Your Segregated Neighborhoods are Still Connected - Mini Motorways Deep Dive 

Sounds like you did not expect your viewers to be a bunch of nerds. Really? :) We watch 2d cars moving to 2d buildings while the dude at the steering wheel considers lots of tweaks in terms of nitty-gritty optimizations to their flow. That is a fun part of it, and we (well, I for sure) really appreciate the effort you put into it to like analyze whats really going on.

Ah yes, my favorite topic in games: MATH & STATISTICS (for real, I love those in-depth analysis types of videos about games)

Me sitting here like “this video is awesome, let’s find part 2” and then realise that this video was only just uploaded and I’ll have to wait for the next one. I’m too used to Netflix’s “dump the entire season at once” structure haha

Who'd have thought it... The destination does not request the visitor, the visitor requests the destination.

In this video, Retroflux defends his dissertation on the M.O.V.E Principal of Mini Motorways by using statisical analysis to prove his shared trip hypothesis like the absolute genius he is. Well done!

This is the deep dive I hoped the algorithm would eventually serve up!

AHHH I FUCKING KNEW IT! I had a hunch that destination demand would "overflow" into other destinations (of probably the same color?) since in my playthroughs and other let's plays I keep noticing that if one destination starts struggling other destinations of that same color start struggling. It makes sense as a snowball-y game mechanic to keep players on their toes, but I never figured we'd get concrete proof that this mechanic exists beyond dev notes. Thank you for all your hard work analyzing the game to prove and spot this!

I'd wager that this is the result of the changes they made to punish players for blocking too much of the map and preventing destinations from spawning; the pin spawn rate per colour escalates over time based on how many destinations are *expected* to exist. If you allow destinations to spawn normally, then the number of destinations increases in tandem with the demand and pins are distributed among them in a manageable way. If you block destinations from spawning, then the demand at the ones that did spawn will become overwhelming.

When you're playing spreadsheet instead of the game itself

mind blown.... I always thought it strange how small destinations randomly came under strain late game. They were being shafted pips from their struggling friends!

I had an investigate of my own, looking through code, and you're absolutely right. If a destination is maxed out, the game tries to put the new pip on the nearest non-full destination of the same colour. If all destinations of that color are full, it puts it on the nearest non-full destination of any colour.

Damn, math, smashed both the buttons to honour the work!

I play this game too much, my first thought was to move purple to the right entrance and green to the left to save roads lol

So in conclusion, you need to anticipate square dests both expanding or becoming overflow ones when the round ones max out. Otherwise your scores will never break through that threshold.

This is the kind of thing I've been sitting on doing since I started playing. Thank you for putting the work in.

This is why strategy/puzzle gamers scare me. They will stop at nothing to find the optimal exploits of they’re favorite systems

Damn from watching your DD no deaths to this... you are definitely an underrated channel for sure! So I'm glad to see you grow from about 2k subs from when I started watching to over 6k now

Thanks for your hard work ! Of course, looking at the code would be easy enough, but I enjoy more the reverse engineering part, what hypothesis you come up with from observing the game behaviour and how you test it. I'm very interested in the two ones you tested and proved wrong. "It's about the journey, not the destination" if I dare say x')

Great video Retro! It's interesting to learn that the destinations share the load, can't wait for the followup to see what else we learn about this charming puzzle game.

This was an amazingly in depth analysis of a simplistic 2d video game about roads, and I loved every second of it. Can't wait for the rest of the series

I think if you wanted to confirm the ”pips placed in other shop of the same color” hypothesis, it should be rather simple in the mid-game. Simply disconnect all but one of the shops of the same color and see what happens when they’re full. It should be quite easy to determine if the single shop remaining is getting all the pips or if they’re being distributed to other colors too. Great video, thanks for your effort! :)

This type of analysis has always been on my mind while playing this game. I searched google for this kind of in depth mathematical analysis of car rates and road optimisation, not just which thing is better, but by *how much.* Alas, I could not find any results. Please continue this series!

Earned my subscription. I'm excited to see where this goes! I personally haven't done any math (obviously), but I have gotten to 6000+ on LA by minimizing crossroads at all costs, even in neighborhoods. Since the big change to traffic at the end of August, I've instead been minimizing the total number of intersections, as cars slow down about the same for a 4-way as a 3-way intersection, not including the roads connected directly to houses.

This is just what I needed thank you so much 😊

This is great, really getting into the nitty-gritty of the games stats and such (I do something similar) and I'm glad to see someone looking at the math of it all. 👍

Fascinating! Looking at the end of game screenshot I took of my last run, I'm pretty sure I can see this pip sharing in action. Thank you for including subtitles too!

Liked, subbed and commented for the sheer amount of work put in :D

Amazing data, thanks for the work so far! I'd love to set up a discord to talk about this games meta so we could push scores higher and higher. I'd gladly lend a helping hand in any data needed to be collected!

I subscribed when he said “if you can’t M.O.V.E it, you lose it.”

I highly appreciate the effort you put into this video! it was awesome! :)

By cars movement through intersections I may assume this recordings from previous patch. In new patch they drastically changed pins distribution and more important how anger system works. Now in late game some colors can produce just a few pins while others might be flooded. On such colors you physically cannot fulfill the demand. Because of anger. It accumulates more quickly. That's why no infinite runs on RU-vid on last two weeks. So, your math is good, but it might be outdated.

I love it, I have often spent too much time recording data for things to try and understand how it works so as to optimise but largely just to understand. Unfortunately, I don't have the ability to analyse the data and consolidate it into graphs and charts, as well as you do. If you maxed out the games that you counted, to what score did you count? It seems to max out at around 10000 but the real increases in pip generation might max out before I feel sure of it and the last part is the city balancing out, including me making final adjustments to any areas that are still in danger.

I’m incredibly bad at math and always wonder about this kind of stuff, it’s cool to see someone do all the calculations and get into technical stuff of games.

just subbed, looking forward to your analysis of data and models you create. would love to see some more graphs/data representation on screen tho

Liked and subscribed looking forward to the follow up videos

You have more than earned your like and subscribe, probably going to end up watching more of your content :)

Appreciate you retro! Subscribed.

I didn't know this going in but this is exactly the video I wanted. God I love nerds and charts and graphs. Thank you.

Had to check if someone had already mentioned that 6:37 thing, but they did and you already acknowledged it, so yeah, this is just for the algorithm lol Also I just subscribed because I am addicted to this game and you are enabling me.

Great Analysis!

Loosing on level one buildings that looked fine definitely did puzzle me, but this explanation makes sense! Maybe that is also the reason why cars from really far away try to go to the small one if at all possible even though it'd take a tremendous amount of time? It could be a car that was supposed to go to a big one but chooses another destination because it is full.

Love this kind of analysis

This is amazing. Thank you!

I've noticed the lack of control as to where cars end up in interconnected systems. They don't necessarily go to the most urgent spot which is a strange effect and I'd be curious to figure out why that happens. It makes it difficult in critical scenarios to predict whether a suplimental source of cars will have the desired effect. Looking forward to your next video!

i NEEDED this video

I subscribed and like the video cuz u spend 10 hours counting the beeps, thats dedication.

Dude you my friend are crazy. And a fellow excel connoisseur :D

Gift for the algorithm. Also, amazing analysis. Sorry you had to put in 10hrs counting pips to satisfy our curiosity!

Thank you for doing this work! I have honestly lost sleep thinking about why my square shops keep failing me!!

Ever since I came across this game, I've always wanted to construct some sort of mathematical model based on a system of (more likely than not) coupled differential equations. I've been thinking that I could try to model the destinations or maybe the roadways as a capacitor of some sort given that there will be some sort of car flux associated with each tile. I was never really able to figure it out as it's a hell of a wild system to even attempt to model - especially given that we're also dealing with a weird metric space considering the form of any of the maps. I look forward to other videos in this installment.

The pain you went through is why I hit sub without even thinking twice. That's not to say I wish to see you in more math pain but I'm not saying that I don't wish to see you in math pain...

Hypothetically: Imagine a level 2 building with 10 houses very close and efficiently (roundabouts) connected. Would this help another house of the same colour from every fully capping out? Rephrased: You spoke of pip sharing as detrimental to other houses of the same colour, but is it possible to utilise the pip sharing mechanic to focus more resources into a single building of the same colour to become the designated pip-sharer?

This is the only time I have ever commented on a video just because I like it. I don't know how to tell you we went this series enough.

Maybe it's because I do math at university and love it, maybe I am just slowly going insane, but: I LOVED THIS VIDEO :p

WHAT!? I can't WAIT until the next one!

Boy, I’m glad you did this math for me.

yes!! finally! someone is taking this game this seriously! havent even played but watched tons of videos and i bet using methods you used today, you could get a perfect game!

Holy moly this changes everything...

I loved that analysis and just subscribed. My husband, a stats nerd, was in heaven. 😄

Ooooh, that's just a cruel mechanics. Completely uncalled for

NEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRD! that being said, thank you so very much from the bottom of my heart for this video

Very interesting, so often the colour going bad appears to be a result of cars getting lost, or accidental connections causing ridiculously long journeys, because they don't update when you fix things. Just today, I realised by not recording my games to play back, that I was having to guess at the cause of meltdowns. Sharing demand is something experienced players mention when considering blocking. Basically if you over be do it, demand ramps up on other dests and you haven't the houses to satisfy it. Thanks for looking be at this systematically!

You are such a mathematician, I love it!

Awesome. Thank you!

You’ve got my sub!

Duck mascot and statistics? You have my like and subscribe, my friend.

Hey I’m already subbed. Well. Still have to wait for the next chapter.

Good video fam 🙇‍♂️

What I got from this video: trying to achieve 10k trips changes a person. Jokes aside, really liked the video and look forward to more analysis:)

I've never even played this game, but damn all this math is intriguing me. Looking forward to more videos on this 👍

"I refuse to do math for a game" Stellaris and Victoria players:

Finally someone that brings real math into analyzing this game.

Good vidéo !

It seems like every house is connected and regardless of color. It is easy to see when blocking spawning points so you have only one destiantion - this destiantion is so busy that you can't keep up. When you allow another destination to spawn not matter the color the it becomes much easier.

Oh boi, scientific method applied properly. I love this! Thank you ❤️

Im not gonna subscribe because i would just be a dead subscriber but have a comment and a like for the algorithm. Great video :D.

Just found out about this game tonight. This is the most satisfying and calming shit to just put on that I've seen in a long time. Granted, I'm not the one playing. Haha

Very impressive, I wouldn't have the patience in the mind or the mathematical brain power to do that. Look forward to seeing more breakdowns 👌

Wow, i dont understand but great video! ;)

yaaas this is the kind of systemic analysis I've been hoping to see. From my own testing, it does seem that the rate of pip generation is global and scales up over time (IDK if this is a global value per colour but I think probably not, at least to some extent). I tested this with the usage of diagonal road preventing new destinations from spawning. The houses simply failed to keep up with the ramping demand, however, when I "allowed" a new business to spawn (ie; I missed a gap and let one slip in), it seemed that it was more able to distribute the pips, lessening the load on the other structures. The way in which this happened seemed to me like there was a hidden pip-generation penalty value when a business was unable to spawn to deter this method specifically, but this would need more thorough testing to confirm. It might be possible that this hidden penalty is what causes the game to end in a loss eventually, since it becomes inevitable that no new business will be able to spawn when enough houses and roads exist. The best way to test this theory would be to inject a custom map into the game that is effectively the same as any other map, but has much more playable space, to determine if the destinations have a hard limit (either globally, or per map), or if it is an implied limit as an emergent property of how the game works. I look forward to seeing more deep analysis, consider me subbed

it *is* within colour group by the way u can see it in maps with 2 of a certain colour spawning constantly, when only one spawns then it will almost definitely be your doom

oh wonderful! really good work. so i bet the code for this is literally when increasing demand in a building, "if this building is currently full, pick a different building". i wonder how the different building is chosen, if that's always one with the lowest load perhaps

"I put in ten hours for a three-minute video" Eight. An eight-minute video.

This is one of my favorite videos I've ever seen on RU-vid. Is there a way I can show my support with a donation? 😊

Great video, meep it up

damn that was actually really interesting

Actually seems like a nice series Generally unnecessary, but intriguing none the less

Thank you

glad someone did the math so we didn't have to ;P

I liked the video, he went on his nah I’m not doing math, I hovered over the dislike, then he did the math. I guess I’ll sub.

this is epic

Thanks for putting in the work but ah linked spreadsheets would be nice to get a fuller understanding of your findings. I think others may find other conclusions in the stats as well. From what I've gathered they are connected by colour but does colour have a specific amount? I doubt it although some colours are certainly more active than others.

Interesting video, couldn't help but notice at 6:30-6:40 when you were explaining your maths, you said the sum was 4(1.4935(26 weeks) + 9.2863)) however in the video its labelled as 4.....+0.2863) could this have also affected your mathematical reasoning on the sum, as it would have made your count 165 instead of 156, closer to the 162 manual count you had.

It would be interesting to count the number of houses, total demand could be tied to it.

in two minds whether i want this kind of intel.

Great video. @6:37 you say 9.26 but it's written 0.26, might want to annotate that in some way if it's actually 9.26 or not.

I hope everyone else on RU-vid sees this. Great video

if counting pips is something that interests people you can use cheatengine to slow the game down (speedhack, set it to 0.5 or 0.25 or whatever) - then when you play it back you'll have double or quadruple the frames for each pip event or whatever. Yes, it's a slog to play, but this is about math, dangit.

I did the math.... - Classic

Quik maffs!