ST-Ex program texts: (missing) info for vehicles, organization of translation

[whoami]

I think that some important information is not yet displayed in the depot (and also convoy details window):
- reversal time (for the single engines to choose from (as heads), and also for the currently selected convoy)
- the 'overcrowded' capacity is not included in the convoy info
- acceleration at 0 km/h (on flat terrain) would be nice (missed even more in ST-standard) (Yeah, it can be calculated from tractive effort and mass and inclination...). Dreaming: what about acceleration charts for all the convoys in the depot for better comparison?
- the braking force of the convoy (nice to have, I know)
- if a vehicle cannot be selected due to way constraints (axle load), it is only shown with a grey bar; some explanation text would be better.
- EDIT: maximum unload/load time
- EDIT: capacity per goods category (also needed in ST-standard)

The rolling resistance (at full load? or a factor?) for single vehicles is usually (shown to be) much higher than the maximum braking force, both with the same unit. The values for the resulting convoy are ~ 1/1000, so I assume that the unit is wrong, but I would rather keep the kN and move the dot.
There are two value for rolling resistance for a convoy with capacity. I guess that they refer to empty/loaded states - this info should be added - perhaps as balloon help due to space limitations?

Now for the translations:
The vehicle capacity is shown as <value> (<value>) in the depot. I think this should be more descriptive (seats/standing/sitting on the roof), that should be handled by translations (but see below for putting this into a "particle").
The overcrowded capacity is also not shown in the convoy window, you get - at most - "<higher number> (<lower number>) Passengers". We just need the template in STL (SimuTransLator) to enter more useful info into this.

Many strings like

Code Select Expand

%s\nCost: %s\nMaint.: %1.2f$/km, %1.2f$/month\nCapacity: %d (%d)%s %s\nWeight: %dt\nAxle load: %dt\nTop speed: %dkm/h\n\nMax. brake force: %dkN\nRolling resistance: %.1fN\n appear in STL, causing much unnecessary work due to the redundancy. I propose to break up these strings (in the program source) into common particles (most of which exist already). However, several translations have been entered for these - An_dz did that for Portuguese, Milko for Italian. To not lose that work, the texts should be placed under "unnecessary_text" to be able to move the contents to the new particles. If I have time and get the permissions for the affected languages, I might even do that myself. But let's not enter the same info again and again - even worse if something will be changed (as by my suggestions above).

And this brings me to an important question: are translations from ST-standard (program and paksets) (that have appeared after the setup of separate translation areas for ST-Ex) automatically also used in ST-Ex, and if yes, how is this done? (Both 1) copying in STL and 2) loading of all the translation files in the proper order would accomplish that, I prefer the latter.)

[jamespetts]

Thank you for these suggestions. Would you be able to provide a breakdown of which suggestions are for the depot window, which for the convoy window, and which are for both? That would be helpful.

I suspect that some of these things are not done because of space constraints; other things may be possible but might take some time (the most extreme example being acceleration graphs, which applies to others, too), and must come lower in priority than balance critical features, which are likely to take many years to complete absent some substantial assistance from other programmers. However, some of these suggestions might well be swift and straightforward to implement and could be done more quickly; I shall look into that when I get time.

As to the Simutranslator queries, I have not looked into the detailed relationship between Standard and Experimental texts; I think the way that it works is that the Translator assumes that the set of Experimental texts are a superset of the set of Standard texts, so combines the two. May I ask - the "unnecessary texts" concept to which you refer - is this an existing Simutranslator feature? If so, I shall have to look into using this as you suggest.

[whoami]

All the items that I wrote refer to the depot, unless mentioned otherwise.
But additionally, some information items are also absent in:
- convoy window:
-- display of overcrowded capacity
- convoy details window:
-- reversal time
-- maximum unload/load time (without waiting for load level, of course) - I guess that this is category-dependent.
-- sum of tractive force (maximum)
-- sum of friction (rolling resistance) (does it change in curves?)
-- By the way, I just see that the power sum for a train with a "LNWR 17in Coal engine 0-6-0" is 150 % of the value of the single engine. Tender and brake van do not supply power. Is it a generic boost factor? Is it useful to show it this way?

For STL internals, I would have to ask Frank (or do some experiments) (or check what has been documented and discussed).

[jamespetts]

Apologies for the delay in response to this: my flat was burgled last week, and I have been somewhat preoccupied since with dealing with that matter.

I have now implemented some of these suggestions on the 11.x branch - thank you very much for your feedback. In particular, I have added a display of a convoy's overall overcrowded capacity in the depot and replace windows, added the sum of the brake force in the same places, and added an indicator showing "too heavy" when a vehicle with grey under-bars is moused-over in the depot window.

I could not reproduce the issue with the LNWR 17in coal engine, and I think that the total goods capacity per category (passengers/mail/goods) is already shown. Reversing time would be a little trickier to add, and new physics calculations would be much more difficult to add, so I have omitted those for the present.

I have yet to look into enhancements to the convoy detail window; I might be able to add a few of those with minimal effort in time for the next minor release.

Thank you again for your feedback: it is much appreciated.

[greenling]

Hello Jamespetts
Have the Thief stealling your computer with your simutransdata?

[jamespetts]

Ahh, no, happily not: mainly photography equipment; but I have been somewhat preoccupied with dealing with that, so have not had as much time for Simutrans as normal. I am hoping to do more Simutrans work this week-end, however.

Edit: I have made two further additions to the convoy detail window for the time being: the total tractive effort and the total maximum brake force. Whoami - you also suggested adding the total rolling resistance; may I ask why you think that this particular statistic is useful? I note that it is not presented in the depot/replace windows, and you did not ask for it there.

[whoami]

The rolling resistance is not as important as the other values for trains, but might be for other vehicles. You might want to include it for completeness, but I do not request it. My point was more that the (rolling resistance) value shown for the single vehicles is far too high, it is higher than the braking force. EDIT: I just see that the 11.13 announcement  includes the fix for that.

[jamespetts]

Ahh, thank you: that problem is now fixed in 11.13. Have you had a chance to test the new version? I should be interested in your views.