Just completed an all stations run from E&C to Harrow which granted me in the region of 24k Action Points. Great you might say but this is leading to the Bakerloo getting a disproportionately high level in terms of routes and trains played. It consistently shows up as my most played route and train. That one 55 min run put the route level up by 2 and the 1967 stock by nearly two levels. Yet there are routes I have played far more and covered considerable more distance which I would regard as better candidates for favourite. I haven't touched Bakerloo prior to this evening for a couple of months and this is precisely why, despite enjoying the occasional tube train drive. Routes or services with high density calling patterns really need a more balanced AP system.
I would argue that more points should be awarded for miles driven, in order to create a more balanced system. Actually, you're right: to balance the system, either reduce the number of points awarded when stopping at station, or increase the points per mile driven. Currently, you earn 250-500 APs for stopping, plus 250-500 APs for timing. So, you get at least 500 AP at a station, even if you stop in the red zone and are 5 minutes late. If you do an ICE run from Munchen to Augsburg, you get about 6000 APs, or 7000 if you stop at Pasing. That's a 15% increase in total score, just for stopping once. But overall, you get 6-7000 APs for a long drive, which takes 30 minutes. So, ~ 200-220 AP/min. An RE for the same route will take 46 minutes, and fetch approx 12000 APs. That's 260 AP/min. An RB for the same route takes 54 minutes, and scores 15000 APs. This is ~280 AP/min. Some routes are even better. For example, some S1 runs from Meissen to Dresden will net you 18000 APs in about 44 minutes. That's a little over 400 AP/min. Of course, Bakerloo takes the cake, as it has the most stops, while being a relatively short route. At the other end of the spectrum, you will find freight runs, where you score a few thousand APs for a 50 minute run.
Thanks for the support. Indeed something like Oakville where the end to end runs are about 40 mins you are lucky to get 4000 points. So you would need to complete 5 or 6 runs to match one on Bakerloo. Scenarios with a bit of shunting give slightly more but can get tedious - had one on Clinchfield which went on over 2 hours but still only got about 9k points. TSC does it better, apart from the massive deduction of points when you fail an objective. Each run starts with 1000 points which is then divided by the number of scoring elements.
