Transportation
Getting around the city of Nivalis is a daily consideration. The city is large and vertical, spread across 19 distinct areas, and your businesses, contacts, and points of interest are scattered throughout. How you travel affects how much of the day you have left for work, cooking, fishing, and socializing. Choosing the right mode of transport for each trip is a small but constant part of managing your time.
On Foot
Walking is the default and most common way to get around. It costs nothing, lets you take in the details of each district, and gives you the freedom to stop and interact with anything you pass. Characters you know might call out to you. Shops, food vendors, and points of interest are visible and accessible. Walking through a neighborhood is the best way to learn its layout and discover things you might miss at higher speeds.
The downside is that walking takes time. Moving between distant districts on foot can eat a significant chunk of your day, and with the 2 AM curfew limiting how long you can stay out, spending too much time in transit means less time for everything else.
Train System
The train connects major areas of the city and is the primary means of covering longer distances without burning through your day. Stations are marked on your map, and riding the train involves going to a station, selecting your destination, and waiting a short period for the ride to complete.
The train is reliable but not instant. There is a real (if compressed) travel time, and the stations do not always drop you right where you need to be. You might take the train to a general area and then walk the last stretch to your specific destination. Still, for cross-city trips, the train saves substantial time compared to walking.
Taxi
Taxis function as visual fast travel. When you hail a taxi, you select a destination and the game transitions you there with a short visual sequence showing the ride. You do not drive the taxi yourself; you are a passenger. This makes taxis the fastest way to get from point A to point B when you are in a hurry and do not need to explore along the way.
The taxis in Nivalis are floating vehicles that navigate the city's aerial lanes. They offer a brief glimpse of the city from above, a perspective that the game does not otherwise provide since you spend most of your time at street level or on the water. This makes taxi rides a bit of a visual treat, giving you a wider view of the environment before dropping you back into the ground-level bustle.
Personal Boat
Your personal boat is docked near the lower levels of the city and provides access to the waterways that run beneath and between the city's support structures. Piloting the boat is a hands-on experience: you steer in first person through narrow channels, under bridges, and past the industrial infrastructure of the city's underside. The boat is your primary tool for fishing, but it also serves as a transportation option for reaching areas that are easier to access by water than by foot or train.
Boat travel is slower than the train and does not have the convenience of taxi fast travel, but it opens up parts of the city that are otherwise difficult or impossible to reach. The waterways have their own atmosphere and points of interest, making boat trips a mix of transportation and exploration.
HOVAs
HOVAs are the flying vehicles that players of Cloudpunk will remember well. They still exist in the city and you can see them buzzing between the towers overhead. However, unlike in Cloudpunk, the player cannot pilot a HOVA in Nivalis. The game keeps you grounded, on foot, on rails, or on water. This is a deliberate design choice that reinforces the street-level perspective the developers wanted: you are looking up at the city rather than down on it.
Transportation Summary
Method | Speed | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
Walking | Slow | Free | Best for exploration and nearby destinations. Full access to interact with the environment. |
Train | Medium | Fare | Connects major districts. Reliable for medium to long distances. Short in-game wait time. |
Taxi | Fast | Fare | Visual fast travel. Cannot drive yourself. Good for time-sensitive trips. |
Personal Boat | Slow-Medium | Free | Access to waterways and fishing spots. First-person piloting. Opens hidden areas. |
HOVA | N/A | N/A | Not available to the player. Visible in the city skyline but cannot be piloted. |
The 2 AM Curfew
No matter how you get around, your day has a hard limit. The 2 AM curfew means you need to be back at your apartment by that time. Once 2 AM hits, your character rests, and the next day begins with a new morning. This is not a punishment mechanic. It is a pacing tool that forces you to plan your days and make choices about how to spend your limited hours. Do you make one more fishing run, or do you spend the evening at a bar building a relationship with a contact? You cannot do everything, so you have to decide what matters most today.
The curfew also ties into the daily routine system. Each morning, you wake up in your apartment and receive a newspaper summary of what happened in the city overnight. This gives you context for the new day and might surface opportunities or problems that need your attention.