[Seeking Public Opinion] Argonath Government Bus Service

[Matt_Hewie]

Argonath Bus Lines will still be in operation during the RS5 beta, and will be operating free services until further notice.

Hi everyone, I'm currently in talks to Gandalf about starting an official government bus company for Argonath, so I was seeking public opinion on it, to see how much support the idea would have if implemented.

I'll go through the 'nitty-gritty' of it all. If you're going to leave feedback, be it positive or negative, please at least be constructive. I want this to be an idea that will work, despite many other failed attempts by previous people.

The main aim of the company is:

To provide a cheap, effective bus service to all areas of Argonath, providing easier access to roleplay for all players, more opportunities for RP outside of the main Los Santos area aswell as increasing interaction between new and experienced players. To have all operations based on what would most benefit the community.

Buses will be situated in a bus depot alongside the company headquarters, and all services will be operated by the company's members. Routes will be arranged by the company and the government together with input from the community to find the most effective routes to run, to cover the most area and covering popular destinations.

Routes currently in operation (effective as of the RS5 beta) are:
Route 1: Los Santos < > San Fierro (via Angel Pine and Mt. Chilliad)
Route 2: Los Santos < > San Fierro (Direct)
Route 3: Los Santos < > Las Venturas (Direct)
Route 4: Las Venturas < > San Fierro (via Las Payasadas, El Quebrados and Bayside)
Route 5: Red County

Occasional roleplay Tours and Event specials will also be provided! (not currently)

An option that the possibility of scripting in (perhaps with RS5) would be for bus drivers to be able to set a route so that when players are near they will get a message of which route the bus is running on (eg. Matt_Hewie(2) is driving on Route 5: Red County).

More information will come in later posts. Thanks for reading and I look forward to feedback!

[TheLegitHabibi]

You have my full support. Would be nice to see the busses. Scripts aren't necessary but having em will be cool

Good luck man

[Mr. Goobii]

Many have failed, but I hope you keep strong! Because I know people want this! Good luck!

[Xaera]

How about the bus driver ? It'll bot and driving around with Bus and stop every station ?

[Mr. Goobii]

It sounds great, the thing is that the locations where you should stop should be well planned out. Maybe do some statistics on places where people often wants to go and makes routes depending on the statistics?

The price is also a factor, as buses are not the fastest, so people want lower price like a compensation for the speed.

But from that, it sounds good.

[Matt_Hewie]

How about the bus driver ? It'll bot and driving around with Bus and stop every station ?

No bots at all. This will be completly player operated.

It sounds great, the thing is that the locations where you should stop should be well planned out. Maybe do some statistics on places where people often wants to go and makes routes depending on the statistics?

That is one of the reasons why i'm seeking public opinion on the whole thing. Where do you guys want stops? I have a few routes in mind (see original post) which cover (and could cover) almost every destination to a walking distance maximum. (edit:) The routes are completly flexible at the moment, and even after implementation, you guys will have the option to suggest changes.

The price is also a factor, as buses are not the fastest, so people want lower price like a compensation for the speed.

As mentioned in the original post, this will be a cheap service. Obviously the government will have control over the fares, but i'm looking at $4 for local services, $8 for inter-city services, as this will cover fuel for the current trip as well as fuel for trips where people are not utilising as much. This figure may (and hopefully can be) reduced dependant on passenger numbers, aswell as if we can gain funding to cover fuel costs. The whole company will be a not-for-profit service.

I'm happy to answer any other questions!

[Stivi]

Good luck!

First off, many have failed on this, in my opinion, because of the state cars. Bunny-jumping solves the problem of finding a car, unlocked. Me and my cousin was thinking of opening a company like this, but due to lack of participants ( we thought we wouldn't have much clients ) we decided to think of something else. Then we bought Argonath Sport Betting, which needs some effort and patience, still due to lack of participants we're thinking of improving our services, hiring a few people and things we need.

People are money-hungry, therefore they won't waste money for a tour, however that doesn't include experienced, rich, players. So, you might wanna invite some people, good at RP, to help you. They might encourage other people, new players as well to come, when you gather up. To these people, if they can't afford paying that ticket every time they gather there to RP and help you, you might give the ticket-money back.

You need a good driver, a patient and law-abiding driver. Someone who doesn't do the work only for the money, however he needs to get payed.

Find some rare visiting spots, a tour all over SA with a jetpack will give you the opportunity to.

Organize a few activities for the clients, after all it's a tour.
Example: Mountain climbing(chilliad) with BMX/Mountain Bikes ( can be found at the chilliad's bottom )

Find something they can RP with, like Honigsenf Hotdogs, Rostijl Boys, and other food vendors to come and sell their food. People who RP with them might want to take a tour-guide too.

There are many visited spots like LSCH, RP there to get a few clients, but don't make tours to LSCH, it's the most visited spot, who would want to go there ?

That's a few tips I thought of my own, when I wanted to open this, so I'm sharing them to you, again, good luck with this.

I'll be happy to pop-by sometimes and RP, if you need any help, feel free to PM me.

[Matt_Hewie]

*snipped to save space, read above post!*

Thanks for the tips, I'll definatly be considering them!

I'm especially excited by the Mt Chilliad BMX tour, I think that would be good. Have a number of bikes at the base, special bus to the base of Mt Chilliad, and could even be the food vendors taking in the opportunity for roleplay, and that's one of the main things i'm hoping for if I can get this going. I would love to be able to be part of a 'large' roleplay like that. Get people involved, old and new!

[Chester11]

I agree with what Stivi said. It will be hard to cope the whole server attention with it, as most are money hungry and won't spend time and 10$ when they can go do heroin. Your only chance is that some veterans who understood the meaning of Argonath will join these busses and have some RP.
I support you, you will need a lot of luck.

[Stivi]

Thanks for the tips, I'll definatly be considering them!

I'm especially excited by the Mt Chilliad BMX tour, I think that would be good. Have a number of bikes at the base, special bus to the base of Mt Chilliad, and could even be the food vendors taking in the opportunity for roleplay, and that's one of the main things i'm hoping for if I can get this going. I would love to be able to be part of a 'large' roleplay like that. Get people involved, old and new!

New players, in order to get along with the server, they seek for places with a lot of people, they'll definetly come and see. Old players, they need to be a bit generous, not broke/poor and they'll do fine. Food vendors will come, I can talk to Honigsenf, as I am his worker, and I'll tell him to reply in this thread. About the bikes, they're at Mt.Chilliad's base, but you need to wait until server comes up and see 'em. Also, you might want to recruit some driver, like 3-4 of them, not everyone can be present every time.

[Matt_Hewie]

I agree with what Stivi said. It will be hard to cope the whole server attention with it, as most are money hungry and won't spend time and 10$ when they can go do heroin. Your only chance is that some veterans who understood the meaning of Argonath will join these busses and have some RP.
I support you, you will need a lot of luck.

That I know quite well, but with enough support, I think it could work quite well. I'm not holding my breath to get the entire server on board with the service, that's wishful thinking for sure... but one can hope. I think with at least a fair percentage of players backing the idea, we can keep up enough activity within the buses to keep people interested. Once it's implemented, it'll probably shoot-off a bit more simply because it's actually there, and not just an idea on paper, well, forum.

New players, in order to get along with the server, they seek for places with a lot of people, they'll definetly come and see. Old players, they need to be a bit generous, not broke/poor and they'll do fine. Food vendors will come, I can talk to Honigsenf, as I am his worker, and I'll tell him to reply in this thread. About the bikes, they're at Mt.Chilliad's base, but you need to wait until server comes up and see 'em. Also, you might want to recruit some driver, like 3-4 of them, not everyone can be present every time.

Thanks again! As mentioned a few times, this is just in the planning stages right now, as I haven't got a reply from Gandalf beyond that the possibility is there and it may be granted. Which of course given current events I don't blame him, so I'm just sitting tight, getting the word and working on the plans as much as I can to show Gandalf that it is something I'm dedicated to and something that (hopefully!) the server will enjoy.

[Honigsenf]

hey matt,

good luck with a route based bus shuttle service. as mentioned before,  u would need employees with a long breathe and not leaving job after 10 minutes nobody used that shuttle.
sadly the BSF funding service is temporarly inactive. regarding the Occasional roleplay Tours and Event specials i am open minded and can imagine a lot of scenarios,
with food vendor services and also with the forest group http://www.argonathrpg.eu/index.php?topic=94246.0

[Matt_Hewie]

*snip, see above*

Hi Honigsenf,

Thanks for your support, it's really great! I'm aware the BSF is currently inactive, but that's where goverment funding comes in. Once i get the go ahead from Gandalf, then I'll put a message out looking for people. I think I may already have one employee in mind, who is happy to do a job for the roleplay. I'm not sure if he reads the forums or not, but Matthew_Wong is him.

[Skole]

Bus routes on a roleplay server, especially on Argonath are a great, great idea. Actually, I've ran a bus company of my own back in 2007 ~ 2009 here in Argonath, called Skolines. We had couple of great drivers, including (but not limited to) Andre, Janek, Tinderman and even xcasio. Shame that the route maps are gone with my old webhost, though. Would've been nostalgic to take a look at them. Some veterans might also still have a distant memory about it. Later on, when RS3 was out, I got contacted by Gimli and was asked to plan official bus routes to Argonath. I did, but the project kind of froze back then, for whatever reason.

It's great that finally we have potential for an actual, successful and frequently operating bus service - supported by the government and maybe even scripts. Although script support is not essential on this, it really boosts and encourages operation and makes it easier to run. It also affects positively on the amount of people using the bus service as they would get somewhat realtime information where the bus is heading. (You can only imagine how difficult it was to announce where the bus currently is and where it's about to head in real time, with limited funds to /ads and if we weren't using /ads, people complained about it.) :P

So, yeah. If it matters or not, you got my support on this. And if needed, this old bus company CEO would love to give his helping hand on this project with anything from route planning/drawing and other graphical designing to actual, but limited to occasional bus driver vacancy.

Thanks, and good luck with it!

Signed,

[Doggie]

Good luck