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[Duckling]

OK.. This was originally a mail but I'll put it in here aswell.. share and enjoy etc...

Some of these point have also been covered by other people on the BB boards but I'm gonna keep them in here anyways!

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I personally found pontifex easier than BridgeBuilder. The reason
being the inclusion of the heavy steel and cable elements. Please
don't get me wrong. I like these new elements, however, the main
chalenge of the original game was in trying to create a bridge which
could spread out the weight of the train so that it could pass.
This problem is made much easier with the heavy steel and cable,
so therefore the game is easier.
What I suggest is scenario type levels which add more variation.
For example:

You could have levels where all you could use was light
steel (which would give you gameplay more like BridgeBuilder.)

You could have levels where you only have access to a fixed length
of cabel or a fixed amount of heavy steel.

You could have a level where the local authority forbids building
above a certain height.

You could have a level where each anchor can only take up to a
certain weight limit.

It might also be fun to add a "wood" building material. A local
authority won't allow a metal bridge in a protected area because
it would look out of place, so you can only use wood. (This is
another variation on my first suggestion, ie create some levels
which are closer to BridgeBuilder, where people often solved
levels with some kind of trestle bridge.)

Another element which I think may add to gameplay would be an
option for a level to have a roof (in the same way that it has
a floor.) You could have levels where you must thread a bridge
through a winding cavern, or where you must pass a bridge through
a very thin gap.

(I did have a little ascii picture here to illustrate my point better, but I can't figure out how to get preformatted html, or switch to a fixed width font so nuts to it! *grins*)

Either way, having a roof would create a
variable height restriction on the builder. It may prove to be
an interesting chalenge. It would also somewhat legitamize the
'floating anchors' which you have in some levels, but that is
a very minor point! *smiles*

Maybe you could have multiple potential anchor points which
the player must also buy (although they'd be the most expensive
part to stop people just buying them all!) You could even have
different types of anchors, for example, a floating anchor.
It wouldn't be able to hold much weight and it could move, but
it'd be much cheaper than a normal anchor. - To be honest. I'm
not so sure about this one, but I figured I'd include it anyways.

You could have a level where you are in competition for a bridge
making contract and to test your skills (and those of the your
competetors,) you must create a bridge which will be subjected to
higher and higher weights until it breaks. The bridge which
supports the most weight gets the contract. (This is more of a
competition type thing I guess, but you could have it as a level
just to get people to go back and keep modifying their bridges.)

Having levels with different kinds of vehicles may be interesting
also. A stream of cars, vans and lorries (which would create
different kinds of stress as they are over on once side of the road.)

For higher difficulty you could also create wind as another variable
to deal with. (You must build a bridge over the blah-blah estuary.
It must be a good bridge as you get strong gusts of wind comming
off from the sea!) Things such as wind work well for the game as
they are elements which a real bridge designer would have to consider.

Basically, it would be nice to see other restrictions than money
applied to the game. Maybe even having some levels be infinite
money, but maximum weight.

[elrond]

When we are talking about Cables vs steel.  When a span gets big enough the only solution is to use cables ;) Look to the real world...

Some of the insane superlong archbridges in BB was a bit overthetop ;)

[panther]

Sound ideas, I think I can add another. Tunnels.

Building through ground which cannot be scaled by a bridge. This would involve using materials such as those currently used in order to prevent the tunnel collapsing, based on the weight of ground above it.

I think that the combination of bridges and tunnelling would make an interesting challenge.

[mdw]

I don't have any requests that haven't been made before, but my priorities are:
1) movable points in the editor. (This should allow some struts to be made illegally long - you just have to move the other end before you can test the bridge.)
2) pin joints
3) tensioned cables
4) slow onset of gravity (or some other solution to get to steady state without breaking links due to dynamic effects. E.g. you could treat finding the equilibrium bridge position as a set of simultaneous equations (acceleration at all points is zero). In any case, bridge links should be infinitely strong during the settling process - once settled, they acquire normal strength (and, if the bridge is not strong enough, it abruptly collapses.)

[itsnotme]

I'd like it much better if the game was a tad more realistic.. the floating pylons was just a dampener for me, I'd rather build the pylons to support the bridge rather than just hooking it up to a floating pylon..

[pasqualz]

I agree, I can't remember the last time I saw anchor points floating in space on a bridge!