Can ships be made to load in the order they arrive?

[Severous]

Hello

Pak64..1810..and I'm using sailing ships to transport passengers around an inland sea.  (V102)

When multiple ships arrive at a port and wait for sufficient passengers they don't appear to load ships in any order.  Rather than fully load the first ship to arrive..the passengers embark any of the waiting ships.  This means no single ship fills up fast. Many ships can be loading at the same time each competing for passengers to fill their load...(around 25 ships is worst case Ive found so far!)   

I want to make it first to arrive = first to fully load.  Is there a game play/routing skill I can use to achieve this?

Thanks for your time.

[whoami]

I think this is not possible, as long as ships don't reserve at least the tile that they are on. I guess that it's also not possible to code signals for ships (e.g. on canals), so a choose signal is not possible either.

[The Hood]

It does seem strange that ships don't reserve their tile - why is it OK for ships to crash into each other and not sink in the game?

[VS]

I'm sorry to ask something so trivial, but I just got up and my brain is not fully working yet. Why would loading order be connected to reserving tiles? Loading vehicles in order of arrival might be related more to internal structures.

[whoami]

Why would loading order be connected to reserving tiles?

Because that's what is used for vehicles of other types, and there it is sufficient, due to limited space. But you are right, detailed control over loading order would require other methods.

[VS]

Now I get it - queue them like buses or so Yup, that would work well.

[Combuijs]

Same problem goes for trains waiting at different platforms for 100% full load. The load is distributed evenly to all trains.

For example, if 2 trains are waiting for both 100 tons, and 100 tons arrive then both get 50 ton. As a result both will be waiting for further goods. An alternative would be that 1 train gets 100 tons (and leaves) while the other keeps waiting. I know there were reasons why it is as it is, but I can't seem to find them on the forum anymore.

[gerw]

I know there were reasons why it is as it is, but I can't seem to find them on the forum anymore.

The problem is the following: The loading is caused by the vehicles itself. And they don't know, whether there is an other convoy waiting. So, if there are some goods to transport, they will grab it. And (due to an internal waiting time) the vehicles are stepped more or less random.

[KrazyJay]

Maybe it can be done this way, it's quite made up of guesswork, but I might just give something to start with to techies...

Let's say we create an extra string for each station/stop with 2 options, taken or free. As soon as one convoy arrives, on a station, and decides loading, it will set that string to taken. If another convoy arrives to load, it'll check the status of the string and will wait until the tile becomes free. Maybe another convoy will arrive, and checks the status too. When the 1st convoy leaves, it sets the string to free. Then whenever the first other convoy checks the string again, it'll set the status back to taken and the whole cycle starts again. Whether the 2nd or the 3rd convoy occupies the tile next, is not so important. Let them check randomly, otherwise use a system similar to railroad tycoon. with high importance, medium importance and low importance lines. Of course, convoys deciding to unload don't have to check that string, unless they unloaded already and then decide to load. Then we can also change the system away from tile reservationif needed...

Sorry if it's impossible, I'm not a programmer, but I try to be creative...

[Severous]

Thanks for the replies.

My own thought has been to create a tiny new passenger stop a few tiles away, then insert two extra orders to the line just before the main station so it reads:
a) Main station - no wait
b) New tiny station - 90% wait maximum 1/1 of a month
c) Main Station - 90% unlimited wait

or if it obeys multiple consecutive orders for the same station:
a) Main station - no wait
b) New tiny station - 40% wait maximum 1/1 of a month
c) New tiny station - 60% wait maximum 1/1 of a month
d) New tiny station - 80% wait maximum 1/1 of a month
e) Main Station - 90% unlimited wait

The idea being that ships that don't have anything like full loads wait out of the way for a defined period (up to 3 months). Yet ships with big loads/full wont be impacted much or at all by the wait orders.  Its artificial I know but I couldn't think of anything else.

The previous post got me thinking about my real life daily train commute. Often our slow train pulls into a side platform at a through station to allow a faster service to overtake on the main track. On occasion that fast service stops and many of us jump out of our slow service, walk across the platform and board the faster service (keen to get to work aren't we!).  So if a convoy checked the 'string' that KrazyJay mentioned, and finds it occupied could it make passengers from the subsequent convoy transfer onto the first?  So we go beyond allowing only the first convoy to load, we start filling the first convoy with passengers from the subsequent ones.?

[bush2]

Imake sure it is useful message in using sailing ships.Really helps





______________________
halodrol
Beach Cruiser

[Severous]

Hi.

Im afraid i do not understand your comment.  Im using multiple sailing ships so am interested in your thoughts.

As for my suggestion above it didnt work..not the way I intended.  Yet it worked in other ways. 

I found that when moving away to a tiny nearby station the departing ships left behind their passengers. It seems the passengers got off thinking there could be an earlier departure.  It concentrated all passengers from later arriving ships into those already waiting.  Substantially achieving what I wanted.

[Spike]

It does seem strange that ships don't reserve their tile - why is it OK for ships to crash into each other and not sink in the game?

Originally no vehicles had collision checks and all passed through each other (they don't crash, but pass through, like ghosts pass through walls). Later such checks were added, but not for ships - most likely it didn't appear necessary.

[whoami]

Later such checks were added, but not for ships - most likely it didn't appear necessary.

I think that the reason is: it collided with the introduction of canals and other instances where deadlocks between ships can occur easily.

[Erniii]

Hello,

I have a similar question about loading order but from a different point of view so I decided to post here instead of opening a new topic...

I have one very large port connected with a train station and a few loading  bays where all raw goods from other islands are delivered to to be processed into goods. The problem is that I have production stop because my trains transport only one type of good instead of two that are needed for production. For example meat and fish are delivered to the port and there is at least 800 t of each in "stock", a train that can carry ca 400t usually loads 300t of meat and 100t of fish until the meat is gone...

Is there a way to make the train transport always 50/50 of two goods that are simutaniously available at a station (or any other ratio)??

Any ideas how to solve that?

Pak128

ET

[Combuijs]

No, there is no way to arrange this. However, in the long run all will go well in a natural way. There is a maximum amount of meat that can be stored in the factory. If that storage is full, production of meat will stop and the amount of meat to be transported decreases. When all meat has arrived, the trains will automatically load the fish.