Do I understand, then, that the answer to the first question in my previous post is "yes"? Do I understand correctly that the algorithm that you suggest is simply that any vehicle with goods loaded for a destination not served by the current schedule of the train connected to the consist order would, irrespective of the stack priorities in the consist order, be used in that consist only if nothing else is available?
Yes, it means yes to both questions.
I can foresee some real difficulties with this, at least many of which fit into the chaotic consequences category. Firstly, the schedule of the convoy on which the consist order is currently operating may not contain the final destination of the vehicle in question, as it may at a later stop be split from the current consist and re-combined with a different consist to reach its destination (and this may happen an unlimited number of times). In this case, I can foresee failures by the algorithm to attach the expected vehicles in the way that is intended by the player.
I dont think I follow. The good must know at what station it expects to change convoy, respectively to unload and load into another convoy? If you mean that the player has made a mistake somewhere and not included a car that the good can travel in, then that is a player mistake.
Secondly, there is no "fastest available" datum in the consist orders. Instead, there is a datum for minimum speed. To get something like "fastest available", one would have to stack several different sets of rules, each with progressively lower minimum speeds.
No, I made it simple for the demonstration purposes. I believe there is "prefer high speed" though.
Thirdly, if you had imagined that this would work, not just on stack priorities, but on the actual rules themselves (as the reference to "fastest available" suggests), then it is not clear how this might work without creating the possibility of forming an unworkable train (e.g., one that is too heavy for its route) that is contrary to the player's intention and explicit instruction.
Planning. The player needs to anticipate what vehicles are to travel the network. And frankly, if the player knows that a bunch of heavy cars are loaded with a particular good, the player will automatically anticipate that it is those particular heavy cars that will end up at the destination too, no matter what is written into the consist orders.
That is even very intriguing gameplay I think: If you know you are sending good to a factory high up in the hills, make sure the cars you send to the initial factory has good braking abilities. If you know that you are sending good that is meant to travel long distance on the shared main line, make sure the cars are fast.
GUI-wise it is very easy to display to the player that any loaded good has the highest (or at least to a certain degree) priority.
It seems to me that in the above scenario it should be possible for the player to choose the outcome. Depending on the exact context, it might be more important to avoid transferring the goods from one vehicle to another at the station, or it might be more important to ensure a higher mainline running speed.
I think a lot of potential issues with malformed convoys can be mitigated by allowing a convoy to leave some vehicles to be added to a later instance of the schedule (and possibly the entire train). So for the case of a too heavy train (too many vehicles are being routed onwards onto one portion of the schedule), the player would specify a weight limit for the consist and if the vehicles being allocated to that portion of the schedule amount to a greater total weight, then the excess vehicles would be allocated to a new convoy running to the same schedule, together perhaps with a portion of the next convoy to arrive on the route.
The only issue I can find is if in that example the slots for the rest of the main line had also a "minimum 80kmh" tag, discarding the two slow cars that where remaining in the convoy. If no other mechanism in place, that would halt the convoy there, only to leave when the branch line returns with the two, now emtpy, cars.
This is what I would call a player error. The player has made the rules too narrow, and should either not have a "minimum 80kmh" tag for the last bit, OR should have made sure that it is in fact the two slow cars that get loaded in the first place, for instance by placing "minimum 80kmh" on the line B->A in the reverse direction, assuming they are all empty.
I believe, however, that it is meant to be able to have empty slots as well, which I assume would make it possible to have make convoys more flexible in length.
