Road terminals and capacity

[jamespetts]

I posted this as an extension request quite a while ago, but I don't think that anybody has had time to do it, so I am interested in having a go myself; I should be interested to know where in the code that I should look to make changes for this to save myself a little time in setting about doing it.

I should like to be able to make a road terminus more efficient by having road vehicles use both sides of the stop to load/unload. Presently, they only use the left, when things are set up as left hand drive, otherwise the right, hand side of the stop to load/unload, before turning around and driving straight past the opposite side. Vehicles use road terminus stops, in other words, just as they do through stops at which they have to turn around. The opposite side (right in left hand drive games, left in right hand drive games) is unused, so, in principle, in Simutrans, a terminal has a lower capacity than a through stop.

What I should like to be able to do is have the first vehicle go to the stop and turn around so as to use the opposite (right in a left hand drive game, left in a right hand drive game) side, so that the next vehicle can come in and use the principal (left in a left hand drive game, right in a right hand drive game) side at the same time. It would have to be possible to make sure that no vehicle stops at the stop twice (although I should imagine that this would be fairly easy, as the schedule would increment in any event, and it would be good if, if there was a vehicle in the main side (right in a right hand drive game, left in a left hand drive game), an incoming vehicle could go straight to the opposite side.

Any tips for coding this would be most welcome!

[prissi]

I think this would be easy, but it would not change much. You could always unload on arrival instead in the following step. The vehicle only turns when it knows its new route, not earlier.

I think old versions even had the vehicles waiting for loading when entering. Thus you put you loading bay after a branch, since you could then store 65000 vehicles in a curve. When this was removed, to accomodate one more vehicle the loading behaviour was changed to the current state (if I remember correctly).

[wlindley]

Support. Perhaps some part of the "overtaking" code -- where vehicles drive on the "wrong" side for awhile -- could be used to accomodate this.

[greenling]

That it a very nice idea over there be speak.

[prissi]

It would not change anything, apart from the 2s wait before starting. But if you did not have a maglev, any normal convoy has to wait longer for it precessor to clear the tile.

[wlindley]

Why we need this:  A bus full of passengers today must wait to discharge, slowing route times.  This would let one bus discharge even if one were loading.  Also, one mail van and one bus could both be waiting for load simultaneously.

[jamespetts]

WLindley is correct - this is a worthwhile thing for Standard, too, especially with Standard now also having variable loading times.

[prissi]

This would rather increase waiting times when both convois are loaded (if both serve the same line). Same for lorries, loading both will let them depart later.

[jamespetts]

This would rather increase waiting times when both convois are loaded (if both serve the same line). Same for lorries, loading both will let them depart later.

Hmm - why would this be?

[prissi]

First ppacket arrives, loaded on first convoi, second paxcket arrives, loaded on second convoi and so on.

[jamespetts]

That'll only be so if the system for distributing loads amongst multiple waiting vehicles is calibrated in this way.