Choose sign + roadtrain = choose unwisely

[Isaac Eiland-Hall]

(reference: "You have chosen unwisely" - Indiana Jones movie - knight guarding the holy grail)

Bug: When a convoy encounters a choose sign, it correctly tries to go to basically the closest free stop. ("basically" because I've seen exceptions to this, but that's outside the scope of this bug report). That's great -- except that in the case of a road train, it needs to choose a farther tile, else the truck will never load:



Is there any chance at all that this is moderately easy to fix? I realize that roadtrains are not *supported*, merely *tolerated* so I undersatnd if this will be relegated to being a 'known issue'.

The work around, of course, is to not use a line or choose sign, but rather individually schedule each roadtrain... which I will do, of course, because I adore road trains...

Anyway, more details about this situation:

Pak: pak128
Road train: found on http://japanese.simutrans.com/ (along with the green fence)

Also, an unrelated bug report to cram in here:
- I started four copies of that road train from a depot at the same time, going to two coalmines. Two of them were perfect, but two of them - the last trailer was overwriting the next to last trailer (or it was otherwise not visible) - so it appeared to only have two trailers instead of three. When I sent these two back to the depot, the third trailer became visible. So, some sort of oddness there... (I used copy convoi to create the last three -- and one of the copies worked fine, so... I dunno. Not a big deal, of course, but thought I'd mention... not important enough to create a bug report, I thnk)

[VS]

I can confirm that bug at least. Made me pull some hair out until I realized it was not my mistake...

I'm not sure, but road trains could be made to work like trains - platform detection must be already there in some form. On the other hand, if you had two bus stations "heads on" and both acted as a terminus, then it would create deadlocks. Maybe use platform search if the vehicle actually needs more than on tile of station?

[prissi]

One can think of trying to advance as far as possible. However this may fail in drive through stops with mixced traffic too. The only way out is not to use them, imho.

[Isaac Eiland-Hall]

I did think of one possibility, but I won't be offended if it's considered unworkable: A checkbox (preferably on the *line* rather than convoi) for "road train" (or for "pull forward in stations", but "road train" is probably the preferred term)...

[prissi]

Pull forward is also better with buses etc. Lets, lots of stuff to do I would like to postpone. Patching anyone?

[gerw]

One can think of trying to advance as far as possible.

I think, it is sufficient, if the road vehicle tries to advance as far as needed.

[Isaac Eiland-Hall]

Of course, the same could be said for train stations, as far as that goes... Not that I'm advocating the same behaviour for trains, mind...

[prissi]

Trains already advance as far as possible. I fear the choosing will get more CPU intensive with this, but lets try.

[Isaac Eiland-Hall]

I think, it is sufficient, if the road vehicle tries to advance as far as needed.

Of course, the same could be said for train stations, as far as that goes... Not that I'm advocating the same behaviour for trains, mind...

Although it's not a big deal, I was thinking of a short train entering a long station, and the time savings of only going in as far as needed. But really, I don't want it to take away from the roadtrain request -- I just thought it might also be mildly useful as well (very very minor)

[prissi]

The actual change is not as bad as I feared. In the next nightly no convoi will chose an unmatching station and will advance as far as possible too.

[Isaac Eiland-Hall]

Thank you kindly, sir. That's awesome.