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Transfers combined with loads

Posted: 22 Jul 2019 08:28
by L. Spooner Inc
New to OpenTTD.

I just spent two hours wrestling with a train and then threw my mouse across the room and ragequit. I'm hoping someone here can help with the logistics, because this isn't the first time I've had trouble trying to combine transfers with loading/unloading.

Station A (one track): Lumber yard

Station B (two tracks): Coal mine

Station C (one track): Power station, Forest

I have two trains.

Train AB picks up wood at Station B and delivers it to Station A, then returns empty.

Train BC picks up wood at Station C and brings it to Station B, where it transfers it for pickup by Train AB. It then waits for a load of coal and brings it back to Station C. Or at least, this is what should happen. If I set the train to transfer the wood first, then pick up the coal, it picks up the coal and then picks up all the wood it just dropped off. If I set it to pick up the coal first and then transfer the wood, it transfers both the wood and the coal and leaves empty. For the life of me, I simply can't make it understand how to both transfer the wood and load the coal. Can anyone explain what I'm doing wrong before I put my foot through my monitor? Much thanks.

Re: Transfers combined with loads

Posted: 22 Jul 2019 10:29
by Alberth
It's a hard problem, as you cannot express what you want to load. I think I did something like that once by using wagons that could change the type of cargo (you can set that as part of the order). Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to tell you how to do it exactly without having to figure it out again :(

By far the simplest work around is to create a 2nd station for coal, and after dropping the wood move to that 2nd station and load coal. Maybe not what you want, but it's the best (simplest) available alternative.

Re: Transfers combined with loads

Posted: 22 Jul 2019 10:40
by L. Spooner Inc
Ah, so I'm not a blithering idiot. Well, not about this, anyway. Thanks for the help. I'll use your suggestion for the workaround.

Re: Transfers combined with loads

Posted: 22 Jul 2019 10:57
by kamnet
L. Spooner Inc wrote: 22 Jul 2019 10:40 Ah, so I'm not a blithering idiot. Well, not about this, anyway. Thanks for the help. I'll use your suggestion for the workaround.
This is a challenging logistical problem in the base game. There's typically a few different solutions:

1. Don't try to overthink gameplay. Just set up two different trains to handle dedicated cargo.

2. You want to be more refined and not play like a noob? Use the bulk wagon, take it to station and load one cargo, take it to the other station and unload cargo, then take it to a depot, create an order to refit it to the new cargo, go back to the station and load the new cargo, take it to the other station and unload cargo, then go back to a depot and refit to the old cargo again, then go back to the first station and load the old cargo... which is not only exhausting, it'll probably cost you a good chunk of money! Augh, maybe you should have just stuck to playing like a baby!

3. No, you don't want to do that, you're not a baby! You're new to OpenTTD, but you're a grown adult and you're going to beat this game like a grown adult! Thankfully, OpenTTD will help you with that. OpenTTD has a feature called "refit at station", which lets you avoid having to go to a depot to refit every time. The trick, however, is that the default wagons that come with the game don't support it, for legacy reasons. You will need to use a NewGRF train set which has support for refitting wagons.

OpenGFX+ Trains is a copy of the original trains which support refitting, and most other NewGRF train sets will also support it to some degree. OpenGFX+ Trains will specifically support refitting the wagon at the station, others might not support this and will require you to take your train to a depot first in order to refit. You'll need to read the documentation with each NewGRF to determine how to use it. Assuming you go with OpenGFX+ Trains (that's what I'd suggest since you're starting out), install and configure your NewGRF, start a new game. Build your train using a Bulk Wagon, when configuring your order, include the instruction "Refit to [whatever cargo]" before your instruction to load.

One train, one set of wagons, multiple cargoes, multiple stations - BOOM! DONE! ACHIEVEMENT REACHED!

More information on OpenGFX+ Trains, including info on which cargo refits in which wagons, can be found here: http://bundles.openttdcoop.org/ogfx-tra ... readme.txt

Re: Transfers combined with loads

Posted: 22 Jul 2019 12:01
by L. Spooner Inc
kamnet wrote: 22 Jul 2019 10:57 BOOM! DONE! ACHIEVEMENT REACHED!
Wow, thanks for the detailed answer. I love stuff like this; it reminds me pleasantly of discovering emergent strategies in other complex games, like hitting monsters with a dead cockatrice in NetHack and turning them to stone, or farming dragons in Ultima V with a magic axe and a ring of invisibility. I can't wait until I'm familiar enough with the mechanics of OpenTTD to start modding in things like zeppelins and funiculars.

Re: Transfers combined with loads

Posted: 22 Jul 2019 12:06
by Eddi
complex transfer systems like this only work if you enable cargodist (set the option for the respective cargo group to something other than "manual" in the settings)

this way,the cargo gets its own mind, which causes a whole different set of problems, but at least it will automatically figure out where to transfer from one train to another, so you don't have to fiddle with transfer orders