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Passenger-only Trains

Started by Rodrico Stak, December 15, 2014, 07:32:14 PM

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Rodrico Stak

It seems like, with very few exceptions, it is always better to use a "regular" engine with passenger cars than it is to use a trainset dedicated to passengers.  Doing so allows carrying more passengers at less cost, rarely more than $4 or 5 per km.  The dedicated passenger-only trains (ie, the ones that appear in the passenger trains tab in the depot) typically have extremely high costs $10 or even 15 per km (!) to carry fewer passengers at similar speeds.  Take, for example, the Pioneer Zephyr, which claims a top speed of 180 km.  Not only can it never achieve much over 100kmh as a maximum speed for the purposes of the speed bonus due to its low power, but it will never turn a profit, not even with the speed bonus at its year of introduction.  The Pioneer Zephyr is perhaps the most extreme example I've noticed, but there are many vehicles like it in the game, such that it is almsot never worthwhile to run the powered trains from the passenger trains tab.  Am I simply misusing these vehicles, or is it just a balance issue that has not yet been addressed?

DrSuperGood

Later on there should be cheapish modular trains intended for computer purposes. That said you generally want to move to the electric train tab and use the high speed passenger trains from there. Yes they cost a bit per tile but make a ton of money.

I do agree that some engines are probably not balanced. I have never run a passenger network that early in pak128 (usually start with industry) so cannot comment on a possible solution.

gauthier

Actually balancing formula for locs & cars and for trainsets are not the same, obviously it leads to inconsistencies in extreme cases.
In the case of Zephir, the problem is of course its limit speed, the balance algorithm thinks it will get a huge speed bonus, etc ...

Pak128 needs a finer balancing, but now nobody has enough time to do it.