion.
Keep operations realistic
By realistic you could say that it should have a real life counterpart, either in service, prototype, or a proposal. Maglev network could have become reality, but high speed metro in a rural village not so much.

Maintain order
Avoid unnecessary dispatcher messages (the yellow phone), either by keeping your trains on time always and forever, or by disabling late and missed departure notifications where you deem them unnecessary.

Encourage connectivity
Let's get the most out of this! Send services to your border so your neighbour can route them to where it needs to go. Freight, commuter, express, or special trains, anything goes!

What do you think? I would be happy to manage the project and keep track of a build schedule.

[Sascha Claus]

Hello,

How did EN-Teamwork 1 start?

somebody (in that case it was me) drew a map, nobody objected and everybody picked an area. Something like this: (click on thumbnail for big picture and on that site click on the big picture for a huge picture)

<-- map
<--political map with “countries” marked

• medium blue: my areas from beginning (right in the middle and top left)
• light blue: other people’s areas, which I stole after they left: N = Nene Firth Country around Northampton, P = Parnell Country around Parnell, M = Midlands and Manchester, DW = Wales-themed area by D. W. Roberts, bottom right = formerly unoccupied
• pink, SNflm: South Neckfieldfleetmere (city) in South Ribbleshire (country); owned by 1993matias
• green, NB: North Bay, owned by Sirnight
• orange, Sp: Springfield, owned by Dierk Nüchtern
• red, Sil: Siluria, owned by Chris

If we were reusing that layout (*wink*wink* *nudge*nudge*), new countries might be charted as needed.

To me it seems like a good model. Each player gets a "country" to do with as they please. This will most definitely lead to some very different railway operations, which only makes it more fun Spy on each other, learn new techniques, see how other people build their networks.

Another point to take: if you want interesting long-distance trains, keep enough distance between the big cities.

Your rules sound good, except no. 3; that sounds very good . Isn’t connectivity the sole purpose of a teamwork?

What do you think? I would be happy to manage the project and keep track of a build schedule.

Since I’m also employed by another teamwork (WN3 Regio), be careful to not build conflicting schedules.

[1993matias]

Forgot to reply, sorry.

So basically, I should just draw up a big map and divide it into chunks for people to claim? That's easy haha

If we were reusing that layout (*wink*wink* *nudge*nudge*), new countries might be charted as needed.

Unfortunately, the EN-teamwork layout is filled with train jams, stopped trains and tons of timing points crying about missed departures. Honestly, it's easier to just start over.

About the planning, I was imagining maybe a google sheet where people could add themselves when they want to build? Rather than a fixed schedule, you claim free days in advance to build

[Sascha Claus]

Hello,

So basically, I should just draw up a big map and divide it into chunks for people to claim? That's easy haha

you might ask for preferences like flat country, medium sized mountain ranges, alpine mountains, ocean coast, big interior lakes etc. I would like something at a big river where it leaves the medium sized mountains for the plains/rolling hills (like my old area in the 1st English Teamwork); and a city by the sea. Can be two disconnected areas, as long as I can run trains between them.

Unfortunately, the EN-teamwork layout is filled with train jams, stopped trains and tons of timing points crying about missed departures. Honestly, it's easier to just start over.

Trains and timepoints can be deleted ; but if you like to start a 2nd teamwork, I’m following.

About the planning, I was imagining maybe a google sheet where people could add themselves when they want to build? Rather than a fixed schedule, you claim free days in advance to build

Something new? Would beinteresting to see how it works.

[1993matias]

How's this for a starting area? It's 1/4 of maximum allowed area in BAHN (~500x550 kms) with coasts, rivers, and a few islands. Internal geography would be up to the owner to decide
For reference, the old teamwork was ~350x350 kms

You can use the image to mark borders of an area you would like, first come, first serve. After the first areas have been claimed, we can start building.
Here is the link to the spreadsheet, you can see I filled out schedules for you two already as an example. Each builder will get access and will be able to claim free days themselves. Keep in mind, only example schedule is shown
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

[Sascha Claus]

Ahoi hoi,

How's this for a starting area? It's 1/4 of maximum allowed area in BAHN (~500x550 kms) with coasts, rivers, and a few islands. Internal geography would be up to the owner to decide

looks good, but 500×550km² might be a little bit small to run proper long-distance trains. But we can expand outward if the need arises. I just staked my claims:



A city with surrounding region of 200×250 km² at the confluence of two rivers and a harbour town with surroundings of 150×150 km² and some islands off the coast. (I just notice that the central circle comes close to the rivers in the northeast and southwest. I might dent my area inwards to give these rivers more hinterland.)

Still missing is an ‘opposite’ coast that can be connected by ferries and an undersea tunnel.

Did you notify the facebook group about our scheming here in the forum?

[1993matias]

[...]
looks good, but 500×550km² might be a little bit small to run proper long-distance trains.

Well, the old layout was ~300x300, so this is already three times bigger in area! But yes, the maximum size in BAHN right now is 1024x1024 kms. Plenty of space for future expansion!

I just staked my claims [...]
A city with surrounding region of 200×250 km² at the confluence of two rivers and a harbour town with surroundings of 150×150 km² and some islands off the coast. (I just notice that the central circle comes close to the rivers in the northeast and southwest. I might dent my area inwards to give these rivers more hinterland.)

Feel free to invent more islands at will - and to fill in the water area if it doesn't make the savefile too big.

Still missing is an ‘opposite’ coast that can be connected by ferries and an undersea tunnel.

Maybe with an eastwards expansion?

Did you notify the facebook group about our scheming here in the forum?

No, I will right away. Thanks for the reminder

Quick question: What would be the easiest way to share the layout files? By group email system again? Or a cloud storage service?

[Sascha Claus]

Quick question: What would be the easiest way to share the layout files? By group email system again? Or a cloud storage service?

E-Mail exists and is working fine for the WN3. Do you have a free cloud storage service at hand?

Important question: Are discussions about the teamwork done here or over at Facebook? Is it even possible to have a proper discussion with longwinded explanations over there? Never tried it …

[1993matias]

Would you be able to help with the email-service? Send me a private message

On Facebook I referred people to the forum. This is definitely the best place for longer discussions, since they simply disappear on Facebook after a few days regardless of activity.

[1993matias]

I want to start building on Friday, have you built anything, Sascha?

[Sascha Claus]

Hello,

I want to start building on Friday, have you built anything, Sascha?

yes, city limits and some tracks and platforms. The complete lack of somewhere else to connect the rail lines was hampering my creativity. I’m going to upload the file this evening.

Edit: I’ve added the zipped layout as attachment to this post.