Topic: Make way replacement tool follow ways.

[DrSuperGood]

Currently the way replacement tool (way type selected: drag + shift) works like the standard way type tool. This means that corners are a pain to drag, especially with double track as it might cross lines and fail to change all tiles replacement type.

The idea would be to give the shift modifier the mechanics of way follow tools like way removal or electrification. This way one can drag from one point to another and all tiles along the way will be upgraded, even if there are multiple corners.

Another, possible more simple, solution would be to make way replacement use an area drag similar to how the climate tools work for the public service player. This is the OpenTTD style way upgrade tool. This could potentially be even more productive for bulk changing way replacement type. It would be cumbersome around intersections of various track types, and especially problematic with diagonal lines near each other of different types.

[jamespetts]

The first of the two suggestions is potentially worthwhile - however, it would take a non-trivial amount of time to code and is not currently a priority. If anyone would like to code this, I should happily incorporate it. If this were done, it would need to work consistently for CTRL+dragging (for the upgrade type on next renewal) as well as for SHIFT+dragging (for immediate upgrading).

The second idea I do not think to be good interface design, as it is inconsistent with the way in which other way related tools work, and is likely to be awkward to use and lead to ways being replaced erroneously, especially at the corners of the rectangles.

[DrSuperGood]

Also a tool to bulk change the replacement type of all ways of a certain type that a company owns would be nice. For example I wanted to move from 45lb/50lb to 55lb track as it is superior in every way for my needs and currently one has to spend ~30minutes drag upgrading individual stretches. So much time in fact that I struggle to find the time to expand my rail network further.

Now I understand this might not be the case when dealing with later types of rail where there are different intended usages (freight, slow passenger, high speed, etc) but for the very early rail types where one is a direct improvement over the next it does make sense.

[jamespetts]

Likewise - if anyone would like to code this with a reasonable UI, I should be happy to incorporate it.