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A new route/unit management idea

Started by KneeOn, August 04, 2015, 02:00:39 PM

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KneeOn

On my way home I was thinking about how I could now run the National Rail map that Carl had created without any real lagging issues. I remember watching his video about how he made simulated having a unit diagram. This made his line window very messy as each diagram needed covering (Kings Cross - Peterborough - Kings Cross - Cambridge - Kings Cross - Royston - Kings Cross - Welwyn Garden City) would be an example of one diagram which has 4 lines in it (KGX-PBO, KGX-CBG, KGX-RYS and KGX-WGC).

What if experimental was able to look at unit type/length and assign a route to it from a predefined list when used in conjunction with the convoy spacing. Instead of either buying a unit then running it to a line that was premade or made at the time of buying the following happens.

Create 5 lines, 3 suburban, 2 intercity.

Buy 3 types of unit - from Carls set lets say a 377, 313 and a 225. The 377 and 313 are suburban and the 225 is an intercity unit.

Tell the lines what units it can use.

Then as each unit enters, the station looks at the next available slot and assigns the line (10 minute slots, 2 services an hour to the destinations) and marks it as the most recent line that the station ran.

the next unit comes in off of that line which our first unit has gone out on. The station looks at the next slot but decides that as our previous unit ran that line most recently, it should take the next service at 20 minutes past rather than 10.

I'm not sure that's been communicated clearly but it should reduce the need for over sized stations that deal with trains sitting waiting for their departure time, minimise the wasteful stock usage and allow services to be run more efficiently reducing waiting times.

Is that something that can be implemented? Or is it desirable within Sumatrans?

DrSuperGood

The problem is spacing the trains. Once you have that "optimized" then everything works. Spacing a line with 40 stops properly can take anywhere between 2 and 4 months (6-8 in game hours or more). The cross map lines in the server took me years to space correctly.

If one has a line and 8 identical engines on it one has no idea how many time slots it should have. This is fine for small loops (my subway in the server map) since those can be adjusted in just 2 months and then scaled appropriately (first month is nonsense, second month gives proper traffic metric). However with the massive lines some of the other players had it became as good as impossible since altering one line might affect the others. One could always over-estimate and then scale down. However that blocks the tracks resulting in delays for other lines etc.

One possible solution would be to limit the number of waiting trains at a stop (terminal, major station etc). Once that limit of waiting trains has been reached any others get parked in a depot until a free platform is available. So that these trains do not waste passengers (and refunds) the limit should prioritize active trains (ones already moving). Only if there is "limit - 2" platforms free then it should pull engines out the depot to the line. This would allow you to specify line capacity (40 convoys / month) and then over supply it with convoys so the capacity is achieved (without all the convoys being on the map, only those that are needed).

Another solution would be to automatically add or remove rolling stock of appropriate types. Once a line is assigned specific rolling stock configurations (dialog similar to replace window) then it will automatically buy and remove (not sell, just disassemble in depot) based on how many time slots are being missed. This means that setting up a line becomes as easy as assigning a number of time slots per month and type, the game then will keep adding units until no time slots are missed (or a safety limit is reached).

jamespetts

There are some interesting ideas here, and I have already given some consideration to this sort of feature. It will not be simple, however, especially with respect to how to code the schedules themselves and their relationships with lines, and how to interact with the system for passengers/mail/goods deciding which convoy to board.

There is some extensive discussion of this and related issues in this thread, and I should encourage both of you to contribute to that to advance this discussion.
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