Motor Town: Behind The Wheel – Bus Company Explainer

How to run a Bus Company on Jeju Island? Why are my buses making no money?

Guide to Bus Company

Note: Credit goes to cat

How to Run a Bus Company on Jeju Island?

Before long, you will develop an intution for what works.

There are a few more mechanics not explained here yet. Yes, there are always more variables.

Income and Cost

• The first underlined number is your Net Profit ( Revenue – Cost ).
• The second number is Income or Revenue, fares you have collected from passengers.
• The third number is Cost, including Running Cost and $100 Refresh cost for each Company vehicle.
• The same numbers are shown for each Bus when you click the […] button on that Bus.

These numbers include buses you have removed from your company, and only reset when you restart the game.

Making income

Which routes make money is going to depend a lot on what stops are being serviced, in which order they are serviced, by how many other people’s buses, and at what kind of interval/schedule buses stop there.

If your Bus Company isn’t making money, you will need to try switching up these factors.

Reducing Cost

Cost is a combination of two separate things:

• Running Cost is a flat rate depending on the model of bus, regardless of its Tuning Setup or its actual damage condition/fuel amount. Running cost is effectively constant for a given bus over any period, so even if a bus is empty it will still cost the same to run!
• The $100 Refresh Cost So make sure to Refresh as little as possible. Your buses stop running when they reach 0%.

Passengers

Talk to passengers!

You can talk to anyone waiting for a bus, and they will tell you what stop they want to go to, or what Terminal they will go to as a second choice.

What bus will a passenger get on?

Passengers can only get on buses that come to the stop where they are waiting. They cannot cross the street or walk to get on a bus at a nearby stop, even if it would go in the right direction. This means it matters which side of the road your route stops at!

A passenger will get on a bus, if it comes to the stop they are waiting at, and if:

• It stops at their destination, or
• It stops within 50 meters of their destination stop, or
• (If they have a 2nd destination, which is a Terminal)
  • It goes to that Terminal, in hopes of getting a bus from that Terminal to destination (i.e. Jeju Hospital, Jeju Bus Terminal).

Can passengers transfer buses during a journey?

Only at the Terminals. So it is very important that every route services at least one Terminal, and to directly service as many stops as is possible while being fast and not too long.

Details

• Passengers spawn at residential areas, and want to go to work or school via the bus. They are assigned randomly to one of the nearest bus stops, even if buses at that stop go in the wrong direction for their destination.
• Passengers cannot change buses at any other stop than a Terminal. If no bus comes that is a direct route to their stop, or a Terminal, they will wait forever.
• If you talk to many people at a Terminal with a common stop, it means that stop is under-serviced! (Or the bus to it is on a long route, longer than the new passengers take to spawn.) You should include that stop on at least one route where it makes sense or is “on the way.”

Strategy – Singleplayer

In Singleplayer the basic strategy is to empty the Terminals as fast as possible with efficient and properly divided service to all the stops you can. That means service to the highest number stops people want to go to in the shortest time, while also picking people up from the right places, to go to other stops on that route or to the Terminal.

Strategy – Multiplayer

In Multiplayer the strategy is essentially the same, except the total number of passengers is currently about the same as Singleplayer (split between all players), and it’s more likely that “common” bus stops or the system routes will be serviced heavily by other players already. For example, the 1100 road is slow, so not all players will service the 1100 Rest Area bus stop, and the same for niche stops like Hachon Orange Farm, Driver License Examination etc.

In MP the number of variables is exponential with the number of players who have Company buses running.

Strategy Details

What affects Company Income

These are what players have control over.

• Which stops are being serviced, by your and others’ routes on the whole of Jeju Island.
• The order in which stops are serviced, on that route and other routes.
• By how many other buses, of yours and other players.
• and at what frequency, the time to complete a loop of that route and any routes with those stops on them.

For example, the frequency your route returns to the Terminal, and the speed of that bus, also makes an impact.

What doesn’t affect Company Income or Costs

• Police patrol %.
• Bus Tuning Upgrades.
• Actual Bus Fuel Consumption (as shown on the HUD).
• Actual Bus Parts damage (as shown on the HUD).

It’s only the Running Cost that accounts for AI fuel and damage. The Running Cost is constant for each model of bus.

The first hour after joining the game will be the least profitable, unfortunately. Good route setups will still make you money in that first hour, but less than you will later. Don’t be discouraged! (Yes, that might be a bug.)

A Simple Example

Here’s an example, this is an extremely simple route which goes from Gang Jung Terminal to Hallim Terminal to Jeju Terminal to Seong San Terminal.

{
    "guid": "D34F14A74C94EAB1BDED168158B2B0AB",
    "routeName": "Jeju-ExpressRing",
    "busStops": [
        "A65E6E4647093938401CD2965BB6BCBA",
        "ED02CFDA4A5C5F64EE2F1AAFB32DE445",
        "6BD14DE047E0A4491BEA0692A2ED9263",
        "C4BDDC2B4F1BB33A3FC3AA8B0CA663DD"
    ]
}

I’ve been running it in MP with a Liliput in MP for 2 hours, and because there are about 20 people on the server (many including me running Olle Ring, which hits all of those Terminals), it has made $832 (1270 – 438).

That is the 300% turnover we like to see! The revenue is 3x the cost; the cost is 1/3th the revenue. 1/5th or 500% is probably the reasonable maximum in MP if players don’t specifically cooperate; in SP, it’s possible to run certain routes at 1/8th cost-to-revenue, but those will likely need support from routes running at only 1/3rd or 1/4th.

Of course, this profit depends on heavily on the buses used and what stops are being serviced from each Terminal. Passengers never have a final destination of a Terminal, they want to go somewhere from there. So someone, you or another player needs to service the stops on the interior of Jeju Island.

As it’s MP, I use a smaller bus than normally, because I know sharing passengers means it will be less full, so I want to pay less cost.

I also run Olle Ring and Olle Ring Reverse with an Air City and Cheetah (bit greedy and lot of cost to run), but because of so many buses on those routes they aren’t making as much money. Olle Ring Reverse will be posted below for your convenience.

The last 2 routes I use as “staples” are Jeju-Local and Gang-Jung Local. These are designed for SP and are not optimal as-is especially in MP, but they are because I am limited to 5 buses, it’s what I did for a quick solution in SP. In MP I need to do something else with them.

In SP I use a Dumbi or SV200 on those Local buses; in MP it’s Liliputs.

Ideally I would service Ansan speedway and the Logging road but I would have to completely re-do all my routes into a 5-sector system, that I don’t use, because Olle Ring (Reverse) are pretty nice as-is.

In MP with this setup, I’m currently at 175% total Company turnover, but it’s so low because of the high number of player buses and my Local routes that are barely breaking even. I should change the Local routes eventually.

Routes I Use: Olle Ring Reverse

Olle Ring Reverse

{
    "guid": "B79F046A42BAE5B0DE3CF283C1F86EB3",
    "routeName": "Olle Ring Rev",
    "busStops": [
        "A65E6E4647093938401CD2965BB6BCBA",
        "401652654AA7A459771BF38DDDEA5B8A",
        "93B5867E4AC019E5F92835B960C7CDC4",
        "1E32D13A45A80C9C007EDC9F38DDAF10",
        "BF87062B4E2269E18B4F4197B3E52588",
        "297A784E42BE26B6A54CF7BA4A9337AA",
        "ED02CFDA4A5C5F64EE2F1AAFB32DE445",
        "3CD4C9504D6012A8A22855A12B614D56",
        "4E01D6E3437128C2307993B5C9E8D0C9",
        "579FDEA0463A8ED83DB7DFAA13010C4A",
        "6BD14DE047E0A4491BEA0692A2ED9263",
        "774B131E45E7529A0272B7ADFAE1A95F",
        "8AFF9CB7469F89B2E40BD2896771F11D",
        "D4415BBE453633F22819848CFD9BCCF5",
        "E483C9D1420F5D1362197083E53409A5",
        "F6E68416486F5660E48FDE9ACB15544E",
        "C4BDDC2B4F1BB33A3FC3AA8B0CA663DD",
        "4196A142444C2EE79A88639836B5542E",
        "7565FC294FAECC23D62091BE9DED3F3F",
        "FDF25E78420DCE1579BC07A65010BD0E",
        "9E3100E04CE91955A45AA88D2DFB25E0",
        "9DFFE7C5481E0320CC682FBEC7344EBE",
        "A11B1860461B63A76FCB75A376CA4D8C",
        "5EC371994F390920773DA8A6BDB4359C",
        "7D3E3C3B4B3A36EA3E2942AF57D2EAB8"
    ]
}

Routes I Use: “Local” Routes (Best in Singleplayer)

These are bloated, but decent in singleplayer.

User beware, this is not designed for MP when the cities are over-serviced

Jeju-Local

{
    "guid": "F4FF1AF74FF598DA5EFB84A4D21F4C0B",
    "routeName": "Jeju-Local",
    "busStops": [
        "6BD14DE047E0A4491BEA0692A2ED9263",
        "BAC3997B4FA75DF7682249882F153E73",
        "B437256F437EA0CAE12301B29437F3D1",
        "9F6CC6A04785500708B5D6BCD1A0F1C5",
        "A7248FB447519F0027BEAB99F3BFEDD3",
        "2831D6114F918BAA0FE3EF82C8EE8BBC",
        "2E10F69740EE16D7A01427A5A358F3F8",
        "774B131E45E7529A0272B7ADFAE1A95F",
        "6BD14DE047E0A4491BEA0692A2ED9263",
        "E305C6C94089253771F7618E21609129",
        "01B8361141EF4EE201B9F3B24502CB09",
        "9F6CC6A04785500708B5D6BCD1A0F1C5",
        "8F32F7A14A75C88D5050A4A13CE3FDCB",
        "E8CD092642EE44A296E86F83CF5DD1D1",
        "120562D445446FCB0876EE849ACC0BB6",
        "2E10F69740EE16D7A01427A5A358F3F8",
        "6BD14DE047E0A4491BEA0692A2ED9263",
        "4CEFC6874B31A92903A8D5A1B3C43F36",
        "F885CE5C4807C9641551DAA106D92E4E",
        "35202D644A02714B557B3EB56E5B80ED",
        "C8F88BDA4486E4DDB65E8F9B3E153892",
        "3ECFE14343DC08C95BA7438CC1EB9E98"
    ]
}

User beware, this is not designed for MP when the cities are over-serviced.

Gang-Jung Local

{
    "guid": "12A13E3A42E58C3AEB49DE9305370BFD",
    "routeName": "Gang Jung Local",
    "busStops": [
        "A65E6E4647093938401CD2965BB6BCBA",
        "58D4029F4467DF3C003F6C8B7BCE9CE3",
        "8E361AE7458077635500589EAD4DFD75",
        "4CD94D8745C5D73A45E04193C72C0408",
        "4600F0824B31A4FC9DB16BA8CD3387D6",
        "755E218542D3C5742D0D26AC6FBE54F5",
        "A5208AFE4E9DDCE88B888DADF3C5E89C",
        "823D19B24BBEB289D544CCB492DFFCB1",
        "2A4FE5C54C8BF86FF324E5B339D73618",
        "A172986249BA61D9C33C94A31D57F5B4",
        "820A93A94EFFFE5D23A617A0CAFD0FA1",
        "581EC6624A072D0E46F95BBEE7B3DB99",
        "5EC371994F390920773DA8A6BDB4359C",
        "A144AEB64F848A7C64F02EB6C63A8A9C",
        "7D3E3C3B4B3A36EA3E2942AF57D2EAB8",
        "A65E6E4647093938401CD2965BB6BCBA",
        "401652654AA7A459771BF38DDDEA5B8A",
        "1F8E6487485365AE9715D78E4AACB763",
        "294B35B04FEDF0FA753FF28C8DCEBDF4",
        "33C6C2A74F29A86F3D86999A1CCEE813",
        "A65E6E4647093938401CD2965BB6BCBA",
        "B67EBB8443C85EF20D0453AC4574735F",
        "9DFFE7C5481E0320CC682FBEC7344EBE",
        "80FD871F4D4B0FC24BADD7A066871A4F",
        "A11B1860461B63A76FCB75A376CA4D8C",
        "755E218542D3C5742D0D26AC6FBE54F5",
        "A5208AFE4E9DDCE88B888DADF3C5E89C",
        "823D19B24BBEB289D544CCB492DFFCB1",
        "2A4FE5C54C8BF86FF324E5B339D73618",
        "A172986249BA61D9C33C94A31D57F5B4",
        "820A93A94EFFFE5D23A617A0CAFD0FA1",
        "5EC371994F390920773DA8A6BDB4359C",
        "A65E6E4647093938401CD2965BB6BCBA",
        "9FCBF6704679A5050EBB2B815E386D83",
        "7D3CAF0A41A10A2AB4F3BB89B842DBE1"
    ]
}