PATCH: Lost Cargo Cost

[DC-1]

Hello all!

This is my first patch for OpenTTD. I decided to play a game where all passengers are satisfied. I always kept on my eyes on rating of stations and tried to keep the rating above 50% for not to loose the cargo. Now the lost cargo can cost money for the company who owns the station. So you have to keep all your stations ratings on good or else it will cost some money for you.

One screenshot explains everything:

ottd-lostcargocost2.png

LostCargoCost screenshot with everything

(606.41 KiB) Downloaded 6 times

The cost is calculated by ( lost_cargo * cs->current_payment ) equation. Any idea how to be better?

[zooks]

Good idea to gain some insight on how much cargo a company is missing out.
However, lost cargo is not actually an expense is it? So to me it seems is a bit out of place as an expense in the finance window.

cheers

[planetmaker]

Good idea to gain some insight on how much cargo a company is missing out.
However, lost cargo is not actually an expense is it? So to me it seems is a bit out of place as an expense in the finance window.

cheers

As if it were an argument: it's realistic

You made a transportation contract and simply dump the cargo into a waste bin to let it rot (or drop people in the middle of no-where). That usually results in fines or contract penalties

[Alberth]

I like the idea, but wonder how effective it is.
Did you try it with a few savegames from others?

In my experience, only new users are not very careful about cargo delivery. Experienced players tend to make sure they move everything they get.
That means that the new users get hit by this patch, rather than the more experienced players.

[planetmaker]

Actually, one of the problems with cargo rating is that it doesn't take into account turnover at all nor the time cargo is waiting at a station. Thus if you have a station with very high throughput, you easily have an abysmal rating, as there on average might be waiting a few hundret units of cargo. But you pick it up within a game day. Only to have that many delivered again the next one. This probably would need addressing somewhat as well or this would penalize high-frequency transfer terminals quite a lot where service de-facto is quite excellent.

[michael blunck]

IMO, such a feature shouldn´t be addressed locally and on a narrow timeframe, but rather globally and by accounting on a yearly basis ("penalty"), if at all.

regards
Michael

[DC-1]

IMO, such a feature shouldn´t be addressed locally and on a narrow timeframe, but rather globally and by accounting on a yearly basis ("penalty"), if at all.

You can see the cargo leak realtime on the map, and of course it is shown on the finance window with yearly summary of all. Watch attached screenshot.

I like the idea, but wonder how effective it is.
Did you try it with a few savegames from others?

In my experience, only new users are not very careful about cargo delivery. Experienced players tend to make sure they move everything they get.
That means that the new users get hit by this patch, rather than the more experienced players.

You're right; i've developed this patch last night, so there was no too much testing. And because of the new option in settings, it is not compatible with previous savegames. :-/
I think the most of the patches make the game harder, so you're right again: unexperienced user can turn it off, like infrastructure maintenance, noise levels, recessions, etc.

Actually, one of the problems with cargo rating is that it doesn't take into account turnover at all nor the time cargo is waiting at a station. Thus if you have a station with very high throughput, you easily have an abysmal rating, as there on average might be waiting a few hundret units of cargo. But you pick it up within a game day. Only to have that many delivered again the next one. This probably would need addressing somewhat as well or this would penalize high-frequency transfer terminals quite a lot where service de-facto is quite excellent.

Phh... I don't wanna change the original station rating algorithm (yet ;->). If OpenTTD says it's bad, then this patch make it worse.
I'm still planning how the cost should be generated, now it's not too expensive for an average company. I think is enough fair. So if you have a big station with thousands of cargo then the cost of lost cargo will be a minimum amount compare to the profit (like running costs).

[Eddi]

i have a minor suggestion: could the cost animation also show accumulated transfer income that is lost?

(that would be useful even when the cost is set to 0)

[Zuu]

Perhaps show the amount in yellow with a negative sign. Just as transfer income is differed using yellow.

[DC-1]

Sorry folks, i have no idea how to detect transferred cargo. :-/ The original algorithm just throw out some random packets of cargo without any checking. I'm interested in anyone's help.

[fonso]

@planetmaker and follow-ups: Since r25362 cargo waiting at other stations is considered for the rating at the origin station.

[Eddi]

The accumulated transfer payment is stored in the cargopacket, so in StationCargoList::Truncate you'd have to gather this information for the dropped packets.

something else i noticed: you use st->rect to display the cost animation, but you probably should use st->xy (location of the station sign) instead.