This post is related to this (https://forum.simutrans.com/index.php/topic,21787.msg201202.html#msg201202) and that (https://forum.simutrans.com/index.php/topic,21796.new.html#new).
I started a new map almost from scratch. For reasons of familiarity i used a very very early save of the same map as of previous mentioned posts.
I started with fishing chain. Fishery-fishery port-market. I enjoy panning so freemode is not an option for me. I planed to deliver 56 crates of fishes per month to 3 markets of 20, 20 and 16 consumption per month rate. So, i needed fishery port to consume 28 lives fishes per month.
I created a successful for my goals chain so all you have to do is watching the save (https://simutrans-germany.com/files/upload/big_2_neon_-go.sve) i uploaded.
Chain is created by heavy use of "pause" mode so the save is like a new map with one created chain at the very first hours of January 1750.
Just watch.
Do not bother with stuck of vehicles as they will auto unstuck once production starts.
I watched the future for plus a year game time and seems chain works as planned but game behavior is not as expected.
just_in_time is set to 1. (i disagree theoretically with its description and i try to control overstock by myself. See post (https://forum.simutrans.com/index.php/topic,21826.0.html) and may be some pdf (https://forum.simutrans.com/index.php/topic,21824.msg201336/topicseen.html#msg201336) if you interested on why).
Question 1 not related to fishing.
I supply 2 identical markets 16km away. They have a stock of 2. To control the stock i use an intermediate main stop where i do heavy upload and use small lines to load from this and upload to markets 2 crates at time. Attractions are near the main stop and markets are 0.5km and 1.5 km away from it. Last time i watched the future, through turbo time speed, i noticed that only the farthest market consumes. The nearest market, despite the fact that it notify it consumes 20crates/month, consumes nothing. Fishes delivered, i saw its stock, overstocked from normal 2 to 38crates but none consume its fishes. I can not find a consistent explanation for this. I cannot tell if every time the same market is not consuming. May be the game prevents two markets or industries close enough to each other to consume both. I do not know and i need your help to understand game mechanics on this.
Notice 2. Fishing boats (Doggers) cannot be scheduled. Their loading time is high. I see 1:00:01- 2:00:02, I expected that as separate loading and unloading times but it seems these are lower and upper range of times in some random duration. I did not noticed any randomness so fish boats have constant loading unloading time of 1:30:00 hours. Fish boats are empty during that time and load their maximum capacity of 8 crates at once upon load time passes.
Fishing port is always overstocked. It has stock of 5. By delivering forcefully 8 crates per deliver, it is doomed to overstock.
Notice 3 Waypoints in lines can not be scheduled. That is ok but, in order to achieve to deliver to fishing port only 5 crates per time, i tried to build intermediate dock or docks. To deliver fishes there, to take 50% of my capacity, to go to another dock where i schedule my departures so as to deliver finally to fishing port 4 crates each time for 7 times per month. All my tries failed because fish boats will load upon passing of loading time their full capacity of 8 crates. There is no slow loading as 1, 2, 3, ... 7, 8 so as some process to stop loading at 4. I dare you to try to deliver 4 crates a time and i would be very happy if you reveal the secret to do so.
Bug 4 In industry list the displayed value for storage of fishing port is actually the "in transit" value that you see in "goods chart". And the peculiarity do not stop here. In the saved game, time is so early that none of live fishes arrived yet. I use 10 boats so, in transit load can be maximum 10*8=80 live fishes. Yet, the "in transit" cargo goes up and up. When first boat arrives, February 3:24:19, to fishing port the "in transit cargo" had reached 177crates and "arrived" cargo value at 0. I tent to believe that it is related some how to the fact that each boat at average carries half his capacity per time unit (see my mentioned posts). For this, i thought the problem was related to the description of "just_in_time"=4 variable, but as i said i already changed it to 1. So, maybe somewhere there is a hidden messy way by which the game tries to control overstocking.
Similarly to what i said, fishing boat uploaded (0/8) but has to wait 90minutes before game considers it uploaded and departure. Minutes after its arrival "arrived" cargo is 8, "in transit" drops a little. At February 3:50:07 a 2nd boat arrived ("arrived"=16) and "in transit"=165.
Notice or bug 5 Despite the urgent need to produce fish foods, production do not start after arrivals and the existed of live fishes in storage. Meanwhile consumption and production rates increased from 22 to 32crates/month and from 44 to 64crates/month respectively. Production and consumption rates start to drop but no product is created yet so, overstocking of live fishes gets worse and worse.
First product is created at February 5:31:38 when storage of live fishes is at 32. From now on, production runs smoothly and on start of March 0:02:31 consumption and production rate is at 56/month and 28/month, as planed. First fishes arrive main stop near market at April 00:39:50.
At April 4:25:30 both markets have fishes but, as fishing port delayed production, they delay to consume. So, all are over stocked.
Notice 6 Yes i have no consumers because i did not bothered with pax yet. But some minimum local consumption should exist. I cant believe that a passenger wants to travel to other continent to consume fish or else no one, not even local inhabitants will ask for it.
At May 01:04:00 the first, local i guess, 10 customers arrived at the far market (424,681) and one of them consumed fish!!
In May 3:03:02 at the away from attractions market (424,681) had arrived 239 consumers that got 13 fishes. Meanwhile at the closest to attractions market (416,689) no customer arrived and his 18 fishes in storage will go to waste.
I can not explain that different behavior between these two markets.
Conclusion All weakness can be forgiven and one can try to play the game as it is. Even, the difficulty to get exact information about how do things work. The statement "make reasonable choices" would be enough. However, there could not be more reasonable choice than planning and, as i said, play freemode without planning is not a choice for my game play. So, for me, from all the above, my inability, to make my boats to deliver less than their capacity each time, is unforgivable.
I was about to quit playing simutrans because of my inability to plan boat deliveries. One last resort, i am thinking now, is to copy Dogger and create one with half its capacity in pakset. I would prefer though an in game less forceful solution.
Is there anyone willing to enlighten my dark spots in the above post?
Thank you.