Travelling: by Bus or...?

[Art Blade]

Alright, didn't find anything on the forum about what I'm going to post. Now that I'm playing around with real time (a cheat "timescale") I immediately wanted to find out what it means when travelling. Just to clarify: This isn't about the cheat here, I only use it for reference.

Did you notice that travelling by bus costs time? Most notably if you hop in the bus in plain daylight and drop out at night...

I decided to do another test (ya, ya, spaceboy, I still haven't given up testing :) )

Departure: Bus Stop near Marina, Bowa.
Destination: Sefapane Bus Stop.
Final Destination: Sefapane, town center

1) By Car

I start my orange ;D gren truck and drive along the lake, taking the eastern route. Meet a DDP (Datsun Dummy Patrol) and an ATP (Assault Truck Patrol), passing Airfield. Passing a Guard Post, going through Port Selao, following the railway to Sefapane. Meet another ATP and fly through an uncharted Post.
Arriving in Sefapane after 4:30 minutes real time.

To reach the bus stop, I need another 2 minutes, meeting a JD (Jeep Dummy), passing a GP and one more ATP, run over those mercs walking around near that bus stop and get out. Need 2 more minutes to reach Sefapane, mostly swimming.
Now the total time is roughly 8 minutes real time.

2) By Bus

I swam back to the Bus Stop (where I found my truck still waiting!) but leave my truck behind to take the bus back to Marina. It took about 30 seconds (haha, that is the loading time of my PC) to get out of the bus. I run to the parked Datsun and bomb down the road to reach the Underground House east of the lake, between Marina and Airfield. Took like 40 seconds, I kick down the door and grab the alarm clock. After subtracting the time it took to get in and out of Sefapane I recalculate the time the bus claimed. Exactly four hours gaming time missing... WHOA.

That means If you use the bus, 30 secs, and swim to Sefapane, 2 mins, it takes you 2:30 mins total in real life time. But you loose 240 mins game time...

So, if you are concerned about a night time mission, you better find out how much time a bus trip takes, else you end up in the twilight zone without ever wanting that to happen :)

I didn't check times without messing with the timescale, but I do remember I often got out of the bus and the day/night cycle had changed visibly. That is the reason I use my car most of the time, and that made me think of a way of keeping the car :)

edit1:

But I wonder, is a bus trip clear across the map, from, say the station at the marina to the station north of Sefapane longer than a trip from Selao to rhe Marina? Should be, it's half the distance.

Interesting question, so I checked it out:
I used the same settings as in the original test (timescale)
I started at the same Underground house, set time to 12:00 and ran out into my red  ;D Jeep Wrangler, kicked down the pedal and dashed off to the bus stop near marina. Took the bus to Port Selao, got dumped at the Port and took a fishing boat across the lake back to the Underground house. Beached the boat, back-flipped out, and zoomed over to the hut. Knocked down the door and grabbed the alarm clock... FOUR HOURS again.  :-\ They sure take their time, those buses  ;D

edit2:

Without timescale cheat, just plain vanilla FC2, it also took four hours

[spaceboy]

good testing Art!  I knew it cost you time and often changed between day/night, but now that I think about it, it shouldn't be THAT much different than driving.  There aren't bus stops along the way, and even going around the lake in Bowa shouldn't take 4 hours!

It'd be nice to have a cot at the bus stops to change the time to where you want it.

[Art Blade]

yes. Strange indeed that it takes so long (which would make sense in a way, if you really had to travel like 300 miles, but the map isn't that big. And considering that even with fights included it takes only minutes to get to a place across the entire map... no big deal, really.

Of course, if you're early in the game (first time, cheap unreliable weapons) it is safer by bus than getting beaten up all the time along the way :)

[PZ]

Of course, if you've ever ridden a bus in Costa Rica, 4 hours isn't too unreasonable...

I like your testing themes, Art - keep 'em coming.

[spaceboy]

Bus rides in-game have a loading screen so they are helpful for a real world rest stop as well  ;)

[Art Blade]

Heh, you never see buses in FC2. You get in, and then warp to hyper space. Apparently the time inside hyper space seems to pass quickly, but the common space time passes a lot quicker  ;D

[RedRaven]

often stand by the Pala bus stop and Unload all the firepower can at the cheeky mercs behind the barrier, soon as they start actually hitting me with return fire then hop on a bus and your safe, works well with Assassination missions too!

[JRD]

"You, bus driver, keep the engine running while I bring those mercs some of my revenge"
"Make it fast son, we have a schedule..."  ;)

I bet it is much better to do than to watch (from a merc perspective, I mean)
I can imagine dke58's face, shooting, handing the driver his ticket and than laughing his @ss out as the bus clumsy manouvers to leave Pala  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Art Blade]

haha! Or, tell the bus driver to wait, which he refuses due to keeping an eye on timetables. Then run into town, shout "everyone, get up and move your sorry arses, right now, right here. Line up, and be quick about it, I'm in a bloody hurry! I have a bus to take, for god's sake!"  ;D ;D ;D

[RedRaven]

remember 1st play-thru spent about half hour using all could get to blow a bus up !!!!! no joy  ::)

[Art Blade]

I tried to blow up something solid myself, using all IEDs I had until i realised not everything was destructible

[Dweller_Benthos]

I always was going to measure the bus trips, now I don't have to, thanks. But I wonder, is a bus trip clear across the map, from, say the station at the marina to the station north of Sefapane longer than a trip from Selao to rhe Marina? Should be, it's half the distance.

I take the bus whenever it's more convenient than travelling over the road. I don't really care what time it is in game, though sometimes I'll hit up a safe house to get a different amount of daylight for various reasons. If I'm going to do a mission that takes a lot of long distance sniping, I'd rather do it at high noon so I can have good light to get those one shot kills. A mission that's easier to do stealth I'll do at night, and sometimes I just take whatever time of day it happens to be.

[retiredgord]

I've been a bus person quite  a lot.  It seems to save a whole bunch of ammo and I didn't seem to notice Malaria onslaughts as much. I'll drive if the spots are close and drive the perimeter just near the edge of the map. It doesn't make much difference in my game other than missing the scenery.

[Art Blade]

There are Bus Stops and Underground (Subway) locations, only there are no trains... the Train Stations are all blocked, and the only moving train we blew up during a side mission, as goes for the only bridge, Rail Xing, to the other side of the world... We're screwed :)

[spaceboy]

I remember wondering before the game was out if the buses would run in real time - especially after the taxi ride in.  That actually would have been kind of cool watching the scenery and mercs, but it might have gotten a little old.  However, without the load screens it might just be about even.

[Art Blade]

remember what happened to the people (journalists) in the bus, in the movie "Blood Diamod"? I'm quite glad we have our own cars, especially with mounted weapons. :)

[spaceboy]

yeah, but it'd be great if you were on the bus with mercs and it was a cease fire zone but they still insulted you (turning around in their seats) throwing candy wrappers at you, telling you their gonna kill you after you get off the bus.  Oh wait that was High School.... ah just kidding. 

[JRD]

No money is valid in FC2 world, only diamonds, and they charge nothing for a ride.... therefore, STOP complaining you ungrateful pricks  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Art Blade]

LOL!  :-X

[Art Blade]

But I wonder, is a bus trip...

Interesting question, I edited the first post to add the answer right there :)

and asked myself: what about vanilla FC2 time? results also there, 2nd edit :)

[Ricamundo]

That's an interesting experiment. i use the busses a lot, perhaps too much. :P.  Some future playthru, im going to try a walk a thon; no cars, trucks, or busses.

[Art Blade]

nice term for that, a walk-a-thon  :-X ;D

[retiredgord]

Walkin' is good in the game.  I sometimes log as much walking as driving except for the buses. You see a lot of back country  while avoiding the roads and patrols.  It's sometimes easier to take the bus and then walk any shorter distances to a back or different way into a "target" area than the mains.

[Art Blade]

One thing is good about the buses: you don't get lost easily  ;D

Compared to real life: When I take a bus, I look out the window and see stuff out there. The next time I take that bus, I remember the route. After that, I know the route (if it's not a 300 miles drive, that is).

On foot or by car, about the same. I remember most of the places, streets, crossings, and am able to orientate myself without ever using a GPS or a map.

In FC2, however, by car, all I remember is a few main roads (ie eastern road along the lake in Bowa) and after that I need the map. On foot, worse. Due to admiring rocks and pebbles and the likes, I lose myself in the environment and tumble around like a blind on a bike. I can't find my way out without opening that map every 20 seconds  ;D

[KingRat]

I walked....a lot  ;D

Seemed that walking was almost as fast as driving although I never thought to time it. Good place to test would be Leboa SWS from bus stop to armory.

I'd do it, but I'm trying to get into Mercs2 on the 360 and my FC2 PC version still isn't tweaked right yet  :o