Better Depots

[isidoro]

Sometimes people complain that sending a train to a depot messes all their beautifully built network up.  But other people find placing the suitable depots and thinking up the network an interesting task: trying to achieve that no matter where or when you send a train to a depot, things work flawlessly.

[Ters]

I just want a vehicle to have a position at any given time, and that that position only changes according to the vehicle's top speed. That two vehicles can't occupy the same position might be a nice addition, as it would make stockpiling of vehicles more costly. The main problem as I see it is how to make such a change compatible with existing games.

[Fabio]

I just merged the two threads, so more brainstorming in one place

[wlindley]

How about changing the behaviour of depots in schedules?  Currently, sending a convoy to depot as part of a schedule sends it there, a dialog pops up "Train 1 has entered a depot" and it stays there.  Suppose we changed depot orders to regard some flag (in the manner of Minimim load, max wait for load) that permitted entering the depot, then leaving after a short time to simulate maintenance. 

That would be prototypical for trains, which in real life would terminate at a station, roll away from the station to be cleaned and serviced, and then return to start their next journey.

In the game, we could replace the current "obsolete" logic (which penalizes using old equipment) with a counter (months since last service) so  convoys not receiving regular service would become more expensive, but still functional. 

Together with this, permit the player to purchase obsolete equipment (after the "retire" date) with a cost increased by the number of years out-of-date.  You want to build a 1840s engine in 1940? No problem, we have the blueprints, sir, but it's going to cost you a pretty penny and it won't have much perfomance, but if that's what you want, yes sir!  And if you don't give it lots of maintenance, it's really going to set you back! 

[jamespetts]

I would see well changing them to share disassembled parts, but maybe also correlate the max number of vehicles of a given type with the number of depots the player built on the map (or depot extensions as in your proposition).

As I think that I mentioned, the first is planned for Experimental. The second I have considered in the past, but shelved when the idea proved controversial in favour of other projects, the suggestion being that the same economic job could be done more efficiently using vehicles' fixed costs (which are now in Standard, too). I wonder whether this matter needs considering again? A similar consideration can be given to giving functionality to headquarters - either by having the headquarters level limit the number of depots built, or by having the headquarters level determine how many useful statistics/data about one's transport network that one can access.

[greenling]

Hello wlindley

How about changing the behaviour of depots in schedules?  Currently, sending a convoy to depot as part of a schedule sends it there, a dialog pops up "Train 1 has entered a depot" and it stays there.  Suppose we changed depot orders to regard some flag (in the manner of Minimim load, max wait for load) that permitted entering the depot, then leaving after a short time to simulate maintenance. 

That would be prototypical for trains, which in real life would terminate at a station, roll away from the station to be cleaned and serviced, and then return to start their next journey.

In the game, we could replace the current "obsolete" logic (which penalizes using old equipment) with a counter (months since last service) so  convoys not receiving regular service would become more expensive, but still functional. 

Together with this, permit the player to purchase obsolete equipment (after the "retire" date) with a cost increased by the number of years out-of-date.  You want to build a 1840s engine in 1940? No problem, we have the blueprints, sir, but it's going to cost you a pretty penny and it won't have much perfomance, but if that's what you want, yes sir!  And if you don't give it lots of maintenance, it's really going to set you back! 

I think that your ideas more in Simutrans exp usefull it than in simutrans standart.

[INJMVO]

There is a thread to make the depots multi-tile maybe this will give them more eye candy and more function:
http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?action=post;topic=5126.50;last_msg=73752