AI passengers are a crucial feature of the game that have been included ever since Version 1.4.5. They provide a realistic element to the gameplay, however they can make the game lag a lot if many are present, e.g. during rush hours or when they are moving in the CCTV view. In Version 2 of the game, the passengers were updated to be taller (along with player models) and wheelchair users were added.
Mechanics[]
Currently, the process of how AI passengers behave in the game can be simply split into a few steps:
- The passengers will queue up at a bus stop, usually in a straight line, except where it bends to stop the line becoming too long. They will hail to the driver when the bus they want to get on is approaching the bus stop. (For some reason, passengers will not queue in a line at certain stops)
- When the bus is within a few metres of the stop, a message will appear to ask the driver to apply the parking brake and open the front door.
- When the driver opens the front door, the passengers will walk up to the bus, tap their card in front of the card reader, or deposit coins and tickets into the fare box.
- This step will be skipped if the service is free of charge, such as Private Hires, Sponsored Route Daily Challenge, U47 or staff routes.
- Afterwards, they will move inside the bus and sit down in any available seat or stand by the exit door if they are getting off within a short distance. However, when the last seat is taken in the bus, they will fill up the lower deck of the bus compartment on double deckers until the bus is at full capacity. On single deck buses, once all seats are taken, passengers will stand and fill up the aisle from back to front until the bus is at full capacity. They will usually hold onto a handrail or hanging rings attached to the ceiling, or the handle of the cab door.
- Keep in mind that passengers will never enter from the rear door, even if opened to speed up boarding, even if the service is free. This would be illegal on Hong Kong buses in real life, except under special circumstances.
- If the bus has only one door and passengers are alighting, they will wait until all of them have alighted until they board.
- If the bus is congested, for example when a lot of passengers are waiting to get off, they will wait with their hand on the card reader or fare box until the passenger compartment is unobstructed.
- When the passengers want to alight at any stop, they will press the bell and walk to the exit door (or front door if there is no rear door) in a straight line.
- As the bus reaches the alighting stop, a message will pop up to ask the driver to the parking brake and open the exit door, and the passengers will alight. Passengers will only exit through the front door if the vehicle is not equipped with a rear door, and will always exit through the rear door if it does have one. Keep in mind passengers will never exit through both doors, even if they are opened to speed up alighting.
- If the route has a two-way section fare, the passengers may walk to the front, and tap their card on the reader again before returning to the exit door for alighting.
Passenger behaviour on-board[]
- Passengers will occasionally say Hello and Thank You/Goodbye in funny voices when boarding and alighting.
- In the Friendly Day or Private Hire Challenge, they will always greet and thank the driver.
- This does not happen on the Grumble Day challenge.
- Passengers will complain audibly in different scenarios, such as:
- If the driver crashes, does full-lock turns over 50km/h, drives with the doors open or stop the bus with the handbrake at high speeds. This would cause the driver to lose their Safety Bonus or receive points in Daily Grumble or Safety First challenges.
- They will also complain if the driver drops them off in a random place, the air conditioning temperature is too high, too low, or if it is not turned on in Pro Mode. They would also complain about the fare if it is set incorrectly, the bus is not knelt for wheelchair users, along with more in the Grumble Day Daily Challenges.
- If the driver has received too many complaints when driving, the face of some AI passengers will turn into an angry or shocked expression.
- Passengers in the Grumble Day Daily Challenges will always have a negative expression on their faces.
- Sometimes, passengers may also complain audibly and turn into angry faces when they failed to get on a full bus, or for wheelchair users if the bus is not wheelchair accessible.
Wheelchair passengers[]
Wheelchair passengers will require both door wings to be open and the wheelchair ramp to be extended first. Also, the driver should kneel the bus to avoid complaints. The ramp can be extended by pressing J or clicking the ramp. On the Dennis Trident and REBC MAN Lion's City, the ramp is located at the rear door, however, they will still enter at the front due to scripting limitations. Wheelchair passengers will not move towards the door when alighting until the bus has stopped moving and the parking brake has been applied.
Keep in mind that the CSB Scania K360IB cannot load passengers in wheelchairs as it is not wheelchair accessible because it is high-floor and doesn't have a ramp.
Trivia[]
- Some AI passenger avatars are spawned out based on location, time and route. Some examples include:
- Students in uniforms and holding school bags mainly appear during morning (around 7am) and afternoon (around 3pm) at bus stops in residential areas or schools, and on bus routes between the above locations.
- Bus drivers wearing uniforms mainly appear when driving staff shuttle routes (C01, C401, C401A), and at bus stops next to bus depots and bus parking areas late at night.
- Wheelchair passengers are more likely to spawn around hospitals.
- When operating Rare Appearance and Private Hire services, some AI passengers may have a camera strapped in front of them (likely imitating bus enthusiasts in real life). Sound effects of photo snapping will also be played during boarding and randomly during the route.
- There are some AI passenger avatars which appear less frequently as Easter eggs. These include avatars of addisonshiu himself, owners of the bus operators in-game, and also a series of avatars based on anime characters.
- These rare avatars will not turn into angry or shocked faces no matter how the driver operates the vehicle, and will not turn into negative faces also in Grumble Day.
- AI passengers will stand in front of the yellow line if the compartment is too full, even though this is illegal.
- When passengers are holding the handle of the cab door, opening the door will not move the passenger's hand, so their hand will be floating in mid-air until the driver closes the cab door again.
- You can't see AI passengers of other drivers' buses. This may change when Passenger Mode is introduced.
- AI passengers don't put on the seat belts.
- More passengers wait at the bus stops during peak hours, which differ between each route.
- Some bus stops would spawn new passengers even after the doors are closed, however drivers are not required to wait for them. Previously, buses had to wait for all passengers to board at busier stops where they spawned in continuously was an issue in earlier versions of V2, where drivers would have to wait until the bus reached full capacity before departing. This also meant passengers further along the route were left behind if a stop request was not made.
- Passengers disappear as soon as they have alighted.
- A known meme in the community is that Sunshine Islands bus drivers are sometimes known to drive dangerously to better adhere to the schedule, resulting in the bus being filled with lots of passengers in angry or shocked faces, especially during racing days. However, they may drive more carefully during Safety First and Grumble Day events.
- The passenger complaints in game have also formed memes among the community.
AI Passengers in Version 1[]
- In Version 1 of the game, the passengers used R6 avatar models with blocky limbs that stuck out through the windows.
- The avatars of initial AI passengers used in V1 were mainly those of registered players from the Sunshine Islands community. Prior to the release of AI passengers, addisonshiu allowed Discord server members to add their avatar to the spawn list for AI passengers. Most of these avatars have been removed in V2 update.
- V1 AI Passengers had less detailed behaviour in the game. For example, they would not hail to the driver (drivers had to rely to the driving GUIs to see whether the passengers intend to board), as well as showing a card tapping animation even on route U47, where fares were not charged. They also would not complain or react if the bus hit something, was driven dangerously or flipped over.
- As the AI system used in V1 was less mature and would cause more lag to the game, players could disable AI passengers from appearing at that time. However, this feature was removed after the AI Passenger rework in V2.