gap in express locomotive 1844 - 1847

[ӔO]

The LMR patentee (55km/h) is no longer available for purchase after 1844 september, but the only other locomotive available is the LMR lion (35km/h) until 1847, when the Jenny Lind (70km/h) becomes available.

There's also the SDR Derwent in 1845, but it's quite unusable compared to the lion with its low power, low top speed and high cost.

to add, there are no tracks that allow 70km/h operation for a short time and the bridges and elevated way allow for faster operation than on ground, which seems out of place.

[jamespetts]

AEO,

thank you for your report. I have already fixed the locomotive issue for the next release by lengthening the retirement date of one or other locomotive (I forget which), but during which years are the faster tracks not available?

As to the elevated way, the difficulty there is that the bridge itself cannot be separated from the tracks in Simutrans, so, whereas in reality, the elevated way would have been built in the Victorian age and then left in place for hundreds of years, with the tracks over it being frequently replaced and upgraded, the only way of achieving a bridge/elevated way in 1840 that is usable in 1990 is to give it a high capability when new.

[ӔO]

The 110km/h improved wrought iron track appears in 1850, but until then the plain 60km/h wrought iron track is the only track available.

so that's a 3 yr gap until 70km/h can be achieved.

I also notice that there's another gap, which is between the capacity of horse carriages and trains. There's just not enough capacity with the horse carriages until the knife board (cap 30+2) comes around in 1845. Until the knife board comes around, even the basic LMR planet/patentee with 4 wheel carriage completely overwhelms the omnibus (cap 10)horse carriage.

The only issue with the brick viaduct/elevated way is that at that point in the game, even with their high construction cost, the network generates so much money, that it's a moot point. The only thing that was worrying me, was the costs of the patentee convoys, which ate up a significant portion of capital to meet capacity demands.

[jamespetts]

Ahh, the omnibus issue will also be fixed in the next release, as I have found that its true capacity was 22. As to the tracks, that's a little more tricky - it seems plausible enough that, when the locomotive is first introduced, it can in theory go faster than is safe to go on contemporary track.

[ӔO]

here is, so far, 100yrs of a game with the default settings.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/17111233/acetate%20185x.sve

selling off/replacing the patentees recuperated much needed capital.