Calculation of Income from Deliveries

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Sykron
Posts: 3
Joined: 02 December 2015, 21:54

Calculation of Income from Deliveries

Post by Sykron »

I am fairly new to this game so I may have missed something. The rules state that when a cube is delivered you get an income bump for each link in the delivery chain. From watching income in the status area, this doesn't seem to be the way the game works.

It looks like early deliveries of even one link get 2-3 income.
Later you seem to get one regardless of the length of the chain.
Sometimes I make a delivery and it looks like I got no income.

Hotels seem to add one as expected.

What am I missing? Was there a rule change I missed?
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jmcl99
Posts: 61
Joined: 23 April 2020, 19:20

Re: Calculation of Income from Deliveries

Post by jmcl99 »

If, in the game, you scroll down a bit you'll see a race-track style board. This is the income track. Delivering a good (plus some other things) will move you up this track a number of steps. Associated with each step is a particular income level. At the start, it's as you said, going up one step adds one dollar to your income, but later on you have to go up multiple steps before you get more income. There's even a point where your income starts going down.
BTW, hotels are not different in any way, a delivery to a hotel just moves you up the track by one step.
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Sykron
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Joined: 02 December 2015, 21:54

Re: Calculation of Income from Deliveries

Post by Sykron »

Thank you for clarifying. I made the incorrect assumption that going up a step increased your income. Silly me.

Interestingly this means you can lower another players income by using his links!
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Kentigern
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Joined: 03 January 2022, 17:30

Re: Calculation of Income from Deliveries

Post by Kentigern »

To elaborate a little on the previous response. In the first instance, it is points (what many games call “victory points”) that you get for delivering goods. And also for owning "rent-extracting" assets such as a hotel in the destination city or a link that another player uses. Income comes afterwards.

There is a relationship between the points you score and your resulting income but it doesn't follow a straightforward mathematical function. So instead of a formula, the racetrack graphic doubles as a look-up table for the points-to-income relationship (which is different for different maps).

If you think of ROTW as a business game, then “income” really refers to the net earnings (or profit) that you receive at the end of each business cycle. Those net earnings (plus any pre-existing funds plus any amount you choose to borrow) then become available for you to invest in the next business cycle.

And the fact that there comes a point where “income per unit” tapers off (and another point where your total income may even decline) seems to me to be quite realistic for a traditional industry such as transport.

Yes, adding to another player’s points-total could have the side-effect of lowering their income. But (a) it’s the points-total, not the income, that matters, and (b) that’s only ever going to happen in the end-game - by which stage, differences in income tend have minimal effect on the course of the game. Some players do try to defer their own "declining income" stage (e.g. by holding a high-scoring delivery back to a later round), but I don't see that as being a major factor in the game.
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Sykron
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Joined: 02 December 2015, 21:54

Re: Calculation of Income from Deliveries

Post by Sykron »

Thank you. I did almost miss the victory point aspect. I see now that although you may decrease an opponent's income you are giving them victory points so it may not be all that useful.

Also, I did not realize that the track differed from game to game. I suspect that's pretty important.
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