Breakdown frequencies - what would you like to see?

[Simons Mith]

Even with regular maintenance, average vehicle breakdown rates in OTTD are roughly as follows:

Code: Select all

Vehicle    Breakdowns   Reliability   Avg. Breakdown Frequency
Ship       Reduced      0%            Every 2 months
Ship       Reduced      10%           Every 3 months
Ship       Reduced      20%+          Every 4 months

Ship       Standard     0%            Every 7 days
Ship       Standard     30%           Every month
Ship       Standard     60%+          Every 4 months

Non-ship   Reduced      0%            Every 7 days
Non-ship   Reduced      30%           Every month
Non-ship   Reduced      60%+          Every 4 months

Non-ship   Standard     0%            Every 3 days
Non-ship   Standard     50%           Every 8 days
Non-ship   Standard     95%+          Every 4 months

So every vehicle of every type, even with perfect maintenance, will still break down roughly three times a year. That's a) stupid b) well-known to be stupid c) the reason so many people play with breakdowns turned off altogether. With breakdowns turned on, I believe vehicles can still break down even at 100% reliability.

Personally, I would like to play with breakdowns turned on. But to do this, I'd like breakdowns to happen at a more reasonable rate, and the current breakdown code makes that impossible. So a patch is needed. But if I write a patch, I don't really know what breakdown frequencies the patch ought to generate.

So, help! If you would like to see breakdowns in-game, but not at the ridiculous rates we currently see, please indicate what sort of breakdown frequencies by vehicle type that you would consider acceptable, because I'd like to cater to the consensus, if there is one. I'd prefer you to give a rate that provides the average number of days between breakdowns and perhaps a likely min-max range, but a per-km rate will also do. The patch is likely to be customised per vehicle type - so RVs/trains/aircraft/ships, but if anyone has data on breakdown rates for trams/trolley buses/helicopters and other minor vehicle types, I'd be grateful. Yes, I could obtain real-world rates and plug them in, but allowing for the abstract scale of the game I'm not sure real-world breakdown rates would suit the game particularly well either.

Note, any improved breakdown frequency patch I produce will be independent from any 'improved breakdown effects' patches.

[Eddi]

i see three different basic approaches to this problem:

1. just tweak the numbers in the existing algorithm (like extend the "4 months" to something like "2 years")
2. make some restructurings (like depot visits reduce the "accumulated breakdown points")
3. revamp the complete algorithm so it can be made less deterministic

[PikkaBird]

So every vehicle of every type, even with perfect maintenance, will still break down roughly three times a year. That's a) stupid b) well-known to be stupid c) the reason so many people play with breakdowns turned off altogether. With breakdowns turned on, I believe vehicles can still break down even at 100% reliability.

And why is that stupid? If by "stupid" you mean "bad for gameplay", I've always found "reduced" breakdowns to be most playable and enjoyable.

If we're talking "stupid" = "unrealistic", IRL I work in a bus depot with about 150 buses. They're all about 6 years old and well maintained. Guess how many of them end up on the defect line at the end of each day? Guess how many "break down" and require swapping on the road, or really "break down" and require towing back to the depot? It may be a lot more than you think.

At our depot, about 20 to 30 get defected each day, 3 or 4 a day need swapping on the road and brought back to depot for attention, and on average two or three a week get towed. For the depots with older buses, these numbers are a LOT higher!

[planetmaker]

At our depot, about 20 to 30 get defected each day, 3 or 4 a day need swapping on the road and brought back to depot for attention, and on average two or three a week get towed. For the depots with older buses, these numbers are a LOT higher!

That's interesting numbers to see and read. Indeed I'd have guessed the numbers to be a lot lower. Thanks for the numbers

[Tafidis]

I too like to play with "reduced" breakdowns, even when I want to set a challenge for myself (hard settings), because the amount of breakdowns is too large on "standard".

A patch for this could be as simple as reducing the amount of breakdowns significantly (also making it near impossible for vehicles with reliability > 95 % to breakdown, giving regular servicing more meaning - perhaps also make each servicing cost some money),

or a re-invention of the breakdown behaviour e.g:

http://www.tt-forums.net/viewtopic.php? ... &start=100

I would like to see something like that in trunk, i.e. more variety in breakdown behaviour. Many types of less severe breakdowns that cause a vehicle to reduce speed (like planes do atm) and fewer severe breakdowns that cause the vehicle to completely stop or even get destroyed (like in crashes).

For example, a truck with a flat tyre would not necessarily stop alltogether as many trucks have double tyres per semi-axle (4 tyres per axle). But it might slow down if fully loaded. The truck would have to go to a depot to fix this before travelling again at full speed. However, the truck should still be able to go full speed if empty (using half its tyres).

Other example, train suffers total engine failure (boiler explodes or something). Engine turns black and wagons get removed slowly like with
crashes (nobody dies, passengers/cargo just "disappears")