One of the most challenging things in OMSI is selling tickets (after avoiding the collision against AIs lol). To sell tickets, the bus drivers have to understand some points, like:
- Calculations
- Ticket Categories
- Where the different type of tickets are on the ticket printer
- How to give changes
- Different currencies
Calculations
First of all, it is very important that the bus driver must know the basics of mathematics to be able to give the change to the passenger. If you give less change than the expected, the passenger will complain about this and it will decrease your score at the end of the tour. Also, if you give more than the expected, the passengers will complain as well, but they will take the additional change, and they will thank you for the “tip”.
Tip: It could be easy to give change if you start counting by cents. For example, if a passenger gives you $5.00 and requests a $2.70 ticket, so you start counting the cents. You give 30 cents and then, you reached $3.00 of $5.00. So you need to give $2.00 to complete the $5.00. In the end, you will have given $2.30 of change.
Another example: If you receive $10.00 and the passenger request a $1.20 Student Single Ticket, so you will give 30 cents to reach 50 cents and then give 50 cents to reach $2.00. After that, you just need to give more $8.00, because you already gave $0.80 that completes the $10 worth money.
Ticket Categories
OMSI follow the rules of the most of cities around Germany about ticket categories. In most maps, you will find only five types of different tickets (except Hamburg, that has more than 7). You need to understand them to be able to sell the correct tickets regardless of the map.
The base of it is very simple to comprehend. Three of them are tickets for adults, and the two others are for students. Take a look at the details below (in fare order – lower to higher):
- Default tickets
- Single Ticket (low fare)
- Standard Ticket (standard fare)
- All day Ticket (full fare)
- Student tickets
- Single Ticket (low fare)
- Standard Ticket (standard fare)
As you know the ticket bases now, it is time to see how much they cost. The Single Ticket is the cheaper ticket. In Berlin Spandau, for example, it costs $1.70.
The Standard Ticket is the most sold and costs a bit more than the Single. In Berlin Spandau, it costs $2.70.
The All day Ticket is the expensive one, so it is very easy to identify. In Berlin Spandau, it costs $13.00.
The student pack corresponds for two fares: the single ticket is the cheaper one, and the standard is the expensive one. In Berlin Spandau, the single costs $1.20 and the standard costs $1.70.
What is the position of every ticket on the ticket printer?
Well, it is a complex question, because there are many different ticket printers out there. A few machines with LCD screen shows the ticket fare. But there are many others that you need to press the buttons to see what ticket is there if you don’t know them yet.
So let’s see the most common ticket printer, that equips the base game buses (MAN SD200, SD202, NL202 and NG272) and in a ton more buses.
As you see, this is the fixed position of all tickets fare. The Student ones are located on the right side, marked in blue in the image above. The normal tickets are marked in red. It is very simple to memorize the positions. The first one on the top is the single, followed below by the standard one and the full fare is the only one on the left. The other fare buttons don’t work in most of the maps.
How to know which ticket the passengers want?
If you are not a German, it will be a bit difficult to understand what ticket the passengers are requesting for. After a lot of hour driving around, you may be able to understand what ticket they want just listening to the speech.
But there’s an easier way to know what ticket you have to sell. When a passenger request a ticket, the information about the ticket and the money the passenger gave you is showed on the top left corner of the screen. Just see the desired ticket, the amount of money and you can give the right ticket and change.
How to give changes?
This part only works fine if you did the calculation I quoted on the top of this article. If you know how much change you need to give back, just press the right coin keys and when you give the right change, the passenger will take it.
Different Currencies
OMSI is based in Europe, specifically in Germany, so the currencies we commonly find on the game are the Deutsche Mark and Euro.
The currency you will find depends on the map. A lot of freeware maps use many parts of the base game map (Berlin Spandau), including its currency. So the most common currency is the Deutsche Mark.
Deutsche Mark has the following notes and coins in the game:
– Notes: $10, $5, $2
– Coins: $5, $2, $1, $0.50, $0.10, $0.05
Euro has the following notes and coins in the game:
– Notes: €20, €10, €5
– Coins: €2, €1, €0.50, €0.20, €0.10, €0.05
Take note that sometimes you will drive a bus that is equipped with a euro desk and you may drive a tour in a map with Deutsche Mark currency. In this case, pay attention to the position of the coins. See the following chart how to give change when you are in a bus with Euro desk working in a Deutsche Mark map:
| Euro desk Bus | 2.00 | 1.00 | 0.50 | 0.20 | 0.10 | 0.05 |
| Deutsche Mark Coins Map | 5.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 0.50 | 0.10 | 0.05 |
The other situation is about driving a bus with Deutsche Mark in a map that uses Euro currency. Take a look:
| Deutsche Mark desk Bus | 5.00 | 2.00 | 1.00 | 0.50 | 0.10 | 0.05 |
| Euro Coins Map | 2.00 | 1.00 | 0.50 | 0.20 | 0.10 | 0.05 |
Now you could drive your journeys in OMSI selling tickets and earn experience points in BCS 🙂
If you have a question, suggestion or need more information, leave a comment below 😉