I have assembled a LibreOffice spreadsheet (http://wlindley.com/simutrans/Exp-Cater-Comfort-Capacity.ods) for your examination and tinkering, which computes the capacity and class of:
- passengers,
- mail,
- or a combination passengers and mail,
given
- the equivalent cargo capacity in tons of a vehicle (or a single hold of a ship), or
- the internal length, in feet, of the passenger compartment
It does this by estimating first the cubic feet of the cargo compartment (based on a standard cubic-feet-per-ton factor for gravel), then estimating the square feet of floor space; then, assuming about 6 square feet per passenger (at lowest comfort level, and accounting for passageways) looks at comfort level (higher comfort equals more space per passenger) and catering (higher catering uses more floor space), to estimate the final passenger capacity and class (1..5).
The numbers for a variety of coaches and railway carriages seem sensible, but the Humber Keel (pondering upon which inspired this spreadsheet) I suggest would have a mail capacity more like 120 rather than the 500 currently. The mail-and-passenger Humber Keel would then be 24 passengers and 40 mail (rather than 20 passengers who somehow now still permit carrying the same 500 mail of the single-purpose vessel!)
I hope this may prove useful. If there is interest, I could code this logic into makeobj, so pakset writers could specify vehicle dimensions, desired comfort and catering, and we would automatically compute the passenger capacity and section class.
That is very interesting. Many of the vehicles in the pakset have capacities set on the basis of real life information, but this is missing in many cases. Tracking down retrospectively which is which is likely to be a somewhat time-consuming task.
In relation to the Humber keel, I have modified it based on your suggested figures of 24/40; however, I am a little confused by the reference to a dedicated mail version, as I do not believe that there is such a thing; indeed, this would be redundant given the mail hold in the passenger version.
What is passenger class 7 meant to be?! As far as I am aware there are only 5 classes...
- Very Low
- Low
- Medium
- High
- Very High
Also the spreadsheet seems to contain just the Humble Keel and East Indiaman. Where is the rest of the ~2,000 vehicles with passengers and/or mail? Or was this spreadsheet for demonstration purposes?
Yes, demonstration. I didn't cap the class at 5 (Makeobj does do that); in any case, the formulas and factors are open to discussion. You are welcome to try other vehicles.
Eventually, it would be interesting if players could refit existing passenger vehicles with varying levels of comfort and catering, at calculated refit prices, and within limits, using prototype combinations only as a starting point, the same way a railroad or airline can order the real thing.