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Help me connect cities and factories

Started by Moose, July 09, 2016, 08:56:01 PM

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Moose

I have two cities with a large lake in between them. I have a sawmill in one and a tree plantation in the other. I built canals too both of them, the canal boarded the treeplantation aswell as the sawmill. I added the goods platform, stores 64 goods in the canals so ships could ship them there. The canal and the factory made up a lollypop shape -[]      -being the canal [] being the factory. I put my barge+tug boat out to make a route, when it got to the plantation it just said 0-100%, I waited about five minutes still nothing! I also have this problem using vehicle loading bay Help!!!

Isaac Eiland-Hall

Screenshots would help, but one thing to check: Open the properties of the sawmill and plantation to make sure that they're connected. In Simutrans, not all factories will be connected. Say your map has two sawmills. A particular plantation might be connected to just one, or both. So you have to make sure they're connected.

Also, a general rule for asking for help on the internet: Please make your subjects useful so that others may benefit; conversely, when you search for answers, you benefit from others who write useful subjects.

gauthier

This should help:
QuoteSetting up freight lines is often confusing for beginners. Here are the rules that you have to check so your line can work:


Considering two factories A and B, you want to transport goods from A to B.

Conditions on the factories:
_ A must be supplier of B (you see a link to B in the window of A and vice-versa)
_ If your line has already worked in the past, check that B is not already full of the good you want to transport (in B's window, numbers x/_/y are displayed for this good with x > y)

Conditions on player's line, assuming a direct connection between the two factories:
_ Station A and B must accept goods (in a station's window, just under the field with the name of the station, you see the goods'logo. In pak64 and pak128, it looks like a small pile of dirt) You can make a station accept goods by adding any station building (platform/stop/extension like a warehouse/...) which accepts goods.
_ You have at least one convoy running (out of the depot) which can load the goods you want to transport (bulk vehicles for coal for example). The type of vehicles you have to use is specified in the factories'windows.

If you have a indirect connection between the two factories, ensure that all stations on the way can accept goods and that each line can transport the goods just as explained above.

If you are still unable to make it work, please put here screenshots of both factories and stations with their information window opened and convoy (barge + tug) with information window as well.

Moose

#3
How do you connect the two buildings?

There is only a [Details] and [Chart Button

One more thing, is this game fully updated on steam? That is what I am playing it off of


Mod note: please avoid making unnecessary double-posts. The forum is not a chat, prefer to edit your last comment.
~IgorEliezer

gauthier

Please avoid multiple posts, edit your first post instead of adding new ones.

QuoteHow do you connect the two buildings?
Connecting a station to a factory is easy: the factory just has to be in the coverage area of the station (key "v"). Building the station right next to the factory is okay.

QuoteThere is only a [Details] and [Chart Button
Not a problem. Just take the screenshots if you are still unable to fix the problem so we can see what is wrong.

QuoteOne more thing, is this game fully updated on steam? That is what I am playing it off of
Yes it is.

DrSuperGood

If you have access to the public player (player slot 2) then you can force connect industries, similar to how you can make any two industries. This tool can be considered cheating since it bypasses any game mechanics to give you an unfair advantage. It is primarily intended for people who like to make model rails or scenarios.

HaydenRead

Quote from: gauthier on July 10, 2016, 06:43:56 PM
Quote from: Moose on July 10, 2016, 12:49:07 PM
One more thing, is this game fully updated on steam? That is what I am playing it off of
Yes it is.
A slight qualification in regards to this:
It is currently up to date (and is generally updated to the newest stable release within 1 week of a new stable release being made available - latest stable release was in February).
The weekly_build available through Steam is more up to date, but may contain game breaking bugs, as it is based on the state of the code each Sunday - the only more up to date version than this is the nightly builds available through http://nightly.simutrans.com/ (which is based on the state of the code each night).

Moose

#7
The truck is not loading, would this be caused by an increase in radious, three was to small, I have made it five, I did not work when the radious was default either. My photo is too large so I cannot post, the truck is going between a sawmill and a tree plantation I have loading bays touching both of them still not working

Finally one more thing! Anyway to make a thing like this Sawmill -> gets taken to a port -> shipped to a distrubtion area -> gets where it needs to go


Mod note: please avoid making unnecessary double-posts. The forum is not a chat, prefer to edit your last comment.
~IgorEliezer

DrSuperGood

Upload the save if possible. Use a service like dropbox, google drive, one drive etc to host large temporary files for free.

Moose


Vladki

Please share your solution, so that other players can use it too.

Moose

alright one last question I do not understand how choose singals work example
==X====++++++++*===
        ===+++++++++*===
+ Station
= Rail
x Choose Signal
* End of choose singal
Okay so when you hit schedual and add a stop the train will go exacally there, so what is the point of the choose signal? Or does this not work in this case?

DrSuperGood

Choose signal is only used if the path to the destination platform is blocked/reserved. It will then look for an alternative platform at the same destination up to a certain distance/trial count before defaulting to wait for a path to the same platform to be free (similar to a standard signal). End of choose signals block the search from going beyond them (as if there was no way from the signal perspective).

Moose

#13
So my train station is like this
====+++++++++++++========
    ===++++++++++++====
any way to make the train to go to either one if the one it is suppose to go has a train in it?
Nevermind that was a dumb response sorry lol misread your message

Wait one last thing sorry, any way to put two trains on one platform?

DrSuperGood

Quote
Wait one last thing sorry, any way to put two trains on one platform?
If the platform is very long they might be able to both enter it when passing a choose signal, with the first train going to the end and the second train stopping behind. I recall seeing this in experimental where platform lengths are often 12-24 tiles so I am unsure if it is a feature of standard.

Practically an infinite number of lines could share the same platform of a stop as long as the traffic allows it. This is common with unload only stops (eg for feeding factories or one side of a passenger line where no waiting occurs). For example a pak128 Coal Fired Power Station might be fed from 4-6 different coal lines all going to 1 platform of the stop to save on stop maintenance.


DrSuperGood

Quote
Two trains on one platform is not possible in standard.
It is meant to be impossible. However it can still happen as the result of a combination of schedule or way changes. The convoys will teleport to some extent to correct their path and during that time they can overlap temporarily. Only 1 convoy can move during the overlap period (which ever first reserves the way) however they are still overlapped and so can technically both be at 1 platform at the same time.

Most commonly seen during reconfiguration of ways entering/leaving a terminal. Convoys on route to or leaving from the terminal will suffer minor teleportation when they hit the reconfigured entry/exit track. During this time they can be moved into or overlap with another convoy, and potentially enter the same platform as another convoy.

Hardly exploitable, possibly a minor bug but still true.

Vladki

I think you can put two trains on one platform if you put a signal in the middle.

gauthier

Quote from: Vladki on July 12, 2016, 06:27:03 PM
I think you can put two trains on one platform if you put a signal in the middle.
Just tried: the second train goes until the signal and waits there for the first train to go away (even with right section of stations selected in the schedule).

DrSuperGood: Of course it is still possible if you really want to do it but this thread is about doing things that are long-term viable in a savegame, not about playing tricks to the game, especially when trying to help a beginner.

Moose

Well Im on vacation, I'll be on this forum later, so a few questions
*Should you use passenger aircraft? I do know you should not build lots of passenger aircraft but should you build a few?
* If it's a 500+ distance away should you make it a cargo plane route?
* Should you invest in a large depot? Example: A log train will bring in logs from a plantation to a cargo station, trucks will pick up the logs from the depot than bring them to a storage facility (multiple modern warehouses) than have trucks going from the warehouses to the facilities. Than have other trucks pick up the stuff those facilities produce and bring them to be depot. Example: Production trains: Coal, Logs ect. Bring in productiables, then mineral, grain, log trucks take it to the depot. Than more production vehicles will take them to those to the factories who need productiables: grain / coal / log. Then more trucks will take the things that the factories produced to the depot and then more trucks take it to the cargo station will this work?

gauthier

Quote*Should you use passenger aircraft? I do know you should not build lots of passenger aircraft but should you build a few?
There's no specific rule, if you like them and if they can be profitable, build them. In pak128, they are balanced in such a way that they have to be almost full at every journey. If you achieve having some aircrafts always flying at full load (or almost full), you will get huge profit.

Quote* If it's a 500+ distance away should you make it a cargo plane route?
Like what I said above: as you wish. As far as I know, cargo planes are very profitable in pak128. I personally prefer trains and I will always use trains. Use what you like the most  ;)

Quote* Should you invest in a large depot? Example: A log train will bring in logs from a plantation to a cargo station, trucks will pick up the logs from the depot than bring them to a storage facility (multiple modern warehouses) than have trucks going from the warehouses to the facilities. Than have other trucks pick up the stuff those facilities produce and bring them to be depot. Example: Production trains: Coal, Logs ect. Bring in productiables, then mineral, grain, log trucks take it to the depot. Than more production vehicles will take them to those to the factories who need productiables: grain / coal / log. Then more trucks will take the things that the factories produced to the depot and then more trucks take it to the cargo station will this work?
To make it short, you are talking about a big freight hub where all goods travel through, aren't you ? If you have many industries you could get easily overwhelmed by all the goods although it can work. Anyway I doubt this is a good solution as you will pay much maintenance for your storage.

Moose

Okay quick question let's say your train station gets 19,000 people a month and you add an airport will the airport deduct the amount of passengers that travel through there until the plane is full or will most passengers stop using the rail way system?

Vladki

Pax will use the path with least transfers. So if you make a direct flight connection, pax to that destination will only fly. If there will be other direct connection to the same destination (train, bus, boat) pax will use whatever arrives first.

DrSuperGood

Quote
There's no specific rule, if you like them and if they can be profitable, build them. In pak128, they are balanced in such a way that they have to be almost full at every journey. If you achieve having some aircrafts always flying at full load (or almost full), you will get huge profit.
Brokenly huge profit in fact. You can even air freight wool and watch the money tsunami in.

In pak64 it is very different as the only cargo plane has low capacity and is slow so usually it make very little profit compared with trucks or trains.

Moose

Alright one more question, that I currently have. So if you have a train station and a already developed city 100k+ people, should you build it in the city, destroy some buildings or outside of the city and have buses run into it? That brings me up to my next question will passengers take buses to the station even if the station coverage is away from the city? Sorry for all the questions I'm working on good train station layouts

DrSuperGood

Quote
Alright one more question, that I currently have. So if you have a train station and a already developed city 100k+ people, should you build it in the city, destroy some buildings or outside of the city and have buses run into it? That brings me up to my next question will passengers take buses to the station even if the station coverage is away from the city? Sorry for all the questions I'm working on good train station layouts
Passengers will only be picked up within a station pickup area and leave for destinations within a station pickup area. The only exception are industries where just 1 tile of a factory needs to be within the stop coverage area to get all the passengers to and from it. Very large attractions need 100% coverage.

Passengers and mail have no problem transferring from multiple times. They will get from their source to their destination by any means. There is a limit to transfer number though (which can be adjusted) but that is more for technical optimization reasons than mechanics.

Generally what I do is have a subway system for passenger pickup and then ship those directly to a station which moves them to a central hub for further transfer. This seems to be the most scale able approach to passengers and is needed when maps start to exceed 90% pickup and delivery (the case of some pak64 servers I played). For very small cities I use busses but ultimately those will eventually fail due to excessive traffic no matter what you do.

Destroying city buildings is not recommended because it removes people (they disappear). This means that you lose potential passengers and mail to transport and set city growth back several months or even years. It has been suggested in the past that population be refunded to the cities rather than removed however the changes never progressed beyond concept phase.

Isaac Eiland-Hall

Station coverage shows you the coverage of the station. Nothing will come from tiles that are not covered by a station. That's how station coverage works.

As far as building a large station in the middle of a city: It'll be expensive, so you'll have to decide if it's worth it to you or not. From a gameplay standpoint, money is always just a matter of time - as long as you're making a profit. So you can spend that money on expansion, or spend money on expansion + clearing tiles. It's your game. :)

Passengers will try to take the shortest number of transfers to their destination. However, there is an upper limit - definable by you - on the number of transfers they'll do (because allowing for too many would slow the game down too much). I think the default these days is nine. Which should be enough in most cases.

So it depends on how you set your network up.

If you set up a spoke-and-hub type system - basically, you collect passengers from a city (or couple or so if they're close enough; or you collect from a cluster of cities) and  deliver to a hub. That hub could be in one of the cities - or outside the city. Doesn't matter.  If it's the only way passengers can get from where they are to their destination, they'll go through that hub.

Moose

Alright another question let's say there 2 mail at a mail place one goes to city A other goes to C and the mail is in B. So if a mail truck stops at the mail station and it only goes to B -> C will it pick up the A mail

DrSuperGood

Quote
So if a mail truck stops at the mail station and it only goes to B -> C will it pick up the A mail
It will only pick up mail heading towards the stops it visits. In this case it will not pickup the mail for A because it will not visit A. Mail for A will only be generated if another convoy services the route B -> A, you will never find mail, or goods in general, going to stops that are not connected.

Moose


kierongreen

All stops whether bus or rail have their own coverage. If they are linked by a service then passengers will use them and transfer where necessary. Just make sure you build one of the bus stops as part of the railway station. It's entirely up to you whether you have a station in the centre of town or at the edge.

Vladki


Moose

After the year 2999 does the game end?

DrSuperGood

Quote
After the year 2999 does the game end?
Yes and no... It ends in the sense that you cannot build most things anymore however it does not end in that the game will keep progressing. To keep building you will need to disable timeline.

I am not sure what the reasoning behind the removal of all build options at 2999 is. I have suggested in the past that it should evaluate the same as 2998 does and still allow you to build normally, just nothing more can ever get introduced as the year 2999 will loop infinitely (pak developer constraint).

Moose

How do the people who build these London maps in modern day time never increase in their timeline? So they will keep playing the game and show you these routes but they never really go beyond modern day time

DrSuperGood

Quote
How do the people who build these London maps in modern day time never increase in their timeline? So they will keep playing the game and show you these routes but they never really go beyond modern day time
They probably have set a very high time bits value. As such a year in their game might be several hours of real playing time.

Moose

Alright thanks I think that's all the questions I have
Well if you turn those bits up so the year is longer, will the trains move slower?

Isaac Eiland-Hall

Also, it may be that some players have set their cities not to expand. If you poke around in the settings, you can make it so that industries don't appear and cities don't grow, if that's what you'd like. You can also use public player to increase city sizes manually - switch to public player and look for the new menu button (in most paks) that gives you a menu with some options - most paks include a button that'll increase the city size.  :)

Moose

Well thanks guy. Anything, any advise?

Isaac Eiland-Hall

In the players menu is a "Freeplay" checkbox that allows you to play without worrying about money. It can be used for test games to experiment with things. You'll still see the money - just doesn't matter if you go negative. Great learning tool.

Frankly, it's how I play - I use Simutrans as a sandbox. Set goals like "Transport all the passengers" or whatever. Or just build my highways and connect cities. :)

But also means I don't have many good tips, except:

1. Industry is easier for profits on most paks - because you set up a connection and you get money.
2. Passengers do best when you serve all of them for all of the map - serving a single city is usually not profitable. So you have to build up money and then serve enough passengers to make some profit.
3. Trains are harder to set up and not have conflicts that are difficult to resolve (sending one or more trains to depot, fixing track). Trucks are easier, but generally have less throughput.

DrSuperGood

Quote
Well if you turn those bits up so the year is longer, will the trains move slower?
Trains move at the same speed. Even industries produce at the same speed. It scales the entire month length up but actual simulation speed remains the same.

There is a bug with power paying less per month for longer months. I submitted a patch which fixed that and some JIT2 issues very early this year but it is taking a very long time to approve for some reason.

Quote
3. Trains are harder to set up and not have conflicts that are difficult to resolve (sending one or more trains to depot, fixing track). Trucks are easier, but generally have less throughput.
Trains are not that hard and usually more profitable than roads.

Roads are practically unusable in pak128 because of the huge industry production quantities. For example a single road might be loaded to capacity just delivering 1 of multiple raw materials for a factory.

Moose

One more thing I'll run a 1500*1500 map and everyone once and awhile the game will lag for 3-8 seconds than it works fine again, any way to fix this?

DrSuperGood

Quote
One more thing I'll run a 1500*1500 map and everyone once and awhile the game will lag for 3-8 seconds than it works fine again, any way to fix this?
By "lag" I am guessing you mean that it will freeze with 0 FPS for that time period. This sounds like auto save. Try disabling auto save.

Saving in Simutrans is very demanding due to the complexity of the state. A 1500*1500 map has a lot of state on it and can be several megabytes when compressed. Since compression is demanding that can take several seconds. This matches the problem you are reporting so I recommend disabling auto save. Be warned that without auto save there is no automatic backing up of progress you make meaning it is entirely your responsibility to save regularly while playing. Although the developers strive for 100% stability, there are still the odd obscure bug which can cause a crash which forces you back to the last save made. I personally would recommend keeping autosave active but maybe changing the format to be less compressed so that it saves faster but with a larger file size.

Moose

Why is auto-save faster than save? So should you save? Or should you let auto save do it?

DrSuperGood

Quote
Why is auto-save faster than save? So should you save? Or should you let auto save do it?
There are a variety of different reasons. One is that the compression used by auto save usually is more light weight than the compression used by a normal save. This trades save size for save speed which is fine in an auto save situation.

Moose

So let auto save do its thing when playing the game. But when exiting the game save and then leave?

DrSuperGood

Quote
So let auto save do its thing when playing the game. But when exiting the game save and then leave?
That is basically how to do it. If auto save is set for every 15 minutes or so then even if the game does crash you will lose very little progress.

Moose

Anything else you think I should know?

DrSuperGood

Quote
Anything else you think I should know?
Speed bonus is in percentage bonus per 10% maximum speed difference with the speed bonus speed for the involved transport type. Actual speed does not matter, only the convoy calculated maximum speed and the maximum speed of the involved lines.


Giziar

Quote from: Moose on July 16, 2016, 03:36:13 PM
One more thing I'll run a 1500*1500 map and everyone once and awhile the game will lag for 3-8 seconds than it works fine again, any way to fix this?

My Map is slightly larger than that (4096*4096) and I experienced on my previous PC a lag whenever: 1) whenever a new month started (lag was almost half a gameday long) and 2) whenever a new season started.
Since I replaced that 4 year old PC with a monster new PC I have no experience of lag whatsoever.

</late reaction>

Moose

Quote from: Giziar on July 19, 2016, 04:57:20 PM
My Map is slightly larger than that (4096*4096) and I experienced on my previous PC a lag whenever: 1) whenever a new month started (lag was almost half a gameday long) and 2) whenever a new season started.
Since I replaced that 4 year old PC with a monster new PC I have no experience of lag whatsoever.

</late reaction>
My computer is quite old, it's a PC I would say it's approximately six years old so... Idk uses window 10 thou
Should probably get a much better computer. Anyways have you made a large successful hub?

Giziar

Not really having a huge hub thanks to the large map. More using a large network of intercity lines.

See picture for the transport network of the most populated area of my game; it's a combination of intercity trains, local trains & buses.
It's the starting area of my save and it's about 1% of the size of the total map and hosting more than 16% of the total population.


Moose

Any success with airports? Haven't tried passenger I just send mail using aircraft

DrSuperGood

Quote
Any success with airports? Haven't tried passenger I just send mail using aircraft
Passenger aircraft are so good in pak64 and pak128 that servers often ban them. Once you get the carrier jets you can plonk a huge hub in the middle of the map and air all passengers in the entire world there. For pickup abuse disjoined stops to cover entire cities with a single stop. Result is insane profits, to the point one might as well not bother playing.

Out of principle I try to avoid passenger aircraft now. Instead I use high speed trains, which also make insane profit but at least I can justify it with spending 30-60 minutes making the line. As opposed to using an airport which takes 5 minutes to set up both ends.

Moose

Quote from: DrSuperGood on July 19, 2016, 10:56:59 PM
Passenger aircraft are so good in pak64 and pak128 that servers often ban them. Once you get the carrier jets you can plonk a huge hub in the middle of the map and air all passengers in the entire world there. For pickup abuse disjoined stops to cover entire cities with a single stop. Result is insane profits, to the point one might as well not bother playing.

Out of principle I try to avoid passenger aircraft now. Instead I use high speed trains, which also make insane profit but at least I can justify it with spending 30-60 minutes making the line. As opposed to using an airport which takes 5 minutes to set up both ends.
Reason I ask is because I want to do a model city, free play in other words

Giziar

I am using a few air routes but restrict them generally to far away attractions and factories/mines. A few cities near the edge of the map who are separated by a large lake from the rest of the map are also served by planes. 2 reasons why only so few air routes: 1) I like using trains & 2) airplanes in the 1930s don't have a lot of capacity

Moose

Well I'll be making a model city, I want to do a blogish thing with it, but it's not career so may be boring options? Well I'll start the game with 1.5bil so you guys think I should make a blogish thing or no? Can't decide :/

Isaac Eiland-Hall

In my experience, few people read blogs.

In my personal opinion - I see a lot of "Let's Play" videos where people just starting out play the game. I don't watch them.

My advice: Play the game. Get used to it. Experiment. Understand it. Then start planning your big model game.

That all being said, if you want to do a blog type thing - they can be very fun. Not only to do, but to read. You can post a thread here on the forum with your updates (as well as somewhere else if that's your plan - either or both).

The biggest problem on the internet is starting a project and losing interest.

That all being said... have fun. :) That's most important.

Moose

Instead of making of making cities progress slowly I made them go super fast, will this  cause severe lag in big maps?

DrSuperGood

Quote
Instead of making of making cities progress slowly I made them go super fast, will this  cause severe lag in big maps?
Possibly, especially if you end up with like 100 million people on the map. A few million is fine and should cause no problems.

Moose

Um.. I built these aircraft they are sitting on the run way saying waiting for clearance help?!
Found out why
NOTE: DO NOT place lots of aircraft at the same time

Moose

Help, again. Server not responding: here is what I did opened properties on one of the two copies of simutrans and added at the end server 13353. The I open it and made a map. Next I went to the other copy and launched it, hit play online entered my IPV4 address than I hit space, and typed in 13353 and I hit query server it said server did not respond, I'm not good at this so please you English lol thanks!


DrSuperGood

Quote
Help, again. Server not responding: here is what I did opened properties on one of the two copies of simutrans and added at the end server 13353. The I open it and made a map. Next I went to the other copy and launched it, hit play online entered my IPV4 address than I hit space, and typed in 13353 and I hit query server it said server did not respond, I'm not good at this so please you English lol thanks!
If both Simutrans clients are running on the same computer then use the local loopback IP address, 127.0.0.0.
If the clients are running on different computers on the same network then use the local network IP address of the server, eg 192.168.X.YYY.
If the clients are running on different computers connected via the internet then you need to use the internet IP address of the server computer. If the server computer is behind a Network Address Translator (NAT) then the NAT must be configured to forward incoming TCP traffic on the selected port to the server's local IP address.

IgorEliezer

Just to let people know: I changed the topic title from "Help" to "Help me connect cities and factories".

Please, use meaningful topic titles. Make your topic titles descriptive so that other people with the same problems can find it later. Thanks.