The International Simutrans Forum

This version

This version of Simutrans-Experimental was released on the 12th of April 2009. See here (http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=1894.msg19644#msg19644) for information on how to get a copy.

The new version numbering system

From this release onwards, Simutrans-Experimental will have its own version number alongside the Simutrans-Standard version number. This version is Simutrans 102.1 Experimental 2. 102.1 is the Simutrans-Standard version number (that is, the version of Simutrans-Standard on which this version is based), and 2 is the Experimental revision. The numbers are kept separate in order to enforce save-game compatibility. Consequently, Simutrans-Experimental will not load a save game saved by a version of Simutrans-Experimental with a higher Experimental version number or a higher Standard version number.

Overview of new features since the last version

Revenue

The system for calculating revenue has been completely overhauled: see here (http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=1818.0) for details. Highlights include:

• Revenue is based on the actual average speed of convoys or lines, not their theoretical maximum speed
• For passengers, the comfort level of the convoys or lines in which they travel affects the revenue (requires compatible pakset)
• Vehicles can be overcrowded. Standing passengers reduce the average comfort for that convoy/line (requires compatible pakset)
• Catering and travelling post office vehicles can be added to convoys to increase the revenue for passengers or mail respectively (requires compatible pakset)
• The importance of speed or comfort varies according to the length of the journey
• Revenue is calculated based on the route distance, but this is capped to a maximum proportion of the straight line distance to prevent exploits.
• Passenger revenue is affected by the proportion of unhappy to happy passengers at the origin stop

Routing

The system of routing goods and passengers has been completely overhauled. See here (http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=1835.0) for a techincal discussion. Highlights include:

• Passengers or goods travel the shortest distance between their origin and destination, based on journey time, not necessarily distance
• The journey time to each directly connected stop is shown in the detail window for every stop
• Waiting time is measured. For passengers and goods that care about their speed (i.e., that have a speed bonus of over zero), they will only wait a certain amount of time before leaving and (in the case of passengers) registering as "unhappy"
• Waiting time is taken into account when computing the fastest journey
• Passengers are less likely to use private cars the faster that the player's service is compared to the speed of road transport (set in speedbonus.tab)
• Passengers and goods will always wait to board the convoy that will take them to their destination the quickest (has the lowest journey time to the destination). However, if they have been waiting for a long time, they will board any convoy that goes to their destination
• If the "avoid_overcrowded" setting is enabled, passengers/goods arriving at an overcrowded station are discarded, and they do not pay for the last leg of their journey.
• The "no_routing_over_overcrowded" setting is deprecated because of its tendency to cause deadlocks and its incompatibility with the new routing system
• All of the above achieved without a noticeable adverse impact on performance due to changes in the basic way in which routes are calculated

Finance

• Interest payments on debt (a feature introduced in a previous version of Simutrans-Experimental) are now shown in a graph in the finance window
• Interest payments are subtracted from the monthly profit graph
• Credit limit is shown on its own graph in the finance window
• Credit limit decays over time if the player has been withdrawn over three months, and only returns slowly afterwards
• The initial credit limit is now 1/10th of the player's starting funds

Physics

• Steam locomotives now have less power near the top of their speed range, as well as near the bottom

Known issues

Routing

• The waiting times can take a very long time (up to one game year sometimes) to register properly. Cause as yet unknown.
• When loading a game saved in an earlier version of Simutrans-Experimental, or any version of Simutrans-Standard, for the first time, the journey timings (and thus the average speeds) can be inaccurate as the departure times would not have been saved in the earlier versions. This can affect both revenue and routing. This cannot effectively be solved, but does not recur once the game is saved from Simutrans-Experimental revision 2 or higher.

GUI

• The "List of all goods" does not yet reflect the new revenue system

Testing and feedback

I have undertaken basic testing, and verified that the code works in normal circumstances. However, this should still be considered a beta release. I should be very grateful for any testing. Please report any bugs in this forum, or any other feedback from testing. Your thoughts would be greatly welcomed!